Front matter
Reading edition
DIMINUTIVE DRAMAS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
DEAD LETTERS
“This is one of those rare and delightful books, in which the reader is invited to smile rather than to laugh, and to think even when he is most amused.”—The Globe.
“Many a tired mind will find in this volume refreshing stimulus.”—The Observer.
“Surely the ease, the irony, and the mere humour of this will be very grateful to any mind that values those gifts.”—The Outlook.
“Altogether stimulating and delightful.”—The Daily Express.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston.
DIMINUTIVE
DRAMAS
BY
MAURICE BARING
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1911
These “Diminutive Dramas” first appeared in the Morning Post and are reprinted here by the courtesy of the Editor.
DEDICATED
TO
A. I.
WHOSE UNWRITTEN CHRONICLES ARE BETTER THAN BOOKS
AND
WHOSE UNPREMEDITATED SUGGESTION HITS A TARGET
BEYOND THE REACH OF ARTISTS
AND THE KEN OF CRITICS
CONTENTS
PAGE
1. Catherine Parr 1
2. The Drawback 12
3. Pious Æneas 23
4. The Death of Alexander 33
5. The Greek Vase 41
6. The Fatal Rubber 51
7. The Rehearsal 62
8. The Blue Harlequin 76
9. The Member for Literature 88
10. Caligula’s Picnic 98
11. The Aulis Difficulty 108
12. Don Juan’s Failure 119
13. Calpurnia’s Dinner-Party 129
14. Lucullus’s Dinner-Party 138
15. The Stoic’s Daughter 149
16. After Euripides’ “Electra” 160
17. Jason and Medea 171
18. King Alfred and the Neat-Herd 181
19. Rosamund and Eleanor 189
20. Ariadne in Naxos 198
21. Velasquez and the “Venus” 207
22. Xantippe and Socrates 216