Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 83 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 83: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is running prose text from page 71 of a Victorian penny dreadful titled *The Taking of Helen*. The passage depicts characters Nireus and Myrtle making urgent plans as sunset approaches—Nireus will attempt to sail his ship that night to escape danger. After Myrtle sends them indoors to hide their tools, Nireus encounters an old man on a sea-beach who philosophically discusses planets and fate, reflecting on how celestial bodies influence human passion and violence. The text blends melodramatic urgency with mystical, poetic observation about love, death, and destiny.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE TAKING OF HELEN 71 you and I are in deadly peril of our lives. It is now sunset. I will set out to my ship, to see if you can sail this night. If I am taken, let us both remember that we have been friends.”’ “Bring up your tools and come in,” Myrtle said from above them, “for no one works here after hours. Wipe your tools clean, or put them in the house, for if Steer should see them when he comes, he might remark upon them.”’ They did as they were bid, just as the sun went down. Nireus set out alone to the north to see if his ship were free to sail; Myrtle went south, to Green Havens, to learn what was being done and said; the lovers were left together. On the sea-beach, before the rocks began, Nireus met an old man, who was staring out to sea, watching the rising of a planet. “Sometimes she is not here,” he said, “but when she is, I come to watch her. She comes up out of Asia, where all things begin, and now, . as you see, she comes with her red brother, the hunter ; she wants love and he wants blood, for all they are so lovely. When I was a boy they came thus, and the King took another love, and there was fighting everywhere. ‘They float in the sky, looking down, and they make men love and kill, and then they float on, and as they float they sing of what is in their minds, which has nothing to do with us.”’ “We love and kill and go on,” Nireus said. “And COMIICLoo® cS (C(O)