Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-03-21

Ut the enQ or the present season Tor an extended engagement at the Drury Lane theater.
 Fl:
 David Warfield will go to London next fall for an extended engage ment. He is to have new play, and will also present his repertoire The play by Jerome K. Jerome, in which he was to appear at the end of this season. has not yet been finished.
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 Laurence Irving has suggested a tribute to Count Leo TOlstoi in the nature of a pilgrimage of English men of high standing to Tolstois s home. The party will travel on foot, or third class on the railways, and lodge with the people along the route.
 ... .... :II:
 In dispatch to his partner, Dan iel E. Edwards. of Reno Neb, Nat c. Goodwin announces that he has cancelled his further engagements for the year On the stage, and after playing three weeks at Chicago, will go to Reno to devote all his attention to his mining interests.
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 At meeting of the American Playgoers last Sunday night Father John Talbot Smith spoke upon the subject of Irish Drama" John B. Yeats, the father of William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet, also spoke at considerable length on the Irish drama. Mir and Mrs w. G. Fay, re- gently seen at the Savoy theater and two of the principal members of the Dublin Irish National theater, were present as guests of honor.
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 Members of the company playing "A Millionaire's Revenge" and the local house manager of the Columbia theater, Newark, N. J., were arrested on March 9 on charge of present. ing a play dangerous to public morals. They were held for the grand jury. The members were John J. Pearsall, manager of the company; Harold Vossburg, Louis E. Miller, Gay Rhea and George Jacobs, manager of the Columbia theater The play is now in its second season, and has been presented all over the east.
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 Sir William Davenant who, accord ing to rumor was a natural son of Shakespeare, rather than godson of hy.o, te,f day by his mother with a message to Shakespeare. While on the road to Oxford, he was aecosted by col lege professor, whose. acquaintance with the affairs of Mrs Davenant, keeper of the Crown Inn at Oxford, was unusually extensive He asked young Davenant whither he was going in such haste. 'To my god father Shakespeare, replied the lad, proudly. "Fie, my boy" replied the collegian, why are you so super f1uous? Have you not learned yet that you should not use the name of God in vain?"
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 The first American tragedy was "Gustavus Vasa," written by Benja- min Coleman while he was studying at Harvard college in colonial days It was produced at Harvard con- mencement. but appears not to have made pronounced impression. Cole man became doctor of divinity and furnished the biographies of many illustrious men of the colonies be- sides publishing more than one hun dred sermons. He settled at Boston, and history as far as known, does not record that he followed up his first tragedy with another. The first 1 English tragedy was "Ferrex and | Porrex, the work of Sackville. Lord l Buckhurst the first Earl of Dorset, l and his coadjutor, Thomas Norton. i The tragedy was presented before | the queen in 1881 by the gentlemen | of the inner temple, and here. for ! the first time on the stage. blank 1 verse was recited. Each act was pre- l ceded by dumb show, prefiguring ! the incidents of the acts, and the { scenic investiture was of the simplest { description.
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 Gay. author of "The Beggar's | Opera" received s2,000 for the first l work of that name. and s5.500 for . the second. He was negligent and a : bad manager. The Duke of Queens bury took charge of his money and doled 1t out to him according to his needs so that he never came to know want. Ben Johnson, after writing numerous brilliant and sue cessful plays, was reduced to the . direst want. He lived in an ally ana i. a short time before his death, the | king. James I. sent him $50 to re- | lieve his necessities. The German . vondel, lived in great !. despite the great success of his tragedies. many of which still | live. He died at ninety years of age. and his coffin was carried to the I tomb by fourteen poets. all as poor as himself. The life of Phillip Mas singer. the immediate successor of | and one of the best f known dramatists of his age. was a succession of clouds. shadows and I darkness. He died in the greatest poverty and the record of his inter- ment recited merely. March 20. 1s3s-40. buried Phillip Massinger, a stranger"
 :H: ! Missing in playhouses had its ori- gin in Paris in 1880 on the occasion of the presentation of Fontenelie's tragedy. Aspar. Prior to that time | suffering audiences were won't to vawn audibly and fall asleep when the apathy of the actors and per- formanees justified that course. But on this oecasion the indignant