27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays Read online

  CORNELIA: After I received yours. You wanted urging.

  GRACE: I wanted to be quite sure I was really wanted! I only came intending to stay a few weeks. I was so afraid that I would outstay my welcome!

  CORNELIA: How blind of you not to see how desperately I wanted to keep you here forever!

  GRACE: Oh, I did see that you—(The phone rings.) Miss Scott’s residence!—Yes, she’s here.

  CORNELIA: (She snatches it up finally.) Cornelia Scott speaking! Oh. It’s you, Esmeralda! Well, how did it come out?—I don’t believe you! I simply don’t believe you . . . (Grace sits down quietly at the table.)—MRS. HORNSBY ELECTED? Well, there’s a dark horse for you! Less than a year in the chapter . . . Did you—nominate—me?— Oh—I see! But I told you to withdraw my name if—No, no, no, don’t explain, it doesn’t matter, I have too much already. You know I am going into the Daughters of the Barons of Runymede! Yes, it’s been established, I have a direct line to the Earl of—No, it’s been straightened out, a clear line is established, and then of course I am also eligible for the Colonial Dames and for the Huguenot Society, and what with all my other activities and so forth, why, I couldn’t possibly have taken it on if they’d— wanted. . . . Of course I’m going to resign from the local chapter! Oh, yes, I am! My secretary is sitting right here by me. She has her pencil, her notebook! I’m going to dictate my letter of resignation from the local chapter the moment that I hang up on this conversation. Oh, no, no, no, I’m not mad, not outraged, at all. I’m just a little—ha ha!—a little—amused . . . MRS. HORNSBY? Nothing succeeds like mediocrity, does it? Thanks and goodbye, Esmeralda. (She hangs up, stunned. Grace rises.)

  GRACE: Notebook and pencil?

  CORNELIA: Yes. Notebook and pencil . . . I have to—dictate a letter . . . (Grace leaves the table. Just at the edge of the lighted area, she turns to glance at Cornelia’s rigid shoulders and a slight, equivocal smile appears momentarily on her face; not quite malicious but not really sympathetic. Then she crosses out of the light. A moment later her voice comes from the outer dark.)

  GRACE: What lovely roses! One for every year!

  CURTAIN

  Copyright 1945 by Tennessee Williams

  Copyright 1953 by Tennessee Williams

  All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

  Caution: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that all of these plays are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, the British Empire, including the Dominion of Canada, and all other countries of the Copyright Union, and are subject to a royalty. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion-picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio-broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. For permission to produce any of these plays, address all inquiries to the author’s representative, Tom Erhardt, Casarotto Ramsey Ltd., National House, 60-66 Wardour Street, London W1V 311P, England.

  Amateur Acting Rights

  The amateur acting rights of the plays in this volume are controlled exclusively by The Dramatists Play Service Inc., 440 Park Ave. S., New York, N. Y. 10016, without whose permission in writing no amateur performances of them may be made.

  Library of Congress Catalog card number: 50-20932

  eISBN: 978-0-8112-2080-4

  First published as ND Paperbook 217 in 1966

  Published simultaneously in Canada by

  Penguin Books Canada Limited.

  New Directions books are published for James Laughlin

  by New Directions Publishing Corporation,

  80 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011.

  By TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

  PLAYS

  Baby Doll & Tiger Tail

  Camino Real

  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

  Clothes for a Slimmer Hotel

  Dragon Country

  The Glass Menagerie

  A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur

  The Red Devil Battery Sign

  Small Craft Warnings

  Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays

  A Streetcar Named Desire

  Sweet Bird of Youth

  THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME I

  Battle of Angels, A Streetcar Named Desire. The Glass Menagerie

  THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME II

  The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real

  THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME III

  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, Suddenly Last Summer

  THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME IV

  Sweet Bird of Youth, Period of Adjustment, The Night of the Iguana

  THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME V

  The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Kingdom of Earth (The Seven Descents of Myrtle), Small Craft Warnings, The Two-Character Play

  THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VI

  27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Short Plays

  THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VII

  In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel and Other Plays

  THE THEATRE OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, VOLUME VIII

  Vieux Carré, A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, The Red Devil Battery Sign

  27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays

  The Two-Character Play

  Vieux Carré

  POETRY

  Androgyne, Mon Amour

  In the Winter of Cities

  PROSE

  Collected Stories

  Hard Candy and Other Stories

  One Arm and Other Stories

  The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

  Where I Live: Selected Essays