The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-04-06
Church and Stage.

Apropos of a sermon which the dean of
Carlisle preached on February 9th, to
the Church and Stage Guild, the Lon
don Daily News says:
A nun once had considerable repute
for writing plays; but on the whole the
church has contributed little, except in
France, to the repertoire of the world.
The two great powers of the temple and
the stage have rarely been friendly ex-
cept when in Greece the theater, like
most other forms of art and amusement.
was but side development OF. religion.
When or why the church first took up an
austere attitude to the drama it is not
very easy to be certain. Probably it
came about at the time when Christianity
first became able to hold her own with
the power which she WIS soon to con-
auer the Roman Empire.
Anything like the abominable cruelty
of the Roman stage at the time when j u
venal's ladies fell in love with the actors
and fencing masters has never been
known in the world of later years. The
church would have been untrue to her.
self indeed if she had not protested with
all her strength against the iniquities of
both the stage and the arena. The monk
Telemachus, unless he is myth, and
has obtained an undeserved renown, put
an end to the massacres of the arena by
laying down his own life on the bloody
sand. The church only knew the stage
as the stage of her own time, OF the cor
rupt Roman Empire, just as our Puri-
tans only knew and understood the de-
bauched drama of the Staurts and the
Reformation.
One can readily understand and SYM
pathize with the Puritan indignation
when the stage was what Canon Kings
ley described in an interesting article.
Starting from a still worse state of
things, the early church lanathematized
the drama. Monks who wished to read
Aristophanes or Seneca were expected to
indicate their profane tastes to the con-
vent librarian by scratching their ears in
dog-like fashion, thus illustrating the
low and animal nature of their craving.
And so things went on till the medieval
church, as it were by accident, became
the mother of the modern drama.
There can be little doubt that the Pas
sion plays and religious mysteries" of
the Middle Ages made one of the two
sources, the other being the revived
study of Seneca, Plautus and Euripides,
from which the drama of France is de-
rived. But the clergy soon banned
their own offspring, and it was hard, in
deed, for players in the palmy age of
the French stage to get buried in con-
secrated ground. The old feud is still
smouldering, and the dean of Carlisle,
with his friends, is probably not in
majority of the English Church on this
question.
1--WE cannot profess seriously to think
that the Guild of Church and State is
engaged in very profitable task. If
there be burning embers of old wars be-
tween the representatives of one of the
arts on one side, and of religion on the
other, the best plan is to ignore them;
not to stir them even on pretense of
'raking them out The stage can take
very good care of itself, and wants no
alliance with religion any more than with
law, or with the State. 1t is disagree
able to actors and actresses to be treat
ed as if they were kind of interesting
people not so very far off from the king
dom of responsibility. their art, their
profession, is an art or profession like
another.
It was not always thus; even now the
footing is not so secure as that of other
forms of art or of business. But the
position which the stage should possess
and is rapidly acquiring. will not be
gained through the well-meant patron
age of the church. The church does not
patronize the press, or the bar, or print
ing, or fiction, or sculpture. Why
should it press its attentions on the stage?
Outsiders are always buzzing round the
stage, advising, giving hints, suggesting
plans of education, and what not, as il
actors, of all people in the world, least
knew their own business and most
wanted instruction from persons who
can have learned very little or nothing
about it.
The great and wise churchmen of the
day can only help the stage by taking
the same unaffected interest in it as they
do in any other art. Probably they are
aware of this. But there will always be
curates who wish to associate with bal
let girls for their good. 1t is fine am
bition, not absolutely without its dan
gers. Actors seldom feel the same i'm
perious call to enliven the families of
curates. The church should let the
stage go her own way; the stage will
never 60 out of her way to patronize
the church, to offer advice on elocution
to preachers, and suggest telling "ef-
fects" to amateurs Of ornate ritual.
A gentleman who is at present in ct
tendance ut the stock convention il 20