New-York tribune., 1891-05-03
A MORBID BOOK.
GEORGE MoORES IMPRESSIONS.

GEORGE MOORE'S IMPRESSIONS.
IMPRESSIONS AND OPINIONS. By George Moore.
12mo PIP. $40. Charles scribner's Sons
Mr. George Moore has written several novels upon
realistic theory of his own, and these BOOKS having
brought him certain notoriety, he launches himself
as Ihedged critic in general and assumes his share
of regulating the universe and above ALL of reforming
art and I'm especial dramatic art To show how well
fitted he Is to pose literary critic he opens with
long paper Balzac; paper which mas lhlpreSSeu
US as exhibiting the writer's limitations much more
clearly than the merits Of his subject Mr. MOORE
doubt, admires Balzac very much but le IS haroy
likely to make many converts to his views by con-
Tossing" that he would willingly give up Hamlet,
Macbeth Romeo and Juliet, etc., for the yellow DOORS
This habit Of dealing in the superatve Is spcciai
note Of the author Of a Mummcr's Wife, ana u
produces strange effects. In this instance he mas
little that is critical to say or suggest concerning
Balzac 1t is true that he exalts his hero TO the
skies but he does not give his reasons. HIS language
tcpd IN svinburnan extrava gance at brief intervals
Then he tries his hand at translation with somewhat
surprising results for writer who is unders'oou "
have lived many years in France. lie bogses o'ol
tho popular slang phrase "patteS DOE" ana 'ic
scarcely less common phrase marches du paais' As
70 the first indeed he says that he had always
supposed II to be the equivalent Of crows feet put
finding it in Balzac he is at once impressed BY tie 1ca
that IL means something else. Undoubtedly IL has
more than ono sgnhcaon, but there can be no ques-
ton as Balzacs employment OF II being the popuar
one referred TO previously. Marches du paials
Mr. Moore might have found in plenty OF dictionaries
had lie taken the trouble TO look for It, II also Dc
longs TO the "argot7 Of the people, and means lines
upon the forehead. Balzac is describing an eloeriS
man. and says that he has crowseet at the corner OF
his ewes and lines upon his brow. And this so puz-
zles Mr. Moore that he declares 1t all mixture OF
patols and bad grammar only to be translated con-
iectulally.
We should not have expected George Moore to In
tcrpret Bazac integently, but might have thought
he had the wisdom to refrain the experiment But
II is only the event which shows mems opinions OF
their own capacity, and Mr. Moore's essay on Bazac-
which II seems did not even please hinl-suhccntiy
determines his scope in that direction lie has another
article dealing with the poet Verlaine, whom he PRO
ceed to apotherze Now Vcrlnnc Is in respect OF his
private life vile beyond expression. Ills verse does
not reveal the deep stains that dsgure their creator
They arc certainly ofen beautiful and frequently
strong u there Is in most OF his poems an insincerc
and artificial note Mr. Moore to the contrary notwith
standing and neither in Fagce out OF 1t would ii be
easy to find seconder for the proposition that Nerlanc
is great poet The paper on Turgucnef is
more critical restrained and generally acceptable 1t
Is sympathetic, though not wholly 90, and IL hits the
principal defects of the Russian tolegably we'll. The
idosyncracles Of the critic, however, break out Of
bounds in the article entitled Hummer Worship"
which Is savage attack upon the dramatic pro-
fesson charging them, in effect. with having made
no real ethical progress since the fifteenth and six
tecnth centuries; with being less ro5ucs and
vagabonds and lewd persons than the medieval law
esteemed them; and with the utmost impudence and
hypocrisy, exhibited In their present claim to be
admitted into society ard their bold pretcnce OF
purity.
1t is Of course The English stage that is the target.
of Mr.. Moore's fire. but what he says is of general
application. In his censure Of the kind of plays that
nLd favor nowadays lie will have the Endorsement
of many honest critics, doubt but here the spirit
of the age is under Indictment not this the other
profession 1t Is the actors and actresses themselves
who are accused OF hypocrisy, cant and imposure,
not precisely in so many words but in effect They
are declared to have assumed a virtue which they do
not possess In order to justify their claim to social
privilege They are outspokenly Informed that in
reality they not fit to enter society; that they
Bohemians Pariahs outcasts and Justly 50, be-
the lives they lead degraded All the re-
cent pleas for the stage branded the d.c prae
of well meaning, ignorant fools, deliberate at
tempts to pull wool the eyes of the public.
Perhaps it may be well. in reading this dlatrlbe
which appears here for the first ame as
the author 1t, Mr. Quilter having modified some
passages before il printed in The Universal Re
vicw'-it may be well, say, TO bear in mind the
circumstance that not long Mr.. Moore wrote novel
Intended show forth the lives of actors and actresses,
and that what he therein represented answered faith
fully enough 70 he says in this essay. Now there
is notorious tendency In poor human nature to insist
upon the accuracy OF statement once made The
horse having been declared to be sixteen feet high tic
substitution Of hands" for feet" cannot be permitted
And Just II may possibly be with Mr. Moore. Hav-
ing described actors and actresses In novel as dis
solute shall he admit that he may have been mis-
| taken
Ii is wonder that he does not fall foul of Society
and intimate that its decadence Is manifested In ts
present inclination 10 relax its former rgors on behalf
OF the stage. Perhaps in his carpings at the attempts
OF certain good people 10 bring about an alliance be-
tween the Church and the stage, he is not altogether
without Justification for the fact that the Stage owed
Its origin the Church, suggestive IL may appear to
some has real bearing upon the situation. This
however, is bat a side issue The main subject IL is
which requires 10 be considered. According 70 Mr.
Moore, your actor is rreclamably bad. In the frs,
place he has art. All the talk about II is nonsense
lie is merely mimic, an lmtator. repeater OF the
literary creations Of others-in short, q mumner 70,
these followers of wholly unimportant pursuit 10 call
themselves artists is nsolence on their part But
| TO such heights OF conceit and vanity have these
mummers attained through the injudclous pettng OF
Society. that every Jack OF them must innict
his contemplate memoirs upon suffering public
though IL mattercd In the least what such nsgnf-
cant creatures had done left undone while crawling
between earth and Heaven. The Bancrofts and Mr.
Irving are rather specially pointed at In the course Of