| abstract
| - "We live as we dream - alone."
- The King in Yellow - - I.i - (A balcony of the palace in Hastur, overlooking the Lake of Hali, which stretches to the horizon, blank, motionless and covered with a thin have. The two suns sink toward the rippleless surface. - (The fittings of the balcony are opulent; but dingy with time. Several stones have fallen from the masonry, and lie unheeded. - (CASSILDA, a Queen, lies on a couch overlooking the Lake, turning in her lap a golden diadem set with jewels. A servant enters and offers her a tray, but it is nearly empty: some bread, a jug. She looks at it hopelessly and waves it away. The servant goes out. - (Enter Prince UOHT.) - - UOHT: O, this unending and most dreary siege! -- - Madame my mother, is it you? Good-day. - CASSILDA: Good-day to you, boy; and good-bye to day. - UOHT (to himself): She is distracted; I will talk with her - What, all alone here on your balcony? Looking on Carcosa again, I fear. - CASSILDA: No one can gaze on Carcosa, my boy, - Before the rising of the Hyades - Will chase away the shadows of the day. - Nay, I but gazed across the cloudy waves - Of dim Hali that drowns so many days... - UOHT: And we shall see it drown full many more! - This night-mist breathes contagion vile; it crawls - In every nook and cranny like a spy, - Or some foul, sly assassin: come inside. - CASSILDA: Ah, no; ah, no; not now, Uoht. I fear - Me not thy crawling mist, contagions vile, - Nor craven spy, nor skulking murtherer; - Nor least of all am I afraid of time, - Assassin of assassins! I have seen a lot of Halis mist, and much of time. - UOHT: O, Hali, this interminable siege! - Would that thy Lake would drink tall Alar down - For once, instead of endless days. - CASSILDA: Hali - Cannot do that, since Alars throned on Dehme, - And Dehme is quite another lake indeed. - UOHT: One lake is very like another lake, - O mother mine! Black water and grey fog, - With white bones under, where drowned sailors sleep - In beds of oozy slime; their cold numb flesh - Nibbled by fish, they lie on heaps of pearls-- - Aye, fog and water; water, fog. Alar - And Hastur could change sites between two dawns, - No one would notice. O, they are the two - Worst situated cities in the world-- - CASSILDA (ironically): They are the only cities in the world, - Thus the worst situate. - UOHT: Save Carcosa. - CASSILDA: ... What? Did you speak, Uoht? - I weary of the wordy games, - Nor am I any longer sure at all - That Carcosa is really in the world: - Mayhap it slipped its mooring, bent adrift - Deep into Nightmares deathly, dark domain-- - At all events, my pretty prince, it boots - Us little, all this idle talk - (CAMILLA enters) - CAMILLA: O, I-- - CASSILDA: Come in, Camilla; come, Camilla, hark! - We have not any secrets anymore, - For schemes and plots and plans and all device - Have now worn old and thin, till time hath stopped. - (THALE enters) - THALE: More of your nonsense, mother mine? - CASSILDA: If so, - It likes you well to call it thus, O Thale. - While as for poor Cassilda, as for me, - Why, I am but a Queen, a pale, sad, Queen, - And can be mocked to make your pleasure-- - THALE: No! - I swear me that I never meant to mock - My font and origin of being; no! - UOHT: Well: mockery or no, Prince Thale has struck - The true word truer spoke. Nonsense, I say! - Time does not wear away, till, old and thin, - It stops. For Time is adamant; at least, - Its endless, weary hours weigh like lead. - How can time stop? Tis time that measures change, - And change will change forever; labile time! - To stop would time but contradict itself, - And how might times self contradict-- - CASSILDA (wearily): Time stops. - There is an interval of weary pause, - When all the world grinds to a groaning rest, - And catches breath; time stops, O Uoht, stops - When one has heard every banality - Said over every banal time again. - And when has anything new happened here - In banal, boring, dusty, gray Hastur? - New words, new thoughts, new faces, forms, - Or aught we have not heard and seen and touched - Ten thousand, thousand times ere now? The Siege, - As yourself so repeatedly observes, - Is utterly interminable. Thats that. - Neither Hastur nor Alar shall prevail; - It shall be stalemate till the dull world sinks - And drowns in dust; well both wear down to dust-- - Or boredom, which may drown us first in yawns. - Im sorry for you, Uoht; Im afraid - That all that now you do remind me of, - Is theres no future being human, now. - Een as a babe you were a little dull. - Yes, just a little dull. - UOHT: Well, you may say - What eer you please of me, for queenliness - Hath all its ancient privileges still. - Yet all the same not all times in the past, - Nor all days done. Theres still a future world, - Cassilda, still tomorrow comes, the day - Will dawn, and hours march toward night. O, Queen, - Tis in your power to change our world so much, - Were you not weary of us all, and most - Of all things weary of yourself - CASSILDA: Oh, my - Are we to speak of the Succession now? - As if the siege werent boring us enough-- - Nothings more dull than dynasties. - THALE: Madame, - Must the Dynasty die only because - The Queen is bored? Only one word from you - And the Black Stars would rise aloft again. - Whatever your soothsaying, Mother mine, - Before their light Alar would fade and fall, - And that you know full well. Twould be -- twould be - An act of mercy towards the populace. - CASSILDA: Toward the what? The people? Who are they? - You care as less for them as does Uoht; - Yes, Thale, I read your heart as twere a printed page. - I know your heart and I know his as well. - UOHT: Well, then, you know our hearts. What ist you know? - CASSILDA: The diadem means just this to you both, - It means your sister; aye, and nothing else. - Theres no reward left else but her, no prize - In being King in dull Hastur! As for - Your Black Stars, well, enough of them for aye! - They shine forth nothing but the night, no more. - THALE: I hold Camillas heart. - UOHT: You lie! - CASSILDA: Doth He? - UOHT: Well, ask her if you dare. - THALE: And who would dare? - Without the diadem? Act not more bold, - Mine brother Uoht, than you care to be. - Or have you found the Yellow Sign, O brave? - UOHT: Silence you fool! - CASSILDA: And drop this bickering, - You barking dogs ...and I will ask it her. - THALE: She is not ready to be asked, Madame. - CASSILDA: Not ready, say you, Thale? I say she is. - Camilla, child, come to me; now brush back - Thy pale hair from thy paler face; know - That you could have the diadem, be Queen, - And take your choice of either brother here - To be your Consort. And thus would we reach - The end of all our problems in Camilla. - O, how I tempt you, how I tempt you all! - Thus would the Dynasty continued be, - At least another lifetime added to - The sum of all the lifetimes gone before, - In gray and hoary old Hastur the drear. - And wed be free of this conniving, too: - Why, it could be the very siege might end-- - Well, come Camilla, Speak! - CAMILLA: O, no, no, Please! - Give not the dreaded diadem to me. - I will not bear its burthen on my brows, - Nor hold it heavy in my helpless hands. - CASSILDA: I understand you not: pray tell me why? - CAMILLA: O, ear, O clod gray weight of Fear upon - My faltring heart. Then I should be... - I should be sent the Yellow Sign. - CASSILDA: Perchance. - And perchance not. Perchance tis but a dream, - Lie, myth, illusion dire. Shall we believe - The idle runes that whisper of the thing, - Or mock them back into the realm of dreams? - And if twas sent to you, this Yellow Sign, - What then, O wan and frightened child, what then? - And would it be so very terrible, - This strange, uncanny doom of which you dream, - In dreams of dim and stealthy death that is - Not death at all, but something stranglier... - O speak, Camilla: say what, after all - Happens when one receives the Yellow Sign? - CAMILLA (whispers): I ... It is come for some time in the night; - Come for by whjat, mother, I shall not say - But come for surely, surely. - CASSILDA: This have I heard - But never seen it happen. Monstrous strange! - To start at shadows with no substance there. - And yet suppose that something-- someone-- comes - To take it back. What comes, or who, and why? - Who comes? - CAMILLA: The Phantom of Truth, so tis called ... - CASSILDA: And what, pale child, is that? - CAMILLA: I ... I do not know. - CASSILDA: No more do I, or Thale, Uoht, or anyone! - Let us pretend, Camilla, that tis real; - This Phantom, thine, whatever it might be, - It truly is. Now, does that frighten thee? - But what have the Camillas of this world - To fear from Truth? - CAMILLA: Perhaps Ive naught to fear, - Yet I still fear; fear never yields, you know, - to reason - CASSILDA: Well, so be it, child; and thus - Ill yield the diadem to one of them, - And end this bother in another way. - One remedys as good as any else. - But come and choose between them, brothers both, - But as unlike as night could be from day, - Or light from darkness, or most foul from fair. - Twould pleasure me to see you wed in state - With the regalia and full circumstance; - For at least, twould be a novelty - Midst all this dreary sameness, day by day. - UOHT: A wise suggestion. Come, Camilla, choose! - - THALE: Yes, choose, Camilla! Though tis not the least - Momentum of decision-- - CAMILLA (ignoring their importunement): - O, Mother, there is truly something new - And novel in the weary streets today; - We need no nuptial to alleviate - The tedium of life in dull Hastur-- - Tis what I came to tell you, moments ere - The same old squabble started up again. - CASSILDA: And what is this thats new and novel, child? - CAMILLA: There is a stranger strolling in our streets. - CASSILDA: Say you in sooth? Now, by the living gods, - But hear you that, my princes? ... Would twere true; - But, no, Camilla, Halis creeping mists - Confuse your eye or fuddle your poor wits: - Each face in dreary Hastur do I know - And not one face among them that is new. - How many myriad faces do you think - There are in all this weary world, my child? - A myriad myriad, and I know them all.... - CAMILLA: Yes, mother, but this face is new: or new - At least to me; new in Hastur, tis True. - CASSILDA: No one these days goes down our dismal streets - But the hearse-driver; folks with any sense - Now hide their faces even from themselves, - And turn their looking glasses gainst the wall - For fear of what they see-- - CAMILLA: But that is it: - No one can see the strangers foreign face - For he goes masked adown our dreary streets. - CASSILDA: What, hidden with a hood? Or veiled from view? - CAMILLA: Neither, mother. He wears another face. - A pale mask, paler than the mists, as white - As fear; a face with no expression, and - The eyes are staring, blank. - CASSILDA: Aye, this is strange; - Aye, strange and stranglier ...how doth the man - Explain his Pallid Mask? - CAMILLA: He speaks to none - And none so bold that they would speak to Him. - CASSILDA: Well, I shall see him; he will speak to me, - Or I will have him stretched out on the rack - Ere this dull worlds an hour older. Then, - If only then, the stranger shall unmask. - UOHT (impatiently): Now, mother, this is merely a conceit-- - THALE: Tis of no import, just a trifling leaf - Upon the tree of time. Now to return: - If fair Camilla will but make her choice-- - UOHT: Resuscitating the Succession thus-- - Reviving the Imperial Dynasty-- - CASSILDA (takes diadem from lap, places frimly on brows): - There will be other hours and times to come - And days unborn when we shall think on that. - Till then you have my rule and Hastur has a Queen, - And needs not any King. Camilla does - Not care to choose between her brothers twain, - Nor do I wish her so to choose. Not yet. - Send to me Naotalba now, and send - The stranger in the Pallid Mask. - UOHT: But see! - The sandy granules trickle down the glass! - Tis time itself thats running out at length - For all of us. There has not been a King - In gloomy Hastur since the last Aldones-- - CASSILDA: Do not recite again that tired tale. - Ill list not to that sorry story yet again. - O, the Last King! Tell not his tale once more. - I am so weary of the lot of you: - I warn you all, goad me no more with words. - Hastur will have no other King again - Until the King in Yellow comes to reign! - (there is a long shocked silence. Exit Camilla, pursued by Uoht and Thale. Cassilda rises and goes to the Balcony.) - - I.ii - - CASSILDA (sings): - Along the shore the cloud waves breaks, - The twin suns sink behind the lake, - The shadows lengthen - In Carcosa. - Strange is the night where black stars rise, - And strange moons circle through the skies, - But stranger still is - Lost Carcosa. - Songs that the Hyades shall sing, - Where flap the tatters of the King, - Must die unheard in - Dim Carcosa. - Song of my soul, my voice is dead, - Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed - Shall dry and die in - Lost Carcosa. - - (Enter a CHILD{wearing many jeweled rings and crowned with a smaller duplicate of the diadem}). - CHILD: Grandmother, grandmother, tell me a tale! - CASSILDA: I do not feel like telling stories now, - For tales arent true and lies are lies. I have - No heart for falsehoods now. Tis time for turths. - CHILD (menacingly): Grandmother? - CASSILDA: [If it must be then ....] - CHILD: Thats better. - CASSILDA: [upon a day in dim-remembered days - Appeared amidst Gondwonalands expanse - Twin lakes, both namd by no mans voice: - One great Dehme, the other by the prophets - Name was called. Or would be, days to come. - For age on age their surface went unscanned - By fish eye or the unborn eye of man, - Though blind fish swirld and dipped beneath its glass. - Worlds passed, and one day was left a city, - Dropped as if by a gods forgetful hand, - On Halis shores, abandoned on the strand] - (the twin suns have been slowly sinking. The Hyades come out. Their image blurred by the mists) - CHILD: Thats not a story, but a history. - CASSILDA: It is the only tale I have to tell. - Tis time for turths. If you will silent be, - Ill tell all the rest thats in the runes. - CHILD: Im not supposed to know whats in the runes. - CASSILDA: That doesnt matter now. But to go on: - Upon four pillars of uniqueness was - This city built. Of these four was the first - Its birth all in one dawn. Second was this - Queer circumstance: one might not tell of it - Whether it rode upon the waves or on - The farther shore it sat, could one have seen. - The third among the wonders of the city - Was merely this: its towers seemed to pierce - The risen moon like fruits upon a spear. - Wouldst have more, or do I petrify you? - CHILD: But I already know the tale you tell. - CASSILDA: Misfortunate Prince! By now you know too - Well how came that city to be named. - For its fourth singularity was this: - In the moment that it filled ones eye, its - True and only name rushed all unbidden - To the mind. Naught else might it ever bear. - This none doubted; no other name was broached. - CHILD: Carcosa. - CASSILDA: Yes, even as it is today. - And after unknown lengths of years went past, - Men journeyed from the gods know not whereof - To cast up huts rude and impertinent - Against the shadowd waves of Halis Lake. - Among these came forth one who would assume - A kingly crown amid his peers and win - Their dull respect, and yawns as they bow and - Genuflect. His famous name you know. - CHILD: Was that my grandsire? - CASSILDA: It was one of them. - CHILD: Tis great Aldones? - CASSILDA: Yes, him, some ages back. - He judged the place should bear the name Hastur, - Its kings henceforth his name to make their own. - He promised this: should all the sovreigns on - His throne uphold the royal line intact, - Then poor and rude Hastur one day might match - The greatness of Empyrean Carcosa. - CHILD: Thank you, grandmother. I have heard enough... - CASSILDA: No you have not: and on that very night - Someone, it seems, had heard his careless words-- - Child, you asked a tale and now must hear it out-- - CHILD: I have to leave now-- - CASSILDA (eyes closed): And that very night - Your ancestor, he found the Yellow Sign-- - (Child runs out. Enter NOATALBA) - NOATALBA: My Queen. - CASSILDA: Good Priest. - NOATALBA: But you forgot to tell - The little prince of singularities - The fifth and final one. - CASSILDA: And you, I learn, - Are an eavesdropper, quite incurable; - Well, I am not surprised. Priests are supposed - To know all sorts of secrets, and how else - To learn such save with your ear to keyholes? - NOATALBA: And of the final singularity? - CASSILDA: Fear not, O priest! No one were fool enough - To tell the Mystry of the Hyades - To a mere child. - NOATALBA: No, but you thought of it, - My lady Queen. - CASSILDA: Why everyone imputes - Philosophy to poor Cassilda-- thats - Another mystery! My thoughts are few - And shallow, sir; they do not run so deep. - Tis only that the shadows of our thoughts - Commonly lengthen in the afternoon. - And dusk is-- dusk - NOATALBA: Long thoughts long shadows cast, - At morn as well as mid of day, O Queen. - CASSILDA: And lack of news is news enough: well, priest, - Bury me under your banalities, - And join your voice to those of all my sons - Who have been doing nothing else this hour. - Next, youll be prating of the Diadem, - Or of the Dynasty. - NOATALBA: To tell the truth, - Nothing was further from my mind, O Queen. - CASSILDA: And a good place for nothing, that! - NOATALBA: Tis good - To hear you jest, madame; but nonetheless - I do have other news of some import-- - CASSILDA: About a stranger in a Pallid Mask? - NOATALBA: You have already heard of him; tis well, - Then I may be as brief as brief may be. - I think you should not see this man-- if man - Is all he is.... - CASSILDA (laughs): Naught will prevent me, priest! - O, Noatalba, think you Id refuse - To face the first fresh novelty in years - And years, and dusty years. In truth were he - Some sly assassin with a thirsty knife, - Id let him in to look upon his face. - A face Ive never seen... would it were so! - I fear, cold priest, you little know your Queen. - NOATALBA: I know you better than you know yourself. - CASSILDA: And naughts more certain, then, than death and ...gods! - Banalities! I drown in a sea of them; - And why should I not see this man-- for man - Is all he is. - (An interval of silence) - ...a poor spy, then, Id say, - To strut a mask; tis too conspicuous. - And if it came to that, what thing is there - Alar does not already know of us, - As we know all there is to know of them? - Thats why we are at this impasse in our war. - Neither has aught that could the other take - By advantage of surprise. Ah me! - Each of the other knows all that there is - To know. Aye, were one single stone to fall - From Alars wall, and I not know its fall, - This weary war wouldst end in sheer surprise. - And poor Aldones no better off than me. - The man knows me as I know him, each hair - And pinch of skin, each wrinkle, wart, and wen! - Glutted with this familiarity, - Well die slow-stiffing in our tomb-for-two, - Measuring each others hair and figernails - In hopes of some advantage een in death. - Why should he send a spy? He planted three - Of them in this my womb: my bickering, - Dull, brood of children... Noatalba, how - I wish that I could tell my husband aught - Of simple joy, and then would Alar sink - Into its lake and we erelong in ours! - NOATALBA: You prize more highly novelty than I, - My Queen, Methinks it is a weakness of - Some sort or other ... But as for myself - This creature in the Pallid Mask may be - No spy at all; I did not say for sure, - But only that at best he were a spy. - CASSILDA: Well, then, sir priest, lets hear it all. At worst. - NOATALBA: The Phantom of Truth, at the very worst, madame, - This thing may be, for only ghosts would go - About our tired streets in robes of white. - CASSILDA (slowly): And is the moment come at last? I see. - Then I was wise, and wiselier than wise, - To abort the Dynasty: and that is strange. - I am not often wise, you see. Ah, well, - It well may prove perhaps that any end - At all is a good end ...if end it is. - But Noatalba ...Noatalba. - NOATALBA: Speak. - CASSILDA: I have not found the Yellow Sign, you see. - NOATALBA: Of course you havent, other wise you would - Have told me. But we cannot be sure the - Sign is always sent. For the sender is-- - CASSILDA: The sender is the King in Yellow. - NOATALBA: Well ... yes. The King ...warns ...as he warned - The first Aldones. We know nothing of him - But that. And we should not know. - CASSILDA: Why not? - Perhaps he is dead. - (NOATALBA hides his face) - Or too busy in Carcosa, so that he has forgotten - To send the Sign. Why not? We are well taught - That with the King in Yellow, all things are possible. - NOATALBA: I have not heard you. - You did not speak. - CASSILDA: I spoke only to your point, my cold priest ... - That this man n the Pallid Mask may indeed - Be the Phantom of Truth, though I - Have not found the Sign, no more than you. - That was what you were saying, was it not? - Be silent if you wish. I shall chance it. - NOATALBA: Blasphemy! - CASSILDA: Is the King a god? I think not. - In the meantime, Noatalba, I would dearly love - To see the face of Truth. It must be curious. - I have laid every other ghost in this world; - Send me this man or phantom! - (Exit NOATALBA) - - I.iii - (The STRANGER enters. He is wearing a silken robe on which the Yellow Sign is embroidered. CASSILDA turns to look at him, then with a quick and violent motion plucks the torch from the sconce and hurls it into the Lake. Now there is only starlight.) - CASSILDA: I have not seen you! I have not seen you! - STRANGER: You echo your priest, you are all blinded - Obviously by choice. - CASSILDA: I... suppose its - Late to be afraid. Well then; I am not - STRANGER: Well spoken Cassilda. There is in fact - Nothing to be afraid of. - CASSILDA: Please - Phantom, no nonsense. You wear the Sign. - STRANGER: How do you know that? You have never seen - The Yellow Sign. - CASSILDA: Oh, I know it. The Sign - Is in the blood. That is why I ended - The Dynasty. No blood should have to bear - Such knowledge through a human heart; - No childrens teeth so set on edge. - STRANGER: You face facts. That is a good beginning. - Very well; then, in fact this is the Sign. - Nonetheless, Cassilda-- - CASSILDA: Your Majesty-- - STRANGER: --Cassilda, there is nothing to fear. - You see how I wear it with impunity. - Be reassured; it has no power left. - CASSILDA: Is that ...a truth? - STRANGER: It is the shadow - Cast by a truth. Nothing else is ever - Vouchsafed unto us, Queen Cassilda. - That is why I am white: in order to survive - Such colored shadows. And the Pallid Mask - Protects me -- as it will protect you. - CASSILDA: How? - STRANGER: It deceives. That is the function of masks. - What else would it do? - CASSILDA: You are not very full of straight answers. - STRANGER: There are no straight answers. But I tell you this: - Anyone who wears the Pallid Mask need never fear - The Yellow Sign. You Tremble. All the same, - My Queen, that era is over. Whatever else - Could you need to know? Now your Dynasty - Can start again; again there can be a king - In Hastur; and again Cassilda, the Black Stars - Can mount the sky once more against the Hyades. - The siege can be lifted and humankind - Can have its future back. - CASSILDA: So many dreams! - STRANGER: Only wear the Mask and these are given. - Theres no other thing required of us. - CASSILDA: Who tells me this? - STRANGER: I am called Yhtill. - CASSILDA: That is only Alaran for stranger. - STRANGER: And Aldones is only Hasturic - For Father. What would you be implying? - CASSILDA: Your facts are bitterer than your mystries. - And what will happen to you, O, Yhtill, - You with the Yellow Sign on your bosom, - When the sign is sent for? - STRANGER: Nothing at all. - What has Carcosa ever had to do - With the human world, from the time when men - Dwelt on the shore of Hali in mud huts? - The King in Yellow has other concerns - As is only supernatural. - Once you don the Pallid Mask, he cannot - Even see you. Do you doubt me? You have - Only to look again across the Lake. - Carcosa does not sit upon the Earth - It is, perhaps, not even real; or not so real - As you and I. Certainly the Living God does - not believe in it. Then why should you? - CASSILDA: You are plausible, in your ghost face. You talk - As if you know the Living God. Do you - Also hear the Hyades sing to him - When evening has eshrouded all the world? - STRANGER (shortly): No. That is strictly the Kings business. - It is of no earthly interest to me. - CASSILDA: I daresay. How can I trust these answers? - Do we indeed have to do nothing more - To be saved than don white masks? Seems to me - Like a suspiciously easy answer. - STRANGER: Test it then. - CASSILDA: And die. Thank you very much. - STRANGER: I would not kill you, or myself. Instead - I propose a masque, if you will pardon - The word-play. All will wear exactly what they - Choose, excepting that all will also wear - The Pallid Mask. I myself shall wear the - Yellow Sign just as I do now. When all - You are convinced, the masks are removed; - And then you are able to announce - The Succession, all in perfect safety. - CASSILDA: Oh, indeed. - And then the King descends. - STRANGER: And if the King - Should then descend, we are all lost, and I - Have lost my bet. I have nothing to lose - But my life. You have so very much more. - And if the King does not descend, what then? - Think! The Yellow Sign denatured, our life - Suddenly charged with meaning, hope flowring - The Phantom of Truth laid to rest foreer - And the Dynasty freed of all its fears - Of Carcosa and whatever monsters - Do there inhabit, freed of all its fears - Of the King in Yellow and his Tattered - And Smothering and Inhuman raiment! - CASSILDA: Oh Living God! How dare I believe you? - STRANGER: You do not dare not to... - CASSILDA: Why would I not dare? - I who am Cassilda, I who am I? - STRANGER: Because Cassilda, by risking nothing - So you risk it all. Well should you understand - That which is the first law of rulership. - And, too, Cassilda, for in your ancient - Heart, you love your children. - CASSILDA: Oh you demon! - You have found me out. - STRANGER: As I came to do. - Very well. I shall see you tomorrow - After the suns have set. Wear you the Mask, - And all eyes shall be opened, as all - Ears shall be unstoppered. Good night, my Queen. - CASSILDA: If you are human, you shall regret this. - STRANGER: Utterly, and so I wish you good night. - (exit STRANGER, CASSILDA moves to the balcony and looks out. Over the lake the Towers of Carcosa appear, tall and lightless) - (enter NOATALBA) - NOATALBA: So it begins. And so good night, my Queen. - You saw him? - CASSILDA: I ...believe that I did - NOATALBA: And? - CASSILDA: He says that... he says the King in Tatters - Can be blinded. - NOATALBA: And you have heard him out. - Now, surely, we are all indeed quite mad. - (Curtain) - - II.i - (the CHILD appears before the curtain) - - CHILD: I am neither Prologue nor Afterword; - Call me the Prototaph. My role is this: - To tell you it is now to late to close - The book or quit the stage. You already - Thought you should have so much earlier, - But you stayed. How harmless it all must seem! - No definite principles involved, - No doctrines seem to be promulgated - Among these pristine pages. Look close, you! - No convictions herein out outraged... - But nevertheless the blow has fallen - And now it is too late. And shall I tell - Where the sin might lie? It is yours alone. - You listened to us; and all the same, you - Stay to see the Sign. Now you are ours, or, - Since the runes are also run backwards, we - Are yours forever. - (Curtain opens on Ballroom with the balcony behind. STRANGER, CHILD, CAMILLA, NOATALBA and CASSILDA and othe Hasturites all are present.) - Stranger (to CAMILLA): There, my Princess, you see that there has been no - Sending, just as there shall not be one. - The Pallid Mask is the perfect disguise. - CAMILLA: How would we know a sending if it came? - STRANGER: The messenger of the King drives a hearse. - CASSILDA: Oho! Half the population does that. - Tis the citys most popular career - Since the siege began. All of that is talk. - STRANGER: I have heard what the Talkers were talking - The talk of the beginning and the end; - But I do not talk of either of these. - CAMILLA: But of the Sending? Let us hear. - STRANGER: Also, - The messenger of the King is a soft - Man; should you greet him by the hand, youd find - One of his fingers would come off in yours. - (NOATALBA joins the group) - NOATALBA: A pretty story. You would seem to know - Everything of everything. I think that, - Given proper recompense, you could tell - Us of the mystery of the Hyades. - STRANGER: He is the King there. - NOATALBA: As everywhere. - STRANGER: He is not the King in Aldebaran. - That is why Carcosa was built for him. - It is but a city in exile. These - Two mighty stars are tangled deep in war - As are Hastur and Alar. - NOATALBA: Oh, indeed? - Who then lives in fabled Carcossa? - STRANGER: Nothing human resides within her walls. - More than that, I cannot tell you. - NOATALBA: Your springs - Of invention run dry quickly, good sir. - CASSILDA: Be silent, O noisy and noisome priest. - Stranger, how did you come by all of this? - STRANGER: My sigil is Aldeberan, I hate the King. - NOATALBA: And his is the Yellow Sign, which you mock - By flaunting before the world. I say: - He is yet a King, he will not be mocked. - He is a King whom Emperors have served; - And that is why he disdains a crown. - All this is as it is written in the runes. - STRANGER: There are great truths written within the runes - Nevertheless, my priest, Aldebaran - Is his dark star. Thence comes the Pallid Mask. - NOATALBA: Belike, belike. But I would rather be - Drowned deep within the depths of Dehme - Than to wear what you wear on your bosom. - When the King throws wide his mantle-- - (a gong sounds) - CASSILDA: Have done ... - Now is the time I never thought to see: - I must go, and announce the Succession. - Perhaps... perhaps the world itself, how strange, - Is indeed about to begin again! - (gong continues to sound, as the guests unmask) - CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask. - STRANGER: Indeed? Should I now? - CAMILLA: Indeed. It is the time of unmasking, - We have all laid aside disguise but you. - STRANGER: I wear no mask. - CAMILLA: No Mask? (to Cassilda) He wears no mask? - STRANGER: I am the Pallid Mask itself! I! I - Am the Phantom of Truth, come from Alar! - My star is encarmind Aldebaran. - Truth is our invention and our weapon. - See! By this Sign, we have conquered. The siege - Of good and evil is ended... - (beyond the balcony, the towers of Carcosa begin to glow) - NOATALBA: Look! Carcosa! Carcosa is on fire! - (The STRANGER laughs and grabs CAMILLA by the wrists.) - CAMILLA (in agony): His Hands! His Hands! - (At her cry the music dies, a tremendous voice rolls from Carcosa) - THE KING: Yhtill! - Yhtill! - Yhtill! - (STRANGER releases CAMILLA, who falls with a wordless cry.) - THE KING: Have you found the Yellow Sign? - Have you found the Yellow Sign? - Have you found the Yellow Sign? - STRANGER (shouting): Behold! I am the Phantom of Truth! - Tremble, O King in Rags and Tatters! - THE KING: The Phantom of Truth shall be laid to rest. - The scalloped tatters of the King must hide - Yhtill forever. As for thee, Hastur-- - ALL: No! No, no! - THE KING: And as for thee, - We tell thee this; it is a fearful thing - To fall into the hands of a Living God. - (The STRANGER falls, all else sink slowly to the ground after him) - (The stage darkens until it is lit only over the body of the Stranger) - THE KING: I have enfolded Yhtill, and so the - Phantom of Truth now is laid to rest. As - Henceforth the ancient lies shall rule always. - Now, Cassilda! - (CASSILDA rises to her knees) - Thou wert promised by - Truth a Dynasty, and in truth shalt thou - A Dynasty have. - The Kingdom of Hastur was first in all the world, - And would have ruled the world, except for this; - Carcosa did not want it. Hence, thereafter - Hastur and Alar divided; but those in Alar - Sent you from Aldebaran the Phantom of Truth - And all was lost; together you forgot - The Covenant of the Sign. Now there is much - Which needs to be undone. - NOATALBA: How, King, How? - THE KING: Henceforth shall Hastur and Alar be - Divided forever. Forever shalt thou contend - For mastry and strive in bitter blood - To claim which shall be uppermost; - Flesh or phantom, black or white. In due - Course of Starwheels, this strife will come to issue; - But not now; oh, no, not now. - CASSILDA: And-- until then? - HE KING: Until then, - Carcosa will vanish; but my rule, I tell you now, - Is permanent, despite Aldebaran. Be warned. - Also be promised: He who triumphs in this war - Shall be my... can I be honest? ...Inheritor, - And so shall have the Dynasty back. But think: - Already you own the world. The great query is, - Can you rule it? The query is the gift. - The King in Yellow gives it into your hands, - To hold, or let loose. Choose, terrible children. - NOATALBA: You are King, and most gracious. - We thank you. - THE KING: You thank me? I am the Living God! - Bethink thyself, fool priest. There is a price - And I have not as yet stated the half of it. - (pause) - The price is the fixing of the Mask. - (silence) - You do not understand me. I shall explain - Once and then no more. Hastur, you - Acceded to, and wore the Pallid Mask. - That is the price. Henceforth, all in Hastur - Shall wear the Pallid Mask, and by this sign be known. - And war between the masked men and the naked - Shall be perpetual and bloody, until I come - Again... or fail to come. - NOATALBA: Unfair, Unfair! - Twas Alar invented the Pallid Mask! - Aldones-- - THE KING: Why should I be fair? I am - The Living God! As for Aldones, he - Is the father of you all. That is the price: - The Fixing of the Mask. - ALL: Oh! - CASSILDA (bitterly): Not upon us, O King; not upon us! - ALL: No! Mercy! Not upon us! - THE KING: Yhtill! - Yhtill! - Yhtill! - CASSILDA (stands and throws her arms wide): - Not upon us! Not upon us! - THE KING: What! Did you think to be human still? - NOATALBA: And if we now cannot return to what - We were, O, King, What shall we be? - What shall we be? - What shall we be? - - (The CHILD rises and draws the curtain) - (End)
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- Going by the original stories, The King In Yellow (the play) is linked in some nebulous and horrible fashion with the King in Yellow, an alien god whose "scalloped tatters ... must hide Yhtill forever". The King is in turn linked in some way with "Carcosa, where black stars hang in the heavens; where the shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon, when the twin suns sink into the Lake of Hali". The King's nature, motives and modus operandi are unclear; but he occasionally appears on Earth, animating dead bodies or possessing those strange 'humans' already in thrall to him, and claiming (or reclaiming) those who have eluded him. To read the play is to be exposed to the King and to fall under his influence, going mad in the meantime. The King doesn't strictly appear in the original stories, at least not in any way that allows us a good description. True, he appears to the narrator of The Yellow Sign briefly before he dies, but he is unable to convey quite what he sees.
- The first four stories are loosely connected by three main devices:
* A play in book form entitled The King in Yellow
* A mysterious and malevolent supernatural entity known as The King in Yellow
* An eerie symbol called The Yellow Sign The color yellow signifies the decadent and aesthetic attitudes that were fashionable at the turn of the 19th century, typified by such publications as The Yellow Book, a literary journal associated with Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley. It has also been suggested that the color yellow represents quarantine — an allusion to decay, disease, and specifically mental illness. For instance, the famous short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", involving a bedridden woman's descent into madness, was published shortly before Chambers' book. These stories are macabre in tone, centering on characters that are often artists or decadents. The first story "The Repairer of Reputations", is set in an imagined future 1920s America, whose history, being at odds with the knowledge of the reader, adds to the effect of its unreliable narrator. The next three are set in Paris at the same time. The other stories in the book do not follow the macabre theme of the first four, and most are written in the romantic fiction style common to Chambers' later work. Some are linked to the preceding stories by their Parisian setting and artistic protagonists.
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