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    Possession: A Peep-Show in Paradise
    Possession: A Peep-Show in Paradise
    Possession: A Peep-Show in Paradise
    Ebook77 pages46 minutes

    Possession: A Peep-Show in Paradise

    By Laurence Housman

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    Possession: A Peep-Show in Paradise
    Author

    Laurence Housman

    Laurence Housman (18 July 1865 – 20 February 1959) was an English playwright, writer and illustrator whose career stretched from the 1890s to the 1950s. He studied art in London and worked largely as an illustrator during the first years of his career, before shifting focus to writing. He was a younger brother of the poet A. E. Housman and his sister and fellow activist in the women's suffrage movement was writer/illustrator Clemence Housman.

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      Book preview

      Possession - Laurence Housman

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Possession, by Laurence Housman

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: Possession

      A Peep-Show in Paradise

      Author: Laurence Housman

      Release Date: March 1, 2009 [EBook #28232]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POSSESSION ***

      Produced by Michael Ciesielski and the booksmiths at

      http://www.eBookForge.net

      Possession

      Uniform with this Volume

      Angels & Ministers: Three Plays

      of Victorian Shade & Character

      by Laurence Housman

      Possession

      A Peep-Show in Paradise

      by Laurence Housman

      Jonathan Cape

      Eleven Gower Street, London

      First published in a

      limited edition of 500

      numbered copies only

      for sale Oct. 1921.

      Popular Edition, Jan.

      1922

      All rights reserved

      Introduction

      This play—originally intended to form part of Angels and Ministers—was separated on an after-thought as a concession to those who do not like to have their politics and their religion mixed. And, as the Victorian age was eminently successful in keeping the two apart, it is 'in keeping,' in another sense, with the Victorianism of the religion here portrayed that it should make its appearance under a separate cover.

      As some of my critics seem anxious to trace the inspiration of these Victorian plays to an outside source, and are divided, as regards the historical section, between the Abraham Lincoln of Mr. John Drinkwater and the Queen Victoria of Mr. Lytton Strachey, may I assure them that my historical method of treating Kings and Queens 'intimately' was derived from my own play Pains and Penalties, published in 1911, and that my anthropomorphic theology is based upon the first book I ever wrote, Gods and their Makers, published in 1897. I do not think that Possession owes anything either to Cranford or the writings of Mrs. Humphry Ward.

      Dramatis Personæ

      Possession

      Scene.—The Everlasting Habitations

      It is evening (or so it seems), and to the comfortably furnished Victorian drawing-room a middle-aged maid-servant in cap and apron brings a lamp, and proceeds to draw blinds and close curtains. To do this she passes the fire-place, where before a pleasantly bright hearth sits, comfortably sedate, an elderly lady whose countenance and attitude suggest the very acme of genteel repose. She is a handsome woman, very conscious of herself, but carrying the burden of her importance with an ease which, in her own mind, leaves nothing to be desired. The once-striking outline of her features has been rounded by good feeding to a softness which is merely physical; and her voice, when she speaks, has a calculated gentleness very caressing to her own ear, and a little irritating to others who are not of an inferior class. Menials like it, however. The room, though over-upholstered, and not furnished with any more individual taste than that which gave its generic stamp to the great Victorian period, is the happy possessor of some good things. Upon the mantel-shelf, backed by a large mirror, stands old china in alternation with alabaster jars, under domed shades, and tall vases encompassed by pendant ringlets of glass-lustre. Rose-wood, walnut, and mahogany make a well-wooded interior; and in the dates thus indicated there is a touch of Georgian. But, over and above these mellowing features of a respectable ancestry, the annunciating Angel of the Great Exhibition of 1851 has spread a brooding wing. And while the older articles are treasured on account of family association, the younger and newer stand erected in places of honour by reason of an intrinsic beauty never previously attained to. Through this chamber the dashing crinoline has wheeled the too vast orb of its fate,

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