Shorter Notices
The Plays of J. M. Barrie. The Definitive Edition. Edited by A. E. Wilson. (Hodder and Stoughton. 30s.) THE reputation of Barrie became clouded some years before his death ; partly owing to a natural reaction after so conspicuously successful a career and partly due to his defects having become as prominent as his merits. Enormous contemporary popularity is bad for a writer's serious reputation because it argues an accessibility to the average mind which is mostly alien to creative genius. The greatest writers are generally too much in advance of their time, although occasionally they may be so comprehensive that, as in nature itself, there is something for everybody. Barrie did not belong to that small class ; but once we have admitted this particular limitation a fair-minded critic must add that he was a man of original genius and one of the greatest playwrights in out history. For sheer virtuosity his otie-act play Shall We Join the Ladies? is unequalled in English dramatic literature. It is a joy even to read, but in the theatre its effect is simply overwhelming and it does not stale with repetition. Some may consider Barrie as possessing fancy rather than imagination, in Coleridge's sense, and he was a striking example of the incompatibility of sentimentality and passion ; yet he cannot be denied a certain intensity, as well as invention, which saves such plays as Dear Brutus and Mary Rose from triviality. That they exhibit craftsmanship of the highest order there can be no dispute. He was an absolute master of his craft, without a contemporary rival. The failure of his last play, The Boy David, was due to its superior quality rather than to any weakening in his gifts, and if it were adequately produced today with someone equal to the part (perhaps Peggy Ashcroft?) in the title-role its great qualities would now do more than anything else to increase Barrie's reputation.
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