In the program accompanying "The Golden Age,"… we learn that the play was "suggested" by Henry James's novella "The Aspern Papers," but "suggest" is perhaps too passive a term for what is to be observed onstage. The greater part of the amusement we gain from the play comes from the author's own evident amusement in working out parallels to—and divagations from—the enchanting original work. Author and audience are like so many agreeable, well-bred guests at a party in some big house in the country; outside, it is rainy and cold, and we have gathered by the library fire to compose a game that will while away a couple of hours between luncheon and teatime. What fun to construct a new toy out of James's old one! Well, yes and no, and in the end I fear it is mostly no—the Master remains so vigorous a...