The Clarendon Pinero Edition

ELT 39:1 1996 The Clarendon Pinero Edition Arthur Wing Pinero. Trelawny of the "Wells" and Other Plays. J. S. Bratton, ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. xxvii + 326 pp. Cloth $49.85 Paper $11.95 IN A STEADY STREAM, dissertations, articles and books since Pinero's death in 1934 have, almost axiomatically, strived to rehabilitate him and his position in English theatrical history. This quaint, timorous approach really needs to be abandoned, and replaced by an acknowledgement that the better Pinero plays have a permanent place in British drama because of their intrinsic qualities. This change would perhaps be facilitated by greater accessibüity of texts. Most decent university libraries usuaUy possess some volumes in the Heinemann uniform edition (1891-1922) which published about half of Pinero's output and which he supervised, together with a few French's acting editions. Some libraries should also have Clayton Hamilton's edition of The Social PL·ys of Arthur Wing Pinero (4 volumes, 1917-1922), which is still avaüable as an AMS Press reprint, albeit at the exorbitant price of $150. Current, modern editions are those by Stephen Wyatt (Pinero: Three PL·ys [Methuen, 1985]), George Rowell (Plays by A W. Pinero [Cambridge, 1986]), and the volume under review by J. S. Bratton. These three modern editions offer some essential texts, but unfortunately largely replicate each other and leave untouched an abundance of Pinero riches. Wyatt's edition contains The Magistrate, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, and Trelawny of the "Wells", while Rowell's includes The Schoolmistress, The Second Mrs Tanqueray, Trelawny of the "Wells", and The Thunderbolt. Bratton's selection is The Magistrate, The Schoolmistress , The Second Mrs Tanqueray, and Trelawny of the "Wells". Given that duplication and since Bratton is the latecomer, the necessity for the Clarendon edition is far from palpable. Presumably, the "need" derives from the new drama library series which Clarendon/Oxford University Press has launched (the dust-jacket promises volumes on Wüde, Barrie, and Synge, among others), and pace rehabüitators, Pinero is an obvious inclusion. Bratton thus faced a dilemma, one conjectures, deriving from Clarendon's prescription for the series (of including, say, four representative plays by an author) and the existence of virtually identical editions. Assuming no other editions existed, an edition of Pinero's plays would have to contain one of the farces produced at the Court Theatre in the 116 BOOK REVIEWS 1880s, The Second Mrs Tanqueray (Pinero's most famous serious play), and Trelawny of the "Wells" (a sui generis comedietta), supplemented by as many other plays as the publisher would aUow. Curiously, Bratton uses up half her volume by giving us two already accessible Court farces (The Magistrate and The Schoolmistress), but eschews The HobbyHorse , Dandy Dick, and The Amazons (albeit produced later in 1893). So, by including Tanqueray and Trelawny, numerous other plays remain languishing in less than deserved obscurity and we are given only standard fare. Rowell clearly thought one Court farce sufficiently illustrative , and opted wisely for an additional, later serious play, The Thunderbolt, which has the advantage of revealing another side of Pinero's concerns (provincial English life as opposed to the Society life seen in Tanqueray). Indeed, there are numerous plays from Pinero's middle career which would bear reprinting: The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith, The Gay Lord Quex, His House in Order, and Mid-Channel (to name but four). If there are slight differences in the plays selected (for whatever reason), then the justification for a new edition must really reside in the quality of the introduction, editing, and scholarly apparatus. On that basis Wyatt is really a non-starter. While his general introduction is balanced and sympathetic to Pinero and provides a succinct overview of Pinero's career, there is little new for the scholar. The same observation is true for the three short introductions Wyatt provides for each play. Wyatt does furnish a chronology of Pinero's life, but omits a bibliography of any kind, does not document his quotations, and does not list productions (with dates, theatres, number of performances). His edition simply reproduces the texts of three French's acting editions with no explanation of why they were selected and...