Diminutive dramas by Maurice Baring
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"Diminutive dramas" by Maurice Baring is a collection of short comic plays written in the early 20th century. Sprightly, parodic, and urbane, the pieces recast history, myth, literature, and everyday manners into brisk one-act dialogues with ironic twists. Expect quibbling monarchs, punctured heroics, and theatrical in-jokes as classical figures and modern types collide in miniature stage scenes. The opening of the collection presents a rapid suite of sketches: Henry VIII and Catherine
Parr bicker over boiled eggs and the color of Bucephalus until a death sentence is issued and un-issued; a Kensington romance founders when a suitor’s “drawback” (his father is the hangman) is eclipsed by the heroine’s pique over his former crushes; Dido confronts Æneas as he blames destiny for abandoning her; and a mock-Elizabethan tragedy narrates Alexander’s death in high-flown pastiche. Next, a dying sculptor refuses a predatory dealer and smashes his own “Greek” masterpiece; the French royal family’s card game devolves into squabbling that tips the king into madness; a shambolic Globe rehearsal of Macbeth shows actors browbeating the playwright; and a misty, Maeterlinck-like pantomime sees Harlequin spirit Columbine away while a befogged constable nabs the wrong man. These first pieces set the tone: swift setups, sharp dialogue, and comic reversals that lampoon vanity, pedantry, and theatrical pretensions. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Baring, Maurice, 1874-1945 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 29004508 |
| Title | Diminutive dramas |
| Original Publication | BOSTON: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911. |
| Note | Reprinted from the Morning Post. |
| Contents | Catherine Parr -- The drawback -- Pious Æneas -- The death of Alexander -- The Greek vase -- The fatal rubber -- The rehearsal -- The blue Harlequin -- The Member for Literature -- Caligula's picnic -- The Aulis difficulty -- Don Juan's failure -- Calpurnia's dinner-party -- Lucullus's dinner-party -- The stoic's daughter -- After Euripides' "Electra" -- Jason and Medea -- King Alfred and the neat-herd -- Rosamund and Eleanor -- Ariadne in Naxos -- Velasquez and the "Venus" -- Xantippe and Socrates. |
| Credits | Dori Allard and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | English drama -- 20th century |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77668 |
| Release Date | Jan 10, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 234 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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