1s. net; or, Coloured by the Author, 5s. net.
"A 'memory' of R. L. Stevenson comes seldom amiss, and now
especially, when the romancer's name and fame are as a shuttlecock
between wholly adoring and still discriminating friends, may be
considered apt and seasonable. So it won't hurt to read this:
"There stands, I fancy, to this day (but now how fallen!) a certain
stationer's shop at a corner of the wide thoroughfare that joins
the city of my childhood with the sea. When upon any Saturday we
made a party to behold the ships, we passed that corner; and since
in those days I loved a ship as a man loves Burgundy or daybreak,
this of itself had been enough to hallow it. But there was more
than that. In that window, all the year round, there stood
displayed a theatre in working order, with a 'forest set,' 'a
combat,' and a few 'robbers carousing' in the slides; and below and
about--dearer tenfold to me!--the plays themselves, those budgets
of romance, lay tumbled, one upon another."--_A Penny Plain and
Twopence Coloured._
"Here, palpably, was a hint for somebody, who has turned out to be
Mr. Jack B. Yeats. The first of his 'plays in the old
manner'--'_James Flaunty; or, The Terror of the Western
Seas_'--lies before me, and it is a study in grotesque. The most
notable point in this production is the fact that the interest
thereof attaches not only to the dialogue--you will, however,
relish that--but to the setting, the close reproduction of
old-world lettering and art, which is a vast deal more than an
ordinary publisher's advertisement, and cunning enough to deceive
the very elect. The ferocious woodcuts, the jaunty humour of the
speeches, the fore-and-aft and down-the-hatchway plot, the bizarre
characters, harmonize perfectly, and well they may; for Mr. Yeats,
all by himself, has invented those same characters, contrived the
plot, fashioned the speeches, and designed the illustrations.
"Debauched by sixpenny and even threepenny editions, some may rail
at this as a dear shilling's worth. (For superior copies the charge
is a crown.) For all such niggards this lean but precious
pamphlet--it is no more--will be caviare. But drat economy, say I,
when a paltry subscription will land you straight into the arms of
a real toy pirate. Never again will you have so good a chance of
seeing one, of hanging on his talk, of sympathising with his peril.
Never, I mean, apart from the present showmen, who, however,
promise yet better things. Stevenson, you mark, had two sources of
enjoyment--play and puppet-show--and Mr. Mathews announces his
intention of producing the plays, with scenes and characters, on
sheets, to be cut out and played on miniature stages. What _will_
the next generation be like? Certes, 'tis a bold experiment, and,
to say the worst, a queer revival."--_Speaker, 1/2/02._ F. J. S.
"At a time when the palmy days of the drama are a melancholy
remembrance, we welcome the publication of _James Flaunty; or, The
Terror of the Western Seas_, by Jack B. Yeats (Elkin Mathews),
which, in its awakening of romance, may be dimly associated with
the Celtic revival. The spirit of the publication may be indicated
by a quotation on the cover from Stevenson's 'A Penny Plain and
Twopence Coloured.' It is announced that copies of the play
coloured by the author may be had for five shillings, but it is
difficult to believe that colour can add materially to the
excellence of these designs. Still, a judicious use of crimson lake
('Hark to the sound of it, reader,' as Stevenson says) might add
something to the glories of Captain Gig and the rest. We may
particularly commend the reticence of effect in the pictures, which
aim at no vulgarity of facetiousness, and there is an exquisite
moderation in the dialogue. 'It is intended later to produce the
plays with scenes and characters on sheets, to be cut out and
placed on miniature stages.' We should like to be there to
see."--_Manchester Guardian, 10/12/01._
_One of Jack B. Yeats's Plays for the Miniature Stage_
1s. net; or, Coloured by the Author, 5s. net.
[Illustration: THE SCOURGE OF THE GULPH]
"Mr. Jack B. Yeats's latest play for the miniature stage, _The
Scourge of the Gulph_ (Elkin Mathews, pp. 18, 1s. net), has the
same exalted qualities that endeared 'James Flaunty' and 'The
Treasure of the Garden' to the judicious. Blood runs gaily through
the lee scuppers, in accordance with the best precedents; but
plenty more of it is left to keep up the native hue of resolution
in the cheeks of the survivors. If Mr. Andrew Lang ever finds the
'Odyssey' losing its power to affect the mind like ocean thundering
on a Western beach, he should try 'The Scourge of the Gulph.' There
is a delicious drawing by Mr. Jack Yeats on the back of the
cover."--_Manchester Guardian, 12/1/04._
_One of Jack B. Yeats's Plays for the Miniature Stage_