New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-03-15

but there was no need for the saying. And
the adorng Scandinavians who tried the
play OF the stage found fifteen perform
ances all they could endure IN a lifetime
Each performance occupied seven hours.
London tried the Fourth Act once, seven
teen years ago. The New Theatre is de-
ternined that New York shall have the
Fourth Act often as it can be endured.
Well, the anonymous version at The New
Theatre is more endurable than the Archer
HEREFORD one which contains such poetic
passages as this:
oh. that you can't ignore:
FOLK flock 10 you by sea and shore:
AND in the whole of my conhne
a spirit has Of late been rife
Which. Gods my witness is not mine:
Whence TO conclude is only due.
That il originates with you.
Here is my hand: We'll end the strife,
And this:
That's just the dag We never see.
A. least the sacrifice no worse is
Ihan drafts upon good peoples purses
And these enraptured lines:
Agnes VIE
Let US braveIy face the strife;
stand together, never finch.
struggle onward inch by inch.
Poetry The Blushing Burlesquers in the
good old days OF extravaganza spouted
poetry" OF this order The Drury Lane
pantomimists now spout poetry "tust as
good This is the serious poetry OF the
comic supplements No wonder The New
Theatre rushed to some writer who could
thrash his Ibsen into blank verse. Ibsen said:
Il wanted metre in which 1 could career
where / would, as on horseback" He ca
reered, there's no gainsaying IT. And he
'rhymed" his worse is" and purses"
and "Satan's quarter" and distinctly
shorter" and on, pages without end.
1t is all very naive, and naive minds call
IT poetry" They are welcome to as
much poetry as they can wrench from
such balderdash.
The Ibsenites have said that q" Brand
was addressed to Norway, and to Norway
alone" But the Fourth Act is not confined
within this limitation. Brand, according to
DIR. Herford, is "a priest of modem Nor
way, and was no doubt originally intended
10 be simply an embodiment OF Tb5en's own
heroic ideal of character" II must be said
that II Brand is a hero he is a hero who
bursts with words hitherto framed in ex-
ecrable English verse, and finally is de
prived of speech by an avalanche which
burIes him and his entire valley Nothing
is seen Of the avalanche in the Fourth Act.
But Brand is seen and heard. heard at
great length. The patriotic purpose of the
play IS not revealed in this long and iso
lated passage, clothed in the theological
phraseoIogy in which Ibsen's ethical con-
ceptions were as yet habitually entangled";
the audience here escapes the portions
which were addressed TO Norway alone.
The scene OF the Fourth Act is a room IN
the Manse on Christmas Eve. Agnes, mourn
ing for her little son. who had died since
the preceding Christmas Eve, awaits the
homecoming of her husband. Brand, who
finds her given over 10 the dark memories
of her sorrow, bound TO the idols of a happy
past-the little belongings of her dead child,
her tender recoll ections Of him. Brand
av-akens her TO a perception of her duties
TO the living another writer might say 10
the power OF cheerfulness, but you cannot
expect Ibsen or any Ibsenite to say that.
Having thus awakened, Agnes. in The New
Theatre version, dies. \ cheerful Ibsenite
must die of the conversion, no doubt.
The blank verse of the New Theatre
Brand is far superior TO the horseback
gathering rhymes of the Archer HerfOrd
version, although these followed best
they might the Ibsen original. But II any
one thinks he saw the fourth act OF Ibsen 5
Brand last night let him dismiss the
illusion. The act was severely cut. The
long. long part Of the Mayor was cut TO
half 4 dozen lines. IN the original il runs
To several pages. The cutting is an i'm
provement. though il be heresy 10 say so.
But She residue il not Ihsenic Why make
such an ado over presenting Ibsen piece
II you are 10 cut out much that IS char
acteristic Of Ibsen? But why do this act of
Brand" at all? It is thing Of unceasing
gloom. Better judgment would have led
the management into another course than
this OF heavily depressing the audience be-
fore the chief piece Of the evening had
begun. But the same sort OF thing was
done here before when Liz. the Mother"
Legan an evenings entertainment" at this
house Brand" IS even more Woful than
liz the Mother" and has quite much,
~ as little reason for being included in a
programme as that darkling incident had.
Miss Annie Russell recited the part of
Agnes, and Mr.. Lee Baker hat of Brand.
For some reason not obvious credit
was given on the programme to the trans
lators OF either play. But 1t should be re-
corded that the translator Of Brand" i'm
proved Ibsen both by his blank verse and
his cutting, and that Maeterlncks text
is admirably rendered into English prose
by Mr.. knoblauch. A W.