The King in Yellow
Most know the King in Yellow from Lovecraft’s stories and the Cthulhu mythos in general, but it predates his stories by quite some time. The King in Yellow is a forbidden play which causes those who read it to go mad, and comes from a collection of stories by the same name written by Robert Chambers.
Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind 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.
Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed it’s time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!
- Act 1, Scene 2d ‘The King in Yellow’
