Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-22
BY W. HERBERT BLAKE

"The Lady. ".........,.........B .Beryl Hope
BY W. HERBERT BLAKE
For two hours last night at the Ma
jestic theater a company of capable,
refined players, rejecting the warped
ethics of Mrs. Elinor Glyn, visualized
the theory that adultery is a virtue and
inferred the corollary that an honor
able man may belle his promise to
marry, if only the victim of his incon-
stancy is dull faced parsons daugh-
ter"
1t was monumental task Mrs. Glyn
had set them. Like good workmen and
conscientious artists, they did their
best. They made vice undeniably allur-
ing. They even made its penalties
pathetic, as they often are. They made
us hate a dissolute king, as he de-
served. They could not make us ad-
mire his unfaithful wife.
Criticism, of course, is largely per-
sonal matter, and I am primarily eX-
pressing only my own opinion when
say that Mrs Glyn's play, like her
novel, has failed to adequately justify
free love from the viewpoint either of
torrential passion or scientific breed
ing of the human species. But I think
anyone who saw Three Weeks last
night will agree with me that it is
sad play-perhaps the saddest ever
written By that l do not mean that
It is tragedy, for it falls far short of
the struggle of the aspiring human SOUL
against the inevitable which we thus
define. Paul and "The Lady, neither
aspire nor struggle. Rather, they grovel
and drift. BY sad l mean that Mrs
Clyn takes that fundamentally dreary
view of human nature which ignores
the glory of sacrifice and Remuneration:
Mature is God" remarks 1.-THE Lady"
in a philosophical moment, and there
is no joy In her worship-only avid
ardor and arid safety
1t is useless to say that this play
merely gives us a realistic picture of
life. Mrs. Glyn is no more an un-
biased photographer than the Rev.
Thomas Dixon. Her philosophy in
trudes. We are told that The Lady
is a good, noble woman" Spurnlng
the sacrament of marriage as she
spurns the husband who has degraded
it. she cries at the last. II have
lover and 1 glory in it." The case for
her liaison is adjudged out of court.
and passing passion is enthroned as
the only ultimate authority over err1ng
men and women.
This play forces you to take sides.
II pleads in every line and situation
and caressing intonation for "the way
that seemeth right unto a man. "The
Lady" does what neither Camille nor
Sapho, in their accurate pictures of
certain phases of life, ever ventured to
do defend her seduction of pink
checked boy by an appeal to the sacred
name of Motherhood. And this at
tempted Improvement on the decalogue
is advertised as a play which points
out that any union based upon an i'm
perfect physical foundation is vile in
every sense, no matter how much 1t
may be legalized by mans self-made
laws" Rather sweeping, in an age
which is seeking a remedy for the
scandal of divorced
In all essential respects play and
novel must be considered as one work.
A prologue emphasizes the demand OF
a drunken king that his wife procure
him an heir, but the ensuing action
ignores this supposed compulsion and
pictures the affair with Paul with fatal
fidelity to the motif of the novel. Even
treating the prologue as something
more honest than Mrs. Glyn character
ized It when she called 1t a sop thrown
to American prudery, we are seriously
asked to countenance moral code
which tolerates in royalty what it dis
allows in the subject; not merely toler
ates,. but exalts and strives to endow
with the halo of romance. 1.-THE Lady"
appreciates the temporary nature of
her alliance, if not Paul She deliberate
ly plans to ensnare him, even as she
sees him writing to his English sweet
heart. That 'best and dearest boy is
summoned Dy the spell OF Ile eICIduI-
ress with his protestations of fdelity
to another's memory still echoing in
his ears She calls him, and he goes,
as to any common assignation.
These are not pleasant words to
write, but a play which raises moral
questions must answer them. And there
is no attempt to face the real heart
ache in the play, from the first glimpse
of that worldly wise English father to
the double killing which heaps the
stage with dead at the close For that
eartache-sneeringly echoed in thu
novel-is skilfully suppressed in the
play. 1t is the brutal defrauding of a
little daughter of a dull English vicar
a parsons daughter, the Glyn mouth
pieces say-and laugh. For her there
is to be no glorious sunrise of love, no
haloed canopy of romance, no divine
mystery of motherhood. She is merely
a dull, red-cheeked country girl-an-
other Merely Mary Ann-and our deli
cate-souled protagonists of a new NOR
ality have no time for dullness or
crude things like health and virtue.
They are made of quite different stuff.
They may pity the bowling, starving
mob in the street. They cannot feel
the heartache which miles of ocean
drown. They are too busy-making
parliamentary leaders and finding heirs
to a decrepit dynasty. n
Possibly it should be mentioned that
there is tiger skin in the second act
of the play. Without discrimination,
it may be added that the relic of that
interesting animal performed his func-
ton well last night His pitiess fe-
rocity served as "a fitting symbol for
a drama whose characters are not nor
NAL men and women, but sort OF
hyper -estheticized beasts. endeaVoring
with every evidence of intelligence to
spiritualize the ethics of the jungle.
w. H. b.
"Piff- Paff- Pouf." presented by the
Princess theater company at the Ma
son last evening is true to its title
and requires no more serious thought
than a bit of thistledown blown lightly
across a meadow by laughing children.
In fact, the company seemed in mer-
nv mood on the opening night and
succeeded in injecting the audience
with its spirit of revelry. The princi-
pals have exceedingly good voices and