Diminutive dramas

"Diminutive dramas" by Maurice Baring is a collection of short comic plays written in the early 20th century. Sprightly, parodic, and urbane, the pieces recast history, myth, literature, and everyday manners into brisk one-act dialogues with ironic twists. Expect quibbling monarchs, punctured heroics, and theatrical in-jokes as classical figures and modern types collide in miniature stage scenes.

The opening of the collection presents a rapid suite of sketches: Henry VIII and Catherine Parr bicker over boiled eggs and the color of Bucephalus until a death sentence is issued and un-issued; a Kensington romance founders when a suitor’s “drawback” (his father is the hangman) is eclipsed by the heroine’s pique over his former crushes; Dido confronts Æneas as he blames destiny for abandoning her; and a mock-Elizabethan tragedy narrates Alexander’s death in high-flown pastiche. Next, a dying sculptor refuses a predatory dealer and smashes his own “Greek” masterpiece; the French royal family’s card game devolves into squabbling that tips the king into madness; a shambolic Globe rehearsal of Macbeth shows actors browbeating the playwright; and a misty, Maeterlinck-like pantomime sees Harlequin spirit Columbine away while a befogged constable nabs the wrong man. These first pieces set the tone: swift setups, sharp dialogue, and comic reversals that lampoon vanity, pedantry, and theatrical pretensions.