Embedded Files
Stave I
Stave I
‘Marley was dead: to begin with.’
‘Marley was as dead as a doornail.’
‘He was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone,
Scrooge!’‘Hard and sharp as flint.’
‘Solitary as an oyster.’
‘External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge.’
‘It was cold, bleak, biting weather.’
‘The fog came pouring in at every
chink and keyhole.’‘His clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond...was copying letters...’
‘He was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and
handsome; his eyes sparkled.’ (Fred)‘At the ominous word liberality’, Scrooge frowned.’
‘”Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.’
“’I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.’”
‘”If they would rather die... they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’”
‘Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened.’
‘Piercing, searching, biting cold.’
‘There was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door.’
‘To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue.’ (Scrooge after seeing Marley’s face)
‘The same face: the very same.’ (Marley’s ghost)
‘”How now!” said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.’
‘”I wear the chain I forged in life.”’
‘”Or would know,” pursued the Ghost, “the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!”’
‘”No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse.’”
‘”Mankind was my business.”’
‘The misery with them all was, clearly, that they
sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.’‘He tried to say, ‘Humbug!’ but stopped at the first syllable.’
Stave II
Stave II
‘Was it a dream or not?’
‘Scrooge... found himself face to face with the
unearthly visitor...’‘It was a strange figure – like a child: yet not so like a child as like an old man.’
‘It wore a tunic of the purest white.’
‘From the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light.’
‘”Are you the spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?” asked Scrooge.’
The voice was soft and gentle.’
‘”Would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give?”’
‘”I am a mortal,” Scrooge remonstrated, “and liable to fall.”’
‘He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long, long forgotten!’
‘”Your lip is trembling,” said the Ghost. “And what is that upon your cheek?”’
‘”The school is not quite deserted... A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still.”’
'A lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire.’
‘Scrooge... wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be.’
‘”There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that’s all.”’
‘A little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting in, and putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing him, addressed him as her ‘dear, dear brother.’’
‘”Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home’s like Heaven!’
‘He called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice.’ (Fezziwig)
‘”He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make out service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil.”’ (Scrooge talking about Fezziwig)
‘”Another idol has displaced me.”’ (Belle)
‘”You fear the world too much.”’
‘”Our contract is an old one.”’
‘He seized the extinguisher-cap, and by sudden action pressed it down upon its head.’
‘He could not hide the light: which streamed from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground.’
Stave III
Stave III
‘A strange voice called him by his name, and bade him enter.’
‘Such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney.’
‘Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry...’
‘In easy state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch... and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge.’
‘”Come in! and know me better, man!”’
‘Its dark brown curls were long and free: free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open
hand.’‘Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.’
‘”There are some upon this earth of yours... who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name...”’
‘Then up rose Mrs Cratchit, Cratchit’s wife... brave in ribbons.’
‘”He hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.”’
‘It was a sufficient dinner for the whole family.’
“’If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.’”
‘”What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”’
‘”Mr Scrooge!” said Bob; “I’ll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!”’
‘There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty.’
‘”A place where Miners live, who labour in the bowels of the earth,” returned the Spirit. “But, they know me. See!”’
‘”I am sorry for him; I couldn’t be angry with him if I tried.”’ (Fred talking about Scrooge)
‘They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish: but prostrate, too, in their humility.’
‘”They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom.”’
Stave IV
Stave IV
‘The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached.’
‘It seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.’
‘It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form and left nothing visible.’
‘It was tall and stately.’
‘Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him.’
- ‘There were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him.’‘”I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart.”’
‘”It’s likely to be a very cheap funeral.”’
‘They were men of business: very wealthy, and of great importance. He had made a point of always standing well in their esteem: in a business point of view that is; strictly in a business point of view.’
“’Every person has a right to take care of themselves. He always did.”’ (Mrs Dilber talking about Scrooge)
‘Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror.’
‘”Spirit!” said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot. “I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own.”’
‘Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar
here.’‘”Before that time we shall be ready with the money; and even though we were not, it would be bad fortune indeed to find so merciless a creditor in his successor.”’
‘”Let me see some tenderness connected with a death.”’
‘Ah, poor Tiny Tim!’
‘”Don’t mind it, father. Don’t be grieved!”’
‘”My little, little child!” cried Bob. “My little child!”’
‘The Spirit was immovable as ever.’
‘”Hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for
this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?”’“’I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone.”’
Stave V
Stave V
‘He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call.’
‘He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.’
‘His hands were busy with his garments all this time: turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.’
‘”I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy.”’
‘For a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh.’
‘No fog, not mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold.’
‘Oh, glorious. Glorious!’
‘”The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can.”’
‘”An intelligent boy!” said Scrooge. “A remarkable boy!”’
‘”Allow me to ask for your pardon.”’
‘Everything could yield him pleasure.’
‘Let him in! It is a mercy he didn’t shake his arm off. He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier.’ (Scrooge welcomed by Fred)
“’I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon.”’
‘Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all and infinitely more.’
‘His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.’
‘He knew how to keep Christmas well.’
‘And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!’
Page updated
Report abuse