Clifford Bax's Square Pegs: A Rhymed Fantasy for Two Girls (1920) opens with a taxicab arriving at an Enchanted Garden, where Hilda, a modern girl, consults a folding map to choose her century. The play's subtitle announces its form: a rhymed fantasy for two performers, first staged at Farthingstone in 1919. The excerpt shows Bax using couplets for dialogue, with Hilda's speech blending colloquial complaints about taxi fares with wonder at finding Merlin's Gate. Gioconda, a fifteenth-century Venetian, enters later, and their exchange reveals contrasting attitudes toward love and jealousy. The garden setting, with a table and two chairs, becomes a neutral space where time travel is literalized through a map.

Rhyme as Character Marker

Bax differentiates the two women through their verse. Hilda's rhymes are often conversational and contemporary: 'What's that? As certain as your name's Joe Billings / The taximeter points at fifteen shillings.' Gioconda's speech, though also in couplets, leans toward the lyrical: 'Pandolfo never can resist green eyes.' The rhyme scheme—heroic couplets throughout—creates a uniform meter, but the diction varies. Hilda mentions 'Harry,' a modern name, and imagines him 'balanced upon one tire' in a car; Gioconda speaks of 'Pandolfo' and 'the painting-schools—the Sienese.' The verse thus becomes a tool for character, not just form.

The Map as Plot Device

Hilda's folding map is the play's central prop. She reads it aloud: 'To Ancient Rome' and 'Ten-sixty-six,' but rejects both—Rome because 'The Romans had no manners,' the Norman Conquest because she 'stuck so long at school.' The map literalizes the fantasy of choosing one's era, but Hilda's choices are comically pragmatic. Later, both women fear losing their lovers to the other's age, and the map becomes a source of conflict. Bax never explains the map's origin or limits; it simply works, allowing the play to focus on the characters' reactions rather than mechanics.

Jealousy Mirrored Across Centuries

Both women express identical fears in parallel lines. Hilda says, 'It shall not be! Why did I let her go? / Harry will love her more than me, I know.' Gioconda echoes: 'It shall not be! Why did I let her go? / Pandolfo never can endure green eyes!' The repetition underscores the structural symmetry of the play. Each woman believes her lover will prefer the other's era—Hilda's Harry might prefer Renaissance charm, Gioconda's Pandolfo might prefer modern independence. Bax uses this mirroring to suggest that romantic jealousy transcends time, a point reinforced by the shared couplet form.

The Sonnet Conclusion

The play ends with a sonnet spoken jointly by Hilda and Gioconda. They take hands, kiss, and then address the audience directly. Gioconda praises her age's art: 'Mine has the painting-schools—the Sienese, / Venetian and unchallenged Florentine.' Hilda counters with modern medicine: 'Mine has the knowledge that our mortal pains / Are fleeing from the skilled physician's arts.' The final couplet, spoken by Hilda, asserts a unifying vision: 'the world for man is one.' This formal shift—from couplets to a sonnet—signals closure and invites the audience to weigh the merits of each era without resolving the debate.

Readers should attend to how Bax balances the two characters: neither is satirized, and both are given persuasive arguments. The play's brevity (about 7,000 words) and its origin as a private performance suggest an intimate, playful tone. The garden setting, the map, and the rhymed dialogue all contribute to a work that is as much about theatrical artifice as about the contrast between centuries. The sonnet ending leaves the question open, making Square Pegs a light but deliberate meditation on progress and permanence.