The Indianapolis journal., 1902-08-17
PLAYS The PEOPLE LIKE
WILLIAM ARCHER RIDICULES IDEA
THAT BRAINS NO LONGER COUNT.
Prosperity of stephen Phillips and A
w. PinerO in LOndOn-SeriOus
Dramas Too Few.

There is nothing in this world worth los
ing ones temper about; but it always costs
me some effort to preserve my habitual
urbanity in face of those summings-up of
the theatrical season in which paragraph
lists think it necessary to indulge during the
last days of July, writes William Archer,
the veteran dramatic critic, in the London
Leader. AS soon as the supply Of actual
news runs short, they are seized with
mania for generalization; and as they sell
dom take the trouble either to make a care
full survey of the acts, or TO see them In
their just proportions, the results are apt
to be disastrous Take the following for
an example-it appeared in a morning
paper of July 26:
For the last two years 1t has been be-
coming abundantly clear that the playhouse
In England is almost entirely place where
persons go for amusement, and that the
playgoers refuse either TO be bothered with
problems or stirred with tragic realism.
iris one of Mr.. Pinero's most intellectual
plays, was not a great financial success.
'Paolo and Francesca broke no records and
since Mrs. Campbells leaving the royalty,
no playhouse has written art on its ban
ners. To-day belongs to the comedy, to the
musical farce and the Merry Wives of
Windsor -
1t would be difficult to compress into as
short space a greater number of false
assumptions, inaccurate observations, and
misleading suggestions. If the
isolated I should probably possess my soul
In patience, and say nothing. But every
summer unfailingly brings forth its crop
1t seems worth while to attempt, for once,
to counteract their depressing influence.
Here is an opportunity, if ever there was
one. to apply the old jingling epigram:
What is true in the paragraph is not new,
and what is new is not true. 1t is quite
true that persons go to the theater for
pleasure. and that the mass of mankind
in England and elsewhere, takes more
pleasure in light and laughable than in
gloomy and austere productions. So far
the last two years" have merely made
what has been abundantly clear to every
reasonable human being for the last two
hundred and two thousand years Even
the Greek trflOgy had its Satyr-play at
tached. The medieval mystery was full
of gross clowning. The EliZabethan trag-
edy seldom lacked comic relief, and was
always eked out with comic interludes.
On the other hand. it has never been held
artistically practically advisable to sup
ply q comedy either with tragic relief''
or with tragic afterpieces. | doubt whether
there a period in the history of
modern Europe when, taking popular en-
tertainments all around. we should not find
the the comic or merely sensational element
intellectual. AT any rate | am very sure
that there is no country in the two hem
ispheres to which, at the present moment,
| this remark might not be applied What
our paragraphist does is to prevent a gem
eral truism 10 the constitution of human
nature into a special discourag agement of all
/ effort in the direction of serious drama in
England.
POETIC DRAMA PROSPERS.
If a survey of the past fifty years had
convinced this philosopher that the English
theatrical public was more frivolous and
less intelligent than the public of any other
great nation, except America. should have
been the last to say him nay That is a
melancholy truth; but that it not what he
tells US. He does not assert the fact of
frivolity, which is, alas, undeniable, but
the tendency towards greater. or. at any
rate, more evident. frivolity which is ques-
tionable in the highest degree. He bases
the assertion on the experience of the past
two years, citing, however. the events Of
one season only. Now these two years
have indeed been years of marked de-
preston, due mainly TO the war. partly TO
/
been absolutely barren years it would have
been rather rash TO draw any general con-
clusion from their barrenness. But what
as matter Of fact, has been their most
characteristic feature? Why. an extraordi-
nary and quite unhOped for revival of
| poetic tragedy, or at any rate of serious
| drama in blank verse. The years in which
"Herod, Ulysses and "PaolO and Fran
| cesca" have attained a success certainly
| unprecedented during the past half century
are chosen as proving an increasing aver
| sion on the part of the public from serious
| drama of any sorti "Herod' and Ulysses"
| philosopher does not mention at all; "Paolo
| and Francesca" he waves aside with the
remark that il 'fbroke no records Broke
| no records forsooth, Is this the critical
| touchstone we are 10 apply 10 drama? Ii
| did not run as long as Our Boys" grant
| ed; but Mr.. Phillipss three plays together
have broken another record-the long and
weary record OF the banshment of poetry
from the English stage. And their material
success has been even more convincing
than their artistic merit There are critics
Cor at any rate there is triune critic) who
Will have. IL that Mr.. Phillips Is no drama
tist: but il is sheer lunacy TO argue that a
man whose works have In two seasons at