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Old Parson Raynes (Le vieux pasteur Raynes)
![10. [...] DE HIS KNEES](images/collections/PLM-00077/370/PLM-00077-010.jpg)
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- Argument
| Titre | 10. [...] DE HIS KNEES |
|---|---|
| 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-00077-010 (Coll. Cinémathèque française) |
- Old Parson Rayne - livret
- Parson Rayne still slept. Gently Janet placed the little boy beside his knee, and bade him not speak till grandpapa awake.
Then she sat herself down by the fire, as she used to do in the days when her Eric was a little one, and her old voice piped out in a sweet mellow tone an old Scotch song that had been a favourite with the child.
Presently the minister muttered as if in his sleep. The words of the old familiar song were flooding across his brain, working themselves into his troubled dream, as external sounds will at times.
"Sing to him, Janet," he murmured, "sing to him. Sing to Eric."
The boy looked up at hearing his name, and gently touched his grandfather's hand. Slowly the heavy lids were lifted and the eyes looked down.
For one moment the old parson seemed dazed ; then he raised his trembling hands and rubbed his eyes, and looked in wonder at the child who stood beside his knee.
"My Eric !" he cried, lifting the child up and clasping him to breast. "My Eric - at last ! at last !"
Then ten years flowed fast from his eyes and, burying his face in the boy's golden curls, he sobbed like a child.
Eric frightened, gave a little cry.
"My darling, my boy!" said the old parson, lifting his head, "you are my Eric, are you not? I have been dreaming - a bad, dreadful dream. I dreamt you were gown to be a man, and had left your poor old father to die. But you are Eric, aren't you? Speak - speak! Let me hear that is not some vision come to mock me !"
"My name is Eric Rayne," whimpered the child; "Are you my gan'pa ?"
"Grandpa !"
For a moment the old man sat and said no word, with his trembling hand upon the child's head, and glanced upward at the picture above the mantelpiece.
Janet, who had stood a silent spectator of the scene, came quietly forward.
"Master," she said, laying her hand upon his shoulder, "this is our bairn's bairn. His father has sent him across the sea to you. You said your Eric would come tonight. God sends you this one, and is he not Eric? Is he not the blue-eyed, golden-haired bairn his father was ?"
The old parson's white face wad flushed with emotion, and his old eyes were bright. The sudden joy, the strange meeting, had aroused the long torpid brain. Gradually the truth dawned upon him.
"I know now," he said softly; "My Eric is dead; this is his son."
Gently old Janet crept from the room, and left the child and the old man together.
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).
