In
reality his purpose is to bring up a body of Continental troops to the
rescue of Dudgeon; and this also he might (and certainly would) have
conveyed in three words. But Mr. Shaw was so bent on letting Judith
continue to conduct herself idiotically, that he made her sensible
husband act no less idiotically, in order to throw dust in her eyes, and
(incidentally) in the eyes of the audience. In the work of any other
man, we should call this not only an injudicious, but a purposeless and
foolish, keeping of a secret. Mr. Shaw may say that in order to develop
the character of Judith as he had conceived it, he was forced to make
her misunderstand her husband's motives. A development of character
obtained by such artificial means cannot be of much worth; but even
granting this plea, one cannot but point out that it would have been
easy to keep Judith in the dark as to Anderson's purpose, without
keeping the audience also in the dark, and making him behave like a
fool. All that was required was to get Judith off the stage for a few
moments, just before the true state of matters burst upon Anthony.
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