Stop thimbling and I'll save you both!
Jan. 12th, 2012 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseSo I did the coolest thing ever today. Because apparently (HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS) my University has possession of the original (as in, very first ever, handwritten, still-untitled, with scritch-ed out bits and different names sometimes) manuscript of Peter Pan. November 1903. So today I went to the rare books collection and they got it out of the vault for me and I sat there and read the whole thing.
theprimrosepath, when you suggested that Barrie wasn't yet capable of writing the ending to this story - you were right. The ending to this version is completely different in every way. That horrible ending that's been a sore spot in me all my life isn't even there. Instead, Peter and Wendy and all the lost boys fly back to London, where they then advertise for all the most beautiful mothers, and then Peter and Wendy test them to see which are the right mothers for which boys - and they're all countesses with ridiculous names, and the entire thing is farcical and ridiculous and completely gives the lie to any attempt to view London and the Neverland as polarized spaces. London is every bit as silly. And then, once all the boys are disposed of, Wendy and Peter try to say goodbye, get all choked up, and eventually get Mr. and Mrs. Darling's blessing to go live in Kensington Gardens as mother and child, and then they have a run-in with the nefarious school superintendent Hook, and everyone ends up dressed up as harlequins and columbines in a complete collapse into happy silliness and carnivalesque make-believe, and then all the stars in the set shine bright, and then go out, and the play is over.
The thing that I found most interesting, I think, was the way this initial version framed Peter and Wendy as much more similar in their attraction/repulsion to adulthood. Peter is tremendously enthusiastic about playing father, only pulling back when he gets scared. Actually, this Peter is scared rather a lot - this version casts no doubt on his story of having been closed out of his own nursery by his own mother. Peter never recoils from Wendy, or from her obvious feeling for him - instead he repeatedly asks her to help him understand. Which she doesn't yet have the courage or maturity to do - she also holds back from that step, that change. Both feel the draw of being grown up, the excitement available there, but both are ultimately afraid. Their home together in Kensington Gardens is a sort of ultimate representation of this; even in London, they're still playing more than anything else. The play doesn't ever force them into the sort of choice that later versions do, to have or give up once and for all. No one in this play ever leaves the Greenworld; in fact, their playfulness is contagious, infecting the citizens of London with commedia del arte tropes and spontaneous costumes and jokes and dancing.
Behind the cut,
John is consistently an asshole about girls; Peter consistently cuts him down for it. At one point, John and Michael (Alex in this draft) jeer at him for liking girls, and call him a muff. Peter does not dignify this with a reply.
When Tootles shoots Wendy down, it's snowing in the Neverland.
When the lost boys suggest carrying her down into the home below the ground, Peter protests, "we can't do that. You see I'm a bachelor! Think what might happen if when she woke the first thing she saw were the hundred and one articles, necessary to a bachelor who does for himself, but shocking to the eyes of a delicately minded lady?" (WHAT DO YOU HAVE DOWN THERE PETER?!)
Slightly: How I wish I knew the kind of house that Wendy would prefer.
John: I like them large and showy.
Peter: Then we'll be safe to make it small and modest. But the decoration! In London as soon as one style's in it's out and if you follow it they say you live at chophouses; oh, how I wish I knew the correct artistic thing for this evening. (INFINITE WTF)
In the home below the ground:
All: Dad, dad!
Peter: You rogues - no, I won't let one of you into my pockets till I know whether you have been good boys.
Several: We have - we have!
Peter: Then in you go! (Several get fruit from his pockets)
Wendy: (standing smiling at the fire) Peter, you just spoil them, you know.
AND THEN HE KISSES HER. JFC. (I'm in love with how much this is Peter's game as much as Wendy's.)
Peter: Wendy, what is it you want to be to me?
Wendy: That's a question no gentlemen ought to put to a lady.
[crossed out] Peter: (going to her) You love me as a mother, don't you?
Wendy: If that's what you wish, Peter.
Peter: What could be nicer? Wendy, what COULD be nicer?
Wendy: I mustn't say, dear. I am a lady, and I mustn't say.
(NO WENDY YOU NEED TO MAKE OUT WITH HIM RIGHT NOW HE ACTUALLY DOESN'T KNOW STUPID BLOODY VICTORIAN MORALITY)
This is all crossed out, but - !!!
Wendy: Peter, do you feel a pain here (touching her heart)
Peter: Yes
Wendy: So do I. Peter, what is the loveliest word in the English language?
Peter: Mother.
Wendy: No, no no.
Peter: It was what you told me it was.
Wendy: I know a lovelier word now. Don't you, Peter?
Peter: No. Tell me, Wendy.
(WENDY TELL THE BOY YOU WANT TO RIP HIS CLOTHES OFF ALREADY)
Wendy: I can't exactly tell you.
(NOOO YOU SHOULD JUST SHOW HIM.)
And then there's a bit where Tiger Lily ties Peter to a tree and tells him that she loves him and tells him that he better love her back or she'll let the wild beasts have him, but he protest that Wendy is the only one for him and Tiger Lily leave in a huff. (So. Wow.)
After they've returned to London:
Tootles: My mother says I;m nearly a man.
Peter: (startled) Does she! (he is suddenly subdued) Goodbye all of you. I'm glad you like your mothers - I hope you will go on liking them. I hope you'll like - going to school and - growing into men.
...
Peter: Oh Wendy, did you hear what Tootles' mother said, that he would soon be a man! (in agony) Wendy, I've never told you, but I think I am nearly as old as Tootles!
Wendy: I wish you hadn't been so afraid of being a man, Peter - it's rather hard on me.
Peter: I want always to be a wonderful boy, and to have fun.
(OH PETER)
At the end, when they're living in Kensington Gardens and Hook is a schoolmaster:
Tinkerbell (Tippy in this draft): Stop thimbling and I'll save you both! (TINK WINS)
theprimrosepath, when you suggested that Barrie wasn't yet capable of writing the ending to this story - you were right. The ending to this version is completely different in every way. That horrible ending that's been a sore spot in me all my life isn't even there. Instead, Peter and Wendy and all the lost boys fly back to London, where they then advertise for all the most beautiful mothers, and then Peter and Wendy test them to see which are the right mothers for which boys - and they're all countesses with ridiculous names, and the entire thing is farcical and ridiculous and completely gives the lie to any attempt to view London and the Neverland as polarized spaces. London is every bit as silly. And then, once all the boys are disposed of, Wendy and Peter try to say goodbye, get all choked up, and eventually get Mr. and Mrs. Darling's blessing to go live in Kensington Gardens as mother and child, and then they have a run-in with the nefarious school superintendent Hook, and everyone ends up dressed up as harlequins and columbines in a complete collapse into happy silliness and carnivalesque make-believe, and then all the stars in the set shine bright, and then go out, and the play is over.The thing that I found most interesting, I think, was the way this initial version framed Peter and Wendy as much more similar in their attraction/repulsion to adulthood. Peter is tremendously enthusiastic about playing father, only pulling back when he gets scared. Actually, this Peter is scared rather a lot - this version casts no doubt on his story of having been closed out of his own nursery by his own mother. Peter never recoils from Wendy, or from her obvious feeling for him - instead he repeatedly asks her to help him understand. Which she doesn't yet have the courage or maturity to do - she also holds back from that step, that change. Both feel the draw of being grown up, the excitement available there, but both are ultimately afraid. Their home together in Kensington Gardens is a sort of ultimate representation of this; even in London, they're still playing more than anything else. The play doesn't ever force them into the sort of choice that later versions do, to have or give up once and for all. No one in this play ever leaves the Greenworld; in fact, their playfulness is contagious, infecting the citizens of London with commedia del arte tropes and spontaneous costumes and jokes and dancing.
Behind the cut,
John is consistently an asshole about girls; Peter consistently cuts him down for it. At one point, John and Michael (Alex in this draft) jeer at him for liking girls, and call him a muff. Peter does not dignify this with a reply.
When Tootles shoots Wendy down, it's snowing in the Neverland.
When the lost boys suggest carrying her down into the home below the ground, Peter protests, "we can't do that. You see I'm a bachelor! Think what might happen if when she woke the first thing she saw were the hundred and one articles, necessary to a bachelor who does for himself, but shocking to the eyes of a delicately minded lady?" (WHAT DO YOU HAVE DOWN THERE PETER?!)
Slightly: How I wish I knew the kind of house that Wendy would prefer.
John: I like them large and showy.
Peter: Then we'll be safe to make it small and modest. But the decoration! In London as soon as one style's in it's out and if you follow it they say you live at chophouses; oh, how I wish I knew the correct artistic thing for this evening. (INFINITE WTF)
In the home below the ground:
All: Dad, dad!
Peter: You rogues - no, I won't let one of you into my pockets till I know whether you have been good boys.
Several: We have - we have!
Peter: Then in you go! (Several get fruit from his pockets)
Wendy: (standing smiling at the fire) Peter, you just spoil them, you know.
AND THEN HE KISSES HER. JFC. (I'm in love with how much this is Peter's game as much as Wendy's.)
Peter: Wendy, what is it you want to be to me?
Wendy: That's a question no gentlemen ought to put to a lady.
[crossed out] Peter: (going to her) You love me as a mother, don't you?
Wendy: If that's what you wish, Peter.
Peter: What could be nicer? Wendy, what COULD be nicer?
Wendy: I mustn't say, dear. I am a lady, and I mustn't say.
(NO WENDY YOU NEED TO MAKE OUT WITH HIM RIGHT NOW HE ACTUALLY DOESN'T KNOW STUPID BLOODY VICTORIAN MORALITY)
This is all crossed out, but - !!!
Wendy: Peter, do you feel a pain here (touching her heart)
Peter: Yes
Wendy: So do I. Peter, what is the loveliest word in the English language?
Peter: Mother.
Wendy: No, no no.
Peter: It was what you told me it was.
Wendy: I know a lovelier word now. Don't you, Peter?
Peter: No. Tell me, Wendy.
(WENDY TELL THE BOY YOU WANT TO RIP HIS CLOTHES OFF ALREADY)
Wendy: I can't exactly tell you.
(NOOO YOU SHOULD JUST SHOW HIM.)
And then there's a bit where Tiger Lily ties Peter to a tree and tells him that she loves him and tells him that he better love her back or she'll let the wild beasts have him, but he protest that Wendy is the only one for him and Tiger Lily leave in a huff. (So. Wow.)
After they've returned to London:
Tootles: My mother says I;m nearly a man.
Peter: (startled) Does she! (he is suddenly subdued) Goodbye all of you. I'm glad you like your mothers - I hope you will go on liking them. I hope you'll like - going to school and - growing into men.
...
Peter: Oh Wendy, did you hear what Tootles' mother said, that he would soon be a man! (in agony) Wendy, I've never told you, but I think I am nearly as old as Tootles!
Wendy: I wish you hadn't been so afraid of being a man, Peter - it's rather hard on me.
Peter: I want always to be a wonderful boy, and to have fun.
(OH PETER)
At the end, when they're living in Kensington Gardens and Hook is a schoolmaster:
Tinkerbell (Tippy in this draft): Stop thimbling and I'll save you both! (TINK WINS)
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:47 am (UTC)Since this is an open post, do you mind if I quote you on Tumblr?
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 04:11 pm (UTC)It's much easier to love & forgive authors when you no longer feel them to be in power over you.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 01:30 pm (UTC)The edits Barrie made along the way are fascinating. I also adore the excerpts with your annotations. I think my favorites are:
"we can't do that. You see I'm a bachelor! Think what might happen if when she woke the first thing she saw were the hundred and one articles, necessary to a bachelor who does for himself, but shocking to the eyes of a delicately minded lady?" (WHAT DO YOU HAVE DOWN THERE PETER?!)
and
(NO WENDY YOU NEED TO MAKE OUT WITH HIM RIGHT NOW HE ACTUALLY DOESN'T KNOW STUPID BLOODY VICTORIAN MORALITY)
Thank you so much for finding this and posting it; it made my day and it's only 8:30 in the morning.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 01:30 pm (UTC)I have a soft spot for the characters in Peter Pan, and various iterations of the story. I'm really impressed you got to read this, and then share the awesome bits!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-14 01:07 am (UTC)