Buxell [A Run for his Money]

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

I reported on ‘Bluff’ in July 1914. It was an extremely bright and amusing farce and my only doubts concerning it were that the bitterness of the French Alsatians towards their German masters might possibly cause trouble with the German embassy, and that one of the characters being a dissipated - but not unpleasantly so - German prince might offend as reflecting on the imperial family. I think some modifications were made at the Lord Chamberlain’s request. The bitterness is now rubbed in a little more, but since the war that cannot possibly matter. The prince, act 1, p.10, in the present version refers to his ‘imperial uncle, but it seems now an unimportant trifle: he is not a portrait of anybody. The scheme of the first two acts is in essentials much the same. They relate how the resourceful Buxell, condemned to death for accidentally killing in fight a sergeant, who had insulted his girl, escapes to the prince’s hunting lodge and defends himself there and how eventually he escapes to the frontier the details of the plot are different, however. A second scene is added to act 1, in which, at the major’s house, Buxell outwits the mayor and escapes in the dress of a cook. Act II is different. In the former version Buxell simply dashes through the town in the prince’s car at the end of it. Now he appears and bargains with the prince about his reprieve in exchange for the letters Madame Lemaitre has written to the prince and which he has found it the castle. (This intrigue of the prince and the lady and her husband’s blindness to it was in the original: it is a little out of tone with the rollicking nature of the rest, but there is really no harm at all in it). He cheats the prince over this (the lady having really got the letters herself) and when the go to arrest him again there is a rough and tumble and eventually he escapes as before in the prince’s car. I suppose the third act remains as before: I notice from the list of characters that the president of the republic (whose train the indomitable Buxell holds up) and who decorated him for supposedly saving it) merely becomes the Mayor of Paris, which is better. I have marked a passage in act II, p.19, where a back nightgown has been thrown out of the prince’s castle by Buxell and it is brought on with the prince’s comment. This is rather unnecessarily coarse, and is perhaps suggestive enough to be cut out. Recommended for license. G. S. Street. [Handwritten note] - The Lord Chamberlain did not like the new line suggested, visa - ‘her nightgown was perfectly cut but she cut me more perfectly still’ it was decided, if the author specifically wished it, to leave the MS as sent in but on the distinct understanding that the passage would be cut if it was objected to [...] Buxell has taken possession of the prince’s hunting box, an unaccusable sort of place, where he is installed alone. He amuses himself by flinging out the window souvenirs the prince has kept of his ‘affairs’. These are brought into the inn where the prince and others are conferring. The others souvenirs are only gloves and the like the night gown is the only suggestive one and I think the incident should be cut out - it is out of tone with the rest of the rollicking farce. G. S. S.

Researcher's Summary:

The play was licensed under the title 'Buxell' but when it was staged it was performed as 'A Run for his Money'.