James Joyces's notes for The Twelve Pound Look

[Nicholas]

I bought a second hand edition of The Plays of J.M. Barrie in One Voulume (1942) and on the title page of The Twelve Pound Look an unknown hand has written:

This play was performed on June 17, 1918, at the Pfauentheater in Zurich and James Joyce, the manager of the English Players and the best hated British subject (by British bureaucrats of course) in the country at that time, wrote for the printed programme a set of notes describing the play that deserve to be rescued:

The Twelve-Pound Look by J.M. Barrie
One Sim is about to be knighted, possibly, as the name would suggest, for having patented a hairgrower.  He is discovered rehearsing his part with his wife whose portrait we see on the wall, painted by a Royal Academician, also knighted, presumably for having painted the label for the hairgrower.  A typist is announced.  This typist is his runaway wife of some fourteen years before.  From their conversation we learn that she left him not for another man but to work out her salvation by typewriting.  She had saved twelve pounds and bought a typewriter.  The Twelve-Pound Look, she says is that look of independence in a wife's eye which every husband should beware of.  The new knight's new wife "noted for her wit" - chary of it, too - seems likely to acquire the look if given time.  Typewriters, however, are rather scarce at present.

[kimberleywil]

It is not available in my local library. Where did you get it from?

[Jay]

It's a short play so it's not usually published on its own. You should be able to find it in a volume of Barrie's collected plays. Good luck, hope you enjoy it.