New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-07-16
AMERICAN LITERATURE And THE STAGE

a
Englishmen are discussing much nowadays
the success of Mr.. Irving. and the significance
of the popularity of his magnificent Shake
spearean revivals. The Earl Of Lytton, who, rs
the son of the author of Rchelieu," and
himself a distinguished man of letters, natur-
ally takes deep interest both in literature
and the stage. is led to ask, in an article in
The Fortnightly Rerieio, for an explanation of
the fact that the English literature OF to-day
and the English stage are not in close alliance.
In almost every other country the stage adds
steadily to the national literature. Dramatic
literature did not end in France with Corneille
and Moliere, nor in Germany with Goethe and
Schiller, nor in Italy with Alferi, nor in Spain
with Calderon. In these countries great writer's
have held the stage, and some still hold 1t |;
and the people look in part to the theatre
for new literature, as III England ana
the United States they look TO the publishers
In England the Poet Laureate has just made
distressing failure as dramatist-which prob
ably does not mean much, however, beyond
the fact that Mr.. Tennyson cannot write plays.
The incident is worldly of mention because it
is an exceptional instance in this generation of
great English writer seeking the stage. There
are many English playwrights, and among
them are men of ability. 1t is also true that
distinguished authors, like Charles Reade and
Wilkie Collins, who are not distnctively play
wrights, have written successfully for the
theatre. The fact remains that the English
stage Of to-day is not literary, and does not
TO any considerable extent, contribute TO lit
erature.
The same is true in even more marked
degree in this country. Few of the present
active generation Of literary men have had
any connection with the theatre. Mr.. HOwells
has written two or three successful plays, and
Mr.. Boxer has Just revived an old one written
many years ago. Mr.. James lately produced a
comedy which was destined for the boards,
but which it was finally thought best to pub
lish in The atlantic Monthly. Here and there
an author of established fame has written u
play, or playwright has produced one
claiming consideration as literary work.
But the large band of new and successful
writer's that have come up since the civil war
have been working mostly in the field Of
printed fiction. There has been a somewhat
abundant crop Of native dramatists, giving
various persons, who did not know that there
had been for many years considerable body
of good dramatic literature In this country, the
impression that American plays were now
being written for the first time. 1t must be
said that the work of the new growth of
dramatists is, for the most part, without any
literary quality whatever. Those who have
won success have done 80, usually, either by q
shrewd and painstaking realism, or by depico-
ing some eccentric type of American character
which has served to carry play of, probably,
low literary grade. 1t cannot be said that
this condition of things exists because there
is no disposition to encourage the native drama.
This has been view which disappointed
dramatists have frequently enlarged upon in
letters to the newspapers. We think an i'm
partial observation will show that the truth is
the other way. Every theatre-goer must have
seen plays here which could never have gained
the stage by their merits as dramatic compo-
sitious, or by their sposession of that deep