The Spinners

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

This is a play for children. It tells how a heroine of didactic fairyland has her life made a burden to her because she cannot spin, like the other girls of the village, who share the belief of their elders that spinning, as a phase of domestic industry, is indispensable for the securing of husbands. While she is lamenting her deficiency and the prospect of having as a punishment to exchange her beloved out-door life for confinement in a nunnery, there comes to her aid a witch who performs by magic the girl's task, and thus gains for her a Prince as her husband. The jealousy of the other girls demands her confession of the trick which she has innocently achieved her success; but the good sense of the Prince under the witch's influence, in recognizing that there are other wifely virtues besides that of skill with the spinning-wheel, turns her threatened disgrace into triumph. A pleasant if rather wordy allegory. Recommended for Licence. Ernest A. Bendall.