"THE MOLLUSC" AND JANE AllgTEN. "
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."
cannot agree with " Ignotus" that Mr. Davis " created " Mrs. Baxter. Long ago Jane Austen detected a human mollusc, and immortalised it as Lady .Berfram.sin " Mansfield.Park." The Times article on the play hinted at resemblance, and one is certainly tempted to think that M. Davis adapted Lady Bertram in the. shaping of Mt's. Baxter. I agree with "Ignotus " as to the unsatisfactory ending of The Mollusc. I should have been inclined to utilise one of the children for reformation purposes. Could not a_ young daughter of about thirteen with a 'strong character (there are many such nowadays) have been' presented in the first qr second eat; and in the last have enabled the audience to leave the theatre with the Comfortable assurance that the reforma- tion would be complete owing to the tonic Areatment administered by Miss Baxter ? Obviously in this case no. sentimental faltering would interfere with the wholesome process. And as to-day the child bears rule in. the land, this treatment of " molluscry " would be in accordance with Modern conditions.
I have mentioned Jane Austen. As her books are now widely read, I cherish the fancy that some day a simple (14106E0 play like the one which is now 'securing- a' well- deserved success may be written round a few of her characters. Why should not Mrs. Norris be seen on the stage in all her terrors, ruling the Vicarage and the Hall, thwarting Emina Woodhouse- inlet' match-making propensities, pilfering here and there without detection, till the day comes when she meets with more than her match in Lady Catherine de Burgh.? The " discovery " of Jane Austen in recent years has given pleasure to the "faithful." To those who see charms in her now, after years of oblivion, the band of true lovers can Only say, in the words of Mary Crawford when " quizzing " her brother for his sudden admiration of Fanny Price, "She is now just what she always was." Literary men and women appreciated her at her true worth in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Lord Holland, Mr. Hibbert (father-in- law of Sydney Smith), and other judges of good literature had her novels always at hand, and discussed her, characters with an interest which most people give only to living personages. An evening at Holland House is said to have been enlivened by Miss Fox's warm defence of her favourite, Fanny Price, from the charge of priggishness. To-day it is a common- place that within well-defined limits Jane Austen attained perfection in her art. In the years of oblivion she was little read, but in one old country house, at any rate, a party of delighted young. hearers gathered round an incomparable reader, and began a lifelong acquaintance with Jane Austen's characters, including the prototype ofThe Mollusc.—I am, [Our, correspondent has not, we think; remembered Lady Bertram's character quite accurately. Lady Bertram was selfish and lazy, but as long as her sofa was comfortable and her pug at ease she made no attempt to dominate the lives of others. In the Bertram household such domination was exerted by Sir Thomas Bertram. To make an Austenian Mrs. Baxter a good deal of Sir Thomas would have to be added to his wife. In all that "C. M. D. D." says in praise of Miss Austen we entirely concur. Within the narrow and special limits which Miss Austen set herself she possessed the secret of perfection both in form and substance,—a perfection to which the history of the arts affords no parallel, or affords it in the work of Jan Vermeer of Delft alone.—En. Spectating
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