Heliogabalus: A Buffoonery in Three ActsSatire written on a lark by Mencken, with assistance from friend and co-editor Nathan, to prove to themselves how easy it was to write a successful play. Of it Mencken wrote in 1937: ... "the hero should be a man universally disreputable, and ... there should be nothing in the play save time-honored theatrical buncombe. Every sort of novelty in the plot was to be barred, and the so-called psychology was to be as transparent as possible." |
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Common terms and phrases
afraid alarm ammonia ANNIA FAUSTINA AQUILIA SEVERA atrium banquet banquet-room begins better bottle brandy CÆLESTIS Cæsar CAPPADOCIA centurions Christian CLERK comes CORNELIA cure DACIA Damn dear Doctor door drink duty ears Emperor eyes feel feet GABALUS girl give gladiator glance goblet grabs guard guests hands hangings head hear heard HELIO HELIOGABALUS LUCIA HELIOGABALUS turns HELIOGABALUS Yes Idiotically imperial kiss knock ladies leaps legs look Lord loud LUCIA HELIOGABALUS Majesty marry men's party never night Night Court Nonsense old Paula ostium paenula palace PAULA HELIOGABALUS PAULA Yes pause peristyle pills PISO and POLORUS PISO POLORUS Pontifex Maximus poor pray quacks remember rolls Roman Rome RUFINIUS turns scarlet woman screams SIMON slaves sleep solium soul stand stomach stomach-ache Suddenly surely talk tell thing thought triclinium tunic underdrawers voice What's wife wine wives word
Popular passages
Page 132 - Love is like war, easy to begin but very hard to stop.
Page 145 - And as for the other letters it's six of one and half a dozen of the other...
Page 38 - It has been said that those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword.
Page 16 - Oh, doctor, I am so glad to see you! I have been so worried!
Page 132 - A woman in love is less modest than a man: she has less to be ashamed of.
Page 2 - Half-title ("Of this book three hundred and seventy-five | copies have been printed from type and the | type distributed. | (This is number . . .
Page 173 - Either you put that crazy Christian balderdash away, or I put you away.