The Province - Saturday, May 18, 1895

BATON AND BUSKIN.

"Musics of all sorts." - ALL’S WELL.

"The [...] traffic of our Stage." - ROMEO AND JULIET.

WAS there ever a more absolutely inconsequent decision than that arrived at by the James and Haymarket theatres in London - both of which are running pieces by Oscar Wilde, in expunging the author’s name from their play bills. What sophistical nonsense! Either Wilde wrote the plays or he did not. If he did, the theatres have no right to rob him of whatever credit may accrue to him in his capacity of author. If he did not write them, why did they previously advertise the fact that he did to their own no small advantage? The question whether he is or is not morally corrupt (which by the bye is still an open one for the offences charged against him have not yet been proved) has nothing to do with it. The only matter which concerns the management of the theatres is whether the plays which are being performed are of a moral nature or not. If they are, they may be continued with impunity to be performed, whoever or whatever their author; if they are not they should never have been performed at all. I notice that the French press hits tremendously hard over this question. It claims that the trend of the Anglican mind is invariably in the direction of compromise, and there is much truth in the assertion. No man, not even Oscar Wilde, can be wholly bad, and it is unfair to detract from his merits in one direction as it would be to condone his vices in another. If the managers of the London theatres in question had been wholesaled in their condemnation of Oscar Wilde and all his works they would have withdrawn his plays from their boards. This would have been a protest worth exactly what it would have cost - which as the plays were paying well would have taken tangible shape in dollars and cents. There’s the rub, unfortunately, as is often the case.

TOUCHSTONE.