Front and back covers

The Big Drum

THE PLAYS OF ARTHUR W. PINERO
Paper cover, 1s. 6d.; cloth, 2s. 6d. each
  • THE TIMES
  • THE PROFLIGATE
  • THE CABINET MINISTER
  • THE HOBBY-HORSE1
  • LADY BOUNTIFUL
  • THE MAGISTRATE
  • DANDY DICK
  • SWEET LAVENDER
  • THE SCHOOLMISTRESS
  • THE WEAKER SEX
  • THE AMAZONS1
  • THE SECOND MRS. TANQUERAY1
  • THE NOTORIOUS MRS. EBBSMITH
  • THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT1
  • THE PRINCESS AND THE BUTTERFLY
  • TRELAWNY OF THE "WELLS"
  • THE GAY LORD QUEX2
  • IRIS
  • LETTY
  • A WIFE WITHOUT A SMILE
  • HIS HOUSE IN ORDER1
  • THE THUNDERBOLT
  • MID-CHANNEL
  • THE "MIND THE PAINT" GIRL
THE PINERO BIRTHDAY BOOK
Selected and Arranged byMYRA HAMILTON
With a Portrait, cloth extra, price 2s. 6d.
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1 This Play can be had in library form, 4to, cloth, with a portrait, 5s.
2 A Limited Edition of this play on hand-made paper, with a new portrait, 10s, net.



The Big Drum
A COMEDY
In Four Acts


By
ARTHUR PINERO


"The desire of fame betrays an ambitious man into indecencies that lessen his reputation; he is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private."
Addison


LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
MCMXV
Copyright 1915, by Arthur Pinero

This play was Produced in London, at the
St. James's Theatre, on Wednesday,
September 1, 1915
PREFACE
The Big Drum is published exactly as it was written, and as it was originally performed. At its first representation, however, the audience was reported to have been saddened by its "unhappy ending." Pressure was forthwith put upon me to reconcile Philip and Ottoline at the finish, and at the third performance of the play the curtain fell upon the picture, violently and crudely brought about, of Ottoline in Philip's arms.
I made the alteration against my principles and against my conscience, and yet not altogether unwillingly. For we live in depressing times; and perhaps in such times it is the first duty of a writer for the stage to make concessions to his audiences and, above everything, to try to afford them a complete, if brief, distraction from the gloom which awaits them outside the theatre.
My excuse for having at the start provided an "unhappy" ending is that I was blind enough not to regard the ultimate break between Philip and Ottoline as really unha                        
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