The Project Gutenberg EBook of First Plays, by A. A. Milne

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Title: First Plays

Author: A. A. Milne

Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7805]
Posting Date: August 6, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIRST PLAYS ***

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FIRST PLAYS

By A. A. Milne

TO MY MOTHER

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
WURZEL-FLUMMERY
THE LUCKY ONE
THE BOY COMES HOME
BELINDA
THE RED FEATHERS

INTRODUCTION

These five plays were written, in the order in which they appear now,
during the years 1916 and 1917. They would hardly have been written had
it not been for the war, although only one of them is concerned with
that subject. To his other responsibilities the Kaiser now adds this
volume.

For these plays were not the work of a professional writer, but the
recreation of a (temporary) professional soldier. Play-writing is a
luxury to a journalist, as insidious as golf and much more expensive in
time and money. When an article is written, the financial reward (and we
may as well live as not) is a matter of certainty. A novelist, too,
even if he is not in "the front rank"--but I never heard of one who
wasn't--can at least be sure of publication. But when a play is written,
there is no certainty of anything save disillusionment.

To write a play, then, while I was a journalist seemed to me a depraved
proceeding, almost as bad as going to Lord's in the morning. I thought
I could write one (we all think we can), but I could not afford so
unpromising a gamble. But once in the Army the case was altered. No duty
now urged me to write. My job was soldiering, and my spare time was my
own affair. Other subalterns played bridge and golf; that was one way of
amusing oneself. Another way was--why not?--to write plays.

So we began with Wurzel-Flummery. I say "we," because another is mixed
up in this business even more seriously than the Kaiser. She wrote;
I dictated. And if a particularly fine evening drew us out for a walk
along the byways--where there was no saluting, and one could smoke a
pipe without shocking the Duke of Cambridge--then it w