The Atlantic Book of Modern Plays Part 78

I. THE TRAGEDIES: Stories of the beautiful and potent queens who brought suffering upon themselves and upon others; compare Synge's and Yeats's stories of Deirdre.

Putnam.

II. THE TRAGI-COMEDIES: THE WHITE c.o.c.kADE: In which James II defeats the gains of his loyal subjects by his abject and ridiculous cowardice.

Putnam.

CANAVANS: A covetous miller, his clever wandering brother, and some pleasant absurdity about the popular wors.h.i.+p of Queen Elizabeth by her loyal subjects in Ireland.

Putnam.

THE DELIVERER: Apparently an Irish peasant's idea of the story of Moses.

Putnam.

WORKHOUSE WARD; HYACINTH HALVEY; THE JACKDAW:

Comedies full of Irish wit, conscious and unconscious comedy, and endless complication of events and hearsay in Cloon.

All in _Seven Short Plays_, Putnam.

THE BOGIE MAN; THE FULL MOON; COATS:

More about Cloon people, including the rescue of Hyacinth Halvey from his troublesome reputation and from the place by the magic and lunacy of moonlight.

In _New Irish Comedies_, Putnam.

DAMER'S GOLD: A fortunate rescue from the torments of miserliness and pestilent heirs; the author's notes on the origin of the play are interesting.

_Ibid._

THE GAOL GATE: A brief and effective tragic story of two women who fear that their man has betrayed his mates, but who find that he has been hanged without informing; the mother improvises a psalm of praise of his steadfastness.

In _Seven Short Plays_.

THE TRAVELING MAN: A peasant woman who has been befriended by a mysterious wanderer expects his return so that she may thank him. She drives away a tramp from her kitchen, and then discovers who he was.

_Ibid._

THE GOLDEN APPLE: Many scenes, some excellent fun; of a search for miraculous fruit, of a giant who is high and bloodthirsty only in carefully fostered reputation, and the like matters.

Putnam.

+St. John Hankin+

THE PERFECT LOVER: Delightful dramatic version of Suckling's "Constant Lover."

In _Dramatic Works_, Seeker.

RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL: The same young man, or his close image, having managed to be received by his family as a returned prodigal, calmly puts upon them the question of his future.

_Ibid._

THE Ca.s.sILIS ENGAGEMENT

_Ibid._

+Gerhardt Hauptmann+

THE WEAVERS: Painful presentation of the suffering of the German weavers in the first adjustments of the Industrial Revolution.

In d.i.c.kinson's _Chief Contemporary Dramatists_; also in Lewisohn's translations, Huebsch.

+Winifred N. Hawkridge+

THE FLORIST SHOP: Rather sentimentalist play of good influences wafted by a young woman as a florist's clerk; excellent business combines with the influences.

In _Harvard Dramatic Club Plays, First Series_, Brentano's.

+Hazelton and Benrimo+

THE YELLOW JACKET: The conventions of the Chinese theatre, more or less faithfully presented, make a quite comical presentment of an ancient Chinese legend.

Bobbs, Merrill.

+Theresa Helburn+

ENTER THE HERO: A madly fanciful girl fabricates a romance out of whole cloth, casts a friend as hero, and tells her small world about it. Even the rough measures the hero has to use to escape do not succeed in curing her of the habit.

In _Flying Stage Plays, No. 4_, Ahrens; _Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays_, Stewart and Kidd.

+Perez Hirschbein+

IN THE DARK: Grim and awful picture of the depths of misery and starvation in a Ghetto bas.e.m.e.nt. Translated by Goldberg.

In _Six Plays of the Yiddish Theatre, First Series_: Luce.

+Hugo von Hofmannsthal+

MADONNA DIANORA: Fearsome tragedy of the Ring-and-Book sort, beautifully and poignantly presented.

Translated by Harriett Boas, Badger.