Yesterday appeared the first of my series of articles in the Chronicle. In discussing the opinion of the young man of 1960 about "Chantecler" I said "the young man of 1960, whose mother's parents probably met the night before last and were rather taken with each other"! The editor cut this phrase out.
'Chantecler' is a verse play in four acts, written by Edmond Rostand. It is notable in that all the characters are farmyard animals including the main protagonist, a chanticleer, or rooster. The play centres on the theme of idealism and spiritual sincerity, as contrasted with cynicism and artificiality. Much of the play satirizes modernist artistic doctrines from Rostand's romanticist perspective. He was inspired to write the play after spending time in the farm country around his home in the south of France, where he had moved for health reasons after the phenomenal success of Cyrano de Bergerac. Although he began writing the play in 1902, its completion was repeatedly delayed due to Rostand's perfectionism and illnesses. The play finally premiered on 7 February 1910 at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris.
£12 odd is my share of result of nine performances of "What the Public Wants" at Glasgow recently.
I wrote to Trench on Tuesday telling him definitely I wouldn't alter the last act of "The Honeymoon".
Two thousand words of "Clayhanger" today, and an evening of heavy correspondence. And I walked twice to Hove, and once to Black Rock, and once to the end of the pier.
We had tea with Mrs. Granville Barker (Lillah McCarthy) who asked me to write a monologue for her. I said I thought I would.
Lillah McCarthy (1875 – 1960) was an English actress and theatrical manager. She was born in Cheltenham and made her first appearance on the stage in 1895. She joined Wilson Barrett at the Lyric, London, in 1896-97, and after touring in Australia she became leading lady with him in 1900. She married Harley Granville-Barker in 1906, assumed the management of the Little Theatre, London, in 1911, and was associated with her husband in the management of the Savoy. In 1915 she played with her husband's company at Wallack's Theatre in New York City.
Marguerite finished copying her first short story "Les Chouettes" today. And I read it. I was quietly astonished by the excellence of its construction, its little fine apercus, and its general stylishness and genuine interestingness.
I got half-way through Trevena's "Granite" and then chucked it. Fine things in it but diffuse. Too damned moral. Not widely enough occupied with emotion in general, nor with beauty. Admirable style. The work of a man who doesn't know enough. Enfin, narrow.
Ernest George Henham was a Canadian-British author who wrote novels at the beginning of the 20th Century about Dartmoor and Devon, England. Henham was born in 1870 and his writings include a series of novels based on Dartmoor, the moorland in Devon, England, where he lived much of his life. He created a pseudonym, John Trevena, for many of his books. Henham wrote more than two dozen books, which were published between 1897 and 1927. He was considered a recluse, but often used people he encountered in real life for the characters in his work.
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