New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-26
TURNING THE TABLES.


by The Times for "The Kickleburys on the
Rhine" produced his celebrated Essay on
Thunder and Small Beer" which now stands
among his collected works as frlghttul
warning to rash and incompetent critics. Fen
imOro Cooper used to prosecute the newspa-
pcrs which did not like his books, and Charles
Reade's libel suits will long hold conspcu-
| Gus place among the curlOsities of literature.
Authors indeed have generally been prompt
enough to resent unjust censure and repay
| their assailants with compound interest;
and the effect has certainly been to raise
the character and value OF literary
| criticism. 1t il pity tho same
process of mutual apprasemont has not been
more frequently tried in connection with the
stage. Actors and their critics perhaps would
| both be the better for frank interchange OF
opinions. If on the boards there is a vast
amount of vulgarity and Ignorance to be re-
buked, there is in the parquet stalls an equal
| abundance of pretenslOn and prejudice that
ought to be rdiculcd, and of dishonesty that
deserves castigation and if members OF the
dramatic profession would turn upon their
torturers little oftener. the public would
| soon learn to distinguish between honest,
useful, and enlightened criticism, and the
forty jackass mud-pOwer" of a press which
lacks both intelligence and conscience.
Once i'm a while we are refreshed by the
spectacle of distinguished artist rending
| critic limb from limb, and just the other day
that edifying operation was performed In
Chicago by no less person than Madame
Christine Nilsson. One might wonder what
should rouse to resentment this darling OF
the public before whom the censor of adula-
ton has swung necessarily from year to year
but it seems that some connOisseur of the
prairies has "made donkey of himself
by finding fault with her conception OF
the characters of MignOn and Marguerite,
and that rpeSt product of American enter
prise tho Interviewing reporter-has called
upon the prima donna to inquire what she
has to say for herself. Madame Missions re-
marks, as we find them in The Chicago Times,
are well worth quoting. Your critics are
"not really bad, you know, but they are
mot catholic. The school in which they are
bred is necessarily one of very limited
" observation. Your good singers all go away
ito be educated Why do not yOur critics
"You would value them so much better when
" they came back cultivated and competent"
Nine. Nilsson is quite right. Musical critics
who know anything about music anu
dramatic critics who know anything about
the drama are rare enough even in New DIRK,
| where the opportunities for culture are COM
paratively abundant. and good criticism is
| rated at something like its true worth. And
| the deficiencies of our best writers on these
| branches of art are precisely in that dullness
| of COMPREHENSION and narrOwness of taste
which Madame Nilsson rightly attributes to
| lack of familiarity with the various schools of
culture and their different products. Here is
| a musician, for instance, who knows Beethoven
by heart and can read symphony from the
score. but to whose contracted intelligence
| Rossini is triher and Wagner mad
man. Here is another equally well educated
who relishes nothing but Oifenbach, and
laughs at Mozart as an antiquated humbug.
| Your connoisseur in the drama will turn up
his nose at every playwright since Shake
speare. and his cOmrade in the next seat loves
| only "Article Forty Severn and "The Woman
| "of Fire. They are all cultivated men-to a
! certain eytent-but they have no idea of the
catholicity of art and they judge everything
not by aesthetic rules but by the low standard
of their personal preferences.
Of the two presentations which the Western
papers particularly censured, Madame Nilsson
spoke as follows:
They do not seem to understand the individuality Of
An artistic Each one wants to play his MignoD, hts
Marguerite and does not realize that each artistic
less she be braness mitator has her study and her
ideal Of these. The Tes critic quoted Carlyle at
and said do not play Goethes Mignon. Well. have
read every page OF Wilhelm Mester" know Goethes
| Miguon II years Of study teach It to me- know
Ambrose Thomas Mgnon, II he Ia capable OF nparting
bis ideal 10 music or In conference. have studied
Goethe, have practlced and performed directly under
nobody knows anything about hare created the char
acer Of Mignon in music do not play Luccas Mgnon
certainly do not; that would be playing Luccs but
| play Ni0non.
Now, concerning my Marguerite, about which 90 much
has been said. claim that 1t is the highest impersOna
| ton which I have made. This claim has been
tested again and again before the critical audiences
Of the oldest elites OF Europe and perfectly Justi
ned in making it, There vulgar impersonatious
the sage which assume that Mar guerte has fallen be-
fore she comes upon the stage! That is not the true
Marguerite. She IL pure and simple minded; but her
simplicity Is that Of innocence Of stupidity. much
less Of vulgarity-east Of oil, Of n- do not slap
Fausts face, push him away; let him play with
me- No modest md girl would do OF these things
grisetts or Gretchen might busa Marguerite would
Reproduced with coldness IN Fsusts love-making.
Very we'll every good who has ever been wooed
knows that therein have my hand In Natures. Is
innocent gueess girl 70 play with such suor In his
advances, AZ she better than hs After Mar
guerite falls IN love with Faust she shows but here
| again an called cold. Well think know the differ
| enee between Ove-mAking and vulgar love making I
shall be vulgar the That 10 neither art
morslA Do you think that after receiving the con-
CALCULATIONS of oil Europe on my Marguerite 10 10 not
little ptquante have o Chicago critic me DO
would not like 70 80 me IN Q seeond ums-tu fsok