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MILNE, ALAN ALEXANDER. First plays. *$2 Knopf 822
(Eng ed 20–12856)
A volume of five plays, written during 1916 and 1917. They are not, the author says, “the work of a professional writer, but the recreation of a (temporary) professional soldier.” The first, “Wurzel-Flummery” is a one-act comedy in which two distinguished members of Parliament are offered an inheritance of fifty thousand pounds—on condition of accepting the name Wurzel-Flummery. A two-act version of the play was produced in London in 1917. “The lucky one” is a three-act play. “The boy comes home,” a comedy in one act, is the one war play in the volume. “Belinda” is a comedy in three acts that has been performed in London and in New York, where Ethel Barrymore played the title rôle. “The red feathers,” the final piece, is an operetta.
“The lightness and irresponsible gaiety of Mr Milne’s dialogue are equalled by his wit.”
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“They are intelligently amusing and have all the quality of admitting a thousand technical imperfections and carrying them off with wit or the grace of nice human relations.” Gilbert Seldes
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“Throughout all these ‘First plays’ of Mr Milne’s the word whimsical haunts us. It is the trademark of the school, the school of Barrie; and as in so many plays in the Barrie manner the form has taken the place of the substance. What these plays show is simply that no glamour of pictorialism, no colouring of language can atone for an indifference to the fundamental requirements of drama.” J. C. M.