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    October 1, 1853.] THE LEA DEB. 957

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    BROOKE AS VIRGINIUS. On Saturday ni g ht...

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    TIIE DISCIPLINE OF ART. "An artist," it ...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Letters ©F A Vagabond. Xvii. Seven Hill ...

    " Flo , Julie , " said Conway , " we must live on , —and suffer . " « I decline that too ,- —and so do all of us . Mr . Edwardes himself would not wait for his egg at breakfast until he had analyzed it . He eats first , and analyzes afterwards . " " And then I eat more wisely after . " ' , « I am not eo sure of that . I notice that science and study make men e dyspeptic / as you call it . Who ever heard of a dyspeptic voyageurr " Because , if the Canadian voyageur becomes dyspeptic , Julie , " continned Edwardes , " he relinquishes his calling ; as Quakers keep virtuous by denying that erring mortals are Quakers . "

    tainly no man of full faculties , decently cultivated . And if aJl could do it , society would be dissolved into its elements , or rather segregated into its atoms . The doctrine ^ has been preached , and we have tried to follow it ; and we rush back into opposite extremes , such as Socialism or Puseyism . " " We will begin it , " cried Julie , " when Mark sets us the example . " " I have begun it . " " Concentrating your first care upon yourself ?" " Yes . " Julie gave him her hand to kiss . Surprised at the unexpected and unwonted graciousness , he looked for an instant in her eyes , and then kissed the fair band with fervour ; Julie looked round at us , and smiling her triumph as we laughed at the ease with which the casuist fell into the trap .

    " Nonsense ; depend upon it that life is better arranged for you than you could arrange it for yourselves . I would not accept either of you as a lieutenant Providence ; certainly not you , Mr . Edwardes , for all you eat so wisely ; nor yet you , " casting her brilliant eyes at Markham , " for all you look as if you thought I should . Heaven defend me from a universe on commercial principles . " " Yet they are the very principles of the universe , " said Markham , bravely . "Of the universe ! " cried Edwardes , with an unwonted show of amazement : " how can you make that out , Markham ?" " Markham ' s law of the universe ! " cried Julie . " Listen ; it will be

    as instructive as Markham's history of England . ' Conticuereomnes ; but Markham did not speak . " Joking apart , " said Edwardes , "I should like to hear how you make that out . * . " You may as well relieve hi 3 curiosity , " said Julie , carelessly laying her hand on his shoulder , to atone for her ridicule , and enforce her mandate . " If you must discuss principles , " I said , "let us do it thoroughly , Markham ; and there is no doing that unless each man says out his thought . " ' " Tell us how we should live , " cried Yseult , " for I think we do not know how yet ; and then Alfred shall tell us , and Edward—each one of . " ¦ ¦ ¦

    yon . .. , . „ ,, "By Jove , I never meant to be lawgiver , " exclaimed Markham , " but if I am only to be the preface to such a flood of wisdom , why I will give you the law , on one condition—that one whom I shall name shall finish . " V ' Oh , Tristan will take his turn , " said Yseult . " Nay , I was not thinking of Tristan , much as I respect the distinguished ability with which he ties up every parcel that he passes over the counter . I will do it on condition that at the end Margaret will tell us how wo ought to live . " We all looked at her for her reply ; but Markham said that she need not answer—he knew she would . " I must take my postulate to begin with ; I suppose you will all agree that nothing is made out of nothing T

    " I'll agree to anything , " cried Julie , " if you wont talk about postulates , as if you were going to lecture on small-pox ! Don ' t use words that zve cannot understand . " "Why , then , most lovely and cruel Princess , you stop the very utterance of science : but I suppose you must bo obeyed , oven in making briclcs without straw . " ^ " And the most essential truths of science , " observed Edwardes , " always capable of being put in intelligible language , in which they differ from some other ' essential truths . '

    " If nothing can be made out of nothing , to produce more than you have already , you must add to that which is . " ' You are fcegging the question , " said Conway ; " for what you flay would deny the obvious phamomona of genesis and growth . We know nothing of the nature of dynamic forces . " " I have forbidden dynamics , and I forbid the pentateuch , or any ' ism * at all , " cried Julie . " You forget nutrition , fconway , " said Edwardes . " Bnt go on , Markham . "

    " What I mean is , that you cannot create anything out of nothing . If you obtain any return , it must be in virtue of somothing done . If it is more or better , it must bo the equivalent of additional or more skilful exertion . Tho gross result will bo in proportion to the original outlay , plus tho sagacity of tho investment . It follows that tho guiding principle should bo to invest where thore is tho largest return ; and to lot failures bo failures . Death is but tho bankruptcy of nature . Tho true philosophy of life is to encourage success , and to leave failure to its fate . That is the principle of trade . They call it ' selfish . ; 'but what is Helfiahness , save tho division of employments by which each inombor of tho human race is sot to watch over the welfare of that one in whom ho is most nearly and keenly interested , and through hia w « U-diroctod oxortions the happiness of tho Whole is increased . "

    Markham was silent , and hia countenanco , as well ns that of tho " able thinkers" who sat before him , wore the expression of n man "who ia discussing an old talo , with a senso of its stateness and inefficiency . " Your plan , " Kaid EdwardoH , paying to Iuh friend tho tribute of a respectful opposition , " has the twofold disadvantage . of being impracticable , and , if it wore practicable , solf-dcfouting . Tho most boHihIi " » an in tho world can scarcely concontrato lumsolf upon himsolf ; cor-

    October 1, 1853.] The Lea Deb. 957

    October 1 , 1853 . ] THE LEA DEB . 957

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    Brooke As Virginius. On Saturday Ni G Ht...

    BROOKE AS VIRGINIUS . On Saturday ni g ht I went to see Gustavus Brooke play Virginius , which was not a very lively entertainment , though , a more successful performance —if boisterous applause can constitute success—lias not made the walls of old Drury resound for many a longyear . There was something half comical , half painful , in the stupid genuine delight of tliat eminently British public at the Boanerges of the Drama , as he " split the ears of the groundlings . " There is a story of Power entering the green-room of the Haymarket Theatre , dressed for Teddy the Tiler , who , as he stood against the mantelpiece , cool and pleasant , remarked to that spluttering tragedian , Charles Kean , who sat panting" and perspiring , with all the dust and failure of Bosworth field upon him , ' * you seem hot , Mr . Kean . " "Yes , " replied Charles , with withering sarcasm , " there is . some differ ence between p laying Richard the Third ' and Teddy tlie Tiler . " " Yes , " replied Power , adjusting his neckcloth , " physically . "

    To make this story more perfect , the reader should be told , that not only is the story itself literally true , but that Charles Kean tells it against Power , —which is a pleasing illustration of his general quickness of perception . . - ' - "Physically , " then , Gustavus Brooke is the greatest tragic actor on the stage , and as , except Phelps , all the other tragic actors known to me are not what I should call eminently intellectual , what I have just said amounts very much to saying that Brooke is , with that single exception , the greatest tragic actor on our stage . Nevertheless , he is " a man who , take him for all in all , " I have no wish " to look upon his like again . " The paradox of his success is intelligible as soon as one watches his audience . When he is violent , —and he is magnificently violent , with a certain leonine ,

    sometimes bovine , power , —the audiences are in ecstacies . When lie runs up his voice in alt , and drops to a double <•? , with the stretch of compass , if not with the dplonib , of an Alboni , the audiences are naively startled by the vocal feat , and , not troubled with critical misgivings as to sense , thoroughly give themselves up to the sensation . And thus 4 i physical actor is applauded by a physical audience . The question of intelligence never comes into consideration . So undeniably was this the case on Saturday night , that the audience , uproarious when Brooke was roarious—uproarious when

    Daveuport was spasmodic and noisy—manifested so high a relish for the sensation of sonority , that they loudly cheered even the mob , when the mob was tumultuous in its snilling-a-night republicanism . Why not ! if Brooke and Davenport , stunning their lethargic ears , could earn their applause , why not ungainly " supers , " with a body of sound surpassing that of any single pair of lungs ? One or two passages which Brooke delivered finely , with a quiet , manly pathos , passed unheeded ; a British audience criticizes acting as the dustman did the unadulterated beer : " There ' s no headache in it !"

    From this you may gather that I am neither surprised nor swayed by Brooke ' s success . I see in him the magnificent half of an actor , perhnp even ( considering acting as representation , and that in representation thea means are even more important than the intellect ) one may say two-third , of an actor ; a noble person , a powerful voice , immense physical energy and a certain breadth of style , " if style it can bo called which stylo is none , ' i an elocution careful ( somewhat too careful ) , and a thorough familiarity with etaire business and stage tradition : these are his qualities . Now , if you

    think of these qualities , and bear in mind that an audience always takes for granted , " believing when a man says " I love you , " that he feels and looks what he says , you will understand how , with such an audionco , tUo success of such an actor must bo assured . At any rate , there is no disguising the fact that the audiences gathered within the walls of Drury Lane do greatly admire and enjoy Gustavus Brooke , and that every cultivated person 3 ou meet is lost in wide astonishment at such success being possible . Vivian .

    Tiie Discipline Of Art. "An Artist," It ...

    TIIE DISCIPLINE OF ART . "An artist , " it baa been said in these pages , " should bo a strong man . " There is n fooling , too universal to bo wholly groundless , that artists aro egotistical , headstrong-, lawless persons—very unreasonable in expecting to bo countenanced and indulged more than " their even Christiana , " and very inconsistent in . aflecting to despise worldly precept . True is if- that among tho thousand young " men of genius" who , in tho most spirited way , havo kicked against officc-stpol and counter ; who have shown wondrous " firmness " , in resisting the common-sense counsel and earnest entreaties of j anmts or friends ; many havo become moro remarkable in their self-prescribed career for want of spirit and firmness than for any positive quality whatever . The story of such aa these is old and trite . A different atory i « that of CnAM . Es JSummeks , ft young sculptor of proved goniue , who ia now quit-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 1, 1853, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01101853/page/21/