The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-07-06

A~SS'A eS W ah saSAav Aouos WSAt~
known by those to whom he is speak
ing. So stupendous an anachronism
seems impossible OF occurrence, and yet
It Is but one OF many like 1t, to be
found on the pages Of our earliest great
poet. The temptation to work into a
poem or imaginative narrative allu-
siOns t0 more recent times Is almost
Irresistible. There are, indeed. few
imaginative writers who take the trou-
BILE necessary to put themselves back
In the time in which tine tale they are
contriving Is supposed to happen. and.
indeed, no little research Is necessary
In order to avoid such blunders as that
just mentioned OF Chaucer. Bad as this
is. however. one made by Fletcher in
his religio-heroic poem. "Christ's Vic
tory" is worse. for he describes the
tempter as approaching the Redeemer
In the garb OF a monk, telling his beads
and recitng his prayers as he slowly
paced along. The plays of the last
quarter of THE seventeenth century are
full OF such blunders. In one, Dido
speaks to Aeneas of London cockney.
In another Alexander the Great. In
battle with the Persians. laments the
fact that his artillery did not arrive in
time for the engagement.
stage AnaehrOnisns.
The same period presents on the stage
number and variety of anachrorisms
that would make a scholar turn pale.
Blunders of history and geography are
too numerous to be noted. nor did They
probably attract the least attention
from the audience. for II the latter
could tolerate the incongruities in cos
tune that were constantly thrust on
their notice. mistakes In historical mat
ters could be easily overlooked. But
the audiences of those days Were far
from critical: indeed, at even much
later age, the constituting of the stage
characters was a matter in which little
or no attention was paid to antiquity,
The actors wearing what they thought
proper. and the audience being satisfied
to abide by the Judgment of the stage
people in the matter of dress as In
everything else. So when an actor
played the part of Aeneas in cooked
hat and knee breeches, or when Cleo
patra appeared on the stage in enor-
| NOUS hoops, or Coriolanus came in,
dressed in a red coat and plumed he'll
met, when Hannibars army. arrayed
as French soldiers. annihilated the Ro-
mans dressed in a nondescript military
costume, by the help of an old field
piece borrowed from the junk yard for
the evening, TO one felt or seemed to
feel any surprise whatever. In the
| matter of scenery, the playwrights Of
A. ,l-,, I,ft 70 hn IN ~ n A.
| ton of the audience. and so far as COS
tune was concerned, when the people
had been informed that the half dozen
men on the stage represented an army,
nothing more was deemed necessary.
imaginative Artists.
Whether that was the era of ana
chronism or not, 1t is certain that the
artists of that time were as fond OF
blundering as the poets or the drama
lists. But. for that matter. the paint
ers of almost every age have been
given to laundering, and many great
pictures are defaced by the presence
of some grotesque mistake. Even so
great genius as Michael Angelo did
not escape; in his Last Judgment
Charon and his boat appear. a cOmical
mixture Of the pagan and Christian
that edited his own and amused every
subsequent age. Brengeli, the great
Dutch painter, conceived really beau
tiful painting representing the visit
of the Magi. but in carrying it out was
so unfortunate as to dress up one of
| the kings in the costume Of Dutch
cavalier and place in his hand for a
present model of a Dutch man-of-war.
Then there was TintOret, who painted
| a spirited picture of the Israelites gath
ering mama in the wilderness, and. in
order to protect themselves from possi-
BILE foes, carrying blunderbusses of the
| old-time comic-picture PATTERN; and
there was Veronese, who. in the paint
| ing of the marriage at Cana of Galilee,
| introduced half a dozen Banedictine
monks, probably because he had never
seen a marriage where there were not
monks, and did not believe that such
an event could occur without monkish
assistance. The list might be Indefinite
ly extended, for every antique picture
gallery abounds with such absurdities.
and every old European church has
monuments whose details are full of
| anachronisms.