Life — October 27, 1904 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

406 The Marauder. HERE came a beggar to my door, A comely little lad, With sun-kissed hair and azure eyes, With pensive mien, and sad. So meek he seemed—so poor—alone, I wept at such ill-faring ;— Regardez!’ When he entered in He proved a robber daring. He barred the door, he barred the pane, (Defenceless quite he found me,) A prisoner in my own demesne, With braggart oaths he bound me. He mocked my tears, he stole my heart, With jest and gibe to flout me; With rose-leaf strung on rose-leaf red He wove his chains about me, Quoth he, Such sorry garb as yours No thief would deign to borrow 1" He stripped me of my Cynic’s robe, Of Loneliness and Sorrow. He found my store of Doubts and Fears, Made loot to merry measure ; He scattered far to left and right A hoard of doleful treasure. He sealed my lips with kisses three, And swore he'd stay no longer, But though he made to loose my chains I felt the links grow stronger. Ay, strong as steel, these shackles sweet 1 would not break nor sever— A prisoner in my own demesne, Love holds me fast, forever. Meribah Philbrick-Reed, Almost Entirely of Foreign Origin. R. OTIS SKINNER'S personality and acting and Mr. Burridge's scenery are delightful in M. Jean ichepin’s ‘Le Chemineau,” done in Englis at the Lyric, and they are its only redeeming features. ‘The story of the piece is a sordid one, without a single uplifting element.” The hero, notwithstanding his sunniness and magnetism, is a trouble-maker. He is a human cuckoo, and one rather resents the fact that, instead of being punished for his doings, they are taken by every one in the play to be perfectly matter-of-course, com- mended by the author, and, inferentially, tobe approved by the audience. It is true, of course, that in some rural communities moral dis- tinctions arz not very finely drawn, and that among the Aabitans of lower Canada the MUR. OTIS SKINNER AND MR. GEORGE CLARKE IN “THE HARVESTER." standard of education and intelligence is ex- tremely low, but it is hardly credible that even there persons who violate the fundamental laws of human intercourse should be re- warded instead of punished for their misdeeds. Naturalists do not record that the cuckoo is popular even among creatures of ‘the limited moral sense of birds, and it is ask much to expect humans to lend liking to such a hero as M, Richepin has given us in ‘The Harvester.” Le Chemineau” might have been more literally translated “The Tramp” or ** The Vagabond,” but, so called, the im- agination could have invested him with no poetic or heroic atmosphere at all, and the play would have been yet more incredible. ‘The portrayal Mr. Skinner gives is highly artistic and more than pleasing, his support is very good, but “The Harvester” cannot appeal strongly to any class of theatre-goers. . . ONOR is the subject of Mr. Henry Arthur Jones's story told in his “Joseph En- tangled,” now play- ing at the Garrick. Most merrily and in truly Bernard-Shaw- jan manner the Eng- lish playwright rails at marital honor, He seems to delight in the French idea that the husband deceived is an object of humor instead of sympathy, To be sure, in this case, the husband is not really deceived, but he thinks he is, and at times it looks as though it was not really the wife's fault that he was not. This point is rather indefinite ; in fact, the piece is hazy through- out, leaving us in doubt whether Mr. Jones meant to write a sparkling comedy or an emotional drama, Some of the scenes are very delightful comedy, indeed, and then in the most illogical and unreal fashion the play drops into rainy weather. Of course tears and laughter are often nearly allied, but there is usually a reasonable transition from one to the other which either Mr, Jones, or the present actors of his play, fail to supply. The Joseph of Mr. Miller is an irresponsible jackass, whether it was Mr. Jones or Mr. Mil- ler who so created him, and the Lady Mayne of Mr, Jones or Hilda Spong is a feminine idiot. If they had been differently created or differently played, we are not quite sure which, it might have been possible for the audience to leave them at the conclusion of the entanglement with some feeling of satis faction or sympathy, instead of with the impression that they had started nowhere and landed in the same place. ‘The play begins with a compromising situa- tion which in real life would have been cleared upatonce, To make this false premise hold with the audience—a thing which is often done successfully in the theatre—requires that the principal characters at least should seem convinced. Mr, Miller and Miss Spong do not do this, They are as sapient as the au- dience, and while their airy trifling is amusing, it robs the whole dramatic structure of its coherence. Their evident attempt to play the parts lightly and give sparkle to the piece robs the story of whatever conviction it might carry, which at best would be very little. The minor parts, admirably acted by Mr. Tiden, Mr, Dark, Mr, Allen, Mr. Tyler, Laura Hope Crews and Maggie Holloway Fisher, supply the comedy element sufficiently, and would permit Mr. Miller and Hilda Spong to take themselves very seriously, We do not know that this was at all Mr. Jones's idea, but it might give the play an entirely different tone, if it were carried out, As it stands, * Joseph Entangled” is amus- comicbooks.com