Of course, there is more than merely satire or frivolity in the play: there is the Englishman who appears to Americans to be stupid on account of his manner, but who is frightfully intelligent; and there are also the energy and life and vigor of the two men characters. There is, too, throughout the play, the conscious humour of these two characters, and of the third woman, _Vida_. The clergyman is really more frivolous often and far less conscious of his frivolity--enough, that I rather thought one of the strongest things about the play was the consciousness of their own humour, of the three important characters. The characters were selected from that especial class, or set, in our Society, whose ancestors and traditions go back to colonial times. They are not merely _society_ characters, for, of course, people in society may lack all traditions. I mention this merely because my selection of characters from such a set of people gives the play a certain mellowness and a certain air which it otherwise would not have. If _Jack_ and _Cynthia_ were both completely self-made, or the son and daughter of powerful, self-made people, their tone could not be the same. The piece was played in England as a farce; and it was given without the permission of the author or American manager. It was given for a considerable number of performances in Berlin, after the Great War began. In the German translation it was called "Jonathan's Daughter."[A] Our relations with Germany at the time were strained on account of 'certain happenings', but, notwithstanding, the play was extraordinarily well received. When "The New York Idea" was first published by the Walter Baker Co., of Boston, it carried as an introduction a notice of the play written by William Archer, and originally published in the London _Tribune_ of May 27, 1907. This critique follows the present foreword, as its use in the early edition represents Mr. Mitchell's choice.