" Mr. Jones
himself has assured us that he has thought about life, and would like to
give some representation of it in his plays. That is apparently what he
means by this peroration, which once closed an article in the
_Nineteenth Century_: "O human life! so varied, so vast, so complex, so
rich and subtle in tremulous deep organ tones, and soft proclaim of
silver flutes, so utterly beyond our spell of insight, who of us can
govern the thunder and whirlwind of thy ventages to any utterance of
harmony, or pluck out the heart of thy eternal mystery?" Does Mr. Jones,
I wonder, or the distinguished critic, really hear any "soft proclaim of
silver flutes," or any of the other organ effects which he enumerates,
in "The Princess's Nose"? Does anyone "seriously contest" its right not
to "rank as Literature"? The audience, for once, was unanimous. Mr.
Jones was not encouraged to appear. And yet there had been applause,
prolonged applause, at many points throughout this bewildering evening.
The applause was meant for the actors.
If Mr. Jones had shown as much tact in the construction of his play as
in the selection of his cast, how admirable the play would have been! I
have rarely seen a play in which each actor seemed to fit into his part
with such exactitude.
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