THE MODERN DRAMA SERIES EDITED BY EDWIN BJÖRKMAN THE GODS OF THE MOUNTAIN : THE GOLDEN DOOM : KING ARGIMENES AND THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR : THE GLITTERING GATE : THE LOST SILK HAT : BY LORD DUNSANY FIVE PLAYS THE GODS OF THE MOUNTAIN THE GOLDEN DOOM KING ARGIMENES AND THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR THE GLITTERING GATE THE LOST SILK HAT BY LORD DUNSANY BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1922 _Copyright_, 1914, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY _All Dramatic rights reserved by the Author_ These plays are fully protected by the copyright law, all requirements of which have been complied with. In their present printed form they are dedicated to the reading public only, and no performance of them, either professional or amateur, may be given without the written permission of the owner of the acting rights, who may be addressed in care of the publishers, Little, Brown, and Company. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PLAYS xiii THE GODS OF THE MOUNTAIN 1 THE GOLDEN DOOM 39 KING ARGIMNS AND THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR 61 THE GLITTERING GATE 87 THE LOST SILK HAT 101 INTRODUCTION Observation and imagination are the basic principles of all poetry. It is impossible to conceive a poetical work from which one of them is wholly absent. Observation without imagination makes for obviousness; imagination without observation turns into nonsense. What marks the world's greatest poetry is perhaps the presence in almost equal proportion of both these principles. But as a rule we find one of them predominating, and from this one-sided emphasis the poetry of the period derives its character as realistic or idealistic. The poetry of the middle nineteenth century made a fetish of observation. It came as near excluding imagination as it could without ceasing entirely to be poetry. That such exaggeration should sooner or later result in a sharp reaction was natural. The change began during the eighties and gathered full headway in the early nineties. Imagination, so long scorned, came into its rights once more, and it is rapidly becoming the dominant note in the literary production of our own day. The new movement has been called "neo-romantic" and "symbolistic." Both these names apply, but neither of them exhausts the contents or meaning of the movement which received its first impetus from Ibsen and which later found its typical embodiment in Maeterlinck. From this movement came much of the inspiration that produced the poetical re-birth of Ireland out of which has sprung the man whom I have now the pleasure of introducing to American readers: a man with imagination as elfish as moonlight mist.