This play is a rewritten version of The Merchant of Yonkers, which was directed in 1938 by Max Reinhardt and is again dedicated to Max Reinhardt with deep admiration and indebtedness.

CHARACTERS

TIME: 1880s.

Act I. Vandergelder’s house in Yonkers, New York.

Act II. Mrs. Molloy’s hat shop, New York.

Act III. The Harmonia Gardens Restaurant

on the Battery, New York.

Act IV. Miss Van Huysen’s house, New York.

This play is based upon a comedy by Johann Nestroy, Einen Jux will er sich machen (Vienna, 1842), which was in turn based upon an English original, A Day Well Spent (London, 1835) by John Oxenford.

Act I

Living room of Mr. Vandergelder’s house, over his hay, feed and provision store in Yonkers, fifteen miles north of New York City. Articles from the store have overflowed into this room; it has not been cleaned for a long time and is in some disorder, but it is not sordid or gloomy.

There are three entrances. One at the center back leads into the principal rooms of the house. One on the back right (all the directions are from the point of view of the actors) opens on steps which descend to the street door. One on the left leads to Ermengarde’s room.

In the center of the room is a trap door; below it is a ladder descending to the store below.

Behind the trap door and to the left of it is a tall accountant’s desk; to the left of it is an old-fashioned stove with a stovepipe going up into the ceiling. Before the desk is a tall stool. On the right of the stage is a table with some chairs about it.

Mr. Vandergelder’s Gladstone bag, packed for a journey, is beside the desk.

It is early morning.

VANDERGELDER, sixty, choleric, vain and sly, wears a soiled dressing gown. He is seated with a towel about his neck, in a chair beside the desk, being shaved by JOE SCANLON.

VANDERGELDER is smoking a cigar and holding a hand mirror. AMBROSE KEMPER is angrily striding about the room.

VANDERGELDER:

Loudly.

I tell you for the hundredth time you will never marry my niece.

AMBROSE:

Thirty; dressed as an “artist.”

And I tell you for the thousandth time that I will marry your niece; and right soon, too.

VANDERGELDER:

Never!

AMBROSE:

Your niece is of age, Mr. Vandergelder. Your niece has consented to marry me. This is a free country, Mr. Vandergelder—not a private kingdom of your own.

VANDERGELDER:

There are no free countries for fools, Mr. Kemper. Thank you for the honor of your visit—good morning.

JOE:

Fifty; lanky, mass of gray hair falling into his eyes.

Mr. Vandergelder, will you please sit still one minute? If I cut your throat it’ll be practically unintentional.

VANDERGELDER:

Ermengarde is not for you, nor for anybody else who can’t support her.

AMBROSE:

I tell you I can support her. I make a very good living.