Story summary
Краткое содержание: «Уаппин-Уорф»
- Чтение: 9 мин.
- 8 parts
- Аудио скоро
Three retired pirates on a Devon cliff wreck ships for loot, until a stranger with a quick gun joins them.
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«Уаппин-Уорф» — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 9 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 1 h 40 min1 h 20 min fast, 2 h slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 24 300
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Средний longer sentences, everyday words
- Первая публикация
- 1922by Чарльз С. Брукс
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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«Уаппин-Уорф» in short
Wappin' Wharf is a short comic play about old pirates who keep their trade alive on a Devon cliff by luring ships onto the rocks. Over two stormy nights, a newcomer called Red Joe, a girl named Betsy who cannot remember her childhood, a gypsy with a crystal and a stopped clock all pull against the pirates' cozy routine. What you keep is a set of vivid people.
What «Уаппин-Уорф» is about
What does a pirate do when the sea has finished with him? In Wappin' Wharf he retires to a stone cabin on a cliff above the village of Clovelly in Devon. He drinks grog, sings cheerful songs about gibbets, and waits for ships to come to him. They do come, lured onto the rocks by a false light.
Charles S. Brooks wrote this comedy, first acted in January 1922 at the Play House in Cleveland. An actor-manager asked for a play with lots of pirates, no poetry and at least one shooting. Brooks gave him a wooden leg, a hook, a parrot, a stopped clock and songs. Over three acts and two stormy nights, you meet rogues, a lost girl and a gentle young pirate.
Для кого. You will love this if you enjoy pirate yarns told for fun, rowdy comic dialogue, sea songs, and old melodrama played for laughs.
The story in 8 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Retired pirates keep house on a cliff
The play opens with a prologue spoken to the audience. The time is remote, and Brooks refuses to give a date, so that no broken fact can spoil his plot. The scene is the wind-swept coast of Devon, where Clovelly climbs from the shore in a single street that is really a staircase. High above it, on a storm-blown crag, stands the pirates' cabin.
His pirates have grown old and stiff, and they have retired from active practice. Yet their villainy still thrives. The cabin is a rough stone room with a ladder to a sleeping loft, a pot of grog, bags of loot on a beam and a parrot on a perch. Nothing here is grand, and that is the joke.
Two pirates are at the table when the curtain rises. Patch-Eye wears a black patch and is sentimental. He would stab a man but grieve over a sparrow. The Duke has a timber leg, a great red nose and a lot of whiskers. He is the thinker of the gang, and he looks it. Old Darlin', who has one tooth, keeps their cups full.
They talk of Captain Flint, who sailed the Spittin' Devil and was hanged at Wappin' Wharf in London. Patch says Flint once knocked out his eye over loot, and it was only business. The humor comes from how tender these men are about their cruel days.
The takeaway is that the play asks you to meet its pirates with a grin.
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A stopped clock waits for revenge
One object in the cabin matters more than it seems.
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Everyone in the cabin wants a wedding
Brooks fills the first act with matchmaking.
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A gentle stranger and a song she cannot place
Red Joe is the odd man in the cabin.
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News from the village and a fortune in the glass
The Captain comes in out of the rain, wringing his hat.
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A bad proposal and a pirate's good nose
The second act opens the next night in fog, and Brooks sighs that he wanted a moon for the Duke's courtship.
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Grown men play at being children
The first theme of Wappin' Wharf is play.
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Memory, songs and the art of the stage joke
The second theme is memory, and it moves through the story like a thread.
Read all 8 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- The Duke A shrewd one-legged pirate with a red nose and big whiskers who thinks himself a ladies' man and wants Betsy for a wife.
- Patch-Eye A sentimental, one-eyed pirate who weeps easily, boasts of old mutinies, and fears nothing except a gibbet.
- The Captain A blustering pirate with a hook for a hand who leads the gang and plans to wreck the Royal Harry.
- Red Joe A graceful young pirate with no pigtail and a deadly aim, who hides something and cares for Betsy.
- Darlin' The one-toothed cook who mixes the grog, cooks the roast pig and wants a pub in Bristol.
- Betsy A kind, clean girl who washes the dishes and cannot remember her childhood, though a lullaby tugs at her.
- Old Meg A grog-loving gypsy fortune-teller whose crystal shows blood, gibbets and something she keeps to herself.
- The Sailor Captain The commander of the merchantman Royal Harry, who has a role to play when the pirates' lantern goes dark.
How it ends (spoiler)
Red Joe is the Prince of Wales, and Betsy is Margaret, his childhood betrothed. Betsy has secretly freed him, and he has shot out the false lantern, so the Royal Harry is saved. Old Meg and the sailors arrive just as the pirates are about to kill him. Hal learns that his father is dead and becomes king. He asks Betsy to marry him, and at her plea he pardons the pirates. They return to their grog, and Meg snores peacefully.
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Вопросы о книге «Уаппин-Уорф»
What is Wappin' Wharf about?
It is a comic play about retired pirates living in a cabin above Clovelly in Devon. They wreck ships with a false lantern, and a girl who cannot remember her past and a young newcomer disturb their routine.
Who wrote Wappin' Wharf and when was it first performed?
Charles S. Brooks wrote it. It was first performed in January 1922 at the Play House in Cleveland, with sets and costumes by Julia McCune Flory and music by Gordon Hatfield.
Why is it called Wappin' Wharf?
Wapping Wharf was a landing place on the Thames in London where pirates were once hanged. Brooks chose the name because the gibbet there hangs over every pirate's thoughts and the characters speak of it often.
Is Wappin' Wharf a true story?
No. It is a comedy that Brooks set deliberately in an unnamed remote past. He mixes real places such as Clovelly and London with invented pirates, and he even jokes about lighthouses that did not exist then.
Is Wappin' Wharf easy to read or perform?
It is approachable, with three short acts, a small cast, clear stage directions and plenty of songs. Brooks also wrote it so that children and amateurs could enjoy it, using simple props like a hook and wooden daggers.
Как сослаться на это издание
Brooks, Charles S. Wappin' Wharf. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/wappin-wharf.
Brooks, C. S. (2026). Wappin' Wharf. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wappin-wharf (Original work published 1922)
Brooks, Charles S. Wappin' Wharf. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wappin-wharf.
@book{brooks2026wappin,
author = {Brooks, Charles S.},
title = {Wappin' Wharf},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wappin-wharf},
note = {First published 1922}
}
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