Notes

Chao Phraya is the modern transliteration of this name which is also the name of the river at Bangkok.

Louis: Anna always refers to him as Boy in her book.

Kralahome: His real name and title was Chao Phraya Si Suriyawongse.

Whistling is an invention of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The ship and Captain Orton are real.

Others who call her sir include the King's wives.

The interpreter was the Kralahome's half-brother and according to her, Anna's enemy.

No Siamese is ever spoken in the play. The sound of Siamese speech is symbolized by sounds from the orchestra.

Several weeks: She didn't actually start teaching until about six months after she arrived. The delay was partly because the astrologer had to find an appropriate date.

Lun Tha: Another Rodgers and Hammerstein invention.

Tuptin's story is actually completely different, and she does not appear until two-thirds of the way through Landon's book, three years after Anna's arrival.

She was really living in the Kralahome's palace and was free to go about the city.

He actually used etcetera in his correspondence long before Anna came.

In Landon this is Lady Talap. Thiang comes into her book almost at the end.

In truth, Chulalongkorn's mother was long dead.

Turtle: The following conversation has potential for discussion at all levels. Most of it is in Landon

KING: How can it be that everyone knows one thing, if many people believe another thing?
CHULA: Then which is true?
KING: The world is a ball with a stick through it. ... I believe.
CHULA: You believe? Does that mean you do not know? But you must know because you are King.
KING: Good. Some day you, too, will be King and you too will know everything.
CHULA: But how do I learn? And when do I know that I know everything?
KING: When you are King. Now leave me.

Help: This scene comes from the film with Rex Harrison and Irene Dunn.

The King did actually write President Buchanan offering elephants, but before Anna arrived, and he knew they would need both male and female.

Sir Edward Ramsey is apparently fictional and has no historical counterpart. He is first mentioned in the Harrison Dunne movie.

Wives: The wives at the dinner is fiction. European gowns were made for a few chosen wives chosen for their somewhat European appearance, but they were then displayed in a living tableau and they were not allowed to mix with the Europeans. The whole dance business is also a fiction.

Small House of Uncle Tom: There never was such a play, just one of the wives wishing to read the book.

There is no dance scene in book. Anna and the King never got that close.

The death scene is an invention. It was first shown in the film with Rex Harrison and Irene Dunn. In reality Anna returned to England before Mongkut died. Chulalongkorn did make those changes but after he reached his majority many years after first becoming King.

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