The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-11-17

preparing to raise Cain. II reminds you
Of Wright Lorimer's alleged remark after
he had produced The Shepherd King
i've found" he Is reported to have said.
lots OF other good stuff in the Bible TO
dramatize." All such exhibitions are a
relic of the ancient Miracle and Morality
plays OF the Middle Ages; they ave per-
sisted down to the present time. at Coney
Island and similar places, influenced. to
be sure. by electricity and David Belasco.
but in the main living out their lives quite
apart from the great body OF English
drama to which they Once gave birth.
just 80 schoolboys in America. who have
never heard OF Prof. Child's collection of
English and Scottish Ballads, TO this day
sing to a primitive tune a certain indecent
ballad which was probably old in ChauCer's
time and which may be Houndi in the oral
literature OF every European people. These
exhibitions. for all their use OF modern
scenery. are relics Of the Middle Ages;
they are popular a-nachronisms. handed
down from a primitive day and bearing
no more relation to the drama Of the pres
ont than Annie Rooney does TO the music
Of Richard Strauss.
But these Miracle and Morality plays
R'AbAO hhNN NOhg ~ eAN OAg hAAANA AAANO AAAR
lish drama and sank on the other into Coney
Island sid shows achieved a certain lit
erary distinction OF their own, a certain
simple power and pathos that we recently
saw when Miss Matheson played Every
man" But they achieved It not by elabo-
ratio scenery (which indeed was then un-
known. but by beauty Of speech and sim
certify OF feeling. The great images OF
Death and the Eternal. the allegorical
representations Of the human passions
were not attempted on a grand scale that
should vie with the Eternal Himself. but
quantity limited only. and the beholder was
left to All out the picture from his own
imagination with the help Of lovely lam
guage. Death In ~Everyman" wal just a
man with a drum. a skeleton painted in his
gray clothes. Yet how much more potent
was he over the imagination than. say, the
Beelzebub Of THE Christian Pilgrim" with
his property electric lights. his illuminated
sword. his surrounding backdrops n
Eauze curtains and all the rest Of the ma
chinsry. EVeTvnGR roamed through the
world on a bare stage-and the bare stage
became the world. ChTistiGN ~iourneyed
the steep road to the Celestial City through
eleven sets Of elaborate s~Cenery-and they
were just eleven sets Of elaborate scenery
HRd they not been forced 10 challenge COM
parison with the i~ncomparably superior
and vastly different imagery OF Bunyan,
had they but represented generalities OF
the religious imagination instead of specific
scenes from a great prose poem, they would
still have beer only eleven sets Of scenery;
they would still nave failed Of their effect.
IT. H. - k-wsnU e.. 10 that afa Ya
SCENERY cannot do. They were trying to
translate images that dwell on the cloudy
heights and in the sky spaces OF the human
imagination into the narrow, realistic
terms Of the theatre. Words can translate
sometimes and do often suggest these
images. Music can float them NJ on its
harmonies. Blake once caught them and
painted them morning stars singing together.
But the men who paint scenery for Henry
B. Harris and Maurice Campbell cannot
catch them; they cannot be reproduced
by canvas and colored lights in a Broadway
playhouse. At Dreamland. Coney Island,
"A Christian Pilgrim" might very well vie
with -i'reation' as a sample Of an archaic
form ~ primitive play and spectacle
brought up TO date" On Broadway as a
sample OF the developed modern drama
it has little place. One might almost lay
down asa law that the growth and perfection
Of scenic illusion in the theatre is inseparable
with the growth and perfection Of realism
in the drama. Whenever a play begins to
float away from realism. 70 drift into the
mystic regions OF poetry n romance, Of
the supernatural and the allegorical. the
fierce light Of disillusiOn begins to a
upOn the scenery. And when the play a
hoated clear up and away into those regions
Of pure imagination. when its scenes have
beentransportedtot the Valley Of h Shadow
Of Death, to the foo OF the Cross. to the
City Celestial. words alone. and they but
hardly. may avail to transport the be-
holder to such exalted spots. Here the
him is worth more than the mechanics
realization, here the spark hat fires the
train Of suggestion is the only effective IL
Elimination.
Perhaps in Miss Crosman's play the
setting which most nearly realized Bun
vans favor and imagery was that for
The House Beautiful, which had a certain
cleanly brightness. a sweet sunny SIM
plicity. even IL Piefv. Charity and Prudence
were hardly as attractive to look upon as
very like they should be, though per-
sOnal pulchritude has never been a quality
supremacy associated with these estimabie
virtues. But even as you looked upon
them and upon Ckyisti0H sitting in their
midst and heard snatches of that high
talk they INDUCED In together, even as
you beheld the property gOblets n the
basket Of fruit which you we're curious
to test for its reality. the memory Of the
book came over you and everything be-
fore you up there on the stage seemed
mockery and sham. After all. that book
is perfection. you thought. After all. IL
does in its own way. in it's own medium.
something supremacy great in a supremacy
great manner. After all. to slice it up
and boil IL down and toss it out upon the
boards Is wickedness and sacrilege. And
while Miss Crosman's voice droned sing
song from the stage n the sunlight splut-
tered and a bit Of the canvas stone roof
Of the house waved in a draught and the
audience coughed restlessly these were
the words that your inner ear heard like
a solemn accusation:
Thus they discoursed together till late