New-York daily tribune., 1857-04-28

bnrc Inc tHcct or tnl- Pr'JuACe. Nis""s0''
in New-YQrk and at the West and South; but they
have very hard time of ii in New England. Of
the four theaters in Boston two are Oftener closed
than open, and only one of them is making money
Out Of Boston there is not regular theatrical
establishment in Massachusetts,; nor is there per-
manent theater in Maine, New Hampshire, Yer
mont or Connecticut, although strolling companies
occasionally visit several Of these States In Rhode
Island there is one theater and only one; and there
are more playhouses in New-York City alone than
in all New. England. There are various reasons for
this but not the least of them is the steady opposi-
ton Of the religious classes.
We have always thought that the suppression of
the drama during the Protectorate was not only
cruelty unjust to the actor but disastrous to the
cause Of genuine good morals. The theaters were
closed, and the occupation Of the poor player was
gone. No longer able to exercise his vocation, he
became q vagabond, blackleg, or cutpurse
be rushed into plots for the restoration of the
Stuarts, because it wonld be the restoration Of
bis business; and in his anger at the persecution to
which he had been subjected, he swung into the op-
posite extreme. He had committed no crime, unless
the desire to amuse was crime; and he decided
that if he must have q bad name he would at least
have the pleasure Of meriting it. There is reason
to believe, if We may judge by the literature OF the
age, that before the austere period of the PrOtec-
torate the stage had been eminfntly decorous. If
the elder dranatsts thought more of things than of
words, if they not unfrequenty used expressions
which sound coarse to modern ears they had
nothing of the heartless, sneerng and cod-blooded
gOdessness of the dramatsts of the Restoration.
Shakespeare, although his exquisite satire left no
vice unreproyed and no folly unrdculed, was never
betrayed into scoff at holy things. The strictest
search will discover in his plays not single irrev.
erent passage. The lesser lights, Marlowe, Hey
wood, Ford, Jonson, Webster, not to mention
Others were equally remarkable for the purity-we
mean the substantial purity-Of their compositions.
Such was stage literature up to the time of the
Restoration. Then indeed a great change took
place. The careless and efeminate King, who took
the French gold, did not object to the French
morality. Dryden had not yet attained those re-
gions of grave and elevated satire in which he after
ward reigned without rival. Then came the filthy
productions of Etheredge, of Vanbrugh, of Con-
greve and of Wycherly, writers in a school which
did not approach decency until the time Of
Fraquhar, and only absolutely arrived at it in the
"Schoo for Scandal" The perniciOus effect of
plays like "Love for Love-" "The Country Wife"
and "The Plain Dealer" has been twofold. For
years it gave meretriciOus tone to the drama,
which not only kept sober people out of the theater,
but fully justified them in staying away. To such
works we owe whatever looseness of speech or
license of situation is still permitted upon the stage.
Nor can it be doubted that constant familiarity with
agreeable deineatOns of fcps seducers, adulterers
and blackguards, and the necessity Of frequently
representing them, has had ademoralizing influence
upon the character Of the actor.
1t is customary to assume, whenever the theater
is attacked, that the men and women of the stage
are all pure, virtuous and respectable. Now, al
though many persons in the profession, particu-
isry in modern times have lived without reproach,
and ought not to be included in any sweeping
demnation yet no one familiar with the history of
the tLeater will deny that the denizens of the
Green Room of both sexes have too often shown
but little regard for propriety or for morality. Of
the four great tragedians of modern days 1--WE do
not refer to any one still ving), three were nOtOri
ously intemperate. OF the leading actresses of the
last century at least half were the mistresses of
men of wealth or fashion. 1t is gross injustice to
those who, amid the temptations and allurements |
of the theater, keep themselves unspotted, to
shower that appreciation upon all which justly be-
longs to very few. That there has been great |
change and much improvement We readily admit,
but there is still abundant opportunity for reform.
Feeling, as We do the Importance of this We shall
watch with great interest any effort, come from
what quarter it may, to refine, elevate purify the
theater with the sincere hope that it may be so in
dsputably regenerated that no man or woman
need fear to enter it.