Translations and Tomfooleries
by . New York: Brentano’s. 1926. 12mo. viii+275 pp. $2.25.
THIS volume contains ‘Jitta’s Atonement,’ by Siegfried Trebitsch, translated by Mr. Shaw, and six short dramatic pieces from the translator’s own pen.
Mr. Shaw tells us that it was Trebitsch who translated the entire body of his own works into German and introduced him to the German-speaking public.
Whether as a work of pious gratitude or for some other reason, Mr. Shaw now places in this volume an English translation of a play by his German friend. This play constitutes a full third of the volume, and Mr. Shaw tells us that the author regards his translation as a wonderful success. Whatever the reader may think of the play itself, the translator’s part has been well done, though there are flashes of ironic wit in it which obviously never adorned the pages of the original.
The main interest in the volume lies in the six dramatic bits which follow the longer translation. Their literary or dramatic significance is very slight — they are interesting as revealing a brilliant and somewhat erratic mind at play. They constitute a bit of literary clowning which demands more than passing notice.
In the first place, from cover to cover Mr. Shaw insists that he is fooling. Every one of these little pieces is carefully labeled lest the reader might err and take them seriously. The author seems to be in a fever of apprehension lest he be considered less funny than he thinks he is. This is the fatal defect in Mr. Shaw’s clowning.
The writer recalls a heroic figure of Negro minstrel days, who presented himself upon an empty stage, carrying an enormous bass drum. With its monotonous accompaniment he sang with utter seriousness an interminable number of verses of patter. It was not the enormous size of the man or the drum or the triviality of the song that made this performance a perfect piece of clowning. What made it absolute art and blended with it a vague element of pathos was the huge face above the bass drum, peering into the theatre in an agony of suspense lest he be taken less seriously than he wished to be.
This humble artist knew the trick of clowning in its perfection. It is this subtle quality that Mr. Shaw lacks. In this volume he presents the spectacle of a highly sophisticated and somewhat cynical mind going through a series of self-conscious antics greatly to its own amusement but a little in fear lest it may be taken seriously after all.
Of course, all these dramatic bits are full of flashes of sardonic wit and almost cruel satire. These alone make the volume memorable. Had Mr. Shaw rested here, there would be no quarrel with him, but he attempted more. He attempted the fine art of clowning, and he fails, as so many other brilliant minds have failed, to achieve his end, because he fails to realize that the difference between an ordinary slapstick performer and a real artist in the realm of buffoonery is a subtle element of wistfulness lest he fail to be utterly serious.
Mr. Shaw whacks lustily with the bladder and shouts to the world how funny he is. He is funny in spots, but the performance never rises to the heights of real tomfoolery, which means the art of clowning.
MACGREGOR JENKINS