This 1892 play is set in 1820 in Tunbridge Wells, all the action occurring over the span of just ten hours. The prologue by Henley reads (in part) ‘A sketch, a shadow, of one brave old time; a hint of what it might have held sublime; a dream, an idyll, call it what you will, of man still Man, and woman—Woman still!’
About the author
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. He struggled all his life against tuberculosis and traveled extensively in search of a climate suitable to his illness. His most famous works are Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) was an English critic and editor. The loss of his lower leg at age twelve inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s character Long John Silver. Henley is best known today for his poem “Invictus, ” which ends “I am the master of my fate/ I am the captain of my soul.”