,
at Terry's Theatre, "There is no need to discuss IBSEN's piece any
more." I will go a little further, and say, not only should the play
be spared discussion, but also performance. All that could be done for
this miserable drama (if a work utterly devoid of dramatic interest
can be so entitled) was effected some years since, when _Breaking a
Butterfly_, a version with Messrs. HERMAN and JONES as adapters, was
played at the Prince's (now Prince of Wales's) Theatre. I believe some
one or other has said that that version was misleading, because it
modified IBSEN, and did not reveal him in his true colours. This I can
readily believe, as my recollection of _Breaking a Butterfly_ merely
suggests boredom; whereas, when I consider _The Doll's House_ of
Tuesday, I distinctly mingle with boredom a recollection of something
that caused a feeling of absolute loathing. That something, I imagine,
must be the new matter which was absent from the first version, and
crops up in the text of the second, which, according to the Play-bill,
appears "in Vol. I. of the authorised edition of IBSEN's Prose Dramas,
edited by WILLIAM ARCHER, and published by Mr.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33