Drama v. The Novel Mr, John Drinkwater, poet and playwright, and Mr. Hugh Walpole, Were protagonists in an interesting discussion which took place recently before the Cambridge Union Society, the motion before the House being: "That the modern drama more accurately reflects the spirit of the age than does the modern novel."
The proposer was Mr. R. L. Slater (Emmanuel.) He admitted that he was merely the introduction to the two great protagonists who were to follow. Then with quaint humour and in quaint Midland accent he proceeded to make ann excellent debating speech in which Shaw and the cinema seemed to meet with similar scorn. As a result of the war he found that there was a new spirit of idealism abroad. This idealism had spread into the world of drama, but. according to Mr. Slater, it had left the novelist cold. From this stricture he would not even except Mr. Walpole, and with this final fling at the Opposition he concluded his speech.
The opposer was Mr. E. L. Davison (St. John's), a poet, the editor of the Cambridge Review," and a serious man. He pointed out. that the motion was essentially a discussion of the comparative merits of the present day drama and the present day novel. Then, by some art known only to the -practised Union orator, he managed to drag in a little discussion of post-war unrest and a good deal of Labour Party atmosphere. At length he came to the Drama, and, of course, Mr. G. B. Shaw. He appealed to the House not to take "Back to Methuselah" as modern drama, and as for "Heartbreak House'? all the angina] thought was in accordance with Shaw tradition in the preface, and these prefaces were not modern drama. Coming to historical drama and Mr. John Drinkwater's '"Abraham Lincoln" in particular, the speaker said that such plays idealized a character and a period which was past but had little relation with the present. Turning to the novel, Mr. Davison, to the embarrassment of Mr. Walpole, quoted a passage from " The Young Enchanted," to show that here was true reflexion of the feeling of young men and women in post-war days. The novel was the abstract and brief epitome of the times.
Mr. Drinkwater For THE Drama.
Then came Mr. John Drinkwater. who first told the semi-tragic story of a multiple christening, and then claimed that he could never think
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.