The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-03-24
DRAMATIC ART.
DR.. Talmsge Gives His Views of
the Theater.
says the Drama, Rightly Directed,
Is n Source of G~Ood-ShOuld BE
Purified, Not Suppressed
Good and Bad Plays.


copyright, 1900, by Lodis Klopsch.1
Washington,
At a time when the whole country
Is in controversy 20 never before con-
corning the theater, and some plays
are being arrested by the police, and
others are being patronized by Chris
tan people, this sermon OF DR.. Tai
mage is of much interest. The text
is l Corinthians vii, 81: "They that
use this world as not abusing it,"
My reason for preaching this dis
course is thatIhave eenkindly invited
by two of the leading newspapers of
this country to inspect and report on
two of the popular plays of the day
to 60 some weeks ago to Chicago and
see the drama "Quo Vadis" and criti-
else it with respect to its moral eff
feet and to go to New York and see
the drama "Ben-Hur" and write my
opinion of it for public use. Instead
of doing that 1 propose in a sermon
to discuss what we shall do with the
dramatic element which God has i'm
planted in many of our natures, not
in 10 or 100 or 1000, but in the vast
majority of the human race. Some
people speak of the drama as though
it were something built up outside
of ourselves by the Congreves and the
Goldsmiths and the S~hakespeares and
the Sheridnns of literature and that
then we attune our tastes to corre-
spond with human inventions. Not
at all. The drama is an echo from the
fa1l,,,-, .-l.Al. T-1 h. 49, afoV -,
Il immortal souls. 1t is seen first
in the domestic circle among the chill
dren three or four years of age play
ing with their dolls anu their cradles
and their carts, seen ten ynars after
in the playhouses of wood, teH years
after in the parlor charades, after
that in the elaborate representations
in the academies of music. Thespis
and Aeschylus and Sophocles and Eu-
ripides merely dramatiZed what was
in the Greek heart. Terence and
Plautus and Seneca merely drama
tized what was in the Roman heart.
Congreve and Farquhar merely dram
atized what was in the English heart.
Racine, Corneille and Alfieri only
u VI WhdO Nuo III Ii iiSiit
and italian heart. Shakespeare only
dramatized what was in the great
worlds heart. The dithyrambic and
classic drama, the sentimental drama
the romantic drama, were merely
echoes of the human soul
1 do not speak Of the drama or
the poetic shelf, nor of the drama
In Aha ,n1nr-hn1ca h1f cnpnk of fhf
dramatic element in your soul an6
mine. We make men responsible fol
it. They are not responsible. They
are responsible for the perversion o.
+, it, but not for the original implanta
ton. God did that work. and l sup
pose He knew what He was abou'
when He made US. We are nearl,
y all moved by the spectacular. WheI
{ on Thanksgiving day we decorate ou-
{ churches with the cotton and the rio,
4 and the apples and the wheat anc
the rye and the oats, our gratitud'
to God is stirred. When on Easte-
+: morning we see written in letters o
flowers the inscription: "He l
d Risen," our emotions are stirred. Ey
u cry parent likes to go to the schoo
4 exhibition with it's Rotations and it
dialogues and it's droll costumes. TIL
torchlight procession of the politica
campaign is merely the dramatiza
ton of principles involved. No intel
ligent man can look in any secula
Il or religious direction without findin
: this dramatic element revealing. ur
rolling, demonstrating itself. Wha
I shall we do with it?
| Shall we suppress it? You car a
Il easily suppress it's Creator. You ma
direct it, you may educate it, you ma
t purify it, you may harness it to multi
j. potent usefulness, and that it is you
duty to do. Just as we cultivate TIL
taste for the beautiful and the sublim
by bird-haunted glen and roisterin
stream and cataracts let down in vi
roar over the messed rocks, and the da
lifting it's banner of victory in the cas-
and then setting everything on fire q
it retreats through the gates of til
west, and the Austerlitz and Waterlo
= of an August thunderstorm blazin
their batteries into a sultry Afternoon
y and the round, glittering tear of
= world wet on the cheek of the night
as in this way we cultivate u taste IL
the beautiful and sublime, so in ever
~ lawful way we are to cultivate the dr.
matte element in our nature, by ever
staccato passage in literature, by al
tithesis and s%ynthesis, by every trag
=. passage in human life.
- Now, I have to tell you not only tn;
-. God has implanted this dramatic ell
ment in our natures, but | have to te
=, you in the Scriptures He cultivates
lie appeals to it, He develops it. Il
not care where you open the Bibl
-, your eye will fall upon a drama. He
-, it is in the book of Judges, the fir tire
~ the vine, the olive tree, the bramble
they all make speeches. Then at Il
close OF the scene there is a coronatio
and the bramble is proclaimed kin
That is a political drama. Here it is
IL the book c. Job: Enter Eliphaz, B
If dad, Zophar, Elihu and Job. The ope
We ing act of the drama, all darkness; t