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For Love of the King

Oscar Wilde

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Section 1 of 5

Transcribed from the [1922] Methuen and Co./Jarrold and Sons edition by
David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org





FOR
LOVE OF THE KING


A BURMESE MASQUE

BY
OSCAR WILDE

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON

_First Published by Methuen & Co. Ltd. in 1922_

_This Edition on handmade paper is limited to 1000 copies_




INTRODUCTORY NOTE


The very interesting and richly coloured masque or pantomimic play which
is here printed in book form for the first time, was invented sometime in
1894 or possibly a little earlier.  It was written, not for publication,
but as a personal gift to the author's friend and friend of his family,
Mrs. Chan Toon, and was sent to her with the letter that follows and
explains its origin.

Mrs. Chan Toon, before her marriage to Mr. Chan Toon, a Burmese
gentleman, nephew of the King of Burma and a barrister of the Middle
Temple, was Miss Mabel Cosgrove, the daughter of Mr. Ernest Cosgrove of
Lancaster Gate, a friend of Sir William and Lady Wilde, and herself
brought up with Oscar and his brother Willie.

For a long while Mrs. Chan Toon, who after her husband's death became
Mrs. Woodhouse-Pearse, refused to permit the masque to be printed.  The
late Robert Ross much wanted to include it in an edition of Wilde's
works, of which it now forms a part, but he could not obtain its owner's
consent.  An arrangement, however, having been completed, the play is now
made public.

   TITE STREET, CHELSEA,
   _November_ 27, 1894

   _My dear Mrs. Chan Toon_,

   _I am greatly repentant being so long in acknowledging receipt of_
   "_Told on the Pagoda_."  _I enjoyed reading the stories_, _and much
   admired their quaint and delicate charm_.  _Burmah calls to me_.

   _Under another cover I am sending you a fairy play entitled_ "_For
   Love of the King_," _just for your own amusement_.  _It is the outcome
   of long and luminous talks with your distinguished husband in the
   Temple and on the river_, _in the days when I was meditating writing a
   novel as beautiful and as intricate as a Persian praying-rug_.  _I
   hope that I have caught the atmosphere_.

   _I should like to see it acted in your Garden House on some night when
   the sky is a sheet of violet and the stars like women's eyes_.  _Alas_,
   _it is not likely_.

   _I am in the throes of a new comedy_.  _I met a perfectly wonderful
   person the other day who unconsciously has irradiated my present with
   sinuous suggestion_: _a Swedish Baron_, _French in manner_, _Athenian
   in mind_, _and Oriental in morals_.  _His society is a series of
   revelations_. . . .

   _I was at Oakley Street on Thursday_; _my mother tells me she sends
   you a letter nearly every week_.

   _Constance desires to be warmly remembered_, _while I_, _who am
   bathing my brow in the perfume of water-lilies_, _lay myself at the
   feet of you and yours_.

   _OSCAR WILDE_




PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY


KING MENG BENG (_Lord of a Thousand White Elephants_, _Countless
Umbrellas and other attributes of greatness_).

U. RAI GYAN THOO (_A Prime Minister_).

SHAH MAH PHRU (_A Girl_, _half Italian_, _half Burmese_, _of dazzling
beauty_).

DHAMMATHAT (_Legal Adviser to the Court_).

HIP LOONG (_A Chinese Wizard of great repute_).

MOUNG PHO MHIN (_Minister of Finance_).

TWO ENVOYS FROM THE KING OF CEYLON.

NOBLES, COURTIERS, SOOTHSAYERS, POONYGEES, DANCING GIRLS, BETEL-NUT
CARRIERS, UMBRELLA BEARERS, FOLLOWERS, SERVANTS, SLAVES, amongst whom are
several CHINESE but no INDIANS.

TIME: _The Sixteenth Century_.




ACT I


SCENE I


_The palace of the_ KING OF BURMAH.  _The scene is laid in the Hall of a
Hundred Doors_.  _In the distance can be seen the moat_, _the waiting
elephants_, _and the peacocks promenading proudly in the blinding
sunshine of late afternoon_.  _The scene discovers_ KING MENG BENG
_seated on a raised cushion sewn with rubies_, _under a canopy supported
by four attendants_, _motionless as bronze figures_.  _By his side is a
betel-nut box_, _glittering with gems_.  _On either side of him_, _but
much lower down_, _are the_ TWO AMBASSADORS OF THE KING OF CEYLON,
_bearers of the King of Ceylon's consent to the marriage of his only
daughter to Meng Beng in two years' time_, _men of grave_, _majestic
mien_, _clad in flowing robes almost monastic in their white simplicity_.
_They smoke gravely at the invitation of_ MENG BENG.

_Round about are grouped the courtiers_, _the poonygees_, _and the
kneeling servants_, _while in the background wait the dancing girls_.
_Banners_, _propelled with a measured rhythm_, _create an agreeable
breeze_.  _On a great table of gold stand goblets of gold and heaped-up
fruits_.  _Everywhere will be observed the emblems of the Royal Peacock
and the Sacred White Elephant_.  _Burmese musical instruments sound an
abrupt but charming discord_.  _The poinsettias flower punctuates points
of deepest colour from out of vases fashioned like the lotus_.  _Orchids
are everywhere_.  _The indescribable scent of Burmah steals across the
footlights_.  _The glow_, _the colour_, _the sun-swept vista sweeps
across the senses_.  THE KING _claps his hands_.  _The_ DANCING GIRLS,
_at the signal_, _advance_.  _They are clad in dresses made of fish
scales_, _which are fastened with diamonds and pale emeralds_, _to
imitate the upthrown spray on the crest of a wave_.  _The dance
concluded_, _the_ CINGALESE AMBASSADORS _rise and prepare to take
ceremonious leave of_ THE KING, _who hands to them_, _through his_
VIZIER, _his message to His Majesty of Ceylon_, _inscribed on palm leaves
and enclosed in a bejewelled casket_.

_Many flowery speeches pass_.  _Exit_ (_L._), _walking backwards_.

THE KING _expresses a desire for rest before starting by the Moon of
Taboung _{4} _for the Pagoda of Golden Flowers_.

_Exit_ MENG BENG (_C._), _an alcove of satin hangings which commands a
view of the great hall_.

_The Crowd break up into groups_.  U. RAI GYAN THOO _and_ MOUNG PHO MHIN
_converse on the tendency of the King to interference in affairs of
State_; _his extreme youth and delicacy of temperament_; _the pity that
the marriage is to be so long delayed_; _the necessity to find him some
distraction in the meantime_.

_Suddenly the tom-toms sound loudly_.  _There is much movement_.  _The
moon rises over the sea_.  _Torches flare as the attendants move to and
fro in the gardens beyond_.

_The White Elephant of the King_, _with its trappings of gold_, _is led
to the entrance where_, _at a word_, _it sinks obediently to the ground_.

THE KING _appears_.  _He has changed his gay apple-green dress to one of
more sombre hue_.  _He enters the howdah_--_the elephant rises_--_the
procession starts_.  _It consists of not fewer than two hundred persons_,
_keeping in view of the audience until lost by a bend in the avenue_.

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