The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1895-05-29
"AcflNG: An ART"

Henry trv'ng's Championship of His Pro.
fession Before the Royal Institution.
Irving delivered a lecture before
the Royal institution recently which
contained the most scholarly and
thoughtful exposition Of the dra-
matte calling of all the many efforts
previously credited to him. The lets
turo is found in The Nineteenth Gen.
fury.
Even so widely sympathetic
writer as Taino," says Mr.. Irving,
"by inference excludes acting when
he speaks of the five great arts of
poetry, sculpture, painting, architec-
ture and music, and sometimes less
er minds than his use the general
omission to classify acting as among
the higher organized efforts of man
as a means of perpetually assailing
this particular craft and those who
follow it." A man of art, or artist,
was skillful workman in the orig
inal meaning of the idea. The object
of art generally is to initiate or to
conform to model, but a work of
fine" art presupposes intelligence
on the part of the artist.
The lecture ended thus: "The old
professors have counted music
among the arts. Let mo ask them
few questions relating to it. Is the
art confined to the composer, or is it
shared by the interpreter? If the
former, why is it not enough to print
the score and let mon read for them
selves? It would save much labor,
much expense. Wherein, with re-
gard to composition, is the limitation
of art, since counterpoint is science
and melody an inspiration? Was
there no art in the Interpretation of
his score by Paganini, by List, by
Rubinstein, or is all the delicate and
endless variety which an executant
alone can give to pass as an artless
labor?
But if the term artist as applied to
music be not a limitation to the COM
poser, wherein does the interpreter
of written music symbols, who can
convey their meaning through quite
another sense, differ from the actor,
who is also on interpreter of written
symbols, but of moro infinite COM
plexity and with ever varying hid
den depth? If the actors words and
motions 60 forth upon the empty air
artless, what becomes of the sweet
vibrations of the musicians art, and
if tho interpreter of tho composer g
scrip be Oh artist, whosoever may be
tho medium of his creating the nee
cssary vibrations by any work of
mans hands, how much more artist
is the singer who uses that most
complete and capable instrument.
tho human voice? Grant the singer
to be an artist, then where is the
point of difference from the actor,
who also with endless modulations
of voice has to convey the myriad
phases of thought and passion?
Truly the actors work embraces
all the arts. He must first have the
gift or faculty of acting, a power
| which is as much o gift as that of
| power to paint or to mold, and whose
ordered or regulated expression is
the function of art. His sympathy
must then realize to himself the
image in the poets mind and by the
exercise of his art use his natural
powers to the best advantage. His
form and emotions are, in common
with the sculptor's work, graceful
and purposeful; his appearance and
expression, heightened by costume
and pictorial preparation, are in COM
mon with tho work Of the painter
and wrought in certain degree by
the same means and to the same
ends; his speaking is in common
with the efforts of the musician, to
arouse the intelligence by the vibra.
tons and modulations of organized
sound. Was it by chance or inspira.
ton, or out of the experience of a life
among the arts, that the poet Camp.
bell wrote:
show i'll can poetry express
Full many o tone Of thought sublime;
And painting, mute and motionless,
Steals but glance Of time.
"But by tho mighty actor wrought
Illusions perfect triumphs come.
Verse ceases to be airy thought
And sculpture to be dumb.
Acting may be evanescent, it may
work in the media of common ma
ture, it may be mimetic like the 9th
er arts, it may not create, any more
than does the astronomer or the nat.
uralist but 1t can live and can add
to the sum of human knowledge in
the ever varying study of mans ma.
ture by man, and its work can, like
the six out of the seven wonders Of
the world, exist as great memory.
SCOTS Views of Napoleon.
In an autograph letter by Sir Wal
ter Scott, which forms part of col
lection owned by Mr.. j. Henry Rog