The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-11-07
TEARS, IDLE TEARS.
Andrew Lang on the Art Which Would
Bedew His Iron Cheeks.

Some years ago an artist in Punch
designed scene in the gallery OF
theater \ girl is moved to passion
of tears by the play. Her sister says.
leave off crying; they are only act
ing" and the emotional maiden sobs
out: LET me alone, Can't you see that
l am enjoying myself?' No doubt she
was thoroughly enjoying herself. ana
the question is, Why? What is it Ill
a narrowing scene that at once EFFORTS
the tear of woe and inspires the sense
of pleasure?
No problem on the frontiers of psy-
chology. metaphysics and aesthetics is
more puzzling. Between Aristotle and
Mrs. Rarbauld 0743-192-l libraries
must have been w - the sub
iect. and yet we do i. e.. auch the
wiser Why does rprsu .. oy weep
| ing like a waterfall over - artistic
| representation of one or H.."ther fea-
ture in "the sad. sad pagean of mans
| miserieS:"
The problem is all the more difficult
who enjoys a good cry or who even
feels inclined to cry at all over the
pathetic or the tragic i'll poetry. fiction
or the drama. For one | dislike the
art which tries to draw tear down
| my iron cheeks, and dislike it in pro-
portion to the artists exhibition of his
purpose. |: seems probable that this
| CItr hot ia
| If not for the tragic, is modern phase
and is increasing. One could endure
| and even to some extent enjoy the
artistic stimulation of tears i'll early
| boyhood. but not later. For long one
has been shamcfaced partisan Of the
aesthetic of Charles II. "In my reign
said the king, "all tragedies are to end
we'll" Charles was rather corrupt
ed character. it must be confessed.
and perhaps our modern disrelish for
| pathos and tragedy in the arts is
| proof of deprayity or at least OF the
want of that simplicity which Thucy-
dides justly styles mo small element
in noble nature"
The sailor of Nelson's feet who
climbed down from the gallery to the
stage to stand by and defend virtu
Gus and oppressed heroine had sim
plicity and nobility of character which
we can understand but cannot initiate
In the great heroic ages the heroes OF
| Homer. the paladins of the song OF
Roland. wcpt as freely as the girl in
| Punch Mt hearing a tragic song OF
at any appeal to their deeper emotions
They were brave and hardy men. ruth
less fighters. but Achilles. Priam anC
the girl captives of Achilles weep will
equal zest. unashamed, and doubtless
1.-the audiences of the poets also Grief
and were unashamed of their tears
They were natural. simple, noble. bu
Jean Jacques Rousseau was not nat
ural. simple or noble. yet he wept. he
AYERS, as he walked alone on the rOat
and reflected on the virtues of ce We'll
lard respectable. the old Earl Mari
schal.
Tears were fashionable in the eight
zenith century. artificial as was tina
period, and French poets and philoSo
piers and the British students of Rich
ardson's novels did not soon dixie Hell
en- Of Troy '.have their fill of lamenta
ton" Today the occupants of the gal
lery are more lachrymose, are mucl
more amenable to the pathetic. thar
they who sit in the stalls, and | neve
saw man or woman cry over the mos
moving poem or novel. We seem to b.
losing manly and reputable old pleas
ure How it comes about that the ar
tistic representation of distress give
pleasure Aristotle asked, and answer
ed his own question by his enigmati
statement about 1.-THE purging of tn
passions through pity and terror"
confess that | never understood wha
Aristotle meant. in spite Of all his com
mentators. of whom Henry Butcher i
the latest and the most satisfactory
Unluckily l have forgotten the natur
Of his explanation.-Londo Post.