Claude Duval (Mr. Bourchier) disposes of his rival, de Pontac (Mr. Murray Carrington) in a riparian duel.
Not much subtlety was asked of Miss Kyrle Bellew as Duval's lover, Berinthia; but she seemed to have learned a little more sincerity and to depend less upon the prettiness of her face and her frocks. Of Miss Miriam Lewes as Orange Moll something more was demanded, and I should have enjoyed without reservation her very picturesque performance but for a certain stage-quality in her voice which was out of all consonance with the part she had to play. Mr. Jerrold Robertshaw as Justice Hogben was a most attractive old reprobate; Mr. Charles Rock as a strolling mummer played like the sound actor he is; and indeed the whole cast—and not least in the smallest parts, such as Mr. Hartford's drunken Gaoler and Mr. Pease's Dognose, with his delightfully unemotional "Ay! ay!"—did very well indeed.
If the play opens rather deliberately there is no lack of action when once it gets moving; but it was an exercise of bodies rather than of minds. Swords flashed; barkers were flourished (though they never went off); feet twinkled in the dance, and Mr. Murray Carrington took several astounding falls; but wits remained stationary. I do not wish to appear exigent, but as one who likes to be amused as well as entertained I could easily have done with a little more scintillation.
O. S.
"INJER."
(To the Author of "The Grand Tour," "Punch," January 26th, 1916.)
I read your lines the other day;
You got it down in black an' white;
You seen them places wot you say;