Peter Grimes

The story takes place in the year 1830 in the Borough, a small town on the East coast of England.

The Prologue is set in the Moot Hall at the inquest held into the death of Peter Grimes’s apprentice. The evidence is inconclusive and the verdict is “died in accidental circumstances”. Grimes is bitter about this verdict since it does not really clear him of the charges and allows people to gossip about him and his possible guilt. Swallow, the coroner, advises Grimes: “Do not get another boy apprentice. Get a fisherman to help you, big enough to stand up for himself”. When the court is cleared, Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress, offers her sympathy and plans a new life for Grimes.

A market place by the sea, a few days later

Ned Keene, the apothecary, has found a new apprentice for Grimes. Balstrode, a retired merchant skipper, and Keene help Grimes to haul out his boat. Ellen goes with Hobson to fetch the apprentice. Balstrode announces the coming storm and when everyone has retired to their own home or to the bar: The Boar, he finds Grimes still working in his hut. Balstrode, like Ellen, suggests a new beginning for Grimes, but Grimes is not willing to take his advice and reveals his plan to marry Ellen, even if he has to “fish the sea dry”.

The Boar the same night

The storm is raging outside. Inside The Boar, everyone is on edge; the situation is not improved first, by the hysterical Mrs.Sedley awaiting her supply of laudanum, second, by the drunken Bob Boles, the Methodist preacher, and third by Grime’s wild entry and poetic utterance which provokes “he’s mad or drunk” from the crowd. At last Ellen arrives with the boy, whom Grimes insists on immediately taking away to his lonely hut.

Sunday morning

Ellen and the new apprentice are on the beach while the morning service is in progress in the parish church. Ellen discovers that the boy’s clothes are torn and that he is bruised. Grimes enters to take the boy fishing and when Ellen argues that it is his holiday, Grimes strikes Ellen and roughly takes the boy with him. The news that “Grimes is at his exercise” soon spreads throughout the Borough and, a party of men set out to investigate.

Peter Grime’s by a steep cliff

Meanwhile Grimes is preparing to go fishing. Just as he is about to set out, he hears a group of men approaching his hut. At that moment, the boy climbs of the cliff and falls to his death. Grimes goes down after him. The party arrives to find a ”neat and empty hut”.

The beach and market place a few nights later

A dance is taking place in the Moot Hall. Everyone appears to have forgotten Grimes except for Mrs. Sedley, who overhears Balstrode tell Ellen that Grimes’s boat is in and that the boy’s jersey has been washed in by the tide. Mrs. Sedley tells Swallow and Hobson, who form a search party to find Grimes.

A few hours later

A thick fog is everywhere; the fog-horn and the cries of the searchers can be heard from a distance. Peter Grimes is exhausted and almost insane. When Ellen and Balstrode discover him in his hut, Balstrode tells him: “Sail out till you lose sight of land, then sink the boat. D’you hear? Sink her! Good-bye Peter”. Grimes follows these orders.

Dawn breaks and the Borough reawakens to life. Swallow mentions a coastguard report that a boat is sinking far out at sea. The matter draws little attention as the people of the Borough carry on with their daily tasks.