LITERARY SALVAGE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13906, 3 December 1910, Page 7

LITERARY SALVAGE.

THE PLAYS OF PEACOCK. "The, Plays of Thomas Love Peacock" are three in aumiber, and now, fifty years after his death, aro published for the first iime (says "T.P.'s "Weekly.") As the editor says in his introduction :— "None of the collective editions of. Peacock's works make any reference to I these plays. Indeed, the only allusion to them is a cursory notice of a few {lines in Sir Henry Cole's 'Biographical J Notes of T. L. Peacock,' of which ten i copies were printed and privately circulated about the year 1875. Yet fiie fact of thi3 poot and novelist being a playwright as well should not come as a complete surprise. Mrs Clarke states in her sliort biographical notice of her grandfather that while on board tho Venerable, as far back as 1808, he used to write prologues for the plays acted by the sailors. We know also that he contributed a. prologue and epilogue for Tobin's comedy of 'The Guardian,' which appeared on the stago eigut years later." Only one of the three plays can he considered of very serious literary importance. "The Dilettanti" truly is a foreshadowing of Shaw, and so for that matter ie "The Three Doctors"; but "The Circle of Loda" is a play of [ beauty which has been withheld from us too long. Tho most interesting thing to be said of the first is that it is very probably a study for "Headlong Hall." And the means that Dr Young has employed to arrive at this fact are both simple and convincing:— "The paper was made in 1803, but the play was probably put together considerably later. The style points to this conclusion, while certain references to contemporary events and personages support such a conjecture. Angelica Catalani, for instance, is mentioned in the same breath with Raphael, Michael Angelo, *tc, and it was. not until 1806 that she came to London to make a great reputation in this country, where she remained until 1814. Tho play hr.s many points of similarity to the first tale by its author, 'Headlong Hall,' which was originally published in 1816. An example may be given. Both the play and the novel have a violinist ana a painter, who in each case quarrel as to the relative merits and demerits «f their accomplishments. In particular, Chromatic wifc'i his Cremona in "The Dilettanti,' continually recalls the character with the same name in, the novel, whose one delight is also his fiddle." Passing fro n this, the editor draws attention to the names of the characters: Tactic, Metaphor, Shadow, Chromatic, and others. In this he has many modern followers. "Prunella" is. a case in point. And the fact that Peacock has here set his characters in a country house, a favourite practice of his, Teminds one that Galsworthy was not tho first to seek his inspiration in such a garden of idleness. If ono tried to define or describe the play, one would call it a musical comedy without the music. Tt is a fantasy in which one Confit seeks a disguise in order, to surprise his young -wife and her dilettante friends. They turn'-the'.tables upon him, and thero is a of rdu&h-nnd-tumble of the verbal, kind. Scattered through the three plays are some snatches of sonp which colour this idea of a Victorian comedy of the Muses: When first I began to talk Ing, I choso the theatrical path, sir; I piit on a tragedy wig, And flourished my dagger of latb, sir. : Love rais'd such a flame in my heart, - That I fancy it is not quito cool yet, When in Romeo I strutted my part. And Shelah Granoro was my Juliet. Her lip was bo prettily curl'd; Her heart then a turtle's was kinder; Bnt one day she walked out of tho world, And left ; her poor Romeo behind her. In despair, at tire cruel control Of fortune so fierceV and so frisky, I seiz'd on oiir trapedy bowl— And fill'd up a brimmer of whisky. Says I, "This shall finish all strife" (And my tears they fell faster find thicker), "I'll snen put an end to my life-— But I'll first put an end to ray liquor." Tho curtain drew up for Macbeth; I'patts'd between plory and sorrowSays I: "I'm resolv'd noon death, But I'll just put it off till to-morrow." '•The Circle of Loda," the second play, is a poetic drama of haunting beauty, based upon tho legend lore that drifts around the Northern Isles, full of the stormy cassions of men, the gleaming beauty of bravo womanhood in an ag© of lire, vocal with the song of tho Valkyries, who stirred the Northjnan, whilo'sunnier races were lured to slumber by the languid and languorous sirens. It is Ossiaaic in mood, though I do not think that the poem is based upon any actual scemes in any one tale of those'times. Ormao -has made war upon Hidalvar to avenge the latter s desertion of Cormac's daughter, Mencala The two women are in strange contrast. Kindane, beautiful., given, to magic and strange- arts, one who has learned The thrilling verse, which burets the tomb and wakes The slumb'ring duet, wins away Hidalvar's love from hjs bride. tihe is beautiful, but, as Hidalvar finds "the. poisonous berry contains a deadlier juice than the rank weed " On the other hand, Mengala, though more of an Amazon than the women of our day, is human. Rindane is unearthly. She dares in the end to tempt the anger of the gods. Finding that Cormac is victorious, she strives to die up tho mngic sword that lies buried in the runic circle of Loda; but as that scene is the centre of the whole work, it is hardly fair to reveal it. The description of the eye of battle, as the bards of Cormac sing courage into the war-men, is musical, and suggestive of the calm before a considerable storm. Mohere, Shaw, and apparently Peacock, are men to whom a medical man is more dangerous than the bacilli against which he struggles. And it speaks well for the editor of this volume, who appears to be a member of the fraternity liimself, that he should allow the Peacockian tail to spread, or so shrill and shrewd a voice to play ducks and drakes with real doctors, or to crow over "quacks," as is done in tliis, the merriest of the three plays. "The Three Doctors," Narcotic and Windgall and Barbet, are curious. They are respectively doctors of man, horse* and dog, and collectively might be described, with variations, as follow: — £11 ills I euro. That dogs endure; I give them drugs, I shave their mugs, I comb their coats, I cut their throats, As yon may deem expedient. They cause endless trouble, and disturb" good, honest lovemaking. But, as in "Macbeth," the sound of a bell brings them all bark to sanity: — . All my troubles disappear, When the dinner-bell I hear, Over woodland, dale, and fell, Swinging slow with eotemn swell—• The dinner-bell I the dinner-bell! What can bid my heart-ache fly? What can bid my head-ache die? What can all the ills dispel, In my morbid frame that dwell? The dinner-bell! the dinner-bell I

Hark?—along the tangled ground. Loudly floats the pleasing sound! Sportive Faur.s to Dryads tell, 'Tis the cheerful dinner-bell! The dinner-bell! the dinner-bell! This book is worthy of Peacock, and some of the dialogue would not ill-be-come his son-in-law, the late George Meredith.