Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-04-19

70 be left sleeping IN the crib while the
mother and wife marches herself OF in
high dudgeon because after all her hus-
nand has regarded her as but little more
tnan doll and q playthingr am not SO
| sure. that she has shown herself to be
much else before that critical moment.
though, to DO sure. her husband
- proyokingly selfish and small.
stu, are not we, rs well as the husband,
taken bit by surprise at the terrible little
woman that Is so suddenly developed. de-
| manding a perfect understanding and
new life based upon Truth? Truth Is the
one watchword upon which all losen's
plots depend. Is there sham anywhere!
has either side in contract-and mar
rage seems 10 be here nothing else--con:
eealed or falsified sughtI In the name OF
! Truth let this be published though family
peace.and the household be destroyed: In
what must this result logically i made an
absolute dogma without mobilization,
without fexibihty?
The Lady from he Sea is a mermaid-like
creature. The element Of mysticism, sug-
gested in oil others, in this play .predomi-
mates. Elllda the second wife OF tolera-
DIV respectable doctor with family OF
daughters, has a strange yearning and
longing for the sea, upon which she Is con-
tlnually gazing and in which she is con-
stantly bathing, She imagines herself IN
n manner welded to il through having
once met sailor who exercised tempo
rerlly strange fascination over her, plight
ed her with ring. and then cast II INTO
the sea as pledge of her betrothal. he
sails away, has never returned despite his
| promise or threat, and now after marriage
the old fascination returns and the oldfeel-
| ing reviyes that she belongs not to this man,
| but TO another. It is simply a soul-drama,
| depicting the struggle Of human soul.
the beatings of an imprisoned bird against
the bars Of her cage, and though the beat
| ing finally ceases, and when given perfect
/ freedom to act, she voluntarily elects TO
remain, still, despite the fact that the cur
tain at this point falls on the last act. we
| have the feeling that the bird, already
| wearied and wounded by the incessant
beatings and struggles, soon grows sick,
wastes away, and death that falls upon her
like the shadows creeping over the tace or
| the sea. The drama is unique in possessing
| less action, less movement, IN being less
adapted TO the settings Of the stage-per-
haps, an indication of the authors adj
yancing age and increasing retiectiveness.
| The very latest play, Hedd1 GGbter, II one
may trust the reviews, seems altogether
different from its immediate predecessors,
and IS certainly more disagreeable. A
society lady Is taken as the subject, in
| tense, of course. like all the other female
creations, married, but still besieged by
wooers Her great weakness apparently
! is for pistol, which she recommends to
her friends for use. and by means of which
she has planned for herself. also, to 90
of beautifully"
One necessarily asks ones self: Are these
intended as types, or are they individuals
which the dramatist has discovered here
and there and dished up for the public de-
location? We are carried here many
steps beyond the school of naturalism,
beyond the study of nature, where, 1t Is
claimed. Just those details add points are
| emphasized which appeal to our common
humanity. That may be, as it has beet,
the basis of a true aud great art in letters
as in painting, the art as revealed in the
portraits of Holbein and Velasquez and
Rembrandt. and in the teachings OF that
modern French portrait-painter, Carolui
Duran. But here we have left this point
far behind. The disagreeably tragic, the
viciously and scandalously tragic, death
as a refuge from disgrace and crime
tragedy based on the weaknesses
of humankind-is this whittier mod
ern realism is carrying. US? Nc
heroic mould, no elevated elements
such as even the picturesque and Detoe-llke
highwaymen possess. that even the glib
beted thief often calls up-not even this
mark of grandeur, of success-but that
which Is base and low and mean and igno-
bic and degrading. The contemplation OF
struggling soul, even if it must perish
possesses elements of heroism and grand
eur This is Shakespeare's view of tragedy
as we see it in Hamlet, and G@tbe's concep
ton as portrayed in Faust With that the
human mind. the human instincts, the
human soul must sympathize deeply: Bu'
here we are offered the details OF charac-
ters which lack sympathy because they Sc
often lack elevation.
In reading and seeing these plays we can
not help being fascinated, repeat; we can
not deny the art, the skill, the cleyernes:
with which the figures are drawn and by
means of which they stand out so clearly
defined. But hoping, trusting, aspiring a
we do. and believing that human nature
however weak, attains to some good ant
excellence, we do deny that they enlis