The Collected Plays by N. F. Simpson

Author:N. F. Simpson [N. F. Simpson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 2013-10-23T04:00:00+00:00

Defending Counsel M’lord, in asking you to take a lenient view of this case, I am not underestimating the seriousness of the offences this young man has committed. They are very grave breaches of the law, and no one realises this now more than he does himself. He has made very considerable efforts to find other ways of satisfying this – in itself quite harmless, indeed laudable – desire for a logical pretext, but so far, unfortunately, he has met with little success. He has had this scheme involving the weighing machines. We may think this to have been a somewhat grandiose scheme and that there could be very little hope of its succeeding, or even indeed of its being universally acceptable were it possible to adopt it; the important thing is that it has been worked out by this astonishingly resourceful and gifted young man as the result of a determination to avoid by every means in his power any further breach of the law in satisfying this craving he has for black clothes. He has gone to very great trouble and expense in training these weighing machines, m’lord, with the intention not of sitting idly down beside them to listen to and enjoy the fruits of his labours himself, but of keeping himself indirectly from coming into conflict with the law. In my respectful submission, m’lord, this very complex personality with whom we are dealing is not in any ordinary sense of the word a killer; he is, on the contrary, a kindly, rather gentle young man, not given to violence – except in this one respect – and showing himself to be quite exceptionally considerate of others even to the extent of arranging, at considerable personal sacrifice of time and energy, for them to die laughing. I would therefore ask your lordship to pass as light a sentence as, in your lordship’s judgment, is warranted in this very exceptional case.

Defending Counsel sits.

Kirby appears, looking for Gormless. He checks on seeing Gormless and raises his baton.

The Judge addresses the accused.

Kirby drops to his knees facing the Judge.

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