Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The King's Threshold: “Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.”
    The King's Threshold: “Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.”
    The King's Threshold: “Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.”
    Ebook46 pages36 minutes

    The King's Threshold: “Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.”

    By W B Yeats

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) is best described as Ireland’s national poet in addition to being one of the major twentieth-century literary figures of the English tongue. To many literary critics, Yeats represents the ‘Romantic poet of modernism,’ which is quite revealing about his extraordinary style that combines between the outward emphasis on the expression of emotions and the extensive use of symbolism, imagery and allusions. Yeats also wrote prose and drama and established himself as the spokesman of the Irish cause. His fame was greatly boosted mainly after he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. His life was marked by his many love stories, by his great interest in oriental mysticism and occultism as well as by political engagement since he served as an Irish senator for two terms. Today, although William Butler Yeats’s contribution to literary modernism and to Irish nationalism remains incontestable. Here we publish a one of his renowned plays that show just why his works are held in such esteem.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCopyright Group
    Release dateNov 29, 2013
    ISBN9781783946884
    The King's Threshold: “Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.”
    Author

    W B Yeats

    William Butler Yeats was born in 1865 in County Dublin. With his much-loved early poems such as 'The Stolen Child', and 'He Remembers Forgotten Beauty', he defined the Celtic Twilight mood of the late-Victorian period and led the Irish Literary Renaissance. Yet his style evolved constantly, and he is acknowledged as a major figure in literary modernism and twentieth-century European letters. T. S. Eliot described him as 'one of those few whose history is the history of their own time, who are part of the consciousness of an age which cannot be understood without them'. W. B. Yeats died in 1939.

    Read more from W B Yeats

    Related to The King's Threshold

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Politics of Pinocchio

      Sep 12, 2022

      The Politics of Pinocchio
      5 min read

    • Article

      Joan Of Arc’s Doomed Campaign

      Jul 11, 2019

      Born as Jehanne d’Arc, nicknamed the “Maid of Orléans” and universally known as “Joan of Arc”, France’s national heroine was a medieval figure like no other. A crossdressing, teenage peasant girl who claimed to hear divine voices, Joan defied every s

      11 min read

    • Article

      Redux: A Poem Is a Suitcase

      Apr 10, 2018

      Redux: A Poem Is a Suitcase
      1 min read

    • Article

      Ocean View

      Jul 7, 2022

      Ocean View
      3 min read

    • Article

      Egrets

      Aug 27, 2021

      It’s good, he said, the way memorysometimes slips a gauzy filmbetween the then and the now, so that the egrets you’re sure you sawflapping over the traffic, just abovethe parking structure in the Bronx where you were walking how manysummer mornings a

      1 min read

    • Article

      On the Accidental Origins of Beloved Books

      Mar 29, 2017

      This week marks the 73rd anniversary of the time Astrid Lindgren, mother of two, fell down and sprained her ankle and decided well, why not spend the time she was laid up writing down the stories she’d been telling her ten-year-old daughter? It was i

      5 min read

    • Article

      Conferences & Residencies

      Apr 12, 2017

      The Anam Cara Writer’s and Artist’s Retreat offers one-week to one-month residencies year-round to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers near Eyeries in County Cork, Ireland, overlooking Coulagh Bay and the mountains and farmlands o

      19 min read

    • Article

      Ophelia’s Last Word Hidden Hungry Monsters

      Oct 1, 2021

      Ophelia’s Last Word Hidden Hungry Monsters
      1 min read

    • Article

      On Bach

      Dec 1, 2022

      On Bach
      13 min read

    • Article

      Journeys With A Purpose

      Apr 1, 2021

      Journeys With A Purpose
      7 min read

    • Article

      Madeleine L’Engle’s Early Short Stories Presage ‘A Wrinkle In Time’

      Apr 17, 2020

      A reviewer reflects on reading “The Moment of Tenderness,” a collection of short stories, and then returning to the 1963 novel she loved growing up.

      2 min read

    • Article

      5 over 50

      Oct 10, 2018

      5 over 50
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Little Mermaid

      Jan 1, 2020

      The Little Mermaid
      4 min read

    • Article

      Do Not Hurry, Do Not Rest

      Feb 15, 2023

      THE space and time to work on a creative project with minimal distractions and separation from one’s daily routines and responsibilities is a privilege. Whether leaving behind kids, a partner, pets, plants, or what have you, it can be wonderful to go

      7 min read

    • Article

      'The World Broke In Two': Four Writers, One Transformational Year

      Jul 25, 2017

      Using excerpts from letters and diaries, historian and critic Bill Goldstein follows writers Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, D. H. Lawrence and T. S. Eliot through the tumultuous literary year of 1922.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Aelfred’s Britain

      Jul 12, 2018

      Aelfred’s Britain
      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘Shakespeare’s Library’ Imagines The Bard’s Bookshelves

      Apr 18, 2019

      Stuart Kells explores the source materials that would have been necessary to write all those plays and poems.

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The King's Threshold

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The King's Threshold - W B Yeats

      The King's Threshold by W. B. Yeats

      William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939) was born in Dublin, educated both there and in London.

      He is best described as Ireland’s national poet in addition to being one of the major twentieth-century literary figures of the English tongue. To many literary critics, Yeats represents the ‘Romantic poet of modernism’ – an extraordinary style that combines the outward emphasis on the expression of emotions and the extensive use of symbolism, imagery and allusions.

      Yeats also wrote extensively for prose and drama and established himself as the spokesman of the Irish cause.

      His fame was greatly boosted after he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923.

      Yeat’s life was marked by his many love stories, by his great interest in oriental mysticism and occultism as well as by political engagement; he served as an Irish senator for two terms.

      Today William Butler Yeats’s contribution to literary modernism and to Irish nationalism remains incontestable. 

      Here we publish a one of his renowned plays that show just why his works are held in such esteem.  

      Index Of Contents

      Note

      List Of Characters

      A Prologue

      The King’s Threshold

      W.B. Yeats – A Short Biography

      NOTE

      Written for Mr. Fay’s Irish National Theatre,  The King’s Threshold was played in October, 1903. Founded on Old Irish Prose Romances, but I have borrowed some ideas for the arrangement of my subject in The King’s Threshold from Sancan the Bard, a play published by Mr. Edwin Ellis some ten years ago.

      W. B. Y.

      LIST OF CHARACTERS

      KING GUAIRE.

      THE CHAMBERLAIN OF KING GUAIRE.

      A Soldier.

      A Monk.

      THE MAYOR OF KINVARA.

      A Cripple.

      Another Cripple.

      AILEEN, } Ladies of the Court.

      ESSA,   }

      PRINCESS BUAN.

      PRINCESS FINNHUA, her Sister.

      FEDELM, Seanchan’s Sweetheart.

      CIAN,  } Servants of Seanchan.

      BRIAN, }

      SENIAS, } Pupils of Seanchan.

      ARIAS, }

      SEANCHAN (pronounced Shanahan), Chief Poet of Ireland.

      Pupils, Courtiers.

      A PROLOGUE.[1]

      An OLD MAN with a red dressing-gown, red slippers and red nightcap, holding a brass candlestick with a guttering candle in it, comes on from side of stage and goes in front of the dull green curtain.

      Old Man. I’ve got to speak the prologue. [He shuffles on a few steps.] My nephew, who is one of the play actors, came to me, and I in my bed, and my prayers said, and the candle put out, and he told me there were so many characters in this new play, that all the company were in it, whether they had been long or short at the business, and that there wasn’t one left to speak the prologue. Wait a bit, there’s a draught here. [He pulls the curtain closer together.] That’s better. And that’s why I’m here, and maybe I’m a fool for my pains.

      And my nephew said, there are a good many plays to be played for you, some to-night and some on other nights through the winter, and the most of

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1