Shenandoah

Shenandoah

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shenandoah, by Bronson Howard
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Title: Shenandoah Representative Plays by American Dramatists:
1856-1911
Author: Bronson Howard
Release Date: July 28, 2004 [EBook #13039]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SHENANDOAH ***

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SHENANDOAH
A MILITARY COMEDY

[Illustration: BRONSON HOWARD]

BRONSON HOWARD
(1842-1908)
The present Editor has just read through some of the vivacious

correspondence of Bronson Howard--a sheaf of letters sent by him to
Brander Matthews during a long intercourse. The time thus spent
brings sharply to mind the salient qualities of the man--his nobility of
character, his soundness of mind, his graciousness of manner, and his
thorough understanding of the dramatic tools of his day and generation.
To know Bronson Howard was to be treated to just that human quality
which he put into even his hastily penned notes--and, as in conversation
with him, so in his letters there are repeated flashes of sage comment
and of good native wit. Not too often can we make the plea for the
gathering and preserving of such material. Autobiography, after all, is
what biography ought to be--it is the live portrait by the side of which a
mere appreciative sketch fades. I have looked through the "Memorial"
volume to Bronson Howard, issued by the American Dramatists Club
(1910), and read the well-tempered estimates, the random
reminiscences. But these do not recall the Bronson Howard known to
me, as to so many others--who gleams so charmingly in this
correspondence. Bronson Howard's plays may not last--"Fantine,"
"Saratoga," "Diamonds," "Moorcraft," "Lillian's Last Love"--these are
mere names in theatre history, and they are very out of date on the
printed page. "The Banker's Daughter," "Old Love Letters" and
"Hurricanes" would scarcely revive, so changed our comedy treatment,
so differently psychologized our emotion. Not many years ago the
managerial expedient was resorted to of re-vamping "The
Henrietta"--but its spirit would not behave in new-fangled style, and the
magic of Robson and Crane was broken. In the American drama's
groping for "society" comedy, one might put "Saratoga," and even
"Aristocracy," in advance of Mrs. Mowatt's "Fashion" and Mrs.
Bateman's "Self;" in the evolution of domestic problems, "Young Mrs.
Winthrop" is interesting as an early breaker of American soil. But one
can hardly say that, either for the theatre or for the library, Bronson
Howard is a permanent factor. Yet his influence on the theatre is
permanent; his moral force is something that should be perpetuated.
Whatever he said on subjects pertaining to his craft--his comments on
play-making most especially,--was illuminating and judicious. I have
been privileged to read the comments sent by him to Professor
Matthews during the period of their collaboration together over "Peter
Stuyvesant;" they are practical suggestions, revealing the peculiar way

in which a dramatist's mind shapes material for a three hours' traffic of
the stage--the willingness to sacrifice situation, expression--any detail,
in fact, that clogs the action. Through the years of their acquaintance,
Howard and Matthews were continually wrangling good-naturedly
about the relation of drama to literature. Apropos of an article by
Matthews in The Forum, Howard once wrote:
I note that you regard the 'divorce' of the drama from literature as
unfortunate. I think the divorce should be made absolute and final; that
the Drama should no more be wedded to literature, on one hand, than it
is to the art of painting on the other, or to music or mechanical science.
Rather, perhaps, I should say, we should recognize poligamy for the
Drama; and all the arts, with literature, its Harem. Literature may be
Chief Sultana--but not too jealous. She is always claiming too large a
share of her master's attention, and turning up her nose at the rest. I
have felt this so strongly, at times, as to warmly deny that I was a
'literary man', insisting on being a 'dramatist'.
Then, in the same note, he adds in pencil: "Saw 'Ghosts' last night.
Great work of art! Ibsen a brute, personally, for writing it."
In one of the "Stuyvesant" communications, Howard is calculating on
the cumulative value of interest; and he analyzes it in this mathematical
way:
So far as the important act is concerned, I have felt that this part of it
was the hardest part of the problem before us. We were certain of a
good beginning of the act and a good, rapid, dramatic end; but the
middle and body of it I felt needed much