Colombine: a fantasy: and other verses: Play Guide and Free Edition
Colombine: a fantasy: and other verses: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
Colombine: a fantasy: and other verses is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Arkell, Reginald (1882–1959).
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
"Colombine : a fantasy : and other verses by Reginald Arkell" is a verse drama with a companion collection of poems, written in the early 20th century. The book blends a fanciful one-act play, drawing on commedia dell’arte figures, with lyrical and dialect pieces. Its likely topic is the tension between glittering illusion and quiet sincerity in love, set against English folklore, memory, and rural life. The play opens on Cissbury Beacon, where an old laborer, Dan’l, and the boy Nathan’l muse about fairy rings and the Roman past before Colombine appears. She expects a duel for her favor, but Harlequin and Pierrot propose arbitration, pulling Dan’l in as judge. Harlequin dazzles with promises—the Land of Yesterday and a crystal that reveals the future—while Colombine gently refuses both nostalgia and fortune-telling. Pierrot offers little but honest love, which she chooses; Harlequin flounces off, and Colombine and Pierrot depart together as night falls, leaving Dan’l half-believing he has seen a fairy. The accompanying poems range from wry meditations on fate and art (“The Marionette,” “Criticism”) to tender, rustic vignettes and love pieces in dialect (“Th’ Coortin’,” “The Buryin’,” “A Zong to Zing-Oh!”), with notes of homesickness and sudden loss (“A Letter from Home”), playful mischief (“Forfeits,” “Treason and Plot”), and a closing vision of the long-sought ideal found in life’s shadowed valleys (“El Dorado”).
Book and edition facts
- Title: Colombine: a fantasy: and other verses
- Author credits: Arkell, Reginald (1882–1959)
- Catalogue language: English
Catalogue subjects
- Columbine (Fictitious character) -- Drama
- English poetry -- 20th century
- Harlequin (Fictitious character) -- Drama
- One-act plays
- Pierrot (Fictitious character) -- Drama
Gutenberg collections
- Category: British Literature
- Category: Plays/Films/Dramas
- Category: Poetry
Read this edition
View the complete Gutenberg catalogue record. Project Gutenberg identifies this edition as public domain in the United States; that designation does not establish its copyright status in every country.
Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
Sources
More in Stage & Theatre
Keep reading
