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Plays of Near & Far
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First published January 1, 1923
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About the author
Lord Dunsany
688 books842 followersEdward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, eighteenth baron of Dunsany, was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work in fantasy published under the name Lord Dunsany. More than eighty books of his work were published, and his oeuvre includes hundreds of short stories, as well as successful plays, novels and essays. Born to one of the oldest titles in the Irish peerage, he lived much of his life at perhaps Ireland's longest-inhabited home, Dunsany Castle near Tara, received an honourary doctorate from Trinity College, and died in Dublin.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 4, 2025
Lord Dunsany's Plays of Near and Far was first published in 1922. It was reissued in 1923 together with If. I read Plays of Near and Far (including If), though my comments below refer only to the six plays other than If, since I reviewed the latter separately.
"The Compromise of the King of the Golden Isles" is about a King who feels duty bound to protect a fugitive from the Emperor. When deciding whether or not to drink the Emperor's cup of wine that might be poisoned, the King soliloquizes, "What have the gods seen? What dreadful work have they overlooked where Destiny sits alone, making evil years?" (p. 142). I loved this little play. It harkened back to Dunsany's early fantasy, perhaps even as far back as Time and the Gods.
"A Good Bargain" is about a newly sainted monk tricked by Satan into trading his halo for youth and a life of sensual pleasure. It's clever, and even now, more than a hundred years later, I appreciate Dunsany's sense of humour. It could almost be a storyline from his contemporary James Branch Cabell, though Dunsany's treatment of the topic is much lighter than Cabell's would be.
"The Flight of the Queen" is a dramatization of the lifecycle of the honey bee, especially the mating flight of the Queen and drones in June. Dunsany's light, whimsical fantasy is ideal for this subject matter. The common soldiers in the play correspond to the worker bees. I think Dunsany's worker bees are male, though they are female in reality—only the drones, Dunsany's "Princes," should be male. But never mind.
The common soldier Oomuz says of the Queen to Prince Zoon, "Doubt it not Master; there is a doom about her."
Zoon replies, "Oomuz, I doubt not. For there is something wonderful about the Queen, beyond all earthly wonders. Something like thunder beyond far clouds or hail hurling from heaven; there should be indeed a terrible doom about her" (p. 164).
This story reminded me of "Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean" from A Dreamer's Tales, a book in which Dunsany was at the height of his lyrical power. The drones must all perish in the mating flight, just as the young men invariably disappear over Poltarnees in search of the Ocean. "The Flight of the Queen" is a beautiful fantasy.
The next two plays were set in Dunsany's own time. "Cheezo" is about the selfish corruption of big business driven by cynical advertising. "If Shakespeare Lived Today" is likewise cynical; its setting is a gentleman's club of Dunsany's era, whose membership would snobbishly look down on Shakespeare, should he appear in their time and seek to join their exclusive club. I didn't like these two plays as much as the others in the collection because of their negativity.
The last and very short play is "Fame and the Poet." In the play, the poet De Reves says, "In our trade we believe in all fabulous things. They all represent some large truth to us. An emblem like Pegasus is as real a thing to a poet as a Derby winner would be to you" (p. 263).
His betting friend, Prattle, responds, "What? Then you'd believe in nymphs and fauns, and Pan, and all those kind of birds?"
De Reves confirms, "Yes. Yes. In all of them."
Surely this is autobiographical. If we are in any doubt, in the final pages of the play, Fame proclaims out of the poet's window (following a blast on her trumpet), "He writes with a quill" (p. 272). (The crowd cheers.) Even in Dunsany's time, would anyone but him write with a goose-quill pen? Dunsany is telling us, for example, that gods of Pegāna such as Mung, Kib, Skarl, and even Māna-Yood-Sushāī are real to him.
Four of these six plays recall the Golden Age of Dunsany's fantasy—and even the remaining two are good, though somewhat pessimistic. I'd recommend Plays of Near and Far to lovers of Dunsany's early fantasy short stories.
"The Compromise of the King of the Golden Isles" is about a King who feels duty bound to protect a fugitive from the Emperor. When deciding whether or not to drink the Emperor's cup of wine that might be poisoned, the King soliloquizes, "What have the gods seen? What dreadful work have they overlooked where Destiny sits alone, making evil years?" (p. 142). I loved this little play. It harkened back to Dunsany's early fantasy, perhaps even as far back as Time and the Gods.
"A Good Bargain" is about a newly sainted monk tricked by Satan into trading his halo for youth and a life of sensual pleasure. It's clever, and even now, more than a hundred years later, I appreciate Dunsany's sense of humour. It could almost be a storyline from his contemporary James Branch Cabell, though Dunsany's treatment of the topic is much lighter than Cabell's would be.
"The Flight of the Queen" is a dramatization of the lifecycle of the honey bee, especially the mating flight of the Queen and drones in June. Dunsany's light, whimsical fantasy is ideal for this subject matter. The common soldiers in the play correspond to the worker bees. I think Dunsany's worker bees are male, though they are female in reality—only the drones, Dunsany's "Princes," should be male. But never mind.
The common soldier Oomuz says of the Queen to Prince Zoon, "Doubt it not Master; there is a doom about her."
Zoon replies, "Oomuz, I doubt not. For there is something wonderful about the Queen, beyond all earthly wonders. Something like thunder beyond far clouds or hail hurling from heaven; there should be indeed a terrible doom about her" (p. 164).
This story reminded me of "Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean" from A Dreamer's Tales, a book in which Dunsany was at the height of his lyrical power. The drones must all perish in the mating flight, just as the young men invariably disappear over Poltarnees in search of the Ocean. "The Flight of the Queen" is a beautiful fantasy.
The next two plays were set in Dunsany's own time. "Cheezo" is about the selfish corruption of big business driven by cynical advertising. "If Shakespeare Lived Today" is likewise cynical; its setting is a gentleman's club of Dunsany's era, whose membership would snobbishly look down on Shakespeare, should he appear in their time and seek to join their exclusive club. I didn't like these two plays as much as the others in the collection because of their negativity.
The last and very short play is "Fame and the Poet." In the play, the poet De Reves says, "In our trade we believe in all fabulous things. They all represent some large truth to us. An emblem like Pegasus is as real a thing to a poet as a Derby winner would be to you" (p. 263).
His betting friend, Prattle, responds, "What? Then you'd believe in nymphs and fauns, and Pan, and all those kind of birds?"
De Reves confirms, "Yes. Yes. In all of them."
Surely this is autobiographical. If we are in any doubt, in the final pages of the play, Fame proclaims out of the poet's window (following a blast on her trumpet), "He writes with a quill" (p. 272). (The crowd cheers.) Even in Dunsany's time, would anyone but him write with a goose-quill pen? Dunsany is telling us, for example, that gods of Pegāna such as Mung, Kib, Skarl, and even Māna-Yood-Sushāī are real to him.
Four of these six plays recall the Golden Age of Dunsany's fantasy—and even the remaining two are good, though somewhat pessimistic. I'd recommend Plays of Near and Far to lovers of Dunsany's early fantasy short stories.
October 25, 2021
Plays of Near & Far is a collection of six short plays, also all comedies or satires: The Compromise of the King of the Golden Isles, The Flight of the Queen, Cheezo, A Good Bargain, If Shakespeare Lived Today, and Fame and the Poet.
June 24, 2019
Sometimes one needs to indulge in the pastel whimsies of Dunsany. This mood overtakes me every so often. It happened recently, so I read this substantial book of his plays. I found each piece to be enchanting, humorous, witty at times, fairly clever and pleasingly ridiculous. The first and longest of the plays, entitled simply 'If', is the best and the most inventive. It's a time travel story that involves a wish and a chance to change one incident in the past and then endure all that follows from that change. It is also a story about travel to distant lands, to an implausible and theatrical Eastern kingdom in which the cliches of the Orient abound. It is also a story about change to one's personality, and how a mild mannered English businessman can be turned into a despot under the influence of a certain kind of mischievous and capricious woman.
The other plays in the book are briefer and lesser but still entertaining. There is a play that tells the annual story of the bees in heroic fantasy terms. There is a play about how Shakespeare would be ignored if he was alive in Dunsany's era. There is a rather brilliant and prescient play about the dangers of processed food that is so cutting in its satire that it seems more like a work by Saki. Thinking about it more carefully, this latter play is probably the most important one in the book, and yet 'If' will always be the one that is best remembered, for its beauty, its langour, cleverness and daftness. It would be very interesting to see it performed...
The other plays in the book are briefer and lesser but still entertaining. There is a play that tells the annual story of the bees in heroic fantasy terms. There is a play about how Shakespeare would be ignored if he was alive in Dunsany's era. There is a rather brilliant and prescient play about the dangers of processed food that is so cutting in its satire that it seems more like a work by Saki. Thinking about it more carefully, this latter play is probably the most important one in the book, and yet 'If' will always be the one that is best remembered, for its beauty, its langour, cleverness and daftness. It would be very interesting to see it performed...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews