DRINKWATER’S PLAYS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17710, 3 December 1925, Page 4

DRINKWATER’S PLAYS.

A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT. There was in common currency not so lone ago a cruel story io the effect that the story of “St Joan'’ had been written by Shaw with the express purpose of “saving her from Drinkwater” (writes “John o’ Dondon ; s Weekly) • There was real point in the jest, for Mr Drinkwater has appropriated as t h e central figures of h i s excellent plays a considerable number o f celebrities, from King Cophetua to Robert E. Lee. Even now Robert Burns is the inspiration of a Drinkwater play in the* making, and we may be permitted a smile at the range of this versatility. But the gifted dramatist can afford to smile with us, for the bulk and quality of his “Collected Plays’’ represent a genuine achievement in play-making of the higher Of these nymerous plays “Abraham Lincoln’’ was the most successful, and it certainly was the best. Here Mr Drinkwater had a theme particularly well suited to his own stead}' - temperament and his episodic method of presentment. Lincoln was magnificent, but it was the magnificence of intellect and character; his life was dramatic, certainly, but it had not “plot” in the accepted sense. To write of the man and his life and message was just the 1 sort of straightforward task best suited to Mr Drinkwater’s personal predilections. We meet Lincoln first in this play, in his own home at Springfield, where he is visited by the delegation that has come from the Republican Convention to inquire whether he will accept the invitation to become Republican candidate for the Presidency. In the discussion we receive an intimation of Lincoln’s firmness of character, especially on the question of slavery;— . . . This slavery business will be Tong - , and deep, and bitter. I know it. If you do me this honour, gentlemen, you inust look t ome for no compromise in this matter. If abolition comes in due time by constitutional means, good. I want it. But, while we will not force abolition, we will give slavery no approval. and we will not allow it to extend its boundaries by one yard. The determination is in my blood. Finally he accepts the invitation, and The four men go with Susan. Lincoln stands silently for a moment. He goes again to the map and looks at it. He then turns to the table again, and kneels beside it, possessed and deliberate, burying hist face in his hands. Scene 11. passes a year later, on the eve of the Civil War. Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State, is closeted with commissioners from the Confederate States. They are seeking to compromise with the North, and Seward is tempted to promise that he will .seek to soften Lincoln’s well-known views on the slavery and secession questions. Suddenly Lincoln enters and guesses how matters are drifting. lie intervenes with a strong speech, putting the case for the North vigorously. The commissioners of the South are obdurate. and a wire to southern headquarters brings no hope of agreement. T*incoln: They leave no opening? White: I regret to say, none. Lincoln: It’s a grave decision. Terribly grave. Thank you, gentlemen. Good morning. White and Jennings: Good morning, gentlemen. (They go out.) Lincoln: My God. Seward, we need great courage, great faith. Immediately Lincoln calls a Cabinet meeting, and insists on fighting the case of the South—with force if need be. On the division he is outvoted. Lincoln: Gentlemen, T may have to take upon myself the responsibility of over-riding your vote. It will be for me to satisfy Congress and publie opinion. | Should I receive any resignations? The great man has made his decision. Two years pass: when the curtain rises on Scene 111. there is civil war in America. In a reception room at the White House, Mrs Lincoln entertains visitors, who plague the President about the war. To one of the guests, however, he makes a notable remark: . . . This appeal to force is the misdeed of an imperfect world. But we are imperfect. Wo must strive to purify the world, but we must not think ourselves pure above the world. When T had this thing to decide, it would have been easy to say, “No, T will have none of it; it is evil, and I will not touch it.” But that would have decided nothing, and T saw what I believed to be the truth ns T now put it to you, ma’am. It’s a forlorn thing for any man to have this responsibility in bis heart. Scene IV. shows us a Cabinet meet- | ing about the same date. On the i question of slavery Lincoln has made I his great decision. lie speaks gravely I to his colleagues: you a draft T made proclaiming freedom for all slaves. Hoot (aside to Welles) : I told you so. Lincoln: You thought then it was not the time to issue it. T agreed. I think the moment has come. May T read it to you again? ‘‘Tt is proclaimed that on the first day of January in the year [ of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall he then, thenceforward, and forever free.” That allows three months from to-day. But though victory is in sight for the North, there is disagreement in the Cabinet over tl/ys declaration, and again Lincoln has to fight alone, insisting on what he conceives to be right:— I made the promise to myself—and to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfil that promise. Then, in Scene V. we are in Grant's headquarters near Appomatox. It is the eve of final victory: Under the stars an end is made. And on the field the southern blade Lies broken, And, where strife was. shall union be, And, where was bondage, liberty. The word is spoken . . . Night passes. So says one of the Chroniclers who speaks prophetically between the scenes. And Lincoln says gravely to Grant: For four years life has been but the hope of this moment. It is strange how simple it is when it comes. Grant, you’ve served the country very truly. And you’ve made my work possible. (He takes his hand). Thank you. So we are prepared for the final surrender of Lee—a great scene. The last episode passes in the theatre at Washington. From a box Lincoln, now the idol of the people, addresses the audience, and we hear his last i speech with its noble peroration:— The task of reconciliation, of setting

ordev where there is now confusion, of bringing about a settlement at once just a.Jid merciful, and of directing the life of a reunited country into prosperous channels of good-will and generosity will demand all our wisdom, all our loyalty. It is the proudest hope of my life that I may be of some service in this work. (Cheers.) 'Whatever it may be, it can be but little in return for all the kindness and forbearance that I have, received. With malice toward none, with charity for all, it is for us to resolve that this nation, under. God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 'Whereupon there rings out the assassin’s shot. Confusion. Finally the voice of Stanton saying, gravely: “Now he belongs to the ages.” There, then, is-a fine and simple story of a great man’s responsibility, simply and finely told. In an admirable preface to his “Collected Plays,” Mr Drinkwater says, clearly:— The first, last, and only test of a play is whether it is dramatically interesting, first on the stage and in a secondary degree on the printed page. “ Abraham Lincoln ” survives that dual test. It has not been my lot to see it played, but I know that it is effective on the stage, and I can vouch for the fact that it reads admirably. Neither “ Oliver Cromwell ” nor “ Robert E. Lee ” touches the Lincolnian level, but they are both admirable in their plain (if rather colourless! way. In his dealings with cases of sincere men of high character in difficult circumstances, Mr Drinkwater is always sound. That, alas! cannot be said of his “ Stuart.” This seems to at least one reader a definite failure. It is not merely that Mr Drinkwater’s chilly view of affairs fails to do justice to the colourful quality of the Queen; it is also that his play of Mary of Scots fails according to his own criterion of test. It is not dramatically interesting. The first modern episode is awkward and artificial, the others arbitrary in their packing of incident. And that men failed her always is, as an explanation of Mary, simply inadequate. How interesting it will be to see what Mr Drinkwater does with that romantic man, Robert Burns!