WORKS BY PERCY MACKAYE
_PLAYS_
THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS. A Comedy.
JEANNE D’ARC. A Tragedy.
SAPPHO AND PHAON. A Tragedy.
FENRIS, THE WOLF. A Tragedy.
A GARLAND TO SYLVIA. A Dramatic Reverie.
THE SCARECROW. A Tragedy of the Ludicrous.
YANKEE FANTASIES. Five One-Act Plays.
MATER. An American Study in Comedy.
ANTI-MATRIMONY. A Satirical Comedy.
TO-MORROW. A Play in Three Acts.
A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. A Romance of the Orient.
_COMMUNITY DRAMAS_
CALIBAN. A Community Masque.
SAINT LOUIS. A Civic Masque.
SANCTUARY. A Bird Masque.
THE NEW CITIZENSHIP. A Civic Ritual.
THE EVERGREEN TREE. A Christmas Masque.
_OPERAS_
SINBAD, THE SAILOR. A Fantasy.
THE IMMIGRANTS. A Tragedy.
THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS. A Comedy.
_POEMS_
THE SISTINE EVE, AND OTHER POEMS.
URIEL, AND OTHER POEMS.
LINCOLN. A Centenary Ode.
THE PRESENT HOUR. Poems of War and Peace.
POEMS AND PLAYS. In Two Volumes.
_ESSAYS_
THE PLAYHOUSE AND THE PLAY.
THE CIVIC THEATRE.
A SUBSTITUTE FOR WAR.
COMMUNITY DRAMA. An Interpretation.
_ALSO (As Editor)_
THE CANTERBURY TALES. A Modern Rendering into Prose.
THE MODERN READER’S CHAUCER (with Professor J. S. P. Tatlock).
_AT ALL BOOKSELLERS_
[Illustration]
[Illustration: DANCE-CAROL OF THE EVERGREEN
_So we will sing our even-song_
_And dance for thee, like king and queen,—_
_O Evergreen, dear Evergreen!—_
_To make thy heart be merry._ (Page 42)]
The
EVERGREEN TREE
by
PERCY MACKAYE
[Illustration]
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK LONDON
1917
_Copyright, 1917, by_
PERCY MACKAYE
_All Rights Reserved_
NOTE: For Information concerning Permission to
produce this Masque or to read it in Public, see
ANNOUNCEMENTS, on page 81 of this volume.
Printed in the United States of America
The
EVERGREEN TREE
A Masque of Christmas Time for
Community Singing and Acting
by
PERCY MACKAYE
With Scenic and Costume Designs
by
ROBERT EDMOND JONES
Together with
THREE MONOGRAPHS ON THE MASQUE
written by
the Author, the Scenic Designer,
and
ARTHUR FARWELL
Composer of the Music
TO
THOSE FRIENDLY THOUSANDS
OF MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN
IN AMERICAN TOWNS AND CITIES, WHO HAVE
SHARED WITH THE AUTHOR IN HIS MASQUES
A COMMON DEVOTION TO THE HAPPY CAUSE
OF A COMMUNAL ART
THIS MASQUE IS DEDICATED
IN CHRISTMAS FELLOWSHIP
PREFACE
Always an evergreen tree points up at a star.
Always a star looks somewhere down on the cradle of a child.
Always, once in the year, a child laughs up at evergreen boughs.
Tree, star and child are triune in the poetry of nature—a constellation
of man that never sets.
The antic mirth, the naïve awe of paganism, the joy and passion of
Christianity, are masks happy and tragic which the Folk Spirit of
childhood has worn for ages, and shall wear for ages more, in ritual of a
tree that never dies.
On the verge of No-Man’s-Land, where the blasted earth reels amid war’s
stench and thunder; in calm cathedrals, to carolling choirs; by lonely
chimney sides, or amid the young, tense assemblies of army camps,
Christmas—this Christmas of our new age—grows again in the ancient
greenness of a little tree.
How may we, too, do it homage?
Not forgetting the old simple merriment of folk days gone by, how shall
we say—and sing—to our tree something of that deep response which we feel
to-day to the creative sadness of our time?
Our young men are going out to the war: our country is grappling the
issue of a planet. Here is a dramatic conflict, not for us as spectators,
but as participants. Here is a theme, not of the traditional theatre,
but of a communal drama, the action of which is at once a battle and a
prayer. How may we take part together in expressing such a theme, at this
new Christmas time?
Surely it must be through some simple festival—chiefly of song, for
song is elemental to us all: a festival in which our people—young,
old, rich, poor, women, men, but chiefly our young soldiers—may share,
outdoors or indoors, in a ritual, democratic and devotional, on a scale
great or small, simple to act and symbolize: a drama not designed for a
hollow amphitheatre of spectators, but for a level-floored cathedral of
communicants: a drama in which the goal of world liberty we battle for
is clearly contrasted with its opposite, that we ourselves may not lose
sight of our goal or swerve from it, as our common prayer, in the midst
of battle. And there, as the focus-point of our festival and symbol of
it—the tree of light: light of our own childhood and of the world’s.
I do not know whether this simple masque will prove worthy to help in
creating such a festival for our new Christmas time—I can only wish and
hope that it may.
PERCY MACKAYE.
Cornish, New Hampshire, September, 1917.
CONTENTS
PAGE
_INTRODUCTORY_
DEDICATION ix
PREFACE xi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiv
PERSONS AND GROUPS xv
CHORUSES AND CAROLS xvi
THE COMMUNITY CHORUS xvii
TIME AND PLACE xvii
QUOTATION FROM ST. MATTHEW xviii
_TEXT OF THE MASQUE IN TWELVE ACTIONS_
I. “WHO KEEPETH WATCH?” 1
II. THE LANTERN IN THE DESERT 9
III. “SOMEBODY IS COMING!” 11
IV. THE LIGHT-CHILD 14
V. “SWORD OF THE WORLD” 21
VI. THE BEFRIENDING 28
VII. THE THREE WISE MEN 31
VIII. “WHICH, O LORD, IS WISEST?” 34
IX. OUTCASTS 44
X. THE WOUNDED PEDLAR 48
XI. THE PERSECUTING HOST 53
XII. THE MORNING STARS 54
_COMMENTARIES_
COMMUNITY PRELUDE 69
COMMUNITY EPILUDE 72
THREE MONOGRAPHS:
I. DRAMATIZING COMMUNITY SONG, BY PERCY MACKAYE 73
II. COMMUNITY MUSIC AND THE COMPOSER, BY ARTHUR FARWELL 77
III. DESIGNS FOR “THE EVERGREEN TREE,” BY ROBERT EDMOND JONES 78
ACTION OF “THE EVERGREEN TREE” 80
ANNOUNCEMENTS CONCERNING MUSIC AND PRODUCTION 81
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_I. SCENES_
DANCE-CAROL OF THE EVERGREEN _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
THE LIGHT-CHILD 16
SWORD OF THE WORLD 24
THE THREE WISE MEN 32
OUTCASTS 44
THE PEDLAR-KING 62
THE MORNING STARS 66
_II. GROUND-PLAN_ 69
_III. COSTUMES_
GNOME, TREE, ELF 78
BEAR, WOLF, LION 78
JOSEPH, MARY, SHEPHERDS 78
HOST, HEROD, CAPTAIN 78
BELSHASAR, CASPAR, MELCHIOR 78
FOLLOWERS OF BELSHASAR, CASPAR, MELCHIOR 78
SORROW, SONG, DEATH, POVERTY 78
RUTH, CLAUS, CHILDREN, CHORUS B 78
_PERSONS AND GROUPS_
In the Order of their Appearance
PERSONS
ELF
GNOME
TREE
WOLF
BEAR
LION
JOSEPH
MARY (Mute)
SHEPHERD
CAPTAIN OF THE HOST OF HEROD
HEROD
BELSHASAR
MELCHIOR
CASPAR
RUTH
CLAUS
SONG (Mute)
SORROW (Mute)
DEATH
POVERTY (Mute)
GROUPS
SHEPHERDS
HOST OF HEROD
FOLLOWERS OF THE THREE KINGS
OUTCASTS: FOLLOWERS OF SONG, SORROW AND POVERTY
For Army Camp productions, in camps where it may not be practicable to
have women as acting principals, the two mute female figures, MARY and
SONG, may—if necessary—be omitted, and RUTH be acted by some well-skilled
youth, as was the custom in Elizabethan days. The part of TREE, in any
production, may be acted either by a young woman or by a young man (in
small-scale productions preferably by a young woman). ELF and GNOME are
preferably acted by children: a girl and a boy, or—if desirable—by two
boys. In Chorus A, and in the first Semi-Chorus of the Outcasts, choir
boys may, if need be, take the places of women.
_CHORUSES AND CAROLS_
CHORUSES
_First Action_ I. (A,1) Chorus of the Wilderness.
_Fourth Action_ II. (A,2) Light of the World.
_Fourth Action_ III. (A,3) The Star.
_Fifth Action_ IV. (B,1) The Might of Herod.
_Fifth Action_ V. (A,4 B,2) The Wrath of Herod.
_Fifth and Eleventh_ VI. and X. Song of the Persecuting Host.
(B,3 and 4)
_Sixth Action_ VII. and VIII. Glory and Serenity.
(A,5 and 6)
_Ninth Action_ IX. (A,7) Dirge of the Outcasts.
_Twelfth Action_ XI. (A,8 and B,5) Chorus of the Christmas Tree.
Part I: The Pedlar-King.