Just what the spirit is that seizes the Radcliffe Idler twice a year and moves it to the good taste and good sense that characterize its current production is something that has not yet been determined. If it ever is defined, someone should pass the elixir to Harvard's own embattled dramatic groups with a hope for like physic.

Idler has chosen for its fall offering a play that combines the virtues of novelty and freshness with those of genuinely comic writing and stage-ability. And realizing the limitations of its own theater and financial resources, the Radcliffe group has presented it with indisputable attractiveness.

Typical of the light Idler touch was the use of period music for this Jacobean comedy. An exceptionally competent quartet of string players, from the Harvard orchestra, under the guiding hand of arranger Maxwell Harvey '44, played snatches of suites by Purcell and Handel and a Lully concerto during the frequent changes of scene. Instead of the usual discordant effect of incidental music, last night's aided and abetted the harmonious tone of the staging.

Costumes and settings met the standard, too. Employing the familiar inner and outer stage technique for the 18-scene drama, Directress Mary Howe used a simple method with startling effectiveness in scenes of poverty and grandeur alike. And Catherine Huntington's costumes--wherever she searched them out--were rich and 17th century to a T.

Starred in the dual plot of the John Fletcher comedy were Francis MacNutt and Seabury Quinn. While neither could by any means be said to have given a remarkable performance, they both played the rather slight material to the hilt, aiding the general effect of making a live comedy out of what could have sounded like a misplaced textbook. Anna Prince and Elaine Limpert took the corresponding female roles with a corresponding gusto, while Cathleen O'Conor emerged from a secondary part with the only really polished performance of the evening.

Polish is what the Idler's effort lacked. That it was an amateur production could not be forgotten; but remembering that, the audience of "Have A Wife And Rule A Wife" was consistently delighted by music and foolery, wit and spectacle, and the general feeling that it was seeing an intelligent and tasteful effect by a well-directed college dramatic group--the first chance anyone has had in Cambridge this fall to indulge in such a feeling.