GALSWORTHY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 26

GALSWORTHY

St. John Ervine Criticises Playwright and Author UNDISCERNING SENTIMENT John Galsworthy, who will be 63 in August, has written 27 plays, of wnicn 20 are long pieces, and “4 other works, of which the majority are novels. His first novel, “Jocelyn,” yr&s vuolished in 1898. His first play. The Silver Box,” was performed in 190t>. his latest and, rumour reports, last play, “The Roof,” was performed in 1929, writes St. John Ervine, in a London exchange. In 23 years he wrote rather more than a play in each year, in addition to rather more than one other work. Both as a novelist and as a dramatist, he has received high reputation in his own country, on the Continent of Europe, and in the United States of America. “The Forsyte Saga, which is probably his finest work, has enormously impressed at least three peoples; his own, the American, and the German; and has given him a position in our literature from which he will not be dislodged. He is a member of the Order of Merit. His novels are. in my belief, incomparably better than , liis plays. ESTIMATED AS DRAMATIST This seems a proper time in which i to attempt some estimate of Mr. Gals- i worthy as a dramatist, especially as j Mr. Leon Schalit has issued “a survey” of his work. Mr. Schalit, describing the general attributes of Mr. Galsworthy’s plays, says of them that “the chief characteristic of the author is i his ironical perception of the enraeshment of personality in society’s in- ; stitutions; the struggle of the individ- i ual against the mass, or overwhelming f majority ... In most of Galsworthy’s j works the conflict arises from the rebellion of the individual against society, some particular case being > taken for a typical example.” It is at this point that I find myself in sharp disagreement with Mr. Schalit, in revolt against Mr. Galsworthy. There is scarcely any rebellion of the individual against society in these 27 pieces. The conflict be- j tween John Anthony and David j Roberts in “Strife” is an exhibition of : mulish obstinacy on their part. Society, indeed, is being outraged by Anthon3* ! and Roberts, who do not care what I happens to other people so long as i their personal vanity is served- There is complaint, there is whimpering, but ! there is almost no rebellion. Jones, in “The Silver Box,” makes an unintelligent protest against his plight, but nothing in his situation excites admiration for him in those who witness his struggle. Annie Roberts, in “Strife,” repeats her husband’s opinion, that “a working man’s life is all a gamble, from the time ’e’s born to the time ’e dies.” It is more of a certainty now than a gamble, but even if Roberts’s belief had been sound when it was supposed to have been uttered, j what is a gamble? NO PLAN FOR PLAYS Mr. Galsworthy may not make a 1 lan for his plays, but he begins with an assumption about society, “the enmeshment of personality in society's institutions,” and he generally chooses, to illustrat “the struggle of the individual against the mass,” an individual who has almost no ability to struggle against anything. Mrs. Jones j in “The Silver Box,” Mrs. Roberts in I “Strife,” Falder in “Justice,” and Clare Dedmond in “The Fugitive,” | with many others scattered throughout the Galsworthian drama, command j only our pity, in which there may be some contempt. These people do not ; struggle with society or engage in con- ; flict with the mass or overwhelming j majority. Their first instinct is to put • up their hands or to fall on their I faces. The mass rolls over them be- j cause it does not know they are there, j Ferrand, in “The Pigeon,” declares i rhat he “will not roll” himself “under i the machine of existence to gain a nothing every day. I must find with what to fly a little.” But his efforts 1 to rise seem chiefly to consist in hangbig on to anybody who will keep him; ' he looks for, and finds, a pigeon in Wellwyn, a gentle sentimentalist, i Stephen More, in “The Mob,” makes a gesture of revolt, but it is a poor, impotent gesture, the motion of a man who has never had to make a genuine | struggle in his life, but has learnt all his revolt in copy-books. The Rev. • Michael Strangway, in “A Bit o' Love,” maunders his way into trouble because he has not the common gumption to avoid it or to grapple with it when it comes. PITY FOR INEFFECTIVE No; the chief characteristic of the Galsworthian drama is not the ironical perception of the individual’s struggle to retain his individuality, but Mr. Galsworthy’s profound and sometimes moving pity for the ineffective and the weak and the wounded and the suffering and stricken and unfortunate. His pity often becomes undiscerning sentimentality that has no relation to any real thing and is extraordinarily irritating to those who are j as compassionate as he, but are eager not to bog themselves in a morass of emotion. At his best, as in “The Silver Box” and “Strife” and “Justice,” and a play «hat ought, in my judgment, to have been a success, “The Forrest,” he purges his pity of its sentimentality and provokes the mind to honourable exercise. At his worst, as in “The Fugitive,” and “The Mob,” and Exiled,” and “The Roof.” he surrenders our sympathy to his emotions and sends his audience out of the theatre with the feeling that they have witnessed the sudden emotional collapse of someone whom they went to admire for his courage and nobility and strength. I know* of no conclusion to a play by a man of high quality so banal as' the . end of “The Mob,” unless it be the end ct Exiled. “The Fugitive” seems to be full oT false values and false emotion and to have a manufactured end. In “Exiled,” I felt that Mr. Galsworthy’s remarkable detachment from the common round of life, his lack of general experience, had left him stranded and unaware of all that had Happened to us in the past ten years.