THE WAY TO WRITE PLAYS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 437, 20 February 1909, Page 9

THE WAY TO WRITE PLAYS.

The ; vastness ofthe. incomes ; attributed to popular/ dramatists- renders "it desirable that .we" should all,be,able,to .write popular plays,' aiKij ta do him justice,; the late M." Sardou never; shrank from telling anybody how. to. do it; ; Being dead' ho,yet ; speaketh on the old ' topic in tho. new number of/the"Strand." There . are; -manifestly, two ways of making say. Act I.' of a play. . You can .'put 'in tho words that,compose it, - or you. can: leave out all tho words that do not. The former .is tho method of ,the -painter. who starts from a blank'canvas, the latter the. method of tho sculptor - who starts from a block of marblo i larger than the. intended statue, and by degrees; leaves out all the• marblo.that ho does not want. At the first glance, at any rate, ; this.distinction—which we draw.to illuminate 11. iSardou's: posthumous, paper of instruc-tions-r-sounds as if it .were;not wholly vorbal., M. ' Sardou 'clearly liked tho :' feel ; ,of tho Gculptor!s. r method 'best. ; "My instinct," lie said;" is 'always to = cut;down,". ' But since vast and formless First :Acts cannot be quarried otit of the Carrara or other hills, .he had to : make;'.as' say, his marblo first.- So .some day .when . ho' was in V I.ho mood—"for to a certain extent I believe in ,

tho inspiration of tho moment"—ho would sit dowii- and never rise till be I had. written somo hugo, inohoato, ' all-inclusive , First Act ■ like the old. grammarian's treatise in Brown'ing, "treinondous, Monstr' inform' ingans horrendous," evidently containing not only all that could'in tho end bo found'to bo to •the purpose, but everything else that could ever como within hail of it. This done, you simply chip away tho-waste marble at : your leisure—preferably ill the country and in the early jurors of tho morning,-when you lean mess about with the least inconvenience to people staying in the bouse—and in due course the tiling of beauty emerges from the. "copy," like Venus from the sea. It has to, because you'can go on leaving out the sea: till it does. . ',7..

7 There are somo who might fear their fate on that first morning when left alone with 1 'tlnv pen, the inkpot, the Ri'isly dawn, and .their own "belief to: a.certain,extent in the 'inspiration of ■ the v.moment." What -if nothing came into their heads,at all? Let ;them have courage; 711. . Sardou providently' 1 caters; even for such, sparrows.You are to keep, a set of 'letter-cases; "each . heatly. •docketed." , .The moment an idea for a play occurs to you, file it in' a caso.' :• Then read the daily;papers and the library-book,■ and whenAnything that seems to have to do with any of. the docketed ideas strikes your : eye, file it, too j: in:, the idea's- case, and, let ''this' whole •ferment,ypurself .waiting the . while among' ■"surroundings' of gorgeous luxury.'?- "So in'timeVmy 7yiay:composes itself and -comes tofruition almost . without , my knowing .that it has done so." - As Mr. Yeats says of a differr ent literary process, "all is in tie wine-press, all .is in the drunken'.ecstasy, and the grapes ■begin to : stammer:" ' And from their stam:mering; lips-,you:.simply take..,down one 'fine /morning that First Act,' in the rough. v '!Of course," h.s': M.' .Sardpu. said,. "this method ibf.Vprocedurb as 7.especially suitable ' whenapplied ~to "the; historical drama;.": ,But' we; ' can ,imagine, the' beneficent r :lavvs -of. ohemjoal mixture. inside'; letter-cases • leading to, . say, pastoral fdramas; of •'great: charm. File. ttionormal prices of sheep at the period of. the play, .the ascertained .rainfall-in the special Forest ;of Arden selected,- a few : "vital statistics." of tho homely, slighted shepherd's anything obtainable about the. state of •edUeatibii . - among ; shepherdesses, previous . familyrhistoryj'if. known,'■ and average, age at which m'arrieil. . ■ • '.:-

; ■ -Boil them togpther ,and:.take' piEE the scum,'. ' Arid a pastoral play is the residuum. : :/:. /: : Or/' at any rate, 'the 1 only 'thing ..you'' would heed7tp; do/, afterwards would' be to go pn leam'g.'''outVand.-/'l6amg:['out'-#til.' : attained ;the- highest- possibilities of;its .nature. as; it' certainly /would 'if 1 you stuck. to:;thetask to tho : end;—'''Maribh'ester Guardian." ~ '' '' ■

NOTES. , ;It:.is sometimes 'said ,(writes. Walter .Lerinard in;the -"Glasgow. Herald "). that, only women write novels ;howa'days; but' that is: notoriously, fetee' .in'.-'jeferdioi).'' to vtke" past year: .' / There 7 have ;, beeii - :sPverar7 ;good novels written by women; but the male novelists have done: something more'thaii hold their own. . Let lis reflect .for a moment'.; 7.We will /take: half a ;dozen good novels .written by women.; "Diana Mallory," in, tho first place, by,_ Mrs. Humphry Ward,;' "The' Heart of a Child,"; by Frank Danby (Mrs.; Frankau); "Conie. and Find SMO/' by Miss Elizahath Robins;/."The Pulse of. Life," by ; Mrs; Beiloc Lowndes; / ."Kitty Tailleur," by -iliss May Sinclair 5 and "Interplay," b'y Miss Harradon:Orcourse/I ought/to include. "Holy Orders;'-* by Miss' Marie Corellij: which has had-a vbry--large and on tho i whole. well-deserved' sale; But'now lot us'tako the' masculino side of tho ledger . : ;^Thefe : is : thit/firie:'novel,'.!The.,Broken :: Road," by-Mr. 'A. -E. W. Mason—quite one:of the/best. things he had ever done; a sincere, ]-clear,-sighted; : - : and; valuable Indian '..study,. 1 Then tlioro, is •" Halfway House," by Mr;: 1 Maurice:'.He^lett^muqh'.better: than "The'; ■ Stoopihg' Lady,".'' arid quite on ,the. level of. his best'p'g'rforminces.T ''Add, to.these two a whole' '.ibod;'novels: —','ft.The/ Gr fia t-;Miss' /Driver,'-,'i by; 'Antbbnyv-Hbpe j -'-'-Tho/Spirit in ' ;Good,'; 'by..William -de L Morgan;-.'f A Set of Six,'-: by Josoph 1 Conrad; "Hill Rise," 'by W; •B. -Maxwell David Bran," iby i-Morloy Robertsj.;"The'old.Wives! Talev"'.by.Arnold-: Bennett; Mr,' E, F; Benson's "Sheaves" and "The, Climb.prs,"- Mr. : E. • Temple .iThurstori's "Sally' 'BishPp 1 ' v! and- "Mirage"; ."Antony .'."Wild iGeeise,!'by/ Stanley AVeyman.' : Decidedly it'.has been; a masculine -year, in .novels, for; 'myMist is by; ;no means exhausted, arid I have'said/nothing of Mr.. AViuston ■ Churchill's (tho American •Churchill) "Mr. Crewo's Career," or Mr. ■Randall .Charlton's "'Th'e.Virgin Widow,"- or; /the. work of./-Father,R./H. Benson. Rarely have : there7''''bepn morith's ! 'which,Ti!aye jirwuced: aiinib're ■romarkr. 1 /able/array. pf'.'ribvels a ."good :'de'al'/higher, than: : the''ayerageft ; />>;.; /';: '; ,;v/

Tho second vnniribef.of tho "English ''-Re-: View'.'/c'ontains tlio/hitherto: unpublished poem of "Jan Van Hunks/' by D. G. Rossetti. ;■ The ,<'poom-;has ;arrather < interesting Watts-Dunton issue.:; .It was 'begiui when 'Rossotti was. ypung ! many : but Jay. for-many • years l unfinished,lt had b*een : -suggested: that ■' he . and - Mr. j . Theodore W'atts^Diintoh': should ( ; bring Jout' a-joirit •book-T-a.'miscellany; ! 'of ..verse'and' prose,:. but the project for various, reasons : never: came .to anything.':: One , day, when Rossotti was in his' last illness' at 3ircbiilg'ton4n-Soa',vhe said.'to Mr;. Watts-; Duiiton: "I-have novel-^abandoned",tho'pro-, jeefc of. tho joint book. .'-. T intend that , the book shall como out; and I am now finishing tho- comic _ poem.- that I wrote. partly years ago." This was "Jan Van Hunks." '.'As the idea : interested : him,'Viays\'Mr: ; 'Duntou, : "_I; encouraged; ity-in order, to. keep 1 up ■ his spirits, - and it did so-; wonderfully. Very soon .the poem .was. all. written, out "in his beautiful handwriting from rtfie first line to the. last,"'. and' it has' been' in Mr. ' Wattsr Dunton's possession ever sinco: Mr. XV. M. Rossotti, '.in his, description" of-liis,'brother's last'.moments, .mentions'- the fact'-of. Rossetti's strange, revival, of interest in the' poem ; .whfen, ho was :on his 'deathbed, and he makes 'the following comments .upon it-''l' have always .considered that his taking 'up■ on his death-. bed that extremely grim and uncanny , though partly bantering theme- of ' Jan Van Hunks 1 ; —a fatal smoking duel with tho devil, who trundles, soul and off to hell—furnished a strong , attestation of the resolute .'spirit in which; my brother contemplated his own end,' rapidly approaching, and '(by himself, still more - than by any. others), clearly foreseen j for a. man who is: in a panic as to: his own prospects in any future world would-lie apt to drop any such subject like a' , hot coal." '. . -. :■-

During tho- yearl9oß some 243 . persons were - elected membors of - the Authors' ; . Society. .The total membership now numbers roughly. 19.00.The : "Author'' 1 , questions -.wKor ther this result, is - satisfactory, seeing that there are some 11;000 writers bf books and dramatists iu England. It hopes that at no distant date tho -society, may reckon -;on, an annual'income .from ; subscriptions, of'.somewhere about. £3000. . How "Punch" got its namo is explained, by Mr. E .V.- Lucas in. tho catalogue to the "Punch Pageant!' hold-in Londpn last month. "It was . accident alone,. ho informs us, "that decided,tliat.what has become, the most prosperous of 'all English .satirical syndicates should masquerade beneath tho .lineaments and physical peculiarities of the; old Italian marionette, for in :the .original- scheme the now periodical was to ibo,called 'The Funny Dog.', Heaven,', however, knows when to interfere, and an inspiration entering; tho head of someone .at; an early meoting to -remark that tho paper, -'like a bowl of .'punch; would i be nothing without its Lemon,'4fayhew, by a second inspiration, instantly, replied that 'Punch' should be its nime, and 'Punch' it was .from the moment, and 'Punch' it is nbw and will he. But for 'The Funny Dog,''what kind. of. longevity, what kind of; authority, could be imagined? Funny Dogs have no Pageants." :.- : ' -