The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-13
Literature and the Drama,

Literature and the Drama.
IT has recently become quite the fashion TO
bewsil the decline Of literature and the drama
as one Of the -undenable facts Of the day.
This is no new thing under the sun, for Gold
smith made his vulgar lady from town ex-
claim in heart-rending tones that 'there is
nothing coming out now but the most lowest
stuff in nature, d" and the same cry has been
heard from time to time ever since. II il is,
indeed, true that the general tone OF popular
literature is lower than formerly, it is a matter
Of such Importance in its bearing upon the
minds and morals of the people that it should
be seriously considered, rather than dis
missed with hippant and superficial criticism.
In instituting a comparison between the
condition of literature in the present and the
past it should be first remembered that a
great change has occurred in the reading pub
lie. Addison and Steele wrote their editorials
for select few-the scholars and people of
leisure, who constituted the public of that
day, while the same GLASS; or rather the COR
responding class in our day, is more fully
supplied by the vast array of periodicals
scientific, scholastic, and literary, containing
essays arguments, and discussions as care
fully studied and as critically correct.
But this body of students does not now con-
stitute the only public; vast republic of
readers has been recently created, emb racing
thousands in place of tens public that
reads the daily newspapers, and furnishes a
larger number of intelligent readers than ever
welcomed the weekly issue of the Spectator
or Iahler. This is the largest and most ap-
parent public, the one most olamorous in its
demands and most liberal in its payments.
II this class is not yet ready to admire and
demand severe style, and has not yet
learned the great literary fact that "adjeotives
are the greatest foes OF substantives," =" let us
rejoice in the abundance rather than in t he
variety of the quality produced, and in the
fact that so large a proportion of the people
have been educated to such degree of intel
ligent interest.
1t is not that literature is lowered, but it
has been infinitely broadened in extent, so
that it embraces all degrees of intelligence
and all varieties of taste. The supply Of the
inferior quality is the most abundant, and the
weak weeklies, mild monthlies, and nonsensi-
cal novels faunt in front of the book stores,
just as festoons of cheap calico adorn the door
of the merchant; but there are treasures of
silk and lace within.
But let us not fall into such plausible
fallacy as to echo the cry that literature is
degraded. Do not stare into the "blauket
sheet" with its monstrosities for illustrations
until you are blind, and then grisve over the
depravity of the day, but seek the elegant
diction, scientific research, aud earnest aud
sincere thought lavished upon the review,
quarterly magazine, and an immense variety
of similar periodicals.
Let none say that those who first tasted the
pure waters of the ''well of English undefled'
have not found fit followers in the authors of
to-day. The wits of Elizabeth, or the "ine
gentlemen writers of Anne's Augustan age
never wrote in purer style or with clearer or
more elegant diction. The grandest language
of the world bends in obedience to the potent
pens of Macaulay, Kingsley, Bulwer, and
George Elliot. and to our own Hawthorne,
Motley, and Cheeseboro.
similar charge has been brought against
the drama, aud merits similar answer. Gar
rick trembled with anxiety when he saw Pope
in his audience; upon the poets verdict hung
the actors fame. The select few who filed the
boxes, and really paid for the entertainment
would be influenced by his judgment What
English actor would wait anxiously for Tsnny-
sons opinion, or weigh it for a nom snt, as a
matter of fame or proftH Can we imagine
Jefferson pausing to crave Irving's applause
for Rip Van Wrinkle .......... .-...
Good acting is as highly esteemed as ever,
there is larger and more cultivated audience
to applaud merit than was ever seen before
since the world began, but we have another,
which makes the theatre-going community
not yet educated into fastidiOusness, and which
Graves for the sensational. We may decry it
as monster; but if it is one it is Briareus,
with hundred hands to applaud and to pay.
Let it be supplied, ad nauseam: it will soon
learn better, and higher style, which is not
merely entertainment, but instruction and
elevation, is already provided for the increas
ing demand. .-- ..- -,- -.-.--
The THIRD PARTY MOVEMENT is exploded, by
the following special despatch from Washing