Part 67 (1/2)

_Lady Plymdale._ My dear _Dumby._ Awful manners young Margaret, what a fascinating Hopper has!

woman your husband has been dancing with! I should be quite _Cecil Graham._ Ah! Hopper is one jealous if I were you! Is she a of Nature's gentlemen, the worst great friend of yours? type of gentleman I know.

_Lady Windermere._ No. _Lady Jedburgh._ What a fascinating woman Mrs. Erlynne _Lady Plymdale._ Really? is! She is coming to lunch Good night, dear. on Thursday, won't you come too?

(_Looks at Mr. Dumby, and I expect the Bishop and dear exit._) Lady Merton.

_Dumby._ Awful manners young _Lady Windermere._ I am afraid I Hopper has! am engaged, Lady Jedburgh.

_Cecil Graham._ Ah! Hopper is _Lady Jedburgh._ So sorry. Good one of Nature's gentlemen, the night. Come, dear.

worst type of gentleman I know.

(_Exeunt Lady Jedburgh and Miss Graham._) _Dumby._ Sensible woman, Lady Windermere. Lots of wives _Dumby._ Sensible woman, would have objected to Mrs. Lady Windermere. Lots of Erlynne coming. But Lady wives would have objected to Windermere has that uncommon Mrs. Erlynne coming. But thing called common sense. Lady Windermere has that uncommon thing called common _Cecil Graham._ And Windermere sense.

knows that nothing looks so like innocence as an _Cecil Graham._ And Windermere indiscretion. knows that nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion.

_Dumby._ Yes; dear Windermere is becoming almost modern.

Never thought he would. _Dumby._ Yes; dear Windermere is becoming almost modern. Never (_Bows to Lady Windermere thought he would.

and exit._) _Lady Plymdale._ Dumby!

_Lady Jedburgh._ Good night, Lady Windermere. What a (_Dumby bows to Lady fascinating woman Mrs. Erlynne Windermere and exit._) is! She is coming to lunch on Thursday. Won't you come _Lady Plymdale._ My Dear too? I expect the Bishop and Margaret, what a fascinating dear Lady Merton. woman your husband has been dancing with! I should be quite _Lady Windermere._ I am afraid jealous if I were you! Is she a I am engaged, Lady Jedburgh. great friend of yours?

_Lady Jedburgh._ So sorry. _Lady Windermere._ No!

Come, dear.

_Lady Plymdale._ Really? Good night, dear.

(_Exeunt Lady Jedburgh and Miss Graham._) (_Lady Plymdale exits._) _Enter Mrs. Erlynne and _Enter Mrs. Erlynne and Lord Windermere._ Lord Windermere._

_Mrs. Erlynne._ Charming ball _Mrs. Erlynne._ Charming ball it has been! Quite reminds me it has been! Quite reminds me of old days. of old days.

(_Sits on the sofa._)[63] (_Sits on the sofa._)

Dialogue may be both clear and characterizing yet fail because it is difficult to speak. Too many writers, as has been said, do not hear their words but see them. Could any one who heard his words have penned the lines, ”She says she's sure she'll have a shock if she sees him.”

That time ”apt alliteration” was so artful that, setting her trap, she caught a dramatist. Here is the amusing comment of a critic on an author's protest that her lines have been misquoted and made to sound difficult to deliver:

In the review of the----Theatre's opening bill there occurred a line purporting to come from Miss Blank's psychic play, _The Turtle_. Miss Blank writes, ”The line, which was either incorrectly spoken or heard, was not, 'How does one know one is one's self?' but 'How is one to know which is one's real self when one feels so different with different people?'” Naturally the reviewer of a play is as open to mistakes in noting down lines as the actor is in speaking them, particularly if the author is much given to the ”one-one-one” style of construction. If, however, Miss Blank prefers her own version of the sentence, she is welcome to it.

Of course each writer is perfectly sure that his own ear will keep him from errors of this kind, but even the greatest err. Did Shakespeare write the opening lines of _Measure For Measure_, he the master of exquisitely musical and perfectly chosen dramatic speech? Some scholars believe he did. If so, in that second speech of the Duke which wearies the jaws and tempts to every kind of slurring, Jove certainly nodded.

_Enter Duke, Escalus, Lords and Attendants_

_Duke._ Escalus!

_Escalus._ My lord.

_Duke._ Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse, Since I am put to know that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice My strength can give you: then no more remains, But that, to your sufficiency ...

... as your worth is able, And let them work.

Are the following straight translations from the old French farce, _Pierre Patelin_,[64] as easy to speak as the revisions?

TRANSLATION REVISION

_Guillemette._ And don't forget _Guillemette._ And if your dram, if you can come by any one offers to stand treat, it for nothing. don't refuse.