The History Boys Read Online Free PDF Page B

Sheffield. Scripps. You believe in God. Believe also in me: forget Oxford and Cambridge.
    Why do you want to go there?
    Lockwood Old, sir. Tried and tested.
    Hector No, it’s because other boys want to go there. It’s the hot ticket, standing room only. So I’ll thank you ( hitting him ) if nobody mentions Oxford ( hit ) or Cambridge ( hit ) in my lessons. There is a world elsewhere.
    Dakin You’re hitting us again, sir.
    Hector Child, I am your teacher.
    Whatever I do in this room is a token of my trust.
    I am in your hands.
    It is a pact. Bread eaten in secret.
    â€˜I have put before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.’ Oxford and Cambridge!
    He sits with his head on the desk, a parody of despair .
    Posner ( Edgar ) ‘Look up, My Lord.’
    Timms ( Kent )
    â€˜Vex not his ghost. O let him pass. He hates him That would upon the rack of this tough world Stretch him out longer.’
    Posner ( Edgar )
    â€˜O, he is gone indeed.’
    Timms ( Kent )
    â€˜The wonder is he hath endured so long.
    He but usurped this life.’
    Bell goes. Hector sits up .
    Hector
    â€˜I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
    My master calls me, I must not say no.’
    Posner ( Edgar )
    â€˜The weight of this sad time we must obey
    Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.’
    Timms The hitting never hurt. It was a joke. None of us cared. We lapped it up.
    Crowther He goes mad.
    Lockwood He hit me. He never hits me.
    Rudge He hits you if he likes you. He never touches me.
    Dakin ( happily ) I’m black and blue.
    Scripps It’s true what he said. I did believe in God.
    Nobody else does. Like stamp collecting, it seems to have gone out and I suspect even the vicar thinks I am a freak.
    But the big man is glad.
    â€˜The Prayer Book. Hymns Ancient and Modern . Lucky boy!’
    Staff room .
    Headmaster Mrs Lintott, Dorothy.
    Mrs Lintott Headmaster?
    Headmaster These Oxbridge boys. Your historians. Any special plans?
    Mrs Lintott Their A Levels are very good.
    Headmaster Their A Levels are very good. And that is thanks to you, Dorothy. We’ve never had so many. Remarkable! But what now – in teaching terms?
    Mrs Lintott More of the same?
    Headmaster Oh. Do you think so?
    Mrs Lintott It’s what we’ve done before.
    Headmaster Quite. Without much success. No one last year. None the year before. When did we last have anyone in history at Oxford and Cambridge?
    Mrs Lintott I tend not to distinguish.
    Headmaster Between Oxford and Cambridge?
    Mrs Lintott Between centres of higher learning. Last year two at Bristol, one at York. The year before …
    Headmaster Yes, yes. I know that, Dorothy. But I am thinking league tables. Open scholarships. Reports to the Governors. I want them to do themselves justice. I want them to do you justice. Factually tip-top as your boys always are, something more is required.
    Mrs Lintott More?
    Headmaster Different.
    I would call it grooming did not that have overtones of the monkey house.
    â€˜Presentation’ might be the word.
    Mrs Lintott They know their stuff. Plainly stated and properly organised facts need no presentation, surely.
    Headmaster Oh, Dorothy. I think they do.
    â€˜The facts: serving suggestion.’
    Mrs Lintott A sprig of parsley, you mean? Or an umbrella in the cocktail? Are dons so naive?
    Headmaster Naive, Dorothy? Or human?
    I am thinking of the boys. Clever, yes, remarkably so. Well taught, indubitably. But a little … ordinaire ?
    Think charm. Think polish. Think Renaissance Man.
    Mrs Lintott Yes, Headmaster.
    Headmaster Hector.
    The Headmaster leaves as Hector comes in .
    Hector Headmaster.
    Mrs Lintott Didn’t you try for Cambridge?
    Hector Oxford.
    I was brought up in the West Riding. I wanted somewhere new. That is to say old. So long as it was old I didn’t mind where I went.
    Mrs Lintott Durham was good in that respect.
    Hector Sheffield