1. THE PIE AND THE TART
Hugh Chesterman (1884-1941) is a British author who wrote several children's books in the 1920s and 1930s and edited a children's magazine with his great friend Basil Blackwell called The Merry Go Round, published in Oxford. He has to his credit a few popular and much anthologized one-act plays such as "The Crock, the Cock, and the Candle," "On Ludgate Hill," "The Pie and the Tart" and a number of volumes of poetry as well. Chesterman was killed in World War II.
"The Pie and the Tart" depicts how two starving and hungry vagabonds - Jean and Pierre - trick a baker and his wife of an eel pie and a cranberry tart. The action is set in the middle of the fifteenth century and takes place outside Gaultier's cake shop.
Gaultier, the baker asks his wife Marion to send an eel pie after him to the Mayor's where he is going to dine. The messenger he sends for it shall identify himself by asking to kiss her hand. Jean who overhears this conversation between the baker and his wife persuades Pierre to present himself before Marion, kiss her hand and ask for the pie. Though plagued by doubt, Pierre does what he is told and, to his delight, finds the pie handed to him on a platter.
While the two savour the delicious pie, Gaultier returns in a huff because the mayor, having forgotten the dinner invitation, is not at home. He flares up when he learns that the eel pie has been handed over to a messenger he never sent!
A little while later, Jean appears before Marion to ask for the cranberry tart that Pierre espied earlier on the baker's shelf. He explains to her that her husband has sent him for the cranberry tart and that it is to be taken to the Mayor's without any delay as the pie has not been "large enough to go round." To his utter bewilderment, the baker rushes out, gives him a good thrashing and demands to know what happened to the pie. Jean wriggles out of the situation promising to bring his friend who took the pie from Marion earlier and then sends Pierre to the cake shop saying that Marion insists on the same messenger who came for the pie.
Quick-witted Pierre, appraising the situation on seeing the livid baker, protests that he carried the pie straight to the Mayor's house. He informs the baker that the Mayor returned just after he left, is most grateful for the pie, and expects him to dinner. The gullible baker believes the story and prepares to go to the Mayor's house for dinner. Pierre offers to carry the tart to the Mayor's for him. The play ends on a delightful note with Pierre taking off with the tart and offering it with a great flourish to Jean.
A delightful touch of humour enlivens the play and makes it a highly entertaining one despite the veil of pathos cast over it by the penury, hunger and starvation of the vagabonds.
adapted from French by
Hugh Chesterman