Pierrot On The Mat

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 525, 30 November 1928, Page 14

Pierrot On The Mat

[Written for The Sun.l POOR PIERROT is under the cloud of Mr St. John Ervine’s displeasure. The dramatic critic pf the Sunday "Observer” finds him a bore. He cannot away with plays of ihe Pierrot genre. Wonder is that the fellow has eluded the critic so long! Pierrot should be as dead as Aubrey Beardsley and the Yellow Rook; but somehow he is not. Only the other day I heard a new play read jn the presence of the author, and there was Pierrot as one of the protagonists. The secret of his vitality lies in the fact that he is no man’s copyright. His origins are as obscure as his manifestations are manifold. He has not been exploited in the interests of an individual journal as have Buster Brown, Pip. Squeak and Wilfred, and Other would-be legendary figures. There

Is hardly a versifier In the land who has not, at some time or other, impressed him. Some of the most individualistic of writers and artists have from time to time allied themselves with the democracy of those who are not bored with Pierrot. Mr Granville Barker turned from grappling with problems of sex and economics to write, with Mr Laurence Housman, “Prunella, or Love in a Dutch Garden.” He had an abstraction to clothe, and Pierrot’s garments served. Mr John Drinkwater found respite from the ardours of historical drama by inditing a pensive lyric on love and mutability: his interpreter was Pierrot among the appleblossom. Seymour Hicks sought to raise the “Cherry Girl” from musical comedy to the plane of fantasy: he called up Pierrot, and the thing was done. Pierrot has been put on the mat. This does not disconcert him; for that is his wonted place. It is given to anyone who has been on Margate Sands to say “I have met a pierrot”; but one must have come from the twilit world of ideas to be able to say “I have met Pierrot.” Behind all his many and varying manifestations hovers the essential being, something less than tragedian, moke than clown. George Du Maurier gave us the essential Pierrot in the course of illustrating Trilby. In his relations with Pierrette Pierrot is the antithesis of the Cave Man. He is suppliant at Pierrette’s door; and upon those occasions when he does gain admission, he is usually the kind of enlightened pessimist that Mr Drinkwater makes of him. Oftener, however, he is left on the mat; and that is why he is in such demand with the versifiers. Mr St. John Ervine considers that Pierrot has been locked out so often that ft is high time he was locked up, or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say, shut up. Despite this, I do not think that we have heard the last of Pierrot. He fits so pat into the dramatis pers'onae of the play of ideas; there is a certain vagueness about his status which is very helpful to the fantasy-monger. When Pierrot declares that he has been kept away from the office with a cold, one is not required to be specific concerning the office. It does not matter how stagey is the house wherein Pierrot has his being. There is no illusion to be maintained, as in Ibsen’s “Doll’s House.” You are not asked to believe in the place, only to be entertained by it. It is intended that we should hold reality at a distance. Pierrot is prepared to aid and abet any fugitive from realism. That is, perhaps, why Mr St. John Ervine finds him tiresome. It remains only to add one’s quota of rhyme, and thereby to substantiate the statement concerning the versifier: Moonlight falters on the mere, o! Silvered poplars wake from trance. What a night for watching Pierrot At his stealthy shadow-dance ! Pierrot cries, “Pierrette, Pierrette! Pity a poor silhouette.” Pierrette's house has gallant gables, And a box of mignonette. All the keys have little labels With the manual sign “Pierrette.’ 1 ’ Pierrette owns nor lord nor liege; Pierrette’s house would stand a siege. Battlements to scale and storm at Are for knights of derring do— Pierrot shisers on the door mat With the frost bite in his shoe. Pierrot cries, “Pierrette, Pierrette! Listen to my chansonette.” And so on. It will be observed that ■fcith the Instinct of her sex Pierrette has taken a name which attracts countless rhymes. Pierrot, on the other hand, can appear at the end of a line only through the exercise of great ingenuity on an author’s part. This Is as it should be; for Pierrot must be kept in his place. C. R. ALLEN. Wellington.