The King in Yellow

The King in Yellow ( original English title: The King in Yellow ) is a 1895 published collection of short stories by American author Robert W. Chambers. Content can be classified as early horror fiction stories. The first four short stories include a play of the same name.

• 2.1 Cassilda 's Song
• 2.2 The Mask
• 2.3 First and second act

Stories

The first four short stories in the collection are vaguely connected by three building blocks:

• The King in Yellow - a play in two acts
• The King in Yellow - a mysterious, malevolent and supernatural entity
• The Yellow Sign - a fearsome symbol

The first four short stories are macabre in terms of language, characters and structure. The first short story, The Repairer of Reputations takes place in a fictional future America in the 1920s. The other stories of the book do not follow the macabre nature of the first four. They are comparable written with Chambers later works, in a romantic style.

List of short stories

The play " The King in Yellow "

The fictional play The King in Yellow is part of the first four short stories in the collection. It consists of two acts and three characters: Cassilda, Camilla and the King in Yellow. In Chambers collection of short stories is of excerpts from this piece.

Cassilda 's Song

Act I, Scene 2

Act I, Scene 2

Along the shore the cloud waves break, The twin suns sink beneath the lake, The shadows lengthen In Carcosa.

Along the coast, the cloud waves break, The twin suns sink beneath the lake, The shadows lengthen In Carcosa.

Strange is the night, go up in the black stars, And strange moons circle through the skies, But strange is still The Lost Carcosa.

Songs did the Hyades Shall sing, Where flap the tatters of the King, Must the unheard in Dim Carcosa.

Songs which are to sing the Hyades there, Where the tatters of the King flutter, Must die unheard in Gloomy Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead; Die unsung, as tears unshed also Drying and dying are in Lost Carcosa.

The Mask

The short story The Mask is introduced with a cut from the play The King in Yellow.

Camilla: You, sir, shoulderstand 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!

Camilla: You, sir, should unmask. Stranger: Indeed? Cassilda: In fact, it's time. We have put all our trim, except her. Stranger: I wear no mask. Camilla: ( Startled, next Cassilda. ) No mask? No mask!

The first and second act

All excerpts from the play are from the first act The stories describe the first act than usual, the second act, however, allows the reader to be insane by the revealed truth. Merely seeing the first page of the second act is enough to entice the reader: " If I had not caught a glimpse of the opening words of the second act, I would have never finished [...]" [ From: . The Repairer of. reputation ] (Original text: " If I had not caught a glimpse of the opening words in the second act I shoulderstand never have finished it [ ... ] .")

Chambers are only a few hints about the content of the entire piece. An example of such a suggestion is found in an excerpt from the short story 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 scolloped 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, to Uoht and Thale, 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.

He mentioned the founding of the dynasty in Carcosa, the lakes which Hastur, Aldebaran and the mysteries of the Hyades combined. He spoke of Cassilda and Camilla, leaving the murky depths of Demhe and the lake of Hali sound. "The holey rags of the King in Yellow must Yhtill forever conceal ," he muttered, but I do not believe Vance heard him. Then, gradually, he led Vance in the relations of the monarch family to Uoht and Thale, from Naotalba and the phantom of truth to Aldones, and then, his manuscripts and notes laying aside, he began the wonderful story of the Last King.

A similar image appears in the short story, The Yellow Sign, in which two of the protagonists of the piece have read in Yellow The King.

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 spiers 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.

Night fell and the hours dragged on there, but still we murmured to each other by the king and the Pale Mask, and midnight sounded from the obfuscated spiers in the nebelumhangenen city. We spoke of Hastur and of Cassilda, while outside the fog against the bare windows surged as the Gischtwellen bubble on the shores of Hali and break.

Influences

Chambers has borrowed the name Carcosa, and Hastur Hali of Ambrose Bierce, especially of Bierce's short story An inhabitant of Carcosa (Original text: An Inhabitant of Carcosa ) and Haita the shepherd (Original text: Haita the Shepherd ). However, there is no further evidence that Chambers was inspired on the use of names out of Bierce's works. One example is Hastur. In Bierce's work Haita the shepherd Hastur represents the god of shepherds dar. Chambers mentions Hastur but only as a place name in The Repairer of Reputations.

Horror author HP Lovecraft used the motif of a supernatural being, as it represents the King in Yellow, in many of his works - and continues to the end of his essay History and Chronology of the Necronomicon following Hommage à Chambers: "From the rumors about this book [ the Necronomicon ] to Robert W. Chambers have related the incident to his early novel the King in Yellow. "

Expenditure

• Robert W. Chambers: The king in yellow and other horror stories. Dover Publ, New York, 1970.
• Robert W. Chambers: The King in Yellow. Fantastic stories and poems. Edition Festa, Almersbach 2002, ISBN 3-935822-39-1 (HP Lovecraft Library of Secrets, Vol 9).