THE CHATEAUGAY PLATOON post #30 (Joshua Crimmins Haunts A Place With A Stage)

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For some time he stayed in Chateaugay at The Inn.

 

It had a stage where Joshua Crimmins would perform on moonless nights. It was too dark for anyone to see him; however, they sure could hear him reciting his lines from Othello.

 

“Had it heaven, to try me with affliction, had they rained all kinds of sores and shame upon my bare head, steeped me in poverty to the very lips, given to captivity – – – me – – – and my very hopes, I should have found in some place of my soul a drop of patience. But Alas! To make me a fixed figure for the time of scorn, to point an unwavering finger at – – – yet – – – I could bear that too, well, very well. But here where I have garned up my heart, where I must either live or bear no life, the fountain from where my current runs – – – or else dries up, and be discarded thence, or keep it as a cistern, for foul toads to knot and reproduce in.”

 

Joshua sure could get wound up in his performances. His ghost became so famous that people visited from Montreal, Canada and Burlington, Vermont just to sit in the dark and listen to his voice.

 

Joshua still recites Shakespeare at The Inn. The crowds have thinned out a bit. The purple velvet stage curtains have a hole here and there and the gold embroidered edges hang by a few threads. But every now and then a fisherman will wander in to slake his thirst.

If the fisherman takes a room near the old stage he may hear “What noise is this? – – – Not dead? – – – Not yet quite dead? – – – I that am cruel are yet merciful – – – I could not let thee yet linger in thy pain.”