The Washington herald., 1908-01-05
The House of Thousand Candles.


THE House of a Thousand Candles. 8"
at the Belasco Theater last week, Is a
striking example OF the marked differ
enee between literature and the drama
Mr.. Meredith NichOlsOn's novel was not.
perhaps, literature OF the highest class,
but at least it had grace and delicacy
which the rough hand of the melOdram-
attic melodramatist has wiped out of ex-
istence. 'The House of a Thousand Can
dies" as a novel was a fairly plausible
story OF treasure and adventure; quite as
plausible and exciting as Stevenson s
Treasure Island and with something
Of the same skill in the telling. On the
stage the story is sheer, rank improba-
bility and buncombe, so that one Won
ders what has become of Mr.. Nicholson's s
good novel in its transfer to the stage.
When one comes 20 think of il, il
seems fairly apparent that when the
stage touches literature it has a tendency
TO cheaper it Certainly the examples Of
novels transferred to the stage In recent
years gives strikiag evidence of this.
Take ToIstofs Resurrection" or that
same authors Anna Karenlna:" take
Maurice Thompson's Alice Of Old Vim
cennes," Churchill's Richard Carvel,"
Davis Soldiers Of Fortune" Anthony
Hopes The Prisoner OF Zenda, Tar
kingdoms THE Gentleman from Indiana. q"
and any one OF half a dozen others that
come readily enough to mind-all these
were cheapened and made into tawdry
plays in which the high lights were
thrown into undue prominence, the SEM
sational points siezed upon and most Of
the beauties and grace OF the written
page was eliminated.
Perhaps such falling of Is inevitable
whenever the stage tries to portray in
the space Of two hours and a half events
which the novelist makes TO cover a per-
iod OF years. It Is plain that the dramat-
ist has no use for merely graceful writ
Ing; he cannot rely too largely-eertainly
10 not so great an extent-on the intel
ligence and the imagination of his audi
enee as the novelist can. One can see,
for instance. that pretty nearly every
novel, no matter how little of what Is
commonly known as action" 1t contains,
might be made into play.
Take such dainty and delicate ro-
nance as "Cranford"-this might be
transferred to the stage. but the subtle
and delicate, old-fashioned flavor and
atmosphere would inevitably be lost in
the process. A play might be made Of
John Halifax. Gentleman" but one can
see precisely how the modern stage car
penter would sieze upon the one or two
sensational episodes in the book and
would ignore all that makes the novel
pure literature.
The truth is. of course, that the func-
tions OF the dramatist and the novelist
are widely apart and separate. Each is
working toward a definite aim. with tools
that differ greatly, and when the dram
atist iRvades the domain OF the novelist
he is trying 10 perform the impossible
task II fitting square peg into a round
hole. Some dramatizations. Of course,
gre better than others. There could
hardly be a worse example than that fur
nished by Mr.. Middleton's work in THE
House OF a Thousand Candles" The play
is simply impossible, with a cheap. taw-
dry, and vulgar appeal, and all that made
the story worth while has been ruthIessiy
smudged out.