recently writ by a certain playwright of the Capital
Mr. Adrian Poniatowski
of Polonian stock, most highly recommended and recently followed, detailing the most rueful episodes concerning the recent fall and rise of the great Bank-Houses, and in particular the fall of the House of Chadwick, a banker of New-York:
When Gods Were Men
Published under the auspices of the Cornell University of the Eborian republic in the American Foederation, with all rights thereto reserved under the Law.
First Folio
2014
Frontispiece: Benjamin Franklin on the one hundred dollar banknote, and a protester from the demonstrations against various financial institutions.
Introduction
This my first serious dramatic undertaking has been inspired, in part, by an English course taken with the eminent Dr. John O’Connor on Shakespeare’s works as experienced in America. The plot, however, was supplied by an account of the most traumatizing event in recent financial history, the Great Recession. These two combined to give the work you now hold in scarce no more than a fortnight and a half. Judgment on the work’s merits and its treatment of the most unusual events it memorializes in Chadwick and the people surrounding him I reserve, as always, to you, Actor and Audience.
I must add two stylistic points to my note. The first is a deliberate lack of stage directions, in keeping with the Shakespearean tradition. Let the Actor enjoy liberty with the acting. The second is the use of language. The poetic portions of the play have been written with influence from Elizabethan English, but it does not command a consistent hold on the whole of the text. Consider this not a fault, but a sign of where the Muse desired to speak, on the one hand as a lady of long past age, and on the other as the modern woman high in the echelons of power.
I am cordially,
Adrian Poniatowski
The Feast of the Nativity of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, 2013.
Dedication
To my Grandmother and my Grandfather.
"Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money."
- Acts of Apostles 8,20
"There is not a more wicked thing than to love money: for such a one setteth even his own soul to sale: because while he liveth he hath cast away his bowels."
- Ecclesiasticus 10,10
"Who hearing it were glad; and they promised him they would give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him."
- Mark 14,11
Dramatis personae
CHADWICK, Banker of New-York, President of Brothers’ Bank-House.
KATE, his wife.
JULIAN, their son.
ADOLPH, Banker and Vice-President of Brothers’ Bank-House.
MAURICE, Adolph’s senior apprentice.
ADAM, Chadwick’s mate.
FRANCIS, Chairman of Brothers’ Bank-House.
FATHER ANDREW, Priest of the Catholic Church.
ASSASSIN, for hire.
DANIEL, Junior Banker in Brothers’ Bank-House.
GREY, Senior Banker in Brothers” Bank-House.
KONRAD, Judge of the United States, and his BAILIFF.
SECRETARY, of the Treasury of the United States.
TREASURER of the United States.
An OFFICER of the law.
A WIDOW, most unfortunate.
MATTHEW, Chadwick’s servant.
BENEDICT, JAMES, NESTOR, and LAWRENCE, Presidents of rival Bank-Houses.
COUNSELOR, at law.
Servants, Messengers, and others, with the Chorus.