The Hunchback

• 1909
• Other, Drama

Cursed with the deformity of a crooked spine and made the butt of the village jesters, the hunchback seeks at least temporary forgetfulness of his lot in the bottle. Earning a meager pittance as sexton of the church, his wages all go for drink, and he staggers about his duties sodden and filthy, a fair mark for his tormentors. His soul knows no peace, for his fellows allow him none, and his mind is more terribly deformed than his body by hatred and the wretched life he leads. He is seen first in the belfry of the church, where, after performing his duties, he drains the bottle and hurls it from him with terrible imprecations. He staggers down the rickety stairway and stumbles along to the common, where he throws himself into a seat before the inn and calls for more drink. He falls into a drunken stupor and a rural clown amuses himself and his fellows by tickling the hunchback with a straw. All roar with laughter when the sleeper seeks to dislodge the troublesome insect, but their laughter grows too boisterous and rouses the man from his slumber. With brute fury he charges his tormentors and strikes one of them to earth, for which he is arrested, and, in default of a fine, placed in the stocks, where the others have full liberty to continue their torments without fear of retaliation. Lady Gertrude, the Lady Bountiful of the village, comes upon him in the course of a charitable visit, and. paying his fine, obtains his release. She takes him into her own employ as a gardener, and a wonderful change comes over the erstwhile drunkard. With sobriety, his face loses its brutish cast, and the innate nobility of the man's real self shines out through untroubled eyes and is displayed in the fine markings of the well-cut features, no longer crusted with the dirt that, in his debauches, he took no trouble to remove. He worships Lady Gertrude with passionate adoration, and. when she encounters a gay young rake in the park of her estate and he seeks to steal a kiss the hunchback comes to her rescue and is restrained from wreaking vengeance upon her insulter only through her appeal. Later the libertine sends a lying appeal for her aid in his sickness, and, despite her misgivings, she consents to visit him. Arrived at the shooting box where he is supposed to have been stricken, she is locked in the room with her pursuer. The hunchback, searching for his lady, finds the decoy letter and arrives just ill time to strike down her assailant and his confederate. He receives his death thrust, but staggers home with Lady Gertrude, and not until she is safe does his great heart give way as he falls at her feet, faithful unto death.