[5]

Possession

[6]

Uniform with this Volume

Angels & Ministers: Three Plays
of Victorian Shade & Character
by Laurence Housman

[7]

Possession

A Peep-Show in Paradise

by Laurence Housman

Jonathan Cape

Eleven Gower Street, London

[8]

First published in a
limited edition of 500
numbered copies only
for sale Oct. 1921.
Popular Edition, Jan.
1922
All rights reserved

[9]

Introduction

This play—originally intended to form part ofAngels and Ministers—was separated on an after-thoughtas a concession to those who do not like tohave their politics and their religion mixed. And,as the Victorian age was eminently successful inkeeping the two apart, it is 'in keeping,' in anothersense, with the Victorianism of the religion hereportrayed that it should make its appearance under aseparate cover.

As some of my critics seem anxious to trace the inspirationof these Victorian plays to an outside source,and are divided, as regards the historical section,between the Abraham Lincoln of Mr. John Drinkwaterand the Queen Victoria of Mr. Lytton Strachey,may I assure them that my historical method oftreating Kings and Queens 'intimately' was derivedfrom my own play Pains and Penalties, publishedin 1911, and that my anthropomorphic theology isbased upon the first book I ever wrote, Gods and theirMakers, published in 1897. I do not think thatPossession owes anything either to Cranford or thewritings of Mrs. Humphry Ward.

[10]

Dramatis Personæ