Arts and Manners

To Arthur Miller, as a Wedding Present

Royal marriages are a legitimate democratic concern and so — America being more fascinated by royalty than any other democracy known to ethnologists — the recent interest in Miss Monroe’s match with Mr. Miller was a bit vulgar but entirely proper. By this I do not mean to say that the young lady belongs to our ruling class. She has, no doubt, launched many a covetous dream, but she has not (as is the irreducible function of royalty) set patterns of social behavior. Mr. Miller has. He is what amounts in America to an Archduke or at least a Prince — one of the select dignitaries of a formalized society, an incarnation of the standards by which it lives. For Mr. Miller arbitrates the spiritual standards of our nation.

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William S. Schlamm

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To Arthur Miller, as a Wedding Present

Royal marriages are a legitimate democratic concern and so — America being more fascinated by royalty than any other democracy known to ethnologists — the recent interest in Miss Monroe’s match with Mr. Miller was a bit vulgar but entirely proper. By this I do not mean to say that the young lady belongs to our ruling class. She has, no doubt, launched many a covetous dream, but she has not (as is the irreducible function of royalty) set patterns of social behavior. Mr. Miller has. He is what amounts in America to an Archduke or at least a Prince — one of the select dignitaries of a formalized society, an incarnation of the standards by which it lives. For Mr. Miller arbitrates the spiritual standards of our nation.