New-York tribune., 1919-06-14
By Haywood Broun

Irlcotrin and Pitou, Conrad and most
of the Merrick people would hate Royce
Oliphant, the hero of "The Actor-Man-
ager.' They would class him as a
prig, and, in spite of his ability as an
actor, they would hardly hail him as a
fellow artist. In his introduction to
the reissue of the Merrick book Will
lam Dean Howells seems inclined to
admit Royce into the magic circle At
any rate, he writes that: "Since fic-
tion ceased to concern itself solely
with kings and princes, or even with
the nobility and gentry, it has found
nothing Of such sovereign effect with
the reader as the aspirations and adj
ventures of people, the younger the
people the better, trying to get past
the publisher or the manager into the
light of the public square"
That is all very true, but only if the
author can endow his literary or artis-
tic folk with the divine right of the
missing kings. They may not be part
artist and part something else if they
are to be accepted as belonging to the
true succession. That is why Mer-
rlck's actor-hero, Royce Oliphant,
seems to us a pretender He is too
consciously moralst to be a COM
plete artist Indeed, during a dispute
with his wife at one point of the story
he exclaims proudly, II hope l am an
actor, but I was a man first" This is
not in the mood of the masters. We
should be inclined to suspect the great
ness of any one who said, 81 hope
am tenor, but first l am a devoted
husband" or, 81 am novelist, but a
Unitarian" or, "a sculptor at present,
but originally stamp collector"
AS matter of fact, those who wear
the true purple may not be anything
else first and artists second, because
there are too many others who keep
their stamp collecting and their devo-
tion and their Unitarianism entirely in
the background, except on Sundays and
few holidays. But we did not have to
wait for Oliphant's boast that he was
a man before he was an actor to thrust
him out entirely from our sympathies
He left US early in the book, when he
was describing to Alma King the sort
of a theatre he should like to have.
When he has finished telling of his
plans the girl breaks in with the sug-
gestion that good name for the thea
ire would be "The Elect" We waited
fully expecting to hear the young actor
exclaim, "Oh, I say, that's bit thick
or Don't spoof," but he made no at
tempt to clear himself and seemed to
give silent assent that "The Elect
would indeed be good name for the
sort of theatre which he hoped some
day to manage. He was a poor strug-
gler when he first told of his plans
but later on in the book the author
sees to it that he gets his theatre. He
does not call it "The Elect" but he
manages it in much that spirit, and we
must confess that we felt no urge of
, terror or pity when the pretentious
little place closed it's doors.
In course of time we even came tc
doubt whether Royce Oliphant was not
a bad actor in addition to everything
else, although Merrick often speaks OF
his ability. 1t is difficult for a novel
list to convince his readers of the
ability Of character who happens to
be an actor. If he is writing about q
poet he can show US some of his poetry
or if his hero is a politician he car
allow us to listen to his speeches, but
the business of making us know the
actor in his art is much more dif-
ficult. Probably there are not more