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The Swedish books have not
just come yet, but
and I thank you. Also, I want to
thank you for the copy of the "College
Reader"3 you sent me.
Will you be annoyed if I call your attention to some errors in the biographical notice4 of William Archer5? Mr. Archer and I were
friends from 1908 until the time of his death. When I went to London6 every year then for
McClure's7, and he was my
guide and advisor whenever
while I was there. He took me to
George Meredith's8 funeral. We saw
the Abbey Theatre Company the first night they ever played in London, sat in
Yeats'9 box with Lady Gregory10. When I came back from a stay
in Italy11 in January 1921, "The Green Goddess"12 was in full
swing in New York2. I found a letter
from Archer awaiting me at my house, had dinner with him as soon as
possible, and he told me the whole story of "The Green Goddess". He had
written me the story of his work on the play, indeed, in 1916 or 1917. The
play was written in those years, not in 1920,
as this biographer states. He wrote the play to relieve the boredom of his
position as censor of the Dublin,
Ireland13, post office. Archer's interest was always in plays
with a spiritual motive, and a burning purpose. He was one of the first, if
not the first English critic to feel the
poetry of Synge's14 plays when they
were produced in London. But he had also been interested in the pure
mechanics of the drama, though he had no admiration for carpenter-made
plays. He enlivened his routine in Dublin by making a purely mechanical play15, where the interest was
produced by time honored situations dressed in modern clothes. Play
carpentry, he called it. He thought its success was due to the fact that
Arliss16 played it more than for
to any other reason. He rather
⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ liked making so much money,
of course.
The introductory notice speaks casually of his interest in Ibsen17. Ibsen was the great enthusiasm of
his life. He not only edited
pushed Ibsen's plays in England,
and "edited" them as your
biographer says,;
but he was the sole translator of many of
the best plays, among them: "A Doll's
House"18, "Pillars of
Society"19, "Ghosts"20,
"An Enemy of Society"21. He and
Edmund Gosse22 translated "The Master Builder"23. These are the
only Ibsen plays I happen to have in my bookcase, but I know that Archer
translated still other Ibsen plays. I wonder why your editors chose to use
"The Green Goddess" in the "Reader". But since they did, I think the
introductory note should have been more accurate. Of course, the play was
first produced in Philadelphia24,
December 27, 1920, but Archer had written me an outline of it in '16 or
'17., and it was written in those years.
I do not suppose you have much to do with the text books section of the publishing house, so perhaps
it is foolish in me to trouble you. One does, however, hate to see an old
friend presented in such a misleading fashion. The man who first translated
and popularized Ibsen in English, did a great service to the English stage.
That work was important and formative, and it was the serious work of
Archer's life. "The Green Goddess" was the diversion of a dull year or so
two.
—a very different job from translating.