The New York herald., 1872-10-27

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barmaid evil can ever appear among US We are
happy not to believe Keep your eye at home,
John. for the present
tic Art I'm New York-Its Progress
and tho Promise OF the Future.
The dramatic season has advanced to that
point-the breaking up of the original bills at
some of the theatres-which enables us to
form something like correct Judgment upon
the condition and prospects of the drama in
New York during the coming Winter. With
the exception of Niblo' 8, and Fechter's Theatre,
in Fourteenth street, the playhouses are all
open and all have been doing good business.
in another month these will also be ready for
spectacle and melodrama, and the little Globe
Theatre, in Broadway, is to witness about the
same time the appearance of Miss Bateman in
some of her favorite characters. By the mid
die of November there will be complete
change of programme everywhere Opera
bo96s, which is now presented with SO little
force at the Olympic, being deficient in me-
'chanical as well as artistic effects, weak in
chorus and feeble in ensemble will have fitted
away to Philadelphia. King Carrots reign at
the Grand Opera will be ended; MI. Bouci-
cault's Kerry and Mrs. Boucicaults Jessie
Brown will have been succeeded by Mr.. Some
body's Romeo and Miss Nelson's Juliet.
The revival Of old English comedy at
fh6 Fifth Avenue Theatre will have ripened,
las we trust, into the mellower glories Of
Shakspeare's sMerry Wives Of Windsor" )"
French and English art, as we have It in
agnes at the Union Square Theatre, and in
'"Pygmalion and Galatea," at Wallack's,
will also have vanished like the dissolving
statue in the beautiful comedy at the latter
Theatre. All these changes suggest some ideas
both as to the past and the future Of the
drama in this city, for the expression Of which
there can be no more fitting opportunity than
the present.
One Of the great wants of the American
stage has been American plays by American
playwrights. Hitherto this has been regarded
as impracticable; but the success of ''Sara-
tcga" and Diamonds" has shown that Amer
'ican comedy is not impossible. We are not
disposed either to overpraise or to undervalue
Mr.. Howard's abilities as dramatist. His
plays are not great plays, but they are GER
tainly very creditable. Diamonds is crude,
but 80 is the society it portrays, and while it
falls far short Of what is desirable in play
pictures of American manners it is by no
means 80 false in sentiment or exaggerated in
ideal as many persons would have us believe
It is an unfinished play, the disentangle-
ment of the plot at its close creating
the impression that everything is explained
md everybody reconciled in hurry, that the
people in the orchestra chairs and the galleries
may 60 home; but its unfinished character
is not SO striking as to condemn. Nor does it
Stand alone in this respect. Nearly everything
distinctively American is also unfinished.
Broadway is an unfinished street. New York
is an unfinished city. Our society partakes of
the newness Of everything around u.s. Our
literature is lacking in perfection of thought
and elegance Of diction. We get our music
and our plays, our musicians and our actors,
from abroad, and we are apt to criticise by
severe rule the things which are born of our
own country and to take the foreign article on
trust. We have never had an American
dramatist, therefore we cannot have one.
Because sDiamonds' is not great play its
crudity and want Of force are in many quarters
held sufficient to condemn it, and it is sneered
at by people who regard Whittier as poet
and Emerson as . philosopher. This play
holds the same relation to the drama that
Whittier holds to poetry or Emerson to phi
losophy. Though the dramatist, the poet and
the philosopher are alike deficient in great
powers, each Of them is we'll enough in his
way and gives promise of something better in
the future.
These views indicate something like prog
ress for the present season-growth in play
making as well as in play-acting. But 'Dia-
.monds'' is play which the dramatist made
for the actors, and in this respect it is in
marked contrast with Mr. Boucicaults
ssKerry," where the actor makes the play.
The former aims at making good parts for
everybody, while the latter is the concentra-
ton Of the one character idea. Under these
systems play must be cast with all stars or
with only one, and in the latter case the lead
ing actor might as we'll be supported by auto
mata as the living people with whom he plays.
Both theories are equally Objectionable, and
the one theory begets the other. What we
need are plays not written for the players, but
for their artistic effects, and actors not caring
so much for the part which the dramatist set
down as for the characters they can create.
It is q greater honor to be great actor in q
small part than q small actor in q great part.
One of the surprises of the present season is
excellence in little things in number of in
stances. We see it in Mr.. Barrys Cassidy,
and the public have not failed to place an
yineionifcaut mart very near Agnes Rob-