The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-28
THE COMING DRAMA
DISCUSSION FOLLOWING CRANES RE-
CENT STAGE CRITICISM.
History May BE Repeating Itself, but
Plays Are No worse than I'm
the Old, Old Days.

Nigh spring history on Mr.. Cranes claims
and show that the popular drama to-day is
not telling any worse stories than it did
a century ago. 1t certainly cloaks the sab
ject of vice in a more sable garb than did
Shakespeare, Sheridan or Moliere. Mr.. Crane
said that vice has never been made so at
t~ractive on our stage as during the last two
years., that plays have dealt with the social
evil in the most bare-faced and open man
ner. that characters delineated therein have
shown no more regard for the seventh COM
mandment than for some unknown guam
tity. that children have sat I'm orchestra
chairs and listened to things that have al
most staggered their elders, and he implies
that the tender years of the young person
have not yet been sufficiently respected.
1t is a trifie difficult to understand Mr..
Cranes motive in this assertion, but the
language is plain enough. AS might be sup
posed it has resulted in a number of an
sWers and a general discussion of the drama
that may result in some benefit before the
subject is laid away. One of the best re-
plies to Mr.. Crane is by A. E. Lancaster,
the joint author with Julian Magnus of
Daughters of Eve" Lancaster's letter in
the New York Herald says:
Mr.. Crane mentions Mr.. Pinero and Mr..
Henry Arthur Jones among those play
Wrlghts who have been .shrewd enough to
take advantage of the pre-existent craze
1or sensationalism.' To this it may be re-
pled, IN the first place, that Mr.. Jones
ana Mr.. Pinero are the two most thought
ful and earnest of English dramatists, who
and, in the second place, that it is desir-
able to know what the plays are against
winch Mr.. Cranes objection is more par
ticuiarly leveied. Since they are compare
lively recent plays, it may be assumed that
they are The Masqueraders' and THE Sec
ond Mrs. Tanqueray.' In The Second Mrs.
IdnQueraY there is not the Sljo1faSt af-
tempt to build Paula into a character so
Iuli OF fascination that her guilt is con-
to deal with the social evil in the most
barefaced and open manner, it may be
answered that it is much better that that
evll should be so dealt with than that it
should be manipulated shamefacedly and
furtlveiy. If anybody has occasion to blush,
II is the guilty. and not those who deal
with guilt for artistic or reforrnatory pur-
poses.
THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.
Mr.. Crane argues as though the repre-
sentation upon the stage of persons who
do not revere the seventh commandment
were in itself an outrage. This depends
greatly upon the manner in which such per-
sons are represented, and this, again, de-
ponds upon the conscience, Judgment and
skill with which playwright and actor do
their work. Mr.. Crane will hardly claim
that Falstaff is a character whom estimable
~ d a AT d lldTu
drinker, a liar, a braggart and a coward.
and he certainly had no more reverence
Tor the seventh commandment than the
by Mr.. Jones and Mr.. Pinero. The creator
or the character did everything possible
to make him fascinating by investing him
Gently conspired with Shakespeare in this
endeavor. Yet Mr.. Crane will not claim
nation in Falstaff his vices themselves are
enchanting, or that the author, the dra-
matist or the actor tried to make them SO.
Further, Mr.. Crane says that the class
or plays to which he alludes solve no prob
lens and teach no lessons. To this it NAV be
replied that the problems underlying them
are so hard to solve that the most powerful
minds extant have not yet been able to do
so. but this is no reason why the endeavor
sons. the only lesson that 'Othello' teaches
is that jealousy Should be avoided even
when It does not go so far as to lead
a suspicious husband to murder an inno-
cent wife. Quite as obvious a lesson is
inculcated by The Second Mrs. Tanqueray'
that a man who marries a woman
whom he knows to have been habituaIly
unchaste. does a very perilous thing, and
that such woman, however sincerely she
repent, can have no well grounded assur-
ance of earthly happiness.
If the mirror is to be held up to nature
J. must ao tb De held neId up 10th to the lark I side as well
the stage another thing to which Mr..
Crane objects), may have a demoralizing
moralizing, and when the observer is wait
ing and anxious for that process to begin.
And in answer to the implication that there
is no father in the land who would touch
upon social evil in discussion with his wife
and daughters, it may be said that if this
for every highly civilized society should
contain at least a few fathers, a few wives,
and a few daughters who, upon proper oc-
casions, would not hesitate to say among
themselves all that ought to be said upon
such a topic, without fear and without re-
prOach."
The above is one of the many letters re-
ceived by the Herald in answer to Mr..
communication. The interest which
expressions of opinion from rep
resentative actors in regard to a matter
to themselves, but to all the theater-going
public. What will the coming drama be
Ike This question was put to several
swers was the following from Richard
Mansfield:
MANSFIELD'S LETTER.
IT'S such an important question to those
who are interested in the drama-and they
be mighty few-that 1 cannot undertake.,
even had 1 the ability, to discuss it has
tily. TIL Lord knows, the drama is of
Importance to a nation, and becomes more
and more SO every day in ratio to the in
creased number of people who are drawn
to the theater. The average American does
not consider the drama of the slightest inn
portance. He looks very much down upon
the theater and the people connected with
it, and he esteems it a place of frivolous
entertainment, where a man may laugh
an hour or so and be an idiot without in
curing the danger of being locked up in
a lunatic asylum. If at one of these idiotic
Entertainments 81 he will pause, suddenly
shut his gaping mouth with a sharp snap
and look about him he will be horrorstruck
at the aspect of those around him and he
win be cured.
Nothing is more debasing thar vulgar
mirth. / know of nothing so lowering, so
coarse and so harmful az the class of
entertainment the people of this and other
countries have been patroniZing during the
past ten years. The disciple of the drama
and the true lover of the drama stands
aghast and in despair before the ruins of
what was once a noble and inspiring edi-
fee. The young priest of the temple wan
ders in darkness, blindly cropping his way
there is hardly a ray of light or a glimmer
of hope-he stretches his arms to the
right and to the left, vainly seeking a sup
port; he finds none
Man fancies that when he goes to wit
ness 1892 and its kin-the farces-such stuff
'Charley's Aunt and all her kith, he is
himself. He is deluded. If he
possess a mind he has not refreshed 1t;
if he has no mind he has acquired none.
If he was sad and in sorrow he will be
sadder: if he was happy and prosperous
will have found nothing to stir his
heart to gentler thoughts for those who
suffer. All the scenery. all the calciums, all
the real stone towers and s~tairways. all the