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    Attotst 16,1856.] THE LEAPEB. 781

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    LA TRAVIATA IN THE PULPIT. " Save me fro...

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    Denison Martyr. G-Eorge Anthony Denison ...

    and to share the progress of opinion on subjects of religion . The educated clergy of this country , whether within or without the Establishment , are finding daily more and more how completely a better knowledge of the world , of the universe in which we are placed , of the history of mankind and its development , are consistent with a large though practical view of religion . Within even what is called the Church of

    England , we find men differing as broadly as Denison and Whatelt , not only upon that point of the communion , but upon every point that can be suggested by the perusal of the Scriptures , the commentators thereof , or the theologians . The fact then is , that even within the body called the Church of England there is the greatest variety of modes of interpreting the standard texts . Any Church which professes to represent the people of this country , even such as call themselves the Church of England , must necessarily include the varieties of opinion thus marked out ; must therefore be entirely repugnant to the judgment of Dr . Lushington , and to the Thirty-nine Articles on which that judgment is based . The whole question lies , according to this judgment , between the Bible and the Thirty-nine Articles , and we are convinced that nine-tenths of the people who profess to belong to the National Church , and who have any real earnestness in religious questions , would rather tear up the Articles than place them above the Bible . " When , therefore , the Primate of England , by the act of his chancellor , tells us that the Articles are the test of Christianity , the acknowledged exponents of religious truth , the standard by which our religion is to be measured , we say that they set up those Thirty-nine Articles as an obstacle to the development of religion —an obstacle which the very members of the National Church will unite with the

    Dissenters in pulling down . Our readers will bear us witness that we have never agitated for the demolition of the Church of England , either metaphorically or physically . On the contrary , we have always said that the freest discussion of opinion would result in showing that diversities of interpretation did not enter into the essence and form of religious belief ; and that , the freest scope being given to diversities of interpretation , the broadest ground would be opened to those who differ , for union in the

    common worship of a common Q-od . All who are sincere , whether within the Church or without it , will , we believe , agree to that statement of tho case , and those , therefore , who set up the Thirty-nine Articles as a dam to arrest the accumulating torrent of opinion and of free discussion , will but precipitate the day in which the obstruction will be overthrown . In that day we shall reform a corrupt corporation , emancipating the titular " Church of England , " to be the Church of the People of England .

    Attotst 16,1856.] The Leapeb. 781

    Attotst 16 , 1856 . ] THE LEAPEB . 781

    La Traviata In The Pulpit. " Save Me Fro...

    LA TRAVIATA IN THE PULPIT . " Save me from my friends" is the common expression ; but every lawyer who has practised in a court says still more emphatically , " Save you from yourself . " The man who 5 leads his own case has a fool for a client , t is perhaps inherent in tho position that a man Bhould part with some portion of his good sense , and hence we explain how it is that Mr . Lttmmsy , a Bhrewd man , who has generally known how to hold his own , should Iiavo signed a letter to the Times giving us about twice tho length and about half tho sense that would have sufficed for his defence

    m tho Traviata question . Tho play , ho argues , is strictly moral lie disavows the Dame aux Cameliatt , and answers only for tho

    libretto . As it stands , he says , " the melancholy catastrophe illustrates the Nemesis that attends on vice . " " Strike out of the character of Violetta the evil which has blighted it , and the last scene would have offended against the dramatic canon , that suffering should only be accepted for the purpose of teaching a moral lesson . " " The exhibition of the retribution which attends

    on sin may have as beneficial an influence as the highest example of virtue . " " In conclusion , " Mr . Lumlbt believes that , " in presenting the libretto of the Traviata without modification , he was administering to a good , a right , a merciful cause . " In short , we must regard the Opera not only an auxiliary to the pulpit , but a substitute for it .

    This , indeed , is an important view , and there is a certain degree of verisimilitude in the pretension . In presenting to the public a piece which has this admirable didactic purpose , Mr . IiTTMLET is acting with " the great and good . " It is , indeed , a new aspect of the impresario ' s position in life . Generally speaking , we do not associate the Opera House and the coulisses with any positively didactic purpose . We may ask Mr . Lumie y ,,

    perhaps , since he signs with so facile a pen , what is the moral purpose of Le Gorsaire ? for we presume that one who thus is anxious to act with " the great and good" must not only sing against sin , but dance didactically . The man who has witnessed a pas seul in the Corsaire , no doubt returns home a sadder and a wiser man , more inclined to forswear the gauds and suppers , the pomps and pleasures of this life , than before that instructive exhibition of the morality of motion .

    It may be so . Some verisimilitude is given to the pretension on the part of the Opera by the conduct of the Church . If we look , indeed , to that other theatre , which has hitherto been so much graver , we do find a difficulty in believing that the " great and good" are still present on its boards . We pass by scenes so tragic as the impending

    deprivation of Geob » e Anthony Denison , for the sin of believing- something in the Holy Scriptures which is not stipulated in the Thirty-nine Articles ; but we may refer to the scene in the church of Wix , where the incumbent , the Reverend Mr . Wii . kins , suddenly turned from the reading of the Second Lesson to comment on the immoi * al

    conduct of a parishioner who was present , and who answered ; profanely accusing Mr . Wilkins of falsehood . A highly dramatic scene was performed , impromptu , before the astonished audience . We may refer to a still more astonishing drama in the church at Hartlepool , where the patron tried to exclude the incumbent , and failing , rendered divine service impossible by keeping up the performance of a diabolical service ; a jolly labourer delivering a mock sermon from the mlpit ! Formerly we expected to see the moral read on the stage by the exhibition of passions and of catastrophes , the preaching

    being reserved for tho church . Now the preaching is carried on at Her Majesty ' s , and other fanes of that new Church of England ; while the passions and catastrophes aro enacted in tho licensed chapels and churches . It is a good cause which survives the advocacy of tho parties who aro intorcated in it ; nnd tho audience who have witnessed the performance of tho impugned opera have supplied tho commentary on the theoretical reclamations of tho Times . Tho more tho Times said " Don't go , " tho more people went ; tho more it pronounced the performance of the Traviata to bo unfitted for tho

    presence of ladies , tho moro ladies wero pre-Horxt ; for it is a fact that at tho additional performances of tho opera , tho number of women has positively increased in tho

    nudience . The more the Times said that Picco-IjOMInt derogated from her position by consenting to perform Tloletta , the more the audience loaded her with bouquets for her graciousness in doing so . In short , the audience felt that the journalist was wrong —that the reclamation was simple nonsense . At the best it was the honest anxiety of an

    old maid who had forgotten what she was talking about , or never understood it ; while a yet worse construction could be put upon it—that * it was the fumbling endeavour to find some subject on which the Times could pay its tribute to cant at the expense of all the audiences in all the most civilized capitals of Europe .

    In spite of Mr . Lttmi-ey ' s saying so , after his fashion , the moral directly taught by La Traviata is sound . The business of the scene is to hold the mirror up to nature , as it is seen , injured or vindicated , in society . Again we ask—must the mirror present only the beautiful aspects ? Every tragedy that has won the admiration of successive ages has displayed the struggle between virtue and vice ; but how can you present the struggle and

    omit the vice ? How exhibit the triumph of virtue , if virtue is to contend with nothing ? " If you had married a woman with auburn hair , light complexion , and a good fortune , " said Henry Harbison to Wim / cam Dove , " you would have been all right . " The model hero or heroine of the stage must be presented with blameless disposition , graceful circumstances , no temptations , and spotless probity . There must be the merit without the oppressor , —IiircHEzrA . without the Tabquiw , Giovanni

    —Donna JElvira without Don , — Desdemona without Iago , — Dido without ^ Eneas , —no , not Dido ; she is improper to be admitted to decent society . Helen , of course , is still worse ; and as for Abiosto , he is only what his noble patron called him ,- —a collector of " ribaldries . " Armida must be expunged from Tasso ; Milton must be published without the Devil ; and then we shall understand how it is virtue attains its triumphs . By being without temptations : that is the modern notion of robust training for morality I

    Unhappily , authors who have to compose works of art , artists who have to perform them , audiences who have to profit by them , know that the laws of life are somewhat different ; and within their narrow view the tragedy of Traviata is strictly moral . Let us observe . There is no hold over the moral sense so powerful as the natural affections . The young girl strays from the customs of healthy moral life ; she has been so

    unhappily brought up , that she is unconscious of a natural affection ; at last one ia awakened in her heart , and it recals in her the desire to reunite herself to a moral way of life . She is told that in doing so she risks the probability that the youth whom she loveB may himself become estranged from ordinary moral life ; and , in order to spare him that risk , she severs tho connexion , and suffers herself to driflfback into her old and detested

    way . But sho is rescued by a fatal illness , tho effect of grief , which destroys her . This is said to bo presented in such form as to render vice " alluring . " The statement is a positive falsehood . The vice is rendered wholly detostablo ami abhorront . Tho interest of the audience is excited purely for the healthy or moral leanings of tho girl . Tho spectators are interested in her on that account wholly and solely . The sacrifice which 8 ho makes to morality is felt by tho audience to bo not too great for its objoct ; and yet they sympathize in tho sacrifice . In all these respects tho admiration , tho sympathy , tho interest of tho audience , aro identified

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16081856/page/13/