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Show Reminiscences of a Dramatic Critic. Ilaugliton, Mifflin & Co. have recently published the above book thoughtfully written by Henry Austin Aus-tin Clapp, dramatic critic of the Boston Advertiser. Mr. Clapp has served as critic for that paper for nearly thirty years, and knows whereof he speaks, lis book will not suit the popular idea, there is no rrossip, no rehash and explanation of incidents in the green room, no picking to pieces of the personal side of dramatic .celebrities, no prying past the barrier of the footlights. Ho docs not conceal this fact, he tells it to you immediately. lie says: It has seemed best to me, partly because actors arc a very sensative and fascinating folk, to deny myself the pleasure of their intimate acquaintance, as a rule, in the hope that my head might neither be quite turned nor much deflected from a true level. Many of my conferes have pursued a contrary policy with impressive success, I am aware; and I concede that, as a critic, I have sometimes lost, as well as sometimes gained, through my lack of personal contact con-tact with dramatic artists. My readers must enjoy reminiscences, if they enjoy them at all, as a series of reconsiderations of the plays and players of tho past from the point of view of a disinterested citizen of public censor. Mr. Clapp does not forget this statement later in the book. He has made a keen study of each player he deals with (most of whom are dead) and in perfect fairness to all, makes rare comment from the standpoint of a brilliant critic. For instance ho says of Irving: Mr. Irving, as has been succinctly said, can "niether walk nor talk." Amazing paradox of which "tho time" now "gives proof" that the most successful and cultivated of English actors should not have mastered mas-tered the rudiments of his art. Whatever the explanation ex-planation or apology there my be, the fact remains, and its enormity cannot be gainsaid. He has been on the stage the larger part of his life, and yet he has not learned how to sit, stand or move with tho ease, repose, vigor and grace which are by turns or all together appropriate to attitude or action; and, worse even than this, he does not know how to speak his own language. He has many lucid intervals inter-vals of elegant motion and pure speech trebly exas-peratng exas-peratng as a demonstration that his faults are not the consequence 01 utter physical incapacity but he can never be quite trusted with his legs, his shoulders or his tongue for five consecutive minutes. His ungracef ulness is bad, but, as was just now implied, im-plied, it is a venial fault in comparison with his atrocious enunciation. If there were such a crime as linguamatricidc, Mr. Irving would have suffered its extremo penalty long ago; for night after night he has done foul murder upon his mother tongue. w But the author can distinguish brains from legs and furtner on says: The prime distinction of Mr. Irving's acting and the chief sources of its effectiveness and charm are its intensity, its artistic propriety, and its intellectuality; intel-lectuality; all these being, of course, derived or reflected re-flected from the artist's mind. The sum of Mr. Irv-Hing's Irv-Hing's powers iB much less than that of many other great players, but I have never seen an actor whose absorption in his work was so nearly complete and unintermitted as his. He never trifles, never for- gets himself, never wearies, never relaxes the grip which ho once takes upon his part The dramatic consequence of sucn a high inten-Hsity inten-Hsity is obviously great, but the value of tho quality Hin holding the attention of audiences is inestimable. The spectator soon discovers that it will not do to skip any part of the performance; that if ho leaves Mr. Irving out of sight or out of mind for a single second he may lose some highly significant look or action. But tho principal source of Mr. Irving's professional profes-sional power and success lies in the character and quality of his intellect. Many of our native players, both of tragedy and comedy, arc persons of decided mental force; but Mr. Irving appears to mo to demonstrate dem-onstrate by his performances his right to the first place in the scalo of pure intelligence, among all the actors of every nationality whom I have seen. See if you do not like what he says tho dramatic critic should be: The ideally perfect dramatic critic must always be, even in Paris, London and New York, a rara avis. The man whose equipment includes a good working familiarity with the classic and modern languages; an intimate acquaintance with all English En-glish literature, and with all that is most important import-ant in other literatures; a long experience with the theatre; a high and vaired skill in writing; honesty of purpose and complete emancipation from mean , personal prejudice; and, finally, the faculty, inborn, and, though highly susccptable of cultivation, never to be acquired, of detecting false touches in acting act-ing as the perfect ear detects false tones in music even the late brilliant, accomplished and unimpeachable unimpeach-able Sarccy did not fill the area of that definition. Yet if such an Admirable Crichton existed, he would not be effective on the staff of a newspaper which in any way or at any point, for commercial or any reasons, cabined, cribbed, or confined him; hinting here, coaxing there, anon undertaking to give instructions in-structions as to his meting out of praise or blame. The newspepars whose criticism c" the drama is thus sordidly biased are soon found out, and lose ' all or much of their influence with their readers. And having made this big declaration in the interest inter-est of reason and common sense, I must meekly subject to a discount of about 75 per cent., and confess con-fess that a large majority of all persons who read the daily journals have not tho faintest notion of comprehending or distinguishing the values of various var-ious censures. The great body of patrons of tho theatre are, indeed, alike indifferent and, directly, impervious to criticism of any sort; they swarm into the play-houses with an indiscriminating eagerness of desire, which seems as masterful as the blind instinct in-stinct that compels the migration of schools of fish; they aro laws unto themselves, and find out and applaud ap-plaud what they like by tho application of those laws, some of which have roots which run far down into our common psychic protoplasm. Outside of such words as the above, there is little of the prosent, in the author's work, but it is one of the cleverest additions to dramatic literature published pub-lished in many months. |
