title: Wit: A Play
author:  Margaret Edson 
description: <I>Wit</I> is that rare beast: art that engages both the heart and the mind. "It is not my intention to give away the plot," Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., announces near the beginning of Margaret Edson's <a href="/exec/obidos/subst/lists/awards/pulitzer.html/${0}">Pulitzer Prize-winning play</a>, "but I think I die at the end. They've given me less than two hours." For two hours, this famed Donne scholar takes center stage, interrupting her doctors, nurses, and students to explicate her own story, its metaphors and conceits. Recently diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer, she is being treated with an experimental drug cocktail administered in "eight cycles. Eight neat little strophes." The chemo makes her feel worse than she ever thought possible; in fact, the treatment is making her sick, not the disease--an irony she says she'd appreciate in a Donne sonnet, if not so much in life.
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  # The Unforeseen Wager
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock
  
  
  
      
  
  
  This Etext is for private use only. No republication for profit in
  
  
  print or other media may be made without the express consent of the
  
  
  Copyright Holder. The Copyright Holder is especially concerned about
  
  
  performance rights in any media on stage, cinema, or television, or
  
  
  audio or any other media, including readings for which an entrance fee
  
  
  or the like is charge. Permissions should be addressed to: Frank
  
  
  Morlock, 6006 Greenbelt Rd, #312, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA or
  
  
  frankmorlock@msn.com. Other works by this author may be found at
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/personnage.asp?key=130
  
  
  
      
  
  
  Etext by Dagny
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  
  THE UNFORESEEN WAGER
  
  
  A play in one act based on a play by Sedaine
  
  
  
  
  
  Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock
  
  
  C 1986
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  
  Characters:
  
  
  
  
  
  Lord Belton
  
  
  Lady Morgana, his wife
  
  
  Mr. Lovela