Scenes from "Hiawatha." Dramatized by Valerie Wyngate. With Music by
Norman O'Neill. (Kagan Paul, Trench, and Co. 2s. fid. net.) —Whether or no one approves of the growing tendency to extract scenes from famous poems and prose works and adapt them for dramatio performances, it must be admitted that "Hiawatha" proves surprisingly suited to this method of treatment. The human characters stand the test particularly well and lose nothing of their beauty and poignancy. But though we think the poem lends itself to dramatization, we are not altogether satisfied with Miss Wyngate's arrangement. Why, for instance, does she take the song " Onaway I Awake Beloved," from Chibiabos and give it to Hiawatha to be spoken? Also, why omit his second song and be content to leave " Chibiabos, the musician, He the sweetest of all singers," with twelve lines to be " chanted on a monotone"? Again, the invita- tion to him to sing " Songs of love and songs of longing, That the feast may be more joyous, And the guests be more contented," is put into the mouth of Jagoo, "the great boaster," who is to say them " with mock passion." In adaptations of this kind certain liberties no doubt have to be taken with the original, but, as we have shown, Miss Wyngato, especially in the " Wedding Feast," has not been altogether happy in her arrangement. Mr. Norman O'Neill's music is most attractive.
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