New-York tribune., 1919-02-09
By Ralph Block

u~HE Marquis de Prlola, at the
Liberty Theatre, is in many
ways an amusing play, but it
nast be confessed chat it remains
.musing only so long as you keep the
e,s dust of Puritan tradition about
r,onriety unshed inch deep on your
soul Nobody ever starts out here to
500 the theatre realistically; we all of
rn anproach it with an enormously COM
,lete apparatus Of alarms and buzzers,
ready to spring into action the minute
tho fame of human passion warns the
s.mosphere. Only little by little does
the playgoer in process of civilization
shed his apparatus and begin to ac-
knowledge that it isn't any more
shameful to talk about passion on the
stage than it is to have it and express
It in life. For that stage of sophisti-
eston and nsensibility to shock, "The
Marquis de Priola" appears somewhat
less amusing and quite on the edge of
being archaic
It is impossible, of course. to quar-
rel with playwright over the kind of
life he aims to disclose il disclosure is
his purpose You can ask him "Why?"
and he canswer, because | choose
TO-" and that is as far as an argument
OF that kind can justifiably go. But if
he proclaims his intention by every
gesture of creation and every intona-
ton of confidence, and then falsely and
syly goes about doing something else,
he is open to full attack by all the
ules of combat And all the fine VIZ
tue Of men and women that remains at
the end inviolate before the terrible
MARQUIS is quite unable to save Henri
Lavedan, who created him, from the
suspicion of having said one thing and
done another.
The marquis is hedonist, if long
and vulgar passage of popularity still
leaves the word as legal tender. He
has pursued egosm to the last boun-
dary and made the ego his own, and
he stands frankly and cleverly ready
to burn every little moment that will
in any way contribute to his sensuous
or sensual pleasure. Lavedan makes
him out q fairly well-worn satyr, but
Mr.. Ditrchstein shows some reluctance
at shedding too much of youth. He is
completely contemptuous of the world,
- IL. e
faith in the we'll springs of human ac-
tion, and is intelligent enough and
daring enough to make his progress
without any sheltering cloak of hypoc-
Tisy He is, in fact, the true cynic,
daring to unbelieve everything and
brave enough to despise faith grace
fully-which always takes courage
and openly.
To this point this portrait of
Frenchman brought up on the maxms
and old-fashoned enough to believe in
ihem is not without its charms. There
IS something blindly romantic in all of
US that forces us TO admire cynics;
hey do have fine disregarding rapt-
IRE about them and an apparent free
dom from claiming illusions that is
everawing and attractive. But some
~here In ones admiration of a cynic
'nere is always & point at which you
lave 10 slow down little bit and give
consideration to him. You chalk up
credits for him on the not inconsider-
s0ie point Of being free and dashing
hsure, full Of splendid contempt for
everything mortal, and when he en-
ureiy fails you on the very point he
las meant to score on, you have to fail
Elm in return.
1t is there that the Marquis de
fsiola takes his fall After all, the
advantage Of being one out of the per-
aaps half dozen persons in the world
sno see that the immortal soul is
merely thing Of cotton and tinsel
'agns to be OF some avail. The cynic
ssss past all the obstructing fog into
'he naked truth. knows human i'm
pa'ses Tor what they really are, strips
VI .nem their mantle of hypocrisy and
% tue one man who will not be de-
.s''ed. Here is room for achievement,
'0s a kind Of living that will by sheer
ap'snoor OF defiance blast away the
ssapiaities that surround human cat
ss' 1t is therefore little disquieting
:" "na that with all his wisdom the
marquis hnds nothing more exciting to
20 In life than undertake an endless
'0neuest Of women. His hours of quiet
$40 spent IN planning his campaigns,
80 years have become a stricken trail
" fose-petalled seductions. Havelock