The sun., 1904-06-12
NATURALISM IN The DRAMA.
HENRY REC0UE. NOT zOLA, THE
FATHER or THE MOVEMENT.

FATHER or THE MOVEMENT.
Failure of lola 70 Practise what He
Presched---Aneiong struggles Of the
Man VINO Invented tho Dramatic
Formula OF tho Latter Day French
stage-A Caustic Critic Himself.
Emile Zola once wrote In his sweeping
dlotatorial manner: lie theatre sera natura-
liste ou II ne sera pas, but as Henry Becque
said in his mordant style, Zola always
convinced one In his pronunciamentos or;
u was only when he attempted to put his
theories into action that they completely
broke down. Alas realism In the theatre,
after all the gong-sounding OF cafe as
Ssetioians, after the desperate campaigns
OF the one clairvoyant manager In the move
ment, Antoine, Is as dead as the ronan-
tioism Of -Hernani.' After the hainboyant,
the drab-and now they are both relegated
to the limbo Of the tried ed-and-found-want-
ing.
When Zola sat down to pen his famous
call to arms, .Naturalhm on the Stage.'
Antoine was stin In ths future, Dumas hls
and Sardou ruled tho Parsian theatre,
.Unole' saroey manufactured his diverting
tsvilletons and Augier was become classic.
The author Of sL'Assommoir' had like Alex
ander sighed for new worlds to subjugate.
He had won q victory. thanks to Flaubert
and the Do Goncourts. In fiction; 1t remained
for the theatre to provoke his ire. It
still clung obetinately to old fashioned
conventions and refused to be ooeroed
either by Henrietta MnrSchal' or by ths
furious onslaught Of Zola and his oohort
Of writing men.
In the essay referred to. Zola made the
we'll known speech that a piece OF work
will always be q corner Of nature seen
through temperament. He told the truth
when he said that the romantic move
ment was but skirmiah; romantioism,
which corresponds to nothing durable. was
simply restless regret Of the old world
Stendbal and Balzao had created the mod
srn novel. The stage did not move with
tho other arts, though Diderot and Mer-
oier laid down squarely the basis Of the
natlralistio theatre Victor Hugo gave
tho romantic drama its death blow. Scribe
was an ingenious cabinet maker. Sardou
has no life-only movement Dumas the
younger was spoiled by oleverness--a
man OF genius Is not clever, and q man OF
genius IL necessary to establish the natur-
alistio formula in mastery fashion"
Besides, Dumas breaches, always breaches.
emile Auger Is tho real master of the
French stage, the most sincere"-but he did
not know how to disengage himself from
conventions. from stereotyped ideas, from
made-up ideas.
Who then was to be the savior, accord
ing to Zolap And this writer did not under
rate the difficulties Of the task. He knew
that sthe dramatic author was enclosed
In rigid frame, that the solitary
reader tolerates everything, goes where
he Is led, even when he is disgusted; while
the spectators taken en- s1dsae are seized
with prudishness, with frights, with sem
sibilities Of which the author must take no.
tice under pain Of certain fall. But every
thing marches forwardi II the theatre will
submit to Sardou 8 juggling to the theories
and wittioisms Of Dumas, to the sentimental
characters Of Augier. the theatre will be
left In tho onward movement Of oiviliza-
ton. and as Becque said in his "Souvenirs
OF q Dramatic Author the theatre has
reached its end many times, yet somehow II
continues to flourish despite the gloomy
prophecies Of the professors and critical
malcontents. Every season, declared M.
Becque, that same cry rises to heaven
ia fin du tn 6Atre;. and the next season the
same old plays.
However, lola trump sted forth his
opinions. According to him the De Con.
court brothers wsro tho first to put into
motion realistic ideas. sHenrietts Mare
chal' With it, dialogue copied from the
spoken conversation Of contemporary life,
with its various scenes copied boldly from
reality. ways path breaker. And Becque
again interrupts; Edmond do Gonoourt
posed for thirty years a. Kissed author,
spor oette panads d. Henriette Marechal'
Away with tho mechanism Of the polished,
dovetailed maohne-madss play Of Dumas.
Il yearn for Life with Its shiver, Its breath
and its strength; long for life as 1t is
passionatsly deolaimed the simple minded
bourgeois Zola, who then, in default Of
other natslralstio dramatists, turned his
sTherAss Raquin' into a play-and an awful
melodrama 1t was, not without its moments
Of power, but romantic and old fashioned
to q degree.
And this was Zola's punishment. He con-
tumAciously usurped the throne Of realism,
never realizing his lie long that he was
romanticist Of the deepest dye, q follower
sf Hugo, that melodramatio tale teller.
All the while he fanoied himself lneal
descendant Of Balzao and Flaubert. Like
Moses. he saw the promised land, but there
1t ended. Searching ceaselessly with his
Diogenese lantern for dramatist, he never
theless overlooked not only a great one
but the true father Of the latter-day meve-
ment In French dramatic literature, Henry
Becqus What q paradox! Here was the un-
fortunate Beoque patrolling the boule-
wards night and day with plays under his
arm, plays up his sleeve, plays In his hat,
plays at homeland always was he shown
the door. only to reappear at the mana
gefial window. Calm in his superiority,
bis temper untouched by his trials, Beoque
presented the picture Of the true Parisian
man Of genius-witty, ironioal on tho SUBJ
ject OF his misfortunes, and absolutely un-
daunted by refusals He persisted until he
forced his way into the Coincide Franoaise,
despite the Intriguing, the disappointments,
the broken promises and the open hostility
Of Sarcey .. then the reigning ponti6 Of
French dramatic criticism. Jules Claretis
pretended . sympathy that he did not feel,