New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-18

are many passage In the PLAYS OF Shakespeare tnat
have to be cut, and always are cut, when those
pays are acted. You have no more right TO insult
people In the theatre. by vulgar conduct and Ian
suase and by the obtruson of dirty subjects. than
you nave thus to insult them In the drawing room
The divine Shakespeare may not have plotted a
Inc, but his admiring friend Ben Jonson was abb
solutely right in the opinion that he would have
shown better judgment II he had olotted thou
sand. 1t was the weil-bred custom of Joseph JEFF
terson and Augustin DAILY, whenever they produced
the comedies OF Sheridan to cut out every OBJ
tectionabe woodland that custom is approved
equally by good judgment and good taste. When
THE School for Scandal has been judiciously
edited. its public presentation can give no
offence. "Othello" Is. technically. the best
play in existence. and there Is offence
in It, the stage. when It has been suitably cut.
and when It is performed by great actors and in
the solemn spirit beftting tragedy tremendous,
so terrible, sublime. Neither in ''Otheo' nor
in any other play by Shakespeare is there at
tempt at viy1section of disease-though there are
several of his plays (deasure for Measure being
one of them). which ought never to be acted,-for
the sufficient that they obnoxious IN
subject in of their Details and consequent
~ give nothing but pain Objection TO the tainted
drama is not made on the fastidious ground Of a
squeanlisl4 dread of contemplating tine serious
phases Of human conduct long those "seri-
GUS phases neither putrid obscene. Many
plays there are, dealing with love and sip and sor-
row. that are welcome, and that always bene-
fetal. Faust Qn the expert acting arrangement
made by w. G. Wills which is the best, for theatr-
cal purposes, made), tells, without les
son. the most beautiful and most pathetto love
story that ever told; and It did anything
but good. The objection Is to filth and fustian,
hypocrisy and rot This Is the twentieth century,
not the sxteenth.-and beauty. purity. refinement
geAtleness and grace the proper characteristics
Of culture. art. and social intercourse. among a
people claiming to be. and not without right, the
sler Of all the ages, IN the foremost files of time
1T is curious fact" says THE ProVl-
dence Journal that persons who applaud farces
that make sport Of morality will rebuke with intol-
Grant zeal the drauiatst who illustrates the world
old fact that the wages OF sin is death" Exactly
But it is q still more remarkable fact that re-
spectacle journal will not hesitate. in its vain and
feeble endeavor to support bad cause, to descend
TO insinuation and Misrepresentation. The
truth is (and The Providence Journal" knows It,
1t knows anything about these matters). that The
New York Tribune and 1.-The venerable and expert
enced" person now writing (the person named and
aspersed) have, many times, and in most explicit
language, condemned '"farces that make sport OF
morality and thereby have incurred much AMI
mostly and elected much censure-some OF 1t from
the addle brains Of sucking coegians. occupied IN
cutting their teeth on the coral of journalism. II
is curious fact furthernore,-or. rather. IL would
be curious. but for knowledge Of the infinite pos
sibilities Of human stupidty-that belize in dra-
matfc art as means to the mnistraion OF beauty
and the diffusion os happiness should be miscon-
strued and isrepresented as injustice to the pres
! ent, because of idolatry of the past. Upon that
calumny. and upon the total ignorance which II
discloses to tho public career OF writer who
for little more than half a century, and in this
paper for fory-one years, has recognized and cele
that has appeared, comment would be waste OF
! time.