The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-12

thompson, OF New lorB, VINO so napplly Vln- |
dicated President Lincolns attendance at the i
theatre, follow heexample which he approved |
in others by going himself occasionally either
to smile under Wallack or to weep under
Booth? Why should not the Rev. DIR. New
man, the Methodist chaplain to President
Grant, take his anxious-minded and much
perplexed master once or twice in the season
10 ''The National, during some engage
ment say of Davenport in Hamlet, or of
Jefferson in "trip Van Winkle2" We ask
these questions because these clergymen are
human creatures like their much-toiling
brother of the same craft in Chicago, and
they have as much need of relaxation as he.
Indeed, not to mention any names, we have
ourselves had The honor of accompanying to
the theatre two or three of the most notable
clergymen and theological professors in the
United States, and we can bear witness to
their uncommonly intelligent, and yet at the
same time ''childlike and bland" enjoyment
of the performance But why should so re-
freshipg fountain be quaffed by so few-so
very few-clerical lips? Why should not all
players go to church, or at least why should
not all preachers go to the theatre?
Let us quote a couple of paragraphs from
Miss Field:-"Wise old Dr. johnson said:
am great friend of these public amusements
believe they keep people from vice rather
than lead them on to it. Dr. Paley, whose
dence are still printed and circulated by rel-
gious tract and book societies, was so fond of
going to the play that he would walk ten or
twelve miles into London, and go without his
dinner for the sake of attending the theatre.
In 1884, when the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church were sitting in Edin-
burgh, Mrs. Siddons went there to act aud
that grave and reverend body adj journed an
hour earlier than usual in order to witness
q af tran liant
genius. This body did wisely,
for the Quarterly Regieao will observe that in
those towns where no public amusements
have been permitted, public morals have
always sunk to lower ebb than in any other"
The above instances tell we'll for Miss Fields
argument and for Mr.. Collyers example. If
any one is inclined to doubt the authenticity
of the story concerning the Scotch clergy and
Mrs. Siddons, let us corroborate it by trans
scribing sentence on which our eye lately
fell in casually turning over the pages of DR..
Doran, namely:-''Fancy the General Assem-
bly, of the Kirk being obliged to arrange
their meetings with reference to Mrs. Sid
dons acting-as the younger members fol-
lowed the artist as Bossuet used to follow
contemporary actors, to study elocution."
Now we want a reformation of religious
sentiment on the subject of dramatic amuse-
ments. Martin Luther, who was a reformer
by his very nature, would, if he were now
alive, attempt to reform his clerical brethren
as the Rev. Robert Collyer is doing, and
would similarly send them, with their fami-
lies, to the theatre. Luther wrote in favor of
plays particularly of comedies, for he had
need of much laughter. He said al so that the
theatre was useful to warn young men
against prohigate women, and to inculcate
marriage-a luxury which the Catholic
Church denied to its nuns and priests. We
want a little Iluther-like rough handling of
the Church for its superciiiousness and bigotry
concerning the theatre. The Rev. DIR. Bel
lows attempted to do some such work years
ago. But after he struck one blow, we never
heard of his striking another. Now, how
ever, We have minister in Chicago who was
born to the anvil, and we expect to hear
again and often the echo of his conquering
sledge.
Let us say that the fair criticisms which just
men may make against the immoral tendency
of the theatre, as the theatre is sometimes ad-
ministered, receive our heartiest sympathy.
Indeed farther than this, The Golden Age
proposes to be unsparing in its denunca-
/ tions of the vile tendencies and the indecent
| exhibitions toA,whicb in some theatres, the
drama has been degraded. We contemplate
with adherence and disgust the degeneracy
| of the drama. But the drama itself, unde-
generated,i uncorrupt, and undegraded, is
one of the noblest monuments of modern
civilization-one of the noblest embodiments
| of human genius-and one of the most power
full instrumentalities for the culture of society.
| The abuse of the theatre we deplore and con-
| denim; the theatre itself we count as the Taby
| beautiful, precious, and royal.
| We vindicate the stage. Dramatic repre-
sentation is as old as the world 1t existed
at the beginning, and will continue to the
end, of civilization. 1t is one of the funda-
mental, natural, and Ito this extent) divinely
ordained methods of expressing the thoughts
| and feelings of the mind and heart. 1t is
one of the great, noble, and subtle arts by
which human beings convey and receive
| psy Geological meanings and sympathetic i'm
pressions. Speech, as fashioned into poetry
or oratory, is another of these vehicles.
Music, whether of instrument or song, and
whether with or without words, is another.
! Art, whether painting or sculpture or archi.
lecture, or all combined, is another. Now
art may either be feshly and Pompeian, or il
may be ecclesiastical and devout it may
strip the human figure nude in order to please
a lascivious eye, or it may portray the human
face divine together with the human form
not less diVine), for the pure purpose
of embodying the ideal beauty OF
perfected humanity, or to image forth
the angelic creatures with whom the poets,
sacred and profane, have peopled mems fan.
cies ia all ages of the world Accordingly
the pictures in any famous gallery of Europe
run through the whole gamut of human pas.
sion, from vice to virtue. Now if at any par
ticular time the tendency of a majority of
i artists happens to be grovelling and earthly,
and their pictures rank below the average
morality of society-shall we on this account
abolish art, interdict chisel and brush, and
blind the eyes to color and form? Songs
may be pious and pure, or they may be amo.
=