The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays
Produced by William Boerst, Andre Lapierre and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Edited with Introduction, Comment and Annotated Bibliography
by Sterling Andrus Leonard
Department of English The University of Wisconsin and The Wisconsin High School
The Atlantic Monthly Press Boston
The rights of production of these plays are in every case reserved by the authors or their representatives. No play can be given publicly without an individual arrangement. The law does not, of course, prevent their reading in classrooms or their production before an audience of a school or invited guests where no fee is charged; but it is, naturally, more courteous to ask permission.
1921
The Atlantic Monthly Press
First impression, December, 1921 Second impression, April, 1922 Third impression, October, 1922
Printed in the United States of America
THE PHILOSOPHER OF BUTTERBIGGENS Harold Chapin
Unknown
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THE ATLANTIC BOOK
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION: ON THE READING OF PLAYS
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION IN READING THE PLAYS
NOTES ON THE DRAMAS AND THE DRAMATISTS
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION: ON THE READING OF PLAYS
THE PHILOSOPHER OF BUTTERBIGGENS[1]
SPREADING THE NEWS[1]
THE BEGGAR AND THE KING[1]
TIDES[1]
ILE
CAMPBELL OF KILMHOR[1]
THE SUN[1]
SCENE: A GIRL sits crouched over her knees on a stile close to a river. A MAN with a silver badge stands beside her clutching the worn top plank. THE GIRL'S level brows are drawn together; her eyes see her memories. THE MAN'S eyes see THE GIRL; he has a dark, twisted face. The bright sun shines; the quiet river flows; the cuckoo is calling; the mayflower is in bloom along the hedge that ends in the stile on the towing-path.
THE KNAVE OF HEARTS[1]
FAME AND THE POET[1]
THE CAPTAIN OF THE GATE[1]
SCENE: In the cheerless hour before the dawn of a wet spring morning five gentlemen-troopers of the broken Royalist army, fagged and outworn with three long days of siege, are holding, with what strength and courage are left them, the Gatehouse of the Bridge of Cashala, which is the key to the road that leads into Connaught. The upper chamber of the Gatehouse, in which they make their stand, is a narrow, dim-lit apartment, built of stone. At one side is a small fireplace, and beside it a narrow, barred door, which leads to the stairhead. At the end of the room, gained by a single raised step, are three slit-like windows, breast-high, designed, as now used, for defense in time of war. The room is meagrely furnished, with a table on which are powder-flask, touch-box, etc., for charging guns, a stool or two, and an open keg of powder. The whole look of the place, bare and martial, but depressed, bespeaks a losing fight. On the hearth the ashes of a fire are white, and on the chimneypiece a brace of candles are guttering out.
GETTYSBURG[1]
SCENE: A woodshed, in the ell of a farm-house.
LONESOME-LIKE[1]
RIDERS TO THE SEA[1]
THE LAND OF HEART'S DESIRE[1]
THE RIDING TO LITHEND[1]
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION IN READING THE PLAYS
NOTES ON THE DRAMAS AND THE DRAMATISTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PLAYS FOR READING IN HIGH SCHOOLS
BOOKS ABOUT THE THEATRE, MARIONETTES AND CHILDREN'S PLAYS
AS TO PLAYS AND DRAMATIZATION IN SCHOOL