The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-01
"Moliere"
BY BARRETT H. CLARK.

u that he possesses Sulnclent command
over the full length play medium to IN
spire the hope that he will continue bus
efforts in this direction. His first expert
ment outside the one act play was Madame
Sond, which exhibited little more than
three one act plays loosely strung to-
gethcr Molere is an attempt to con-
struet a plot of greater extent and com
plexity than any other Mr.. Moeller has
yet grappled with. The attempt is not
altogether successful
It would be fruitless and uneritieal to
hold the dramatist NJ to any arbitrary
technique or condemn him for failing to
observe a proper unity. The fact Is evi-
dent that the last act stands apart from
the first two, and the play falls into two
distinct episodes: Mohere, Armande and
the Court, on the one hand, and Moliere's
,death on the other. 1t seems to me that
on the score of dramatic effectiveness, II
Mr.. Moeller had developed TO the end the
double story of Armande and De Luzon
and Moliere and La Montespan, the play
would not suffer as it now does from di-
vided interests. The last act as it now
stands might well be made into a one act
play. =
Molere is full Of color and movement;
the characters, particularly the minor
characters, are well drawn. Moliere him
self is not quite satisfactory. Perhaps it
was too much to expect that Moliere
should be depicted as not quite such .
hero as he here appears; rather think
that in life he confined his heroies to his
own characters. But outside the big scene
in which he defes the King, he Is q
charming character and on the whole con-
vincing.
Philip Moeller is one Of the three or
four native playwrights from whom I ex-
pect q great deal He is not to be pat
ronized, he is not Of those promising
young fellows" who never fulfil their.
promise. His achievement, while it il
true sense of satire, feeling for beauty,
and talent for writing more than re-
spectacle English. He IS therefore to be
held strictly accountable for his short ,
eomings. In other words, he is worth
criticising. Holisre Is In some ways, as
have pointed out, an advance upon the,
authors earlier work In one respect,
however, it marks a falling off: % I
read the text Il have not seen the per-
Torrance, where 1 presume the actors
turn prose into verse as they turn verse
into prosel find myself chanting the
lines, some hundreds of which are viiiated
by being iambie pentameters- The fol-
lowing short passage, with few minor
changes, would be at least technically
good verses. arrange them in verse
order:
NINE. de MOntespan.-You dare-no, no,
60 on. I Ike you best
When You are erudest
Moliare.-Shall I leave you, Madamef
Nine. de Montespan.-No, stay; I'm
hungry for untinselled honesty.
What is this lie you think that turks be-
tween usf
Mohere-I do not know, but it makes our
faces dim
And what is ugiier, our hearts ignoble.
Shall we erase this clouding smudge with
TRUTH
The plays pretext, is it notr &c.
1t is hard to write romantic dialogues
and escape the temptation to fall into
verse. But the temptation must be resisted
or the result is bound to be bad verse and
bad prose.
In spite of these structures, which 1 felt :
bound to pass upon. the play, Molisrs q
a delightful play to read; Mr.. Moeller,
ike Bernard Shaw, is able TO impart an
atmosphere Of genial intimacy to scenes
that have occurred, or might have o.