The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-02-18
THE HOUSEHOLD.


establishment. and We see no reaeon vybv
ours should be limited to any such "pent up
Utica 1t Is just as easy for us to furnish
stately pailors and luxurious bouoora as to
give elegant dlnnors-just as cheap, after our
lhethod, 10 iced the eye with pictures, and
abronzes'e eand bric-a-brnc. as the palate with
choice yeands. We SEQ no reason, then. wtSy
We should not adjourn, with some in
dulgent reader from the dning-roou II,
the library, upon owhose crowded shelves
rest, rescued from oblivion. all that is
best and grandest of mans thought and labor:
t'l''' oe'ig there we see mo- reason why the
genius OF the place should not possess us. or
why, sitting IN Its dim, religious light" we
should not yiold to it's influences and even
drop into poetry after the desultory way Of
Mr.. Wegg, II the NOODLE upon u.s. We will
not deny the fact that we have written rhymes
IN our day. or even that we have been guilty
81 thSbrutality Of inf1eting them upon anna
~, nln compallons; but that day, with all it's
and we trust that we shall find ut least one
kindly reader to bear us comp my. unfltyterred
by any approximations of e1counterng our
own muse. If we drop into poetry" over our
walnuts and wine it shall not he into our own.
but that Of the grand old masters whose
works lie ready to.our hand
ms much only by way Of craving the in
dulgence OF our readers for diverging for the
nonce from the Legitimate topics and pur-
poses Of this collant, for we shall not PROMISE
that our preface has even indicated the char
acter Of our divergence
We agree heartily with TalfD1rd when he
says speaking Of orD Of the dinner parties hn
was SO fond of-"Our conversation was, Of
course. contiaed to mutual invitations and
expressive criacisms Of the dishes the only
table-talk which men of sense cnn toIcrate:s
hntPfor this reason we have taken our renders
from the dining to the library for q Iast.
and uore variety. After q while toward the
"shank OF the evening" as Charles Limb
would say, we may spread II dainty Punch Of
salads and cold meats and venerable port or
racy sherry.
But we fear that, in this long preface. We
have disregnrtled Ioraces wise Injunction ain
med1ds res, etc, SO we shall come at once to
our subject. Let us 0ancy it is sunday night.
and my companion has kept m engagement
to dine with me, made the night before when
we both left the Varieties IN disappointment
when the curtain rose on David Garrick,"
after the trial scene in the ''Merchant Of
Venice" instead Of disclosing Porta 8 house.
with Belmont in the distance, and 'pretty
Jessch' and her "thriftless love sitting in
the "palcr day of the Italian moon, whisper
ing their loves in the playful strains Of Shake
speare's tenderest inspiration. OF all the
'emendations' Of Shakespeare that have ever
been suggested or made from the "couic
Shylock" OF Lansdown to the Daniel Derorl-
ga "modification' inspired by the business
exiigencies Of the Times, this green-room in
spiratlon which seeks to make Of the Mer-
chant Of Venice simply Shylock and nothing
more Is thS most atrocious.
Stevens, who oWYled the book, tells us that
Hha1s ts l. IL his Gf3PyN Of SshakssPeare altered
TO that Of "Malvoio.' But Malvoio is not
inc dominant character, or rather idea, Of the
play, nor il the actiHn OF any portion of the
play made to turn upon him. Charles
s Es:.,ldation," then, like aiootters OF Shake
ment, but paIpabe ersr. when Shakespeare !
intends any character 10 be the center of the |
lranatic idea, he tells us so In the title
Hamlet" Macbeth" "Othello" None OF his
,hSe been given the name of any
son that the effect they produce,
IS In nearly all comedies. must
lepcnd mos upon the harmonious relations h
i all the parts than upon the absorbing pas
ion and md individuality Of the principal charac-
Of encs ey and shG the easa st Ts y the the
,lhy-wrights to make Of 1t simply an cxhb-
ion of Shylock, to nSke him the absorbing
character of the play and the forfeiture Of the
,,ond tho sole climax Of the plot, is to destroy
,evlaps it's greseest merit us stage drama.
here has never been a commentator, from
ohnsorA down, who has not specially COM
nended The blending in one harmonious whole
t the separate and distinct actions in this
ay-the forfeiture of the bond, the choosing
1 the caskcts and the loves of Lorenzo and Jes.
lea. The union of two actions in one event +"
ays Johnson, "is in this drama eminently hap {
y, Dryden was much pleased with his own
ddress In connecting the two plots Of his
ritic will find excclled by this play There {
re three curious and complicated plots united
l one, and the adroitness with which this is
one is not only to be admired as a manifesto
on OF art but each OF these separate pro-
'sses IS necessary to the full development of
nat internal spiritual unity" which holds :
lem together and constitutes the whole {
loral of the play. 1t is manifest, then, that t
giving Shylock such colossal predominance !
) 'sgreen room propriety" or the vanity of
IDLY mutilate a most complete and exquisite v
a
The marriagtoof Bassano and Portia is only
less Importance than the process between !
ntono ana Shylock, and the adventures Of G
orenzo and Jessica have a dramatic purpose o
the uteost Importance. Nowhere in all OF.
plays, do we recognize with :
ore exquisite pleasure the artists town sweet +
"a 70 cunning hand shan in the fifth act of the
ed from the stage play Of "shylock.'' Clos t
g, as 1t does, with the trial scene, the last Il
lpfeSslo1@ eft is extremely painful, while the il
tention OF the author clearly was that it J
ould be most pleasurable. In this scene the J
al catastrophe OF the play, there is sonething v
scordant and painful as there must be to .
true. The main purpose of the last act, +
tn its tender love scenes and playful poetry, y
to do, away with these unhappy impress q
ons and restore the balance Of pieasurable +
notions. There is nothing, in our opinion, N
at can compensate us for the loss of either
e poetry or solace of this act, and we cannot 10
init that any stage exigency or considera-
N can justify it's omission. It was this very cc
IS that sent US away from the Varieties last b,
turday disappointed and consequently, in 2j
mood to sit through David Garrick" v
hat man could have done SO, who had been :
litng in hungry anticipation Of the poetic W
lst between Lorenzo and essica and the m
ling greetings, the pretty, pouting badi- Il
g.e and Joyous explanations between Bas-
MO and Portia, Gratiano and Nerissa?
of Mr. Barrett's Shylock we will speak but
,identally: That he has an original concep-
N OF the character cannot be denied and If ~
r impression Of it is correct, and this was -
tied in an editorial in the DEMOCRAT last at
it is a most ambitious one. When &C
pc said Of Macklins Shylock- I'd;
This isthe Jew