New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
Nothing Much Worth Looking in England and by Implication Nothing
Here-Bu Italy -Ah!

the virie Latin races this is so. To nre
serve what is rare is with these peoples so
natural an instinct that they have come to
love the spirit which creates what We call
works OF art; to look upon the artists as a
body which you must not persecute, and the
genius as man you must recognize and
use.
Had chance ordained Shakespeare to be
born in Italy the people would have seen
to it that Shakespeare plays could be
heard and seen this evening in most 1tal-
IAN theatres. They are not concerned in
cgoistical destruction of one of the hest
things in life, and they recognize it as
something closely woven into life itself
which, when cut out of the life of a.
people, does harm to that people, They do
not argue and discuss theories, though if
an artist offers to PROFOUND his theory
they are all attention :. all attention.
They have the talent of attention, these
restless people these very polite peo-
pie.
There is no Fastener and no South Eu
ropean who will question for one moment
my obvious statement made to the English
that pantomime, or dumb show, as we so
stupidly call it, is the very essence of dra-
matte art They will kno- that when I
state this do not necessarily exclude all
else it is only the Englsh-speaking
cliques who, crazy with their passionate
prejudices. instantly grow indignant come
futtering out like flock of roaring doves.
and cry out that / am a dangerous in
Ypnn
the most ancient and purest forms of the
art of the theatre.
At the risk of wearying the doves into
another flight and squeak, will repeat the
obvious statement Pantomime is the es-
sence of drama. 1t is therefore a univer-
sal art universal means of express
sion.
An act thing done Z. is always
dramatic it must be so by reason of
its nature. A thing said is only some
times dramatic. A gesture says more than
speech and says it better By the time
you have explained thing it grows cold
but the deed grows.
Now one would think that form of ex-
preston so universal and active as the
dramatic could thrive very easily every
WHERE ana tn6C England would merely
have to import some Asiatcs or some Ger
mans or some Russians to London and the
drama would flourish once more in our
principal island. But second element has
to be reckoned with. To the activity of
the artist must be added the passivity of
the listener or beholder.
AS am speaking here to wide public.
and though there are many who will under
stand what | mean by the passive listener,
there are sonse who will be indignant at
once and presume | mean "doormats," let
ME say | mean no such thing. The passive
listener is the man woman who has the
talent of attention, acknowledged to be
positive and not q negative quality: the
passive listener believes that there is such
thing genius and that it is rare; he
recognizes that the expression of genius
is spirit to be preserved, by taking care
to watch and to listen whenever anything
expressive is to be seen or heard
There is plenty of expression in the Eng
lish temperament, but the cliuues, ALWAYS
believing expression to be something queer
and foreign, give us no time to lend an
ear to what our native artists want to saw.
and futter and fuster and cry out until
some foreign goods are shipped over for
It's. But they don't stop there.