Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1895-06-30

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chrouicls some OF the real succeseee % ~
season. II u . pity that the werd "new
cannot be temporarily banlshed from s.e
Euglish 1anguage-ssntenced. say
seven years transportation. IL mas Do'
come an unmitigatsd nuisance. msss
darkener Of counsel.
We lose all sense OF the reality Of
things In futile discussions az TO whetheF
they are new" or old-the truth oeihs'
In almost every case. that they are neither
or both, Just as you choose to look al ".
But in spite Of Ecc!esiastes. 1 aver anu
maintain that there is ono thing new UNI
der the sun--to wit. the New Grumpy.
The fejuvencscence one might almost say
the renascence OF MIR. Sydney Grundy
Is one OF the most hopeful signs or the
theatrical times. Only few years ago. he
seemed to have lost all ambition-to be IN
capable OF rising higher than Scribe IN
theory, and capable OF sinking lower
than Sims in practice. Even wnen ne
was not simply purveylng for the LONDON
Adephi public he was wasting his taieht
on the trumpery ingenuities and sleigths-
of-hand which passed for the acme OF
technical achievements in their time. pu'
which we have long since recognized to be
mere theatrical thmble-rigging.
Even ~ Fools Paradise and "a
White Lie" able plays both. were VIII
ated by their ingenuity. which was not
IL never is-quite ingenious enough. Then
all of a sudden, In Sunlight and Sha-
dow" Mr.. Grundy threw ingenuity to the
winds, and retold a simple story, win
such STRAIGHTFORWARD literary power
such genuine human feeling as 10 make
II new and delightful 1.-THE New Woman
Is a further move in the same direction.
Here we have an absolutely classic SIM
plicity OF plot-an action which does not
like "a Fools Paradise" depend upon
criminal scheming and counter-scheming'
nor like "a White Lie" upon elaborate
mendacity, nor even. like Sowing the
Wind" upon the amngnorsis 90 use
the ArIstoteian word of a long-lost
child by means Of a strawberry mark
on the left arm. In the new play the pro-
cess of the action depends entirely on the
emotions of the characters. There Is SIM
ply a man between two women VINO love
him. and to whom he IL drawn by dIi-
ferent sides Of his nature. In The first act
the senses carry the day. In the second
act intellect regains the upper hand; In tne
third he realizes that intellect without
sense is Just as unsatisfying as sense
without intellect. and in the fourth act
senses, somewhat chastened MAYBE
finally reassert their sway, as. IN the
theatre they were bound to do. THIS
is of course too definite and diagram
matte n scheme: the one woman Is no
more all sense than the other is all IN
tellect: but IL Is sufficiently near the fact
to show how entirely the action pro-
ceeds from within the characters, and Is
independent of external intrigue, coin
cidence. or misunderstanding. True. there
are Misunderstanding enough in the play.
but they are those MISUNDERSTANDING Oh
our own heart and other peoples, when
underIie half the comedies and tragedies
OF existence.
This is the Age Of Sociology: its cen
trail achievement has been the revelation
Of social laws This preGominance
Of sociology. the restless rapidity Of mo.
dern life, TO the omnipresence OF material
activity, fully account for the special
character Of modern literature. Iitefa-
ture is no longer 'bookish. but practlcai,
social. propagandist II IS fun OF life;
but it is dspersive, analytic, erratic
form Of vitality
So spoke but recently one OF Enslands
greatest OF living thinkers. Mr.. Frederick
Harrison, and If YOU but interpolate the
word dramatic" before literature" you
sum up the modern tendencies OF the
stage. All this regarding that most
worthy man. Henrick Ibsen. whose plays
created such profound sensation In this
country last season. | take II that the
dramatic critic should rather ask how
than why. but in Ibsen's case II is so
difficult 10 restrain from asking why,
that to enter upon a totally different train
of calculations after witnessing or read
ing one OF his plays is but natural. There
is much of the old. stern Hebrew law
eiver in Ibsen, and much tina, is Greek.
The law and the prophets he expounds
after his own peculiar fashion, and he
never fails To emphasize that which has
become a pathological commonplace; the
sins Of the parents will be visited on the
heads OF the children" In their relent-
less march his dramas recall the fatal
ism of the old Greek masters of SORROW
full tragedy. His works are juggernauts,
whose rapid and revolving wheels NOW
down the ideals OF this age. ideals" He
despses the word, and We fad 1t fire.
quently put in the mouths Of his charac-
ters. In "Rosmersholm' Rebecca is
brought face to face with an ideal. and
as IL did not stand the test. she dies. In
Ghosts Mrs. Alving's whole life has
been sacrificed to ideals, the ideal OF wife
~ submission. of motherly duty. Of duty
to herself. Pastor Manders is the incar-
nation OF the old. the capitalization OF
the social and prestly order In Dolls
House" We encounter another struggle
with ideals. and, of course. the usual So
ciai catastrophe. The same is in The
Wila Duck and In ''Hedda Gabler."
Ibsen then, is a powerful preacher on
texts taken from the social life 'of our
day. But with lbsen. thu preacher. the
moralist, we need not concern ourselves
as much as with Ibsen. the artist. Ibsen.
TIE dramhtist. The erratic fantasy that
fickered and famed through Peer Gynt'
has no place in his later serious prose
plays. Even the symbolism 81 THE Lady
from the Sea" reveals but little of that
deep poetic glow which we find in his
early work. All is sober. serious. Ii Is
raining in Norway. From our windows we
look out upon "A gloomy ford. The ram
falls steadily. relentlessly; it heats up
against the wpdOw-panes Ike the soit
purring of cats. There is mist and moist.
Within men and women fight out the
battle of inherited instincts, and the en-
V. onmGnts make a fitting frame 10 this
{ my picture.
fancy, however, that the main ques-
n at issue for the eclectic critic Is 10
ask whether Ibsen's lovely formal sense.
e. Questionable skill as a playwright,
lious ability for character-paint-
~ I'D not be considered worthy
,nsderation. George Saintsbury.
English critic. once wrote
ract about Charles Baudelaire,
Apply poet of Les Fleurs du Nal"
- described the critic who refused
SIX at an etching of Flamengs after
Herrera, because the subject was a group
OF bsbis. But l hate babies" said this
critic, then Mr.. Santsbury pointed out
the beauties Of style aud workmanship in
the picaire We might as well cry aloud
before an lbs n play: But We don't Ike
cancsE social or otherwise. and we
hate 4mily skeletons Of all sorts. Render
untG he hospital what is of the hospi-
tat III in Shakespeare's name, keep the
thci.[e free from hereditary physical