409 



THE REVIEW'S BOOKSHOP. 



THE PLAY AND THE PLAYERS. 



A difficulty with the author of " Dear Old Charlie," 

 who is now acting as Censor of the English stage, stood 

 in the way of the presentation of Mr. Israel Zangwill's 

 new play,r/;c Xexl Religion, in a London theatre. Mr. 

 Heinemann has published the text (2s. 6d.). I wonder 

 how the playgoing public would have liked it. It is a 

 daring attempt to represent in dramatic form the 

 confused combat that is going on in the modern world 

 on the subject of religion. What Mr. Zangwill actually 

 means to teach by it is, I confess, hardly clear to me. 

 At the licginning it seems as if the play was intended to 

 delight the heart of the editor of the Freethinker. It 

 closes in a fashion that might have been written to suit 

 the editor of the Review of Reviews. Possibly if it 

 were performed we might get the author's real meaning 

 more clearly. Mr. Zangwill has a gift for clear and 

 almost scorching expression, and his latest play makes 

 one furiously to think. 



In Nights at the Play Mr. H. M. Walbrook has 

 collected into one very readable volume (W. T. Ham 

 .Smith, 2S. 6d.) the charming essays which he has 

 contributed of recent years to the Pall Mall Gazette. 

 Mr. Walbrook is one of the most intelligent and 

 sympathetic of our dramatic critics, and in this volume 

 we have his ol)servations and descriptions of all the 

 most important dramatic events in London in late 

 years. Mr. Wall)rook is full of hope concerning the 

 theatre. His hope is based on two facts. First, the 

 revival of the provincial theatre; and, secondly, 

 the fact that " the Theatre of Ideas has knocked 

 at the door in London and has been admitted." 

 The British drama he thinks is more alive at this 

 moment than it has been within the memory of any 

 living man. Few more acceptable books could be 

 sent to cheer the solitary hours of the thousands 

 of Uritons who are serving the Empire in exile 

 than Mr. Walbrook's volume. Although perhaps 

 it may cause them a little home-sickness, it will 

 make them feel more in touch with the world they left 

 behind, and that will be more than compensation. 



In An Actor's Hamlet (Mills and Boon. 2s. 6d.) Mr. 

 Louis Calvert sets forth a theory of the mentality of 

 Hamlet whii h i-; based on "the assumption that the 

 apparition of his father's ghost unhinged his mind. The 

 text of the plas' is printed interleaved with blank 

 pages for Mr. Calvert'.s notes and those of his readers. 

 It is an interesting preface to Mr. Calvert's great design 

 of creating a real Shakespeare Theatre in London, based 

 on brains and enthusiasm, not merely on cash. 



A Cosniopolitdii Actor is the title of an English 

 version of .Mr. Hcdycock's book on " David Garrick and 

 his French Friends " (Stanley Paul and Co.). It is 

 illustrated with many photogravure portraits, and 

 reveals a side of f)ur great actor's career little known 

 to the British public. " In France Garrick had almost 

 as many discerning admirers and fervent friends as in 



his own country,"' and in this book Mr. Hedgcock, who 

 is lecturer on French literature in the University of 

 Birmingham, introduces us to the best of them. 



Mr. Frank Archer, in An Actor's Notebooks (Stanlev 

 Paul and Co. 7s. 6d.). gives us a well-indexed volume 

 made up of extracts from his notebooks, covering the 

 whole of his career on the stage. He begins his gossip)' 

 reminiscences from 1845, when he heard (Tharles 

 Kemble read "Hamlet" at Shrewsbury, and he carries 

 them down to the end of last century. Mr. Arnold — for 

 Archer is only a stage name — began to play in 1868. 

 His profession brought him into personal touch with 

 most of the leading actors and actresses of the last 

 quarter of the nineteenth century. He accompanies his 

 good-natured reminiscences by forty-two illustrations, 

 portraits chiefly of actors in and out of character. 

 Middle-aged playgoers will delight in his scenes of their 

 old favourites and reproductions of well-remembered 

 impersonations. Mr. Arnold has added to the variety 

 of the fare which he sets before the reader by including 

 the letters which his brother wrote from Paris during 

 the siege and the Commune. 



BOOKS ON PEACE AND WAR. 



In The Passing of War (Macmillan. 6s.) Prebendar\- 

 W. L. Grane. the Vicar of Cobham, has furnished us 

 with a thoughtful " study in things which make for 

 peace." It is a kind of a complement of Norman Angell's 

 "Great Illusion," which, in Mr. Grane's opinion, dwells 

 too exclusively upon the economic and material side 

 of the case. " It takes a soul to move a body, e'en 

 to a cleaner sty," and it is the same all-potent lever 

 that Mr. Grane uses in this scholarly and Christian 

 argument. " Where there is no vision the people 

 perish." Mr. Grane endeavours to restore the lost vision 

 by inciting mankind to the high aspiration of uniting in 

 sovereign service and harmonious co-operation for the 

 welfare of the world. He has produced a most useful 

 book, instinct with hope, and replete with the most 

 apposite (juotations. It is a veritable armoury of 

 weapons for all who go forth to do battle for peace in 

 pulpit or on platform. I much regret that I have not 

 a(ki|uate space to deal more fully witii this sane and 

 sensible book, which has onl\ one fault : it has an 

 excellent synopsis of contents, but it lacks an index. 



ll'ar and Its Alleged Benefits (Heinemann. 2s. 6d.)is 

 an English translation of the Odessa XovikotT's book, 

 published years ago in French. It is introduced by a 

 highly eulogistic preface from the pen of Norman Angell. 

 who is naturally delighted to find a Russian author 

 so entirely in accord with his favourite thesis. " M. 

 .NovikolT's little treatise," says Mr. Angell, " contains 

 more arguments against war in the abstract than any- 

 thing of similar bulk." It is rather sliglit, but the points 

 are well put. especially his nft iterated question. Why, 

 if all the inhabitants of the Britivji Kni|)ire can live 

 together in friendly aliiann', all the inhaliitants of the 

 world cannot follow their example ? 



