Produced by David Edwards, Ernest Schaal and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain material produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) COMIC TRAGEDIES Jo and Meg [Illustration: JO AND MEG. COPIES OF EARLY DAGUERREOTYPES. "It was at this period of her life that she was violently attacked by a mania for the stage, and writing and enacting dramas. Her older sister, Anna, had the same taste, and assisted her in carrying out all her plans." _Mrs. Cheney's Life of Louisa M. Alcott._] COMIC TRAGEDIES WRITTEN BY "JO" AND "MEG" AND ACTED BY THE "LITTLE WOMEN" BOSTON ROBERTS BROTHERS 1893 _Copyright, 1893_, By Anna B. Pratt. University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. CONTENTS. Page A Foreword, by Meg . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Norna; or, The Witch's Curse . . . . . . . . 17 The Captive of Castile; or, The Moorish Maiden's Vow . . . . . . . . . . . 97 The Greek Slave . . . . . . . . . . 149 Ion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Bianca: an Operatic Tragedy . . . . . . . 261 The Unloved Wife; or, Woman's Faith . . . . . 279 A FOREWORD BY MEG. In the good old times, when "Little Women" worked and played together, the big garret was the scene of many dramatic revels. After a long day of teaching, sewing, and "helping mother," the greatest delight of the girls was to transform themselves into queens, knights, and cavaliers of high degree, and ascend into a world of fancy and romance. Cinderella's godmother waved her wand, and the dismal room became a fairy-land. Flowers bloomed, forests arose, music sounded, and lovers exchanged their vows by moonlight. Nothing was too ambitious to attempt; armor, gondolas, harps, towers, and palaces grew as if by magic, and wonderful scenes of valor and devotion were enacted before admiring audiences.