The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-04-26

would be thought of the manager or
actor who would attempt it? =
Yet IbSen and his ilk-those German
problem playwrights, and even the
Spanish English Pinero one of the
cleverest dramatists now living, have
yielded to the temptation to cater to
the morbid tastes, and given the stage
plays that the most bigoted Puritan
is justified in condemning.
Why write whole play around men
tai, moral and physical disease. The
good old Bible told us all this. Those
who are not addicted to the Bible
know it equally as well. A dissecting
room, with every table bearing the
gross flesh and bones of a human body,
is not pleasant spectacle to contem-
plate, though it may be necessary to
a medical student.
Strange, isn't it, that Shakespeare
never saw fit to write play around
diseased nature? Human nature. In
all its possibilities, highest as we'll as
lowest, was his theme. In all proba-
bility the Bard of Avon was as cog
infant of the transmission of the IA
theirs sins to the children as Ibsen
and the rest of us, but he could find
more wholesome basis for his plays
His heroes were men; his heroines
women, in the noblest sense His
Cressida was the only wanton he ever
featured, and she appears in his only
satirical play.
that he has a laudable ambition to
be original, and therefore felt the ne
ceSSlty OF blowing up redolent fields.
hitherto unfarrowed, except in the an
Gent Greek tragedy Realizing, as he
must, that morbid desire to behold
natures monstrosities is prevalent, he
proceeded to create and amplify these
monstrosities.
What is the result, as exemplified in
Ghosts" Simply a drama, the en-
actment of which in public shocks the
timer sensibilities, just as effectually as
the exhibition of the purified body of
Oswald Awnings dead father would
outrage and sicken the physical sens
eS.
Wherefore all this? Is it unsuitable
medium for the exploitation of a no.
BILE art? Is it holding the mirrdr IN
to nature in the sense that Shakes
peare used the word?
That vice is inherited, fully as often
as virtue, the world knows, but WHY
produce play eXemplifying how all
the vices and none of the virtues are
inherited? Why show nothing but IAN
uhWeeued garden, grown to seed"
possessed by nothing save things rank
and gross in nature?"
am aware these are Inquiries ths-
GU upou elnIcS ratner than art. But
mas not art to do with the beautiful
II Shakespeare-for We must revert to
the master for the sublimest examples
Inc dlrest tragedy and the most far
clful comedy, the profoundest tones
and the lightest notes ring true. HUI
mainly is always there, deformed and
shapely, diseased and healthy, but not
rendered unsightly and uninhalable by
the very eXcrescences of vice.
1t is no S1crilpoa To tolyo icc,,o
those who maintain that Ibsen is an
ideal dramatiSt, if Ghosts" he the
basis Of the assertion. AS a drama to
be acted, 1t is open to the objection that
1t is very talky, didactic and therefore
constantly tedious. The lack of acton
Is felt. Pastor Mander's preaching
pals upon you after while, and this
is no reflection on the actor. AS for
the dialogue itself, it is undoubtedly
pungent and responsive, but like some
music OF a dubious character, it reads
better than it sounds.
1t is nothing but a duty to commend
the acting of Mary Shaw in the role of
Mrs. AlVlng. 1t is faithful, intense and
convincing to the utmost degree. She
depicts the agony of a mother with
telling strokes. She reads with thote
rare infections of voice that express
the full significance of the text with
out seeming studied.
Frederick Lewis merits emphatic
praise for his well studied portrayal
or the unfortunate degenorata, Oswald.
1t is vivid enough in the final scene.
In which Oswald passes before the very
eyes OF his doting mother into the state
or idiocy, consequent upon the physical