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    Magic - A Fantastic Comedy in a Prelude and Three Acts
    Magic - A Fantastic Comedy in a Prelude and Three Acts
    Magic - A Fantastic Comedy in a Prelude and Three Acts
    Ebook60 pages50 minutes

    Magic - A Fantastic Comedy in a Prelude and Three Acts

    By G. K. Chesterton

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    About this ebook

    This early work by G. K. Chesterton was originally published in 1913. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London in 1874. He studied at the Slade School of Art, and upon graduating began to work as a freelance journalist. Over the course of his life, his literary output was incredibly diverse and highly prolific, ranging from philosophy and ontology to art criticism and detective fiction. However, he is probably best-remembered for his Christian apologetics, most notably in Orthodoxy (1908) and The Everlasting Man (1925). We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateMar 31, 2016
    ISBN9781473369405
    Magic - A Fantastic Comedy in a Prelude and Three Acts
    Author

    G. K. Chesterton

    G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) was a prolific English journalist and author best known for his mystery series featuring the priest-detective Father Brown and for the metaphysical thriller The Man Who Was Thursday. Baptized into the Church of England, Chesterton underwent a crisis of faith as a young man and became fascinated with the occult. He eventually converted to Roman Catholicism and published some of Christianity’s most influential apologetics, including Heretics and Orthodoxy. 

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      Book preview

      Magic - A Fantastic Comedy in a Prelude and Three Acts - G. K. Chesterton

      1.png

      Magic

      A Fantastic Comedy

      By

      G. K. Chesterton

      Copyright © 2016 Read Books Ltd.

      This book is copyright and may not be

      reproduced or copied in any way without

      the express permission of the publisher in writing

      British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      G. K. Chesterton

      Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London in 1874. He studied at the Slade School of Art, and upon graduating began to work as a freelance journalist. By 1905, he had a regular and popular column with the Illustrated London News, and began to write on an array of topics. Over the course of his life, his literary output was incredibly diverse and highly prolific, ranging from philosophy and ontology to art criticism and detective fiction. However, he is probably best-remembered for his Christian apologetics, most notably in Orthodoxy (1908) and The Everlasting Man (1925). George Bernard Shaw dubbed Chesterton a man of colossal genius, and of his fiction Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges said Chesterton knew how to make the most of a detective story. Chesterton died in 1936, aged 62.

      THE CHARACTERS

      The Duke

      Doctor Grimthorpe

      The Rev. Cyril Smith

      Morris Carleon

      Hastings, the Duke’s Secretary

      The Stranger

      Patricia Carleon

      The action takes place in the Duke’s Drawing-room.

      NOTE

      This play was presented under the management of Kenelm Foss at The Little Theatre, London, on November 7, 1913, with the following cast:

      The Stranger

      Franklin Dyall

      Patricia Carleon

      Miss Grace Croft

      The Rev. Cyril Smith     

      O.P. Heggie

      Dr. Grimthorpe

      William Farren

      The Duke

      Fred Lewis

      Hastings

      Frank Randell

      Morris Carleon

      Lyonel Watts

      THE PRELUDE

      Scene: A plantation of thin young trees, in a misty and rainy twilight; some woodland blossom showing the patches on the earth between the stems.

      The Stranger is discovered, a cloaked figure with a pointed hood. His costume might belong to modern or any other time, and the conical hood is so drawn over the head that little can be seen of the face.

      A distant voice, a woman’s, is heard, half-singing, half-chanting, unintelligible words. The cloaked figure raises its head and listens with interest. The song draws nearer and Patricia Carleon enters. She is dark and slight, and has a dreamy expression. Though she is artistically dressed, her hair is a little wild. She has a broken branch of some flowering tree in her hand. She does not notice the stranger, and though he has watched her with interest, makes no sign. Suddenly she perceives him and starts back.

      Patricia. Oh! Who are you?

      Stranger. Ah! Who am I? [Commences to mutter to himself, and maps out the ground with his staff.]

      I have a hat, but not to wear; I wear a sword, but not to slay, And ever in my bag I bear A pack of cards, but not to play.

      Patricia. What are you? What are you saying?

      Stranger. It is the language of the fairies, O daughter of Eve.

      Patricia. But I never thought fairies were like you. Why, you are taller than I am.

      Stranger. We are of such stature as we will. But the elves grow small, not large, when they would mix with mortals.

      Patricia. You mean they are beings greater than we are.

      Stranger. Daughter of men, if you would see a fairy as he truly is, look for his head above all the stars and his feet amid the floors of the sea. Old women have taught you that the fairies are too small to be seen. But I tell you the fairies are too mighty to be seen. For they are the elder gods before whom the giants were like pigmies. They are the Elemental Spirits, and any one of them is larger than the world. And you look for them in acorns and on toadstools and wonder that you never see them.

      Patricia. But you come in the shape and size of a man?

      Stranger. Because I would speak with a woman.

      Patricia. [Drawing back in awe.] I think you

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