New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-09-15

OF Bunty was correctly Interpreted, un-
| less by few farsighted persons VINO
| kept their mouths shut for the most part.
I We attributed it to the humor OF the
! Scotch character drawing and never no.
ticed that il was the trueness OF the
( drawing and not its particular geograph-
zeal situation, that caused the play to
take the town. We never diScerned IN
fact that IL was the quality of the char
I aoter and not merely its Scottshness that
| was impressing US. 1t was necessary for
'Milestones' and Rutherford and Son to
come along and ram home the lesson.
! What Every Woman Knows ought to
have warned US, with its first act that
everybody found delicious and its later
acts that everybody found TO suffer by
comparison with the first; simply because
that first act was a perfect first act OF
genre play Cconfound the phraseD that
turned later on into a drawing room com
edy almost as imperceptibly as the
duchess's baby turned into the pig in
Alice But il did not warn us blind
ones. One wonders whether Mr. Barrie
} himself knew what he was up TO; whether
he realized that in What Every Woman
! Knows and some OF the earlier plays,
! too he was doing tie spad2 work in
new field and making it possible for some
OF us lesser agriculturisis 20 raise a crop.
! we may state the change roughly as
being the substitution OF character for
plot. OF course, one is not going 20 be
such a ninny as TO contend that char
| acter was not properly drawn before the
days OF Miss Sowerby; but IL IS fairly
true that the character Of even a very
few years ago was rather sencraliz40.
! drawn according TO broad types and that
more attention was paid 10 the coHatruc-
ton OF an elaborate piot and 10 tho
march OF the scenes. That way led. if
not 10 madness. TO utter sterihty and
| drabness. IL led Il a mechanical ar
rangement of n few conventional il
strongly marked types and since the
tyres were conventional they could be
expected only TO run In tire old grooves.
| They had no choice Even the ucatest
and most elaborate Of railway engines
has TO keep TO the metals. il cannot
| wander about in search OF pastures new.
Was not 1t Sarcey who said that there
are only seven plots In TIE world?
AT the other end OF the scale there is
the complete subordination OF plot to
character, with its attendant danger Of
utter formlessness and confusion. Tchek-
hofs Cherry orchard has been cited as
IN example Of this type Of play. though
wrongly, as | believe. for it has Il most
definite ii subtle sense of form running
through it, But a Cherry Orchard in
the hands of master less great than
Tchekhof, We get plenty Of readable
modern novels in this chaos, but what a
nightmare such play would be. No, !
am not urging that less attention shall
be paid to form, but a complicated plot
does not necessarily mean form.
Let us take 'Milestones' again. Il
must. apologize for continually dragging
in this piece, and for implying thereby
that have some sort Of admiration for
it, for ! am aware that when. a work
has attained a certain measure of popular
success II IS the proper thing to run it
DOWN To me the most impressive thing
in 'Milestones is not the reconstruction
Of past periods, simple trick for Mr..