King in Yellow

King in Yellow, The (1)

A being vaguely associated with Carcosa, the Hyades, and the Yellow Sign. Subject of the play of the same name.

The King in Yellow seized the minds of men and controlled even their unborn thoughts; the ambitions of Caesar and Napoleon paled before his. He is a king whom emperors have served. Hildred Castaigne had a diadem fit for a king of kings, an emperor of emperors, but still felt that the diadem might be scorned by the King in Yellow. [RWC Repairer (online text)]

The tatters of the King flap in dim Carcosa [Cassilda (online text)] Mr. Wilde said that the scolloped tatters of the King in Yellow must hide Yhtill forever. [Repairer] "Scolloped" may mean that border of the cloth has a continuous series of circle segments or angular projections [scallop, Merriam-Webster]; or it may mean that a there was a pattern of Heraldic escallops (downward-facing scallop shells) printed on the cloth [Glossary, Heraldic Science Héraldique]. The fact that the King wears tatters may suggest that he returned after being outcast or dead.

Osgood Oswald Vance was aware of the King in Yellow, but had briefly forgotten Him after being released from the asylum. [Repairer]

The King in Yellow may be known as the son of Hastur, for Castaigne believed that during his coming reign, people should know the son of Hastur. [Repairer]

Mr. Scott knew that the King in Yellow had opened his tattered mantle and there was only God to cry to now. His model Tessie was killed instantly, and Scott died after writing his confession. [Yellow (online text)]

King in Yellow, The (2)

A play that caused a sensation when published in book form. It is not clear whether it was ever performed on stage.

Reception

The play was called the very supreme essence of art. No definite principles had been violated in those wicked pages, yet all felt that that the essence of purest poison lurked therein. The book spread from city to city around the world, often banned or confiscated, only to turn up somewhere else. There were denunciations from pulpit and Press, and it was said that the book drove men frantic and blasted their lives. [Repairer (online text)]

Appearance

The copy in Mr. Scott's bookcase was bound in mottled serpent skin. [Yellow (online text)]

Structure

The first act is banal and innocent, and the second act is horrific but fascinating [Repairer]. Nobody ever ventured to discuss the second part aloud [Yellow].

Act i, Scene 2 includes Cassilda's Song, which speaks of lost Carcosa. [Cassilda (online text)]

At some point Cassilda gives the bitter cry, "Not upon us, oh King, not upon us!" [Mask (online text)]

Setting

The setting involves lost Carcosa, the Lake of Hali, the twin suns, the black stars, and the Hyades. [Cassilda]

Characters

The characters include Cassilda, Camilla, a Stranger, and Hastur. [Repairer; Yellow]

Symbols

After reading the play, Mr. Scott and Tessie Reardon realized that the symbol on a certain onyx clasp was the Yellow Sign. [Repairer]

After reading the play, Hildred Castaigne's mind would bear for ever the memory of the Pallid Mask [Repairer]. After reading the book, Mr. Scott and Tessie spoke to each other of the King and the Pallid Mask; since these thoughts were paired, it is possible that the King wore the Pallid Mask in the story [Yellow]. In Act I, Scene 2, Camilla asks the Stranger to unmask, stating that everyone else has laid aside their disguises, and panics on learning that the Stranger is wearing no mask [Mask]. If the Stranger is the same as the King, then perhaps the Pallid Mask is a nickname for the King's own face, so pale and unnatural that people mistake it for a mask at first glance. Possibly they were at a masquerade ball where the others have all unmasked at the end of the evening.

Other References

Mr. Wilde spoke of a number of things which may have originated in the play: the Dynasty in Carcosa; the lakes which connected Hastur, Aldebaran and the mystery of the Hyades; the cloudy depths of Demhe; someone or something called Yhtill; and the ramifications of the Imperial family, from Hastur to Naotalba and Phantom of Truth, to Uoht and Thale, to Aldones, and the Last King. [Repairer]

Readers

Hildred Castaigne read The King in Yellow and apparently became subject to megalomania, paranoia, and other delusions, centering on a dynasty stretching back to Hastur, which he believed entitled him to be king of America. A postscript tells us that he later died in the Asylum for the Criminal Insane. [Repairer]

There was a copy of The King in Yellow at the studio of Boris Yvain. Though it is not stated, the book may have inspired Boris's strange experiments with a solution that could instantly turn any living thing into a beautiful stone fossil. Later, Boris' friend Alec stumbled across The King in Yellow, read in it for a few moments, and then set it aside with a shudder. The book may have caused the unraveling of the love triangle between Boris, his wife Geneviève, and Alec, which resulted in Geneviève plunging herself into the fatal solution and Boris shooting himself. While sickened with a fever, Alec came to consider his pretense of being only a friend to Genevieve to have been a sort of mask, reminiscent of the Pallid Mask in the play. He saw the lake of Hali, and the towers of Carcosa behind the moon; as well as Aldebaran, the Hyades, Alar, and Hastur, gliding through the cloud-rifts which fluttered and flapped as they passed like the scolloped tatters of the King in Yellow. According to Alec's narrative, Geneviève later came back to life, but it remains unclear how much of his account consists of delusions caused by exposure to the play. [Mask]

Reading The King in Yellow caused the In the Court of the Dragon narrator three nights of physical suffering and mental trouble. Thereafter he believed that his soul was hunted by a pale and malignant church organist. He felt the wind from the Lake of Hali, saw black stars hanging from the sky, and saw the towers of Carcosa rising behind the moon. He seems to have sunk into some kind of oblivion or death at this point. [RWC Court (online text)]

Tessie Reardon and Mr. Scott stumbled across the book in Scott's rooms, though he had no idea how it had gotten there. The arrival of the book was only the latest of a series of strange occurrences that began with Tessie finding a clasp inlaid with the Yellow Sign, followed by nightmares about the strangely corpse-like local church watchman. After Tessie and Scott read the play, the watchman entered their room and apparently caused Tessie to die instantly, while Scott began a fatal decline. [Yellow]

While hunting alone in Britanny, Philip seemed to be transported into the 1500s, where he fell in love with the beautiful demoiselle Jeanne D'Ys. After being stung by a serpent, he reawakened to the present day. Though there is no mention of The King in Yellow, one of the falconers was named Hastur. This raises the possibility that Philip had been exposed to The King in Yellow at some point and become subject to its curse. [Demoiselle (online text)]

In most of these cases, The King in Yellow seems to make a man aware of some forbidden love, and then punish him for it. Castaigne fancied Constance, who had eyes only for his cousin Louis. Alec loved his best friend's wife. Mr. Scott consented to marry Tessie although in his heart he loved another, and expected to make Tessie unhappy. The commoner Philip loved a noblewoman from another century. Even the In the Court of the Dragon narrator felt that he was being punished for an unspecified past misdeed: "Death and the awful abode of lost souls, whither my weakness long ago had sent him—they had changed him for every other eye, but not for mine."

Authorship

Some believed that the author of the play shot himself after bringing forth such a monstrosity, but Castaigne believed that the author still lived. [Repairer]

Misc

Robert W. Chambers is said to have derived the idea of his novel The King in Yellow from rumors of the Necronomicon [HPL History (online text)].

The tiny man told Doctor Wycherly that books such as The King in Yellow would not be found lying about in bookstores [HH Guardian].

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