Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-03-28
ENGLIsHDRAMATIC CENSORSHIP
scan. Mag. ON the stage.

6CAus muks Oh tho otoRcs
Some time since the cable told us that
play had been suppressed at the Court
Theater, in London, because in it irrev-
erent mirth was made at the cost Of the
dignity of Her Majesty's Ministers. To
q constant spectator of the cartoons of
Punch this announcement was truly
marvellous. II staggered the mind TO
imagine how much further the force Of
satire could go than the cartoons in
which every Prime Minister OF Great
Britain for the past thirty years has
been held up to the laughter of man.
kind in all manner of comic characters
and ridiculous positions. We have now
the full accounts by mail of the play
and of the suppression of it. But the
explanation, far from explaining, only
deepens our difficulty and our wonder.
The butts of the dramatist were Mr..
Gladstone and Mr.. Ioweand Mr.. Ayrton.
These three statesmen were personated
by actors who wore raimeht like higher
power of their raiment and spake
speeches expressing an exaggeration Of
the sentiments which their own speeches
expressed. The eraiment and the speeches
we're recognized by the audience with
cheers and laughter, and the Lord
Chamberlain interdicted the perform
ance. He explained that he did it on
account of the manner in which the
piece was performed" or, in other
words, on account of the makeup of
the actors who personated Mr.. Glad
stone and Mr.. Lowe and Mr.. Ayrton.
We may frankly admit that Mr.. Ayr
ton "in lilac satin trousers, protesting
anxiety to fight anybody for beer, and
Mr.. Gladstone in shiny black raiment
dancing breakdown, and Mr.. Lowe
singing a comic song to the effect that
penny saved is twopence earned, are
none of them spectacles calculated to
produce awe in the mind OF the British
play-goer, or to encourage him to order
himself lowly ard reverently to all his
betters, as his catechism enjoins him to
do. But the average Briton" has long
ago begun to doubt whether he had any
betters, and to forbear even without the
excitement of burlesque, to order him
self Iowly and reverently towards any
body. ScGRdGlam mdgRatum is an OBJ
solete oflense i'll the courts, and it is an
obsolete oifense in literature. Since the
licenser, who was the literary Lord
Chamberlain, lost his function and the
name Of Roger l. Estrange ceased to be
terror to the authors, it has been rec
ognized as a tangible and punishable
offense only upon the stage. The dis
tinc;iop between the drama and other
arts that rulers are laEigl game for satire
in all but this is utterly absurd. v eekly
the Premier appears in Punch with a
poke bonnet, or Jockeys jackets or a
boxers buff, and nobody dreams of re-
sentHg the caricature. But once in
Ray lie is put upon the stage in a
mild 'burlesgue 10 dance a cheer
ing breakdown, AH3 tho interdict
of the Lord Chamberlain Femosss hln
from the public gaze. IL my be
that the legs of Mr.. Gladstone appear at
neculiar disadvantage in a breakdown,
and that the culture of Mr.. Gladstone,
varied as it is, is yet unequal to the
exeaenoiss of comic song. But 1t is
impossible to make cut whY it should be
eobsidered au offepee Shep Mr. Glad
stone is represented IS mlserably bFe9k'
ing down in breakdown, or lgnomln-
iously Hating IN song, anu no OIeuce
he taken by anybody, when Mr.. Glad
stone l. represented by pen and pencil
as doing things quite 80 absurd and
immeasurably more discredltable. Some
times we may have sighed for censor
shin of the stage here. The Happy
Lssa" which is the subject Of these
remarks, is 9 GOOD natured burlesque.
BLACK Friday wad glastly aRd
atfocious travesiy, disgraectui TO the
man who wrote it andto the manager
wSo permitted its performance. The
Hanny Land has been prohibited, and
"Risck Friday was suffered to take its
course. the eniojled withdrawal Of the
former eslipsed The gayety % nstiap;
the withdrawal Of the latter was enforced
by the revolt of play goers at the infamy
G Il. We may be sure that the same
result viii sivsyg fqlloy, in London and
in New York, without ofIclsl lnIeryen-
ton, whenever a malicious satire is put
upon the boards, aud that hcenser Of
plays is, in either city, a superhuous
igne.icnary.