PROGRAM
| THE PERSONS: |
| The Princess. The Attendant. The Slaves. The Wazir [her guardian]. The Vizier. The Nubian. The Shepherd. The Goat. Ghurri-wurri. The Maker of Sounds. |
The Shepherd in the Distance is published for the first time. The editors are indebted to Mr. Holland Hudson for permission to include it in this volume. The professional and amateur stage rights on this pantomime are strictly reserved by the author. Applications for permission to produce the pantomime should be made to Frank Shay, Care Stewart & Kidd Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.
THE ACTION:
I. The Princess beholds The Shepherd in the Distance and goes in quest of him.
II. Ghurri-Wurri, enraged by the Princess' meager alms, swears vengeance.
III. He reveals her destination to the Wazir.
IV. Pursuit ensues.
V. The Princess meets The Shepherd in the Distance. Her capture is averted by the faithful Goat.
VI. The Goat's long head evolves a means of rescuing The Shepherd from the cruel Wazir.
VII. The Princess joins The Shepherd in the Distance.
THE STORY.[1]
Of the Princess, we know only that she was fair and slender as the lily, that somehow the fat and stupid Wazir became her guardian, and that he neglected her utterly and played chess eternally in the garden with his almost-equally-stupid Vizier. Is it any wonder she was bored?
One afternoon the Princess called for her ivory telescope, and, placing it to her eye, sought relief from the deadly ennui which her guardian caused. In the Distance she discerned a Shepherd, playing upon his pipe for the dancing of his favorite Goat. While he played the Princess marveled at his comeliness. She had never seen before a man so pleasing in face and person. At the end of his tune it seemed to her that the Shepherd turned and beckoned to her. She dared watch him no longer, lest her guardian observe her.
When the Wazir, the Vizier and the Nubian were deep in their afternoon siesta, the Princess stole out of the garden with her personal retinue and her small, but precious hope chests, and set forth toward the Distance.
Now on the highway between the foreground and the Distance lived a wretched and worthless beggar who had even lost his name and was called Ghurri-Wurri because he looked absolutely as miserable as that. He pretended to be blind and wore dark spectacles. The greatest affliction of his life was that his dark spectacles prevented him from inspecting the coins that fell in his palm, and he received more than his share of leaden counterfeits.