I saw " Arms and the Man " as it is a comedy extravaganza .sx The artist in me had learned at last the hardest task of all that falls to actors :sx to play in Comedy .sx One of the plays produced at the Court was John Masefield's " The Campden Wonder , " a forceful but gloomy piece which brought him into the public eye .sx The critics and the public began to pay attention to him .sx I had seen both Mr. and Mrs. Masefield many times during the rehearsals at the Court , but I had already met John many years before when I was a child of eleven or thereabouts .sx He has long since forgotten the occasion :sx forgotten it so completely as to be sure it never happened .sx So sure is he that , when I told the story lately in his presence , he exclaimed :sx " It is not true , " but true it is .sx I see the scene as clearly as on the evening in late summer when it happened .sx A group of children playing in an orchard at Ledbury under apple trees with boughs hanging low with ripe fruit .sx As we play , I spy a little boy standing apart in the shadow of a tree ; his hair is in a fringe over his eyes , and he shrinks back against the tree when we ask him to play with us .sx I go nearer and ask him again , but he will not .sx " Then climb up and throw us down some apples .sx " He neither speaks nor moves .sx I climb up and throw down the rosy apples .sx He remains aloof .sx I come down a little innocent Eve and give him one .sx He takes it , but little Adam will not eat .sx The first time I told the story to Masefield he forgot , in his indignation , to deny it .sx " Oh , Lillah , " he said , " I was not a bashful boy .sx I was a bold dare-devil .sx " If the child is father to the man , he certainly was both .sx Some faces are curtains which conceal men's minds , some are mirrors which reflect them .sx John Masefield's face is a mirror in which his moods are seen as they chase one another through his mind .sx They are like sunshine and cloud playing hide-and-seek with one another on an April day .sx There are no clouds .sx The sun is bright .sx Swiftly they gather and sweep over the sun , and all things lie in shadow .sx It was the dare-devil sunny mood that made John Masefield write to me of his desire , after he had seen " Nan " on the stage , " to begin a swirling serpent-woman play with a last act clanging like copper " ; and " you in the chief part .sx " Oh , John !sx why give me hope so high and then defer its fulfilment so long ?sx " A swirling serpent-woman .sx " Could author speak actress fairer ?sx A self-contained Eve and a climax so fulgent :sx the world would be well lost for such a part .sx But shyness clouded over the face of the sun , paling its creative power .sx The swirling serpent-woman tarries , devastating the kingdom of the unborn .sx She may yet be born .sx For he who created " Nan " could , as no one else of his generation might , create the great drama for which the theatre waits :sx drama of great passion , intense , sustained good and evil .sx Only the dare-devil John can create those dramas for which the world has waited ever since Macbeth began " to grow aweary of the sun .sx " What visions have poets seen which they have never told ?sx Yet perhaps they do tell them though not in words .sx How else to understand why it is that men like Hardy , Masefield and Barrie appear to those who know them greater even than their works ?sx They are transfigured by the vision .sx They irradiate us with its light .sx It must be so .sx I have sat with Barrie night after night in his flat high up over the Thames by Adelphi Terrace .sx He sits tucked up in his chair , puffing at his pipe , absorbed , silent .sx Now he stirs a little as though about to speak ; but does not .sx Yet a great peace broods over this communion of silence .sx Now perhaps a word or two :sx sentences as short as in his plays consummate master of compression that he is a kind word , a whimsical word , never once in all the years we have sat and kept silence together has Barrie uttered an unworthy or an unkind thought .sx Only poets know such reticence .sx Barrie can talk and talk .sx well when he likes ; he can encourage by what he says , but most by that strange gift he has not of telling you but of making you feel his sympathy .sx Silence with Barrie is no empty silence .sx It is eloquent .sx He can be silent in many languages .sx His silence can freeze , but it can also thaw the heart which is numb .sx Wizard of words , no doubt , but owner of that more occult wizardry expressive silence .sx Now I come to think of it , the good Samaritan never said a word to the man he succoured .sx Yet silence is by no means always golden .sx It was from no malicious wish to see the effect of one's silence on the other's shyness that I arranged one evening a meeting between Barrie and Masefield .sx We went to Barrie's flat after my work at the theatre was over .sx I introduce Masefield .sx They exchanged a word or two .sx Silence .sx Another word or two :sx another silence :sx the rest was silence .sx Good-will and mutual regard were there ; but it was just like that .sx .. I must scream or run away .sx I ran ; we all ran and trailed home along Adelphi Terrace without ever a word .sx I was ill after the season of " Arms and the Man " and had gone to Cornwall for a rest .sx While I was there a letter came from John Masefield , in which he said that he was glad I was well again .sx " .sx .. the illness of an artist , " he wrote , " means so much to so many .sx .. it is the taking away of a part of the beauty of life .sx " He added , at the end of his letter , " I only hope that my new play may be good enough to produce and that I may have the privilege of seeing you play the heroine .sx " The play was " The Tragedy of Nan , " to me the most beautiful , simple and sincere of all John Masefield's works .sx As the play progressed , I met Masefield again and again .sx I was proud to give him an idea for an incident in the third act , an idea which grew out of a grim experience of my own childhood .sx At Ledbury , where I had first seen John Masefield as a boy , I had an old female cousin , who was a terror to us children .sx I hated staying in her house .sx She was hard , mean and avaricious .sx All evil of temper and of spirit emanated from her .sx Darkness was full of her .sx Ugliness recalled her to me .sx She was childless , and she was cruel to us children when we went to stay with her .sx She kept many cows , but would allow us only the skim milk for our tea or porridge .sx The cream was made into butter and sent to market .sx My uncle , as we called him , used to drink his strong black tea without milk rather than dilute it with the skimmed milk which she allowed us .sx She fed us on heavy suet puddings .sx I hated her skinflint ways and thought of a plan to pay her out .sx It was shearing time and I had been watching the shearers working in the shed .sx I loved the scene :sx the sweating shearers , the cascades of wool falling from their blades .sx I ran back to the house from the shearing-shed and said to my cousin , " Uncle is bringing back the shearers to dinner .sx " Devilry made me say it , for it was not true .sx My cousin sent for the cook , whose name was Abiah , a docile , obedient woman .sx " The men are coming to dinner , " my cousin told her .sx " Bring in that sheep that died last week .sx We'll cook that .sx " " What , not the ovey sheep , Mum ?sx " answered the cook .sx My cousin was livid .sx " Yes , the ovey sheep , " she answered , " get it and cook some of it .sx " After an hour her husband returned to the house alone .sx I was terrified , for I had feared some dreadful end to my game .sx " Where are the men ?sx " asked my cousin .sx " They are having dinner in the shed , " answered her husband .sx My cousin turned upon me .sx " You shall eat that ovey sheep yourself , " she said , " and you will touch no other food in my house .sx " She brought in a piece of the horrible meat and held it in front of me .sx I forced myself out of her grasp and refused to touch it .sx The grip of her hands made me feel sick .sx Hours passed and I became faint with hunger .sx Still she insisted in her hideous threat .sx In the end , I was .sx sent home to my mother sick and piteous with fever and quinsey .sx I told the story to John Masefield while he was writing " The Tragedy of Nan " and he used it in the scene where Nan turns her passionate anger upon .sx Jenny " .sx .. my little Judas friend , my little pale snake friend .sx .. Sit down , my little friend .sx Sit down and eat that pie yourself .sx .. Eat it or I'll kill you .sx .. " " Nan " has all the simple stark tragedy of a Greek drama .sx But tragedy is uncertain in its appeal to a London audience .sx .. at least it did not appeal to them in 1908 .sx I took the play from manager to manager , facing nothing but discouragement .sx At last I persuaded the " Pioneers " to put it on for a Sunday night performance .sx A letter gives a picture of the country from which Nan came .sx I had asked him for details of the story , and the life from which he had drawn the character , and John answered :sx Somewhere else I have spoken of the intensity of tragedy with which John Masefield ends the play .sx I used to run off the stage in an ecstasy of pain and excitement .sx One night , just as I arrived in my dressing-room , the manager , A. E. Drinkwater , the father of John Drinkwater the poet , followed at my heels and said , " Mr. Thomas Hardy would like to see you .sx " I was breathless , but not more so than Thomas Hardy when he appeared at the door , shaking .sx He did not pause ; he came in and said :sx " You must play my Tessy , you must play my Tessy .sx I shall send you the play I have made from my book ; and you will play my Tessy , won't you ?sx " People who knew Hardy used to say that he never recovered from the cruel criticism meted out to " Jude the Obscure .sx " When I met him Hardy was old , with .sx honour and deference in attendance upon him .sx It was odd to see him thus , and to remember that when " Jude the Obscure " was published the critics had lashed him for a rude and demoralising fellow .sx In turning over my letters I have come upon one which tells of the sharpness of the pain the lashes caused him .sx I never played Tess nor in " Jude the " ; but in later years , when London was caught up in the first excitements and passions of the war , we produced the English scenes from Hardy's " Dynasts " at the Kingsway .sx It was a splendid failure .sx The play is a tale of the heroes of 1814 , and London was too grimly aware of the war of 1914 to come and see us .sx On the first night of " The Dynasts " beloved Thomas Hardy hurried out of the theatre before the curtain went up .sx He would not stay for the ordeal of the first night , so he went home to Dorsetand waited anxiously for the news which was sent to him next day .sx It brought him no comfort .sx I have been told that there are rare metals which , if traces of one of them are mixed with iron in the furnace , make steel rustless and more enduring , and it may be that some grains of this magic stuff getting mixed up with their common clay give poets endurance too :sx endurance which makes them go on working in spite of the rough usage of the world .sx