Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-08-15

had spent the night before the execution with this
poor wretch, praying with and consoling her, and
aterward accompanied her to the galows. | he sim
pie narration set George Eliot to writing the story
that leads UP the powerful where Hetty Sor
re faces the charge of having murdered ler
child. Blackwood gave the author four thousand
dollars for the copyright of Adam Bede for four
years and she received another four thousand be-
fore the end of the first when sixteen thousand
copies had been sold
The mental processes of the great Bazac less
picturesque than the physical though the two were
inextrcaby nterdependent. Bazac of the
geniuses who confound the insanity experts When
the writing mood seized him he would retire to
garrett where he would live even his prosper
times under assumed name. sleeping from SIX
till midnight, and then working from twelve to
eighteen hours stretch dressed in the white robe
of a Dominican friar with black skulcap on his
head and surrounded by dozen candles.
If the aspirant to the honors of authorship would
make living at the unbiased profession, he will
find inspiration an unsteady mount and eccentricity
useful only to the few. 1t then behooves him to
slider the processes of who have entered on their
work Systematically manufacturer maps out
a selling campaign.
Sardous Explanation
TN this class the late Victoren Sardou may
as an encouraging illustration. Forbidden by pow
erty from continuing his medical studies disheart
ened by failure place his first play, he persevered
until he literally compelled success, and toward the
end of his life he explained his method OF creation
The idea never comes to me except in the form
of a sort of philosophical equation in which the
known quantity must be discovered. \ problem IS
thus imposed upon me which completely absorbs me
until find the proper solution. Thus for Patrie
the problem presented itself in this fashion: What
of country The solution found, the play almost
wrote itself AS for Hate apropos of what have
just said, the problem presented was, In what cir
cumstances will the natural charity Of reveal
itself in the most striking fashion, The solution
l found to be as follows 1t is when, victim of
outrage worse than death, she is moved by sentl-
ment of pity toward the one whose victim she has
been, which causes her to fly to his aid "
This second quantity of the equation, as Sardou
explained, is only the embryo the germ from which
the play vet to be born The next step to give
this motif that country and period best suited to
afford it full dramatic expression. Then came the
actual labor attaching to technc, the correct meas
of words, the delineation of character, and
An examination of the courses adopted by the
successful of the present will show that
Sardou,s is the plan most generally followed The
unearthing of motif preludes the weaving of the
story. CLYDE Fitch, for instance, explains that a
basic idea IS the germ of all his widely various
plays In Girls the basic idea was the life of the
considered in its different lights until he had
structed mentally plot that served to portray the
idea faithfully and would at the time appeal to
the public.
Percy Mackaye, author of Sappho and Phaon.'
Mater . and other poetic dramas follows plan
nearly identical with Sardous that in describing it
he substantially repeats the French1nans words, Il
start with idea, idea that is the play in embryo
New Technic for Every Idea
THE problem of writing the play then becomes, he
explains one of eliminating from the essential idea
all extraneous ones of expressing it in such dramatic
form shall project the plays image from my mind
into the constructive limitations of stagecrat with
the least impairment of the imagined play" 1t fol-
lows he proceeds to say, that every new idea for
play will involve technic ITO imagine some
thing dramatic worthy to say, and to say it with
truth to the image such is my creed in play writing
But the playwright in future must not absorb the
idea that there other of working. Israel
10 ~, Tba Ma1f