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Owen Barfield

Philosopher of the Evolution of Consciousness
The First and Last Inkling
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Home ▸ Read Online ▸ Plays

Plays

Orpheus & Eurydice by J.B.C. Corot - 1861

Orpheus

  • ORPHEUS: A Poetic Drama by Owen Barfield
    – 89 pages (.pdf)
  • Foreword to 1983 publication by Owen Barfield
    Program note for the original production
    Glossary and Guide to Pronunciation

    – 11 pages (.pdf)

Written: 1937
First Performance: 1948 – Sheffield, Yorkshire, England
Published: 1983
Second Performance: 2015 – Los Angeles, California, USA.

This drama was inspired by a conversation between Owen Barfield and his friend C. S. Lewis.

Text editors: John Ulreich, Jane Hipolito and Rory O’Connor.

Manuscript detail from Perceval, the Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes. Paris, National Library of France, Français 12577, 18v. 14th Century.

The Quest of the Sangreal

  • Download The Quest of the Sangreal PDF

Editors: Jefferey H. Taylor & Leslie A. Taylor

Owen Barfield wrote the eurythmy performance piece between 1935 and 1947.

The original manuscript is held in the Bodleian Library.

Bodleian catalogue: ‘The Quest of Sangreal’, typescript copy, n.d. Shelfmark: Dep. c. 1101.

About Eurythmy

Dancers performing EurythmyEurythmy is a movement art that brings the essence of music and language to visible manifestation. Through deliberate, sculptured gestures sounds take physical form. Eurythmy is not interpretive of music and poetry. It is a true sounding or singing through the body as an instrument.

Eurythmy takes its start from the view that all art is the revelation of concealed laws of nature. The experience of the inmost soul is brought forth and unfolds in motion, gesture, colour and space.

Plate from 'Visions of the Daughters of Albion,' by William Blake, c.1795

Angels at Bay

Editors: Jefferey H. Taylor & Leslie A. Taylor.

Owen Barfield composed the play in c.1940. The original manuscript is held in the Bodleian Library.

A transcript copy manuscript is in the Marion E. Wade Center
[Reference: OB / MS 1 to 4 / ANGELS AT BAY, 163 pages.]

Read Online | Download PDF (53 pp)

  • The Tower: Major Poems and Plays

    The Tower, Angels at Bay, The Unicorn, Riders on Pegasus and Medea are included in The Tower: Major Poems and Plays, edited by Leslie A. Taylor and Jefferey H. Taylor (Anderson: Parlor Press, 2021). This version includes extensive notes, introductions, and a bibliography.

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With C.S. Lewis
The Silver Trumpet
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Community
Barfieldian Studies
Conferences and Events
Award for Excellence
Responses
Short Course
Translations
Research
Explanations
Resources
Recordings
Photographs
Glossary
The Inklings
Fellowship
The Inkling Impulse
J.R.R. Tolkien
Charles Williams
C.S. Lewis
Lucy Barfield and Narnia
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy Translations
Of the Consciousness Soul
The Year Participated
Analogous
Owen & Owen
Original Artworks
Ramon Llull
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