The Betrothal A Sequel to the Blue Bird; A Fairy Play in Five Acts and Eleven Scenes

"The Betrothal" by Maurice Maeterlinck is a fairy play written in the early 20th century. It serves as a sequel to "The Blue Bird," continuing the story of Tyltyl, a young boy embarking on a significant journey to find love. The narrative explores themes of love, choice, and destiny, with Tyltyl being guided by the fairy Berylune as he navigates his feelings and relationships with several young girls. At the start of the play, Tyltyl is visited by the fairy Berylune, who returns to help him recognize his true love among a group of girls who mysteriously appear in his cottage. As Tyltyl grapples with his feelings, he encounters both familiar characters and new figures, revealing a blend of innocence and the complexity of first love. The fairy's guidance emphasizes the importance of understanding true love, while Tyltyl's reluctance and uncertainty reflect the pressures of choice and expectation in shaping his future happiness. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911 "in appreciation of his many-sided literary activities, and especially of his dramatic works, which are distinguished by a wealth of imagination and by a poetic fancy, which reveals, sometimes in the guise of a fairy tale, a deep inspiration, while in a mysterious way they appeal to the readers' own feelings and stimulate their imaginations". The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life. He was a leading member of La Jeune Belgique group, and his plays form an important part of the Symbolist movement. In later life, Maeterlinck faced credible accusations of plagiarism.