Page "The King in Yellow" Paragraph 50

Other texts, especially from the symbolist writers, may have influenced Chambers as well: " Le Roi au masque d ' or " (" The king in the gold mask "), a short story written by Marcel Schwob — a French novelist and a friend of Oscar Wilde — was published in 1893 while Chambers was still studying in Paris.

In this story, a king rules a city where all inhabitants are masked.

One day, a strange blind beggar comes into his palace.

After meeting with the beggar, the king, believing he's afflicted by leprosy, feels compelled to remove his mask ; he then tears his own eyes out and leaves his city.

A beggar now, the former king heads toward the faraway " city of the wretched " but dies before the end of his journey.