Arizona republican., 1903-01-02

in some English library; but such, by MT. Drew S iberality, is now the. case. The United States, moreover. is not rich | in collections of theatrical literature and MT. Loves books will be of far greater proportiCnate value in thIs country than in England to such of us as are interested in the fascinating his
 tory Of the old time stage-its great and
 little plays and players; the friendly
 or hostile criticism of dead and gone
 generations of theatrical reviewers; its
 Bohemian friendships; and its inter minable dissensions and jealousies.
 In all, there are about 5CO volumes In : MT. Drew's gift, dating, for the mosc part from the late seventeenth, the eighteenth. and the early nineteenth
 century. when so many contemporary men Of Ietters-Addison, Steele, Pope,
 Johnson. and, later, Byron-not oniy wrote about the stage but had more O. 1 less successful ambitions, aside from their better known writings, of becom- 1 ing dramatists themselves. Roughly 1 speaking the collection. now on the way 1 from London to the Harvard library in : Cambridge. consists of histories of tie English stage at various periods; me ! moirs. biographies and autobiographies ] of more or less famous players. partIcu- { larly of the late seventeenth and early . eighteenth century, where Mir. Lowe ] was at his best as a chronicler and his ] torian: pamphlets and books dealing with the management Cf the various . theaters and with theatrical controver- 1 sies in general: and, finally, dramatic
 criticism. pure and simple, of various | degrees of nerit-more often, from the modern standpoint, about as bad as can easily be imagined. That is to say. Mir. Loves books composed distinctly a theatrical rather than a dramatic li- brary-a library Of fact and curren, rumor about the theatrical profession
 rather than q library of plays.
 The whole history of the English stage is fully covered by the editions or 1 the better known histories-tne most ! elaborate and authoritative of which, by the way, is rather curiousIy. the work of a clergyman, Rev. John Ge- nest who wrote when the stage was not particularly q matter of enComIum [ iH the English pulpit. For the history of particular times. there is John DCwness "Roscius Angiicanus." pub
 lished in 17OS, and Gt once one or the ! rsrest Of theatrical volumes-ralmost 1 priceless Mr. Lowe called it-and one ] of the most valuable accounts n ex- l istenCe of the Restoration stage, as well as practically the sole record ot [ the gloomy. stage-hating times under ! CIomweus Puritan proteCtoraJe. Like
 the traditional pTOmpter in every ag".
 Downes was an excellent gossip, and
 his book is valuable for it's gossip about ! the period in which the English drama
 took definite form, and when suCn men
 as Hart, ShGkespeare's grandnephew, | whom Miss Marlowe not long ago in-
 trOduced as the hero of a pleasant little
 play, and, later, Betterton, were the great luminaries Of the London stage. | Passing over sets of old theatrical i magazines-from Sir Richard Steele's i ''Theater'' to Clement ScOtt's periOdica:
 of the same name-one reaches perhaps
 the most interesting part of the collec-
 tiOu; that is, the attacks and derenses
 of the tEeater as an institution, or c-
 the plays and players themselves, be-
 ginning well before the time when
 ChUTchilIs "ROsciad" set the whole i theatrical world of Garricks day in an
 upioar, with the exception of Garrick
 himself whom the author apparently
 greatly admired. As editor Of Cibber's
 Apology" MT. Lowe. naturally. had
 iiALt IT ll-eiltl Acii LIdlli6 LllEL tlliEI- : taining and amusing volume. Pope ] called Cibber the king of the dunces'' and made him the hero of his Dun ciad," but Colley was not only a clever actor but a clever man-barring mos,
 of his poetry-and his books of theat- Iical recollections are quite the best ] Of the kind ever produced in the Eng | fish language. Again. there are pamph- ! lots h-- ha fira1a-s To. the wits of Queen Anne's time would ! have us think a fool but whose writ ! ings are now recognized as an impor- tant factor in the development of Eng fish criticism; memoirs and DiDlio- graphies of players, from such well remembered figures as Garrick and Peg WCfington-''W-f -gt-n'' as the name SO often appears in the numerous attacks made upon her personal char acter-down to Astley, of "Astley's
 Circus, ''Or pocr John Dlcastrc,of whom MT. Lowe could find nothing more to say than: An actor. I do not know
 when he died" Finally there are a host of books dealing with little known phases of the stage, as for example the Bristol The ater'-G bitter attack on the stage Tn general, printed in 1766 and written ln rhyme for which the writer thus apol- cgize5: The author would have cno- sen to publish his sentiments on this ! important subject in plain prose; but 1 for this single reason, that many sooner peruse sentiments conveyed in poetry, and longer retain them" Tn this class come books like the narrative written
 by herself, of the picturesque and ec- centric life of the youngest daughte-
 ot Collay Cibber; or the rare volumes O.
 Tate Wilkinson, one time manager or the York Circuit, in one Of which IS 1 the motto: If I had held my PEN but half as well as l have held my BOTTLE-what a charming hand should have wrote by nowr' "Wnkin-
 sons two books" " said Mir. Lowe, ''arc
 two of the scarcest, most valuable the
 atrical treasures
 Mir. Drew's gift strengthens the liar
 ward library in d department in which
 more and more interest is being taken every year. but in which, like every
 other American public library. 1t has
 previously been deficient It's chies
 treasure, indeed. in this line. had been