HOMER IN A NUTSHELL

But one cannot help wondering what Poe would have written of "Helen of Troy, latest vaudeville dance drama" which was recently put on the stage in New York. It is characterized as "fine art and excellent entertainment, swiftly and colorfully telling the greatest story in the world of poetry." Homer alive, and in a nutshell! The age or miracles and--for some of us--scepticism, is not altogether past. And Poe is out-Heroded by the press agent.

After all, this news is not so startling. The Bible, our own American History, and countless "great stories" have already been dramatized for the films; it is only natural--to use a strangely familiar phrase--that the legitimate stage should have its fling. "G. B. S." has ventured to offer an epic of his own for stage production; why not Keith, or Loew--or even Ziegfeld? The blind poet is in vaudeville--surely a place can be found for the "morning-star" of English poetry in musical comedy; the Wife of Bath has possibilities. Not to mention the enormous advantage all this would be to the Senior of the future, who would surely find as much of literary value in A. H. Woods' "The Return of a Husband" as in the "Odyssey" skimmed through in a day. Something on the order of a "Pops" program on a large scale, with Virgil at the Colonial and Sophocies at Gordon's Olympia, might solve the Divisional problem quite handily.

Incidentally, Helen is to be congratulated on having retained her maiden name in this new state of wedlock; "A Face 'mid the Flames" would not have been unexpected, or some such bit of "skimble-skamble stuff." Especially after what happened to the defenseless "Admirable Crichton"!