Life Models
Retour à la série | Nouvelle recherche | Version imprimable
Old Parson Raynes (Le vieux pasteur Raynes)
- Notice
- Document associé
- Argument
| Titre | 9. '' DEAD'' SOBBED JANET, ''DEAD '' |
|---|---|
| Distributeur d'origine | Riley Brothers |
| Fabricant | York & Son |
| Époque | Fin du XIXème siècle |
| Lieu de fabrication | Angleterre (Lancaster Road, Notting Hill, Londres) |
| Description technique | life models, photographie rehaussée de couleurs, plaque carrée fixe |
| Dimensions | L. 81 mm l. 81 mm |
| Cote | PLM-00077-009 (Coll. Cinémathèque française) |
- Old Parson Rayne - livret
- "Listen, Janet," said the lady, rising, and taking the old servant's hand gently in hers; "listen, my good Janet. Eris had told me of you - how you were more than a mother to him. For you I have his dying message, and almost his dying kiss ; the last one that he gave me is for his father."
"Dead !" sobbed Janet, rocking herself to and fro.
"Dead ! and the master has hoped on all these weary years, and I have hoped too. And we'll never see him again this side o'the grave. Oh my bairn - my bonny bairn !"
"I come tonight with a message from him, with the last words his lips ever uttered," whispered the lady. "I have come over leagues of water, from a far-off land, to tell Eric's father how, dying, he blessed him and prayed for him. It was when his last illness was upon him that he told me for the first time the story of his parting his father."
"Why did he never write - why did he never write ?" cried Janet, still with her apron to her eyes.
"He would not. He swore that his father should never see or hear of him again. It was cruel and wicked. Had I know it, it should never have been. On his death-bed his pride broke down, the old memories of home conquered, and with his dying breath he bade me bring my child to England and place him on his grandfather's knee."
Mrs. Rayne lifted her child upon her own knee as she spoke, looked the wrapper from his throat, and took his little hat off, and, as she did so, a shower of golden curls fell over the boy's shoulders.
The clergyman started, and Janet red eyes were fixed upon the child as though he were a vision.
"It's my bairn," she murmured ; "it's my bairn. Ye ha' seen the picture in the sitting room, sir ; it is not bonny bairn himself ?"
"The likeness is marvellous," answered the clergyman, looking intently at the child - "most marvellous; He might have stepped from the canvas."
"Then Janet told Eric's widow how the parson was asleep, and how his mind was wandering all through greeting after the boy, and how he had said that his Eric would come that night.
The young clergyman sat for a moment in deep thought.
He was wondering how best to break the news of the son's death top the old parson - how best to tell him that beneath his roof were the wanderer%u2019s widow and child.
"Gie the bairn to me," said Janet, taking little Eric in her mars and kissing him passionately, "and bide ye here. I'll do it myself."
Mrs. Rayne consented to Janet's proposition, and bade the child not be frightened, but go with the kind lady see his grandpa.
Little Eric had heard of the poor grandpa he was coming to see, and many a time, as the great ship ploughed its way across the Atlantic, the child had asked when it would be England, where grandpa lived.
So, kissing his little hand to his mother, he let Janet carry him tenderly in her loving arms into the sitting-room where grandpa was sleeping.
Softly the old servant crept in with her precious burden in her arms ; and as her eyes sought eagerly the picture of little Eric above the mantelpiece she stooped and pressed a fervent kiss upon the little one's rosy lips, for the father lived again in the son.
George R. Sims, "Old Parson Rayne", in Theatre of life (1881)
Un jour, une dispute éclate entre le pasteur et son fils et celui ci décide de quitter la maison familiale (plaques 1 et 2), laissant son père seul avec la domestique de la maison (plaque 3). Cette absence est difficile à vivre pour le pasteur, qui passe des heures devant le portrait de son fils et affirme tous les soirs que celui-ci va rentrer (plaques 4 et 5). Petit à petit, la raison de l'homme est bouleversée par sa tristesse. Il se terre dans un silence et attend inlassablement devant sa fenêtre (plaques 6 et 7).
Un soir, la domestique reçoit la visite du nouveau pasteur accompagné d'une femme et d'un jeune garçon (plaque 8).
La domestique reconnaît de suite l'enfant qui a les traits du fils parti si brutalement sans jamais donner de nouvelles. La femme qui se tient devant elle lui apprend que cet enfnt est le petit-fils du pasteur. Hélas, le fils du pasteur est mort, laissant un enfant et une veuve. Sur son lit de mort, le fils du pasteur a demandé à sa femme de retourner dans sa maison familiale, afin que le jeune garçon puisse connaître son grand-père (plaque 9).
La domestique sait que la raison de vieux pasteur est vacillante et décide de lui présenter l'enfant seul (plaque 10). Comme l'avait pensé la domestique, le pasteur prend l'enfant pour son propre fils (plaque 11) avant de réaliser que c'est son petit-fils. Finalement l'homme retrouve la raison et profite de joyeux moments en compagnie de ce petit-fils qu'il n'espérait plus (plaque 12).
