The New York herald., 1922-03-15
Mines Play OF
Literary Fraud
Most Amusing
'The Truth About Blayds,
Drama of English Life Pro-
duced at the Booth.
ny LAWRENCE REASrER.

a A. Milne has slowly made his way
here as the author of well written.
fanciful and sometimes amusing come
dies of English life, which are perhaps
more characteristic OF the country of
the playwright than rich in any other
quality. Mr.. Milne is uncompromisingly
British in every attribute. Hitherto he
has been humorous In his national way.
Last night. however. Winthrop Ames
introduced the dramat.st in a new light.
He gave for the first time here THE
Truth About Blayds,' which has met
with success In London despite the ap-
pearance OF tho writer Of comedies In
new mood The play is r9Iner grimly
satirical. In mood it would suggest the
ashy grimness OF Pinero in "The
Thunderbolt'' and Barker in 'The
Voysey Inheritance" were it not for the
insistently humocous touch OF the play
wright. And these are specimens of
the deepest sort of British drabness-
'-The truth About Blayds' concerns
long continued literary forgery. The
fame OF one man In reality belongs TO
another. Although he has grown rich
and honored among the other eminent
poets of the Victorian period, the pro-
tagonfst OF Mines drama, naver wrote
but one book that Is part Of the COR
nCTSIDne OIL Ills ldIle. IL 10 OnC VI iiio
avowedly mediocre efforts. Those which
have placed him so high in the world
Of letters are the work of a friend, dead
moreover and despoiled by him of the
writings on which the other climbed to
renown.
The first act shows him in the sunset
OF his glory. Deputations visit the old
poet and pay him Difference on his
ninetieth birthday in the mansion over
which he rules with kindly despotism.
The audience saw him listening to the
address, from the younger writer's which
q critic brought to him. They saw his
family paying him its Difference and
saw the old man intimate to the daugh-
ter who had sacrificed her life in his
service that he had something serious
to whisper 10 her alone.
Gone in Second Act.
He is gone when the second act be-
gins. 1t looks as IL all the pride and
happiness of his rather self-satisfied de-
scendants were gone with him. He has
confessed to this devoted daughter the
fraud which made him great man in
letters. She will bring the biography to
an end at once and tell the truth. Then
the fortune must go where 1t belongs.
Her important brother-in-law, who as
his secretary has always stood in re-
Elected glory, refuses TO denude hlmsel1
of all his honors at once. So the family
battle goes on. One son even hints at
the possible mental arrangement of the
old man which has led him to imagine
such story. How could man who
had written a famous poem to truth live
such lie Is one OF the family ques-
tlons? There seems no way of settling
the question until Mr.. Milne remembers
the lines about wills in Jerome X. Je-
rome's treatise on stage law.
So the will is found. This testament
of the old friend who wrote the verse
in the first instance bequeaths every
thing to-. his friend who posed so long
as the poet. This is, of course, one way
"a stage way-out. Mr.. Milne did not
finish his study OF Jerome-not the saint
but the playwright--at this point. He
saw the end of The Truth About
Blayds' in view. But what sort of
an ending should 1t be? See Jerome on
esdings. Why a happy one Why
sAould not the critic who was in the
first act marry his old love. the spinster
daughter, who was in reality for the
truth and ought TO be rewarded? He
has been out of the scrap, as it were,
and might be made useful in this way
He $50 the play finishes happily IL
artificially.