Chapter XXXII: Part 32

_8vo. Silk Cloth, Gilt Top_ _Net_ $3.00

Portmanteau Plays

BY STUART WALKER
Edited and with an Introduction by EDWARD HALE BIERSTADT

This volume contains four One Act Plays by the inventor and director of the Portmanteau Theater. They are all included in the regular repertory of the Theater and the four contained in this volume comprise in themselves an evening's bill.

There is also an Introduction by Edward Hale Bierstadt on the Portmanteau Theater in theory and practice.

The book is illustrated by pictures taken from actual presentations of the plays.

The first play, the "=Trimplet=", deals with the search for a certain magic thing called a trimplet which can cure all the ills of whoever finds it. The search and the finding constitute the action of the piece.

Second play, "=Six who Pass While the Lentils Boil=", is perhaps the most popular in Mr. Walker's repertory. The story is of a Queen who, having stepped on the ring-toe of the King's great-aunt, is condemned to die before the clock strikes twelve. The Six who pass the pot in which boil the lentils are on their way to the execution.

Next comes "=Nevertheless=", which tells of a burglar who oddly enough reaches regeneration through two children and a dictionary.

And last of all is the "=Medicine-Show=", which is a character study situated on the banks of the Mississippi. One does not see either the Show or the Mississippi, but the characters are so all sufficient that one does not miss the others.

All of these plays are fanciful--symbolic if you like--but all of them have a very distinct raison d'etre in themselves, quite apart from any ulterior meaning.

With Mr. Walker it is always "the story first," and herein he is at one with Lord Dunsany and others of his ilk. The plays have body, force, and beauty always; and if the reader desires to read in anything else surely that is his privilege.

Each play, and even the Theater itself has a prologue, and with the help of these one is enabled to pass from one charming tale to the next without a break in the continuity.

_With five full-page illustrations on cameo paper._
_12mo. Silk cloth_ $2.50

_More Portmanteau Plays_

BY STUART WALKER
Edited and with an Introduction by EDWARD HALE BIERSTADT

The thorough success of the volume entitled "=Portmanteau Plays=" has encouraged the publication of a second series under the title "=More Portmanteau Plays=". This continuation carries on the work begun in the first book, and contains "=The Lady of the Weeping Willow Tree=", one of the finest and most effective pieces Stuart Walker has presented under his own name; "=The Very Naked Boy=", a slight, whimsical, and wholly delightful bit of foolery; "=Jonathan Makes a Wish=", a truly strong three-act work with an appeal of unusual vigor.

_With Six full page illustrations on Cameo Paper._
_12mo. Silk cloth_ $2.00

TO BE PUBLISHED IN 1920

_Portmanteau Adaptations_

BY STUART WALKER
Edited and with an Introduction by EDWARD HALE BIERSTADT

The third volume of the Portmanteau Series includes three of Stuart Walker's most successful plays which are either adapted from or based on works by other authors. The first is the ever wonderful "=Gammer Gurton's Needle=", written some hundreds of years ago and now arranged for the use of the modern theater goer. Next comes, "=The Birthday of the Infanta=" from the poignant story of Oscar Wilde (used also by Alfred Noyes in one of his most effective poems), and last of all the widely popular "=Seventeen=" from the story of the same name by Booth Tarkington.

_12mo. Silk cloth_ _Net_, $2.50

* * * * *

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:

1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.

2. Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.

3. Misprints in character names have been silently corrected.

4. Punctuation has been normalized for the stage directions and the play listings in the Bibliography.

5. The following misprints have been corrected:
"Is sounds as if" corrected to "It sounds as if" (page 31)
"What should be" corrected to "What should we" (page 35)
"Don't call be" corrected to "Don't call me" (page 60)
"I don't now what!" corrected to "I don't know what!" (page 66)
"want to see her" corrected to "went to see her" (page 66)
"widly" corrected to "wildly" (page 72)
"horried" corrected to "horrid" (page 96)
"slindly" corrected to "blindly" (page 109)
"accept" corrected to "accent" (page 121)
"right. don't say" corrected to "right. I don't say" (page 162)
"J. H. SPEENHOFF" corrected to "ST. JOHN HANKIN" (page 157)
"SENE" corrected to "SCENE" (page 167)
"stobbing" corrected to "stabbing" (page 179)
"doube" corrected to "doubt" (page 204)
"pursuade" corrected to "persuade" (page 209)
"dring" corrected to "drink" (page 231)
"sits on the soft." corrected to "sits on the sofa." (page 268)
"lazzily" corrected to "lazily" (page 347)
"rearlize" corrected to "realize" (page 347)
"I sounds like" corrected to "It sounds like" (page 357)
"come into see" corrected to "come in to see" (page 364)
"ot do the decent" corrected to "to do the decent" (page 388)
"For heaven't sake" corrected to "For heaven's sake" (page 388)
"snuff-pox" corrected to "snuff-box" (page 400)
"just bet me are" corrected to "just bet we are" (page 428)
"ecstastically" corrected to "ecstatically" (page 428)
"crepe" corrected to "crepe" (page 436)
"paper ribbins." corrected to "paper ribbons." (page 437)
"rupturously" corrected to "rapturously" (page 451)
"palid" corrected to "pallid" (page 457)
"the the" corrected to "the" (page 459)
"port-hale" corrected to "porthole" (page 470)
"fierecly" corrected to "fiercely" (page 473)
"They why did" corrected to "Then why did" (page 525)
"Wilwaukee" corrected to "Milwaukee" (page 530)
"a few bille" corrected to "a few bills" (page 531)
"if marriage," corrected to "of marriage," (page 547)
"TREMENDOUR" corrected to "TREMENDOUS" (page 565)
"Pheobe" corrected to "Phoebe" (page 568)
"VON HOFFMANSTHALL" corrected to "VON HOFMANNSTHAL" (page 568)
"The Legacy. 3 4m" corrected to "The Legacy. c 4m" (page 572)
"MATUSO." corrected to "MATSUO." (page 572)
"SHAKERPEARE'S" corrected to "SHAKESPEARE'S" (page 579)
"volumn" corrected to "volume" (pages 561, 564, 565, 573)

6. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.

End of Project Gutenberg's Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays, by Various

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