The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-12-15

critical or historic interest"
These are hard words, but who shall say
they are not true The greater merit Of
Shakespeare entities him TO the greater
popularity, bat that his works alone should
be popular of the clRssics OF tho English
drama certainly shows that IL Ia not on
their merits that they draw. This II quite
a. true Of America as IL IL Of England The
atrOoiOus Ben Greet perSOrmRnOesOf Shake
speare attracted hundreds Of people In this
country who soArColy ever wont TO the
theatre on other occasions, who knew
nothing Of the art OF acting or Of tho drama
and who affected a very great pleasure
and upliHt from these false and feeble
misrepresentation Of the Bard. Try Mar
lowe or Webster on them INC zoe how
quickly they would stay at hOmel
Good revivals OF Shakespeare are never
to DO Condemned or discouraged. But 20
argue from the attention they attract q
critical or historical or artistic sense In the
masses is utterly foolish. IL must first be
shown that they can be made to cad to Suo-
oessful rsvivals Of other plays In the olasaiO
English repertoire.
But IL 10 ON the great Fritish public
that BOrsa 10 perhaps most interesting, n
most illuminating for American readers. for
his words hit us here. with a little adaptation
quite as hard as they hit in London. He
came to London, he says, a stranger. He
hal no knowledge Of the people, the country;
he had few friends. He was an alien, CON-
sumed with curiosity, filed with q desire
to sympathize. TO understand. The great,
fiat, foggy, m~onotonous, whirling roar
OF London at once bewildered and fas-
! cinated him. He saw life in endless pro-
cession rolling past; he saw unlimited ugli-
ness, that yet somehow struck out flashes
Of beauty in unexpected places. And he
wanted to know this life, to enter into its
spirit, manifestly so different from the life
of his sunny Italy, under its blue and lazy
sky. SO he went to the theatres, night after
night he went to the theatres. Poor mani
1t was little enough he learned therel
For" says he, instead Of seeing repro
duced there-as l had battered myself |
should do-the characters, the specific
types, the passions and manner Of the
country, / saw there only old scenic tricks
which were long familiar to me-sensa-
tiOnal intriRues, impossible situations, men
and women who could have been neither
English nor French nor Italian. IL all
appeared to me hammered, false, senti-
mental, melodramatic, without any accent
OF truth, without any touch OF original color,
without a single real sensation. And after
an act or two of such plays as these 1 ex-
perienced an irresistible impulse to escape
from that artificial atmosphere, to get out
into the strickland to breathe sgainl"
Well, would he fare better in New York,
do you suppose? How many OF US here
who nave not so greatly his desire TO see
life in our pIayhOuses because we are native
to that life, yet nave experienced this same
.~.. - -Asao,nIsk - h. Iaacrsho. khGg .aro
desire to get out into the streets and breathe
again, il it is only the dust filed, germ
laden air which whirls around the Times
Building2 The other evening, with his
chapter in mind, 1 strolled along the Alley
and dropped into various theatres. M
l must admit that my most definite sensa-
ton was a renewed admiration for David
Belascol At least in his two theatres he
is giving us drama with the outer sem
blance Of reality, OF truth to American life.
And in the character of General Warren and
in "A Grand Army Man he il giving us
very much more than outer reality. The
Thief" and The Morals Of Marcus" are
foreign plays. @Tom Jones" and The
Merry Widow" chiefly Illustrate American
styles and achievement by their difference.
The Chorus Lady vital and realistic, II
exaggerated for two acts. descends in the
last half to puerility. At the Lyric NOvelli
was acting to empty benches, showing that
even DIR. Borsa's cOuntrymen are not so
appreciative as they might bel AZ the
Broadway tawdry melodrama fiourished.
appealing TO the primitive alteration Of gun
powder and noise. At the Casino vulgarity
reigned supreme. At the Knickerbocker
George NJ. COhan's play did this at least
il reflected faithfully enough the national
love OF racy slang. II also, however. re-
fiected the public federation OF musical
rubbish and cheap. impossible and vulgar
melodrama. Lew Fields was picking out
a waiter when l arrived at the Herald
Square. The audience was convulsed with
mirth. The fun was obvious, and, the
Lord knows, unintellectual. But it was
surely fun, and there Mr.. Borsa could have
found a Just reflection Of one phase Of
American humor that we need not be
ashamed Of. But when, a little later, a
harsh male voice sang a song about the
cocktail, while other male voices joined in
the chorus tif the cocktail were no better
blended il is TO be hoped nobody drank it'll
and presently a female emerged from the
floor bearing aloft a bow with a red light
in it, BOWL and female being supposed to
represent the bow and stem Of a cocktail
glass and the red light the cherry, l won
dered What DIR Borsa would have thought.
II we are TO exalt the cocktail to the dignity
Of a national drink. cannot we give it a
song that is worth singing? There are
drinking songs in the world which would
tempt a Vice-President of the water wagon.
But that song in The Girl Behind the Coun-
ter" would drive George Kessler to join
the W. &. T. U. Ii is absolutely unre-
deemed. II is as fiat as-as a cocktail: as
vulgar as a barroOm.
At the Bijou NszimOva. n Russian. was
playing Ibsen. a NOrwegian-nOthing To
earn there. At the Savoy -Ihe Man Of
tn Hour" would interest the for igner.
II would seem TO lin a crude play. but
a vital one. II he were wise in this worlds
ways he would not accept it greatly as
reality, hut he would argue from the length
Of its run that it has some truth about il,
and perhaps he would come to the just
conclusion that in it's outcome. in its triumph
for decency in politics. IL appeals To an easy
optimism in the pub ic and wins their
sympathies. Yes. he would learn a little
something bout America from that.
He would learn atill mora from aTha