
A lively one‑act farce opens on a riverbank where a motley crew of gentlemen, ladies, and a dutiful servant named Tom bustle about with an absurdly oversized basket. Tom’s cargo—sugar, tea, spices and even soap—becomes the unlikely catalyst for a tangled web of courtship, deception, and comic scheming. Among the characters are the flamboyant Mr. Reckless, who pines for a mysterious Julia, and the ever‑practical Mrs. Facile, whose domestic concerns contrast sharply with the romantic excesses around her.
The dialogue crackles with witty banter as plans are hatched to win hearts through elaborate gifts and feigned identities, while the servants scramble to keep the chaos in check. As the basket is loaded and the plot thickens, each character’s exaggerated motives collide, promising a whirlwind of misunderstandings and slapstick humor that keeps listeners laughing from the first line to the curtain’s fall.
Language
en
Duration
~41 minutes (40K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Paul Haxo from page images generously made available by the HathiTrust, Ohio State University and Google, and with special thanks to the Victorian Plays Project.
Release date
2015-07-18
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1812–1877
A lively figure in Victorian literary life, this English dramatist, critic, and translator helped bring German thought and drama to a wider British audience. He is also often remembered for an early recorded use of the phrase "in aid of."
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