The Scarecrow or The Glass of Truth: A Tragedy of the Ludicrous

MacKaye, Percy, 1875-1956Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
184K words
Chapters
19

Tags

English Originals Dramatic Literature Tragic ArtPower GameAbsurdist PlotsHuman NaturePhilosophical AllegoryGood and EvilMoral DilemmaAllegorical PlaySatirical Style

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Scarecrow; or The Glass of Truth: A Tragedy of the Ludicrous by Percy MacKayeAuthor: MacKaye, Percy, 1875-1956,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 13, 2018

Editor's review

This verse drama by the American playwright Percy MacKaye carries the subtitle "A Tragedy of the Ludicrous," signaling that it does not rely on plot suspense but uses allegorical characters and dialogue to examine truth placed in a position of mockery. The scarecrow as a stage figure naturally carries the duality of an empty shell and an assigned meaning, and the conflict built around "the glass of truth" rewards slow reading as a work of ideas. As a public-domain e-book, it preserves the verbal rhythms of early twentieth-century American verse drama: crafted sentences and dense imagery make it read more like a rhymed debate. For readers interested in theatrical experimentation around the American little-theatre movement, it offers an uncommon and intriguing sample; for general readers it can be a short literary adventure—no need to grasp it all at once, only to feel the tension of the ludicrous and the serious placed side by side.

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Reading tips

  1. Read through once for the overall ludicrous tone, then return to key dialogue and soliloquies.
  2. Consider the symbolism of the scarecrow and the glass of truth against the subtitle "A Tragedy of the Ludicrous."
  3. If the English is difficult, read a plot summary first to reduce resistance before the original text.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a play? It is a verse play, composed of character dialogue and stage directions—dramatic literature rather than a novel. Read it scene by scene, imagining the action and tone on stage.
Can I read it without experience of drama? Yes. First get clear on the relationships among the characters, then read in scene order; do not parse every word of long soliloquies—grasp the speaker's position and emotion first, then revisit key lines.
Why is it called "A Tragedy of the Ludicrous"? The subtitle sets the tone: comic, exaggerated stage figures carry serious questions of truth, so the ridiculous and the pitiable occur together. Notice which scenes make you laugh and why the laughter feels heavy afterward.

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About the author

MacKaye, Percy, 1875-1956 Author

Percy MacKaye (1875–1956) was an American poet and playwright. Public information about him is limited, and many details of his life remain obscure. Four of his works are held in the collection: Sanctuary: A Bird Masque, Fenris, the Wolf: A Tragedy, Caliban, and The Scarecrow or The Glass of Truth: A Tragedy of the Ludicrous. These works show him writing in the forms of masque, verse drama, and tragedy, often drawing on myth, legend, and fable and using symbolism to explore moral and human questions. Sanctuary is a bird masque with a conservationist dimension; Fenris, the Wolf draws on Norse mythology; and Caliban echoes the figure in Shakespeare's The Tempest. His plays are notable for their poetic language and stage imagery and had some influence on early modern American drama.