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MISCELLANY
ADAPTATION: AN EXAMPLE
CLIFFORD LEECH
When The Merry Monarch was withdrawn from the London Empire after one day's showing, the blame was thrown on the sedulity of Mr. Shortt. No doubt the English copy suffered from his attentions, yet there was in it so much falseness and stupidity that we must be allowed to question whether the original had ever anything more to recommend it than an intermittently pleasant air of bawdry.
Pierre Louys5 novel, Les Aventures du Roi Pausole, introduces us to the country of Trypheme, where complete sexual liberty is established. King Pausole, however, is a prey to indecision, and has therefore assigned the control of his household to the puritanical Taxis. The story tells how the Princess Aline leaves the court with Mirabelle, a Lesbian, and how Pausole sets forth in search of her. The rule of Taxis is successfully challenged by the page, Giglio, and Pausole is at last convinced that freedom must be the property even of his wives and daughter.
The novel has its niche in literature as a picture of licentiousness carried to its logical conclusion and as a setting for the genuinely and humanly amusing character of Pausole. The film of The Merry Monarch has neither logic nor characterisation. It is worth considering here only because of its "artistic" pretensions.
Four notable changes are made in the screen translation:
(i) Mirabelle is, inevitably, no longer a Lesbian; yet she unnecessarily appears on about three occasions. There are other discrepancies of this kind, and at least one serious gap in the narrative. Presumably the censor has been at work, but if the film were deemed worth showing in its cut version, then it would also have been worth while to refashion it as a coherent unity.
(2) Giglio has become an aviator who discovers the land of Trypheme. This was a happy invention, for it could make him a
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