The New York herald., 1872-12-31


culture and fine feeling would shake hands
with an exposed thief who had attempted to
win the Affections of a young girl by treachery
and fraud Our people are no longer angry
with Mrs. Trollope and Charles Dickens for
exaggerating our foibles and peculiarities
Why we should be angry with a playwright
for doing the same thing passes compre-
hension. Americans have never been drawn
so faithfully or SO kindly as by American
dramatists, and it is mere ''faIse shame to
deny the truthfulness of the picture.
If we turn from this singular revelation of
English life and manners-a revelation in
which the English seem to delight as if it did
them honor-to the English ideal of what Is
American, we are forced to the conclusion that
the English understanding is as feeble as Eng
lish taste is degraded. The same Englishman
who writes, ''Thank you, Mr.. Frank Marshall.
for very nice play" speaks of Mr.. J. X.
Emmetts "Fritz" as piece that would be
''beneath notice we're it not that in it are oor-
trayed certain scenes of American private life
which must presumably be endowed with
tinge of truth, since they were relished, as the
playbill tells us, upwards of thousand nights
in the principal cities of the United States. -
This shows the average Englishman to be as
deficient in humor as he is incorrect in his
notions Of what is 'nice.'' Everybody in
America knows that sour Cousin G erman''
is bundle of incongruities which are laugh
able only because they are incongruous. We
have always been inclined to accept Mr.. Soth-
ern's Lord Dundreary and Dundreary's
Brother Sam as incongruities Of the
same kind but this logic forces Us
to regard them as portraying certain
scenes Of English private life which must pre-
sumably be endowed with tinge Of truth,
since they were relished upward Of a thousand
nights in England when the great actor returned
home, some three or four years ago, to show
his countrymen what fools they are. For the
same reason everybody ought to see "False
Shame" Many Americans cannot make a
trip to England to see what pert, fippant
ll-bred people the English have become.
Thanks to Mr.. Frank Marshall for play
which saves us the journey. In the "School
for Scandal Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
century ago, showed that the English gentry
were backbiters and common slanderers. But
even American criticism asks us to regard
Lady Teazle and the rest as people of culture
and refinement English and Anglo-American
criticism puts the same estimate upon the
Earl of Dashington and Lord Chiffon and
Earnest Bragleigh. Let us look moment at
this gentility. The Earl insists upon his son
fighting duel with fellow that he shakes
hands with soon afterward; but not
in this respect only, but in his
entire conduct in regard to the ''af-
fair" he shows that English earls are no
longer gentlemen. Lord Chiffon risks the
honor and happiness of young girl that he
may receive an insult with equanimity and
toy with blackguard. May Atherleigh and
Constance Howard are young girls whom no
gentleman would care to marry. Most won-
derful Of all is the ease with which captain
in the Royal Bluffs writes himself o liar and
thief Even Dosberry did not write himself
down an ass more readily. This is English
society-a society which Englishmen applaud
Rude as Americans sometimes are, there is
nothing in American society to equal it in
degradation.
What, then, is the lesson to be learned from
this new play, SO acceptable on both sides of
the Atlantic? First, evidently greater charity
toward our own playwrights, and less sensi-
tiveness as to what is done and what is not
done in good society. Secondly, the reception
OF English plays like "False Shame" as pic
lures Of English society, to be seen and
studied as such, but not to be copied in
American homes. While we should not refuse
to see ourselves on the stage as others see US in
real life, we need not neglect seeing the vul-
garity Of other lands which would clothe itself
with the specious attributes Of gentility.
The STOKES TRIAL STILL PROCEEDS without
novelty OF increased interest AS regards the
matter brought forward in evidence, while of
the same general features as on the first trial,
there is less Of it. The medical part has not
been reached, SO the doses Of morphine ad-
ministered internally and simultaneously are
yet, we suppose, to be wrangled over, MS well
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