The International Weekly Miscellany, Volume I. No. 8 | Page 5

St. Petersburg has served for a model, and
accordingly nothing has really been improved except that part of the
performance which is farthest removed from genuine art, namely the
ballet. That fact is that out of Paris the ballet is nowhere so splendid as
in the great theater at Warsaw, not even at St. Petersburg, for the reason
that the Russian is inferior to the Pole in physical beauty and grace.
Heretofore the corps of the St. Petersburg ballet has twice been
composed of Poles, but this arrangement has been abandoned as
derogatory to the national honor. The sensual attractions of the ballet
render it the most important thing in the theater. A great school for
dancers has been established, where pupils may be found from three to
eighteen years old. It is painful to see the little creatures, hardly weaned
from their mothers' breasts--twisted and tortured for the purposes of so
doubtful an occupation as dancing. The school contains about two
hundred pupils, all of whom occasionally appear together on the boards,
in the ballet of Charis and Flora, for instance, when they receive a
trifling compensation. For the rest the whole ballet corps are bound to
daily practice.
The taste of the Russians has made prominent in the ballet exactly
those peculiarities which are least to its credit. It must be pronounced
exaggerated and lascivious. Aside from these faults, which may be
overlooked as the custom of the country, we must admit that the
dancing is uncommonly good.
The greater the care of the management for the ballet, the more
injurious is its treatment of the drama. This is melancholy for the artists
and especially those who have come to the imperial theater from the
provinces, who are truly respectable and are equally good in comedy
and tragedy. The former has been less shackled than the latter for the
reason that it turns upon domestic life. But tragedy is most frightfully
treated by the political censorship, so that a Polish poet can hardly
expect to see his pieces performed on the stage of his native country.
Hundreds of words and phrases such as freedom, avenging sword, slave,
oppression, father-land, cannot be permitted and are stricken out.
Accordingly nothing but the trumpery of mere penny-a-liners is

brought forward, though this sometimes assumes an appearance of
originality. These abortions remain on the stage only through the talent
of the artists, the habit of the public to expect nothing beyond dullness
and stupidity in the drama, and finally, the severe regulation which
forbids any mark of disapprobation under pain of imprisonment. The
best plays are translated from the French, but they are never the best of
their kind. To please the Russians only those founded on civic life are
chosen, and historical subjects are excluded. Princely personages are
not allowed to be introduced on the stage, nor even high officers of
state, such as ministers and generals. In former times the Emperor of
China was once allowed to pass, but more recently the Bey of Tunis
was struck out and converted into an African nobleman. A tragedy is
inadmissible in any case, and should one be found with nothing
objectionable but its name, it is called drama.
In such circumstances we would suppose that the actors would lose all
interest in their profession. But this is not the case. At least the
cultivated portion of the public at Warsaw never go to the theater to see
a poetic work of art, but only to see and enjoy the skill of the
performers. Of course there is no such thing as theatrical criticism at
Warsaw; but everybody rejoices when the actors succeed in causing the
wretchedness of the piece to be forgotten. The universal regret for the
wretched little theater on the Krasinski place, where Suczkowska,
afterward Mad. Halpert, founded her reputation in the character of the
Maid of Orleans, is the best criticism on the present state of the drama.
The Russians take great delight in the most trivial pieces. Even Prince
Paskiewich sometimes stays till the close of the last act. To judge by
the direction of his opera-glass, which is never out of his hand, he has
the fortune to discover poetry elsewhere than on the stage. In truth the
Warsaw boxes are adorned by beautiful faces. Even the young princess
Jablonowska is not the most lovely.
The arrangements of the Warsaw theaters are exactly like those of the
Russian theater at St. Petersburg, but almost without exception, the
pupils of the dramatic school, of whom seventeen have come upon the
boards, have proved mere journeymen, and have been crowded aside
by performers from the provincial cities. None of the eminent artists of
late years have enjoyed the advantages of the school. The position of
the actors at Warsaw is