My dear Walkley: You once asked me why I did not write a Don Juan play. The levity with which you assumed this frightful responsibility has probably by this time enabled you to forget it; but the day of reckoning has arrived: here is your play! I say your play, because qui facit per alium facit per se. Its profits, like its labor, belong to me: its morals, its manners, its philosophy, its influence on the young, are for you to justify...

It is after dinner on a January night, in the library in Lady Britomart Undershaft’s house in Wilton Crescent. A large and comfortable settee is in the middle of the room, upholstered in dark leather...

Dramatis Personae...

THE "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the redness and the horror of blood...

Tip slipped away from the girls and followed swiftly after the Soldier with the Green Whiskers. The invading army entered the City more slowly, for they stopped to dig emeralds out of the walls and paving-stones with the points of their knitting-needles. So the Soldier and the boy reached the palace before the news had spread that the City was conquered...

A plainly-furnished work-room in the house of HALVARD SOLNESS.Folding doors on the left lead out to the hall. On the rightis the door leading to the inner rooms of the house...

PERSONS REPRESENTED. VICENTIO, Duke of Vienna.ANGELO, Lord Deputy in the Duke’s absence...

The year 1400 opened with more than usual peacefulness in England. Only a few months before, Richard II--weak, wicked, and treacherous --had been dethroned, and Henry IV declared King in his stead...

DRAMATIS PERSONAE THE DUKE OF VENICETHE PRINCE OF MOROCCO, suitor to PortiaTHE PRINCE OF ARRAGON, suitor to PortiaANTONIO, a merchant of VeniceBASSANIO, his friendSALANIO, friend to Antonio and BassanioSALARINO, friend to Antonio and BassanioGRATIANO, friend to Antonio and BassanioLORENZO, in love with JessicaSHYLOCK, a rich JewTUBAL, a Jew, his friendLAUNCELOT GOBBO, a clown, servant to ShylockOLD GOBBO, father to LauncelotLEONARDO, servant to BassanioBALTHASAR, servant to PortiaSTEPHANO, serv...

FROM THE AUTHOR TO THE READER You who so plod amid serious things that you feel it shame to give yourself up even for a few short moments to mirth and joyousness in the land of Fancy; you who think that life hath nought to do with innocent laughter that can harm no one; these pages are not for you...