The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-03-29

ing should be the last Of the great poetf
set before the killing scrutiny OF play.
house audience. His poetic dramas are
hopelessly undramatic.
| After reading that sane and splendid
study Of Stopford Brooke's, one realizes
that q great critic and q great Browning
that the illaminativep Criticism Of the late
John Nettleship can be spared or that Mr..
Arthur Symons's Introduction to the
Study OF Browning Is deficient In any OF
the qualities that make for liberal criticism;
ing students one Of the most acute and
| comprehensive studies we know of II never
theless remained for Mr.. Brooke to treat
the dramas as they deserve. And he has
| done so.
| We have had abundant pportunitie
] Of witnessing Browning on the stage. The
late Lawrence Barrett acted In The Blot
| In the Scutcheon:' we have seen STAFFORD
.Solomba's Birthday King Victor and
which is not included among the dramas,
| yet acts better than most OF them-and
other poetic pieces enacted by professionals
and amateurs and always with the same
| capes. We may go further, and at the risk
| of being considered unsympathetic assert
that the best Browning Is not in his plays
He wrote .straiford" for Macready, who
was supported in the performance by Helen
| Faucit and an Indifferent stock company;
later, after Macready endeavored to make
the poet understand the absence OF dramatic
, metal in his work, THE Blot was put on
with Helen Fsuoit and Phelps Feb 4,
day was given at the Haymarket. Mr.
! William Archer has discussed the affair
| Browning's breach with Macready was
never. wholly healed. We print these facts
boards is no new thing. He has been tried
and found wanting not alone because he
Is too big a man to submit to the ham,
pering gives OF dramatic convention but
because he does not paint vital dramatic
portraits. This seems a remarkable speech
Shakespeare. yet 1t Is true-only do not
confound the theatre with poetry. There
are dramatic poets and poetic dramatists.
OF exegists is happily passing The small
army OF faithful expounders Of his gospel
occasionally darkening the air about their
idol with their counsels-has melted away.
as have melted the Wagnerians and the
Ibsenites. Such warlike demonstrations in
front Of the enemy, the Philistines. seem
necessary. though perplexing critical capers
are INDUCED in; anyhow, Browning no
longer requires this sort Of unselfish service.
Homage has its limits. Prejudice. there
taken into the public consciousness: for
many, by no means In the minority, he is a
most precious spiritual possession; a cloud
by day, pillar OF fire by night; always a
guide: Held at arms length he yields to
none In his impairment Of the SOULS secrets;
viewed few feet away on the stage his
psychology melts into the moving air; his
poetry is dissipated by the prosaic environ
ment. his characters transformed to so
many lengths Of India-rubber; flexible at
Actors are usually blamed for a play
wright's failures, though OF late years they
form the forlorn hope which often achieves
victory in the teeth Of disaster There are
have the capacity for enacting Shakespeare
in his most poetic moods, the gift OF surpris-
ing the beautiful and thrilling secrets of
Robert Browning. But they cannot act him.
He himself forbids them. There IL no DRAM
attic action in his dramas.
Whyl Mr.. Stopford Brooke answers
the question definitely Interested as we
are in the problems the English poet acts
forth for us he does not set them in action
viable. The clash lof character is not
dramatic. 1t is poetic, psychologist. in
Prospective, subjective, but not objective.
Browning has not the power to conceive,
build. coordinate and finish a drama
mystery, plant 1t before you in letters Of
fire, q living thing But on the stage7
Indeed, 30 curious 10 his failure that Mr..
Brooke makes q still more curious sugges-
tion-why didn't Robert Browning realize
his failure to write a real drama and realiz-
ing 1t fashion q tremendous poem Of the
problem' Browning spilling the soul Of
Browning!
Blot in the 'Scutcheon" "Colombe's Birth
day - Ia there one that will act? Not one
We have heard indignant protests. The
stage and its artificial conventions have
been blamed; but II Shakespeare rose
superior to them why did not Browning'
the primary technical elements. not tn at
mere technique will make the dramatist,
but there is the A B G Of the stage; neglect
1t and your play will suffer. II Browning
nsd he an mod mott saTe as
a dramatist. Analysis mastered his dra-
matte power; he over-subtilized for
dramatic purposes be it understood. Indeed,
has not his work tendency In direction
runs''
They could both build up characters,
Browning better than Tennyson,' writes
Mr.. Brooke they could both set two people
10 talk together and by their talk reveal
and the action Of many men and women
moving to a plotted end; to paint human
life within the limits OF q chosen subject,
changing and tossing and unconscious OF
its fate, In a town, on a battlefield, in the
forum. In a wild wood, In the kings palace
or a shepherds farm, and to imagine this
upon the stage so that nothing done or said
should be unmotived, unrelated to the end,
or unnatural-of that they were quite in
capable. and Browning more incapable than
Tennyson.
As II was with Browning 90 is II with
Swinburne. Not Coleridge. not Byron,
not Scott, nor Shelley wrote good acting
dramas Yet we would not care TO lose the
dramatic poems Of At least two Of them.
And II Is the same with Browning. What
Joy sPippa Passes affords the reader, as IN
Pippa herself passed under his window
carolling the years at the spring. We
find Mr. Swinburne In one OF his character
istic moods announcing those who are
foolish enough TO believe that the Shakes |
pesre plays are meant to be acted. He |
writes: Every change In the text Of Ham, |
let made by Shakespeare himself-shas |
impaired it's fitness for the stage and in |
creased its value for the closet In exact |
and perfect proportion. $50 Even In |
Shakespeare time the actors threw out |
his additions: they throw out these very |
same additions In our own Mr.. Swim |
burne then quotes the excision Of the so
liloquy on reason and resolution as q case