{"numero_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_sha256": "266c99bde86fc7c0bf7251982da4178f4592fc5229f0273aacfa3076fda70f2b", "source_tei": "https://github.com/Princeton-CDH/bluemountain-transcriptions/blob/main/periodicals/bmtnaau/issues/1918/11_02/bmtnaau_1918-11_02.tei.xml", "source_mets": "https://github.com/pulibrary/BlueMountain/blob/main/metadata/periodicals/bmtnaau/issues/1918/11_02/bmtnaau_1918-11_02.mets.xml", "url_numero": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02", "articles": [{"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c001", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c001", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "37", "page_fin": "37", "image_debut": 1, "image_fin": 1, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.1", "titre_corps": "LITTLE STATES", "titre_sommaire": "LITTLE STATES", "signature_source": "Lao-Tzu ; Giles", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "37", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.1", "debut_caractere": 92, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1068, "texte": "LITTLE STATES\nLao-Tzu.\nTrans. Giles.\nWERE I ruler of a little State with a small population,\nand only ten or a hundred men available as soldiers,\nI would not use them. I would have the people look on\ndeath as a grievous thing, and they should not travel to\ndistant countries. Tho' they might have boats and carriages,\nthey should have no occasion to ride in them. Tho' they\nmight own weapons and armour, they should have no need\nto use them. I should make the people return to the use\nof knotted cords. ® They should find their plain food sweet,\ntheir rough garments fine. They should be content with\ntheir homes, and happy in their simple ways. If a\nneighbouring State was in sight of mine nay, if we were\nnear enough to hear the crowing of each other's cocks, and\nthe barking of each others' dogs the two peoples should\ngrow old and die without there ever having been any mutual\nintercourse.\n(i) The old quipo method of recording events, before the invention of writing.\ni '"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c002", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c002", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "37", "page_fin": "38", "image_debut": 1, "image_fin": 2, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.2", "titre_corps": "LITTLE THEATRES AND SO ON", "titre_sommaire": "LITTLE THEATRES AND SO ON", "signature_source": "Y. N. H", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "37", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.1", "debut_caractere": 1070, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1811, "texte": "LITTLE THEATRES AND SO ON.\n\nAnd then, \" said Tu-no-whoo, picking up the thread the\nMaster had dropped as he fell asleep, '' and then, were I\nyour prime minister I Would do so much to divert the people\na little: do you k.now, Master, I would have tiny little\nTheatres every two miles I would have them on the hills\nand down near the shore.... one on the road once in away....\nbut most of them dotted here and there along the hi 115....\nunder olives if in Italy, under if in that strange country\nabout which you have so often threatened to speak 1° me....\nhere in bamboo groves:.... it would be so pretty.\nWork done, I and my son would stroll across the Valley\naround the broken path. We might stop at the little church,\n\nConcluded on page 38."}, {"page_pdf": 2, "page_imprimee": "38", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.2", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1012, "texte": "or at the little theatre,or at the little library, or at the little\nlollipop shop.\nThe Theatre would seat twenty people comfortably; it\nWould be open every day for an hour after midday and for an\nhour after sundown : it would stay open longer if any two or\nthree desired to see more;.... Marionnettes of course, Master.\nIn off hours the three artists would be hard at work\npreparing festivities, cutting figures, writing dramas. The\nkettle Would be always simmering, as it were; and if one\nout of 3 ,000,000 of these lads could do particularly well\nwe could let him have three half holidays to himself to\nprepare us new wonders.\nSome of us would stroll in at noon after lunch to see\na show. A seat would cost twopence. What is that in hard\nChinese cash, Master ?\nYou would come once a year and you would leave us\na bag of money to spend on improving our show.\nWhat happiness if you were the ruler of a little State\nand I your prime minister Sleep, dear Master.... the\ndraught of Death will refresh you.\n\nY. N. H."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c003", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c003", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "37", "page_fin": "37", "image_debut": 1, "image_fin": 1, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.3", "titre_corps": "[Sans titre]", "titre_sommaire": "[Sans titre]", "signature_source": "Disraeli", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "37", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.1", "debut_caractere": 1813, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1907, "texte": "Disraeli. \"Contarini Fleming\".\n| WISH THAT THE WORLD CONSISTED OF\nI A CLUSTER OF SMALL STATES."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c004", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c004", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "37", "page_fin": "37", "image_debut": 1, "image_fin": 1, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.4", "titre_corps": "THE THEATRE IN WAR-TIME", "titre_sommaire": "THE THEATRE IN WAR-TIME", "signature_source": "ISRAEL ZANGWILL", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "37", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.1", "debut_caractere": 1909, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3153, "texte": "THE THEATRE\nIN WAR-TIME.\nISRAEL ZANGWILL, 1918.\nW/HATEVER be the case against\nW light entertainment, there can\nbe no doubt that a serious work °f\nart imparts a noble exaltation, so\nthat I have always been shocked by\nthe idea that good Churchmen may\nnot see plays in Lent, and I have\nwondered whether poetry, music and\npictures are equally taboo. Such\nWorks of art are, however, so rarely\nseen on the English stage that the\nChurchman may be forgiven his preju-\ndice. But even the more frivolous\nforms of entertainment, provided, of\ncourse, they are fun and not filth,\nhave their legitimate place in the stress\nof war.\nn As our nervous system is fashioned,\nit cannot remain strung up to one\nmonotonus pitch of tragedy without\ndanger of snapping.... Consciousness\ncan only really exist under change.\nn Those wise old Church festivals\nthe Feast of Fools and the Feast\nof the Ass allowed even the most\nsacred ceremonies to be burlesqued be-\ncause that only enhanced the real re-\nverence for them....\n\" It is on the nerves of the civi-\nlians that the national endurance ul-\ntimately depends, and it is a ques-\ntion whether instead of almost shutting\nup the theatres by its exactions and\nrestrictions, the State should not ac*\ntually subsidise them n."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c005", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c005", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "37", "page_fin": "38", "image_debut": 1, "image_fin": 2, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.5", "titre_corps": "[Sans titre]", "titre_sommaire": "[Sans titre]", "signature_source": "J. B", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "37", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.1", "debut_caractere": 3155, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4101, "texte": "MANY people are wondering if the\nTheatre should not be done\naway with altogether, so litttle is it in\ntune with our changed ideas and so\nmuch does it clash with the sombre\nyet heroic background of our thoughts\ntoday. No one, it seems, dreams that\nthe Theatre might be made to harmo-\nnize with them and be itself heroic\nwithout being sombre.... or that it\nmight be even gay, and, without clash-\ning with our saddened or sobered\nfeelings, might come to delight us.\nIn the short essay full of good things\nwhich I have quoted above, Mr. Israel\nZangwill said (some time ago now)\nthat entertainment is a national neces-\nsity in this time of strain. He points\nout that were it a question of a short\nwar it might be possible to live through\nit at a sublime and spartan level, but\nn with its indefinite continuance we\nmust needs adjust our many-faceted\nlife to the new martial environment, as\nbirds manage to sing between their\nuneasy glances for an enemy"}, {"page_pdf": 2, "page_imprimee": "38", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.2", "debut_caractere": 1014, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5955, "texte": "\" Never was the theatre so neces-\nsary \\ he says.\nThat has been my opinion for the\nlast four years,\nYou can, if it interests you, guess\nhow painful it has been to me to see\nthe Theatre degraded to a thing of\nutterly no value at all.\nBut it is our own fault. If in 1914\nwe had possessed a theatre in which\nbrains, not money, were considered as\nof the first importance if we had\nalways asked n what can he do ? n\ninstead of n how much does he earn ? n\nour Theatre would have been ready\nto meet the present emergency.\nDisraeli, one of our few great states-\nmen who have ever understood the\nsecret and the power of art, wrote in\n1844 that nin England we too often\nalternate between a supercilious neglect\nof genius and a rhapsodical pursuit of\nquacks\". In 1914 the neglect and\nhe pursuit were both doing well, and\nthe strangest thing about it was that\nthe quacks we ran after were foreigners\n- it would be invidious to mention\ntheir nationality while the genius\nso neglected was plentiful among our\nown countrymen. Absurdity could no\nfurther g0.... and we considered our-\nselves a patriotic nation I Perhaps we\nneeded a great war to bring out the\nmanhood of u5.... to save us from\nbehaving longer like a pack of silly\nand ignorant society women who will\nrave about any new foreign artist as if\nhe were the latest Paris hat.\nBut has it saved us ?\nWe have got rid of Reinhardt for\nt lIIHBIIiW ,I>—SJITTH IIIUII—\nthe moment, but where is our own\nman? Where is even the man the\nman of genius among our Allies ?\nWe don't even know his name ! It is\nlucky that we are more clear-sighted\nthough still slow in military questions.\nYet the Theatre too is a matter of life\nand death to the nation of mental\nlife and death. Can anyone doubt it ?\nIt is a sign of mental death or at\nleast of atrophy to abandon truth m\norder to run after a 1ie.... and quacks\nare liars.\nBut suppose we descend from the\nheights from Genius which so often\noccupied the thoughts of Disraeli\nto the humbler places where we find\nEndeavour. Could you believe that\neven Endeavour is neglected in the\nEnglish Theatre ? Yet it is.\nIt is this fact that utterly routs all\narguments which can be advanced by\nthose who somehow or other seem to\nlook on Genius as a red rag. They\nalways like to fancy that Endeavour is\nrecognized, appreciated and made use of\nby our nation that Endeavour is pro-\nper whereas Genius is merely hungry.\nThey like to fancy that English\nEndeavour is never overlooked, But\nit is.\nq We are asked to suppose that\naccording to the English standard.\nq The one and only thing which\nmust be learned by both those who\nwork ill and those who work well, is\nto compromise with all the vulgarity of\ntheatrical business; they who will do\nso are then looked upon as successful\nmen, and upon those base levels they\nare successful. This is what we are\nasked to believe is to be allowed to\ncontinue.\nIf this state of things continues after\nyears of a war that calls to all of us\nfor far other things than compromise,\nthen no English Theatre worth the\nname can possibly emerge.\nYet there is still plenty of n money\nin the theatre. \"\nIn this connection it is significant to\nnote the wholesale way in which all\nthose n good old n Music-hall Directors\nhave been knighted. It has long been\npreposterous to knight any artist one\nmay almost say that it is preposterous\nnowadays to knight a valiant soldier.\nThe old-time honour has lost its\nmeaning, and I say this no matter what\nservices these business men may have\nrendered their country in the way of\nbusiness. That is nothing new, but\nthe paradox in war-time has become\nmore apparent the absurdity more\nglaring. Never did I admire John\nGalsworthy so much as when he\ngraciously declined a thing thrown\nhim at the last minute by telegram.\nTELEGRAM!! Tremendous vulga-\nrity ! Is this the England we all care\nabout ?\nis it does these things? Could\nit not occur to someone anyone\neven a maid of honour with influence\nthat instead of a knighthood such\na man as Galsworthy should be asked\nto accept the means of carrying out\nhis ideas for the improvement of the\nrace ? this being Galsworthy's pur-\npose in his art. Any means he pre-\nfers ? A theatre perfectly equipt\nwould not Galsworthy make it worth\nits cost to the nation ?\nMoney is a thing of no value except\nit be used with a free hand, and for\nworthy objects.... not only for purposes\nof destruction. Construction costs even\nmore: well then, spend it or get\nready for spending it when Peace\nsurprises us. And then let the Theatre\nhave its share. So that the People may\nnot be cheated of a thing dear to them.\nLet our Zangwills and Galsworthys\nthere are not many of the same\ncalibre fight for this. There will\nthen be some hope for Art in the\nTheatre. At present there is only\nBusiness, which, while being a very\ngood servant, is a bad master.... even\nwhen knighted.\nTHE ANCIENT DRAMA PRE-\nSERVED THE MASK AND IT\nDID WELL - FOR THE MASK\nIS THE SECRET OF ITS POWER,\nCHARLES NODIER.\n\nJ. B."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c006", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c006", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "39", "page_fin": "39", "image_debut": 3, "image_fin": 3, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.6", "titre_corps": "A PRAYER : by an Actor", "titre_sommaire": "A PRAYER : by an Actor", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 3, "page_imprimee": "39", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.3", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4244, "texte": "A PRAYER.\nby AN ACTOR.\nSIR Rabindranath Tagore.... whose\nbooks even during these disturbing\ntimes are to be seen heaped upon the\nbooksellers' counters in ever increasing\nheaps which the public reduce in the\ntwinkling of a day.... Sir Rabindranath\nTagore once wrote a short essay on\nthe Stage. In it he said that the\nPlay was the thing, and that \" the\nartificial platform with its hanging\ncanvas is not worthy of the Poet....\nand that acting has forlornly to await\nthe coming of the Drama since only\nin its company can it display its charms n.\nHe also said some other things about\nus.\nAlthough written eighteen years ago,\nabout the year 1900, Sir Rabindranath\nTagore reprinted his essay in an\nAmerican Journal in 1915, and added\na note saying 11 My opinion has not\naltered n.\nTO Sir Rabindranath Tagore for his\nmany noble qualities, his high\naspirations and so much more besides....\na reverence as sincere as a Westerner\ncan promise. That done, a prayer..,,\non my knees I pray :... to some courtier\nof the only-living God I address myself.\nSay this to your Master.... and\nmind you put it in my words, blunt\nas they are.\n€J <n_l am an actor. Have I the\nright to live ?\n11 I am cast out to right and to\nleft by men down here.... Have I\nstill the right to live ?\n€| n I beseech you to tell me or\nshow me.... and if so be, I pray that\nthe truth you reveal to me may be\nrevealed also unto a noble Indian whose\nwords show me that in his mind I am\ntorn, wrenched away from that to\nwhich I belong, from which I grew,\nand which I strove to create afresh\nand to keep alive.... my father and\nmy 50n.... my theatre.\nn I am not able to speak as Sir\nRabindranath speaks ; but then he has\nbeen privileged to see so much more\nof the All-Highest than ever was\nvouchsafed unto me.\nn When I first read what this knight\nhad written about my calling, I really\nfelt anger ; then I doubted his word ;\nand lastly I turn to you. I really do\nnot know if I am condemned by the\nAll-Highest or no. We actors have\ndone badly, 1 can but admit this.\n• • • • • ••••• ••\n■ We might try again. And if we\ntry again, are we to continue in loving\nsympathy and helpful comradeship with\nthe gracious poets and priests, and\nthose who are both and those who are\nneither one nor t'other ?\nn And are we to make the first\nadvances?... for there is something\nmore than a little hatred between\nu5.... there is, I fear, the pale shadow\nof contempt. We know we deserve it\nbecause we have never been able to\ninvent the beautiful words that give\nsuch a polish to our expression ; and\nall we could do was to inspire some\nof the best poets in their creations.... to\ngive them clues.... hints.... mere\nnothings.... and in return these great\nmen (two especially, whom if I dared,\nI would commend to your notice) have\nbeen mostly kind enough to crack\nsome of our own jokes right bang in\nthe middle of their plays.\nn But since that so very noble a\nman as Sir Rabindranath Tagore has\nturned his eyes our way.... and since\nhe has furthermore been so gracious as\nto condemn u5.... to push us back, so\nto speak, into the narrow, dark and\nunpleasant room from which the son\nof our thrice-blessed Ellen Terry had\nbut yesterday rescued u5.... we fear\nthat we may have to stay there for\nWho knows how many years more.\nWe were escaping, please tell the\nAll-Mighty.... we really were.... this\nis no idle boast. We were all\ngathering outside the stage door, myriads\nof us, ready to shout and sing, when\nthis message from Sir Rabindranath\n(who we know must be very high in\nfavour Up Yonder) was burst upon us.\n\" It practically tefls us that we are\nnot fit to live. We have consulted\none with another and we feel that it\namounts to an ultimatum. I wanted\nto know if it meets with your entire\napproval.... that is all.\n\"P. S. And if a prayer may have\nits postscript I wish to add that I have\ntalked it over once more with my\nfellows and we have decided that,\nwhatever happens, we will \" stick it\nout \".... with apologies for the humble\ncolloquialism.... ,! see it through \", and\ndo our very best to become in future\nages poets.... dramatic poets.... theatre\npoets; for when we have achieved\nthis we shall not have to offend those\nwho feel that a real poet is too noble\nto stoop to undo the latchet of his\nown shoe n."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c008", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c008", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "39", "page_fin": "40", "image_debut": 3, "image_fin": 4, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.7", "titre_corps": "BOOK REVIEWS", "titre_sommaire": "BOOK REVIEWS", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 3, "page_imprimee": "39", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.3", "debut_caractere": 4246, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6451, "texte": "BOOK REVIEWS.\n\nPER AMIGA SILENTIA LUNSE.\nby W. B. Yeats. (Macmillan & Co.)\n1918. Pr/ce 4/6.\nTHAT which we do not understand\neither seems to us terrifying or\nabsurd.... if not this it makes us feel\nabsurd. We admit that we feel a bit\nawkward before Mr Yeats* new book.\nIt is one of those profound little\nworks which yawn before us like an\nabyss as we trip or stumble along our\nlittle path.... and no amount of ribaldry\ncan bring us to the brink :... what use\nin looking down the terrible gulf when\nwe haven't even the nerve to get up\nto the edge ? And there, flying up and\ndown like a butterfly, is Mr Yeats at\nhis ease.\nIt is a fine spectacle.... Need we\nfeel absurd ? Must we ?... or may we\nnot applaud from the last row in the\ngallery.... the front row being far too\nnear the brink.\nI have before now been to a\ntheatre and understood nothing of what\nwas going on.... and therefore rather\ndisliked the performer on the stage.\nThen I have gone once more and\nrather liked him.... then once again\nand found him interesting.... I was\nbeginning to understand what everyone\nelse understood all the time.\nI think it will be so for me with\nMr Yeats' new book. I am at present\nout of it.... through a certain thick-\nheaded state into which it has\nevidently pleased God to call me. So\nwhat is writ of in his book I do not\nsee clearly about.... but I may be\nallowed to cheer up by feeling I know\nits writ in beautiful prose.\nThere are some reviewers of books\nwho in their teens will speak as I have\nspoken out of sheer \" superiority \"....\nas who should say, 0 the book is\nabove me \".... They often get the\nsack, such reviewers, for shirking their\nduty in shamming dead.\nI am not shamming. Even when\nI lived so far away from Ireland as\nCeylon I always went down to meet\nthe boat which brought over a book\nfrom Mr Yeats. His name was one\nof the names we often liked to repeat\naloud at home during the week. We\nfelt we knew him.... to us he seemed\na real human being.... I had never\nread his work on William Blake or\nhis n Good and Evil \", but his verse\nand his writings about Ireland and the\nIrish Theatre, these made us always\ngay at heart.\nSo if I do not understand this book\nmay be it's not for me. .. not even for"}, {"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.4", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5062, "texte": "the Gods in the back row of the\nGallery.\nOur Poet is playing to something\nfurther 5ti11.... his voice and gestures\ngo over our heads. He is playing to\nthe moon.\nI turn my thoughts once more to-\nwards the stage. Everyone else in\nthe theatre is still rapt.... gazing at\nthe figure in the centre of this stage.\nHow lonely I feel!... So, as no one\nwill notice, I lift my hand and open a\nlittle shutter which I see above my\nhead. Ah, there is the m00n.... I\nturn and look long into that warm\nwhite face.\n1 hear Mr Yeats still speaking down\nthere.... I watch the moon still. I\nsee no change in that seemingly\neverlasting Inconstant.\nHow silent now!... I grow c01d.... I\nturn to look at the stage again.... What\nhas happened?... Stage.... author....\naudience.... all have gone.... down there\nis only the street.... grey and misty:...\nno lights. Why did I turn to look\nat the moon ?... God bless me, I am\ntalking to myself.... This won't do 1\n\nCONTARINI FLEMING\no by B.Disraeli. o\nWHAT is that you said?... I had\nsent you a note saying \" Read\n1 Contarini Fleming 1 by Disraeli n....\nand you said to someone who was\nwriting to* me, \" Tell him I read that\nyears ago when he was a child n.\nI meant no harm, I pretended no\ndiscovery. I was not puffed up. All\nI wanted was that you might share a\npleasure with me.\n€f But it is not unusual for us as\nwe grow older to forget that a book\nwe have once read is no older than\nit was, and that though we have read\nit once.... say twice.... if we read it\nagain we may discover it anew.\nThe best of a work of art is that,\nas it stands alone, is in no way related\nto persons living at the time it was\nmade or since, it must always be a\nkind of paradise which we may enter\nor leave whenever we wish.\nI find that Disraeli's novels are just\nsuch a paradise.... and Contarini Fleming\nis full of angels and mysterious voices.\nNot \"so mysterious that I don't know\nwhether I'm in Heaven or Hell, but\nblissfully mysterious: ....no nl' art\nnouveau \" about them nothing\nchic.... and no touch of a stance\nabout them.\nHuman.... and wonderful.\nIt is entrancing to get fresh assurance\nthat the wonderful and the Heavenly\nmay be human.\nWe are, may be, inclined to pose a\nlittle too long in our Celestial attitudes.\nForgetting to move in time we discover\nto our consternation that we have\nbecome frozen and can't get down.\nWe get into those attitudes.... on\nthose lonely pedestals ....in a niche to\navoid the crowd.\nWe avoid a crowd when we get\nqueer in our hearts about friendliness.\nA thousand friends may break from\nus or we from them, the crowd is ever\nfaithful.... and what is more, ever\ninscrutable.... wise.... tremendous. To\nreject the crowd is no way for a\nsuperior sort of fellow to carry on. I\nalways find that it is only in the crowd\nthat ghosts are to be found. I like\nghosts.... being rather mystically besoaked.\nI was brought up on fairies and on\nall the strange folk-lore of a northern\nland and so the mists are in me. And\nI have for this reason the everlasting\nhankering to see what is called the\ninvisible and hear strange voices which\nothers say they cannot hear.\nI always succeed by going into a\ncrowd. Once there I know I shall\nsoon see and hear. And indeed only\nlast week, in the Piazza del Popolo,\nthe great Piazza, and packed with\npeople.... a mysterious figure approached\nme, and, smiling, held out its hand to\nme saying, n You have been long\nexpected n.\nHow familiar these words sounded\nto me! 1 replied without hesitation,\nn If I have been long expected I have\nat length arrived n.\nIt did not occur to me till long after\nthat I had been echoing the very\nwords of Contarini and many other\nhuman beings. It seemed so mysterious\nto me at the time.\nNow I beg of you to save me all\nfurther talk, and if you've ever read\nthe book read it once more.... and say\nif it isn't worth a hundred hundred\nmodern novels.\n\n\" SENLIS,\" by Cicely Hamilton. W.\nCollins Sons & Co. Ltd, London 1917.\nPrice 3/6 net.\nA pleasantly rambling book, illustrated\nby photographs of the ruins of\nSenlis after the Germans left it. In spite\nof the devastation it records, we feel\nthe atmosphere of old France and that\n\" pretty little town.... \" \" the favourite\nabode of the lover of peace and\ncomfort n. We read of a grass-grown\nRoman arena, once the scene of\ngladiatorial combats; and surely Church\nand Stage have seldom been so closely\nconnected as here, where the ancient\nChurch of St. Aignan was, before the\nwar, the town theatre.\nMiss Hamilton gives us a sombre\nthought : n What, you wonder, will\narise on the place of the older dignity\nof the ruined towns, of the older pro-\nportion and sturdiness? Will it not be\nrows of small jerry-built houses, run\nup all across France.... accustoming\nthe eye pf a new generation to angles\nwithout grace, to monotony and shoddy\npretentiousness ?... Featureless little\nvillages, set down on the soil, not\nrooted in it; featureless little cities\nthat have not grown, measured out\nby the block and the yard.... n Can\nnothing be done to save the new\ngeneration, for which we are supposed\nto be fighting, from this fate ?"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c009", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c009", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "39", "page_fin": "40", "image_debut": 3, "image_fin": 4, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.7.1", "titre_corps": "PER AMIGA SILENTIA LUNAE by W.B. Yeats", "titre_sommaire": "PER AMIGA SILENTIA LUNAE by W.B. Yeats", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 3, "page_imprimee": "39", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.3", "debut_caractere": 4261, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6451, "texte": "PER AMIGA SILENTIA LUNSE.\nby W. B. Yeats. (Macmillan & Co.)\n1918. Pr/ce 4/6.\nTHAT which we do not understand\neither seems to us terrifying or\nabsurd.... if not this it makes us feel\nabsurd. We admit that we feel a bit\nawkward before Mr Yeats* new book.\nIt is one of those profound little\nworks which yawn before us like an\nabyss as we trip or stumble along our\nlittle path.... and no amount of ribaldry\ncan bring us to the brink :... what use\nin looking down the terrible gulf when\nwe haven't even the nerve to get up\nto the edge ? And there, flying up and\ndown like a butterfly, is Mr Yeats at\nhis ease.\nIt is a fine spectacle.... Need we\nfeel absurd ? Must we ?... or may we\nnot applaud from the last row in the\ngallery.... the front row being far too\nnear the brink.\nI have before now been to a\ntheatre and understood nothing of what\nwas going on.... and therefore rather\ndisliked the performer on the stage.\nThen I have gone once more and\nrather liked him.... then once again\nand found him interesting.... I was\nbeginning to understand what everyone\nelse understood all the time.\nI think it will be so for me with\nMr Yeats' new book. I am at present\nout of it.... through a certain thick-\nheaded state into which it has\nevidently pleased God to call me. So\nwhat is writ of in his book I do not\nsee clearly about.... but I may be\nallowed to cheer up by feeling I know\nits writ in beautiful prose.\nThere are some reviewers of books\nwho in their teens will speak as I have\nspoken out of sheer \" superiority \"....\nas who should say, 0 the book is\nabove me \".... They often get the\nsack, such reviewers, for shirking their\nduty in shamming dead.\nI am not shamming. Even when\nI lived so far away from Ireland as\nCeylon I always went down to meet\nthe boat which brought over a book\nfrom Mr Yeats. His name was one\nof the names we often liked to repeat\naloud at home during the week. We\nfelt we knew him.... to us he seemed\na real human being.... I had never\nread his work on William Blake or\nhis n Good and Evil \", but his verse\nand his writings about Ireland and the\nIrish Theatre, these made us always\ngay at heart.\nSo if I do not understand this book\nmay be it's not for me. .. not even for"}, {"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.4", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 934, "texte": "the Gods in the back row of the\nGallery.\nOur Poet is playing to something\nfurther 5ti11.... his voice and gestures\ngo over our heads. He is playing to\nthe moon.\nI turn my thoughts once more to-\nwards the stage. Everyone else in\nthe theatre is still rapt.... gazing at\nthe figure in the centre of this stage.\nHow lonely I feel!... So, as no one\nwill notice, I lift my hand and open a\nlittle shutter which I see above my\nhead. Ah, there is the m00n.... I\nturn and look long into that warm\nwhite face.\n1 hear Mr Yeats still speaking down\nthere.... I watch the moon still. I\nsee no change in that seemingly\neverlasting Inconstant.\nHow silent now!... I grow c01d.... I\nturn to look at the stage again.... What\nhas happened?... Stage.... author....\naudience.... all have gone.... down there\nis only the street.... grey and misty:...\nno lights. Why did I turn to look\nat the moon ?... God bless me, I am\ntalking to myself.... This won't do 1"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c010", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c010", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "40", "page_fin": "40", "image_debut": 4, "image_fin": 4, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.7.2", "titre_corps": "CONTARINI FLEMING by B. Disraeli", "titre_sommaire": "CONTARINI FLEMING by B. Disraeli", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.4", "debut_caractere": 936, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3842, "texte": "CONTARINI FLEMING\no by B.Disraeli. o\nWHAT is that you said?... I had\nsent you a note saying \" Read\n1 Contarini Fleming 1 by Disraeli n....\nand you said to someone who was\nwriting to* me, \" Tell him I read that\nyears ago when he was a child n.\nI meant no harm, I pretended no\ndiscovery. I was not puffed up. All\nI wanted was that you might share a\npleasure with me.\n€f But it is not unusual for us as\nwe grow older to forget that a book\nwe have once read is no older than\nit was, and that though we have read\nit once.... say twice.... if we read it\nagain we may discover it anew.\nThe best of a work of art is that,\nas it stands alone, is in no way related\nto persons living at the time it was\nmade or since, it must always be a\nkind of paradise which we may enter\nor leave whenever we wish.\nI find that Disraeli's novels are just\nsuch a paradise.... and Contarini Fleming\nis full of angels and mysterious voices.\nNot \"so mysterious that I don't know\nwhether I'm in Heaven or Hell, but\nblissfully mysterious: ....no nl' art\nnouveau \" about them nothing\nchic.... and no touch of a stance\nabout them.\nHuman.... and wonderful.\nIt is entrancing to get fresh assurance\nthat the wonderful and the Heavenly\nmay be human.\nWe are, may be, inclined to pose a\nlittle too long in our Celestial attitudes.\nForgetting to move in time we discover\nto our consternation that we have\nbecome frozen and can't get down.\nWe get into those attitudes.... on\nthose lonely pedestals ....in a niche to\navoid the crowd.\nWe avoid a crowd when we get\nqueer in our hearts about friendliness.\nA thousand friends may break from\nus or we from them, the crowd is ever\nfaithful.... and what is more, ever\ninscrutable.... wise.... tremendous. To\nreject the crowd is no way for a\nsuperior sort of fellow to carry on. I\nalways find that it is only in the crowd\nthat ghosts are to be found. I like\nghosts.... being rather mystically besoaked.\nI was brought up on fairies and on\nall the strange folk-lore of a northern\nland and so the mists are in me. And\nI have for this reason the everlasting\nhankering to see what is called the\ninvisible and hear strange voices which\nothers say they cannot hear.\nI always succeed by going into a\ncrowd. Once there I know I shall\nsoon see and hear. And indeed only\nlast week, in the Piazza del Popolo,\nthe great Piazza, and packed with\npeople.... a mysterious figure approached\nme, and, smiling, held out its hand to\nme saying, n You have been long\nexpected n.\nHow familiar these words sounded\nto me! 1 replied without hesitation,\nn If I have been long expected I have\nat length arrived n.\nIt did not occur to me till long after\nthat I had been echoing the very\nwords of Contarini and many other\nhuman beings. It seemed so mysterious\nto me at the time.\nNow I beg of you to save me all\nfurther talk, and if you've ever read\nthe book read it once more.... and say\nif it isn't worth a hundred hundred\nmodern novels."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c011", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c011", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "40", "page_fin": "40", "image_debut": 4, "image_fin": 4, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.7.3", "titre_corps": "\"SENLIS\" by Cicely Hamilton", "titre_sommaire": "\"SENLIS\" by Cicely Hamilton", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.4", "debut_caractere": 3844, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5062, "texte": "\" SENLIS,\" by Cicely Hamilton. W.\nCollins Sons & Co. Ltd, London 1917.\nPrice 3/6 net.\nA pleasantly rambling book, illustrated\nby photographs of the ruins of\nSenlis after the Germans left it. In spite\nof the devastation it records, we feel\nthe atmosphere of old France and that\n\" pretty little town.... \" \" the favourite\nabode of the lover of peace and\ncomfort n. We read of a grass-grown\nRoman arena, once the scene of\ngladiatorial combats; and surely Church\nand Stage have seldom been so closely\nconnected as here, where the ancient\nChurch of St. Aignan was, before the\nwar, the town theatre.\nMiss Hamilton gives us a sombre\nthought : n What, you wonder, will\narise on the place of the older dignity\nof the ruined towns, of the older pro-\nportion and sturdiness? Will it not be\nrows of small jerry-built houses, run\nup all across France.... accustoming\nthe eye pf a new generation to angles\nwithout grace, to monotony and shoddy\npretentiousness ?... Featureless little\nvillages, set down on the soil, not\nrooted in it; featureless little cities\nthat have not grown, measured out\nby the block and the yard.... n Can\nnothing be done to save the new\ngeneration, for which we are supposed\nto be fighting, from this fate ?"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c012", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c012", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "40", "page_fin": "40", "image_debut": 4, "image_fin": 4, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.8", "titre_corps": "[Sans titre]", "titre_sommaire": "[Sans titre]", "signature_source": "Matthew Arnold", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.4", "debut_caractere": 5064, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5130, "texte": "Matthew Arnold.\nTHE THEATRE\nIS IRRESISTIBLE.\nORGANIZE THE\nTHEATRE."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1918-11-02-c013", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02#c013", "volume": "bmtnaau_1918-11_02", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "40", "page_fin": "40", "image_debut": 4, "image_fin": 4, "pages_selon": "pagination imprimée relevée dans le METS Blue Mountain (ORDERLABEL) ; [n] = page sans folio restituée", "url_article": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.2.9", "titre_corps": "[Sans titre]", "titre_sommaire": "[Sans titre]", "signature_source": "ANATOLE FRANCE", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.4", "debut_caractere": 5132, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5396, "texte": "ANATOLE FRANCE.\n» | HAVE AN INFINITE DESIRE\n1 TO SEE MARIONNETTES\nREPLACE LIVING ACTORS.\nIF I MUST SPEAK ALL MY\nTHOUGHT, ACTORS SPOIL THE\nPLAY FOR ME. I MEAN GOOD\nACTORS, SUCH AS ARE FOUND\nAT THE COMEDIE FRANQAISE.\nTHEIR TALENT IS TOO GREAT.\nIT COVERS EVERYTHING.\""}]}], "pages_ocr_originales": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "37", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.1", "texte": "THE ART OF THE THEATRE\nPRICE ONE PENNY\nVOLUME EIGHT: NUMBER TEN\nADDRESS: BOX 444. FLORENCE\n\nLITTLE STATES\nLao-Tzu.\nTrans. Giles.\nWERE I ruler of a little State with a small population,\nand only ten or a hundred men available as soldiers,\nI would not use them. I would have the people look on\ndeath as a grievous thing, and they should not travel to\ndistant countries. Tho' they might have boats and carriages,\nthey should have no occasion to ride in them. Tho' they\nmight own weapons and armour, they should have no need\nto use them. I should make the people return to the use\nof knotted cords. ® They should find their plain food sweet,\ntheir rough garments fine. They should be content with\ntheir homes, and happy in their simple ways. If a\nneighbouring State was in sight of mine nay, if we were\nnear enough to hear the crowing of each other's cocks, and\nthe barking of each others' dogs the two peoples should\ngrow old and die without there ever having been any mutual\nintercourse.\n(i) The old quipo method of recording events, before the invention of writing.\ni '\n\nLITTLE THEATRES AND SO ON.\n\nAnd then, \" said Tu-no-whoo, picking up the thread the\nMaster had dropped as he fell asleep, '' and then, were I\nyour prime minister I Would do so much to divert the people\na little: do you k.now, Master, I would have tiny little\nTheatres every two miles I would have them on the hills\nand down near the shore.... one on the road once in away....\nbut most of them dotted here and there along the hi 115....\nunder olives if in Italy, under if in that strange country\nabout which you have so often threatened to speak 1° me....\nhere in bamboo groves:.... it would be so pretty.\nWork done, I and my son would stroll across the Valley\naround the broken path. We might stop at the little church,\n\nConcluded on page 38.\n\nDisraeli. \"Contarini Fleming\".\n| WISH THAT THE WORLD CONSISTED OF\nI A CLUSTER OF SMALL STATES.\n\nTHE THEATRE\nIN WAR-TIME.\nISRAEL ZANGWILL, 1918.\nW/HATEVER be the case against\nW light entertainment, there can\nbe no doubt that a serious work °f\nart imparts a noble exaltation, so\nthat I have always been shocked by\nthe idea that good Churchmen may\nnot see plays in Lent, and I have\nwondered whether poetry, music and\npictures are equally taboo. Such\nWorks of art are, however, so rarely\nseen on the English stage that the\nChurchman may be forgiven his preju-\ndice. But even the more frivolous\nforms of entertainment, provided, of\ncourse, they are fun and not filth,\nhave their legitimate place in the stress\nof war.\nn As our nervous system is fashioned,\nit cannot remain strung up to one\nmonotonus pitch of tragedy without\ndanger of snapping.... Consciousness\ncan only really exist under change.\nn Those wise old Church festivals\nthe Feast of Fools and the Feast\nof the Ass allowed even the most\nsacred ceremonies to be burlesqued be-\ncause that only enhanced the real re-\nverence for them....\n\" It is on the nerves of the civi-\nlians that the national endurance ul-\ntimately depends, and it is a ques-\ntion whether instead of almost shutting\nup the theatres by its exactions and\nrestrictions, the State should not ac*\ntually subsidise them n.\n\nMANY people are wondering if the\nTheatre should not be done\naway with altogether, so litttle is it in\ntune with our changed ideas and so\nmuch does it clash with the sombre\nyet heroic background of our thoughts\ntoday. No one, it seems, dreams that\nthe Theatre might be made to harmo-\nnize with them and be itself heroic\nwithout being sombre.... or that it\nmight be even gay, and, without clash-\ning with our saddened or sobered\nfeelings, might come to delight us.\nIn the short essay full of good things\nwhich I have quoted above, Mr. Israel\nZangwill said (some time ago now)\nthat entertainment is a national neces-\nsity in this time of strain. He points\nout that were it a question of a short\nwar it might be possible to live through\nit at a sublime and spartan level, but\nn with its indefinite continuance we\nmust needs adjust our many-faceted\nlife to the new martial environment, as\nbirds manage to sing between their\nuneasy glances for an enemy"}, {"page_pdf": 2, "page_imprimee": "38", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.2", "texte": "or at the little theatre,or at the little library, or at the little\nlollipop shop.\nThe Theatre would seat twenty people comfortably; it\nWould be open every day for an hour after midday and for an\nhour after sundown : it would stay open longer if any two or\nthree desired to see more;.... Marionnettes of course, Master.\nIn off hours the three artists would be hard at work\npreparing festivities, cutting figures, writing dramas. The\nkettle Would be always simmering, as it were; and if one\nout of 3 ,000,000 of these lads could do particularly well\nwe could let him have three half holidays to himself to\nprepare us new wonders.\nSome of us would stroll in at noon after lunch to see\na show. A seat would cost twopence. What is that in hard\nChinese cash, Master ?\nYou would come once a year and you would leave us\na bag of money to spend on improving our show.\nWhat happiness if you were the ruler of a little State\nand I your prime minister Sleep, dear Master.... the\ndraught of Death will refresh you.\n\nY. N. H.\n\n\" Never was the theatre so neces-\nsary \\ he says.\nThat has been my opinion for the\nlast four years,\nYou can, if it interests you, guess\nhow painful it has been to me to see\nthe Theatre degraded to a thing of\nutterly no value at all.\nBut it is our own fault. If in 1914\nwe had possessed a theatre in which\nbrains, not money, were considered as\nof the first importance if we had\nalways asked n what can he do ? n\ninstead of n how much does he earn ? n\nour Theatre would have been ready\nto meet the present emergency.\nDisraeli, one of our few great states-\nmen who have ever understood the\nsecret and the power of art, wrote in\n1844 that nin England we too often\nalternate between a supercilious neglect\nof genius and a rhapsodical pursuit of\nquacks\". In 1914 the neglect and\nhe pursuit were both doing well, and\nthe strangest thing about it was that\nthe quacks we ran after were foreigners\n- it would be invidious to mention\ntheir nationality while the genius\nso neglected was plentiful among our\nown countrymen. Absurdity could no\nfurther g0.... and we considered our-\nselves a patriotic nation I Perhaps we\nneeded a great war to bring out the\nmanhood of u5.... to save us from\nbehaving longer like a pack of silly\nand ignorant society women who will\nrave about any new foreign artist as if\nhe were the latest Paris hat.\nBut has it saved us ?\nWe have got rid of Reinhardt for\nt lIIHBIIiW ,I>—SJITTH IIIUII—\nthe moment, but where is our own\nman? Where is even the man the\nman of genius among our Allies ?\nWe don't even know his name ! It is\nlucky that we are more clear-sighted\nthough still slow in military questions.\nYet the Theatre too is a matter of life\nand death to the nation of mental\nlife and death. Can anyone doubt it ?\nIt is a sign of mental death or at\nleast of atrophy to abandon truth m\norder to run after a 1ie.... and quacks\nare liars.\nBut suppose we descend from the\nheights from Genius which so often\noccupied the thoughts of Disraeli\nto the humbler places where we find\nEndeavour. Could you believe that\neven Endeavour is neglected in the\nEnglish Theatre ? Yet it is.\nIt is this fact that utterly routs all\narguments which can be advanced by\nthose who somehow or other seem to\nlook on Genius as a red rag. They\nalways like to fancy that Endeavour is\nrecognized, appreciated and made use of\nby our nation that Endeavour is pro-\nper whereas Genius is merely hungry.\nThey like to fancy that English\nEndeavour is never overlooked, But\nit is.\nq We are asked to suppose that\naccording to the English standard.\nq The one and only thing which\nmust be learned by both those who\nwork ill and those who work well, is\nto compromise with all the vulgarity of\ntheatrical business; they who will do\nso are then looked upon as successful\nmen, and upon those base levels they\nare successful. This is what we are\nasked to believe is to be allowed to\ncontinue.\nIf this state of things continues after\nyears of a war that calls to all of us\nfor far other things than compromise,\nthen no English Theatre worth the\nname can possibly emerge.\nYet there is still plenty of n money\nin the theatre. \"\nIn this connection it is significant to\nnote the wholesale way in which all\nthose n good old n Music-hall Directors\nhave been knighted. It has long been\npreposterous to knight any artist one\nmay almost say that it is preposterous\nnowadays to knight a valiant soldier.\nThe old-time honour has lost its\nmeaning, and I say this no matter what\nservices these business men may have\nrendered their country in the way of\nbusiness. That is nothing new, but\nthe paradox in war-time has become\nmore apparent the absurdity more\nglaring. Never did I admire John\nGalsworthy so much as when he\ngraciously declined a thing thrown\nhim at the last minute by telegram.\nTELEGRAM!! Tremendous vulga-\nrity ! Is this the England we all care\nabout ?\nis it does these things? Could\nit not occur to someone anyone\neven a maid of honour with influence\nthat instead of a knighthood such\na man as Galsworthy should be asked\nto accept the means of carrying out\nhis ideas for the improvement of the\nrace ? this being Galsworthy's pur-\npose in his art. Any means he pre-\nfers ? A theatre perfectly equipt\nwould not Galsworthy make it worth\nits cost to the nation ?\nMoney is a thing of no value except\nit be used with a free hand, and for\nworthy objects.... not only for purposes\nof destruction. Construction costs even\nmore: well then, spend it or get\nready for spending it when Peace\nsurprises us. And then let the Theatre\nhave its share. So that the People may\nnot be cheated of a thing dear to them.\nLet our Zangwills and Galsworthys\nthere are not many of the same\ncalibre fight for this. There will\nthen be some hope for Art in the\nTheatre. At present there is only\nBusiness, which, while being a very\ngood servant, is a bad master.... even\nwhen knighted.\nTHE ANCIENT DRAMA PRE-\nSERVED THE MASK AND IT\nDID WELL - FOR THE MASK\nIS THE SECRET OF ITS POWER,\nCHARLES NODIER.\n\nJ. B."}, {"page_pdf": 3, "page_imprimee": "39", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.3", "texte": "A PRAYER.\nby AN ACTOR.\nSIR Rabindranath Tagore.... whose\nbooks even during these disturbing\ntimes are to be seen heaped upon the\nbooksellers' counters in ever increasing\nheaps which the public reduce in the\ntwinkling of a day.... Sir Rabindranath\nTagore once wrote a short essay on\nthe Stage. In it he said that the\nPlay was the thing, and that \" the\nartificial platform with its hanging\ncanvas is not worthy of the Poet....\nand that acting has forlornly to await\nthe coming of the Drama since only\nin its company can it display its charms n.\nHe also said some other things about\nus.\nAlthough written eighteen years ago,\nabout the year 1900, Sir Rabindranath\nTagore reprinted his essay in an\nAmerican Journal in 1915, and added\na note saying 11 My opinion has not\naltered n.\nTO Sir Rabindranath Tagore for his\nmany noble qualities, his high\naspirations and so much more besides....\na reverence as sincere as a Westerner\ncan promise. That done, a prayer..,,\non my knees I pray :... to some courtier\nof the only-living God I address myself.\nSay this to your Master.... and\nmind you put it in my words, blunt\nas they are.\n€J <n_l am an actor. Have I the\nright to live ?\n11 I am cast out to right and to\nleft by men down here.... Have I\nstill the right to live ?\n€| n I beseech you to tell me or\nshow me.... and if so be, I pray that\nthe truth you reveal to me may be\nrevealed also unto a noble Indian whose\nwords show me that in his mind I am\ntorn, wrenched away from that to\nwhich I belong, from which I grew,\nand which I strove to create afresh\nand to keep alive.... my father and\nmy 50n.... my theatre.\nn I am not able to speak as Sir\nRabindranath speaks ; but then he has\nbeen privileged to see so much more\nof the All-Highest than ever was\nvouchsafed unto me.\nn When I first read what this knight\nhad written about my calling, I really\nfelt anger ; then I doubted his word ;\nand lastly I turn to you. I really do\nnot know if I am condemned by the\nAll-Highest or no. We actors have\ndone badly, 1 can but admit this.\n• • • • • ••••• ••\n■ We might try again. And if we\ntry again, are we to continue in loving\nsympathy and helpful comradeship with\nthe gracious poets and priests, and\nthose who are both and those who are\nneither one nor t'other ?\nn And are we to make the first\nadvances?... for there is something\nmore than a little hatred between\nu5.... there is, I fear, the pale shadow\nof contempt. We know we deserve it\nbecause we have never been able to\ninvent the beautiful words that give\nsuch a polish to our expression ; and\nall we could do was to inspire some\nof the best poets in their creations.... to\ngive them clues.... hints.... mere\nnothings.... and in return these great\nmen (two especially, whom if I dared,\nI would commend to your notice) have\nbeen mostly kind enough to crack\nsome of our own jokes right bang in\nthe middle of their plays.\nn But since that so very noble a\nman as Sir Rabindranath Tagore has\nturned his eyes our way.... and since\nhe has furthermore been so gracious as\nto condemn u5.... to push us back, so\nto speak, into the narrow, dark and\nunpleasant room from which the son\nof our thrice-blessed Ellen Terry had\nbut yesterday rescued u5.... we fear\nthat we may have to stay there for\nWho knows how many years more.\nWe were escaping, please tell the\nAll-Mighty.... we really were.... this\nis no idle boast. We were all\ngathering outside the stage door, myriads\nof us, ready to shout and sing, when\nthis message from Sir Rabindranath\n(who we know must be very high in\nfavour Up Yonder) was burst upon us.\n\" It practically tefls us that we are\nnot fit to live. We have consulted\none with another and we feel that it\namounts to an ultimatum. I wanted\nto know if it meets with your entire\napproval.... that is all.\n\"P. S. And if a prayer may have\nits postscript I wish to add that I have\ntalked it over once more with my\nfellows and we have decided that,\nwhatever happens, we will \" stick it\nout \".... with apologies for the humble\ncolloquialism.... ,! see it through \", and\ndo our very best to become in future\nages poets.... dramatic poets.... theatre\npoets; for when we have achieved\nthis we shall not have to offend those\nwho feel that a real poet is too noble\nto stoop to undo the latchet of his\nown shoe n.\n\nBOOK REVIEWS.\n\nPER AMIGA SILENTIA LUNSE.\nby W. B. Yeats. (Macmillan & Co.)\n1918. Pr/ce 4/6.\nTHAT which we do not understand\neither seems to us terrifying or\nabsurd.... if not this it makes us feel\nabsurd. We admit that we feel a bit\nawkward before Mr Yeats* new book.\nIt is one of those profound little\nworks which yawn before us like an\nabyss as we trip or stumble along our\nlittle path.... and no amount of ribaldry\ncan bring us to the brink :... what use\nin looking down the terrible gulf when\nwe haven't even the nerve to get up\nto the edge ? And there, flying up and\ndown like a butterfly, is Mr Yeats at\nhis ease.\nIt is a fine spectacle.... Need we\nfeel absurd ? Must we ?... or may we\nnot applaud from the last row in the\ngallery.... the front row being far too\nnear the brink.\nI have before now been to a\ntheatre and understood nothing of what\nwas going on.... and therefore rather\ndisliked the performer on the stage.\nThen I have gone once more and\nrather liked him.... then once again\nand found him interesting.... I was\nbeginning to understand what everyone\nelse understood all the time.\nI think it will be so for me with\nMr Yeats' new book. I am at present\nout of it.... through a certain thick-\nheaded state into which it has\nevidently pleased God to call me. So\nwhat is writ of in his book I do not\nsee clearly about.... but I may be\nallowed to cheer up by feeling I know\nits writ in beautiful prose.\nThere are some reviewers of books\nwho in their teens will speak as I have\nspoken out of sheer \" superiority \"....\nas who should say, 0 the book is\nabove me \".... They often get the\nsack, such reviewers, for shirking their\nduty in shamming dead.\nI am not shamming. Even when\nI lived so far away from Ireland as\nCeylon I always went down to meet\nthe boat which brought over a book\nfrom Mr Yeats. His name was one\nof the names we often liked to repeat\naloud at home during the week. We\nfelt we knew him.... to us he seemed\na real human being.... I had never\nread his work on William Blake or\nhis n Good and Evil \", but his verse\nand his writings about Ireland and the\nIrish Theatre, these made us always\ngay at heart.\nSo if I do not understand this book\nmay be it's not for me. .. not even for"}, {"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau191811-02.1.4", "texte": "the Gods in the back row of the\nGallery.\nOur Poet is playing to something\nfurther 5ti11.... his voice and gestures\ngo over our heads. He is playing to\nthe moon.\nI turn my thoughts once more to-\nwards the stage. Everyone else in\nthe theatre is still rapt.... gazing at\nthe figure in the centre of this stage.\nHow lonely I feel!... So, as no one\nwill notice, I lift my hand and open a\nlittle shutter which I see above my\nhead. Ah, there is the m00n.... I\nturn and look long into that warm\nwhite face.\n1 hear Mr Yeats still speaking down\nthere.... I watch the moon still. I\nsee no change in that seemingly\neverlasting Inconstant.\nHow silent now!... I grow c01d.... I\nturn to look at the stage again.... What\nhas happened?... Stage.... author....\naudience.... all have gone.... down there\nis only the street.... grey and misty:...\nno lights. Why did I turn to look\nat the moon ?... God bless me, I am\ntalking to myself.... This won't do 1\n\nCONTARINI FLEMING\no by B.Disraeli. o\nWHAT is that you said?... I had\nsent you a note saying \" Read\n1 Contarini Fleming 1 by Disraeli n....\nand you said to someone who was\nwriting to* me, \" Tell him I read that\nyears ago when he was a child n.\nI meant no harm, I pretended no\ndiscovery. I was not puffed up. All\nI wanted was that you might share a\npleasure with me.\n€f But it is not unusual for us as\nwe grow older to forget that a book\nwe have once read is no older than\nit was, and that though we have read\nit once.... say twice.... if we read it\nagain we may discover it anew.\nThe best of a work of art is that,\nas it stands alone, is in no way related\nto persons living at the time it was\nmade or since, it must always be a\nkind of paradise which we may enter\nor leave whenever we wish.\nI find that Disraeli's novels are just\nsuch a paradise.... and Contarini Fleming\nis full of angels and mysterious voices.\nNot \"so mysterious that I don't know\nwhether I'm in Heaven or Hell, but\nblissfully mysterious: ....no nl' art\nnouveau \" about them nothing\nchic.... and no touch of a stance\nabout them.\nHuman.... and wonderful.\nIt is entrancing to get fresh assurance\nthat the wonderful and the Heavenly\nmay be human.\nWe are, may be, inclined to pose a\nlittle too long in our Celestial attitudes.\nForgetting to move in time we discover\nto our consternation that we have\nbecome frozen and can't get down.\nWe get into those attitudes.... on\nthose lonely pedestals ....in a niche to\navoid the crowd.\nWe avoid a crowd when we get\nqueer in our hearts about friendliness.\nA thousand friends may break from\nus or we from them, the crowd is ever\nfaithful.... and what is more, ever\ninscrutable.... wise.... tremendous. To\nreject the crowd is no way for a\nsuperior sort of fellow to carry on. I\nalways find that it is only in the crowd\nthat ghosts are to be found. I like\nghosts.... being rather mystically besoaked.\nI was brought up on fairies and on\nall the strange folk-lore of a northern\nland and so the mists are in me. And\nI have for this reason the everlasting\nhankering to see what is called the\ninvisible and hear strange voices which\nothers say they cannot hear.\nI always succeed by going into a\ncrowd. Once there I know I shall\nsoon see and hear. And indeed only\nlast week, in the Piazza del Popolo,\nthe great Piazza, and packed with\npeople.... a mysterious figure approached\nme, and, smiling, held out its hand to\nme saying, n You have been long\nexpected n.\nHow familiar these words sounded\nto me! 1 replied without hesitation,\nn If I have been long expected I have\nat length arrived n.\nIt did not occur to me till long after\nthat I had been echoing the very\nwords of Contarini and many other\nhuman beings. It seemed so mysterious\nto me at the time.\nNow I beg of you to save me all\nfurther talk, and if you've ever read\nthe book read it once more.... and say\nif it isn't worth a hundred hundred\nmodern novels.\n\n\" SENLIS,\" by Cicely Hamilton. W.\nCollins Sons & Co. Ltd, London 1917.\nPrice 3/6 net.\nA pleasantly rambling book, illustrated\nby photographs of the ruins of\nSenlis after the Germans left it. In spite\nof the devastation it records, we feel\nthe atmosphere of old France and that\n\" pretty little town.... \" \" the favourite\nabode of the lover of peace and\ncomfort n. We read of a grass-grown\nRoman arena, once the scene of\ngladiatorial combats; and surely Church\nand Stage have seldom been so closely\nconnected as here, where the ancient\nChurch of St. Aignan was, before the\nwar, the town theatre.\nMiss Hamilton gives us a sombre\nthought : n What, you wonder, will\narise on the place of the older dignity\nof the ruined towns, of the older pro-\nportion and sturdiness? Will it not be\nrows of small jerry-built houses, run\nup all across France.... accustoming\nthe eye pf a new generation to angles\nwithout grace, to monotony and shoddy\npretentiousness ?... Featureless little\nvillages, set down on the soil, not\nrooted in it; featureless little cities\nthat have not grown, measured out\nby the block and the yard.... n Can\nnothing be done to save the new\ngeneration, for which we are supposed\nto be fighting, from this fate ?\n\nMatthew Arnold.\nTHE THEATRE\nIS IRRESISTIBLE.\nORGANIZE THE\nTHEATRE.\n\nANATOLE FRANCE.\n» | HAVE AN INFINITE DESIRE\n1 TO SEE MARIONNETTES\nREPLACE LIVING ACTORS.\nIF I MUST SPEAK ALL MY\nTHOUGHT, ACTORS SPOIL THE\nPLAY FOR ME. I MEAN GOOD\nACTORS, SUCH AS ARE FOUND\nAT THE COMEDIE FRANQAISE.\nTHEIR TALENT IS TOO GREAT.\nIT COVERS EVERYTHING.\"\n\nAll rights reserved November 1918.\nGerente responsabile : Giulio Vanzi.\nTipografia Giuntina. Firenze.\nPRICE ONE PENNY"}]}