The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-04-09
SOME PLAYWRIGHT "REMINISCENCES
~ BY Franklin FyIes. :


~ London Assurance" Dion Bou-
cicault? But he confessed that
John Brougham helped little. Broug-
nam declared that he helped much.
Lester Wallack, who was intimate with
both men, personally and professional
", once said that Broughan's heIr,
amounted to collaboration. Roucicauit
retorted that he was nearer to being the
sole author of the comedy than Wal
Lack was of ''RosedaIe." WaIIack never
dlSproVed the assertion by writing an
other Kosedale-' Nor did Brougham
sustain his claim to London Assur-
ance' by equailing it's cleverness in his
many pieces. And, for that matter
bouclcault never produced a similar
comedy among the hundred various
plays that bore his name. At the first
PeIIorIIlahce OF London Assurance" in
LONDON sixty-four years ago-so the
old story runs-Brougham was ready
10 go out with BOucicauIt when the as
yet unannOunced author was called
Tor; but he was English and slow to re-
Spond, while the other Young fellow
was Irish and quick to go before the
curtain alone. However, there was no
public quarrel, either then or during
the ensuing half-century of their lives.
and to the end they were John. nv
deah feiiah, and Dion, me dear boy
Wnen they met-actOr faShiOn-aI-
though may have stood for jackass
and ID for damphooI in their talk sepa-
rately about each other.
From as long before BoucicauIt as
Shakespeare to as long after as Robert
son honesty was scarce in stage au-
thorship and plagiarism was no theat-
rical crime As lately as the A. NJ.
Palmer period in New York, Bouctcault
sold Led AStray'' to the manager as a
largely original composition, merely
%
hardly more than a free translation
except that one of its Frenchmen be-
came an IriShman, and even in making
the few changes the delightful old
humbug shirked some of the work by
utilizing David BeIascO. then a bOyish
apprentice of the clever craftsman
BoucicauIt had sold the still valuable
London Assurance" outright before
production for $500. He got 81 900 as
an advance fee, and a dozen times thar
IN subsequent royalty. for the now
worthless Led Astray''
There is a noteworthy revival of
London Assurance" this week to ex-
cuse reminiscence ana wake w inter-
est in English comedy of the Sheridan
Kind. Ellis Jeffreys, who came lately
across the Atlantic to extend her Lon
don reputation to New York. is the
actress who now declaims Lady GAY
Spanker's vaingIOriOus description of
her own triumph in a fox chase.
don't suppose that, from the first Lady
Gay by Mime. Vestris with Charles
Matthews to the last by Rose Coghlan
with Lester Wallack. the ecstatic rhap-
sody was ever spoken so badly that the
audience wouldn't applaud it. That
Miss Jeffreys aTouses enthusiasm with
It is therefore no wonder It is more
to the credit of both her personality and
her facility that with the rest of the
role, and less of vocal velocity and more
OF Feminine charm, she imparts to the
hoydenish vulgarian d politeness not
indicated i'm the language. Is that a
concession by the actress to the COM
parative refinement that modern audi
enceS have acquired Or is il because
as member of a section of London
society which used to be aIoOf from the
stage. she has an innate repugnance to
Lady Gays free manners? Anyway,
she won't submit to unconventional be
haViOr by her stage companions. The
company is one of those all-star concoc-'
tons recommended to cure that tired
feeling which comes upon theatrica!s in
the spring Henry r. DiXey's name
was in the cast opposite to that of Daz-
zIe until three days before the produc-
ton Then Miss Jeffreys crossed it off.
Accounts of rehearsals are necessarily
hearsay, and so I can't attest the one
which says that the actress, after OBJ
serving the hilarious nature Of the
actor. remarked to him:
Mr.. DiXey what we want is Daz-
zle-With just the usual dazzle-with-
out your razzle- dazzle"
Alas and alack for the palmy DAYS
when the elder Booths inebriety rather
helped his popularity.
Just as the London Assurance" of
1871 was an imitation in manner of
The School For Scandal in 1871. so is
The School For Husbands in 1905
and beyond that. Stanslaus STANCE, in
the comedy produced this week on the
stage that Wallack. BOucicault and
Brougham once trod. is also d close
copy of the actual matter in Sheridans
comedy. The set Of gOssipers and back
blterS IL duplicated. with names SINH
larly indicating their traits-Airish,
Speakill, Tattle, FOppington and so on.
There is a Lady Teazle over again, al
though the Sir Peter she leases is not
an. indulgent good old fellow, but a
faithlessly bad young one: and the
wife yields to the temptation of a
Joseph Surface (there is a Charles Sur
face, also, to figure innOcently as one
of her lovers only in pretence and for
the purpose of reforming her husband
by a practical application of the rule
to read, What is sauce for
the gander is sauce for the goose"
by a process of jealousy, with the wife
only assuming to be shrewiSh, and the
husband genuinely hateful. But there
is no imitation Of Shakespeare. The
model is Sheridan. The fuTtheSt de-
parture is in a twist given to the love
affair of Maria-here the girl is named
Clarissa-by providing an East Indian
prince as a woOeT who comes directly
from comic opera. with turban and
cloak all white, but with a nature red
like fire and as hot. He raises the mo-
mentary expectation that he viii sing
a ballad so coloric as to ignite the
and consume her in bonfire
of passion. That idea of STANCES is
good, and ii is carried out by the
known Arthur Forrest and an un-
known Frances Stevens so well that
it is a factor in the entertainment
An entertainment really is THE
School For Husbands OF course, it
comes in for critical condemnation as
if meant TO equal 1.-THE
School far Scandal in the vein Of clas-
steal old comedy, and as even insolent
If it is meant for travesty. But after
one act OF close adhesion to Sheridan
there follow two that are like French
farce with mistakes Of identity, con-
cealments behind doors, screens and
curtains and then a return to Sheridan
for the last act.
IF you mean it, said Alice Fischer
when called out by uncommOnly spir-
ted aDDlause ~ am the happieSt wO-