tic, who, writing a
complimentary preface, has said: "The claim of Mr. Henry Arthur Jones's
more ambitious plays to rank as literature may have been in some cases
grudgingly allowed, but has not been seriously contested." Mr. Jones
himself has assured us that he has thought about life, and would like to
give some representation of it in his plays. That is apparently what he
means by this peroration, which once closed an article in the
_Nineteenth Century_: "O human life! so varied, so vast, so complex, so
rich and subtle in tremulous deep organ tones, and soft proclaim of
silver flutes, so utterly beyond our spell of insight, who of us can
govern the thunder and whirlwind of thy ventages to any utterance of
harmony, or pluck out the heart of thy eternal mystery?" Does Mr. Jones,
I wonder, or the distinguished critic, really hear any "soft proclaim of
silver flutes," or any of the other organ effects which he enumerates,
in "The Princess's Nose"? Does anyone "seriously contest" its right not
to "rank as Literature"? The audience, for once, was unanimous. Mr.
Jones was not encouraged to appear. And yet there had been applause,
prolonged applause, at many points throughout this bewildering evening.
The applause was meant for the actors.

If Mr. Jones had shown as much tact in the construction of his play as
in the selection of his cast, how admirable the play would have been! I
have rarely seen a play in which each actor seemed to fit into his part
with such exactitude. But the play! Well, the play began as a comedy,
continued as a tragedy, and ended as a farce. It came to a crisis every
five minutes, it suggested splendid situations, and then caricatured
them unintentionally, it went shilly-shallying about among the emotions
and sensations which may be drama or melodrama, whichever the handling
makes them. "You see there is a little poetical justice going about the
world," says the Princess, when she hears that her rival, against whom
she has fought in vain, has been upset by Providence in the form of a
motor-car, and the bridge of her nose broken. The broken nose is Mr.
Jones's symbol for poetical justice; it indicates his intellectual
attitude. There are many parts of the play where he shows, as he has so
often shown, a genuine skill in presenting and manipulating humorous
minor characters. As usual, they have little to do with the play, but
they are amusing for their moment. It is the serious characters who will
not be