INTRODUCTION

Truth to life does not necessarily imply truth in art. Though all human nature is material for the author and there is no immorality in art save insincerity in its treatment, I should be the first to admit the danger of deducing a generality from an isolated instance. Therefore, the fact that this play was founded on an actual occurrence would not alone have prompted my using so intimate a theme of life in the art form. And since the dramatist must inevitably select the high lights so that he may suggest the larger problems radiating beyond the mere episode, the arrangement of events in “Criminals” may seem exceptional. Nevertheless, in spite of the compression, necessitated by the one-act form, the human reactions in this play and its basic situation are by no means so uncommon as one might casually assume.

It would be easy for the incredulous to deny and for the cynical to scoff at its premise of complete virginal ignorance; but that would not erase the records of medical literature. Psychologists and neurologists, who have related divorce to something more than legal causes, have also given abundant testimony to the part which initial sex experience has ultimately played in the wreckage of marriage. And I have myself been greatly surprised at the large number of collateral cases which have been brought to my attention since this was written and produced—cases of women whose experiences have, in essence, been similar to Janet’s, though their reactions have been translated into a less radical course of conduct.

I have not sought to dramatize a particular pathological phenomenon: I have written this play because I believe it intimates the human drama which, with varying degrees of intensity, may lurk in this phase of marriage. The resolution arrived at is not a playwright’s conclusion intended to preach a moral: it is legitimately achieved, I hope, through the shock of juxtaposed characters finding a new point of view under stress of circumstance, tragic to them.

The advantage of play publication, as I have indicated in my other volumes, is that the dramatist has a written record of his endeavor, accessible to those who may be interested in his work where wide production, for obvious reasons, is denied it.

I should be ungrateful did I not here express my appreciation to Miss Aline Barnsdall, for her courage in producing this play, as well as my thanks to the little company who interpreted, with rare tact and delicacy, the very difficult rôles which were intrusted to them.

G. M.

September tenth, 1915.