The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-08-26

AUGUST 26, l873.-TRIPLl
Auxiliaries to Lyric and Dramatic
Art - shakspearian and Operate
Spectacle.
Shakespeare was not only the greatest, but
time has proved him to be the most fortunate,
dramatist of any age. Before opera became
the chief pastime of 'our best society" and
spectacular drama the delight of all classes, the
digniAed demeanor and ponderous elocution
Of the Shakspearian actors were greatly APP
preciated by cultivated people. But as
knowledge Of art became more generally diff
fused, as the musical drama grew in power
and magnihcence, as the brush of the scene
painter became an essential aid to the inter-
probation of passion and emotion, the truth
gradually asserted itself that Shakespeare was
poet rather than dramatist. This Is the
reason that Forrest was the last of the old
school of actors. Nowadays art has gentler
methods of expression than from Kemble to
Macready and Kean to Forrest. Modern taste
will have nothing to do with the laundering
eloquence Of the old stage, but demands delicate
acting as the foreground Of picture of ex-
quisite beauty. It Is not because the
ballet Is wicked and society degraded
that this much abused ballet became
so popular few years ago. Worthless
plays attained the highest success through the
combined influence Of the pdetry Of motion,
gorgeousness Of attire and splendor of scenery
People would not listen patiently to Hamlets
soliloquy, or Macbeth's speeches. or Othello's
rawlings, when they could hear Greppo cry out
that he wanted to 60 home from among hob
COLLINS, which seemed the realization Of the
widest imagination. A room in the palace of
the duke or plateau before the castle was
no recompense for the grotto of Stalacta and
the Illuminated gardens Of the poetic world.
Men began to say Shakespeare is for the study,
not the stage; and it was almost matter Of
calculation when the great Shakspearian
pieces would cease to be represented
Partially owing to the universally of Shak-
speare's genius, and partly to the good
impulse Of sensational spectacle, the glorious
old plays exhibit renewed youth, when it was
expected they would expire from senility.
An example Of this is seen in Mr.. Days
revival of the midsummer Nights Dream" at
the Grand Opera House. Its chief claim to
recognition is not in any particular point
evolved by the piece but in the complete
embodiment of the Shakespeare ideal in
transient reproduction. There were other
great representatives of the character
Of Bottom before Mr.. Fox played it.
| Other lovers rehearsed the love lines with q
sweeter elocution before it was produced at
the Grand Opera House. The byplay has
often been as well done. Burton gave US
more elaborate picture Of Fairyland His
production of the midsummer Night
Dream we remember as one of his greatest
works, and that, too, in the very infancy Of
scenic art in this country. Mr.. Days revival
is mere dramatic episode, limited to few
performances and yet it is satisfactory to the
imagination and enhancing as picture. 1t
is in this that we recognize his artistic skill.
He has made us forget that Lysander and
Demetrius, Hernia and Helena talk about
their love In Shakspeare's lines instead Of act
| ing it according to the demands of modern
taste. Their surroundings are such that we
/
whether we hear the lines or not. In the chill
dren's ballet we have the wood fairies dance.
In the frolicsome Puck there is relief from
the incongrrity of grown up fairies But, as
| we said before, it is not for any one Of
these things in itself that we recognize his
merit, but in his quick apprehension Of the
meaning Of modern art and his ready applica-
ton of artistic growth to noble purpose
his provision and liberaity in giving us q
Shakspearian spectacle. Unlike the trashy
| spectacular pieces it is not intended to run
| for season by the aid Of meretricious de-
vices, for in another fortnight all this beauty
| will have vanished. Burton's great knowl-
edge of Shakspearian art enabled him to OBJ
tain great success years ago, but we doubt if
even he could have 80 popularized Shakespeare
as to have presented the midsummer Nights
| Dream in the magnifcence of which it is
capable for 80 short run.
Turning from this theme to sensational
spectacle, as it is in s'The Black Crook" we
find ourselves in different Atmosphere
different world. Here the poetic is suppressed
and the weird and unnatural or the sensual
obtrudes. The grotesqueness of the incanta-
| ton scene is unobjectionable-it is merely the
attempt to paint picture which shall reveal
one of the fantasies Of the alchemists What
we object to is the art impurity in the pam
Drama. The management and the artist could
not fail to know that 1.-THE Rake's Progress"
upon which two Of the pictures are based,
would be an improper substitute for 1.-THE
Pilgrims Progress" Hogarth made vice at
tractive, and, admitting the ability with which
Mr. Morgan has remodelled the "Orgies ct the
Rose Tavern" and the "Rakes Ruin at the
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