The evening world., 1893-12-12
"A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE"

Inspired. presumably. by the epigram-
matte success of Lady windermere's
Fan" Oscar wilde thought that he
would emulate the Barnum example. and
construct a play SO colossally witty and
so largely intellectual that the world
would wonder at 1t. SO he set to work
and evolved "a Woman OF No Impor-
%tance.' which was produced for the first
time in this city last night at the Fifth
Avenue Theatre. 1t is a curious AFFAIR.
filled to overlooking with century-end
cyniclsms. and not as intellectual as II
appears to be.
Oscar Wilde has stuffed the play 30
completely with his labored brightness
and his fearfully strained eplgrams that
1t is scarcely as valuable az Lady
Windermere's Fan" 1t Is so artificial,
80 Overwhelmingly unnatural, such a mon
ument to the overweening egotism of
the Wilde man. The women sit up in
SILK dresses and talk like Rochefou-
caulds. The men utter smart things
Immediately after dinner. which Is very
~un-English and very unfattering to a
hosts wine. And the things that strike
one at first hearing as smart are, in
reality. very shallow. They are simply
old copy-book sayings contradicted. You
can have a whole stack of them home
mades II you like. Take a few proverbs.
pull them to pieces, change the adjec-
tives by putting positive for mega
tive, and vice versa. and serve up hot,
with polite sauce.
The first two acts of the play are sim
ply a sort of Dockstader show. The
characters do their little cynical special
ties. and display poor Wilde frenzy for
eplBram. 1t is late before he really gets
to business. and when he does 30 he
tells his story interestingly. Gerald
Arbuthnot has never known a father.
He has lived his twenty years with a
devoted mother, and although she al
ways wore a black dress. he was not
sufficiently acquainted with the drama to
know that she must have been wronged.
He Is engaged as secretary by the rak!sh
Lord Illngworth. an utterly bad" man.
llingworth attempts to kiss Gerald's
sweetheart, and Gerald Is about 60 strike
him when the black mommer PUSHES in
and cries: Hold! He Is your father
Then Lord Illingworth offers to marry
Mrs. Arbuthnot, and she smites him on
the face with a two-buttoned tan kid
glove, and the play ends. The only
pathetic note Is struck when the black
mommer implores her son not to ask
her to marry ~Illingworth. and declares
that she cannot feel sorry for her shame,
as hong as she has her son with her.
Here are a few of the Wilde-lsms. You
can amuse yourselves by simmerlng them
. down to their copy-book state. 1t will
be good exercise:
America Is the paradise Of women.
That Is why so many of them are, like
Eve, anxious to get out OF It
$ A woman that would tell one her age
e would tell one anything.
4 What Is a bad woman? The sort OF
: woman one never gets tired OF.
One should always kiss a woman who
talks seriously.
The soul is born old and grows young
that is the comedy OF life; the body is
a born young and grows old-that is the
tragedy.
Taking sides Is the beginning of sin
cerity; earnestness follows shortly after
and the human being becomes a bore.
What are American dry goods? Ameri
can novels.
The youth of America Is its only tradi
ton, n tina has been going on for owe
lie 800 years.
u One can survive everything excep
death, and live down everything but
goo~d'reputation.
My husband is a sort Of promissor.
note, and I am tired of meeting him.
Ernest talks all the time. but he ha
no conversation.
Life Is simply a mauvais quart d'heur
Of exquisite hopes.
When n man IS old enough to d
wrong, he should be old enough to d
right.
To get into the best society one has I
fee people, to amuse people or to shoe
people.
The happiness of a married man do
ponds upon the people he hasn't maj
ried.
American women are wonderfully cleN
er In concealing heir parents.
Miss Rose Coghlan was exceedingly e
:" fective as Mrs. Arbuthnot. 1t must haN
as given her a s we're pang to wear tu
cheap black dresses. especially as II
programme gave the address of her mi
liners. Maurice Barrymore forgot h
ng part, and broke down several times.
en- he had not been the inexpiicably irr
on sistible Mr.. Barrymore. he would pro
w ably have been Kissed from the stag
no hV iNhiS ~ pS' 49, -
he Shannon simpered. as usual. al
looked a fright. Dan Frohman mu
to have staged her at the Lyceuin Theatr
Jay where she was always presentahle. NJ
W., B%oucicault was so s~elf-conscious tn
she was painful. A distinct hit W
made by pretty little Constance Levie
In a sort of Miss Yes-Mamma part. s.
t., was delightfully."- smart, unaffected a
as Gir!ish. Miss Ada Dyas was admiral
as the frivolous Lady H~unstanton. a
Mrs. Bowers was slightly monotonous
a rother epigramn.atic dame. The m
,or were kline and pleasant, and stood in I
csr background. "A Woman OF No Ii
A I portance' will have a strange care
ARE I'd give something. to watch its receipt
y by an audience at Redbank, ~. j.
say. Phi. delphia. ALAN DALE
I. EDITORIAL FINE FRENZY.