Bosworth
Crocker (1861-1946) is the pseudonym of Mary Arnold Crocker Childs
Lewisohn. Childs was the family name of
her first husband and Lewisohn was her second husband’s.* Bosworth was her
father’s middle name. She was born in
England, but her family moved to the United States when she was a child.
Bosworth
Crocker began her playwriting career during the first decade of the twentieth
century. By the time she wrote Pawns of
War, a three-act play, several of her one-act plays were staged and/or
published. Pawns of War is a tribute
to the nation of Belgium and its suffering under the boots of Germany during
the first days of the 1914 invasion. Although it may have been written during
the early years of the war, the play was not published until January, 1918. The publisher was Little, Brown and Company,
Boston. John Galsworthy (1867-1933) the
noted British playwright and novelist wrote the Forward for the book.
(Galsworthy’s World War One play titled The
Foundations is discussed in my post dated June 18, 2015.)
Galsworthy
considered “Pawns” to be “very gripping”.
He also proclaimed it to be “so lifelike and so forceful.” It is a realistic play that has the ability
to grab ones emotions particularly as its moves toward the conclusion. The
German General in this play is written in a manner that allows a reader to have
a degree of pity for him. Through him one can understand that individuals on
both sides of a war may be pawns in a piteous situation.
A
review of the play that appeared in The
Dial, Volume 64, April 25, 1918 states: “Mr. Crocker, almost
completely avoids the polemical emphasis.
The dramatist does not flinch from portraying the full horror of the
whole brutal business, as that nationwide horror is reflected in the lives of
one small household.” This reviewer also
mentioned that the final scene was “an eloquently restrained and pathetic
climax.”
A
review by Walter Prichard Eaton in the November, 1918 issue of The Bookman takes an opposite position. He considered Pawns of War to be “a bald narrative, in dramatic form, with the
subject-matter so horrible that your response is a shudder of nausea.” He believed an audience in the theatre would
not be able to stand this play since “it is too stark and murderous.”
Pawns of War has many plot similarities to other invasion of Belgium plays. Act One is set in the entry room of Doctor Albert Esterlinck’s home. He is a surgeon and the burgomaster of the village of Aerschel, Belgium. He is a fourth generation surgeon in his family and his father also had been burgomaster of this village. Esterlinck’s family consists of his wife, their adolescent daughter, and an adult son who has been ill. A young teenage son, who never appears on stage, was killed by the Germans as he attempted to get word about the invasion of his village to the Belgium government. This act begins to set-up the specific situation for the drama when the German General, Ludwig von Wahlhayn, commandeers the Doctor’s home for his headquarters. The family learns there is to be a proclamation written that states if any member of a household fires at a German soldier, the entire household will be put to death.
The
second act is set the same as the previous one; however, it is later in the
same day and the German General and his staff are in the dining room having
supper. The proclamation has been written and it is to be posted immediately.
The General and the Doctor leave the house. The only remaining soldier on the
premises is the General’s Chief of Staff, named Falkenhorst. He has consumed too
much wine. He is attracted to the
Doctor’s daughter and makes unwanted advances. She is frightened and her
brother shoots him dead.
Act
Three is also set in the same location.
It is this act I found the most original and moving. I have set the scene
and established the conflict, but I do not want to reveal the conclusion of the
play. It is a fast read and the play is
available in a digitized version on-line.
The
publication of Pawns of War occurred
during a productive time in Bosworth Crothers playwriting career. Her one-act
play The Last Straw, written in 1916,
was produced in August, 1917 by the Washington Square Players. Another one-act
play The Baby Carriage was produced
in 1919 by the Provincetown Players.
Five of her early one-act plays were published in 1923 under the title Humble Folk that includes The Baby Carriage. Most of these plays
relate to issues encountered by impoverished immigrants living in the United
States. Crothers remained active as a
playwright, drama critic and poet until the late 1930s.
· *
In 1906, Crothers married Ludwig Lewisohn
(1882-1955). He is remembered as a
prolific novelist, scholar and critic. His autobiographical novel The Case of Mr. Crump (1922), considered
by many critics as a major literary work, was not published in the United
States until 1947. Bosworth Crocker entered
a libel suit, in the early 1920’s, to keep the book from being released in the
United States. She was angry about the
fictionalized version of herself as depicted in this novel.
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