The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-04-28
OVER-EXPLANATION.
BY JULIAN HAWTHORNE.


 in New York I went one evening to the performance of Wills adaptation of the "Vicar of Wakefield"-"Olivia." i" I remember seeing this play when it was just brought out, some ten years ago. It is as different now from what it was then as the play is and was diff ferent from the novel. The character of the Vtcar was not naturally adapt ed to Irving, who is deficient in the sort of benign gentleness that is of the nature of the venerable man of God ; and his early attempts to personate it were not satisfactory. But he is a thoughtful and industrious student, as we'll as an actor, and during these ten years his Vtcdr has ripened into & nearly perfect performance. AS for Ellen Terry's OliUia, there is no need to speak of it. If the real Olicia was not like that-and of course she was not in the least like it-then so much for the real Olicta. As I sat and looked at the two players, I found myself ever and anon forgetting that they were players, and not an actual English vicar and his daughter. For an old play-goer, that is something to remember. And ever and anon the thought would come, "Nothing could be SO good as this OltUta.!" When, be- hold! Irving would compel the ad- mission, "Yes, the jtcdf is as good v' Altogether it was charming experi- ence.
 But this is by the way. What wish especially to refer to is the manner in which the play was put upon the stage-the scenery and access sories. The first scene was the exte- rior of the Vtcar's house, with view over broad English vale, with sunset effects. As simple picture, it was worthy to hang in any gallery. But it was more than picture. The house appeared to be real house. The gar den was a real garden. The fence. and gate were palpable and genuine gate and fence. There was an apple tree, covered with real apples, for the peo- pie in the play shook them down from the boughs, and picked and ate them. The interior of the vicarage, which formed the scene of the next act, was no less precise and unimpeachable 1; and the old inn, where the lovers had taken refuge, was not behind the oth- CTS. It was all just like the real thing nay, it was the real thing-almost And yet, it was not quite the real thing after all; not because l, being sophisticated, knew that the timbers and plaster, the landscapes and moon- light, were made of painted canvas, lime-light, etc.; but because l could not help knowing, in the back part of my consciousness, that I was in the Star theatre, in such row and chair of the parquette-that there was row of footlights between me and the performers that the whole affair was taking place on stage, with curtain and a behind the-scenes; that l was one of a crowd of couple thousand we'll dressed and attentive New York CTS, come of malice prepense to see and hear this thing. I was, say, conscious or sub-conscious of these facts, and they were manifestly incompatible with the realism of MT. Irving's ef- fects. The realism was perfect as far as it went but, as it had to stop somewhere-say at the orchestra-it was open to the objection of not being realism at all. If we have real apples on an apple tree, why shall we not have a real eighteenth, century, real England, real lapse of so many days between the wooing and the winning2 MT. Irving would, perhaps, say that such things must be left to the imag- ination of the spectator. True; but where shall we draw the line? Why should our imagination be depended on for this, and not for that? What is the limit? A play is essentially a piece of make believe. Should this make believe be carried as far as is practically and mechanically possible, or-not?
 Sometime after this event, I read in the papers that MT. Irving had very generously taken his company up to West Point, and had there performed a play C'sLouis XI," I think for the benefit of the cadets. But the only available stage was very small, and 1t was impossible to set up the scenery on it. Accordingly, the play was acted without any scenery at all, ex- cept a background of curtains and drapery. In spite of this draw back, the cadets were enraptured, and it was a great success.
 But it seemed to me that I would rathr have been present at that par ticular performance than at any other ever given by MT. Irving. Great actors and no scenery-it would have been worth seeing. Not on account of the mere novelty of the thing, which