Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-23
ANU SENENTS.


names on either hand, would have sufficed
to crafty the aspirations of the ordinary
dramatist But Mr.. Augustus Thomas is
no ordinary dramatist. He has provoking
fashion of carrying through the most am
bilious enterprises in the most matter-of-
fact way. The play OLIVER Goldsmith,
produced at the Columbia Theater last
night. unmasked this wary litterateur. 1t
enabled the auditor to stand Mr.. Thomas
up in a corner, figurativ speaking. and
with a solemn shake of the forefinger apos-
trophize him somewhat thus: Aha, sir!
We have caught You at last. You are one
of these literary chaps. You have written
mawkiSh little pieces about children who
get up in their nightieS to chase burglars,
and let people call you Gus and sounded
the weird cadences of all kinds of local
dialects and did everything else that would
proclaim your docile acceptance of current
conventions. Yet all this time You were a
student. You have been making surrepti-
tiouS excursions from the highway of melo-
drama and Partisan farce into the remote
ness of libraries. You have read your
Wycherly, and your Cengreve, and your OF
way, and your Ben Jonson. and your Kit
Marlowe, and all the rest of the old TEL
lows who might be at times as licentious as
the writer of a modern French farce but
never witleSS. You are student in dis
guise. and after your scholarly. affecionate
and competent presentation OF characters
who are redolent of the book shelf 1t would
not be surprising to discover that you are
at heart one of these weird, uncanny peo-
pie who want TO elevate the stage. II you
didn't want to elevate II, why should you
conspire with Mr.. Stuart Robson and make
a production whose effect to that end would
be inevitable?'
But such reflections are only after
thoughts During the production of the
play Mr.. Thomas does not exist. He has
reared a lot of Frankensteins who have
destroyed him. Who cares for Thomas
when he can hear old johnson scolding in
cpigrams, and Burke indulgng in impas-
Stp HipHfS of hynprhnlp and (yO11Smit h
contrasting hrilliancy of thought so strange
ly with his own uncouthness of person and
of utterance? 1t comes hard to note the
absolute smoothnesS with which the die
Grammatic brilliancy of the characters of
that period aSSimilate. 1t would be so
much easier to indulge in a TRADE against
the effrontery of a modern dabSter who
ought to mingle his jackdaw feathers with
their eagle plumage. But unless some one
were to learn Boswelrs Life of Johnson
and few other books by heart it would
be impossible to tell just where DR.. John
son ct al. left off and Mr.. Augustus Thorn
as began. And even then it is to be
doubted whether Mr.. Thomas would have
all the worst of 1t. For he has a fine APP
probation of the harmony of phrases, and
while in obedience to dramatic necessities
he may speak tersely, 1t is always with
grace and scholarship. And in handling
without pedantry a task of such magni-
tude as that undertaken in "0iiver Gold
smith, he displays something more than
the achievement of the student. He has
the intuition of the poet. Mr.. Thomas
delicacy of Word-usage leaves him open to
a suspicion that he would be quite able, If
he chose. to write the kind of poetry which
has capital letters at the beginnings and
rhymes at the ends Of the lines.
Mr.. Robson has arrived at that point in
his career which marks the severest and
deciding test of an actors eminence. He
can occasionally leave the center of The
stage to his coworkers without apprehen-
sion that his own achievements will suffer
by contrast. There We're two characters
whom the audience saluted with applause
on their first appearance. DR.. Samuel
Johnson was welcomed like old ac-
quaintance. The bookishness of the au-
dience was signalized by the recognition of
the ponderous. vain, lovable old au-
tocrat Immediately he set foot on the
stage. That splendid actor. Mr.. Weaver,
was suffering from an affection of the
throat But il was something to feel that
a correct representation of Dr. johnson suf-
fering from a cold was being given. Even
DIR. Johnson's coughs and colds are inter-
estiEg. and it IS surprising that Boswell did
not devote more attention to them. The
whirligig of time brings strange revenges.
The overbearing Johnson was wont to
poke fun at NoH Goldsmith and his bloom
colOred coat. While he recognized the
poets genius. he regarded him as subor-
dinate quantity, and 1t would no doubt have
panied him nightly to suspect that pos
terity-the posterity for whom all those
into a play as an underling to Gold
smith: the Goldsmith whom all loved but
for whom they had the pity that is SO near
akin to contempt. The welcome to john
son was a compliment, but Goldsmith re-
ceived an ovation. The value of the play is
chiefly atmospheric.
A scrutiny the lines of historic detail
would probably find it vulnerable The
story on which Mr.. Thomas builds his play
uses poor devil of n reviewer named Ken
rick. who hasn't a friend living to defend
him, as the wicked man of the piece. Bos-
we'll gave him what would now be de-
scribed as a roast" in his book, and for
lack of a champion he Is made the scape-
goat for a lot of rascality of which he is
probably innocent He had the misfortune
to assault one of the most powerful mutual
admiration societies which has existed since
literature first resolved itself into cliaues
and he is still bearing the penalty Mr.
RObson'S personality fits the character Of
Goldsmith admirably. Mr.. Dixey showed
some dangerous tendencies to modernize
the part of David Garrick. which he played
with infinite grace and picturesqueness
He was especially good in the low comedy
impersonation of the bailiff Mr. Walter
The character of Boswell was not thor
oughly developed IN the hands of Beau
mont Smith. He ought to have made 1t
stand out more as an object lesson in the
gentle and useful art Of toadyism.. The
ladies of the company left nothing to be
desired either in personal graces or in In
lelllSent portrayal. Miss JenreyS Lewis
as Mrs. FeatherstOne and Miss Florence
Rockwell were comely as individuals, and
plausible in relation to their environment.
1t would be a mistake to relegate "Oliver
Goldsmith to the class of plays which ap-
peal to a select and limited patronage The
gallery responded Justify last night. Mr.
Thomas can produce low comedy Of the
most emphatic sort; but he refrains from
getting it in the wrong place. The piece
despite the abruptness of some of its cli-
makes, has a convincing note of human
probability. The characters are plausible
as well as amusing. The play terminates
rather abruptly. and the auditor cannot
help wishing that a few more pages In
the fascinating picture book might be
turned, before the characters shut out with
all their splendors of costume and their
brilliancy of repartee. After the second act
Mir. Robson was called before the curtain
and gave a very effective humorous mono
logue In lieu of the conventional speech.
LAFAYETTE SQUARE OPERA HOUSE.
The Becky Sharp drawn by Thackeray is
one OF the most attractive characters In the
whole range of fiction. She is not in any
sense lovable woman, for she is thor
oughly heartless, selfish, ambitious con-
stantly scheming, utterly without moral
sense and thoroughly hypocritical. Yet she
arrests and holds attention by her bril-
liancy and her absolute fearlessness her
fertility of resource and her splendid nerve
L,