"BLUFF KING HAL."
The arrangements for the production of Mr. LOUIS PARKER'S pageant-comedy
had of course been made long before war was contemplated. The completion
of Mr. BOURCHIER'S beard in itself points to a comparatively remote date
for the play's inception. Certainly there is nothing very apposite in
its theme at the present juncture; for HARRY OF ENGLAND, suffering from
the gout, blustering into a sixth marriage, and haunted by the ghosts of
four dead wives and the wraith of the sole survivor, is not a figure
precisely calculated to inspire patriotic fervour. Still, the
circumstances of the play are sufficiently national, and it should serve
well enough as a permissible distraction for non-combatants.
You need not be terrified by the complexity of the cast, which consists
of twenty prominent characters, twenty-four in smaller type, four ghosts
and a wraith, and a sprinkling of nameless "halberdiers, huntsmen,
minstrels, servitors, etc." (The soldier-supers--a type not to be
confused with the super-soldier--were a very scratch lot; and I must
hope that this defect was due to the enlistment of the more martial
spirits in the profession.) The history of the period is made easy for
all intelligences, and the relations of _Katharine Parr_ with her lover,
_Sir Thomas Seymour_, furnish a clear thread of human interest.
It was pleasant to make the acquaintance of two future Queens--_Mary_
and _Elizabeth_--at the less familiar stages of girlhood. _Mary_, very
nicely played by Miss MINA LEONESI, showed no sign of her subsequent
taste for blood; but Miss KATHLEEN JONES, in the part of the pedantic
little _Princess Elizabeth_, gave us some very happy premonitions of the
domineering qualities of the Virgin Queen. The tiny _Prince Edward_,
too, who was prepared to compose an epithalamium for his royal parent's
final wedlock, already gave promise of a scholarly career. Apart,
however, from the charm of Miss VIOLET VANBRUGH as _Katharine Parr_, and
the gentle dignity of Miss ALICE LONNON as _Anne Askew_, there was
little distinction shown by the others, though the _Lord Chancellor
Wriothesley_ of Mr. HUMPHREYS, and Mr. BURTON'S _Bishop Gardiner_,
conducted their villainies with a proper restraint.
The honours of the evening obviously went to Mr. HUGO RUMBOLD, who
devised the admirable scenery and costumes, and to Mr. BOURCHIER in the
title-_rôle_. By nature and constitution he is clearly made for this
part of all others. Occasionally, in asides, his voice was the voice of
Mr. BOURCHIER, but for the rest he identified himself with the
undefeatable _Hal_. I hope he may be persuaded to retain the monarch's
beard as a permanent feature; for, as a finished product, it suits him
well in private life; and, if he is to make a practice of playing the
part of _Henry VIII._, whether to the words of SHAKSPEARE or Mr. PARKER,
I would not, for his own sake and that of his many friends, have him
renew the horrific processes of its growth.