Life — April 27, 1893 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

possible in a theatre run on com- mercial principles. From} any of its performances we have yet seen, we do not.think that the inference holds good. Neither the literary quality of “ The Squirrel Inn” nor of “The Decision of Court" is so marked as to justify their being staged. Neither play is distin- guished by such ingenuity of plot or by such clever or telling dialogue as to excuse the lack of dramatic action, “Giles Corey, Yeoman,” cleverly worked over for the stage from Miss Wilkins’s story of that name by Mr. Gene W. Presbrey, is by all odds the best production of this theatre, but even its success argues against the inference we mention, “Giles Corey" does possess literary merit; but it is its dramatic force which gives it prominence as contrasted with the other plays. It is not a pleasant play and can never be a popular success ; but artistically it is head and shoulders above the others. This demonstrates cither that the Theatre of Arts and Letters— although aided by first-class actors and good staging—has failed to get into its productions sufficient literary merit, or proves the truth of the very proposition it was created to refute—that dramatic action is more necessary than liter- ary quality to the success of a play. This leaves the entire ques- tion very much where it was be- fore the Theatre of Arts and Let- ters came into existence. Metcalfe. ALL LOST. EV. DR. DROWSIE: Iam afraid that my remarks on the proper raiment for a clergyman this morning were entirely lost. Mrs. DRowste: How so? Dr. DrowsiE: I have since ascertained that there isn’t a tailor in my whole congregation. H AVERLY: I think that Chap- leigh is more knave than fool. AUSTEN: Impossible! She: SO SHE MARRIED THAT BALD-HEADED OLD scamMP! Why, I HEARD HE HAD BEEN BLACKBALLED AT EVERY CLUB IN TOWN, He; THat's WHY HE MARRIED; FOR A HOME. HEN a man gets short of “ rocks" and has not much “sand” he has an in- clination to make mountains out of mole bills. THE base-ball player may not be very “loud,” but his feet waar diamonds, comicbooks.com