The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-05-03 00:00:00

CANON LIGHTFOOT ON THE DRAMA.

Olt Sitnisy afternoon, the second of a course of sem ms on
the "World. and the use and abuse of the things that are in
the world," was delivered in St. James Church, Piccadilly,
by Canon Lightfoot, of St. Paul's. The subject selected wen
"The Drams," the tent being taken from Proverbs cap 20
12th verse, "The hearing ear and the seeing rye, the Lon,
bath made teal bath of them."

After dwelling for a moment upon the objections
that might be urged agaiuot the consideration of
such a theme in the pulpit, the rev. speaker pro-
ceeded to say that the drama was and always would
be an engine of incalculable influence for evil or
for good. It was therefore a matter of the deepest
moment to Englishmen whtther the drama should
be allowed to fall into a yet lower depth of
degradation, or whether they would use all the
infloence they possessed to raise it out of its
failen state, and to make it a purifier of the moral
impulse, a quickener of intellectual light, and the
common educator of the people. The drama had
taken too deep a hold upon the nation to render any
attempt to crush it admissible, and even if it were
possible the history of the past diit not encourage no
to hope that any good would remit from this aggres-
sive policy. The fountains that had been cloned
during the Commonwealth burst nut with fearful ex-
ceases after the Restorwion. The drama of that
period was the fonleat blot in our national liters.
ture, of which as Christians we hardly dared to
speak, and of which as Englishmen we might hang
our heads in /Mame. 'the Eromest licentionsness
was then paraded on the stage, virtue was derided,
vine exalted, and n the policy that aimed at making a
nation of saints made a nation of scoffers." But even
if hietory had not taught Ills that the attempt to crush
the drama was attended with far greater evile than
those it was designed to remove, it would not be wise
to cut ourselves off from this powerful instrument of
educati n without'eudeavouring t • make and use it for
good. Let the to agic poet Min to purify Me Bet of
emotions, such as indignation, fear, or pity, by the
simple representations of pathos and suffering: and
the come poet to purify another class of emotions—
love, mirth, geniality, and the like—by kindliness, by
humour, if not by satire anti by ridicule, but at
all events to purify. Thio was the tendency of the
English stage in the days of i s greatest teiumphs
and in the pereons of its noblest supporters, but
could this be said with any truth of the recent
drama in this country? He was glad to think
that there were single instances were that in-
deed would hold true, but surely not in all. Could
It be said that the drama now gave a healthy tone awl
direction to the mental faculties? Lid it appeal
straight home to the heart and to the mind, or did it
merely dazzle the eye and tingle the ear, thereby tend-
ing to debase and vitiate the public taste? For what

were sensationalism and burlesque but different kinds
of mental intoxication producing a delirious sense of
excitement for the moment, but ending at last in the
degradation of the faeultirs. Rut we had had one
warning, and if we sinned again we should sin with
our eyes open It was a momentous question to
ask in what direction were we moving? Perhaps
the degradation of the stage was only one token of
an age more generally corrupt; the popular litera-
ture, the newspaper report., even the shop windows,
told the same tale; subjects were discussed and
scenes exhibited which would not have been tolerated
• few years ago, while we as patriota looked idly on,
discussing the material defences of our country, as
though no internal danger threatened us; we as
Christians held our arm as if we should never be called
to account for these things. And yet what interest
should appear more momentous, either to the patriot
or to the Christisn, than the purity of his country's
literature? A bad law might be rescinded, a vicious
institution might be abolished, but a corrupt work of
genius could not be blotted out. A corrupt drama was
but the reflection of a corrupt age--the author
furni•hed'what the audience required, and the remedy,
therefore, was in the bands of the people of England,
more especially of the influential and cultivated
classes. This fact it was which made it necessary for
the preacher to dwell upon the subject, and to his
hearers he would appeal, by their example and in-
duence, to aid in stemming the advancing tide of im-
nictraity.