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Leader (1850-1860), 16th August 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 781, Untitled Article

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      and to share the progress of opinion onsubiects of religibn . 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 Djsnison and Whately , 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 Churcn , and who have any real earnestness in religious questions , would rather tear up the Articles than place them above the Bible . AVhen , 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 the 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 bo the Church of the People of England .

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      LA . TRAVIATA IN THE PULPIT . " Save mo from my friends" is the common expression ; but every lawyer who has practised in a court says still moro emphatically , " Save you from yourself . " The man who pleads his own case has a fool for a client . It is perhaps inherent in the position that a man should part with some portion of his

      good sense , and hence we explain how it is that Mr , Lttmxby , a shrewd man , who has generally known how to hold his own , should nave signed a letter to the Times giving us about twice the length and about half the sense that would have sufficed for his defence in the Traviata question . The play , he argues , ia . strictly moral Ho disavows the Dame aux OmiSlias , and answers only for the

      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 attend * , on sin may have as beneficial an influence as the highest example of virtue . " " In

      conclusion , " Mr . Lumlei 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 . Lumley 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 . Lumxe y , perhaps , since he signs with so facile a pen , what is the moral purpose of Le Oorsaire f 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

      dien . ee . The more the Times said that Piccolomini derogated from her position by consenting to perform Violetta , 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 . Lttmley ' 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 William Dote , " 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 , —Lucrezia without the Tarqutk , Giovanni

      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 iu believing that the " great and good" are still present on its boards . We

      —Donna JSlvira without Don , — Desdemona without logo , — - Dido without . ZEkeas , —no , not Dido ; she is improper to be admitted to decent society . Helen , of course , is still worse ; and aa for Ariosto , 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 !

      pass by scenes so tragic as the impending deprivation of George Anthony Denison , for the sin of believing somethiug 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 . Wilkins , suddenly turned from the reading of the Second Lesson to comment on the immoral

      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 aa the natural affections . The young girl strays from the customs of healthy moral life ; she has been so

      unhapconduct of a parishioner who was present , and who answered ; profanelv 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 pulpit ! Formerly we expected to see the moral read on the stage by the exhibition of passions and of catastrophes , the preaching

      pily brought irp , that she is unconscious of a natural affection ; at last one is 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 loves may himself become estranged from ordinary moral life ; and , in order to spare him that risk , she severs the connexion , and suffers herself to drift back into her old and detested

      being reserved for the 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 are enacted in tho licensed chapels and churches . It is a good cause which survives the advocacy of the parties who are interested in it ; and the audionce who have witnessed the performance of the impugned opera have supplied tho commentary on the theoretical reclamations of tho Times . Tho more the Times said " Don't go , " tho moro people went ; the moro it pronounced the performance of the Traviat . a to bo unlitted for the

      way . But she is rescued by a fatal illness , the effect of grief , which destroys her . This is said to bo presented in such form as _ to render vice " alluring . " The statement ia a positive falsehood . The vice is rendered wholly detestable and abhorrent . The interest of tho audience is excited purely for the healthy or moral leanings of the girl . The spectators nro interested in her on that account wholly aud solely ^ The sacrifice which she makes to morality is felt by tho audience to be not too great for its object ; and yet they sympathize in tho sacrifice . In all these respects tho admiration , the sympathy , the interest of tho audionce . arc id entified

      presence of ladios , the moro ladies were present ; for it is a fact that at tho additional performances of tho opera , tho number of women has positively increased in tho au-

      Untitled Article

      Atous * , I *™ - ! THE LEADER . 781

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1856, page 781, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2154/page/13/