G. K. CHESTERTON PAPERS. VOL. CLXIV (ff. 116). Plays and stories, including fragments, extracted from notebooks, which cannot be linked with existing notebooks; circa 1889-1902. Autograph. Leaves containing stories and plays which were published in Chesterton's lifetime are placed with the appropriate work.
Contents:
1. ff. 1-2. Opening of play 'Mr Embless'; circa 1886.
2. f. 3. Dramatis personae of 'The knomes [sic]'; circa 1886.
3. f. 4 Opening of 'Con I. School morality'; circa 1890.
4. f. 5. One leaf of a play set in the time of the English Civil War; circa 1891.
5. ff. 5*, 6-16v. First chapter of the novel 'The adventurous Abbot Stephen'; circa 1897. The bulk of the novel forms Add. 73341 C. Folios 6, 16 of this extract are published with the rest of the text in C.W., vol. 14, pp. 711, 767, where f. 16 is taken as the end of the whole work. Folio 5* is a photocopy of a leaf in the possesssion of Aidan Mackey of the Chesterton Centre. These leaves, with f. 16 taken as the end of chapter 1, are published, with chapter 2 from Add. 73341 C, in The G. K. Chesterton Quarterly, no. 20 (Autumn 2001), pp. 4-6.
6. ff. 17-20v. Drafts of part of 'Apotheosis'; circa 1896. The first two leaves bear the title 'Ego'. See references at Add. 73340 C.
7. ff. 21-23v. Untitled drafts of part of 'Basil Howe'; circa 1892. See references at Add. 73320 B.
8. f. 24. Untitled draft of opening of 'Child Street'; circa 1895. See references at Add. 73338 A.
9. ff. 25-26. Opening of 'The duke's story, or, The eater of earth'; circa 1900.
10. f. 27. Untitled draft of opening of 'Earthquake Esquire'; circa 1900. This fragment published as 'A lamp-post' in C.W., vol. 14, p. 693; see also references at Add. 73336 F.
11. ff. 28-40. Fragments of 'Everywhere', an early version of 'A traveller's tale'; circa 1894. See references at Add. 73336 D.
12. f. 41. Opening of 'Full confession of a pro-Boer'; circa 1900.
13. ff. 42-52v. Fragments of stories related to those in the sequence entitled 'The human club'; circa 1896. See also references at Add. 73246.
14. f. 53. Opening of 'In red clay: a short story'; circa 1894. See also Add. 73332 B.
15. f. 54. Untitled draft of part of 'Le jongleur de Dieu'; circa 1894. See references at Add. 73340 D.
16. ff. 55-55v. Opening of an illustrated story concerning Edmund Clerihew Bentley and his courting of the Vivian sisters, entitled 'The legend of Sir Edmund'; circa 1893. See also Add. 73307.
17. ff. 56-58. Opening of 'Part I. A toy creation. Chapter I. The seven epitaphs of Eric Peterson', part of the sequence entitled 'The man with two legs'; circa 1899. See also references at Add. 73246.
18. ff. 59-66. Openings of drafts of a story finally entitled 'The moderate country', but here entitled 'The age of reason', 'In medio stat virtus' and 'How to find Fairyland'; circa 1895. See references at Add. 73338 E.
19. ff. 68v. Opening of 'The orange sash'; circa 1889.
20. ff. 69-72. 'A philosophy in colours'; circa 1896.
21. ff. 73-82. Incomplete drafts of 'A philosophy in dumb-show'; circa 1893. On the versos of ff. 79, 80, 82 are letters from Chesterton concerning Robert Buchanan in draft. A shorter version published as 'Dumb show' from Add. 73330 B in C.W., vol. 14, p. 600.
22. ff. 83-92. 'Three priests: a scene'; circa 1895. See references at Add. 73306.
23. ff. 93-97. Fragments of 'A traveller's tale', afterwards reworked as 'A crazy tale'; circa 1895. See references at Add. 73336 D.
24. ff. 98-100. Chapter titles and opening of 'The villain'; circa 1898.
25. ff. 101-116. Fragments of eight untitled short stories; circa 1888 - circa 1910. See also Add. 73318 C for another version of the story beginning "The Eastern posture . . . ".