44 The Thistle and the Rose." By William Douglas Home.
(Vaudeville.) THE TITLE of Mr. Home's historical piece is from William Dunbar. That poet, one feels, would not be entirely flattered. Whatever the age of James IV was, it was not a dull one, and the language of the time had a vigour that has never since been matched in Scotland. But no flavour of this can be found in the English of Mr. Home's fifteen tidy episodes which convey us jerk by jerk from Sauchicburn to Flodden and back to the widowed Queen in Holyrood. The dialogue is tasteless, there is no dramatic bite, and small attempt is made to develop character. If this were Mr. • Home's first appearance as a dramatist, it would be proper to pass it over quietly. As it is (also to borrow from Dunbar), "I seek about this wand unstable To find ane sentence convenable" and come to the conclusion that the author, whose ancestry is somewhat involved, stands too close to the subject to do it dramatic justice. More art, with less matter, and he might have made
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