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People of the Play: A handful of literary freaks.
Scene: A drawing-room in Tooting, or Acton, or Highgate, or Ealing, or any funny old place where the middle classes live.
Time: 8 P.M. on (generally) Thursday.
Mrs Arnold. Now that Miss Vera Potting, M.A., has finished reading her most interesting paper on Mr John Masefield, the subject is open for discussion. Perhaps you, Mr Mather-Johnstone, will give us a few thoughts—yes, a few thoughts. (She smiles wanly and gazes round the room.) A most interesting paper I call it.
Rev. Mather-Johnstone, M.A. Miss Potting’s most interesting paper is—well, most interesting. I must confess I have read nothing of—er—Mr Masefield’s. I prefer the older poets—Cowper, Bowles’ Sonnets, and the beautifully named Felicia Hemans. Fe-lic-i-a! To what sweet thoughts does not that name give rise! But it has been a revelation to me to learn that a popular poet (and Miss Potting has assured us that Mr Masefield is popular) should so freely indulge in language that, to say the least, is violent, and I am glad to say that such language is not to be found in the improving stanzas of Eliza Cook.
Mr S. Wanley. I have read some verses of Mr Masefield’s in a very—well—advanced paper called, if my memory does not deceive me, The English Review. I did not like those verses. I did not approve of [96] ]them. They were bathed in an atmosphere of discontent—modern discontent. Now, what have people to be discontented about? Nothing; nothing at all, if they live rightly. (He stops, having nothing further to say. For the same reason, he proceeds.) Nevertheless, I thank Miss Potting, M.A., very much for her most interesting paper. There is one question I should like to ask her: is this Mr Masefield read by the right people?
Miss Vera Potting, M.A. Oh no! Oh dear, no! Most certainly not! Still, it is incontestable that he is read.
Mr S. Wanley. Thank you so much. I felt that he could not be read by the right people.
Miss Graceley (rather nervously). I feel that I can say I know my Lord Lytton, my Edna Lyall, my Charlotte M. Yonge and my Tennyson. I have always remained content with them, and after what Miss Vera Potting, M.A., has said about Mr Masefield in her most interesting paper, I shall remain content with them.