| Summary of The Irishwoman Prologue The prologue, written by Sir Charles Morgan, is spoken in the form of a catchy rhyme. It begins by comparing prologues to candidates' campaign speeches, and lists many ways in which they are alike. Most importantly, the speaker in both cases asks fur and hopes to gain the favor of the audience. At the conclusion of the lengthy comparison, the speaker first address the men of the audience, and then later the women, giving each the reasons he believes they should approve of the play. Then the speaker address the entire audience as one group (more specifically, as a group of Irish people), and appleals to them as fellow countrymen to support the play. Though charming and effective, some parts of the poem may (unfortunately) not make much sense to those who are not familiar with Irish history. The Play At the beginning of the play, Sir Toby Timirous, a dignified Englishman, is conversing with his lawyer, Davy Jones, who also handles his financial affairs. They are discussing how much money Sir Toby should send to his exiled sister-in-law, the wife of his dead brother and the mother of his niece, Miss Timirous. Sir Toby has raised Miss Timirous since his brother's death. Jones advises Sir Toby to give him 3000 pounds to take to her, so that she will be able to live comfortably and so they will not have to worry about her any more. Sir Toby reluctantly agrees, but says he will only do it after he marries off young Miss Timirous. In the next scene, we are introduced to Mackwhack, the traveling companion of an old Irishwoman, Mrs. O'Gallagher. While Mrs. O'Gallagher is inside sleeping, Dr. Chatterton, a visiting craniologist, stops by and the two casually chat. During the conversation, Chatterton attempts to find out who Mackwhack is traveling with but Mackwhack will not give him any information on who his mistress is. Scene III introduces us to Scout and Fanchon. Scout, an Englishman and assistant to Captain Belgard (who is Miss Timirous's one true love), converses with Fanchon, Miss Timirous's French waiting maid. Scout has a letter from Captain Belgard for Miss Timirous telling her how hurt he feels after discovering she has become engaged to another man and to bid her an eternal farewell. Unfortunately, Miss Timirous is being forced by her uncle to marry Lord Ancestor, an old man with old money. Fanchon and Scout also appear to be quite fond of each other. In Act II, Scene I, we finally meet Miss Timirous, who is sitting alone reflecting upon her dreadful situation. When her fianc�, Lord Ancestor, calls for her, she goes to him dutifully. The two visit about marriage settlements. Lord Ancestor takes the conversation as a joke, but Miss Timirous is completely serious. She definitely wouldn't be crushed if Lord Ancestor were to die an unexpected death, and free her from her uncle's arrangement. The two finish their meeting with Lord Ancestor giving Miss Timirous some of his valuable family jewels. Fanchon enters, and Lord Ancestor allows the two women to be alone. Fanchon informs Miss Timirous that her love, Captain Belgard, has arrived from Paris. Miss Timirous wants so much to see him, but feels she should not. Fanchon tells Miss Timirous that Captain Belgard has already said he does not want to see her. He has learned of her upcoming marriage to Lord Ancestor and, unable to bear the thought of seeing her with another, will return to Paris tomorrow. Fanchon proceeds to tell Miss Timirous that the Captain has written her a letter, but Miss Timirous refuses to read it. She tells Fanchon that she may read it to herself, which she starts to do, but before Fanchon can finish Miss Timirous is overwhelmed by curiosity and snatches it away. A servant then arrives and announces the arrival of Davy Jones. Fanchon exits to give the two some privacy, and Miss Timirous waits in anticipation--convinced that Jones has come with news of Captain Belgard. Instead, he tells Miss Timirous of her imprisoned mother, whom she'd thought to be dead. Miss Timirous gives Jones the jewels from Lord Ancestor so that he may use them to buy her mother's freedom immediately. In Scene II, Mrs. O'Gallagher is disturbed to find her trusty traveling companion, Mackwhack, conversing with two waiters. After scolding him, Mrs. O'Gallagher gives Mackwhack a very important letter to deliver to Miss Timirous. Mackwhack departs and, in a moment of self-reflection, we learn that Mrs. O'Gallagher is secretly on a mission to "discover the villainies of that rogue Jones" (pg.32). Act III takes place in the Timirous' home. It starts out with Sir Toby, Chatterton, and Miss Timirous. Chatterton is entertaining the two with stories of his escapades as a craniologist and of some of the crazy folks he's come across thus far when Jones enters. Chatterton continues with his stories, telling one of a crazy old Irishwoman whom Sir Toby and Miss Timirous both secretly suspect to be her mother. Jones confirmes their suspicions. As the group starts to break up, Lord Ancestor shows up to discuss the wedding arrangements with Sir Toby. While those two are talking, Captain Belgard is outside trying to find a way to sneak into the house so that he can see Miss Timirous. While he is waiting outside, he sees Jones and the two speak briefly of Miss Timirous' plans to marry and her feelings about the old Lord Ancestor. Jones assures Belgard that she is not happy about the arrangement at all. Then Jones distracts Sir Toby so Fanchon can take Belgard to see Miss Timirous. Fanchon gladly lets him since she knows how delighted her mistress will be to see the captain. Right as the captain enters the house, Mackwhack arrives with a letter for Miss Timirous. Fanchon irritably takes the letter from Mackwhack and shuts the door right in his face. Mackwhack then sees Sir Toby and, thinking he is one of the butlers, warns him that he should teach his servants better manners. He explains that a French woman, after letting the Captain in, was quite rude to him. Sir Toby realizes that it was Captain Belgard that Fanchon had let in. He then plans to hurry along the marriage process, and marry Miss Timirous to Lord Ancestor as soon as possible. He is so troubled that he shuts the door in Mackwhack's face once again. Act IV begins with Captain Belgard talking with Miss Timirous. Fanchon comes in and tells them that Sir Toby is going to make Miss Timirous marry Lord Ancestor very soon. Miss Timirous sends Belgard to ask Jones to devise a plan to get rid of Lord Ancestor so she and Belgard can marry. Miss Timirous and Belgard exit. Fanchon is left alone and is talking to herself when Sir Toby enters. Sir Toby ends up asking Fanchon to meet him in his study at nine o'clock that evening, where he plans to reveal his secret crush on her. Scene II begins with Captain Belgard and Jones discussing a plan to stop the wedding. Jones says that if they hint to Lord Ancestor about Miss Timirous's mother that he will back out of the wedding. They are interrupted by Doctor Chatterton coming to visit. Jones and Belgard let slip that Miss Timirous's mother is an Irish bar-maid, hoping that he will leak the secret to Lord Ancestor. They also tell Doctor Chatterton that the wedding has been moved up and is to take place that night. As predicted, Doctor Chatterton hurries off to find Lord Ancestor so he can tell him the secret regarding Miss Timirous' "vulgar, ignorant" (pg. 56) mother in hopes of gaining Lord Ancestor's favor for saving his dignigty. At the beginning of Scene III, Mrs. O'Gallagher is waiting for Mackwhack when Jones enters. Even though she doesn't like Jones, Mrs. O'Gallagher is pretending to work for him. He tells her to stay away from the Timirous' until he calls for her. While the two are talking, Mackwhack returns and angrily says that when he attempted to deliver Mrs. O'Gallagher's letter a French woman who answered the door shut it in his face. Jones is concerned that Mrs. O'Gallagher is messing up his plan so he hurries off to settle things with Sir Toby before she blows his cover. Mrs. O'Gallagher gets upset with Mackwhack for messing things up. She then leaves the cluless and frustrated Mackwhack to go and track Jones down herself. In Act V, the characters' true motives are all exposed. In the beginning of the scene, we discover Mrs. O'Gallagher was once Miss Timirous' nurse. Even though Miss Timirous and Mrs. O'Gallagher haven't seen each other for years, they are very loyal to each other and work together to devise a plan to stop the wedding between Miss Timirous and Lord Ancestor. Mrs. O'Gallagher agrees to help scare off Lord Ancestor by pretending to be Miss Timirous' mother and being very rude to him. They get their chance to follow through with their plan when Lord Ancestor shows up a few minutes later. They succeed in greatly offending him. They also make it look like Sir Toby's fault for not telling him about Miss Timirous's "mother" earlier, which makes Lord Ancestor very upset with Sir Toby. Of course, Lord Ancestor is too dignified to become a son-in-law to such an unrefined woman, so he retracts his offer of marriage. He then leaves. Scene II takes place in Sir Toby's study. Dr. Chatterton and the footman enter the room, returning from a nearby coffeehouse. Dr. Chatterton sends the footman off to find Lord Ancestor for him. When the footman leaves, he takes the candle with him, leaving the study dark. Chatterton hides in the study, not wanting to be seen, becaue that would reveal his secret motives. When Jones enters, Chatterton quickly hides behind a chair. From there he overhears Jones' plan. Jones then hears Mrs. O'Gallagher coming and hides from her under the table. Mrs. O'Gallagher waits for Sir Toby in the study where the men are hiding. When Sir Toby enters, he is expecting to have his "rendezvous" with Fanchon and is quite surprised to find Mrs. O'Gallagher instead. Mrs. O'Gallagher threatens Toby, who tries to escape. Then Mrs. O'Gallagher grabs Jones (who is by now trying to crawl toward the door), mistaking him for Sir Toby in the dark. Suddenly, Fanchon, Miss Timirous, Captain Belgard, and a few servants all enter, bringing lights with them. There is a brief moment of confusion. When everyone sees that Jones is in the room, the heat is off of Sir Toby and on to Jones. When Sir Toby realizes that the "mother" is only an imposter, and that Jones was stealing the money all along and only claiming to give it to Miss Timirous's mother (who has truly been dead for many years), he demands that Jones give him his money back. Miss Timirous asks for her jewels back also. He hands the jewels and the money over. He is upset about being "outwitted by a woman, and a blundering Irishwoman" (pg. 77) at that. Mrs. O'Gallagher has her two "whacking Irish boys" (pg. 80), as she calls them, escort Jones to a magistrate. Mrs. O'Gallagher then convinces Sir Toby to let Captain Belgard marry Miss Timirous, now that Lord Ancestor is gone. When Mrs. O'Gallagher pulls up the chair to have a seat, they discover that Dr. Chatterton is in the room also, and the heat now turns on him. Mrs. O'Gallagher reveals that Dr. Chatterton is not really a doctor at all, but her son, Larry O'Gallagher, whom she hasn't seen in many years. Chatterton asks the Timirous' to be generous and take care of his mother--an Irishwoman who has indeed shown herself to be "A Match for a Lawyer" (pg. 80). Epilogue At the end of the play the curtain starts to drop, when Lord Ancestor enters and announces that the play cannot be over yet, because there needs to be an epilogue first. The characters seem to agree on that, but they disagree on who should be the one to give the closing speech. Mackwhack enters, and by this time all of the main characters except for Jones are on the stage. As it turns out, each of the characters is given a chance to say a few short lines, though each refuses to give a long speech. The entire epilogue, like the prologue, is done in a catchy rhyme. Mrs. O'Gallagher asks Miss Timirous to speak, who refuses. Fanchon notes that in France audiences are not forced to sit through silly epilogues. Sir Toby declares that he doesn't care what the audience thinks. Chatterton tells the audience that he, for one, does care and hopes they will approve of the play. Then Lord Ancestor, with his usual arrogance, steps in and (admitting that it is getting late) closes out the play by asking the audience to hurry up and start clapping so he can finally have a seat. The curtain then lowers the rest of the way, and the play is finished. |
| Characters Sir Toby Timirous - Miss Timirous' rich uncle, avoids confrontation Davy Jones - Sir Toby's Lawyer Mackwhack - Mrs. O'Gallagher's traveling companion, is mostly unaware of what's really going on Dr. Chatterton - A craniologist who likes to talk Scout - Works for Captain Belgard Fanchon - The Timirous' maid, speaks with a heavy French accent Miss Timirous - Young and sweet, is in love with Captain Belgard Lord Ancestor - Old, rich, and overly dignified Captain Belgard - Will do whatever it takes to be able to marry Miss Timirous Mrs. O'Gallagher - Smart and outgoing, the Irish heroine Footman - Another servant for the Timirous' |