r local. What I wanted to satirize was a
certain extreme frivolity in the American spirit and in our
American life--frivolity in the deep sense--not just a girl's
frivolity, but that profound, sterile, amazing frivolity
which one observes and meets in our churches, in political
life, in literature, in music; in short, in every department
of American thought, feeling and action. The old-fashioned,
high-bred family in "The New York Idea" are solemnly
frivolous, and the fast, light-minded, highly intelligent
hero and heroine are frivolous in their own delightful
way--frivolity, of course, to be used for tragedy or comedy.
Our frivolity is, I feel, on the edge of the tragic. Indeed,
I think it entirely tragic, and there are lines, comedy
lines, in "The New York Idea," that indicate this aspect of
the thing.

Of course, there is more than merely satire or frivolity in
the play: there is the Englishman who appears to Americans to
be stupid on account of his manner, but who is frightfully
intelligent; and there are also the energy and life and vigor
of the two men characters. There is, too, throughout the
play, the conscious humour of these two characters, and of
the third woman, _Vida_. The clergyman is really more
frivolous often and far less conscious of his
frivolity--enough, that I rather thought one of the strongest
things about the play was the consciousness of their own
humour, of the three important characters.

The characters were selected from that especial class, or
set, in our Society, whose ancestors and traditions go back
to colonial times. They are not merely _society_ characters,
for, of course, people in society may lack all traditions. I
mention this merely because my selection of characters from
such a set of people gives the play a certain mellowness and
a certain air which it otherwise would not have. If _Jack_
and _Cynthia_ were both completely self-made, or the son and
daughter of powerful, self-made people, their tone could not
be the same.

The piece was played in England as a farce; and it was given
without the permission of the author or American manager. It
was given for a considerable number of performances in
Berlin, after the Great War began. In the German translation
it was called "Jonathan's Daughter."[A] Our relations with
G