Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Glossary
An Unequal Match
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Glossary
Summary
Published: Pioneer, 11 July 1888; Pioneer Mail, 15 July 1888.
Attribution: In Scrapbook 4 (28/4 pp. 72–3).
Text: Pioneer, 11 July 1888.
Notes: An Unequal Match, by Tom Taylor (1817–80), originally performed in London in 1857, was performed at Simla on 6 July 1888. RK wrote of his review of the play: ‘Have attempted a new and slightly audacious form of criticism of The Unequal Match. Instead of writing a laboured review vowing that every one could not have been better I stuck four people into Peliti's balcony and made ‘em talk over the play as they naturally would. I fear, as I said, that the result is slightly acid and I fancy that G. W. A[llen]. won't be over and above anxious to retain me as a dramatic critic’ (to Edmonia Hill [7–8] July 1888: Letters, i, 241). The female lead in the play was taken by Mrs G. W. Allen, wife of the proprietor of the Pioneer.
Reprinted in the Martindell–Ballard pamphlets and in Harbord, iv, 2074–9.
Simla, 8th July.
First Voice.– Two coffees, and two vermouths: and this is the nicest table. Well, what did you thnk of it Mrs. X——?
Second Voice.– Oh de-lightful. Especially the dancing. How could they do it?
Third Voice.– No, no. Not Bluebeard – the Unequal Match last night.
Second Voice.– I didn't go. Was it amusing? I hear that –
Fourth Voice.– If we begin by listening to what we hear, we shall never
finish anything at all. I went, and I thought it would have been much better if it had not been played when it was.
First Voice.– Mrs. Y— is pleased to be oracular. How do you mean?
Fourth Voice.– And yet after all we cannot kick our legs over each other's heads eternally.
Second Voice.– Heaven forbid! It would make me nervous. You think – that it –
First Voice.– Didn't “bite” exactly after Bluebeard. I thought so, too. It's an old play. We played it here six years ago and it was a great success then.
Third Voice.– Before our taste had been vitiated by burlesques I suppose. Poor little Simla!
Second Voice.– Please don't go back to the Dark Ages! I wasn't born then. Mr. —, tell me what it was all about, and Mrs. Y— can tear the actors to pieces afterwards.
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- Information
- The Cause of Humanity and Other StoriesThe Cause of Humanity and Other Stories Uncollected Prose Fictions, pp. 260 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018