Pastoria

Infobox character
colour = green
series = Oz
name = Pastoria


caption = Pastoria (center) with his daughter, Ozma (right), Snip the Button-Boy, and Pajuka the Goose
art by John R. Neill
first = "The Wizard of Oz" (1902) (non-continuity)
"The Marvelous Land of Oz" (1904) (mentioned)
"The Lost King of Oz" (1925) (first actual appearance)
last = "The Yellow Knight of Oz" (1930)
creator = L. Frank Baum, Ruth Plumly Thompson
nickname = The Tired Tailor; Lost King
alias = Tora
species = Human
gender = Male
age = unknown
born = unknown
death = reported dead, revealed alive and probably immortal
occupation = tailor
title = Royal Father
family = previous King Oz (father)
spouse = unknown
children = Princess Ozma (daughter)
relatives = unknown
nationality= unknown more specifically than Oz
residence = tailor shop in the Emerald City

Pastoria is a fictional character mentioned in the Oz books by L. Frank Baum and his successors, and a major character in "The Lost King of Oz" by Ruth Plumly Thompson. According to "The Marvelous Land of Oz", Pastoria was the king of the Land of Oz before being removed by an evil witch named Mombi and superseded by the Wizard of Oz. Eventually Pastoria's daughter, Ozma, came to the throne of the Emerald City.

The Classic Books

Baum actually created the character of Pastoria for the 1902 stage musical, "The Wizard of Oz", freely adapted from his book. At the start of that play, King Pastoria II has been banished from Oz and is working as a street car conductor in America, with a waitress girlfriend named Trixie Tryfle. By the second act, Pastoria is restored to his Emerald City throne and orders all who allied with the Wizard, including the four classic protagonists, beheaded. Nothing of the stage character but his name made it into Baum's books.

He is mentioned as "dead and gone" by the Scarecrow, though there is no narrational confirmation, in "The Marvelous Land of Oz" [Chapter 20] . It is also unclear if he ever actually ruled Oz like his father before him. Ozma later says that all rulers were named "Oz" if male and "Ozma" if female, so the personal name suggests he may not have ruled. It is stated that Pastoria's father ruled Oz and that Pastoria is the father of Ozma, but is silent on whether Pastoria was ever King. ["Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz", chapter 15.] . The previous book, however, describes Ozma as "the only child of the former Ruler of Oz, and was entitled to rule in his place." ["Ozma of Oz", chapter 9.]

Baum's successors added more detail to the character of Pastoria. In "The Magical Mimics in Oz" (1946), Jack Snow wrote that Pastoria had adopted Ozma as a baby fairy; this explains why the series contains no mention of her mother. In "The Lost King of Oz" (1925), Ruth Plumly Thompson built her plot around a quest for Pastoria. Mombi had enchanted him in the form of Tora the Tired Tailor, with no memory of his true identity and with ears that can fly off his face, often coming together like a butterfly. He is the only visible person in the underground city of Blankenburg because of the need to see his hands while working preparing clothing for the citizens of a town whose queen is so ugly that when she stumbled upon a well that makes the drinker invisible, not only did she drink from it, but she forced all her subjects to drink from it as well. Snip the Button-Boy of Kimabaloo rescued him from Blankenburg.

We also learn that Pastoria had a hunting lodge in a town in the Quadling Country called Morrow.

At the end of the book he returns to the Emerald City, but is happy to let Ozma keep ruling, and opens a tailor shop called The Tired Tailor of Oz, under his own name, having been restored to his proper form by Mombi forced to undo the spell, after which she is ordered executed by water. Thereafter he plays little role in the series, limited to brief mentions in "The Gnome King of Oz" (conversing with Nick Chopper about the latter's crop of tin cans) and "The Yellow Knight of Oz" (referred to only as the Lost King, playing checkers with the Soldier with the Green Whiskers).

Lin Carter wrote an unauthorized sequel, "The Tired Tailor of Oz", that focused on the character. It was published posthumously in 2001. Normally, with "The Lost King of Oz" still protected by copyright, stories involving Pastoria-as-tailor are unpublishable, but Carter had the clout and funds to do so that most contemporary Oz writers do not have.

Modern Works

In Gregory Maguire's revisionist Oz novels "" and "Son of a Witch", "Pastorius" was the widower of Ozma the Bilious, who died from an apparently accidental poisoning, and father to Ozma Tippetarius, who was approximately the same age as Elphaba. As Ozma Tippetarius was too young to take the throne when her mother died, Pastorius ruled as Ozma Regent until the monarchy was overthrown by the Wizard. Pastorius died during his subsequent imprisonment.

Thomas W. Olson's book of the musical, "The Marvelous Land of Oz" demonstrates the playwright's knowledge of the later Oz books by having Glinda respond "That is the popular belief" to the Scarecrow's "Isn't Pastoria dead and gone?" (which was not phrased as a question in the novel).

References

External links