New-York tribune., 1911-04-02
LONDON PLAYS
Mrs. Campbell as Lady Patricia
Dukes and HeireSSeS.
London. March %.

A comedy of manners in the spirit of
Moliereis welcome surprise when play
goers have been surfeited with musical
comedies. inane farces and costume
plays The author is Mr.. Rudolf Besier.
who began with The Virgin Goddess >
an interesting experiment in classic trag-
cdy. and followed il with Don, an in
eenious example Of modern comedy.
Lady Patricia" produced this week at
the Haymarket, is superior TO each in
literary form. delicate satire and con-
structive artistry II is a delightful play.
with bouquet as fragrant as choice
faeon OF old wine. Its Wit eXcites
thoughtful laughter and reminds one Of
what George Meredith said of Molere's
comic spirit as like a running brook.
with innumerable fresh lights on II at
every turn of the wood through which
its business is to find its way" Like
the French master, he ridcules the SON
neteering dabblers and sentimental
poseurs Of rose pink society. AS
"Precieuses Ridicules" and "Femmes
Savantes" satirized the absurd vagaries
and romantic jargon of bourgeois circles
in the time of Louis Quatorze. so Lady
Patricia" exposes the modern nonsense
Of middle age fooling with youthful pas
sions and temptations.
Like the classic French comedy of
manners. Lady Patricia" has the slen-
derest plot The languorous. sentimental
roetess. who poses and recites Swinburne
and Browning under an oak tree has A
rure and platonic affection for a sim
rle minded lad, Bill O'Farrel. and
draws him into her leafy bower and
rlavs hide and seek with him by moon
light Her priggish husband, Michael
Cosway. has a similar infatuation for
the Deans comely but outspoken tomboy
daughter. Clare Lesley. and pursues her
with emotional rhapsodies and an@mic
feebleness. These proceedings are
watched with bucolic humor by an old
gardener. who is pruning vines. light
ing chinese lanterns and repeating remi-
riscences Of his household of thirteen
children: and the clandestine interviews
are witnessed by a pair of good natured
peacemakers. the Dean and Bills
mother The boy and girl. fiattered at
first by the attentions Of the middle
aged philanderers. are eventually bored
by them. and only too eager to fall in
love with each other. Their engagement
Is announced after Lady Patricia in
deepest black. has confessed her delin-
ouencies tO the Dean and posed as a
martyr to her own emotions; and hus-
band and wife are left to make the hest
Of their stale and commonplace devotion
n each other.
Construction in a fantasy like this
matters less than Characterization and
this requires Interpretation as brilliant
as the play receives at the Haymarket
Mrs. Patrick Campbell is Lady Patricia
6jlettante. asthete and pOseuse and, seri
ouslv as she takes every aspect OF the
whimsical character. she triumphs by
the apparent sincerity with which she
reveals the unconscious humor Of far
cical comedy part Whether she is toy
ing ecstatically with her callow boy lover
GgDHenl0E
poetic passages. or relapsing into SOM
nolence among her embroidered cushions
or recounting in her confession to the
dean her temptations and her heroism
she is a great artist, appealing at once &c
the intellect and to the emotions, and
delightful alike TO eye and ear Mr.
Arthur Wontner is not, perhaps. equally
effective as the soulful husband, but Mr.
Charles Maude and Miss Athene Seylei
are excellent as the boy and girl and
Mr.. Eric Lewis and Miss Rosina Flipp
ere versatile comedians who are entirely
satisfactory as the Dean and Mrs. Var
rel Mr.. Norman Page also provides
natural and humorous impersonation of
the Deans solemn butler. Mrs. Camp
bell is the central figure, and she is
brilliantly successful in burlesquing her
own stage work in translating intense
morbid natures like Mrs. Tanqueray's.
one performance alone matches Mrs
Campbell's AS an artistic creation. This
is Nr Frances impersonation of Bald
win. the prosaic. bucolic gardener. bent,
with shambling gait, garrulous, remi-
niscent. inquisitivc. with fatuous tai
ent for turning up at interesting mo-
ments and doing the wrong thing and
with a quaint cynicism for commenting
on human frailties and follies. This
clever actor has not had SO good a part
since ne acted with Miss Mabel Hack
ney in The Incubus" In voice gesture
uncouth pose. stold density and racy hu-
NOR Baldwip seems TO have steppe out
of Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels. The
importance Of the character is not ex-
agg.ated by undue byplays. Baldwin
is something more than an eccentric
comedian who fills the pauses of ro-
mantle vaporing and philandering dis
course He is the rustic chorus, which
brings the rhapsodists and aesthetic
pedants down from the clouds and con
meets them with the solid earth. He is
al once a foil for the artistic tempera-
mont, with its pretensions and absurd
ties, and an Interpreter Of a world regu-