The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-24
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either TO the drama or to music was ever
devised. 1t has reduced the dramatist to
a hack and has destroyed the musician s
chance of writing anything whatever but
comic opera songs and marches. Serious
music has gone down under the flood OF
buTlesCue as the great actor has beeu
chased off the stage by the low comedian
and the chorus girl. Here was another in
fluence the dawn of whose power Ruskin
saw with aversion and apprehension. The
developments of the last twenty years
prove that he was right. No great hymns
have been written. and the most popular
music has been that of comic operas and
burlesques. Is this a desirable condition
! of things for two great countries? The
whole business is simply an outgrowth of
commercialism. The burlesque costs less
in proportion TO the returns from ii than
good play would cost and that is all
that the theatrical managers think about
One can scarcely doubt that, had some
manager the courage to stage ard present
really fine play or opera. with good
i music and competent actors its success
would fully repay him for the investment;
but such managers are scarce. Here, at
least. The impetuous condemnation of Rus
kin was not out of place. Here is a part
of his Il, seription of the stage burlesGue
of that day:
The pantomime was Ali Bahia and the Forty
Thieves. The forty thieves girls. The forty
thieves had forty companions, who were girls. The
forty thieves and their companions were in some
way mixed up with about four hundred and forty
f.iTies. who were girls. There an Oxford and
Cambridge. in which the Oxford and Cambridge
men were girls . There were in speciality
two thoroughly good pantomime actors, Mr.. W H.
Payne and Mr.. Frederick Payne. There were two
subordinate actors who played subordinately
well, the fore and hind legs of donkey.
He then speaks of child actress who
danced a pas seu attractively:
She did nothing more than any child. well
taught but painlessly, might easily do. She
caricatured no older person-attempted no cur
ious fantastic skill. She was dressed decently
she moved decently-she looked and behaved in
nocently-and she danced her joyful dance with
perfect grace, spirit, sweetness, and selt-iorget
funess And through all the vast theatre. full Of
English fathers and mothers and children, there
WAS not one hand lifted to give her sign of praise
but mine. Presently after this came the forty
thieves who, as ] told you, girls; and,
there being no thieving TO he presently done, and
time hanging heavy on their hands, arms and legs,
these forty thief-girlS proceeded 10 light forty
cigars whereupcn the British public gave them
round OF applause. Whereupon l fell a-think-
ing and saw little more of the piece, except
as an ugly and disturbing dream.
Thir;y-t three years does not seem to
have elevated the burlesque or the audi
ence very much. in England or America.
Was Ruskin wrong in deploring such an
influence? OF what avail is it that thou
sands of earnest students are eager to
study good popular music, If there is none
for them to study? When the profession
al musicians are compelled to write trash,
what are the amateurs to play?
There is much more that is interesting
in this little book, and it will be valuable
in school libraries. New York: Dodd,
Mead & Co Sl25)