If I had a Father

If I had a Father by George MacDonald

The play opens in the London studio of the sculptor Arthur Gervaise, newly returned from Rome, who is at work on a clay figure of Psyche modeled, he realizes with a shock, on the face of Constance, a young woman he rescued from poverty years earlier and has scarcely seen since. His friend Warren visits, followed by the intrusive Mr. Waterfield, who is turned away and told never to call again. Gervaise's new manservant William is in fact his father, Colonel Sir Walter Gervaise, returned from India and serving incognito after twenty years' neglect of his son, determined to earn Arthur's love through hidden service before revealing himself. His sister, Mrs. Clifford, who alone knows the secret, disapproves of the deception and worries what it might uncover. An old Lancashire man, Thomas Pearson, comes searching for his lost daughter Mattie, insisting he saw her leaving Gervaise's house. William cannot account for it and grows uneasy, though he refuses to believe ill of Arthur. Constance then calls on Arthur and confesses that Waterfield has proposed and that she has, under Mrs. Clifford's encouragement, all but accepted him. Arthur, realizing too late that he loves her, hides his feelings and urges her toward the match, then collapses into a raging brain fever, tended devotedly by William, haunted by visions of vengeful goddesses and by thoughts of the father he cannot remember. Mrs. Clifford and Constance nurse him in turn, and Arthur, in his delirium, speaks of going to fight for Garibaldi rather than face his loss. Meanwhile, in the streets, the seamstress Mattie Pearson and her friend Susan live in near-starvation, aided by the ragged, wisecracking shoeblack Bill and his companions Jack and Jim. Mattie is accused by Mrs. Clifford of pawning a lost parcel of needlework, and Susan defends her fiercely. Waterfield bribes Bill with a sovereign to find Mattie, revealing an old, guilty acquaintance with her; Bill, suspicious, refuses to betray her and is nearly arrested through the scheming of Mrs. Clifford's footman James, who poses as a detective to mislead Thomas in his search. Constance, unaware of the connection, visits Mattie with food and comfort, telling her own story of childhood poverty and rescue by a kind gentleman. When Mattie learns that Constance's suitor is the very man who wronged her, she is thrown into anguish but says nothing directly; Constance nonetheless comes to distrust Waterfield and privately renounces him, telling Arthur she no longer means to marry him, though she does not yet know why. Thomas, exhausted and repeatedly misled and mocked by street boys, is finally guided toward his daughter through Bill's and Warren's efforts, the latter recruited by William/Sir Walter to help bring the old man to the studio. All the threads converge there: Waterfield, cornered, strikes Thomas down when accused, and denies knowing Mattie even as she and Bill arrive. Mattie kneels by her father, begs and receives his forgiveness, and publicly disowns Waterfield, who is driven from the house by Gervaise, Susan, and the others. Constance formally rejects Waterfield before all present. At last Colonel Gervaise, in his uniform and star, leads Constance to his son and reveals himself as Sir Walter, Arthur's long-absent father, confessing that his elaborate service was meant to prove himself worthy of Arthur's love. Father and son are reconciled in joy, and Sir Walter presents Constance to Arthur. Arthur embraces his father, thanking him for restoring to him both a father and his Psyche, and turns to Constance, who confesses she now understands what she could not say before. Arthur seats himself at her feet before the unveiled Psyche, his father looking on, as the curtain falls.

By George MacDonald · First published 1882 · Genre: Drama, Romantic Drama, Social Drama · 4 chapters · 40,229 words

First lines

Scene. / -- A Sculptor's studio. Arthur Gervaise working at a clay figure and humming a tune. A knock.

Gervaise / Come in. Throws a wet cloth over the clay. Enter Warren by the door communicating with the house. Ah, Warren! How do you do?

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Tags

fatherhood · paternal-love · father-son-relationship · redemption · regret · sacrifice · absent-father · family-drama · Victorian-fiction · philosophical · character-driven · emotional-depth

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If I had a Father is listed on Textopian as a play by George MacDonald, dated 1882 CE.

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