Year: 1873

The New Play at tho Union square


Theatre.


TO THE EDITOR or THE HERALD.


Perhaps you Will permit one more objection to
the views your theatrical critic has taken or Lied
Astray." As have always noticed In the HERALD
great liberality in giving q hearing 10 those who
dissent from It's own opinions send you mine
firm In what the politicians would call the recttude
OF my Intentions


AS have seen II "Led Astray'i combines in itself
every requisite for good play. Aside from the
ttle there is no defect in IT, 1t deals with good
and legitimate subject, not mawkishly, not sensa-
tonally but in robust manly tone The story is
told with that exquisite and easy art, that
facle mastery OF dramatic evolution, which
is the result Of ripened experience. IL Is imposs
BILE to oimpugn It's moral; its literary quality is high;
the richest recent success OF the stage in point
OF character and the dialogue Is fresh pithy clear
ana graceful. Can we require more than this on the
stage before we acknowledge excellence? And II
play with many points in its favor as have
here run over Is to be c0nfounded by the pubic
press with the theatrical garbage with which the
boards are reeking where Is the advantage to au-
thors, actors or managers OF their endeavors to
meet the calls OF good faster And where is The
value Of your theatrical column, which has been
supposed be an instructive indication and record
OF theatrical doings?


Have pitched too highly the praise Of piece
which your critic treated the other day with flip
pant scorn? Let us see, by the light OF some crit
ical examination OF the play itself, as none was
given in your notice.


Lied Astray' is a love story. Love is the staple
OF all our romance ana OF half our history, and
love stories, since the world began have been the
themes that "inhaDit in the finest wits OF all.n
1t il not, therefore, case Tor apology when genus
tells US one more love story; for men and women
OF whom the world Is mostly made np-are as
much interested IN the theme now they were in
the days OF Hero and Leander or of Laili and Mag
nun, or OF King Dushmanta and the forest maiden; ;
and If 1t be true as written that "all mankind
love lover,n it should be good primary point in
story's favor that one could say OF it


The spinners and the knitters in the


And the free maids that their thread with bone
Do use 10 chnunt it IL is silly, sooth,


And dallies with the innocence Of love.


All that In fact is critically required is that it
should not be just the same story the old ones;
that some new conceptions OF the relation OF love
should be given us that some hitherto unnoted
point should be indicated where the old passion
and the old human nature fret against the frame
work OF the newer world; and that the poet who
perceives these new relations should "clothe his
case in crcumstances' more or less unworn. And
all this demand the new play meets 1t is not at
a.
and does not end in 30 many Yards OF white lace
and sprigs OF artificial orange blossoms. on the
contrary, the lovers married when we
meet them first, and yet the early dawn
OF their passion has not come,
that the story treads ground but little travelled
In dealing more strictly with the intellectual and
social relations OF the theme and reaches a cli
max in which the usual .'Go and be happy'' OF the
comedies is well replaced by denouement that
in the thought and perception OF the auditor be-
fore it is acted, but yet Is not the less dramatic
and successful, because the skillul dehneatlon OF
the natures Of the pair have made 1t assume the
force OF a reality.


Armande de Chandoce is a neglected wife-a
high bred, virtuous woman Of the creme de l0
cren,e-beautiul, admired, leading lite supposed
to be as elegant as the inside OF brOugham lined
with violet satin; but she finds this life to be
somewhat vague and empty, and, in short, Is not
happy. She has romantic tastes. Her brilliant
society lie does not fill her fancy and with per-
son of her station there is clearly lit tie do
mestic life, she drifts along on the surface OF
glitterng, unsatisfactory existence, ready to De-
come victim-one OF Charles Reades white
doves born to be clutched." Rudolph de Chan
doce. her husband, is an unsimpering persona
nobleman who hunts in the country and lnhabits
his GLIB in town; an outsDokeD gentleman, with un-





sumed, we suppose that the marriage was one OF
conuendnce. Such are the relations OF the pair
and the wife is tempted, but is not "led
astray''-that is, Eot in the sense in
which these words generally accepted.
She resists the temptation, and is superior
to 1t, and If the words can he at all applied IL is
only in the sense that her thoughts dallied with
the danger. She remains on the nither side of the
rubicon, and the scene in the fourth act, in which
this is made to appear, is one OF the finest ex-
presslons OF womanly dignity on the stage. That
one stroke would be sufficient to stamp Miss
Eytinge as an actress ofthe first class. Lady Mon.
tague said:-


In part she is to blame who has been tried


He comes too near who comes to be denied.
And Ii Ia only on this strict doctrine that
Armande can be said to have been led astray.


In this sketch OF the relations OF the husband and
wife 1t can be readily seen are the elements OF a
vital struggle OF touching interest, and 1t is in this
struggle that the two come to know one another,
and their love grows from that knowledge


As you will observe have given you only the
atmosphere OF the piece, not venturing to tres
pass on your space with an analysis OF the struc-
ture by which the theme is so skilfully wrought
out for wish to touch especially on the scarcely
comprehensive imputation OF immortality If this
play be immoral where shall we find moralityS
Its heroine is tempted and listens little to the
voice OF the tempter but warns him away. Is this
immoral in fact or tendency Does the immortality
consist in the fact that temptation is showns
But since the Christian world has been taught for
nearly two thousand years to utter its daily
prayer to be spared temptation one would natu-
rally suppose that temptation Is q fact SO worked
into the fabric OF human life that story OF human
passion cannot be completed without it; and this
is true. How shall fiction exhibit the triumph OF
virtue II temptation be not part Of its mingled
yarns


Are the eyes OF dramatic critics so debauched
by the recent stage that they don't know morality
when they see itS


Lied Astrayn is an admirably told story, and its
scenes are a succession OF situations OF great
dramatic force, satrlcal point or dainty humor.
Its dramatic now reaches high tide at the last
scene OF the third act-the proper pont-where