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MAVIS. Anytime! Right now—if yer like! So yer go!—I sure it will bring yer back!

Her eyes follow Ephraim as he goes into his room. Then she turns to face Prince and teases him with a small gesture of her body.

He nice, eh?

PRINCE. Always making a damn fool of yerself!

But for her the teasing is over. She crosses to the porch, picks up the bowl and starts towards her room.

MAVIS. Doodoo, darlin’! How yer want it?

PRINCE. (gruffly) A pelau.

MAVIS. Creole?

PRINCE. Eh-heh.

MAVIS. Then go round the back there and pick me a handful of peppers.

And again he is the patsy. But he goes off to get the peppers.

Pick a lot. I go make it hot. Hot enough to burn off yer mouth.

Explanation and Analysis:

After Mavis learns that Ephraim is leaving Trinidad for England, she accosts him in the yard and flirts with him one last time—embracing him and promising him that if he had sex with her, her charms (the “it” she refers to in the first line abo...

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Original

Romeo

(aside) She speaks.
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art though Romeo?
Deny they father and refuse they name.
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Modern

Romeo

(to himself) She speaks. Speak again, bright angel! For tonight you are as glorious, there up above me, as a winged messenger of heaven who makes mortals fall onto their backs to gaze up with awestruck eyes as he strides across the lazy clouds and sails through the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Why must you be Romeo? Deny your father and give up your name. Or, if you won’t change your name, just swear your love to me and I’ll give up being a Capulet.

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