The Profligate 3

The Profligate 3

This summarises so far the Continental career of “The Profligate,” but

in all probability it will penetrate much further. As a modern instance

of the vagaries of adaptation, the following German criticism of “The

Profligate” in its Teutonic dress may be found amusing, in connection

with the English text of the play:--

 

“The German author may be indebted to the English original of ‘Falsche

Heilige’ for the plan of the piece, and the material for the several

acts, but in the entire modelling, in its general character, and in

all its merits, it is the play of Blumenthal. It is insinuating and

amusing, persuading by fluent, elegant, refined diction, and especially

by the sparkling firework witticisms of Blumenthal, which rise like

rockets in every scene, while the dramatic _aplomb_ is preserved

throughout the grand scene in the third act, which did not fail to

impress, as the author intended. Blumenthal has shifted the action of

the story into the salons of aristocratic Parisian society, and the

strongly perfumed atmosphere of the _bons-vivants_ and the _grisettes_

of Paris, where comfort-loving fathers and guardians compare their

marriage-hunting daughters or wards to ‘freckles,’ which (as the German

Hugh Murray says) ‘scarcely got rid of, make their reappearance.’ The

ornaments of the Boulevards are the main characters of the play, but

the author (Blumenthal) nowhere disgusts a sensitive listener. He tones

down the conversation of the circle, and accentuates its fascinating

features, utilising it as a frame for setting his brilliant coruscating

jokes. He places contrastingly by the side of the frivolous Don Juan

the sentimentally virtuous Paul Benoit, and by the side of the cunning

and false Magdalen the innocent child Jeanne de Lunac. The piece is

full of rich veins of light and cheerful amusement.”

 

The Australian career of “The Profligate” has been both experimental

and successful. Mr. Charles Cartwright and Miss Olga Nethersole

produced the play at the Bijou Theatre in Melbourne on Tuesday, June

9, of the present year, and for the first time it was acted in the

original version, as now printed. The play ended with Dunstan Renshaw’s

suicide, a _dénouement_ which the Melbourne critics accepted as “more

powerfully dramatic” than the reconciliation, but the impression

produced upon the public was considered too painful, and on the

following Thursday evening the ending of the Garrick version was

substituted for the original, and “gave greater satisfaction to the

public.” Consequently, this is how the play was presented on Tuesday,

August 4, 1891, at the Garrick Theatre in Sydney, where it achieved

very considerable success, and aroused critical enthusiasm, while it

was even then urged that the substitution of the “happy ending,” though

managerially politic, was calculated to “detract from the actual merits

of the play.”

 

MALCOLM C. SALAMAN.

 

LONDON, _November_ 1891.

 

 

* * * * *

 

Transcriber's Note: The following appears as a handwritten note in the

original text.

 

* * * * *

 

 

[Illustration: The Profligate

 

Dunstan Renshaw & Lord Dangars have been wild, and Dunstan is to marry

Leslie Brudenell, an innocent school girl. Knowing what Dunstan’s past

has been Hugh Murray won’t come to the wedding. Janet Preece, a girl

ruined & deserted by Dunstan enters & Murray says he will help find her

wronger.

 

Dunstan returned & in love with Leslie, go to Italy for their

honeymoon. The Michael Angelo sketches at their villa draw tourists,

among whom are Mrs Stonehay & her daughter, Irene, engaged to Lord

Dangars, and a school friend of Leslie. Leslie tries to prevent the

match. Dunstan goes to Rome for furnishings & meets Lord Dangars.

In the meantime Janet Preece comes to the villa, weak & weary. She

confesses she has been ruined & can not marry Wilfred, Leslie’s

brother. Leslie persuades her to tell Mrs. Stonehay how Lord Dangars

ruined her. Thinking he was the one but when the indictment comes to

Leslie’s horror Dunstan is found guilty. She sends him away.

 

Janet Preece goes for Australia, & leaves Wilfred, Hugh Murray tries to

look after Leslie, and Dunstan returns to her. Thinking she will spurn

him he takes poison. Leslie comes to him, forgiving calling “Husband!”]

 

 

 

 

_THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY_

 

 

WILFRID BRUDENELL

LESLIE, _his sister_

DUNSTAN RENSHAW

JANET PREECE

MR. CHEAL

HUGH MURRAY

MR. EPHGRAVES

LORD DANGARS

MRS. STONEHAY

IRENE, _her daughter_

WEAVER

PRISCILLA

 

 

 

 

_THE FIRST ACT_

 

“THIS MAN AND THIS WOMAN”

 

 

_THE SECOND ACT_

 

THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES

 

 

_THE THIRD ACT_

 

THE END OF THE HONEYMOON

 

 

_THE FOURTH ACT_

 

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE

 

 

 

 

THE PROFLIGATE

 

 

 

 

THE FIRST ACT.

 

THIS MAN AND THIS WOMAN.

 

_The scene is the junior partner’s room in the offices of MESSRS. CHEAL

and MURRAY, solicitors, Furnival’s Inn, Holborn. There is a gloomy

air about the place, with its heavy, old-fashioned furniture,

its oak-panelled walls and dirty white mantelpiece, and its

accumulation of black tin deed-boxes._

 

_HUGH MURRAY, a pale, thoughtful, resolute-looking man of about thirty,

plainly dressed, is writing intently at a pedestal-table. He pays

no heed to a knock at the door, which is followed by the entrance

of MR. EPHGRAVES, an elderly, sober-looking clerk, who places a

slip of paper before him._

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Lord Dangars.

 

EPHGRAVES.

 

Yes.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Mr. Cheal always sees Lord Dangars.

 

EPHGRAVES.

 

Yes, sir, but Mr. Cheal is so put about by this morning’s very unusual

business that he doesn’t wish to see anybody till after the wedding.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Very well.

 

EPHGRAVES.

 

[_Handing a bundle of legal documents to HUGH._] “Dangars v. Dangars.”

Oh, excuse me, but Mr. Renshaw has sent in some little nosegays with a

request that they should be worn to-day. [_Sniffing the flower in his

buttonhole._] As the wedding takes place from the office, as it were,

I considered it would be a permissible compliment to our client, the

bride----

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Quite so--very kind of Mr. Renshaw.

 

EPHGRAVES.

 

I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but I see you’re not wearing yours.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

Oh, this is from Mr. Renshaw?

 

EPHGRAVES.

 

Yes.

 

HUGH MURRAY.

 

We are keeping Lord Dangars waiting.

 

[_EPHGRAVES goes into the clerk’s office, as HUGH takes a flower from

a glass on the table._]

 

I can’t wear it--I can’t wear it, at _her_ wedding.