Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 85 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 85: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Description This is running prose from page 73 of a Victorian penny dreadful titled *The Taking of Helen*. The text depicts a dialogue between a character named Nireus and a dark man cooking shellfish at a seaside cave. The man warns Nireus that soldiers are searching for him within a mile, and delivers a bitter monologue condemning men who abandon their lives for women, declaring he himself has renounced such attachments and will one day witness Nireus hanged. The passage concludes with Nireus departing toward the beach where his ship is moored.
📄 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 13 Nireus went on over the rocks till he came to the cliffs, where there was a cave, in front of which a fire was burning. A little dark man was cooking a pot of shell-fish at the fire; he had very bright eyes which looked askant. ‘Are the soldiers on the rocks here?’’ Nireus asked. “No, lord,’’ the man answered. “Thank you.” “What do you want with the soldiers?’’ the man said. “To be without them.” , “Well, there are soldiers, then, within a mile of you. They are looking for you, and when they catch you, they will hang you, and you will deserve your death, for a man who gives up a good life for a woman is fit for burial.” “What do you know of me?” Nireus asked. “Nothing, and want to know less,’’ the man said. ‘But I gave up a good life for a woman, and I know how such look and what they come to. But now [ll have neither woman nor friend, nor be bothered with a home nor a city norastate. I’ll live like a bird and be happy lke a bird, nor rot my heart out nor my hands off for anyone. But I[’ll come to see you hanged, for a neck that carries a head so daft as to give up all for & woman, is a neck that I’d love to see stretched.”’ Nireus went along the cliffs till he came to the beach where his ship lay. She was moored to the rocks at GOMIiGdoo “<S (C(O)