Lately the fashionable habit of dramatizing historical characters, whether for the stage or film, has given rise to much fruitful discussion of the merits of the personalities so brought to public neties Sometimes the historical hero Is idealized; some: times he Is treated with gross in-Justice and the same treatment is applied to heroines, The delinquent authors con rightly affirm that the public does not encourage a severely historical attack on this form of dramatic art. The other day Mr. R. C. Sherrif—of "Journey's End" famne—and Miss Jeanne de Cassius obtained production for their Napoleonic play, "St, Helena." A remarkable array of playgoers—Including Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. Matheson Lang—testified to the excellence of the play fand Its close Adelity to facts. Yet des pite such weighty encouragement the Public would not give it sufficient Support to justify more.than the chortest of runs at the Old Vie, No wonder Mr, Laughton' finds it necessary to burlesque Henry VII and make a demon out of Admiral Bligh.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.