n shall fall by it through Gunnar:
The bill, the bill is singing.... The bill sings!

(_She kisses the weapon, then shakes it on high._)

[CURTAIN]

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION IN READING THE PLAYS

1. _The Forces in the Play._

What is the "passion"--that is, what exactly do these people
desire who "want their ain way"? What forces favor these desires,
and what oppose them--for instance, David Pirnie's determination
to tell wee Alexander a bit story, in _The Philosopher of
Butterbiggens_? Can you always put any one character altogether
on one side? Or does his own weakness or carelessness or
stupidity, for example, sometimes work against his getting what
he wants, so that he is, in part, _not_ on his own side, but
against it, as Brutus is in _Julius Caesar_? Are there other
forces in the play besides the people--storm or accident or fate?
With what side or what character are you in sympathy? Is this
constant throughout the play, or do you feel a change at some
point in it? Does the author sympathize with any special
character? Does he have a prejudice against any one of them? For
example, in _Campbell of Kilmhor_, where is your sympathy? Where
is the author's, apparently?

2. _The Beginning and the End._

What events important to this play occurred before the curtain
rises? Why does the author begin just here, and not earlier or
later? How does he contrive to let you know these important
things without coming before the curtain to announce them
himself, or having two servants dusting the furniture and telling
them to each other?

What happens _after_ the curtain falls? Can you go on picturing
these events? Are any of them important to the story--for
instance, in _The Beggar and the King_? Why did the author stop
before telling us these things?

Does the ending satisfy you? Even if you do not find it happy and
enjoyable, does it seem the natural and perhaps the inevitable
result of the forces at work--in _Riders to the Sea_ and
_Campbell of Kilmhor_, for instance? Or has the author interfered
to make characters do what they would not naturally do, or used
chance and coincidence, like the accidentally discovered will or
the long-lost relative in melodramas, to bring about a result he
prefers--a "happy ending," or a clap-trap surprise, or a supposed
proof of some theory about politics or morals?

Does the interest mount steadily from beginning to end, or does
it droop and