THE BOOKFELLOW.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 77, 2 April 1910, Page 9

THE BOOKFELLOW.

Written for The Port, by A, G. Stephens.. (Copyright.— All Rights Reserved.) GALSWORTHY'S- PLAYS. John Galsworthy was known as a writer of fiction when he turned five» years ago to the writing of plays. '"The Man of Property" may be regarded as his finest story : it ranks with the best English satirical fiction. In later books Galsworthy seems to have merged the artist in the moralist, and his work has become journalistic rather than, literary. Yet he is but 43 years of age, and there is much to hope from him. Galsworthy's three plays— "The Silver Box," "Joy," and "Strife" — have considerable interest as illustrations of recent English drama. Galsworthy is not. an example of the dramatist born for the stage. Though his work has dramatic passaged, it remains too literary, and the literature holds too evident an intention. His defect is to preach, though his merit is to preach very well. THE MORALIST INTRUDES. In '"The Silver Box" he preaches on the old text of one law for the rich and another for the poor. In "Strife" he preaches upon the folly of extremes hi industrial warfare. In "Joy" he preaches least, though his interpretation of the theme that circumstances alter cases be dogmatic ; and "Joy" may " be held hie most successful play constructively, though "Strife" seems his most effective piece for an ordinary audience. Yet Galsworthy's method is too arbitrary. He forces a given set of people and a. given series of facts to a determined moral issue ; and the compulsion is no less because the moral is unexprcoeed. The mind leaps at once to . artistic issues that do not coincide with this moral presumption, and the dramatic essence evaporates. An audience is not a mob of sheep to be- driven" to ethical slaughter, e-ven if the ethic be worthy. In arranging things to suit his preconception, Galsworthy omits dramatic destiny. This fault may be suggested as the vital reason for the failure of "Strife" to capture audiences in London and New York. The verdict has been "A fine play ; but " That "but" is, perhaps, the expression of an instinctive recoil from the ptessare of Galsworthy's arbitrary idea. The 6tage must reform us by example, not by precept, if it is to reform us at all. And, though Galsworthy has onrittad from "Strife" every trace of explicit precept, his precept is implied everywhere. "Strife" runs upon rails, from the author to the end and the finger of Fate, altering the route or obstructing the journey, is met nowhere. Yet Galsworthy's convention is a good convention ; and granting his convention •'Strife" is a forcible play. THE STORY OP "STRIFE." As the Williamson management speaks of producing "Strife" in New Zealand, an American synopsis of the piece comes conveniently for quotation : A great strike has been in progress for several months at the Trenartha Tin Plate Works, on the borders of England and Wales ; and we are shown the effects of this strike at their culmination, within a constricted period of six hours. The strikers are led by David Roberts, a crude, enthusiastic, singleminded workman, who has a grievance against the company because it has not paid him sufficiently for a valuable invention which he has devised. Robert&'s demands are excessive, and he has, there- | fore, lost the support of the trades union, I represented by a diplomatic waiking delegate named Simon Harness. The workmen themselves have grown disaffected under tho hardships and priva tions of protracted disemployment, andare held to the cause only by the force of Roberts's fiery fanaticism. The directors are led by John Anthony, an elderly, iron-minded man, founder of the company, and for two-and-thirty years its president. He has fought and put down four preceding strikes, and is absolutely inflexible in his attitude toward the present insurrection. His directors, , however, are becoming worried over the losses to the company and the prospective necessity of passing the next dividend. The first act discloses a meeting in* which John Anthony maintains has position unalterable, against the arguments and protests of Harness, Roberts, and his own directors. The second act reveals, in one scene, tho sufferings of the women-folk of the strikers; and in another scene the turbulent disaffection of the strikers themselves. A disordered mob listens first to a plea of compromise from Harness, and then to various mooded arguments from several workmen, and finally to a fanatical appeal from Roberts. The latter has just won over the mob to the side of strife when news is brought to him that his wife has died of her enforced .privations. He staggers home , and the crowd, bereft of his overpowering presence, turns against his policy. The last act shows John Anthony voted down by his directors, and forced* to-resign the presidency of the company., He and Roberts remain intrepid and inflexible to the last , but both arc beaten, by their own follower^, who seek refcef in compromise. When terms are finally agreed upon, Harness and Anfc'hony'sj secretary discover that, they are the very same terms which had been drawn up by both together before the fight began; and Harness grimly expresses the im*er"ent cyiricism of the situation in the lasfr line of the play : "That's where the fen comes in!" Nothing has been gained by either side in all the-nxmths-of staife" and misery and economic waste*;, xto&ing has been accomplished exeent that tire, best man on each side has been broken .irretrievably. "THE SILVER BOX." "The Silver Box" is a tract.for^ thetimes, very well justified, yet dramatically rather wordy, rather weary — and, it must be owned, rather obvious. The scene is in London to-day. A middJei class member of 'ParMament has a- scsqsei grace son, wlio comes home after midnight intoxicated, and is helped into, the house by an unemployed workman. The scapegrace has run off with a woman's purse — out of personal spite. The workman is tempted to run off with a silver cigarette-box — out of class spite. The woman comes next day for her purse, and the possible theft is made light of. The workman's wife, casually employed in the household, is arrested for stealing the silver box, found at her lodgings. There is a police-court scene in which the facts are discovered sardonically. The workman's wife is freed ; the workman goes to gaol. The scapegrace's father and mother, with the family lawyer and police magistrate, are characterised incidentally with biting satire. "Strife" is a last year's play. "Tfee Silver Box" is dated 1906; "Joy" a year later. "JOY." The action of "Joy" passes in an English counky-house at the present day. Joy is the central figure, an attractive girl of seventeen applying to.those around her the pi&iless standards" of yoafch. Her mother is married unhappily, and brings a lover as a guesfc to the house. The lover, the retired colonel, and his wife, who are host aneU hostess, an old governess, and a young lover of Joy, .take each ,& -.pgssenal atv

' titude in an indecisive drama. In the conflict of attitudes and characters ti» piece is made, and made well. It is clear that in all three pieces the lea-ding idea of Galsworthy has been to exhibit life proceeding, yet never -arriving. Theoretically this plan should) yield ''the eternal escape" that has been postulated as a necessity of dramatic art ; aad the plan would result so if Galsworthy's own criticism of life wera not involved in the selection and limitation of his characters. They express themselves freely, yet only to the stretch of his tether. It follows thai hi^ dramatic arcs are broken arcs ; they do not leave the necessary impression that they are united with life : they do not seem segments of a universal circle, our own circle. "Joy" is in great part an exception : "The Silver Box" and "Strife" too evidently remain where they are begotten — "in a man's mind," in Galsworthy's aiind. That is, they are literary plays, only half dramatic. Yet, though the greatest merit may not b3 conceded them, they are an admirable and valuable achievement for "the pre • sent time. CURRENT FICTION. Cynthia Stockley's "Poppy" i» the last occasion of 'circulating-library palpitations. One learns from "Poppy" that New Zealand, in some aspects, is preferable to Natal : at least the «and-liies do not come into a, New Zealand houK» in vicious clouds, like the Durban mosquito? — to which are added on a hot [ evening* flying ants, gnats, and "a bat. Durban is not Natal ; but "Poppy" is. One remembers no such vigorous story fiom South Africa since "Ihc Story of an African Farm." "Poppy," however, is in a lower clafs of sensational fiction, though high in the class, and fresh and full of African information, aud womaat ly unmoral. "No. 19," by Edgar Jepson, i& a clever story of the occult, neatly reversing the idea of Merrimee's, "Venus d'llle" and; combining it< with ts;e idpa of I Machen's "Great God Pan." Jepsoa works originally ; and had it not been ■expedient to colloquialise the bcok for sale, he could have added something t» literature. A ring of worshippers tous«. Pan in a London suburb, .in order that another couple may discover the way to love happily ever after. Morley Roberts's' collection of short stories, "Midsummer Madness," deserves reading and will be remembered when read. The short story is long enough for Roberts, who could have handled. 'Rachel Marr," for example, better in thirty pages than in threo hundred. Putnam Weale's> "The Human Cobweb" suggests a similar criticism. T4o or three tales in "The Forbidden Boun- ■ dary" w«re well made. 'The Human ■ Cobweo" suggests a similar criticism. ! "The Human Cobweb" describes the business of concession-hunting in China, and has sufficient interest, yel moves too fclowly. The picture of meo and things in China is an excellent background that overshadows the story. At half a crown foe 160,000 words the book is a bargain for anybody with lots of time. Sarath Kumar Ghosh seems to be aa Indian student who has applied his English education to the construction of aa * nglo-Indiait romance, "The Prince ofDestiny" (Rebroan). Chiefly for its r-3- , presentation of an Indian attitude to th» ' . Empire, anS for the light it throws upon Indian thought and life to-day, the book deserves notice. The author knew Fran-' ci& Thompson, and a. first meeting in a railway carriage is described : — His appearance was certainly strangfe. He was of medium height, but very | slight f same, which made him seem [ taller tlian he realiy was. His cheeks^ [ were so -sunken as to give undue prominence to a .little grey beard that was pointed at -the end, bat otherwise nntrimmed. It was his garb that waa againstJum, and' in. violent contrast with the traditional smartness of city men. His trousers were dark — too dark for summer, frayed -at the ends, spotted with, tallow macks — which- might Ikwo been .made by a farthing dip in combing to a fourth floor tiy rickety steps -at k midnight. His coafc was grey, and did not match the trousers stained -with 'tea at the sleeves. The greatest incongruity, however, was that he wore an ujster, though the heat was great. It had 'been -oiigiriaily brown in colour, but was of several hues in patches. There was no active resentment at .his intrusion; the passengers -simply ignored 1 him after the first glance, and bnraia* 'themselves in their newspapers. Th* new-comer stood ddfi&dently at the door, ' 'as all the five seats on either aide "wera ■taken. Now, Barath had noticed hie eyes, which tho others had nofc: in fact, struck by them from the first, he had" noticed nothing else. Whether tßej^Weia-. light, grey or blaehe could not 4eM^ it" 'was tfaeir lustre, net their colour, tha££ arrested his attention. As foT<his.'gadj J , < Barath cared little y in India a Rraixmot ■ of BratmiMs .may trudge along'tbe^Grarrtfc Trunk-road m a sixpenny- dhoti, and -» prince of the House of Rama bathe -i» the Ganges among a crowd of beggars. But the Instre or those eves, intensified by the contrast*of the sunken elieeksjand emaciated' face, he had never -seen in England-s-before.