New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-10
LONDON PLAYS
Countess AFnim's Comedy-A
Radiant Young Terry.
london Iuna

London, June %.
THE Blue Bird has been followed by
dainty and wholesome comedy at the
Haymarket Priscilla Runs Away" is
! the first play by Countess Arnim, the
brilliant English woman who found a
place in literature by writing about her
German home and garden with refine
ment Of fancy and effective realism. 1t
introduces too many characters. is diff
fuse in dialogue and shows other signs
of inexperience in stage writing, and yet
it has precise knowledge of German
court life and English rural scenes, and
it also has sustained humor and comic
spirit and the distinctive perfume Of
Elizabeth and Her German Garden"
with suggestion of old-fashioned Glove
pinks. at once spicy and clean. Princess
Priscilla's Fortnight is the story, which
is made over into a play with several
fresh scenes and episodes and a different
ending. In il are contrasted the artificial
conventions and rigorous etiquette of a
grand ducal capital and the unaffected
simplicity of manners in an English vii
lage. Princess Priscilla runs away in
turn from inportunate lovers in court
and in village and is a most whimsical
and delightful heroine.
The principal part is taken by Miss
Neilson-Terry, a promising actress.
barely seventeen, who recently played
Viola in Twelfth Night at His Ma
jesty's and fascinated audiences by her
precocity and charm. AS Princess Pris-
ella she has to carry the weight of a
long play on her frail shoulders, and she
is seldom off the stage. This was a
severe ordeal on the opening night,
when she was acting in the presence of
a swarm of doting relatives and expert
enced actresses, and yet in spite of ex
cessive nervousness and spasms of stage
fright she commanded success and
plaudits of admiration from a sympa-
thetic audience. She had beauty, art
less grace, sparkling vivacity and charm,
and, above all, the Incompatible gift of
youth She looked like her mother, Miss
Julia Nelson; displayed the rollicking
gayety of her father, Mr.. Fred Terry;
was at moments as roguish and mirth-
some as her aunt, Miss Ellen Terry, and
had the sustained artistic power of.
consistent impersonation Of character
which Miss Marion Terry has always re-
vealed, and yet, with all the family sug
gestions Of voice, pose and gesture, she
had qualities of her own, a naturalnesS
of style and a piquant charm of radiant
personality.
The play is a whimsical comedy, with
vein of delicate sentiment and few
surface indications of satire. 1t is en-
acted by an excellent company of ex
perienced players, some of whom are
unable to resist the temptation to exag-
gerate the Importance Of minor parts.
In this way some of the passages come
to have a distinctly farcical effect, and
there are few burlesque touches. In
the opening scene, when the princess dis
covers that her hand has been promised
to her cousin, the Prince of Lucerne,
and that their betrothal is to be an
nounced at a stately court function, Mr..
Charles Maude is gallant enough as the
royal sutton, but Mr. Charles V. France,
as the stern and fussy grand duke, over
plays his part, and Mr.. Swete, as the
librarian and tutor, becomes unneces-
sarily melodramatic and passes outside
the picture of pure comedy. When the
princess, dragging her tutor and maid
! by the heels, runs away to England to
enjoy her freedom and to play Lady
Bountiful among poor villagers, there
are even greater risks of farcical treat
ment for brilliant comedians such as
] Do on a
Mr. Hignett are cast for small parts and
overemphasize the humor.
1t is the artless amateur who holds
the play together and retains a firm grip
upon genuine comedy style. When she
has taken possession of a cottage in
quiet English village she makes a fright
full mess Of helping the poor and teach
ing the humble how to be happy. She
provides an old woman with more rum
than is good for her. creates scandal in
the parish by giving the children a jolly
Sunday tea, is soundly lectured by the
wears wife for looseness of manners,
boxes bumptious undergraduates ears,
breaks an impressionable sQuires heart,
is overwhelmed with debt and insulted
by tradesmen. drives her maid into open
revolt and unsettles the reason Of the
visionary tutor, whose teaching she has
reduced to absurdity. The best work in
this delightful farrago OF nonsense is
done by Miss Sydney Fairbrother. who
converts the tea drinking, rum coveting
old cottager into a most ludicrous figure.
These village scenes are most amusing.
and before their course is run the prin-
cess has discovered that she really loves
her German cousin. although she is
piqued by his neglect to hunt her down
promptly and to carry her back forcibly
to her fathers palace. When he finally
appears and laughs at her misfortunes
i'm being beset by dunning creditors, i'm
Fortunate lovers and irritating scandal
mongers. she runs away a second time.