MR. STEPHEN PHILLIPS AS A WRITER OF TRAGEDY 137 



fact, as eminent and kindly a critic of Herod as Mr. W. D. Howells 

 said that in reading the play he had an uncomfortable sense as of 

 the presence of a third party, which upon closer examination of his 

 consciousness appeared to be the actor. That this becomes a real 

 defect very few will be convinced. In any event, such a criticism 

 leads us to expect that an author so attentive to the acted play would 

 be strong in scenic presentment. This expectation Mr. PhilHps 

 unquestionably justifies. The ItaHan palazzo, the royal home of 

 Odysseus — perhaps, as actually presented, adhering too faithfully 

 to golden Mycenae to be quite accurate for gaunt Ithaca — the 

 Judaean hall of audience and the imperial scenes at Rome offer a 

 striking spectacle to the eye. The countless presentations of Goethe's 

 Faust have naturally made it very easy to achieve stupendous and 

 finished spectacular efi'ects, and the devices in Mr. PhilHps' new play 

 at once recall and comply with the injunction of the director in the 

 Prolog im Himmel : 



Drum schonet mir an diesem Tag 

 Prospekte nicht und nicht Maschinen. 



In The Sin of David, too, the original plan would have presented 

 a staging akin to its fellows and fundamentally different from the 

 final form. Throughout the plays, beautiful architecture, rich and 

 tasteful robes, effective grouping of figures, and similar features 

 appeal most winningly to the audience. Mr. Phillips had the initial 

 advantage of a cultured taste and an actor's experience; but he had 

 also the invaluable co-operation of two such masters of stage manage- 

 ment as Mr. George Alexander and Mr. Beerbohm Tree, so that com- 

 ment becomes rather superflouus. The stage effects are invariably 

 as happy and brilliant as modern scenic art and long experience can 

 make them. In truth, the danger is that they may be too successful, 

 and I have fancied that a Httle of the weakness of Nero may be due 

 to scenic temptation. 



In passing we may recall that if Mr. Phillips has been fortunate 

 in his stage managers, he has been not less fortunate in having the 

 Benson school of actors to deliver some of his best blank verse. While 



