New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-23
By +. G. Schang

IF THE war has done nothing else, 1t
l. has pleasantly brought the English
and the American speaking stages into
such close proximity that they are now
practically interchangeable. American
plays are the ftror in London, and
scarcely & week passes which does not
introduce US to the work of an Eng
lish playwright. Another happy incl
dent in this dramatic association is the
case of Mr.. George Arliss, a British
subject, who is now appearing at the
Knickerbocker Theatre as Alexander
Hamilton. Should the opportunity Of
fer, Mr.. Arlss may be referred TO as
an unhyphenated English American.
II have always preferred historical
plays" said Mr.. Arliss, "and for some
time it has been my hope to be able
to appear as. one Of the great charac-
ters from American history. Could |
have selected the character, 1t would
have been Alexander Hamilton, as ]
have always been an admirer of the
iinancier-sta and, on the whole,
think his greatness is more generally
appreciated by British students OF
American history than by Americans
themselves.
when Mrs. Hamlin's play was
brought TO me, the opportunity seemed
to be at hand. | was particularly in
terested in her play, as it completely
omitted the Aaron Burr incident.
felt that the duel would have little
dramatic interest, as It's outcome would
be known by the audience from the
start. The Reynolds incident, on which
the play was based, / knew to be his
torically accurate, and it seemed TO me
TO possess the germ OF drama.
"Then followed several months Of
arduous research in the wealth of Ham
iltonian photography which Is svaila-
BILE, to assure a presentation as accu-
rate as possible. Mrs. Hamlin and
became as familiar with Lodge and
Oliver and Fiske as with first primer.
The great interest of this play to me
has been that we have been able TO be
historically correct from beginning to
end. The solitary liberty We have taken
is in the first part, where we show
Reynolds discussing the affair with
Giles"
The initial performance of "Ham-
iton" was given in Washing
ton, and Mr.. Arliss has dozens of let
ters which were sent him from irate
students of American history and in
dignsnt descendants OF William B.
Giles, Thomas jefferson and James
Monroe. A granddaughter of Mr.. Giles
made special trip to Washington for
the premiere, expecting that her ances-
tor, former Governor of Virginia,
would at least be second only to Mr..
Hamilton as hero. What was her
CONSERVATION to discover Nr. Giles in
the role of villain
"Of course" laughed Mr.. Arlss, adj
justing his ever-present monocle, "in
q play we can't all be heroes, or you'd
have the jolliest play ever written.
have no doubt that there were mo-
ments when Messrs. jefferson, Monroe
and even Giles were heroic, and as
such the material for historical epics.
Blu. not in the present play. We re-
greet very much if we are doing any
character an injustice, but necessarily
we could go only by the historical rec
ords."
The Reynolds incident, on which the
play is based, shows Mr.. Hamilton, dur
ing his wife's absence in Europe, lured
into an indiscretion by one Mrs. Reyn-
olds, whose rascally husband then
backmails him, and eventually at
tempts to use the evidence thus OBJ
tanned to bring about Hamilton's polit-
ical downfall. Rather than sacrifice
the currency bill, which he was then
sponsoring, Hamilton admitted his act
to his wife, published the entire CORE
spondence, and revealed the plot which
brought about his humiliation.
Many critics failed to understand
how man Of Hamilton's astuteness
could have been trapped by so palpa-
Bile scheme, but the actual historical
evidence, based on pamphlet written
by Hamilton himself and published by