New-York tribune., 1912-01-28
JONES AND HARDY
Continued from sixth page.

the theatre has always been considered
rather disreputable place
Does that feeling still cXist?'
1T is passing rapidly away, and is al
most past. in another generation / do not
think it will have to be Teckoned with
DO you look, in the future. for com
bination OF the two professions
'I hope that literature and the drama
will again meet In England, today, it-
erary men still have a sort of contempt
for the stage. They try 10 write plays
without the knowledge Of the craft, and
wAsn they do not succeed they get angry
ab8 f8T~ AT the theatre In England we
have one great novelist who is essentially
a dramatist-I mean Thomas Hardy. Oc-
tave Mirabeau has hailed Thomas Hardy
as the greatest figure in English c1ntcm-
porary literature. All through his novels
Hardy shows a quality Of the instructive
dramatist; that is, he constantly has dra-
matte situations such as the one in Tess
Of the D'Urberviles, where Tess relates
her history TO Angel Glare. Then, again,
Hardy has the impersonal outlook that the
dramatist should have. He is not occupied
with himself: he has something TO show
and something TO tell you. and he does not
IlllAfe illS OWI Dtl 'bAitsllte' iiN ~ -
aoof from his characters and does not Try,
like some of our modern writers. both in
literature and the drama, 10 show low
clever he is In the division between lit
eraturc and the drama during the last
generation we have lost n great English
dramatist in Thomas Hardy
HAS Thofhas Hardy ever written play
that has been produced?'
,,Is, FF7,rr
Of twice. but his interests and his way Of
lde lie altogether away from the theatre.
He has never studied the craftsmanship Of
the drama"
Tess Of the D'Urbervilles was great
success in this country-was it, also, In
England
.~ 1T has had no popular success in England,
/ did not see the American version. but IN
Tess there is material for a very fine
play. as there is in many other of Thomas
Hardys novels. / hear by the way, that
ne has lately made a successful version
himself Of his little Wessex story, where
the escaped prisoner and the hangman.
who is searching for him, meet in a cot
tage"
Does Mr. Hardy live in London
No he lives I'm very comfortable,
homely house about mile from Dorches-
ter / have often visited him there The
last time J saw him was at the revival OF
The Case Of Rebellious Susan at the Cri-
terion, in London, last year. when he was
IN my box for the first performance
Has Mr. Hardy sympathetic attitude
toward the modern drama?'
Quite sympathetic, so far as his absence
from the actual theatre and the world Of
the stage permits him TO have. His last
great work, The Dynasts, is thrown into
dramatic form. hut IL is too long. too stu
pendous and too abstract work TO meet
with success on the actual stage. for which,
indeed, IL was not intended.
Eut ] still contend IL is a thousand pities
for our theatre that Thomas Hardy's ereat
natural gifts have not been utilized for the
actual living English drama. However. he
has the compensation of having given him
self entirely 10 literature and OF having
secured enduring fame as one of the great
est English novelists. II he had given him
self TO the stage he might, perhaps,
through the uncertainties that always at
tend stage production, have failed 10 reach
so high and assured goal, and IL is the
fact that the rewards of literature ara
more secure and more permanent which
prompts me at times to say. as / did the
other day, that II were thirty years OF
age I would give myself 10 literature and
not TO the stage"