Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-28
ny W. HERBERT BLAKE

Somewhere. in his brilliant Here
ties" G. K. Chesterton penetratingly re-
marks that we can really poke fun only
at something in which we tremendous
ly believe AS instances he might have
cited such stock themes for derision
as mothers-in-law. curates and our
ancestors. Perhaps this subtle fact Is
why the best men in the world are
usually the most laughable, and why
the villains in life, as in melodrama,
are never blest with a sense of humor:
The only plays which are entfely pau
are those which are utterly serious
and the only philosopher who mas
never been confuted is Democritus.
All of which rambling observation
gives us the cleW to that delicious fan
tasv. "When Knights Were Bold, -
with which the merry company OF
Burbankers replaced the doletul
Traitor" yesterday afternoon, and at
which l found myself laughing quite
indecently. 1t is safe to wager that
Charles Marlowe the playwright, is a
keen admirer of the middle ages, for
only a medievalist could interpret so
masterfully the spirit of inner leVlty
which masqueraded beneath buskin
and hauberk and tonsured poll. Sir
Guy de We're, badgered to death by
clamorous friends demands that he
carry his newly assumed title with
greater dignity has a dream of those
rainbow days of old romance, and the
extraordinary thing is that he himself
is more romantic than any of the
shades who rise to clothe the person
aIities of his advisers. He is funnier
than his fool and more vitality religious
than Peter the monk, the gray cas-
,F fl,. 2 tot n
century dean. For they are dream
shapes, the reflection of the bodiless
fancies of his modern friends, who
image the age of knight and prioress
by their own feeble conceptions OF
valor and piety. Only as his blOoded
manhood infects them do these shad-
oWs of ancient England evince life. The
glory of the modern world alone has
power to resurrect the real glories of
the medieval.
And yet it needed just this vision of
the past to rouse Sir Guy to the lurk-
ing peril in his own position. Not un-
til he entered Dreamland and met his
cousin Rowena as the cloistered Lady
Rowena, pursued by his rival, Sir
Brian, did he learn the worth of that
fair lady or the covert cowardice of the
rival. Without for a moment losing
his grip on the good broadsword OF
mirth he manages in the scene of his
awakening to WELD it against Sil
Brian and his co-conspiring Jew abet-
tor and his sober dismissal of them
from their designs by a cool, The car
riage will be here at IL to take you tc
the station" is perhaps the most hui
morous line in the play.
For the dream teaches Sir Guy thai
romance is not a dead thing of clank
ing mail and "Ods bodikins" argot
but living tradition which links the
real manhood Of 1909 to it's lineal hei1
of 700 years later The light of the
heroic present alone can linn th'
features of the glorious past" Sil
Brian, feigning a romantic enthusiasm
for his own ends. is unmasked at tn,
: last as a pitiful weakling. Hi!
fatuous funk, when convicted o
cheating at cards, explains why hi
ancestral shadow went down so readily
before the absurd fstic attack of Si1
Guy in the dream. Both hid thei
real weakness under the cloak of pre-
tense.
Yet, ghosts as they are, the gay
garbed folk of the dream parallel yer,
delicately the traits of their descend
ants of today. Mr.. Duffield's senescha
rightly differed in nowise from tn
patriarchal butler, who deplored hi
masters disregard for the conventions
Mr.. Gilbert's squire was only a trih
of seven centuries more obsequiou
than Valet Wittle. Only the spangle
and little more aged keg of dementet
British wit distinguished fool from
fOp, as Mr.. Mestayer embodied them
Even that vivid contrast between
medieval intolerance and modern hu
manity displayed in the instance o
the prosecuting monk and the suffer
ing Jew could not obscure the won
derful continuity which binds churcl
and clergy of any age with thei
spiritual forbears. And when Sir Guy
with clumsy humor. adopts the Ian
guage of his ancestors, the tongue O
love proves little altered from the day.
when knights were bold.
Indeed, the garb and talk of toda,
seem as magical to the dream com
pany as do their habiliments to II,
moderns, which is simply a hint tha-
Richard the Lion Heart and Ivanho,
would find a walk down Broadwa,
this afternoon a stroll into very fairy,
land. Lady Rowena, seeking shelter
from the marauding Sir Brian, dis.
trusts the knight who wooes in evening
dress, until he proves himself also I
virile man, whose arms are as handy
for fighting as making love. Converse
ly it is interesting to observe how
easily Sir Guy retains the tongue OF
his dream, when he poses as mad tc
bring things to climax with Sir
Brian in the last act. Forced upo1