The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-24
The Drama and the Novel.

The Drama and the Novel.
Prof. Denton ]. Snider discussed the relations
of the drama and the novel, as setting forth the
thought of the world, on Tuesday evening, in
the parlors of Misses Mary and Libbie Nichol-
son, on Broadway. The room was full of atten-
tive listeners. Prof. Snider said that the era of
the epic had passed, and that the drama cul-
minated in the Elizabethan age with Hamlet.
This, the greatest of Shakspeare's conceptions,
is novelisic rather than dramatic it is reflective
rather than active: full of solioQuies. With
Hamlet the drama eliminated. In G@.hes
Meister we have the blending of the
dramatic with the novelstc. Meister cannot
be tested by the ordinary tests of the novel. 1t
was not written to kill time, has startling
contrasts, vivid descriptions of nature or the
pageantry of art. the customary closing
chapter i'll which faiths are phghted and wrongs
righted. Judged by the ordinary tests it is
failure. But as expressive of the form which
modern thought takes Meister is to the novel
what the Siege Of Troy is to the epic or Hamlet
to the drama.
Prof. snider dwelt upon the relation
ship of the novel to the worlds literature rath-
er than on the various and multifarious charac-
tiers of Wilhelm Meister The popularity of
Prof Sniders conversations Faust, Meister,
Shakespeare in drama and the like, is
that he gives not current opinion but his own
views, positive, consistent, and unpropped by
quotation from standard authors and critics.
The Same trait is noticeable throughout his
walks in Hellas." 1t gives a vivid insight into
modern Greece, as by one familiar with
Greek and Grecans in all ages who travelled on
foot over the entire peninsula, aud saw both
the old and the new Greece with poets eye
and instinct. Professor snder served as a sol
der in the late war, was for number of years
teacher of Shakespearsan literature in the St.
Louis high-schoO, where, with Professor Harris
and Sedan and others, was formed inteec
tual cOtere which has had no little influence on
the literature and culture of the West Assoc-
ated with Mr.. Harris in the Journal of Specu-
lative Philosophy. aud with him also in the Con-
cord School, and as editor of The Western,
Professor snider is well known as thinking
man. His courses of lectures Goethe ana
Shakespeare which he is now giving in this city
and in Terre Haute, will work an era in the
study OF these authors among the cultivated
classes who are attending them.
The following comparison of Meister and
George Sands ConsuelO, although not
quoted by Professor Snider in his discussion,
will be of interest, pOrtraying Mr. Elner-
sons view in his representative men" of the
two novele
"Wiihelm Meister is a novel in every sense,
the first of its kind, called by its admirers the
only delineat1on of modern society, as if other
novels, those of Scott, for instance, dealt with
costume and eOndi ton, this with the spirit of
life. 1t is o book over which some veil is still
drawn. I5 is read by every intelligent person
with wonder and delight. 1t is preferred by sOmu
to Hamlet as work of genius. suppose no
book OF this century can compare with it in It's
delicious sweetness, so new, so provoking to the
mind, gratifying it, with SO many and SO solid
thoughts just insghts into life, and manners
and characters, so many good hints for the con-
duet OF life, so many unexpected glimpses into
higher sphere, and never trace of rhetoric or
dizziness. The argument in Meister is the pass
age of a democrat 10 the arlstocracy, using both
words in their best sense. No generous youth
can escape the charm of reality in this book.
that it is highly stimulating to intellect and
courage. Lovers of light reading. those who
look in it for the entertainment they ii nd in
romance, will be disappointed"
Mr.. Emerson compares Gethe's hero, Meister,
with George Sands hero and heroine, Albert and
Consuelo, in the wel-known story OF COnsuelo.
He regrets the lame.and immoral conclusion of
Gethe's Meister. and says:
George Sand in Consueo and its continual
ton, the Countess of Rodelstadt, has sketched
a truer and more digRitied picture. In the prog
ress of the story, the characters OF the hero and
heroine expand at a rate that shlvers the porce-
lain chess table of aristocratic conventions.
They quit the society and habits OF their rank;
they lose their wealth; they become the servants
of great ideas, and of the most generous social
ends; until, at last the hero, who Is the center
and fountain of an association for the rendering
of the noblest benefits to the human race, no
longer answers to his OWE titled name, it sounds
foreign and remote in his ear. Il am only man.
he says; Il breathe and work for man., ana this
in poverty and extreme sacrifices. GGthe's
hero, on the contrary, has so many weaknesses
and impurities, and keeps such bad company,
that the sober English public, when the book
was translated. were disguised. And yet it is
so craInmed with wisdom, with knowledge of the
world, ana with knowledge of laws; The persons
truly and subtly drawn, and with such few
strokes, and not a word too much, the book
mains ever so new and unexhausted that we
must ever let it go it's way and be willing to get
what good from it we can, assured that it has
only begun its office and has millions of readers
yet to serve"