BOOKS AND BOOK-MEN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 24, 11 June 1892, Page 594

BOOKS AND BOOK-MEN.

THE production of Lord Tennyson’s play, ‘The Foresters,’ has brought the great poet’s name very prominently before the world just of late. Taken as a whole, the criticisims are not very favourable. The critics appear to have decided that it would be impertinent courtesy to treat any of Lord Tennyson’s productions with exceptional indulgence on account of advanced age. They aver—most of them - that he has the power of writing poetical plays, but that this one is not altogether worthy of the genius that has given the world ‘ The Idylls of the King,’ ‘ Enoch Arden,’ ‘ln Memoriam,’ ‘ Harold ’ and ‘ Queenj Mary.’ A capital review of the poet’s dramatic work appears in a Home paper. Most people will agree that Tennyson is essentially more of a dramatic poet than Mr Browning : —

‘ Those who hold the contrary opinion forget, as it seems to us, that drama implies not merely the rhetorical analysis, but the representation in action of emotional states and processes. There are in “Queen Mary” and “Harold” scenes and passages of great dramatic power, and it would need no very radical reconstruction to adapt either of these plays to the stage. One of them, we shall be told, has been tried and found wanting ; but was it the play that was wanting, or the actress ? The part of Queen Mary would certainly require, but it would as certainly reward, an actress of genius.

‘The heroine of Lord Tennyson’s new play, “The Foresters ” has found an actress of genius for her interpreter, and has thus, we fear, been fortunate beyond her deserts. The most one can say for Maid Marian is that her character is marked by a certain racy uneonventionality. She is no sentimental Book-of Beauty heroine. There is plenty of sunshine and fresh air about her ; but, alas ! there is very little else. The daughter of Sir Richard Lea, who has mortgaged his estaste in order to pay the ransom of his son, a prisoner among the Saraeens, she loves from the outset Robin, Earl of Huntingdon, and, being a frank and libeial damsel, she is at no pains to conceal her affection. She has made a vow not to marry until her godfather, King Richard, shall have returned from Palestine ; but she suffers Robin to place a betrothal ring on her finger, and replies as follows (in his hearing) to her father’s suggestion that she may forget him : — • Forget h im— never—by this Holy Cross Which good King Richard gave me when a child - Never ! Not while the swallow skims along the ground. And while the lark Hies up and touches heaven ! Not while the smoke floats from thecottage roof. And the white cloud is roll’d along the sky ! Not while the rivu'et babbles by the door. And the great breaker beats upon the beach ! Till Nature, high and low and great and small. Forgets herself, and all her loves and hates Sink again into chaos."

‘ After Prince John has outlawed the gallant Earl, as a noted partisan of the absent Richard, Maid Marian, journeying through Sherwood Forest in male attire, encounters her lover, now known as Robin Hood, who takes her for her brother and accuses the supposed youth of having stolen his sister’s ring. He is soon undeceived, and the heroine, with her old father, takes up her abode among the outlaws. Prince J ohn casts wanton eyes upon her, and the Sheriff of Nottingham would fain buy her of her father by paying off the mortgage on his estate. Both these dangers, however, she eludes without difficulty ; King Richard oppoitunely arrives on the scene to have his traditional bout of fisticuffs with Friar Tuck ; Prince John is discomfited ; and Maid Marian is “given away” by her royal godfather to the reinstated

Earl of Huntingdon. This is practically the whole action of the play and the other characters are all as slight and shadowy as the heroine.

‘lt is rather difficult to classify such a play as this. It is certainly not a tragedy, and it is too incoherent to take rank as a comedy. The Germans would probably call it a Volksstiick, and in that character, if prettily mounted and brightly acted, it might possibly attain a certain success on the stage. But the truth is that Lord Tennyson has in this instance been content with an altogether too facile improvisation. He has produced a play without character, without passion, without structure, - with no ingenuity of incident, with but little humour either of dialogue or of situation.’

This is severe criticism, but it is written by one of the finest and fairest of all the great London literary and dramatic critics. A sop is given by the admission that, the lyrics, fortunately, are numerous, and of true Tennysonian quality. Here, for instance, is the song which Marian is humming to herself at her first entrance :— ‘ Love flew in at the window As Wealth walked in at the door. “ You have come for you saw Wealth coming," said I. But he fluttered his wings with a sweet little cry, I’ll cleave to you rich or poor."

Wealth dropt out of the window. Poverty crept thro’ the door. “ Well now you would fain follow Wealth," said I But he flutter’d his wings as he gave me the lie, ”1 cling to you all the more."

‘ The following drinking-song, sung by the Earl of Huntingdon’s retainers, may seem at first sight the simplest thing in the world ; but we are much mistaken if Sir Arthur Sullivan will not bear us out in the assertion that it is one of those things which, in their very simplicity, reveal most certainly the master hand. It is only a jingle and a lilt; but the ability to invent a jingle and a lilt is precisely what distinguishes your true lyrist from poets who, even with great gifts in other directions, have been denied the lyric faculty : — ‘ Long live Richard. Who knows w-hither ? Kobin and Richard! God’s good Angel Long live Richard ! Help him back hither, Down with John ! And down with John ! Drink to the Lion-heart Long live Robin, Every one! Robin and Richard! Pledge the Plantagenet, Long live Robin, Him that is gone. And down with John!’