New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-05-01
A NEW PLAY IN LONDON.


DEFICITS IN THE NEW PLAY.
lrRoM REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF Tue 1kibON-I
IoNpoN. March 2s-Mr. w. 5. GilberPs new
play. Gretchen" was brought out at the Olympic
Theatre on Monday night. You, who know MT.
Gilbert as the author Of the hbretto to Mr. Arthur
snIlivan's clever opera, may be surprised that
writer of that calibre should adventure npon sub
feet which Goethe has made immortal; which IN
decd as legend. lac toundImmortal. ltmay surprise
YOU still more to hear that Mr.. Gilberts Greteh-
en- is not intended by the author as burles9ue.
He offers it to the English public in oil Seriousness
asa rival not to Mr.. Bvrons Little Doctor Faust"
but to Goethe's Faust" or rather as dramatic
substitute for GOethe's Faust" Mr. Gilbert IS Of
opinion that Goathe's work was never intended for
the stage aud that insuperable difficulties must
present themselvo to any stage manager
who should endeavor to place upon the
stage certain parts of II, which he SPECIFIES. ID
point of fact" SAYS MIR. Gilbert, "befOre the Faust
of Goethe can be represented on the stage it must
be ruthlessly Topped of its greatest beauties.
These aud other things Mr. Gilbert saws IN the NO.
tce to the Public which he has protxed to the play
bill He seems to suppose that Goethe's Faust
is not in point of fact, PLAYED in Germany, or can
only be played in some adapted" form. Such, GER
tainly is the impression left q reader of this pro-
lOgue. But the fact is quite otherwise Mr. Band
mann has taken the trouble 10 set Mr.. Gilbert right.
In Germany, says Mr.. Bandmann, GOethe's Faust
has never been adapted. Each stage-manager (whO
in Germany must be a man of culturel cuts and ar
ranges the scenes to suit himself to bring 1t to
the right length. But no would add 10 or alter
the language. As usually given, the German YER
sion begins with Easter morn, omits Walpurgs-
nacht and the Haide. and ends with the death of
Gretchen. Except Hamlet" ana " The Robbers"
adds Mr.. Bandmann, Faust is the most popular
drama in Germany.
With this plain statement of facts from compe-
tent witness vanishes the whole fabric of Mr. Gill
bert's excuses for meddliDg with the Faust of
Goethe, or for mentioning it, He has, he himself
tells rs, remodelled the entire story of Grecken's
fall and he claims. with the exception of the scene
between MepkistOpheles and Martha IN Act 2, the
whole dialogue of the play as his own. Why, then,
need be drag in Goethe at ali 1t perfectly true
that Mr. Gilberts Gretchen" and Goethe's
Faust have little or nothing in common. Mr..
Gilbert keeps hardly anything but the names.
He has WI CARRIED the story to an incredible degree
He has made the whole play trivial. He has de-
strOyed the motive OF il. by rejecting obscuIins
all supernatural agency. In Mr.. GIberts hands.
Faust Is a young fellow crossed in love, WHO has
taken the cowl, who meets afterward with
Greiclea, makes fresh love to her, wins her. is
driven away by her IN horror at discovering him
n monk and finally disguise5 himself once more as
MONK 10 OBTAIN cutidHtc ~ tHC ''ihiilD'i 'HVtS
she is dying aud where he viii not let her die IN
peace. She will have nothing 90 say TO him, and
totters ont OF the room Then enters GOtfce7,
her former cOusn-lOveT. who has heard of foasiUS8
treachely and sworn to kill him. Goiyried has
two bare swoTdl. and oilers to Fasstas To defend
himself which FGasigs refuses. GOttGjed thereupOn
prepares to kill him all the same, but proongs his
agony by a speech The noise once more disturbs
poor q tctcp, who reGuters, PUSHES between the
two men, makes a speech Of her own, and causes
G0ffea TO spare her former lover. During all this
The wrctcaed FaHstus wins the s?Inpathies Of his
audience by his enforced and awkward silence,
protractod for a period which makes 1t half conf
eel half distressing. G0tfried finally goes ont.
Grei hen falls on the couch. and dies IN glow OF
heavenly light which streams through the window
by her side. Mepksiophelss appears at the door to
claim his victim, but FdHstaS has never sgucd a
bond. and scares him away with an appraised cross.
Then the curtain falls. From beginning to end
TaUghs is a vulgar libertiue, with spasms Of re-
morse, Ncpb8i0phces a Leporello, minus bis wit,
and Gretchen a colorless. love-sick maiden, whose
story hardly differs from thousands OF others who
have loved too well.
Tho comparison which Mr. Gilbert has invited be-
tween his own work and Goethe's cannot be made
seriously by any one but Mr. Gilbert himself or by
his lttc cotcre of admirers. Dramatically. the
interest of the piece ended with the second act. Nh.
Gilbert is "A writer Of much experience, and knows
that tins criticism, if trde is fatal to his play. He
must have felt il to be true himself If he watched
the impression made house carefully packed Tor
the first night. The good viii Of ms friends was
demonstratiye enough during the first two acts but
cooled rapidly during tho third, and became blank
wonder during that amazing scene between Faasas,
GOHtrie1 aud Gretchen in the fourth. There was APP
ptausr when the curtain went down; some OF the
actors were called out and Mr. Gilbert himself
mustered courage 10 appear in response to the sum
mons If half dozen supporters with good lungs.
Bat the feeling OF the house too plainly forced
and cold
But the play is we'll written, urge Nj Gilbert's
partisan,. suppose they will hardly say 1t bet
ter written than Goethcs. If it were, that would
not help the matter for the stage purposes which
alone Mr. Gilbert alleges in mitigation Of his per-
formancc Go,thc's Faust" says he in substance,
will not act viii write that will act If on
trial 1t is found not to act. or to act il-and. in
fact to be much less suitable for the stage than the
ABRIDGED but naltered version of GOetho's Faust"
current I'm GeTnanv-vbat boots il TO talk OF liter
airy meIits7 Tho piece is written IN blank verse,
and i'm a style that aims 1T the antique The verse
is often smooth the lines will sean, and there is
point to some Of che speeches But Mr.. Gilbert
mistakes antithesIs for epgrsm, and verbal
emphasis for imaginative energy, while OF true
poetic gnu lheIe Is A""H'lo % Hiht sun,
should say that-as far as l could judge
from hearing his piece on the first nght-hr
Gilbert has reached gher level of rhetorical eI-
cellencc than any OF the two or three which l
bappened 10 have seen out OF the forty or fifty he
has written. But there seems reason why h0
should betake himself tg archaic forlns Of speech,
OF why his verse should echo with "reminiscences of
late Elizabethan phrase. Mr. Gilbert is as one who
bad read Marlowe over night and had not slept it
off nor cleared his brain when be sat down TO write
-. MIN rrilv IL nrn Of