The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-09
OF and About the
Makers of Books.
Some of the Latest Volumes
To Issue from the Press.

US as the first number of a neat new
series of books published by Stone &
Kimball Chicago, and called the Green
Tree Library) that by any stretch of
stage requirements could be made the
basis of a sufficient production before
the average playhouse audience. In
consequential characters 1t is virtually
limited to three i'm dialogue it is prosy,
while in movement it is nil. Yet read
in the quiet of the study, Little EyolP'
impresses one vividly and vigorously
as a piece of homiletic literature dar-
ing in theme and original in treatment.
We may be permitted to briefly sketch
itssfew situations as follows: Allmers,
young author,-is it necessary to add,
poor?-marries Rita, young and beau
tiful heiress. For seven years they live
theilfe of healthy, passionate and self
ish youth; he pretending to write
book his masterpiece, and she, not
unlike a modern Cleopatra, infatuat-
edly devoted to her husband. At the
end of this period q son is born to
them-Little Eyolf they name him
and later, during a moment of parental
neglect, having its origin almost in
shame, >the child falls from his high
chair and is permanently crippled. In
stead of feeling for the victim of their
passion, .Allmers and Rita become
more and more forgetful of him, until
at last the finer fiber of the father re-
voltss he escapes to the mountains, and
there amid the solitude and the fast
nesses, he breathes back the pure air
of his early manhood and returns, de-
termined to be all th9t.a father should.
= s%t
1t is at the moment of his return that
the dramatic p6rsonae are introduced
to us. The wife, yearning and sensual,
had prepared as his welcome, baccha-
nalian feast, the seductiveness of which
was heightened by various devices, not
forgetting her own beautiful appear
ance in deshabille. This feast he
spurns. She upbpaids him. Accusa-
tions and recrlminatienS pass. HuS-
band and wife analyze each others
weaknesses, as only husband and wife
can; and in q petulant outburst of
jealousy Rita reviles her crippled son,
who has come between her and her
husband" and wishes he had never
been born. Just then, there is a noise
among the fishermen beside the near
and mother rush to the balcony, only
to see a crutch float by, and to learn
that Little Eyolf has been drowned,
none of the fisher folk trying to save
him. The episodes of alternating grief
and anger and self-revilement which
follow, this tragedy are poorly fitted for
representation on a stage, but they are
most forcibly brought home in the text
of the play, Indeed, for two acts these
constitute the moving impulse of the
dialogue. A supposed sister of ALI
mers, his confldante and frequent COM
panion turns out to be no sister at all;
and escapes from the thenceforth dam
gerous companionship by deciding sud-
denly to marry a hitherto rejected
lover. The husband, confirmed by
Eyolf's death the emptiness of life
given ever wholly to.the 4sehses, seeks
a separation from Rita; but in talking
it all over with her he discovers that
Little Eyolf's death has chastened her,
also; and they decide, at the conclusion,
to devote the remainder of their lives,
together if possible, to the relief of suf-
fering children of the poor, having
been led to this determination by the
recollection that it was because they
! had during the seven years of their
selfishness, done absolutely nothing for
the poor fisher folk at their very door
that those folk had lifted no hand to
save crippled Little Eyolf from the
cruel waters of the ford.
This, all too hastily and inadequately
sketched is the fiction by which Ibsen
%, Ia ty1rp-fnl1 les
son of the accountability of those who
are rich. for the conditions Of the poor
surrounding them; and also the insult
ficiency, to civilized and refined ma
lures, of social union founded prl-
marily upon the mere physical attrac-
tions of sex. 1t is not play to be acted.
In the first place, ii could not be acted,
so as to bring out it's depths and sub
telties of meaning: and, in the second,
If thus acted it would not be understood.
But it is a fiction that in the reading
of it admits of no equivocations or eva
sions. It shoots its teachings straight
and clear to the mark; and transtiXes
them in the mind by a most effective
employment of words. We have not
hitherto been an enthusiastic admirer
of Ibsen. The. message in such prior
works of his as we have been privileged
to read is one more cynical than charit-
able. 1t has been a message of con-
tempt for the depressed masses; of con-
descensionand almost discern for them.
= But here, for the first time, we have
him preaching 70 tsfa spiritual gospel
of tolerance naeharity-almosto Of com
passion for the poor and the unfortu-
nate. There is no scorn for misfortune
in Little Eyolf;' there is scorn only
for lust, unpurified animallsm, and for
hypocrisy. These Ibsen ffays with
robust zeal which Is Enthusiastically
Norwegian; but that done. his ire mel
lows into grand bengnancy and he
actually makes as the last command in
his decalogue: Love and care for those
who are beneath you" 1t is a new role,
an unexpected role, but withal a gra-
cious and a commendable role; and the
world will certainly be none the. worse
for it.
"Vistas' is the name of second
number in the Green Tree library. Its
author is William Sharp and his vistas
of thought comprise jerky intermx-
lures of Morse psychology, Howellian
realism, erotic impulse and just plain
foplishness. These yistas are COM
posed in the form of the one-act dra-
matte writings made familiar to us by
. Clyde Fitch, but lacking about every
thing that we found agreeable in
Fitch's workmanship. We do not de-
sire to burden our readers with very
much concerning Mr.. William Sharp.
But we will inflict upon them, as
specimen ad nauseam, short digest of
the theme of one Of the vistas-that
one entitled "a Northern Night" 1t
concerns a young Scotch lassie, soon to
be reluctantly married to a man thrice