The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-30

| NOUN|n
could answer them 90 wisely. A look OF
mvItsfious fun and half piquod vanity
oorne into his eve which Was ct loas 10
| sroiaIn. feel morally csrtaln-though
| 20 this DAY am not sure-that here was a
| case Of his devotion TO preparaton-that
Ia had ARRANGED beforehand what the
o,,..tions should be and what be should
! ansWer. I shall bo very much surprised
| II his little disoourses are not preserved IN
manuscript among his papers, II they are,
they should be published, using for motto
the opening lines Of one OF Lowers AFTER
dinner poems;
ars,. Mr.. chairman. a. all Of you know
With ths impfomptu promised you 'hree "eeAs
ago.
Lat ia afant What We must against our
Joel Something Of temperamental vlgor
no doubt be lacked, and moro OF the splen-
did impetuosity Of artistic daring Those
soaring lines Of Nsrlowe's must have found
little response In his breast;
Our souls whose faculties can comprehend
Ihs vondrous Architecture OF the world
And measure eyeTy wandering planets course
sun elim5iht after knowledge Infinite
And Always moving a. the restlesstpheres'
Bid Ne 70 wear ourselves and never reat
Untn w reach the npest fruit OF ALL
The poetic drama be never essayed' and
even In prose comedy his fsvorite plays
were far from masterpieces. His parts
were few, and all cut from one piece. Long
the dean Of the American stage, and the
richest Of those who had profted by IT,
his devotion TO lie welfare can scarcely
! be commended as qriXotio. Even In bis
| artistic rectitude, which could not brook
Cav, there rs perhaps something OF van
ity. To the end Of time, no doubt, he will
be ensured for refashionipg The Rivals
to make his BOB Acres a star part.
But never was vanity coupled with greater
modesty Of the intellect! He made no pre-
tension 10 being what be was not. He was
| a humorist, not lighting rsfoTmer Having
seen how Booths large ambitions for the
American stage ended In total ruin, he
may we'll have hesitated to risk the fortune
| Of his family. And when he did what, on
academic grounds, was inadmissible, he
confessed II With the utmost frankness
and humor No anecdote in his autobiog-
! raphy IL told with moro relish than that
Of William warren's epigram on his pro-
! duction Of The Rivals'-'and Sheridan
twenty miles away II no had failed,
| however 10 achieve in this performance
| Lno eu0CJ OF CudIhClSI VI VI huiASi -
intended tho wound in his soul would
have been deep and lasting. To the end
he resented deeply, il humorously, the
earnings Of his few adverse critics.
After all, Il not the foible Of perfection
the most venial Of all foibles? Perfection is
made up Of a thousand tribes, said Michael
! Angelo, but perfection is no tribe In
all arts, even the actors, versatility is
! a doubtful virtue, aud Is dangerously apt
! 10 lead It's votaries astray. What shall
/ il profit though an artist conquer a
world II he lose his own soulr Even
! in the present day OF tailor made parts
and star plays Il Ia possible to instance
| EngliSh speaking actors Of great variety
! Of mood and Of mimique who, more
! over, have familiarized the public with far
| greater works Of dramatic art. But has
| any Of them been more deeply human,
more instinctively and inevitably poeticl
A thousand good things in art are OF less
value than one Of supreme perfection.
We are all prone 10 parrot Hamlet's
saying that the play the thing but Shake
| speare used the phrase with no thought Of
our meaning. The drama has as Bacon
would have phrased 1t, an art literary and
| an art histrionio. OF the two, the art literary
| 1t must be said, IL indisputably the greater,
and when IL IL at lie best should not be
! tempered with. But how often Is It at
/ its best3 Certainly not in RIP Van Wrinkle
! And yet, II Shakespeare had written part
Of the quality Of Rip a. he was acted, should
| We not acclaim II ~ a worldwide master
piece Not even ToHehStons and Sly,
| Sir Toby or FdlStdf himself Is more EN-
( phAtically and deeply OWNED, more human
! or psyohologicAny more perfeot As for
| his Bob Aeres Jefferson was the last man
| 10 claim that II was an improvement on
Sheridan, or even 10 justify his treatment
Of Il, a. his own written words bear witness;
but did II not possess a richness Of humor,
a warmth Of latent patbos far beyond the
brilliant but somewhat hard art Of its first
creatori In the art that adds new and
beautiful adventures for the human soul
there IL nothing 70 forgive.
Has Il ever been pointed out how thor
oughly J0hSrson's genius was in sympathy
with the peculiar genius OF the American
peoplsi or the boisterous exaggeration Of
frontie: joeularity II Of course had nothing.
But are We not somewhat tamely provincial
when We fall In with the English opinion
that this 10 our Characteristic vein Of mer-
riment7 To US, at first glance, British
humor seems all compact of clumsy pun
and underlined bubble; but the Briton
knows that over and above this he has
Shakespeare and Sheridan and Gilbert.
The gentleness and refinement the quaint
ness and whimsicalty Of JeHorsons en-
bodlments OF character are thoroughly
distinct from anything known to the Eng
lish stage or to English literature-eXoept
ing possibly Goldsmith and Barrie. whoss
Celtic blood gives them cast Of mind
closely akin 10 that Of the English speaking
peoples in Amsrioa. To find the nearest
analogous 70 the spirit Of Rip and Boo Acres
we shall have 10 90 to Washington Irving,
Curtis and Howells-masters Of humor and
Of character who a. yet have received
scant reco gnition from those who should
val1e thSm most highly. The writer lives
in the printed page, and can wait for the
judgment Of ages TO come. But the actor
periahes forever when his voice and figure
are still Jefferson could not have been
loved more than be has been; but 1t u pos
sibl8 that, severe as we have been In the
II NJ Ur,fNn Nf1wa ~ HE ehiaf