The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-11-26
CHURCHANDSTACE
England's Clergy Take q Hand
in Play Writing.
Several DIVines Well Known
and Successful Dramatists.
OFTEN COLLABORATE.
Rev. Wells and Henry Herman
Wrote 'sPut Asunder."
Rev. Talbot Smiths Play GA
Baltimore Marriage"
A dispatch from London says:

A dispatch from London says:
When Sir Charles Wyndham address
ed an audience at the palace of the
bishop of Rochester. in Remington, re-
Gently, choosing for his subject Church
and STAGE it was inevitable not to
feel that the bonds which have grad
ually been drawn together came a little
closer still, though many of the bishops,
as well what is, without offense,
known as lesser clergy, are by no means
infrequent attendants at the theater.
Even more practical helpers in the
cause of advancing the aims of the two
great institutions which have a COM
mon object, in SO far as they help to
lead men to rise on stepping stones of
their dead selves to higher things" are
the clergymen, who are actually taking
q hand in providing plays which serve
as the vehicles for the exhibition of the
actors art, as well as for preaching
that moral lesson which no play ever
fails to do, for though vice may tri-
umph for time, it is virtue which al
ways dominates everything before the
final curtain falls.
The most conspicuous of these men
among the clergy are the Rev. Free
man Wills. who has been vicar of ST.
Agatha, Finsbury, for over thirty years;
the Rev Forbes Phillips, the vicar of
Confession. Great Yarmouth, since 1898;
the Rev Frederick Langbridge, the rec
tor of st. John, Limerick, for past 20
years, and on the other side of the At
lantfc, the Rev. John Talbot Smith,
chaplain of the Church of the Sisters of
Mercy. in New York.
There is a community of interest in
'the work of Mr.. Wills and Mr.. Lang
bridge other than that derived from
the fact that they are both clergymen,
some years, and are responsible for
THE Only Way" "Rouget de L'Isle,"
and after ALL the last founded on
Lord LyttOns story of Eugene Aram,"
and all acted by Martin Harvey, in
whose repertoire the first two still hold
a prominent place.
The name of Wills is an honored one
in the history of the Victorian drama
in general, for it was W. G. Wills, the
dramatist and painter, who provided
Sir Henry Irving with Charles T. and
Mr.. John Hare with OLIVIA in which
Miss Ellen Terry made one of the most
conspicuous of her successes at the
Court theater, a success she repeated
with such touching effect at the Lyceum
whenever the play was revived.
W. G. Wills was, indeed, recognized
as the leading dramatist of his day,
and the leading actors of twenty years
ago were constantly asking for plays,
so that he had more work than he could
possibly do In those days Freeman
Wills was not very well off, so his
brother sent for him from Ireland, where
he was living, and suggested that he
should help him in his work. for it was
only natural to believe that, as Free
man Wills had taken the vice chancel-
lor's prizes in English prose and verse
at the University of Dublin, and was
the gold medalist in oratory, he had a
certain gift of words. After he had
proved his ability to write dialogue
by supplying certain episodes in his
brothers version of king Rene's
Daughter" which, under the title of
'IOlanthe," was produced a. the Lyce-
UNI theater, with Sir Henry Irving and
Miss Terry in the leading parts, w. G.
Wills suggested that he should try his
hand on blank verse play for Miss
Marriott who was one of the famous
women actresses who had played Ham
let
This was duly done.an "Sedgemoor."
as it was called, was produced at Sad
ler's Wells theater. and after certain
startling alterations had been made in
it, the fourth act being transformed in
to the second and the second into the
last, it achieved a fair measure of sue
cess.
Mr.. Wills then determined to draw on
real life for his next play, called Put
Asunder," and made use of the case of
a fraudulent clergyman. who. during
his term as a lOcum tenens for a well
known clergyman, had married two
people in whom Mr. Wills was greatly
interested.
Mr. Wills was naturally considerably
perturbed, for he thought the marriage
might be illegal and therefore the con-
sequence to the children would be dis
astrous; but he found on consulting the
best legal authorities that SO long as
even one of the contracting parties had
acted in good faith the marriage was
perfectly legal. 1t was this episode
which Mr. Wills dramatised in Put
Asunder,' and in collaboration with Mr..
Henry Herman, one of the authors of
THE Silver King" he revised the play,
and called il 1.-The Golden Band" 1t did
not meet with any great favor, how
ever, when played at the now demolish-
ed Globe theater, with Mr.. Brandon
Thomas.the author of "Charley's Aunt"
in the leading part.
Mr. Wills collaboration, the Rev.
Frederick Langbridge, is well known as