Our Stage and Its Critics | Page 3

Westminster Gazette for kindly consenting to the republication of articles which have already appeared in that journal.

CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
THE DRAMATIC CRITIC
His Qualifications--His Knowledge of Fashionable Society--His Duties and Difficulties--His Stock Phrases--The Circumstances under which he writes--His Fear of Libel Actions 1

CHAPTER II
THE DRAMATIC CRITIC
His Duty to be tolerant--His Sympathies when young--The Jaded Critic--His Unpaid Labours and his Letter Bag 28

CHAPTER III
THE DRAMATIC CRITIC
An Attack upon him--Why he is disliked--His Honesty--His Abolition--The Threatened Theatrical Trust 49

CHAPTER IV
PLAYS OF PARTICULAR TYPES
The Pseudo-Historical--The Horrible in Drama--The Immorality Play--Scripture Plays--Anecdotal Plays--The Supernatural 72

CHAPTER V
PLAYS OF PARTICULAR TYPES
Unsentimental Drama--The Second-hand Drama--Plays with a Purpose--Drama and Social Reform 99

CHAPTER VI
THE PHENOMENA OF THE STAGE
The Optics--Make-up--Gesture--Scenery at the French Plays--Stage Costumes--Colour--Stage Meals 118

CHAPTER VII
THE MORALITY OF OUR DRAMA
Mr Harry Lauder on the Morals of Our Drama--Double Entente--Moral Effect on Audience--An Advantage of French Dramatists 149

CHAPTER VIII
CASUAL NOTES ON ACTING
Mr H.B. Irving on his Art--Mr Bourchier and "Max" on English Acting--The Sicilian Players--Alleged Dearth of Great Actresses--Character Actresses--Stage Misfits--Stars 167

CHAPTER IX
STAGE DANCING
The Skirts of the Drama--Isadora Duncan 195

CHAPTER X
THINGS IN THE THEATRE
A Defence of the Matinée Hat--A Justification of certain Deadheads--Theatrical Advertisements--Music 205

CHAPTER XI
IN THE PLAYHOUSE
Laughter--Smoking in the Auditorium--Conduct of the Audience--Concerning the Pit--Why do we go to the Theatre? 229

CHAPTER XII
MISCELLANEOUS
Signor Borsa on the English Theatre--G.B.S. and the Amateurs--Cant about Shakespeare--Yvette Guilbert on Dramatists 252

CHAPTER XIII
MISCELLANEOUS
Finance in Plays--Some Unsuccessful Dramatists--The Ending of the Play--Preposterous Stage Types--The Professions of the Dramatis Personae 271

CHAPTER I
THE DRAMATIC CRITIC
His Qualifications
The production of a play in the Russian tongue renders topical a phrase once used, not unhappily, by Mr Cecil Raleigh concerning the qualifications of the dramatic critic. After listening to a somewhat extravagant speech about the duties of the critic, he said that the dramatic critic ought, apparently, to be a "polyglot archangel." During the last few years we have had plays in Russian, Japanese, Bavarian patois, Dutch, German, French and Italian, to say nothing of East End performances in Hebrew and Yiddish, which we neglect. Latin drama we hear at Westminster; a Greek company came to the Court but did not act. A Chinese has been promised, and a Turkish drama threatened; Danish has been given; there are awful hopes of Gaelic and Erse; and goodness knows why we have escaped Echegaray, Lope di Vega and Calderon in the original. A Mezzofanti would be at a premium in the craft if knowledge of languages alone were sufficient; but one may know many tongues and possess no judgment.
We have to accept great responsibilities. Some people measure the greatness of the responsibilities by the amount of money involved in theatrical enterprises; it is hardly necessary to discuss seriously this point of view. Nevertheless the fact remains that the voice of the critics has some effect upon the fortunes of ventures involving large sums of money and the employment of many people. It is rather curious to see how lightly as a rule the influence of the critics is regarded; for instance, from some remarks uttered by Sir John Hare it appears that he thinks they are not influential. Here are his words taken from an interview published in a newspaper.
_The Interviewer_: "How is public taste formed? Do newspaper criticisms affect it?"
_Mr Hare_: "Very little."
This view is rarely pressed upon a jury by the plaintiff in a libel action, and it may be remarked that although, when a play is running well, some managers almost ignore us, as soon as business drops they become delightfully amiable and long for our presence. Moreover, at considerable expense, they quote our opinions if favourable--even with judicious modifications when unfavourable.
Perhaps the matter of languages is not of very great importance, seeing that most of the critic's work concerns English Drama, or drama in what is supposed to be English, which, too often, is quite a different thing. What, then, are the necessary qualifications of the critic who takes his work and himself seriously?
He should have some knowledge of music--enough, at least, to know whether incidental or "melodrama" music is congruous with the time, place and occasion of the play, and to be able to identify well-known works. At a time when money is spent very lavishly upon scenery and costumes, he ought to possess some theories, or at least ideas, concerning pictorial art, the history of modern painting and the like, and be capable of guessing what a daring experimentalist like Mr Gordon Craig is aiming at and what relation his scene-pictures bear to the current cant of the art critic. It is deplorable when one finds serious critics gushing about the beauty of costly stage effects belonging to the standard of taste exhibited by wedding-cakes, Christmas crackers, old-fashioned valentines and Royal Academicians. Dancing must mean something more to him than a whirling and twirling of human beings--he should at the least know the distinctive styles and figures