THE LAUGHTER OF LEACOCK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE LAUGHTER OF LEACOCK

MORE POTTED PLAYS. It is not a good thing to watch an amateur conjurer perform the same trick too often, not good, that is, for the conjurer. The intelligent observer soon detects how it is done, even if "he has not the dexterity necessary to do it himself. The faithful reader of Stephen Leacock makes a similar for Mr. Leacock has no hesitation in repeating a trick that has previously proved effective. So in his latest volume, " Over the Footlights," (The Bodley Head) much of the book is simply a rechauffee of ideas from earlier successes. Yet, as Ulysses remarked, " Tho' much is taken, much abides," and the pseudoIbsen play, "The Sub-contractor" is-a delightful piece of fooling. Here is a bit of the dialogue. There is nothing to indicate which character is speaking. As the author observes, it doesn't matter. " It's' a beautiful morning" " Yes, the spring will soon be here.^ " I like tho green meadows." " Yes, isn't it ?"

" The angle of the sun is getting high.'" " I suppose it is. I noticed yesterday that the diameter of the moon was less." "Much less, and the planets are brighter than they were. Their orbits are elongating." " I .suppose so." "How I love the spring!" "Sodo I. The evaporation of the air closes the pores of my skin." Like all true parodies, this is fair criticism as well as good fun. The same may he said of " Oroastus, A Greek Tragedy," (as presented in, our colleges). " Some critics," lie tells us, bfy way of introduction, " think that all the best of the Greek drama is lost: others say, not all; others again claim that what we have ought to make us feel that we have no richt to comwlain over what is lost." The description of the properties—or lack of them—-on the Greek- stage is superb. " Nothing, just nothing; boards, a little sawdust, room to come in and out ,and sorrow. That is all the Greeks asked or wanted." These two plays, indeed, are .as good as anything Mr. Leacock has ever done. • FkuV? lfc > that the rest of the t; kis not 90, the same level.