THE EPILOGUE TO "ST. JOAN"
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sm,—Mrs. J. L. Kimball's objection to the Epilogue to St. Joan, of course, is not new, some of the dramatic critics on the play's production having expressed similar views in regard to its length. That Mr. Bernard Shaw's play, though well suited by its length to the closet, becomes tedious to the audience, occupying as it does, according to yourcorrespondent, three hours and twenty minutes, when the Epilogue is reached, few will deny. Nevertheless, I think that the charm of the, maid's personality and her warlike achievements are best vindicated by one allusion to her traditional repute in Europe and her subsequent canonization, which have been the means of establishing her as one of the leading figures of the Middle Ages ; and it must surely have been such a motive which impelled Mr. Bernard Shaw to end his play with such a super- natural denouement. But when the play is not merely read, but acted, I believe a vast improvement would be obtained if the learned dramatist were to apply the pruning knife to some of those lengthy orations of the ecclesiastics, and notably in the trial scene, by which curtailment the additional Epilogue might perhaps remain as it stands. At present the theme proves too great a tax on the close attention of a modern audience, which is often found to yawn towards the termination of one of the longer Shakespearean plays.
In nearly every church and cathedral I have visited in France since the War I noticed a statue of the Maid of Orleans, many obviously of recent erection, and all going to show how deeply the French have venerated her memory as the national patron saint in their late period of gravest trial and affliction. Even in England a movement was initiated in 1920 to place a memorial to her in Winchester Cathedral, which has since been set up in one of the aisles there.—I am, Sir, &c.,
N. W. H.
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