The sun., 1902-12-14
THEMES OF The DRAMATISTS.
MADNESS on the STAGE AND
.NR NtNSFIELD As ERITGS.
One Great Element In Great Piays-Not .
Week Of Theatrical No, eitics--Julia
NarlOwe In "The Ca,aiier"-Iiaupt.
mann's Lonely Lives" Produced.


The critic. whether dramatic, musical
or literary, has been called a parasite Of
the body artistic IL this cunning COMPARE
son obtains, then the critic has his own
crh'cuhs, his own tiny tribe Of parasites
lie is the bitter bit. the engineer hoist by
his own petard or any other pretty simie
you choose To imagine All this is sug-
gestcd by the quality and quantity Of criti-
cism professional critic receives in his
mail every week. There be those who
spend their hours bent over a magnifying
glass. and when a defect, fancied or real
is discovered, from a cleft innnitive to an
erroneous date, forthwith is the fact dropped
inc our mail box
Some Of these complaints are well
grounded, for who is not fallible? Some
are couched in malice. some conceived in
ignorance; but let the CALLED jade vince.
our patience is unwrung. We would rather
hazard something new on the slippery slopes
oi theory than reState an accepted truth.
Besides, have we not the statistician, like
the bad actor. always with Us?
Among the many letters that have lately
reached u- there are several deserving
l'EIi'S' IOt tAdIuDlt, one gem
tleman demands why we spoke Of Alma
1ademas knowledge Of Greek arch@ol-
ogy. We wrote Greek, We meant Greek.
Greece is to him an open book Knowing
Greece well, Rome could take care Of
itself. He also queried the statement that
julius Cesar was an epileptic. II Shakes
pare himself is not enough as an authority
why there remains Putarch: not to adduce
-.
II Act | scene H. of Julius Casar" Cdscd
thus relates 70 Brutus 'nl case us the de-
tails of Cds1rs attack -Ha fell down in
the market place and foame az mouth,
and was speechless To which Brutus
laconcalv replies: 'Tis very like; he
hath the falling sickness" Now, this same
falling sickness. also called the sacred
sickness because of its attacking inspired
people. synils, men Of genius. sooth savers,
prophe's. IL in our modern speech epilepsy.
CGs1r was an epilaptic. so were Napoleon.
Molere. Petrarch. Peter the Great, Handel.
Mahomet, Swift. Richelieu. Charles V,
Flaubert DostI.wsky and ST Paul The
kinship of genius TO disease say motory
epilepsv-has been denied but Il woui
-, m that the alienists have made ou, a
gooi case. Shakespeare. Of all writer,
mas been the most successful IN Setfing
before us types of genius troubled with
mental nalades. Is Hamlet quite sane?
Is he not afflicted by fohe du dpute? And
hls not the great poet -alienist pictured
with matchless skill every fne shade of
his mania, from halting irresolution. wherein
he even doubts the existence Of the ap-
partition, to homicidal madness? And
Hdmtefs sovereign intelligence is never
quite overthrown. for il it We're his would
b" a case for the madhouse. not for psy-
Geological dissection. Again. Is il not the
analysis Of the mental states of the two
MdcbeMs that makes the tragedy sub
lime? And what Of that browning stud
of royal imag nation wrecked. of the kingly
Lear, with his crazy jester and faithful
follower, Stimulating folly' These may be
supreme studies in morbid pathology,
but are they not Sha kespeare