New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-12-29

"a lief in magic is a man VINO
isn't brave enough to face
an unyielding universe with
cut 4 prop to lean on. Barrie is that
kind of an artist. Far from being the
billowing, expanding optimist that he
is everywhere made out to be, Barrie
IS at heart probably the grayest, stoni-
est pessimist to be found in English
letters. lie is a ploughboy whstling
across the fields in the dark. to ward
eff the shadows. lie shouts at the sun
shine to get forgetfulness of the moon
SHINE He Is the arch pretender, more
poet than dramatist, grasping at
strange fantasies-roses dreams. senti-
mcnts-in an unending effort to con-
vince himself that the pessimism which
rises up starkly in his soul to con
front him is not a reality. He wants to
believe that the sweet, pretty, soft and
pleasant world he can conjure up at
will is the only one that counts
He never succeeds in convincing him
self. His pessimism is too deeply root
ed for that. SO he goes on writing
plays. If there is boy who didn'
grow up. the boy is Barrie. If there
is a Never-Never Land, it is Barrie
land. If there is usefulness in Bar
rie's plays, it is the usefulness Of
Barrie, glimpsing his unrclcnting
shadow. If there are moments Of fine
anguish in Barric's plays, they are the
angushcd moments of man who has
wanted TO pursue beauty and has been
held by the fatal knowledge that no
beauty lives past beyond its own feet
moment
For a poet built like Barrie, there is
only ono way out OF this situation.
There arc plenty Of reasons Why
Chesterton believes in magic. One OF
them is that it is pleasant way Of
stating himself in paradox-nobody
else does believe in magic. But for
Barrie, magic is kind of blunderbus
at the shoulder. 1t is the hypodermic
injection necessary to still the pain
CT fatalistic doubts about the goodness
Of living. Reality may be a stern and
uncompromising barrier in four d.
mensional space. But magic is the
fifth dimension, and Barrie by long
practice has found his way into an
other spatiality, indeed with such ease
that it might be said he had become
as confirmed in the habit Of ESCAPE
as drug taker. Magic is his constant
anodyne.
1t is doubtless true that this quality
is rarely if ever seen and recognized
for what it is. From one end to the
other of these states Barrie has sue
ceeded IN putting himself ever under
the false role Of sunshine bearer sooth
Sayer, herald Of sweetness. Barrie is
the one writer for the English stage
who can gladden. a mothers heart with
the assurance that in him there viii be
only comfort, assuagement and implicit
belief in fairies. And all the time Bar
RE sits in his British isle wrestling in
his soul against unbelief and pessm-
ism.
Dear Brutus," which is so finely
done at the Empire Theatre, is Barrie's
latest adventure in contentment. Here
IS the poet posing the problem of ex
lstence, the abstract question of des
tiny and the ends of living. Here
again Is the persistent Barrie fouting
the gods that sit in judgment, produc
ing his own bag of tricks in the unend-
ing effort to prove that living is splen-
did and beautiful and wonderful, even
with all the pain it predicates. Who
can gainsay that he has becom, .
fac'le and accomplished at the process
mat ne almost proves his point?