THE BOOKSHELF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20538, 12 April 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE BOOKSHELF.

TWO REPERTORY PLAYS.

THE " SEVEN DEADLY SINS."

A Scotch dramatist, James Bridie, is the author of two fresh, vigorous plays, " The Switchback," a comedy, and " 'I he Sunlight Sonata," a farce-morality, with a grim little trifle " The Pardoner's Tale," in between. These plays have already been staged by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Scottish National Players respectively. Plays which introduce possible cures for dreadful diseases cut themselves off from a proportion of playgoers at the outset, because there aro some things which are simply too painful to be borne unnecessarily. With this exception the first two acts of " The Switchback " are excellent. A great surgeon, a newspaper magnate, and a financier are fogbound at the house of a country doctor who has discovered a cure for phthisis. Induced partly by the charms of the doctor's young wife to take up the " cure," the newspaper magnate goes to such lengths that the scandalised medical association strikes the doctor's name off tho register for the ' infamous conduct " of advertising. A Royal Commission finds that tho " cure " is based on an initial fallacy, and the financier runs off with the charming wife. In his distress tho doctor is left alone with his eccentric aunt, a sprightly old lady who, under tho cover oi madness, makes surprisingly frank and shrewd remarks to everyone. The surgeon, who has led the opposition, now leads back the repentant wife, and holds out hopes of reinstatement if the doctor will conform to pattern. But tho latter will have none of it, and goes off with much dust-shaking to Palmyra with his eccentric aunt; which really does not seem a very logical, or connected, or allegorical—well, anyone could end a play like that. Tho pity" of it is that tho first two acts are full of brilliant characterisation and wit.

The Scots have such a knack of filling the high places that it comes as no surprise to learn that the devil was a Scotsman. In the " Sunlight Sonata," a farcemorality, Mr. Bridie hits upon the quaint conceit of sending him up from the realms below to report on the state of the world, particularly to see if " the seven deadly sins are quite all right." He soon comes upon some " high goings-on,", for by putting out the warmth of the sun, the sins put in the shade faith, hope and charity, until a modern young thing kindly offers to take charge of the sins, and she leads them out shamefacedly in her train. But let the epilogue speak for itself: —"'lhis play is really a sort of propaganda play. In these days, when all sorts of fancy and synthetic vices are being hourly imported from Europe and America, it is tip to us ■to show by our enthusiastic support that Great Britain is still the best breedingground for the good old-fashioned sins that made our fathers what they were." Mr. Bridie is a playwright to be watched.

"The Switchback," a comedy; "The. Sunliixht Sonata," a farce-morality, by James Bridie. (Constable).

BEAUTY THAT PASSES.

STORM JAMESON'S WISTFULNESS. In " The Voyage Home," Storm Jameson's latest book, the reader meets again Mary Hansyke, the leading character of Miss Jameson's earlier book *' The Lovely Ship." Sho is again the central figure, and as Mary, wifo of Philip Heryev, middle-aged, surrounded by her grown-up son and two daughters, she is no less interesting than before. Mary is as engrossed as ever in her shipyard, which touches more or less directly every character in the book and yet it is the personal relationships that occupy the central position. The shipyard is merely background. Miss Jameson has a facile pen, her characters are every one of them vividly alive and individual and their struggle towards self expression while turning them from Mary's dominating influence makes them doubly interesting. Throughout the story there is an everrecurring note of sadness for beauty that passes. The older characters are forever looking over their shoulders, eyes veiled with memories, while even the young people seem over conscious that life is a stern affair. The book is a long and very ablo piece of work, full of the charming and essentially feminine quality that pervades all Miss Jameson's books.

" The Voynse Home." by Storm Jamefion (Heinemann).

THE CLASSIC INFLUENCE,

HOGARTH PRESS SERIES

The thanks of all students of English literatmo are due to Leonard and Virginia, who are publishing at the Hogarth Press a series of modest-priced treatises 011 various literary subjects, written by recognised authorities of deep scholarship and mature judgment. 1 hough Virginia Woolf is herself at the head of a new literary school, she never allows her own predilections to interfere with the weight of tradition; the past is ever treated as the structure on which the glories of the present have been built.

The latest publication, " Tho Course of English Classicism," by Sherard Vines, traces the influence of classic learning on English literature from the first visit of Erasmus in 1499 to the, Victorian era; the struggle between native barbarism and the polito invader; tho exaggerated artificiality resulting in a too dainty preciosity; tho healthy rebound towards Saxon vigour; but tho recognition by scholars that the law and order imposed by tho classic form was good, and tho gradual fusion of the two contenders, the classic discipline and the Gothic strength. Mr. Vines, appropriately enough, adopts a classic style, which gives dignity and poise, but obscures his meaning at times. He gains his ends through an examination of numerous tine threads rather than of tho master pattern they make. "The Course of English Clafsicism," by Sherard Vines. (Hoparth Pre??). BEWITCHED. OBSESSED BY FATE.

" Borgia," by Zono Gale, is .1 queer but interesting story of a young and beautiful girl, Marfia Marchester by name, who is obsessed bv the idea (bat she brings disaster to all who como in contact with her. A friend rings up to ask permission to call one night; Marfia begs liirn to come that evening; en route he meets with a motor accident which leaves him a cripple for life. " Stir tho fire," sho says to n girl friend, and a Hying spark blinds the •girl. These are only two of tho many tragic incidents that surround Marfia. It

is little wonder that sho became morbid, and were it not for the skill that .Miss (Jale brings to her pen picture of American social life, ami her complete understanding of tho types with which she works, the reader would put aside the book as too far fetched before it was half finished.

" Borgia," by Zona Gale (Knopf)