Mr. Bennett, to begin
with, could not resist making his Napoleon of the Press a native of the
"Five Towns," and exhibiting him at large in provincial middle-class
surroundings. All this is sheer irrelevance; for the type of journalism
in question is not characteristically an outcome of any phase of
provincial life. Mr. Bennett may allege that Sir Charles Worgan had to
be born somewhere, and might as well be born in Bursley as anywhere
else. I reply that, for the purposes of the play, he need not have been
born anywhere. His birthplace and the surroundings of his boyhood have
nothing to do with what may be called his journalistic psychology, which
is, or ought to be, the theme of the play. Then, again, Mr. Bennett
shows him dabbling in theatrical management and falling in
love--irrelevances both. As a manager, no doubt, he insists on doing
"what the public wants" (it is nothing worse than a revival of _The
Merchant of Venice_) and thus offers another illustration of the results
of obeying that principle.
Pages:
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413