Billy Bunter's Benefit By Frank Richards - Friardale

Billy Bunter’s Benefit
By Frank Richards
you fellows will need a lot of coaching. Well, I’m going to coach you.”
“Howly mother av Moses! I—I—I mean, that’s jolly good of you, Coker.”
“Well, I don’t mind how much trouble I take,” said Coker. “I want the
thing to be a success. I have a sort of gift as an actor, but naturally you
fellows haven’t—it’s not the sort of thing that comes everybody’s way.
Keep your eyes on me in rehearsal, and you’ll pick it all up all right.”
“Help!” murmured Greene.
“What did you say, Greene?”
“I said carry on, old chap! We’re all listening.”
“I think it’s up to us to do Shakespeare,” went on Coker. “There’s a gang
of fags in the school, I believe, who potter about doing amateur
theatricals in the Rag. We don’t want to be classed with them.
Shakespeare puts things on a higher footing altogether. And if you
fellows feel that it’s a bit above your weight, you’ve only got to remember
that one really good actor can pull a show through.”
“Who’s the one?” asked Fitzgerald.
“Me!” said Coker.
“Oh, howly smoke!”
“If that means that you think I can’t play Hamlet, Terence Fitzgerald—!”
“Faith, and I’ve no doubt you could play his head off, Coker,” said
Fitzgerald, amicably, “and by the same token, are ye keeping that cold
chicken in the hamper?”
“Eh! Not at all! Help yourself, old chap.”
The cold chicken was large and plump and delectable. It seemed to
reconcile the Fifth-form Stage Club to the idea of Coker playing the
Prince of Denmark.
Coker went on talking. The Stage Club had no objection to Coker talking
while they ate cold chicken.
“There’s a lot in Shakespeare,” said Coker. “Fellows think he’s awful rot
because we get him in class. But there’s a lot in him really. Take the
soliloquy in Hamlet, for example. I’ve been mugging it up, as it comes into
my part—I’ve got it written out here somewhere—.”
Coker searched for his script, while the Stage Club demolished the cold
chicken. He found it by the time the chicken had disappeared. There was
a large cake to follow: and it followed the chicken, in segments, while
Coker looked at his script. Coker’s handwriting often puzzled Mr. Prout—
sometimes it puzzled Coker himself a little.
“I haven’t memorised this yet,” Coker explained, “I’ll speak it from the
script. I won’t give you the lot—just a specimen to show how it should be
done. Just listen carefully, and pick up tips about elocution and delivery,
see?”
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