Penny Dreadfuls, 1923 · page 93 of 116
The Taking of Helen by John Masefield — page 93: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from a Victorian penny dreadful titled "The Taking of Helen." The text depicts a dramatic scene where an angry man pounds on a house door demanding entry, while Helen, Paris, and Nireus—apparently inside—debate who will answer. As the man shouts threats and insults, an elderly woman slowly makes her way toward the door from within the house, audibly struggling with age and infirmity. The passage emphasizes tension through sound (the knocking's echo, the old woman's wheezing) and dialogue revealing the characters' anxious reactions to this unwanted visitor.
📄 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 $1 Soon they heard him knocking on the door at the front of the house, and growling or swearing to himself be- tween the knocks. ‘The house was so still that the knocking rang through it like cockcrow. “He will wake the old lady,’’ Helen said. ‘‘He means to waken someone,” Paris said. Plainly the old man did mean to waken. someone, for he now banged on the door with all his anger. ‘Are you all dead there, are you all mad or drunk, or what is it? Wake up and let mein. Will you let me in, or am | to break down the door? You baggage and jade and she-cat, gone trolloping with your sol- diers. Lords, open, will you? Open, or we’ll make you open !”’ “Someone is going to open to him,” Helen said. “It must be the girl come back.”’ ‘Tt is not the girl,’ Nireus said. ‘It is the old lady, wakened.”’ “Tt is the old lady,’’ Paris said. ‘Shall we put out the light?” “Keep it burning,’ Helen said. ‘‘ We are her guests here.”’ From somewhere in the heart of the house the step of age shuffled and the breath of age wheezed. An old, old creature was coming to the door, wheezing and mut- tering. They heard her. “QO, dear me! O, my poor heart! O, dear! O, my poor back! O, the gods pity me! QO, it’s too long a way, a dear.’ They CORIICLOO@ SS} (C(O)