"JUDITH."
That Mr. ARNOLD BENNETT was actuated by the very highest motives
when he set out to edit the Apocryphal Scriptures for stage purposes,
nobody would dream of doubting. It is the more unfortunate that by
making the rest of the play very dull he should have thrown into
relief certain features in the story of _Judith_ which the original
author had preferred to treat with a commendable reticence.
It will be recalled that in the ancient version _Holofernes_ made a
feast for _Judith_ "and drank much more wine than he had drunk at any
time in one day since he was born;" that he then lay down on his
bed in a state of stupor, and that _Judith_, taking advantage of his
torpid condition, "approached" and cut off his head at her leisure
with his own "fauchion." The decency of this arrangement is easily
apparent; it obviated the necessity for wanton allurements on the
part of _Judith_ and amorous advances on the side of the
Commander-in-Chief. Incidentally it is more reasonable to assume that
so virile a warrior would yield to nothing short of intoxication than
that he would be persuaded, while still remaining sober, to take a
brief rest (on the ground of temporary indisposition) and so go like a
lamb to the slaughter, as he does in the play.
To do Miss LILLAH MCCARTHY justice, she went through a scene
embarrassing alike to actors and audience with as much dignity and
aloofness as the situation admitted. In a previous scene there had
been one rather gratuitous posture which we might perhaps have been
spared; but, for the rest, from the moment when she first entered, a
noble figure in her robes of widowhood, veiling all but the oval of
her face, pale and passionless, she played with a fine restraint,
giving us confidence in her reserve of strength and never once
allowing her high purpose to be forgotten.
It was not her fault if, in the night scene, amid a generous exposure
of physical facts, we missed the less palpable atmosphere of impending
doom. Certainly the _Holofernes_ of Mr. CLAUDE KING never for a moment
suggested it. I admit that I had not hitherto seen an Assyrian officer
making love on the edge of his grave and so had no exact precedent to
go by, but this officer, with his face far too well groomed for
the conclusion of a heavy banquet, and those rather anaemic and
perfunctory gestures of endearment, which had nothing to do with
the sombre forces of elemental passion, gave no hint of the sinister
workings of Fate.
This lack of atmosphere pervaded G.H.Q. Apart from Miss MCCARTHY, Mr.
THESIGER, whose performance as _Bagoas_ must have astonished those
who only knew him on the stage as a frivolous _flâneur_, was the sole
character who conveyed any sense of the general uncanniness of things.
Mr. ARNOLD BENNETT'S own novelties--the very rapid fraternization of
_Judith's_ little Cockney maid with the enemy; her own inexplicable
love-at-first-sight for an Ammonite pervert; the laborious
pretentiousness of _Ozias_, the Governor of Bethulia; the tedious
garrulity of the oldest inhabitant, and the topical reference, in the
manner of pantomime, to the War of 1914-1918 A.D.--these offered no
great improvement on the original narrative. On the other hand his
neglect to show us the head of _Holofernes_, which constitutes so
dramatic a property in the Book of Judith, was a noticeable omission.
But perhaps he was well-advised to leave it out, for I thought I
detected the significant presence of Mr. BILLING in the stalls.
[Illustration: MANUAL EXERCISE.
_Bagoas_ (MR. THESIGER). "CANST DO THIS WITH THY HANDS, WOMAN?"
_Judith_ (MISS LILLAH MCCARTHY). "NAY, MIGHTINESS, THY SLAVE CAN DO NO
BETTER THAN THIS POOR TRICK."]
I ought perhaps to add that there was a _Messenger_ whose refinement
of speech greatly struck me. He said that he came from Jerusalem, but
he sounded as if he came from Balliol.