Whoso Diggeth a Pit

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

A rather unpleasant story but apparently intended to have a good moral.Phillip is about to be ordained and is engaged to Constance, when Madame Vinaird arrives with her daughter Valerie and Phillip is accused of being the father of the laters child, having known her too well in his wild Oxford days. The audience is allowed to see that Captain Gilchrist, his friends is really the guilty person.Philip says that if Valerie will swear it inside the Cathedral he will marry her. This she does, against her will but impelled by her mother, and the shock to Phillip's father, the Dean, is so severe that he expires on the spot. Eight years elapse and Phillip and Valerie are living together, married and on affectionate terms. The Captain hangs about the house and the child is significantly fond of him. He makes love to Valerie who repulsed him with scorn and Phillip, hearing it says that he has known for long that the boy is the Captain's. Then Valerie, being tuberculous goes to Davos Platz and there dies, after confessing the wrong she has done and sending for Constance. We are left to suppose that Constance and Phillip will marry after all and that the Captain (moved by these events) will try to be a better man. The play which is written in an artless and illiterate manner, has nothing offensive in it except the theme, and that could hardly be censored. I do not think the scene in the Cathedral (act I p21) could offend anybody, as there is no ritual involved. Recommended for licence. G. S. Street.