The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-21
ANTIQUE STAGE NOVELTIES.
FROM ZANGWILL, GILLETTE AND
THE RROTHERS DE MILE.

AIANICt
and Pure COmedy-Na Goodwin BACK
to First Principles I'm THE Genius
There are now to be seen on Broadway
.bree reputed theatrical novelties which
are TO all intents and purposes palPaole
.ntiouities with only the thinnest refur-
bishinU Of modernity. Two Of them r
nv men OF distinguished talent. not UNI
touobed by genius, and these two are vir-
tual failures. The third is from a brace
Of novices, unhampered by anything more
than a modicum OF clevernees, n TINS
il an tfnmistakable popular success. a
very pretty collocstion Of circumstance.
Once before in these columns. apropos
cf-The Serio-Comic Governess n jimmy
the Carrier it was lamented That Mr.
Israel Zangwill takes himself seriously as
A humorist. He takes himself, In fact, not
only seriously but syllogistically. AhJeWs'
he once remarked. are humorists-from
which il follows that he is a humorist. It
Ia as plain as the nose on your o Q
Mr.. Zangwill took himself as a writer OF
tragedy, and the result was the stage YER
sion of Children Of the Ghetto That
was a really deep and great play. Mr..
Zanxwill knew IL, and at least one o'his
critics. There wee thHn hope that he
would give to the theatre the same ipeness
and sincerity Of eff which he has given
10 fiction. But the public proved reluctant
and Mr.. zangwill has since given N "trip
periee. on these Nurse Marjorie upon
which Miss Eleanor Robson 10 lavishing
her talents and her charm at the Liberty,
is the latest and, it is to be f~ervently hoped,
the last.
Not the least distressing circumstance u
that potentially the story is a romantic
comedy of the first water-at once deeply
human and modern and OF a potent dra-
matte appeal. Marjorie Ia a young Irish
lady Of high title and great fortune. who
in order TO achieve a career Of usefulness
has sunk her identity and taken up with
the life OF a trained nurse. Her patient rs
a youth Of humble origin and new wealth
who il carving out a parliamentary career
a. champion Of the people. This DGn6uTy
falls in love with his nurse-as who would
not, when she lives in the person OF Miss
Robson2 1t appears, however-and with
charming spirit and audacity Nurse Nor
joYie helps on the deoeption-that she "
daughter TO an Irish hostess Of a fried fish
shop in Whitechapel--a lamboyant fishwife
with an impossible husband and brood OF
excruciating brats. Here is the old story
Of Beauty and the Beast, of Prince Florizel
and Perdita; and IL has a delectable
latter day twist in the fact that Ddnbvrv
Is confronted with the seeming necessity
Of marrying into the very midst Of the
class Of which in his parliamentary life he
N the fervent champion. IL would not
seem possible for a man Of Mr.. Zangwill's
talents 10 mar such a story. But Mr.. Gang
will is a humorist, and a humorist Of the
theatre.
The integrity OF character and the prob
abilities OF life are bagatelles in comparison
with the necessity OF any momentary stage
effect. When the playwright wants a
comedy scene, az in the first act, he makes
his hero forget his duty to his constituents
and TO his country, though the crisis is
urgent and needs him, and sham an illness
from which he has long recovered in order
30 ~philander in he nursing home with
Mdrjorie-as il IL were not possible by any
other means. and especially by being a
manl-to win her. Then, when the play
wright wants a dramatic climax, he makes
the same hero remember his career with
such single minded devotion that, in terror
lest II he allies himself with a ducal heiress
his constituents will desert him, he refuses
10 marry Marjorie, YER though she throws
herself az his head most b~ewitchingly
No manipulation OF antique stage plays
ever dangled a marionette more unblush-
ingly.
But IL is az a stage humorist that Mr.
Zangvill shines most balefully. Here Il
a gem of serio-comic lovemaking: There
beeathes from you an indefinable aroma
IL must be fried fish" Then there is thai
bit Of stage business in which the hero
whose eyes are handaged in consequence
Of an optical operation, thinks to squeeze
Mdrjorie's hand and squeezes instead the
hand Of the fried fish wife. Surely the here
IL blind who does not know the difference
As lord Of the property joke Mr.. Zangwil
outdoes himself. In the literature OF thu
world, it has been scientifically computed
there are only eighteen jokes OF any kind
OF property jokes there are only five. l
is funny when you sit upon somebody
else's top hat. 1t is funny when you burr
your finger against the stove or in a candle
fame. It is funny when you pull opeI
the door Of a sudden and bring a keyhol'
listener sprawling in on the floor. II 4
funny when you smash glass or china
OF the fifth property joke l am at presen
mercifully spared the memory. Thes'
four I recall because Mr.. Zangwill revel
in all Of them. He puts his tongue in hi
cheek and laughs at them so hard that 20,
wonder how he manages to keep it there
You wonder, too, how he has managet
10 deny himself the fifth property joke
which, as I now sadly recall, is to put you
face through a horse collar and grin at tn
audience.
The antiquity OF Mr.. Gillette's -Clarice
MAY be suggested to the waywise in the fac
that he Describes it on the programme as
comedy-drama. The term has a fine havo
Of the era Of the collaboration Of Belasc,
..nd De Mile. These were not the frs
playwrights, to be sure, who discovere,
that an audience relished smiles as a sea
souing TO tears, laughter as a respite 70
the tenser dramatic emotions. The archai
author Of "Cambyses' described his offerin
as a tragedy MKT full Of pleasant mirth.
Shakespeare poked sly fun at him an
others OF his kind when he made Pete
Ounce dAcribe his play as the tediou
brief scene Of young Pyrdmus and his low
Tykssh,,-verv ira Oical miPf n y, hiIk in hia nw