The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-03-26
THE !
S I AGE
!

good time in singing adjeCtiVeS
l. laudatory or otherwise, at the
new volume Of Maeterlinck plays
published by Messrs. Duckworth. al
Iadine and Palomides." Interior" and
The Death of Tintagiles," are the new
productions, and here are some extracts
Of the reviews: The Daily Mail head
lines its article The Charm of Maeter
linck" and thus prototypes: They are
: all simple to a surprising degree.
strangely unreal and bald. with the
peculiar Maeterlinckian badness, which
is like nothing else in literature. Yet
.5.they are elemental. They go down to
the very bed rock of human nature.
.Gven the reader initially disposed to be
irreverent leaves them with the convic-
ton that their author is a new force in
"a the world, new seer" We have heard
Of the badness of Wordsworth q refer
10 his poems, of course) which Matthew
Arnold said was like that of the noun
tam tops. The Daily Mail reviewer
continues: 'Alladine and Palomides'
%: might be described by many a sane and
p. reasonable person as frankly idiotio 1t
o. has passages of much beauty, but
lamb that figures IN it emphasizes the
- grotesque note, and discomposes the
reader beyond recovery. Interior on
the other hand, is singuIarly and un-
- mistakably beautiful"
The Daily Chronicle sums the plays
up as Dramas in Whisper" and says
that Maeterlinck is not only original
but sincere. thus meeting Goethe's
definition Of sincerity. In the Daily
Telegraph Mr. w. L. Courtney says:
We have not to deal with real life as
we know it, but with a fantastic scene
full of the imagination of a child. The
curtain rises on old castles, with won
derful subterranean chambers. winding
staircases secret passages, endless cor
ridors, and, not far away, the sound of
the restless sea Sometimes we look
down from a circle Of mountains upon
some Old World dungeon or keep
where the shadows which gather
round the walls are emblematic of
danger OF evil, and the air of the val
ley is tainted with miasmatic odors.
If the scenery is thus of that primitive
type which appears in the drawings Of
romantic child, the figures OF the
drama are equally remote from exper-
erce and life, pale. bloodless phantoms,
lowering between the world we see and
the world of which we dream, pure alb
stractions, whose names are Of such
little account that TO all intents and
purposes they can get along nameless,
being called a king or a servant or
a DOCTOR or a queen or. still more
vaguely, an old man. or the
stranger "
Meanwhile Alfred Sutro the editor Of
the volume. describes the Maeterlinck
plays as Dramas of unconsciousness
and instinct" Maeterlinck himself de-
scribes them as Three little dramas
for Marionettes.'
Here IS an extract from the preface to
the printed edition of Mr.. Jones ''Tri-
umph Of the Philistines.' which is Just
published by Macmillan: Having de-
termined to vindicate those who find
a didactic purpose in nv plays, 1 cast
about me for the most suitable moral
to illustrate. Looking around upon my
countrymen, upon their SNUG and
banal ideals, their SNUG and banal
ways Of living, their SNUG and banal
forms of religion, their SNUG and banal
terror and ignorance of art, their SNUG
and banal haste TO make the best of
both worlds, concluded that the most
necessary moral to drive home to Eng
contained in a verse of Ecclesiastes,
BE not righteous overmuch: why
shouIdest thou destroy thyself?'" Con-
sidering the source Of this precept, its
authority will hardly be questioned by
the mass of my countrymen. The neces-
sity for its rigid enforcement will be
equally apparent, I hope. In my siren
nous endeavor to point a moral fear
did not take care to write a good play
The preface also gives one to under
stand that Mr. Jones has not very
high opinion of the character Of the
author of the Psalms. Mr.. Jones pref
aces will serve as valuable material for
his biographer.
AS a front piece to THE Ambassa-
dor" the social comedy that is still in
success at the st. James Theater, Lon
don, Mrs. Craigie John Oliver Hobbs)
has written "A Repentance" The crit
les are not agreed on the value Of this
second dramatic work of Mrs. Craigie's.
1t seems to lack the construction
that was so much commented on in her
first effort This is the story Of "a Re
pentance":
In 1885 the Countess des Escas, a de-
voted adherent of the Carlist cause,
was mourning the death Of her hus-
band. who had fallen in one of the bat
Ties of the civil wars so frequent in
Spain She kneels, dressed in black,
before the altar in a room in her palace
at Bilbao; apparently this room has
been half converted into memorial
chapel. Over and around the door of
the husbands room the funeral hang
ings still remain, and the grief Of the
Countess is only tempered by the fact
that her husband died in the Carlist
~Ause. We learn the sequence of events
a conversation between the Count
pss des Escas and the Marquis of Mon
fero and further that Christinist at
tacl, is expected on the citadel. Pres
entity there is howl of the mob out
side. and we understand that friar