Irish Review (Dublin)

"There Are Crimes and Crimes "Author(s): Bryan CooperSource: The Irish Review (Dublin), Vol. 3, No. 26 (Apr., 1913), pp. 91-92Published by: Irish Review (Dublin)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30063719 .

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II.-" THERE ARE CRIMES AND CRIMES "

By BRYAN COOPER

WHEN Raphael was painting in Rome, Michael Angelo is reported to have said to him, " There is a little fellow working in Florence, who if he were urged on as you are

by Popes and princes, would make you sweat." Something similar was said to Ibsen concerning Strindberg. And yet Strindberg is no Andrea del Sarto: he does not shake Ibsen on his throne. If one may judge him by this one play, the first of his work acted in Ireland -almost the first acted in the United Kingdom-he moulds his play well, he writes good dialogue, he holds one's interest, but he does not really move one, and his characters do not live. The story tells how Maurice Gerard, a playwright, becomes fascinated by Henriette, and abandons his mistress, Jeanne, and his child. In their fear that the child many stand in the way of their love, they wish it were dead. The child dies, and suspicion falls on Maurice, who has visited it to say farewell. He and Henriette are arrested, and though they are acquitted, popular feeling is roused against them, his play is with- drawn, and they are treated as outcasts. They begin to hate one another, and to suspect each other of the child's murder. Finally it is proved that the child's death was natural: Maurice is forgiven by the world, having learnt that one pays for the sins one commits in thought, as well as for those which are actually carried out. Henriette leaves him, and goes out into the lonely world again.

This Strindberg calls a comedy; and in order that we may fully realise his outlook on life, he lays the opening scene of this comedy in a cemetery. It is the work of one who has suffered, and cannot suffer in silence; who looks on life as worthless, a time of tribula- tion, in which all pleasure gives only dust anfl ashes. He turned from this kind of play to historical dramas of Sweden's glorious story, and so in the end of his life recaptured the happiness of one who tells of the great brave deeds and the mighty men of the past. Gustavus Vasa, Eric XIII., Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII. were better companions for the mind than Maurice and Adolphe, and Strindberg did well to end his days in their company.

This play is not without its attraction; we may say to it, as Maurice says to Henriette, " It's the evil in you that draws me with the irresistible lure of novelty." The pessimism, the hard brutality, do interest one because they are new in the theatre; but were one to see this play many times, or to see many plays like it, one would be wearied. Ibsen lives, not because of the qualities which he shares

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THE IRISH REVIEW

with Strindberg, but because his eyes saw deep into the hearts of men and women. For lack of that insight, it seems to me that Strindberg's name will not gain immortal fame.

In performance the play suffered somewhat because Miss Young made Henriette so much the most interesting person in it. She is an actress of very rare attainments, and excels in the silent portrayal of emotion. Without a word she can make one realise the immensity of her suffering, and of her dread of the unforeseen. It is terrible to think what the play might have been had the part been in less sensitive hands. Maurice is a part that would tax the greatest actor in the world, and Mr. Thornhill was not quite equal to it. Mr. Power was excellent, and all the other players were adequate.

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