After Oscar Wilde
"Civilisation is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt."
URSULA: The poets are still discussing poor Barry's disappearance.
MABEL: I should have thought they'd have got tired of that by now.
URSULA: Poets! Tired! It's the poetry of the tired and the tired writing poems -
MABEL: May dear Ursula, they have only been talking about it for the last two weeks. Since he stormed out after his big performance - he could have been famous, he could have had it all!
URSULA: It's an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen in The Harvey.
MABEL: It's a delightful pub, and possesses all the attractions of the Hard Rock Cafe.
URSULA: What do you think has happened to Barry?
MABEL: I have not the slightest idea! If Barry chooses to hide himself, it is no business of mine.
URSULA: If he is dead, I don't want to think about him. Death terrifies me - that's it.
MABEL: Death and vulgarity are the best two things one can look forward to in Swindon.
URSULA: Let's take a sherry together up at The Harvey. You can read your latest poem.
MABEL: OK. I shall get my coat (sighs) Poor Barry, I was very fond of him.
URSULA: This house is so lonely without him. Of course he is merely a habit, a bad habit. But then one regrets the loss of one's worst habits. Perhaps one regrets them the most.
MABEL: Ursula, has it occurred to you that Barry may have been murdered?
URSULA: Barry is very popular and always wears Hi-Viz. He'd be difficult to murder. Why should he have been murdered? He was not clever enough to have enemies.
MABEL: Roy?
URSULA: Roy doesn't count. He is really dull and not up to any murdering.
MABEL: He writes poems, he could also murder. He told me years ago, that he had a wild adoration for you, that you were the dominant motive of his poems.
URSULA: I am fond of Roy. But he is not clever, or civilised.
MABEL: I know there are dreadful places in Swindon, and Barry was the sort of person to go to them.
URSULA: Crime belongs exclusively to the lower orders. I don't blame them, but Roy is above that.
MABEL: I don't think Barry would have done much more good work any how. His poems were going off a bit.
URSULA: When you and he ceased to be great friends. He ceased to be a great poet. It's a habit bores have.
MABEL: Oh Barry was never boring,
"Like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart"
URSULA: Yes, that is what it was like! (laughing) How grave you are. Don't be so serious.
