G. P. Putnam's Sons
London & New York
MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN
First printed December, 1922
Limited Edition: Five Hundred Copies only
Printed by the
BOTOLPH PRINTING WORKS
GATE ST., KINGSWAY, W.C.2
The Gods of Pegana
Time and the Gods
The Sword of Welleran
A Dreamer's Tales
The Book of Wonder
Five Plays
Fifty-one Tales
Tales of Wonder
Plays of Gods and Men
Tales of War
Unhappy Far-off Things
Tales of Three Hemispheres
If
The Chronicles of Rodriguez
Believing plays to be solely for the stage, I have never before allowedany of mine to be printed until they had first faced from a stage thejudgment of an audience, to see if they were entitled to be called playsat all. A successful production also has been sometimes a moral supportto me when some critic has said, as for instance of "A Night at an Inn,"that though it reads passably it could never act.
But in this book I have made an exception to this good rule (as it seemsto me), and that exception is "The Flight of the Queen." I know toolittle of managers and theatres to know what to do with it, and have afeeling that it will be long before it is ever acted, and am too fond ofthis play to leave it in obscurity. This beautiful story has been lyingabout the world for countless centuries, without ever having beendramatized. It is the story of a royal court, which I have merelyadapted to the stage. The date that I have given is accurate; ithappened in June; and happens every June; perhaps in some corner of thereader's garden. It is the story of the bees.
As for "The Compromise of the King of the Golden Isles," it is just thesort of play through which those that hunt for allegories might huntmerrily, unless I mention that there are no allegories in any of myplays.
An allegory I take to be a dig at something local and limited, such aspolitics, while outwardly appearing to tell of things on some higherplane. But, far from being the chef d'œuvre of some ponderouslyprofound thinker, I look on the allegory, if I have rightly defined it,as being the one form of art that is narrowly limited in its applicationto life. When the man whose cause it championed has been electedalderman, when the esplanade has been widened, or the town betterlighted or drained, the allegory's work must necessarily be over; butthe truth of all other works of art is manifold and should be eternal.
Though there is no such land as the Golden Isles and was never any suchking as Hamaran, yet all that we write with sincerity is true, for wecan reflect nothing that we have not seen, and this we interpret withour idiosyncracies when we attempt any form of art.
I set some store by the way in which the three lines about Zarabardesare recited, though it is hard to explain in writing a matter of rhythm.But the heartlessness of it can be indicated by a clear pronunciation ofthe syllables, as though the people that utter these words had long beendrilled in a formula.
The third play, "Cheezo," tells of one of those rare occasions when itis perm