recalling and reproducing his own quaint and wholly
exceptional childhood; and children, ordinary, normal, healthy children,
will not take to these poems (though grown-ups largely do so), as they
would to, say, the _Lilliput Levee_ of my old friend, W. B. Rands. Rands
showed a great deal of true dramatic play there within his own very
narrow limits, as, at all events, adults must conceive them.

Even in his greatest works, in _The Master of Ballantrae_ and _Weir of
Hermiston_, the special power in Stevenson really lies in subduing his
characters at the most critical point for action, to make them prove or
sustain his thesis; and in this way the rare effect that he might have
secured _dramatically_ is largely lost and make-believe substituted, as
in the Treasure Search in the end of _The Master of Ballantrae_. The
powerful dramatic effect he might have had in his _denouement_ is thus
completely sacrificed. The essence of the drama for the stage is that
the work is for this and this alone--dialogue and everything being only
worked rightly when it bears on, aids, and finally secures this in happy
completeness.

In a word, you always, in view of true dramatic effect, see Stevenson
himself too clearly behind his characters. The "fine speeches" Mr Pinero
referred to trace to the intrusion behind the glass of a
part-quicksilvered portion, which cunningly shows, when the glass is
moved about, Stevenson himself behind the character, as we have said
already. For long he shied dealing with women, as though by a true
instinct. Unfortunately for him his image was as clear behind
_Catriona_, with the discerning, as anywhere else; and this, alas! too
far undid her as an independent, individual character, though traits like
those in her author were attractive. The constant effort to relieve the
sense of this affords him the most admirable openings for the display of
his exquisite style, of which he seldom or never fails to make the very
most in this regard; but the necessity laid upon him to aim at securing a
sense of relief by this is precisely the same as led him to write the
overfine speeches in the plays, as Mr Pinero found and pointed out at
Edinburgh: both defeat the true end, but in the written book mere art of
style and a naivete and a certain sweetness of temper conceal the lack of
nature and creative spontaneity; while on the stage the descriptions,
saving reflections and fine asides, are ruthlessly cut away under shee