New-York tribune., 1907-06-05
LONDON NOTES.
Mr. Sargent at Play-A Wilde Re-
c5UaI-4 Wmwickshire Memorial.
London, May 25.

/ TO play with their paint His serious work is
in the Academy and the New Gallery. but in the
water color show and in the new English Art
| Clubs exhibition he is like a boy on a holiday,
| amusing himself I'm hunting sunbeams and reveI-
| ling in bright ColOrs. There are six examples
| Of HIS hours of Incidence at the Art Clubs show,
| opened to- day in Dering Yard Four are water
color drawings, apparently dashed off in sheer
| joyousness OF spirits. Piazza Navona" is a
| jumble of domes towers and columns under a
blue sky. with brilliant play of direct and in
direct light. Above It IS "Zuleika," a girl in
blue. white and red draperies. loing on the
grass in full sunlight. More brilliant still is the
sketch Of shipping in a Levantfne port, with
the waters sparkling like a Casket Of jewels
| red yellow. green and blue; and more artistic.
because moro convincing in its realism. is the
| sombre vista Of the hills Of Galilee. There are
two architectural pieces from the same versatile
hand. Ono is a stone balustrade under a blue
sky. Sir Lawrence Alma -Tadema would have
painted it to reveal the beauty of the mar
BILE surfaces. Mr.. Sargent cares little for text
ures, but loves the transfgurng effect OF the
light the marble steps and balustrade. Ia
Salute" with It's steel gray statues and murky
walls IS the other subject, and it is painted
with the reverent feeling of a worshipper.
The master sends these holiday diversions to
the younger artists club TO show them what
sport one make of painting. How difficult
# must be for them TO look at their work
when these drawings are cleaning like jewelled
icons the walls,
The revival Of Oscar Wilde's "A Woman of
No Importance" serves two purposes. II sup
plies leading artists of the stage with excellent
parts and II enables critics 10 discuss the trend
of dramatic art since the first production of
piece set with sparkling epgrams and sarcasms
As the play is staged at His MaJestys Theatre
the chances for fine acting are not wasted. Miss
Marion Terry Is now regarded as one of tho
best actresses in England whenever a playwright
gives her anything worth doing. As Mrs. Ar
buthnot she acts with dignity power. subtlety
and charm throwing across the footlights the
fascination of her own interesting personality
and deeply affecting the audience by her ten
derness, sympathy and exquisite sensbihty
The part may be theatrical and insinCere but
she makes It consistent, extremely human. and
absolutely real Miss Ellis Jeffreys is delight
fully piquant the worldly, nippant Mrs. Al
lenby, tosses off every wittcism with the lightest
touch and fills me stage with brilliant gayety of
spirits Miss Tree as the earnest American girl
IN revolt against insincerity and lippancy acts
with fervor simplicity and charm. Mrs. Charles
Calvert deprves the fatuous and fussy Lady
Hunstanton Of any sembance Of aristoCratic
distinction. but converts her with genuine comic
spirit into the most amusing figure on the stage
Mr. Tree fails 10 redeem the polished cynical
and brilliant rake Lord Illingworth. from the re-
proach Of being duh and priggish; yet one IS
unwilling to be critical since his appearances IN
modern comedy ought TO be encouraged. Mr.
Charles Quartermane IS admirable AS the youth
fuI and impulsive Gerald Arbuthnot, and Mr.
Edmund Maurice and Mr.. Charles Allan are
fine comedians in farcical parts II the play
does not attract full measure of public favor.
it VIII not be through any lack Of brilliancy in
the acting
Has public taste changed during the interval
OF fourteen years between the first and last pro-
duction OF this sparkling play with a social
moral? This is tho question which the critics
are considering, and they do not agree in their
solutions Some of them assert that the cpl
grams now have a hollow sound because Mr.
Shaw has prepared the public FOR a higher class
of humor; and others again arc equally positive
that Oscar Nilde's wit more incisive and
more playful than Of the labored dialogue
and buffoonery the Court Theatre. The
first night audience could hardly have en-
toyed the paradoxes and drou concoits with
greater zest; but Il showed signs Of weari-
ness over the serious passages. The moral
Of - Woman OF No Importance is found
In the protest Of the American girl against
the shallowness and hypocrisy Of society. 1t
seems 10 lack driving power. When the play
wright Of the day becomes didactc he arms
himself with hammer and tongs and the sparks
ny That is Mr Sutro's method in The Walls
of Jericho" when the Australian bowls every
body off the floor and smashes everything in
the drawing room. In Oscar Wildes play social
shams are playfully satrized and Puritanism IS
dismissed as an American eccentricity. II the
current dramatlst turns reformer he must make
a strenuous fight or else be content 10 remain
in the background jingIlng cap and belM. The
moral purpose in "A Woman OF No Importance"
does not grip the attention Of the audience.
There is no hard hitting. Society may not be
better than it was fourteen years ago. but 1t
affects strength rather than feebleness.
The first memorial of George Eliot in her own
Nuneaton soil is a granite pillar with the dates
NJ her birth and death and the words, Lest we
Forget" 1t stands in Asbury Park. near the
old farmhouse with a gabled wing where she
was born and has been erected by member
of the Newdegate family, whose estate OF over
three hundred acres was managed in turn py her
father and her brother-Adam Bede and Tom
Tuliver It is in the heart Of the Warwickshire
district which she knew by heart and described
from memory in her earlier stories with realism
unsurpassed until Mr. Hardy wrote the Wessex
novels and reproduced rural England. The birth
house itself passed without observation, unless
there was a hint OF 1t in the dairy of the Hall
Farm: but Cheverei Manor was in Asbury Park,
with Knebley Church Of Mr. Ciilhrs Love
Story" outside; GrlM House. where she intro
duced her mother as Mrs. Hacket and found the
originals for Adam Bede and the Tullivers. was
within a third of a mie the nearest village
was the Shepperton Of the Clerical Tales and
that was on the edge of Nuneaton-the Milby OF
the anti-Tryan agitation. The simple granite