Publisher's Synopsis
These plays are tempered with the thin, keen edge of Barker's fastidious intellectualism. "Rococo" deals farcically with a quarrel over a vase in the family of an English vicar. "Vote by Ballot" is a variation of the old tune of politics and a commentary on the problematical usefulness of the ballot. Mr. Torpenhouse's remark to his friend Lord Silverwall epitomizes Barker's feeling: "The same old tune . . . different words to it. It didn't really seem to me that it could hurt England at all to have you in Parliament." Later Mr. Torpenhouse proposes to move to abolish the ballot on the ground that it "compromises dignity and independence." "Farewell to the Theater" is a talk between Edward McLenegan and Dorothy Taverner set down in dramatic form. In this trifle, hardly a play, Barker is more the poet, or the symbolist, of "Souls on Fifth" than the dramatist. He is oppressed by the ephemeral quality of dramatic art. One leaves the theater having given one's best to it, only that others may come-that the blood of newer hearts may be mixed with the mortar of its walls.
