The King's Threshold: “Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.”
By W B Yeats
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About this ebook
William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) is best described as Ireland’s national poet in addition to being one of the major twentieth-century literary figures of the English tongue. To many literary critics, Yeats represents the ‘Romantic poet of modernism,’ which is quite revealing about his extraordinary style that combines between the outward emphasis on the expression of emotions and the extensive use of symbolism, imagery and allusions. Yeats also wrote prose and drama and established himself as the spokesman of the Irish cause. His fame was greatly boosted mainly after he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. His life was marked by his many love stories, by his great interest in oriental mysticism and occultism as well as by political engagement since he served as an Irish senator for two terms. Today, although William Butler Yeats’s contribution to literary modernism and to Irish nationalism remains incontestable. Here we publish a one of his renowned plays that show just why his works are held in such esteem.
W B Yeats
William Butler Yeats was born in 1865 in County Dublin. With his much-loved early poems such as 'The Stolen Child', and 'He Remembers Forgotten Beauty', he defined the Celtic Twilight mood of the late-Victorian period and led the Irish Literary Renaissance. Yet his style evolved constantly, and he is acknowledged as a major figure in literary modernism and twentieth-century European letters. T. S. Eliot described him as 'one of those few whose history is the history of their own time, who are part of the consciousness of an age which cannot be understood without them'. W. B. Yeats died in 1939.
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The King's Threshold - W B Yeats
The King's Threshold by W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) was born in Dublin, educated both there and in London.
He is best described as Ireland’s national poet in addition to being one of the major twentieth-century literary figures of the English tongue. To many literary critics, Yeats represents the ‘Romantic poet of modernism’ – an extraordinary style that combines the outward emphasis on the expression of emotions and the extensive use of symbolism, imagery and allusions.
Yeats also wrote extensively for prose and drama and established himself as the spokesman of the Irish cause.
His fame was greatly boosted after he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.
Yeat’s life was marked by his many love stories, by his great interest in oriental mysticism and occultism as well as by political engagement; he served as an Irish senator for two terms.
Today William Butler Yeats’s contribution to literary modernism and to Irish nationalism remains incontestable.
Here we publish a one of his renowned plays that show just why his works are held in such esteem.
Index Of Contents
Note
List Of Characters
A Prologue
The King’s Threshold
W.B. Yeats – A Short Biography
NOTE
Written for Mr. Fay’s Irish National Theatre
, The King’s Threshold
was played in October, 1903. Founded on Old Irish Prose Romances, but I have borrowed some ideas for the arrangement of my subject in The King’s Threshold
from Sancan the Bard,
a play published by Mr. Edwin Ellis some ten years ago.
W. B. Y.
LIST OF CHARACTERS
KING GUAIRE.
THE CHAMBERLAIN OF KING GUAIRE.
A Soldier.
A Monk.
THE MAYOR OF KINVARA.
A Cripple.
Another Cripple.
AILEEN, } Ladies of the Court.
ESSA, }
PRINCESS BUAN.
PRINCESS FINNHUA, her Sister.
FEDELM, Seanchan’s Sweetheart.
CIAN, } Servants of Seanchan.
BRIAN, }
SENIAS, } Pupils of Seanchan.
ARIAS, }
SEANCHAN (pronounced Shanahan), Chief Poet of Ireland.
Pupils, Courtiers.
A PROLOGUE.[1]
An OLD MAN with a red dressing-gown, red slippers and red nightcap, holding a brass candlestick with a guttering candle in it, comes on from side of stage and goes in front of the dull green curtain.
Old Man. I’ve got to speak the prologue. [He shuffles on a few steps.] My nephew, who is one of the play actors, came to me, and I in my bed, and my prayers said, and the candle put out, and he told me there were so many characters in this new play, that all the company were in it, whether they had been long or short at the business, and that there wasn’t one left to speak the prologue. Wait a bit, there’s a draught here. [He pulls the curtain closer together.] That’s better. And that’s why I’m here, and maybe I’m a fool for my pains.
And my nephew said, there are a good many plays to be played for you, some to-night and some on other nights through the winter, and the most of