The "Old Wife's Tale'* takes us into
the realm of the purely fanciful. Tt is
adnpted from the Imaginative extra
vagance written, by (leorge Peele In
the sixteenth century. In spite of the
passage of 100 years the play retnins
a remarkable freshness Madge, an
old lady. Is telling a story to three
travellers, who are stopping at her
hut for the night. While she Is talk
ing the characters appear and tell the
tale themselves. All of the Incidents
are not clear, the characters mingling
in sweet confusion. There runs
through the play, however, a homely
humor anil a delicate charm, which is
as delicious, yet unforced as (he flow
of a brook, ,
! "There was a conjurer, and this
Nonjuror could do anything, and hn
e modern stage
I turned himself Into a gnat dragon
and carried the king's daughter away
in his mouth to his castle and there
he kept her [ know not how long..
i "Pericles" Is an adaptation from
Shakespeare. Originally written oy
Shakespeare in collaboration with two
other dramatists It Wis once intensely
popular. Of all Shakespeare's plays
"Pericles'" Is the most garbled and pi
rated. So Mr. Eliot is taking no un
due liberties. The original was a curi
ous mixture at what is beautiful and
what is vile?a rose in a pile of filth.
