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Leader (1850-1860), 15th October 1853, Edition Country of 2, Page 20

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      not go on . He was touching the hilt ' . -of Candiano's sword , and the exquisite victory of making the metal relief tell wholly chained Ms tongue . "JECere is Walter ' s true rule of life , " cried Julie , as Margaret stepped up to listen ; " make her speak . " Yseult had laced her arm round Margaret ' s waist , as if to draw her into our circle , and neutralize Julie ' s impertinence , while Margaret responded by laying one hand on Walter ' s shoulder , and passing the other arm round Xseult . She did not now wait for urging . " You cannot have it , Edward , " she said , taking up Walter ' s answer ; " you cannot get out of mechanical activity , like that of the weaver , or even the rower , that sharpness and perfect line which springs from striking with a will ; you cannot get that keenness of eye which comes from

      watching for life and death . Why , you cannot get music itself , neither the writing nor the voice if you have none but tutored ideas and school-girl passions . What Semiramideyrsbs ever bred in an establishment for young ladies ; or - " " One , I think , " said Edwardes , smiling . " Or what life is there which will not indicate its force against resistance —against contumely , death , reason , everything ?" " Margaret !" " Yseult , darling ! why do you look surprised ? I am sure you don't think that we can say to life exactly how far it shall go , and live by rule , and yet live . " " Then you , Margaret , " said Con way , " would not live by rule , would have no rule—anarchy P " " What tremendous revolutionists these women are , " cried Edwardes .

      " Don't answer her , " said Markham . " I will tell you what , Edwardes , when a woman like Margaret speaks , we ought not to fail into the idle school habit of picking up their words and trying to refute what they say . Women are not trained to dialectics ; they do not eventMnJc with exactness ; but they come closer and straighter to the truth . If you stop Margaret ' s moiith with repartees you will break the bargain , which I made . " I believe we were all astonished at the genuine passion of tlie great grocer as she spoke ; and not less so when Julie put her mouth to his cheek , and gave him tin gros baiser , and then hid her eyes on his shoulder . J _ 'l feel I am an ass , " said Edwardes , " as I always am ! Go on , Margaret . "

      , " Look you here ! " said Stanhope , who was at last drawn off his work , " the whole story is this . If you -want to have a type of man , take thatwell , not that , if you smile at my conceit ; but that and that . Well , there you have legs ; but you can't have such legs by preaching . Look heresee how beautiful that is , how the outline waves like music visible , and comes melting into the knee and then to the foot ; see how sharp that inner outline of the knee is , yet how gentle ; how easy that leg sways , yet how

      ready to start—yes , as quick as thought . Well , you cannot have that withoxit those legs are trained in act as quick as thought—often . Look at these dark eyes of Titian ' s : you cannot have eyes like those without a fiery intellect and a fiery heart behind—a heart to be roused . You cannot have that ample , sharp knit chest , which looks at once so full and so compact , without there are quick lungs beneath—quick blood ; yoic know that . Well , if you have fiery heart , it will be roused ; if quick blood , it will take fire ; if arm like that , it will strike ; and then there will be conteat and death . "

      " There is some force in wLat you say ; but still I don't see in all that a rule . " " A rule , Edwardes ! What rule do you wantP A man should be seven heads and a half high ; and if men of only five heads high abound , there is something wrong / If most eyes look dull , with nothing particular behind them , there is death in that society , not more life , as you philanthropists desire . " " Granted—still that is no rule . 8 uppo . se I desire to be , or to make my pupil a Borgia , with tremendous eyes , or a Castor , with horrible arm what is the rule to get at these results ?"

      " Evidently , said Gonway , " there is the rule of art , which Stanhope means all the while-. If society be true to art , it will relish those things which are the raw material of art—picturesque costume , picturesque customs , sports smacking of real contention , frequent occasions for honourable conflict , free growth of the nobler passions , and so forth . " " Yes , that is it , " said Stanhope . " But , " continued Conway , " the flaw in the rule is thin , that altliou « -h it is very good for art , it is not good for society . If we permit the nobler passions , we open a door for the ignoble . If < Ve indulge the anmier passions , we set aside the policcinan ; ami our streets and street-doors would be less comfortably safe . " " That is the very thing I say , " cried Stanhope ; " you . sacrifice life to comfort . 3 STow , reduce society to a rule , to save life , ' and you stifle life . It is a case of overlaying . "

      " Besides , " cried Margaret , " . Edward begs the whole question , thnl , tho ignoble is more suppressed- now , and that sacred limi ts art ; kepi ; more sacred . I deny that . I do not ; believe the policeman in an efficient guard ' of generous feeling . I do not believe that coinmercml principles test the happiness of men and women ; I do not believe thai meanness is put down by acts of parliament ; or that patriotism is created by statutes ' against bribery I do believe that trusting to such things breeds " generations who tolerate the sale of the country's right Cor a soup-ticket , who permit baseness if the and

      policoman cannot arrest it , Hap the very essence of life . || , \ H , , (>( u , _ initiate toleration that comes out of all this liberalism . ' Truth is more absolute . If we imitate nature , we should not refuse to cry out against ; what is vile , to battle with what is bad , to deal destruction on . what ; is mortal to life . It is part of God's work to sweep away corruption , and living force grown strong in that victory . The only use of the base in |<> be material for the victory of the noble . If a thing is vile , and you must bear it , endure without complain . ! . ; but if you can , efface it . It jh fo ' y slaying dragons that St , Georgon are trained . V

      " But your rule , Margaret ^ my dear girl , " exclaimed Edwardes . " You challenged me to apply ; now you must do so . " I { , " Unluckily , Margaret , " , observed Conway , "in our artificial arrangements , there is no room to carry out your law . " ; > ' ' " Make room , then ; better break a window than be stifled for want of air . ' ' ' . " ' - . ' . - "¦ - . : ' '' ¦ .. ¦ ¦'¦' ¦ '¦ ¦ . ' : ¦¦¦ " But you would have to break away people . In the overcrowded state of society——" " Oh ! never mind ' consequences , ' " cried Edwardes . "If a rule is a sound one , the consequences are sure to be right ; only , I want to know what is the rule . "

      Margaret paused ; and Conway answered for her . " The rule appears to me to be this . As we are born with certain faculties , the possessi on of those faculties indicates the action of life . If we have , as the phrenolo - gists would say , the faculty of acquisition , we must acquire ; if we have the faculty of reason , we must ratiocinate ; if of destruction , we must destroy ; and so on . But the faculties are most powerful in their most generous and perfect shape ; and the highest development of power tends also to strengthen the higher faculties . The ordinary precept is "to

      counteract those faculties which are the lowest , or the least desirable ; but if you do that , as society tries to do , by a direct process , you only appear to abate the faculties of the type , and to that extent diminish the force of life . By the opposite process of developing all the powers , you overbear those of inferior grade , and perfect the type of life by completing it in all its parts . I take that to be the rule . " . "/ " But still , " said Edwardes , " you do not give us the application . That was extorted from me . " " Let us apply it , " said Julie , " by getting out of this workshop , as we intended to do , or my life will be abated very disastrously . " And she ran out of the room into the garden .

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      The Discarded Son, (And Some Small Gossi...

      THE DISCARDED SON , ( AND SOME SMALL GOSSIP ) . On Monday night the Adelphi produced an adaptation of the Mis de JFamille , by " the Actor , Manager , and Author too , " Benjamin Webster . What a cruel thing it is to hear so continually of the " decline of the Drama , " when there never was a time in which " first-rate talent" was so abundant among actors , —if we are to take them at their own valuation , — when even failures , or such as appear failures to a simple-minded public ,

      are triumphant successes ! " "immense attractions ! " and draw " overflowing audiences nightly ! " and when our managers , —besides being managers , which one would think was enough for any head of moderate capacity , —are actors also , good actors for the most part , and if not always authors into the bargain , like Buckstone , Webster , Mathews , and Wigan , at any rate are " pits of erudition" and libraries of learning !—men who read Xiphilin at breakfast , Sennacherib at lunch , and turn lightly over the playful pages of Strabo before closing their eyes in slumber ! Tins is , however , probably a digression .

      Well , this Fils de Famille , or Discarded Son , that I was telling you about , is a veiy pleasant , stirring , comic drama , which has been one of the great dramatic successes in Paris during the last year , and which promises to have a fair run at the Adelphi , although not a ran so long as the original , partly from the English mind having less of a military cast than the French , and consequently the English audience will feel less interested by a play so thoroughly military in its spirit and allusions as this Discarded Son ; but mainly because a comedy of real life in a great measure depends for its success on the reality of jts representation . To make a drawing-room scone , such as that of the second act , properly interesting to an audienco , it should be represented with groat attention to verisimilitude . When von have strong 1 situation and

      strong language , —such as melodrama delights in—very little attention to verisimilitude is necessary ; the audience , moved by the feeling , attends only to the feeling . But when you have tho quieter expression and the less strongly marked position , such as every day's experience-furnishes , — - and such as comed y especially avails itself of , —then the interest of tho scene lies in its roality , in its direct appeal to that daily experience . When two melodramatic rivals scowl and stamp , and express their respective opinions of each other in language more emphatic than polite , more sonorous than accurate , tho spectator never once asks himself whether that \ h tho way that lovers in real life oxpross themselves . But when , as in this Discarded Son , a quarrel is represented between two rivals who are gentlemen , and who quarrel in the presence of ladies , unless the quarrel

      is conducted with something of the manner of gentlemen ' s quarrels , the spectator justly complains . Wow the whole drawing-room scene , on Monday night , wanted verisimilitude . I except Leigh Murray , whoso manner was quiet , gentlemanly , and effective . But all the details , all the little nothings which give im air of finish and reality to such a scone , W « ro wanting . Selby , as the exasperated Colonel , was " stagey , " and took up the insults in a most imroal mariner . Miss Woolgar , who ifl getting nioro and moro into the habit of speaking her part in private and Confidential communications to herself , under the mistaken notion , I believe , of being natural /—bad not , apparently , possessed * herself of tho moaning of tho bo

      situation , and thus , a very fine part became as ineffective as it could m the hands of one so great a favourite , so deservedly a favourite . I am touching hero upon the main points which seoni to rne likely to prevent tho piece having so great ; and universal a success , as it « original had in Paris . In justice , let me way , however , ' that its success on Monday with tho A DKi . i'in audienco , wan ' unequivocal . And the reasons of : tj "" HucceHH wore , first , the ingoimity and movement of the story ; secondly , and mainly nn regards acting , the excellent performance of Leigh M urray , whoso gaiety was unforced , whose manner was easy and gentlemanly , ami whose soriouBiioHH whs exquisitely real : the aoriousnoss or a manly nature , never exaggerated , while the expression of physical agony controlled by

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 15, 1853, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15101853/page/20/