The morning call., 1894-12-09
John Bonner's Entertaining
Talk About Them.
SOME WHO PLAYED THE PARTS.
A Break i'm the Severed Line of
Lectures Before the Chan.
ming Auxiliary.


about the Claiming Auxiliary at the First
Unitarian Church and thrust through the
rent the Laughing mask.
Following the hour and half of enjoy
ment many of the audience crowded about
Mr.. Bonner TO express their sense of graft
fcation. His topic was comedy" and
his treatment of 1t was in complete SYM
patty with the subject. With airy grace
it put on the earliest boots aud spurs of
ancient Athens-eyen paused an instant
to plead an excuse for Nineveh-and led
the gay company of gallants, wits and
rOysterers tro0png down through ell the
years of dramatic literature. from Aristo-
planes to Sardou, touching IN the swift
journey only where the lights blazed
brightest and refusing TO admit stupid
man or minute to the entertainment.
From the old Greek plays ''wbere every
body turns out to be somebody else" TO
the comedy-tragedy of the miracle play
thousand years after the transition was
made in step to where each priest took
different part "as was apparent 10 the
meaDest cOmprehenSiOnS by the name
written on the tail of his robe"
10 the course of the plays SO many of the
wicked were thrown into the mouth of hell
that it constantly needed repairs, and was
source OIL amazing expense.
Ito see the plays"-this was in the six
teenth century-"such crowds filled the
tneater that managers could afford to have
the best talent to write for them. Gradu-
ates of Oxford ana Cambridge abandoned
law and diplomacy To compose plays 4
mania for dramatic authorship broke out
simultaneously at London and Madrid.
In both cities there was an eruption OF
writer's of tragedies, dramas. moralities,
miracle plays, Mosques, pageants, come
dies and farces. Among those who drifted
TO London to seek fortune by authorship
10 the year 1888 was William Shakes
peare."
The lecturer refused to pause long be-
side that name. for she stands ous like a
ant-hlls. Whether you consider the lofty
sublimity of King Lear. Macbeth and
Othello or the romantic poetry of Juliet,
Rosalind and Viola, or the roaring fun of
Sir John Falstaff, Malvolio or Dogberry,
you shall find that no one approaches him.
And yet there were in his time men of
merit who wrote for the stage"
Marlowe. Lely, Middleton, Marston,
Chapman, Rowley, Beaumont and
Fletcher. Ben Jonson, Massnger, Ford,
Webster and Decker, took their cue, said
their jest and gave place TO the next
galaxy. MarlDwe was named as the great
est Of these.
Sir Giles Overreach keeps Massinger and
Ford from being forgotten. although
Philip MaSsinger's name stands on the
burial register as "a stranger" The cur
tain rose and fell on this group between
1880 and 1910.
The conflict between Puritan and Caya-
lier toward the approach OF the latter fig
ure banshed the drama from England and
the lecturer followed it to Spain, where
from time immemorial the theater bad
been favorite amusement" and play
wrghts were counted by the hundreds.
Plays were written by shopkeepers,
shee p-shearers and tailorS; there were
Seventy-six dramatic poets in CASTLE alone
and every taste was accommodated" The
greatest of them of that time Lopez de
Vega wrote 1900 plays. Calderon de la
Barca was named as the only Spanish play
wright of the first rank.
Next came Moliere to France. HE was
an actor like Shakespeare: like Shakes
peare he PLAYED leading parts in his own
plays: ike Shakespeare he married the
wrong woman. The Englishman's active
life as author and actor began when he
was "a and lasted twenty-five years; the
FreDchman's began when he was 81 and
lasted fourteen years. One Of Moliere's
successful pieces. Les Precieuses Ridi-
cules,' was one OF his first, and was writ
ten when be was transforming in the
provinces. lie was not recogn lied as the
foremost writer of comedy in France till
some years later, when he wrote the
'Ecole ies Maris' and the 'Ecole des
Femmes.' which have held the stage for
go years and are as popular today as they
were when first performed. They are
types of true comedy without straining or
extravaganza or unnatural characters or
forced situations; in them common-sense
is set off by wit and framed in sparkling
dialogue. Critics generally con-
slider the 'Tartuffe' and the Nissan
tnrona' MotiaTp's nost narfaat
Those among you who were so fortunate
as to see the great Coquelin in the former
piece Will agree that 1t Is indeed Il master
piece. 1t was written for special pur-
pose-namely, 10 rebuke the hypocrisy of
the blgots of The day, and the Archbishop
OF Paris had it's performance delayed and
avenged himself at the authors death by
refusing him Christian burial. The priest
0vershot tina mark; there never was in
the whole rank of the clergy so hypocriti-
cal villain as Tartuffe. It would have
been better to have laughed at him as
grotesQue exaggeratou."
Moilere died In 1873, when France was
under the shadow Of revolution and Eng
land was breathing the fresh air again
alter the Puritan furnace and comedy re-
vlved IN extravaganza sbape-the swing
back OF the pendulum from the risor that
saw evil in Innocent things TO that which
saw none in those which were really
"ANh6 Nv NidSo VI llttl ever
VINO had no other purpose in life than the
pursuit of lawess gallantry. nor was there
ever society of women in whose minds
modesty, purity, the chastity of the
maiden ana the sacredness Of the mar
rage bed were things TO be scoffed at
Between the death of Shakespeare and the
reopening of the theaters half century
elapsed. Dramatic writer's had actually
forgotten what decent people were like.
mus, the plays which Congreve and his
contemporaries produced on the London
stage would have shocked Shakesp eare.
"Congrere died in 1929. Sheridan pro-
duced The Rivals in 1775. Here was
gap of nearly half a century. during which
few English comedies were written which
survived the Georges. Bright Englishmen
like Fielding. the author of Tom jones'
COlley Cibeer and the Coemans were not
above adapting from Moliere or Lopez de
Vega.
After Sheridan had written the School
for Scandal Goldsmith produced She
Stops to Conquer and Halcroft brought
out the Road TO Ruin Both are still oc-
casionally played. rather, no viewer, to tes-
tify to the managers respect for old times
and old authors than with any hope of
pecuniary profit. In The Rivals Sheri-
dan created three characters, Mrs. Maia-
prop. Bob Acres and Lucius O'Trigger. who