New-York tribune., 1877-09-01
THE DECAY OF THE DRAHA.

Gas an exquisite embodiment OF tne poeSs
"yision.n said Mr.. Curdle "and realization OF
"human intellectually, gliding with refulgent
eight our dreamy moments, aid laying open
ga new and magic world before the mental eye,
"the drama is gone, perfectly gone" Ihe COM
plaint which this eminent Portsmouth connols-
seur made to the leading lady of Mr. Vincent
Crummles's company has been heard at frequent
intervals for about 1000 years. Since the
extinction of the Greek drama, most OF the
muses. have been, so to speak, on their last
legs. There has been, as we are told, steady
decay. illuminated perhaps by the fitful flashes
OF Shakespeare but never really interrupted.
Starting with Menander we have got down to
Boucicaut and Augustin DAILY, and Mr. Bouci-
cault gives us no reason to suppose that we
have touched bottom yet For MIR. Boucicault,
who is one of the most popular actors OF
this degenerate day, and the author of " For
"bidden Fruit Formosa," and other plays,
has lately made his appearance in the charac-
ter of a mourner over the dramatic decline and
fall, and after surveying the condition OF the
drama, he asks, in tho name of his craft,
" How is it that we have fallen so low"
We have generally noticed that when peo-
ple ask such questions about themselves III
public, they only do it as preliminary to throw
ing the blame of their faults and failings
upon somebody else. Mr.. BOuccault fixes
the chief responsibility for his deficiencies
upon the prosaic tastes of matenalistic age.
He believes We have always potential Shake
speares and Dantes and Garricks among us,
but we have set them at unpoetic tasks, peer
ing through microscopes, digging canals, edit
ing newspapers, and playing Irishmen. If we
asked for new " Hamlet we might have
il but as our fancy does not turn that way,
we get only Flying Scud" with a
live horse-a mingling of the real with
the ideal, which, as Mr.. Bouclcault says
(apropos not of this case, but of an
essay of Addison's), "diverts the atten-
" ton of the audience from serious consd-
"eration to silly entertainment Possibly the
stage might have done something to correct
the public taste-what is the stage worth if it
cannot but alas! the stage was still further
degraded by the destructive influence of the
"newspaper press" The newspaper press has
deyoured the poet, the novelist, the playwright.
There are no more ByrOns, Scots, Sheridans
and Bulwers. Pegasus is in harness. Mil
ton is discussing the Columbus platform,
and Goethe is sent to Wallacks Theatre
TO write criticism on Mr.. Boucicaut's
new play. Both sad to say are doing their
work very badly. For, in the first place the
press, "by depreciating the products of liter
"ature, has cultivated millions of readers with
"no intelligence above OF beyond the scope
"of newspaper article;' and, in the
second place. the newspaper critic, displacing
the band of cOnnolsseurs, the dlettant
of the pit, who used to stand upon
guard over the production of a new play
or the appearance of a new actor, has usurped
functions which he "is and always has been
incapable of discharging."
We hear a great deal about the old
method of criticism, and 1t seems TO be
much hmcnts1 by those who are dis
satisfied with the new; but are we sure
that it was better than the newspapers
The most noble Marquis of Steyne. and his
friends, Msssrs. Wenham and Wagg, were
mighty personases at the theatre; but did they