The King In Yellow (The Play)
From The Yellow Site
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The play concerns the final days of the dynasty of a distant world, the arrival of a Stranger to their city, a masked ball and the final disastrous arrival of The King In Yellow. Various authors have given us details of the play and it's background, and whilst most of them relate the same details, some seem to be inconsistent with each other. This page attempts to draw together some of the examples of text.
All versions of the story introduce Carcosa as a mysterious city where the King rules (or is perhaps in exile).
[edit] Dramatis Personae
The following Dramatic Personae are characters from the play, as elaborated from various sources.
- Aldones
- Camilla
- Cassilda
- Naotalba
- Thale
- Uoht
- The Child
- The Stranger (The Phantom of Truth?)
- The King In Yellow
[edit] Confusion
It's worth noting that only a few of the 'established' characters, Camilla, Cassilda and The Stranger, are mentioned by Chambers directly, in quoting from the play, although we can see that The King himself is also a prominant figure. Other names are vague references, to either people or places, and these details have been fleshed out by other writers. It appears that the main confusion seems to have been over the definition of who or what the name 'Yhtill' belongs to - and from here the play seems to have diverged into two seperate interpretations.
Hastur is usually credited as the name of the city the play is set in, although August Derleth, in his Cthulhu Mythos stories made it the name of a Great Old One usually credited as being the entity of which The King In Yellow is an avatar. Yhtill is used, depending on the source, either as an alternative name for the central city or as the name of The Stranger (or rather it is the word for 'stranger' as used in the city of Alar). Alar is generally accepted as being a city mentioned in the play, a city that is at war with the central city, although on one count the name has been credited to a character.
Irritatingly enough, the divergence seems to have been split into one setting usually followed by established authors, and one setting which has been carved out for the benefit of the games. As the latter continues to gain momentum as a defining element of the Carcosa Mythos, it grows increasingly important to see where the two unite, where they differ, and whether the differences demand two alternative settings or just one elusive whole.
Furthermore most sources have credited the play as having been written by 'Castaigne' and having originated in France. These seem to be based on interpretations of lines from The King In Yellow that might require further examination.
The King In Yellow appears, therefore, impossible to pin down as an exact text. Is this due to inconsistencies between the various authors (both those in the real world and in it's fictional counterpart), or might there be something else at work here?
- See Theories - Are There Multiple Copies Of The Play?
- See Theories - Does The Text Of The Play Reflect The Reality Of Carcosa?
[edit] The Chambers Version of The Play
Robert W. Chambers, in writing his book The King In Yellow, quotes only the briefest passages of the play, and then only from the first act, for example: "The very banality and innocence of the first act only allowed the blow to fall afterward with more awful effect".
The following extract is quoted as being 'from Cassilda's Song... Act I, Scene 2', which introduces the first story in the collection:
- Along the shore the cloud waves break,
- The twin suns sink beneath 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.
He also gives only brief tangential summaries, as in this extract from "The Repairer of Reputations":
He mentioned the establishment of the Dynasty in Carcosa, the lakes which connected Hastur, Aldebaran and the mystery of the Hyades. He spoke of Cassilda and Camilla, and sounded the cloudy depths of Demhe, and the lake of Hali. "The scalloped tatters of the King in Yellow must hide Yhtill forever," he muttered, but I do not believe Vance heard him. Then by degrees he led Vance along the ramifications of the Imperial family, from Naotalba and Phantom of Truth, to Aldones, and then tossing aside his manuscript and notes, he began the wonderful story of the Last King.
The same applied to "The Yellow Sign", as in the final pages before the two protagonists die after reading The King in Yellow:
Night fell and the hours dragged on, but still we murmured to each other of the King and the Pallid Mask, and midnight sounded from the misty spires in the fog-wrapped city. We spoke of Hastur and of Cassilda, while outside the fog rolled against the blank window-panes as the cloud waves roll and break on the shores of Hali....And now I heard him moving very softly along the hall. Now he was at the door, and the bolts rotted at his touch.
