Punch (90.1886)

160

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[Apeil 3, 1886.

THE GLENEMIES.

Me. Coghlan's play of Enemies has some fine dramatic situations,
some well-drawn oharaeters, but mostly stagey ones, and a plot,
which being- composed of very familiar materials, could not possibly
be interesting- were it not for the excellent acting- of everyone in the

piece. There is not one part
weaklyplayed. Nothing- could
be better, for example, than
the small part of Mrs. Lawler,
landlady of the "Crown and
Sceptre," as rendered by Mrs.
BowERnre, and nothing pret-
tier in look and manner—bee-
pardon, I should have said
"method"—than the Rose
Heely of Miss Floba Clithe-
eow. Yeoman, Footman,
Waiters, and Sheriff's Officer
are all good. All good
"Methodists."

Being no judge of country
dialect, and not having-
brought a County^ Court
The Hit of the Piece. Mrs. Langtry in her JudSe me \ criticise I
celebrated "Winding up Act." ™ ,not aware whether Joe

Heely as a countryman, was
correct or not; but I cannot understand why a rough, hulking,
sturdy poacher, as he is, allows Captain Percival Glenn to rummage
his pockets out, take his rabbits, and rob him of his gun, without
any show of resistance. The Glenn family are a queer lot, and a more
dangerous part than that of Sir Manners Glenn, a doddery, selfish,
scientific old Foozle, who has been a gay dog in his day, and who is
now always wanting someone to come and look at " a fine specimen of
a Furniss "—probably some collection from the Illustrated or Graphic
—it is difficult to imagine ; especially, when at the very end of the
play this comic old fool has to go on his knees to the chief villain,
Peter Darvel, and confess how, out of mere light-hearted cussedness,
he had wrecked Peter's happiness. At such a moment, when the piece
is within five minutes of _a satisfactory conclusion, to give a funny old
chap a pathetic bit, snivelling, and grovelling on his knees, is about
the most risky thing an Author can do; and for an Actor to pull such
a situation through safely is very clever, but, if he compels a burst
of applause, it is a positive triumph of Art. Mr. Evekiil triumphs.

The more I consider this play, the more extraordinary appears the
interest_ it undoubtedly excited ; and the more am I led to admire
the acting. For instance. There is the conventional old money-
lending villain, like Ralph Nickleby, with an oath taken forty
years ago to ruin all the dramatis persona, one after the other. "Well,
this diabolical character, called Peter Darvel, is excellently well
played by Mr. Febnandez, whose make-up suggests a new type of
our old stagey villanous friend, while he throws into it just suffi-
cient melodramatic action of the old school, to remind us that, after
all, this is only play-actin' and not stern reality.
Mr. Coghxan, as his son Richard, shows us the modern, realistic,

fuiet, gentlemanly style of melodrama; but when he is with Mr.
'eejtandez he has to play up to the Old School, to cast off the lamb

and assume the lion, or else
he would be simply wiped
out as colourless. As it is
he shows himself a veritable
chip of the old block, and
father and son have an
excellent give - and - take
scene between them,—in
fact it is a very 'Darvel of
a scene, and brings down
the House.

But besides the conven-
tional old money-lending
Peter, and the doddering
old Foozle who has been a
gay dog, there is an idiot,
called Baft Willie, who
being unable either to speak
or hear, can do little else
but skip about, grin, look
Our Artist's idea of how Mr. Pateman should occasionally like Mr. J. L.
have appeared in the character of a Deaf TooIJi Sone distraught,
Mute, and how he ought to have been execute some pantomime,
spoken " un-toe " by Miss Rose-up Heely. make curious noises in his

throat, and finally strangle
Rose Heely, who lives with her father the poacher, and Baft Willie
(small and select society) in the Glen • and so may be called another
" Glen family." So that part of the action of the piece is divided

between the Glenn Family with very odd Manners, and the Glen
Family with still stranger manners. The remainder of the action
is Barvel's, which is a legal one to deprive Manners of his estates.
"Glen" enters so much into the piece that an advertisement of
" Glen Whiskey" appears in the programme of the Prince's theatre,
and is probably the drink patronised by the Glen family when out on
the Moors.

Then there is Lord Bunderby, an"aristocratic old idiot, not deaf
or dumb, but also given to making curious
noises, and to skipping when he gets an oppor-
tunity. This character-part could not be better
made-up, or played, than it is by Mr. H.
Kemble ; the lines he has to say are not ex-
ceptionally brilliant, but they are characteristic,
and he makes every one of them tell.

Mr. Geahame gives an admirable reading of
that superior specimen of an aristocratic cad,
Captain Glenn. The Author didn't trouble
his head about him, after he had served his
purpose; and so Captain Percival Glenn, who
had come in like a lion, goes out like a lamb.

But with the character of Margaret Glenn
the Author has taken great pains, and while he
is to be complimented on the skill with which
he has fitted the Actress, the latter deserves all
praise for, as it seems to me, her true rendering
of the Author's meaning. Margaret is a hand-
some, high-spirited young lady in whom the Mr. Kemble, who only
qualities, which in her father and brother nro- does a peer {Lord
vide the materials for the vices of pride, selfish- Bunderby) in one
ness, and obstinacy, being_ directed towards a scene. This was the
worthy object, become the virtues of proper self- sort of inspiration in
respect, sympathy, and determination; and tIle Author's mmd:
these, combined with a certain shrewdness in 'Coghlan put the Kem-
business matters, and considerable address, make ^le on,
her altogether a very exceptional character. Coghlan take him off
There are situations as, for example, when she agam.
strikes the conventional old villain, where I should like to see her
"let herself go" with greater abandon than she does. Here and
there I notice this restraint, and I ask myself, can it be at all due to
the Author, who, as Commander-in-Chief of the " Reserve Forces,"
has told his pupil to keep herself well under control ? On the other
hand, nothing could be more in keeping with the character than her
interview with Richard Darvel in the Fourth Act, and if she tones
down the exit to the colour of the rest of the scene, none but the
hypercritical could find fault with her performance in this situation.

In the last Act everything is over and the Author is evidently shut-
ting up the shop, and going home as fast as he can. There is not
much for anyone to do, except the old Foozle, who is one minute on
his knees confessing his early wickedness,—all the Glenns are of a
dogged character, and the old man was of a gay-dogged character—

and the next, he
is chuckling over
the idea of bring-
ing out a scientific
invention which
has already intro-
duced him and
his family to the
Bankruptcy
Court, and which
will now prove the
hopeless ruin of
his old enemy,
who, as his part-
ner, is going to
find the capital.
On this the Cur-
tain descends. I
am only sorry that
Attitude's Everything. we hadn't more of

Darvelish Wicked Old Father {wild with rage). Pay Lord Bunderby,
their debt! But with whose money ? and as I go out I

Richard {his son, a clever young Dakvel). Whose? bear many of the
Mine ! audience reeret—

Darvelish W. 0. F. {sneeringly). How will you £ng. ^at 6 ^e

C'leverer-than-ever Young Darvel {triumphantly). AutnorT ^ad not
From the proceeds of my play, Enemies ! Ha! ha! ^ep. Lord Bun-
\_Both strike two-pence coloured attitudes. Curtain, aerby a sensa-
tional tight with

the Idiot in the Glen,—how his Lordship in tight yeomanry
trousers would have skipped over such rocks as he could contrive to
see through his eye-glass !—where Lord Dunderby, as the Avenger
of blood, should have avenged the murder of Rose Heely, with whom
he might have been violently in love in the First Act; and then, at
the finish, he miglnVhave been brought in again to follow the old