WHO KILLED EDWIN DROOD?

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1245, 26 February 1914, Page 36

WHO KILLED EDWIN DROOD?

A DICKENS MEMORY. Was Edwin Drood murdered? That problem of the story which Dickens left half told has for forty years engaged the ingenuity of all sorts and conditions of men. Scholars and men of science have tried their hands at solving it to produce all sorts of wonderful theories as to whlat happened and how it happened. An interesting evening was he'd in London recently to settle the question. The Dickens Fellowship put John Jasper upon his trial for the murder. The judge was Mr. G. K. Chesterton and the foreman of the jury Mr. Bernard Shaw. King’s Hall was the court of assize. Witnesses and officers of the court put themselves into the picturesque habiliments of the “sixties.” S : de whiskers and long hair, chignons and poke bonnets adorned the scene. Mr. Bernard Shaw presided over a constellation of literary stars which included Mr. William de Morgan, Mr. W. W. Ja p obs, Mr. Pett R 4ge, and Mr. Wfliam Archer.

Readers will remember how Dickens left the book. Jasper, the Precentor, the opium smoker, has pla nit been laying plans for the murder of his nephnew, Edwin Drood. Drood has vanished. AH the town o F C’isterham believes that he has been murdered. A mysterious o 7 d gen f l°man called Datchery, who is obviouslv to be a detective, has just arrived in Cloisterham. nen was stayed by his death. He has given us no definite evidence that Drood was murdered at all. Ha 1 ! the book remained to be written, and it is conceivable that Drood was Anally to appear alive upon the scene. The wicked uncle, says this theory, ed the murder, but never brought it off. Mr. Cornyns Ca r r, in writing a nlay for Sir Herbert Tree, adopted this conclusion. Jasner, in an opiated dream, believed that he was kil mg Drood, and Drood heard his ejaculations and fled. But whether Jasper did or did ra 4 shed blood is not the onlv rddfe. Some horrid end or other is obviously hanging over Jasper. What is it to be, and who l will bring it down unon him? That last question, who is destined to be the avenger, resolves itself rracticallv into who is Datchery, the queer, palpably disguised Datchery? This was the tangle of enigmas to be straightened out in the trial. It is recalled practically everybody who knew Dickens, his own children, John Forster, and Sir LuHe Fildes, his illustrator for “Edwin Drood,” has put on record the conviction that he meant Drood to be murdered. He said so, though he may have changed his plan in writing. Five witnesses were called, and none of them was allowed to make any statement contra a 1 cting the text of the novel. Durdies and Mr. Crisparkle, and the Opium Woman were played by Mr. Bransby Williams Mr. Arthur Waugh, and Mr. J. K. Prothero- They stated the facts of the case, which may be found in the book, but they offered no suggestion about the mystery. The rival theories as to the murder and Datchery were stated by Helena Landless, played by Mrs. Laurence Clay, and Bazzard, played bv Mr. Sheridan Jones. Helena Landless’ story was that, having disguised herself at Datchery, she bad found in a hean of nuick-lime in the cathedral crynt the ring which Drood wias known to have had in his possession. The lime, you are to suppose had destroyed every other fragment of Drood’s posses- - n vp] sions. . Bazzard said he was a professional “noser.” Mr. Grewgious sent h’m to find evidence against Jasper, not for murder, but for attempted murder, and he had the best reason to know that Drood was not dead. Grewgious and he had found the man in a drugged swoon. When Drood came t°. (Bazzard) was so frightened that he ran away.

Mr. Gilbert Chesterton, in summing up, pointed out to the nirv the obv’ou fact that Helena or Bazzard was lving, and suggested as a solution that they both were. Mr. Bernard Shaw, in declaring his verdict, said some of the extreme men, seeing that there was no evidence of murder, had been for acquitting the nrisoner. The calmer and more judicious spirits felt that no man could sleep quietly in his bed if Jasper were let go, and had determined that the verdict should be manslaughter.