London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
'ARRY AND THE THEATRE.
Strange to say, so far, has avoided the stage, or rather, has proved unattractive to the dramatists. On a first night he is occasionally found in the front rows of the pit, and joins heartily in the guffaws which follow a successful attempt to some novel production. I do not think he has the | |
262 | wit to invent those satirical remarks that now and again serve as an accompaniment to the dialogue of a play but he can always take part in the merriment with which those comical conceits are greeted. But, as a character on the boards, he is distinctly a novelty. Mr. Weedon Grossmith gave a very amusing sketch of a Jewish 'Arry in one of Mr. Pinero's clever farces, and Mr. Penley has also approached within measurable distance of the great original in another play. But 'Arry (or rather neither) has yet to be introduced to the patrons of the playhouse. We have had something very like 'Arriet in various types of female unloveliness, but 'Arry has yet to be painted. It is a pity that Ibsen knows so little of England. Many of the characters in his extraordinary plays are not altogether unsuggestive of the typical Cockney cad. Of course, the Master Builder is altogether a superior person, and yet in his selfishness and conceit, his treatment of his wife, his type-writer, and apprentice there is some resemblance in his character to the London pest. Not that 'Arry would have ascended a steeple with a view to waving a flag. 'Arry, to put it in his own favourite would have Besides, Ibsen's Master Builder was a man almost past the prime of life. No doubt he was more accustomed to slippers, dressing-gowns, and spectacles than steeple-climbing. The |
263 | Master Builder was a rather melancholy gentleman of about fifty-five or sixty. 'Arry never grows a day older than twenty-five or thirty. When he marries-which he does fairly early-he ceases to be himself, and becomes unobjectionable. Whether he marries 'Arriet I know not, but if he does, both he and she cease to be nuisances and into something quite presentable. So 'Arryism may be regarded as the attribute of youth if not of beauty. |
