Chapter I: Front Matter

FOR LOVE OF THE KING

A BURMESE MASQUE

BY OSCAR WILDE

METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON

_First Published by Methuen & Co. Ltd. in 1922_

_This Edition on handmade paper is limited to 1000 copies_

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The very interesting and richly coloured masque or pantomimic play which is here printed in book form for the first time, was invented sometime in 1894 or possibly a little earlier. It was written, not for publication, but as a personal gift to the author's friend and friend of his family, Mrs. Chan Toon, and was sent to her with the letter that follows and explains its origin.

Mrs. Chan Toon, before her marriage to Mr. Chan Toon, a Burmese gentleman, nephew of the King of Burma and a barrister of the Middle Temple, was Miss Mabel Cosgrove, the daughter of Mr. Ernest Cosgrove of Lancaster Gate, a friend of Sir William and Lady Wilde, and herself brought up with Oscar and his brother Willie.

For a long while Mrs. Chan Toon, who after her husband's death became Mrs. Woodhouse-Pearse, refused to permit the masque to be printed. The late Robert Ross much wanted to include it in an edition of Wilde's works, of which it now forms a part, but he could not obtain its owner's consent. An arrangement, however, having been completed, the play is now made public.

TITE STREET, CHELSEA,
_November_ 27, 1894

_My dear Mrs. Chan Toon_,

_I am greatly repentant being so long in acknowledging receipt of_
"_Told on the Pagoda_." _I enjoyed reading the stories_, _and much
admired their quaint and delicate charm_. _Burmah calls to me_.

_Under another cover I am sending you a fairy play entitled_ "_For
Love of the King_," _just for your own amusement_. _It is the outcome
of long and luminous talks with your distinguished husband in the
Temple and on the river_, _in the days when I was meditating writing a
novel as beautiful and as intricate as a Persian praying-rug_. _I
hope that I have caught the atmosphere_.

_I should like to see it acted in your Garden House on some night when
the sky is a sheet of violet and the stars like women's eyes_. _Alas_,
_it is not likely_.

_I am in the throes of a new comedy_. _I met a perfectly wonderful
person the other day who unconsciously has irradiated my present with
sinuous suggestion_: _a Swedish Baron_, _French in manner_, _Athenian
in mind_, _and Oriental in morals_. _His society is a series of
revelations_. . . .

_I was at Oakley Street on Thursday_; _my mother tells me she sends
you a letter nearly every week_.

_Constance desires to be warmly remembered_, _while I_, _who am
bathing my brow in the perfume of water-lilies_, _lay myself at the
feet of you and yours_.

_OSCAR WILDE_

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY

KING MENG BENG (_Lord of a Thousand White Elephants_, _Countless Umbrellas and other attributes of greatness_).

U. RAI GYAN THOO (_A Prime Minister_).

SHAH MAH PHRU (_A Girl_, _half Italian_, _half Burmese_, _of dazzling beauty_).

DHAMMATHAT (_Legal Adviser to the Court_).

HIP LOONG (_A Chinese Wizard of great repute_).

MOUNG PHO MHIN (_Minister of Finance_).

TWO ENVOYS FROM THE KING OF CEYLON.

NOBLES, COURTIERS, SOOTHSAYERS, POONYGEES, DANCING GIRLS, BETEL-NUT CARRIERS, UMBRELLA BEARERS, FOLLOWERS, SERVANTS, SLAVES, amongst whom are several CHINESE but no INDIANS.

TIME: _The Sixteenth Century_.