{"numero_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_sha256": "10d44cbcba70af2f6edcb84a71c51c251951e3edaf66f1cfd0ed48947c6472c3", "source_tei": "https://github.com/Princeton-CDH/bluemountain-transcriptions/blob/main/periodicals/bmtnaau/issues/1926/01_01/bmtnaau_1926-01_01.tei.xml", "source_mets": "https://github.com/pulibrary/BlueMountain/blob/main/metadata/periodicals/bmtnaau/issues/1926/01_01/bmtnaau_1926-01_01.mets.xml", "url_numero": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01", "articles": [{"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c002", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c002", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "couv. 1", "page_fin": "couv. 1", "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.2", "titre_corps": "[Sans titre]", "titre_sommaire": "[Sans titre]", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "couv. 1", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.1", "debut_caractere": 315, "fin_caractere_exclue": 912, "texte": "AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF FRAN-\nCOIS JOSEPH TALMA. BY Pierre\nLouctte his Gardener.\nSOME PRIVATE THEATRES: CASERTA\nVERSAILLES, PRATOLINO. CASTEL-\nFRANCO. With designs and plans.\nSARAH BERNHARDT & VICTOR HUGO\nwith a reproduction of a drawing by Hugo.\nGIUSEPPE BIBIENA : A NOTE BY Alien\nCarrie, with a. Portrait.\nTHANKS TO MR. GEORGE MOORE,\nby E. G. C.\nA DRAMA IN \" ACCA \" AT ZAVOV,\nby Frangois M. Florian.\nPIRANDELLO AND HIS ORIGINALITY,\nby Henry Phips.\nWHAT IS IT YOU WANT ? by Yoo-no-hoo.\nTHE COLOSSUS: G. B. S., bye. g. c.\nFOREIGN NOTES: MiLANO, PARIS,\nBOOK AND MAGAZINE REVIEWS.\nEDITORIAL NOTES."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c003", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c003", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "couv. 2", "page_fin": "couv. 2", "image_debut": 2, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.3", "titre_corps": "LITERARY CONTENTS", "titre_sommaire": "LITERARY CONTENTS", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 2, "page_imprimee": "couv. 2", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.2", "debut_caractere": 617, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1446, "texte": "LITERARY CONTENTS.\nFOREWORD . . . . ... . . John Semar .... Page 1\nFRANCOIS JOSEPH TALMA by his Gardener. , . Pierre Louette ..... 3\nWith a Foreword and Biographical Note. . . . .... . . . 6\nTHE OPERA HOUSE OF THE PALACE OF VER-\nSAILLES ......... Gordon Craig . . . . . 20\nTHE COLOSSUS. G. B. S. e.g. c. 21\nA DRAMA IN \" ACCA \"AT ZAVOV .... Francois M. Florian . . 23\nSOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT J. S. 25\nWHAT ISIT YOU WANT ? . . . . . . Yoo-No-Hoo 25\n\" REMAINDERED\" . , . . . . J. B 27\nGIUSEPPE BIBIENA . . . . . . Allen Carrie . . . . .28\nSARAH BERNHARDT AND VICTOR HUGO . . A. B. . . . , .29\nTHANKS TO MR. GEORGE MOORE . . . . E. G. C. 30\nPIRANDELLO AND HIS ORIGINALITY. . . . Henry Phips .... . 33\nA LITTLE THEATRE OF THE 17th CENTURY: PRA-\nTOLINO Jan van Holt . . . . . 37\nFOREIGN NOTES. BOOK AND MAGAZINE REVIEWS. EDITORIAL NOTES."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c004", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c004", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "couv. 2", "page_fin": "couv. 2", "image_debut": 2, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.4", "titre_corps": "ILLUSTRATIONS", "titre_sommaire": "ILLUSTRATIONS", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 2, "page_imprimee": "couv. 2", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.2", "debut_caractere": 1448, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1952, "texte": "ILLUSTRATIONS.\nA DESIGN FOR A PRODUCTION OF THE BEGGARS'\nOPERA, ACT I . ....... Edward Gordon Craig. Plato 1, Face page I\nTHE OPERA HOUSE IN THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES Built by Architect Ga-\nbriel . . . B 2, ■ B 20\nGIUSEPPE BIBIENA. . . . . . . Anon . . . \" 3, \" 8 28\nREPRODUCTION OF A DRAWING by . . . . Victor Hugo . . 84, precede 829\nPLAN OF THE VILLA OF PRATOLINO SHOWING Built by Architect An-\nTHE LITTLE THEATRE tonio Ferri . . B 5, „ ■ 37\nHead and Tail Pieces from original Woodcuts and old Designs."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c005", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c005", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "n. p.", "page_fin": "n. p.", "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.5", "titre_corps": "A DESIGN FOR A PRODUCTION OF THE BEGGARS' OPERA. ACT I", "titre_sommaire": "A DESIGN FOR A PRODUCTION OF THE BEGGARS' OPERA. ACT I", "signature_source": "Edward Gordon Craig", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.4", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 162, "texte": "A DESIGN FOR A PRODUCTION OF THE BEGGARS' OPERA. ACT I.\nBy Edward Gordon Craig.\n\nRe pi educed ft om the original drawing by kind permission' of Mr. A. E. McVitty."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c006", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c006", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "n. p.", "page_fin": "n. p.", "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.5.1", "titre_corps": "A DESIGN FOR A PRODUCTION OF THE BEGGAR's OPERA. ACT I", "titre_sommaire": "A DESIGN FOR A PRODUCTION OF THE BEGGAR's OPERA. ACT I", "signature_source": "Edward Gordon Craig", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.4", "debut_caractere": 179, "fin_caractere_exclue": 187, "texte": "Plate 1."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c007", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c007", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "1", "page_fin": "2", "image_debut": 5, "image_fin": 6, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.6", "titre_corps": "FOREWORD", "titre_sommaire": "FOREWORD", "signature_source": "J. S", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 5, "page_imprimee": "1", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.5", "debut_caractere": 20, "fin_caractere_exclue": 915, "texte": "FOREWORD\n\nTHIS number with its contributions on Talma, Ver-\nsailles, Hugo and even Mr. George Moore seems\nto be quite a French number.\nIt should have contained some important infor-\nmation about the Theatrical section of the Paris Exhibition\nof 1925. But so badly was the propaganda department\nCl••Ve /• 9 1 1\nor this section seen to that no information whatever reach-\ned us. It seems a little incredible that in the twentieth\ncentury such an important department o! such an Exhibi-\ntion should have been managed so casually.\nPerhaps there was not much in the section to inform\nthe world about. Paris cannot be blamed. Paris like\nLondon is far too large, and too self contented. It be-\nlieves that outside Paris nothing matters, which is quite a\nnatural blunder to make. If you are immense you think\nnothing matters but yourself, whereas no one and no city\ncan ever be quite as immense as that."}, {"page_pdf": 6, "page_imprimee": "2", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.6", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 490, "texte": "Should these words meet the eye of any intelligent\nParisian he is sure to be the first to admit their truth and\nto go out resolved to tell the first important Frenchmar\nhe meets how silly it is of Paris. But in ten minutes the\nresolve will fade. Paris is so full of the dope of humai\nkindness. So like London. And it can't be helped. Wher.\n\" The Mask \" becomes huge like Paris, when we issue\nhalf a million copies monthly, we too shall put on airs\nand graces.\nWhat a pity it will be.\n\nJ. S."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c009", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c009", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "3", "page_fin": "3", "image_debut": 7, "image_fin": 7, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.7", "titre_corps": "FRANCOIS JOSEPH TALMA : INTIMATE ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT FRENCH ACTOR BY HIS GARDENER PIERRE LOUETTE", "titre_sommaire": "FRANCOIS JOSEPH TALMA : INTIMATE ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT FRENCH ACTOR BY HIS GARDENER PIERRE LOUETTE", "signature_source": "PIERRE LOUETTE ; D. Nevile Lees", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 7, "page_imprimee": "3", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.7", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1859, "texte": "FRANCOIS JOSEPH TALMA.\nINTIMATE ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT FRENCH\nACTOR BY HIS GARDENER PIERRE LOUETTE\nTRANSLATED BY D. NEVILE LEES, WITH A\nFOREWORD AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.\nFOREWORD\nJ. S.\nThe following Translation is taken from a\nsmall book printed in November 1869\nby Emile Voitelain et Cie, Paris.\nThis tiny brochure forms one of a series\n>/ \" Documents pour servir a de\nws Mceurs \", the collectedited by\n•edan Larchez, being \" exclusively composed\n>/ original documents Only four hundred\n:opies of the little volume were put on sale,\nand were obtainable <{ a la librairie Fr.\n12 Galerie d Orleans ( Royal).\nThe author of these Memoirs, Pierre\nLouette, the gardener of Talma, writes like a\ndramatist writes, and he thus creates for us a\nvivid picture of his Master and friend and\ntheir close intercourse on the estate which\nTalma loved.\nOne of the things I note about this disciple\nof Talma is, indeed, that he, the gardener,\n's more like Shakespeare than any cleverer,\nnore modern dramatist.\nWhen he makes his hero speak he does\nnot explain how he speaks; he still believes\nthat people have some senses left, some obser-\nvation, some alertness, indeed some imagina-\ntion. That is how Louette re\n\" Ah \" said M. Talma, \" I shall go to\nParis\". \" Ahsaid\ntiently ' or ( lowering his voice or * looking\nannoyed ' is how a less mature playwriter\nwould record it.\nThe Dramatist who adds stage directions\n(and he is so often a Democrat or a Socialist\nwho does it) has but a poor opinion of his\nfellow Workers' capacity to invent anything\nor of his readers' capacity to understand.\nThis is one of the reasons why the prefaces\nand stage directions of th\nme: they show me how low these playwri-\nters estimate the capacities of stage men and the\nreading public. Such Dramatists might learn\nmuch from the little pages of the \" Me-\nmoir es \" of Talma's gardener, Pierre Louette."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c010", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c010", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "3", "page_fin": "5", "image_debut": 7, "image_fin": 9, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.8", "titre_corps": "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE", "titre_sommaire": "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE", "signature_source": "G. C", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 7, "page_imprimee": "3", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.7", "debut_caractere": 1861, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3404, "texte": "BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.\n\nFRANQOIS JOSEPH TALMA was born in\nParis on January 15th 1763 in the Rue\ndes Menetriers K\nMantzius tells us that his father was a\nvalet and his uncle a cook, reassuring us by\na note to say that 44 is shown by his\nBaptismal certificate \". The father was also\na Dentist (2), and so good a dentist that be-\nfore long he was practising the craft in London\nin one of the best of quarters, at No. 13 Old\nCavendish Street, near Cavendish Square (3).\nAnd Francois Joseph his son was with him.\nEach day young Talma would go westward\nto Manchester Square, and there at the school\nof a certain Mr, Prendergast would study how\nto multiply 9 by 7 and how firmly established\nwas the monarchy of France. And at home\nhe learned how difficult it was to pull out\nteeth but that it became easier if you were\nwell paid for it. This argument struck the\nfuture lord of Brunoy and he took to the\ndentistry business, and thus began to witness\ntragic scenes, and to study facial expression.\n\n(1) Four Biographical Dictionaries give other dates\nand places. 1, Jan. 17, 1766, London: 2, Jan. 15,\n1760: 3, Jan. 1762: 4, Jan. 15, 1767. I have followed\nthe Paris register.\n(2) Another father of a famous actor, Giuseppe Gri-\nm&ldi, father of Jo. Grimaldi, was a dentist: \"in 1760\nhe was appointed dentist to Queen Charlotte but he soon\nresigned his appointment, and commenced giving lessons in\nfencing and dancing \". R. J. Broadbent. Annals of\nthe Liverpool Stage \". 1908.\n(3) He is also said to have gone to a boarding school\nin Lambeth about 1779-1780."}, {"page_pdf": 8, "page_imprimee": "4", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.8", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4481, "texte": "This awakened a longing in him to be\nmore than an onlooker ; and, not feeling this\nto be possible, or desirable, at No. 13, he\njoined a company of amateur actors in London,\nabout 1782-83, and dentistry was soon forgotten.\nBut as Sir John Gallini, ie Giovanni An-\ndrea Battista Gallini, was the manager, he\nwho married the eldest daughter of the third\nEarl of Abingdon, Lady Elizabeth Peregrine\nBertie, and had great vogue as a dancing\nmaster, directed the dances and was stage\nmanager at the Haymarket Theatre, was crea-\nted knight of the Golden Spur by the pope\nand built Hanover Square concert Rooms,\nTalma evidently joined no second-rate com-\npany, and his associates were doubtless the\nmost elegant people, and that helps an actor\nvery considerably.\nHe returned to Paris when he was about\ntwenty or twenty-three years old, with very\nserious intentions of becoming an actor of\nmark.\nOn November 21st 1787 he made his\ndebut at the Comedie Frangaise, as Seide in\nVoltaire's 44 Mahomet\nTo prepare for this he rehearsed under\nDugazon at the little Theatre Boule-Rouge\nwhich was in the faubourg Montmartre.\nHere Madame Dugazon, then about se-\nventy-four years old, and Clairon who was\nsixty-four, watched him rehearse. The Da-\nnish actor Preisler, visiting Paris, writes back\nto Denmark in praise of Monsieur Talmad.\nIn 1789, on April Ist, he is 44 received \"\nat the Comedie Frangaise ; ie, he becomes a\nS ode t aire... but as yet only to play -\nsiemes roles in tragedies, but by good fortune\none of the premiere roles falls to him—some\nactor being over-sensitive of ruining the part\nof Charles IX in the new piece by Joseph\nChenier which was produced on November\n4th 1789. Young Captain Buonaparte comes\nto see this piece and Talma in his\nmoirs \" gives an account of a very interesting\nconversation with him. These memoirs which\nappeared in 1849-50 were edited by Alex-\nandre Dumas. It is a book which I hear\n44 The Mask \" will shortly publish in English.\nFar too much has been made of the fact\nthat Talma was among the earliest advocates\nof realism in costume. He went with the\ntimes, and the paintings of his friend and re-\nvolutionary comrade David seemed to him\nmarvels of naturalism.... revelations ....the real\nthing. Here was a Roman in a toga—with-\nout the usual 18th century plumes ;—classic,\nsolemn, nothing Theatrical. So like an actc*\nand so right. But it looked as though it\nwould take the French a long time to grow\naccustomed to this new way of doing things.\nFor they began to object at once.... when\nsuddenly a gun went off and they came to\nthe conclusion that these innovations were\nright. The actors were less easily persuaded.\nThey found Talma and Clairon and the others\nwho troubled about these external matters a\nsource of innocent merriment. So like fellow\nactors and so right. What was not right,\nand so unfair of Talma, was that he possessed\ngenius.... a finely proportioned figure and r,\nremarkable head; a voice of great beauty,\nand he took the trouble to acquire a match-\nless elocution. At first it is said he was a\nlittle stilted and monotonous in his manner ;\nbut it is added that before long he became\na model of simplicity. All of which sounds\nfamiliar and very fine but means to me very\nlittle. When I hear an actor being described\nI always become lost in the sound of the\nwords ; matchless elocution ; what does that\nmean ? it might mean Forbes Robertson\nagain, or it might mean Salvini—which does\nit mean ?\nIn 1791 Talma married Julie Carreau (l),\na rich and talented lady in whose salon were\nto be met the principal Girondists. Of the\nposition of this salon (2) I am ignorant; where\nthe happy pair lived lam no wiser. Mean-\ntime he was rising with Buonaparte, to whom\nhe was later to prove useful in little matters\nof deportment. Between Talma and Buona-\nparte there seems to have been little ceremony\n—and with Napoleon the ceremony was, after\nall, only the result of the lessons from Talma.\nIn 1808 the Emperor paid him well by\ntaking him to Erfurt and there papering the\nhouse for him with crowned heads for his\nperformances of the Mo\nIn 1 798 Talma was living in the Rue de\nMoliere, in 1802 in Rue de Seine, Faubourg\nSt. Germain. There it was he freed himself\nfrom 44 la belle Julie \" and married Charlott\nVanhove the actress, who had been Madame\nPetit.\n\n(1) \"Carcan \" prints Charles Maurice and adds she\nwas known as \" la belle Julie\n(2) One of her houses was the famous, No. 6. Rue\nChantereine, in which Josephine Beauharnais lodged in 1795"}, {"page_pdf": 9, "page_imprimee": "5", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.9", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4000, "texte": "With this charming lady he lived happily\nuntil his death in 1826.\nWhat a strange existence was Talma's—\nseeing the eighteenth century in full blossom\naround him when he was a boy and till he\nwas twenty-five. Then suddenly the Revo-\nlution shakes the world, rattling most of all\nin Paris : then comes Buonaparte—and the\neighteenth century reminiscences seem to go\nwell with the scenic show of his days : then\nthe Restoration and lastly Victor Hugo.\nIt was in 1826 that Hugo, a young man\nof twenty-four years, is invited to meet Talma\nat the house of Baron Taylor. Talma sixty-\nthree, Hugo twenty-four. And the actor tells\nthe young man how young he is and that\ntherefore he really should write a part for\nhim:—he suggests Cromwell. And Hugo\nreplies that he is just writing a play about\nCromwell—and both actor and poet are de-\nlighted and find it an extraordinary coinci-\ndence. (Baron laylor was intendant of the\nV f V~\\ 1\nRoyal Theatres, by the way). Talma is in\nsuch ecstacies that he even tells Hugo that\nhe has a portrait of Cromwell at home, hung\nup, and offers to take Hugo round to his\nhouse to see it; all is quite crazy and de-\nlightful, ....poet, actor, the dinner, the ideas....\nand then Fate steps in and spoils the plan\nfor Talma dies.\nHe died on October 19th 1826 at his\nhouse Rue de la Tour-des-Dames no. 9.\nwhere he had lived for five years.\nAnd what about Talma's death? ....no-\nthing except that Mademoiselle Mars sat that\nnight in her house across the way thoughtful,\ndepressed.\nIn this very little street we are told that\nno less than three great performers were living\nat the time—Talma, Mars and Duchenois.—\nA silent street at all times, I can imagine\nhow silent on the eve of October 19th.\nMile. Mars comes home after the rehearsal\nhaving found the Theatre closed. She is\nnow forty-eight years old :—she sees a light\nin Talma's room. She passes into her own\nhouse. She sits and thinks:—she tries to\nbelieve that oyer there her old comrade, the\nimmense genius she calls him, is dead. No,\nshe can not conceive this. Her mind begins\nto think : how did he die—like this ?—she\nleans a little to one side:—the fire flares\nup—she leans further—she begins reciting\nthose lines in Act IV Scene 111 where Sylla\ndies on his sofa—up go her feet. She is\nnow well in her part: and having in fancy\nexpired after the last word, the last sign, the\nlast hoarse cry, she pauses a moment—a tu-\nmultuous shout of applause is heard by her—\nshe gains her feet rapidly—the curtain again\nrises—she stands there with head slightly\nbent:—all this imagined and gone through\nand she feels better. She had grieved to\nthink of Talma dead, but now she is no\nlonger thinking, she is feeling—and she feels\nbetter—and ready to assume some big new\nrole. \" to triumph over death \" she cries sei-\nzing a table knife, for supper had been laid\nfor her home coming.... \" to triumph \" she\nrepeats, \" to triumph \"—only one regret, that\nshe cannot play those masculine roles, \" Sylla\",\n\" Brutus \" Pyrrhus \" Cinna \". And\nthen, lowering the point, meditatively she\ntaps with it on the table ; an in-drawn sigh\nof regret, and then another of relief: \" No,\nI was not born with Raucourt's advantages \"\nshe says. Firmly she cuts the loaf of bread\nbefore her and attacks quietly her simple\nsupper, content, after all, to be the greatest\ncomedienne of her time.\nAnd this were even correct if a certain\nM. Fouquier had not recently assured us that\nMile. Mars lived in a house in the next street.\nThe house seems to have been at the corner\nof Rue de la Rochefoucault and Rue St. La-\nzare. Probably the light she saw was in the\nback room of Talma's House.\n€}} His funeral was imposing because an\nimmense public gathered to do him honour.\nSUIVEZ done le conseil de M. de Voltaire,\nfaites des perruques, pour que ceile de\nTalma, dans Charles VI soit vendue 43 francs\net celle de Sylla, avec le costume, 160 francs.\nComme ont vient de le faire! ....Ingrats....\ncoiffeurs !\n(26 Mars 1827).\nCharles Maurice.\n\" Histoire anecdotiqne\n\nG. C."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c012", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c012", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "6", "page_fin": "6", "image_debut": 10, "image_fin": 10, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.9", "titre_corps": "THE EDITOR'S PREFACE", "titre_sommaire": "THE EDITOR'S PREFACE", "signature_source": "L. L", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 10, "page_imprimee": "6", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.10", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1995, "texte": "THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.\nL. L.\n\nPIERRE LOUETTE was the gardener-steward of Talma on his estate of\nBrunoy. An old soldier, a little brusque, a bit of a grumbler, but of an\nupright character, he was, perhaps, more than any one else, impressed by the\nnoble qualities of his master. Wholly devoted to his humble duties, he could\nnot estimate either the great tragedian or the favourite of the Emperor, he had\nonly learned to respect the just and good man.\nAfter the death of Talma, he was indignant at certain slanders, and he\nhad the idea of combatting them by drawing upon his memories. This good\nfellow, who had never written anything save accounts and estimates, was,\nwithout knowing it, a precious historiographer. Even his naieve rusticity is not\nwithout merit regarded from that special view point which characterises our\ncollection. Peasants* journals are not to be found all over the country, and\nwe lacked a document such as this.\nThe MEMOIRES DE LOUETTE were published in 1829 by the\nRevue de Paris. Loeve-Veimars, then attached to its editorial department, had\nfound this pearl at Brunoy where he was resting. That there should be no\ndoubt as to its authenticity the original manuscript had been deposited with\nMe. Bonard, notary of the REVUE, but there was no need to go and\nexamine these two large copy-books\nfilled with a primitive writing and\nyellowed by the thumb of their author;\nit sufficed to read ten lines of the\nprinted text to say : it is genuine *\\\nOf style and orthography there is\nno question here, and yet it goes\nstraight to the heart like a thing most\neloquently written.\nDid the remarkable fragment pub-\nlished by the REVUE DE PARIS\nof 1829 produce a bad effect at that\ntime ? Did people mock at the touch-\ning of the memories of the\nold gardener, or did the family of\nTalma consider it their duty to oppose\ntheir continuation ? One or the other\nof these cases must be assumed, for I\nhave sought in vain in the subsequent\nvolumes for the formally promised con-\ntinuation."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c013", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c013", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "6", "page_fin": "6", "image_debut": 10, "image_fin": 10, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.9.1", "titre_corps": "Facsimile of the Frontispiece of The Memoirs of Pierre Louetie", "titre_sommaire": "Facsimile of the Frontispiece of The Memoirs of Pierre Louetie", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 10, "page_imprimee": "6", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.10", "debut_caractere": 2640, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2703, "texte": "Facsimile of the Frontispiece of The Memoirs of Pierre Louetie."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c014", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c014", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "6", "page_fin": "6", "image_debut": 10, "image_fin": 10, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.10", "titre_corps": "A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION", "titre_sommaire": "A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION", "signature_source": "Ed", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 10, "page_imprimee": "6", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.10", "debut_caractere": 1997, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2638, "texte": "A NOTE ON\nTHE TRANSLATION.\nEd.\nOUR Translation, like any other\ntranslation (unless a very great\nwriter should attempt it) can be but\na failure, and the Translator asks us\nto say so.\nBut perhaps our readers will prefer\nthis to nothing.\nIf we were to reprint the French\nhere, as some day we hope to do in\na small booklet, we should call down\non our heads the displeasure of thou-\nsands who cannot read French : and\nto them we are glad to offer an En-\nglish version which will enable them\nto gain much pleasure from Pierre\nLouette's naieve records, even if there be\nlacking the full flavour of this little rustic\nchronicle in its original form."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c017", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c017", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "7", "page_fin": "20", "image_debut": 11, "image_fin": 24, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.11", "titre_corps": "THE MEMOIRS OF PIERRE LOUETTE : TALMA'S GARDENER", "titre_sommaire": "THE MEMOIRS OF PIERRE LOUETTE : TALMA'S GARDENER", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 11, "page_imprimee": "7", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.11", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3137, "texte": "THE MEMOIRS OF\nPIERRE LOUETTE.\nTALMA'S GARDENER.\nIN 1817 I entered the service of M.\nTalma. The first things that he enjoined\non me were : order in his house and\nthe greatest possible economy, pointing\nout to me that the largest fortunes melt\naway without economy and order.\nOn the 12th of this month (Sep-\ntember) we went together over all his\nproperty. M. Talma showed me at least\na hundred places where I was to plant\ntrees, indicating to me the place of each\ntree.\nIt will be seen in the continuation\nof this Memoir what a love M. Talma\nhad for his garden at Brunoy, and people\nwill be able to judge the memory of my\nmaster, apart from his great stage occu-\npations, of which I ought not to speak,\nseeing that my powers cannot extend so far.\nI ought not to speak save of that which\nI have seen and heard.\nM. Talma sets out on September 16th\nfor the Midi, and writes me not to forget\nthe trees which we had arranged about\ntogether, reminding me of all the places\nwhere we had decided to set them, naming\nto me all the groups of trees of his park\nby their names, and all the places where\nsomething was to be done ; and all this\nwhile he is every day at work on the\nstage in the principal towns of the Midu\nJudge from this of the presence of mind\nof this great man.\nM. Talma arrived on January 6th at\nBrunoy. The first thing that he asked\nme was for my accounts. That surprised\nme, considering that people had misinformed\nme, telling me that he did not pay the\nexpenses of his household, whereas I\nhave been paid every month by him du-\nring the ten years that I have had the\nhonour of serving him.\nThis same day, at eight o'clock in\nthe evening, M. falma was at supper at\nmy table when my under-gardener came in\nand, drawing me aside, told me that his\nwife had just been confined, and that he\nwas much troubled seeing that he had\nno good wine to revive her with. The\ndoctor had ordered Bordeaux wine and\nthere was none in the whole village.\nI brought him in to M. Falma, saying\nto him ; \" Monsieur, Pierre's wife has\njust been confined ; the doctor orders\nBordeaux wine and there is none in the\nwhole of Brunoy\nM. Talma immediately replied: \"My\nfriend, give him four bottles of it \"; and,\ncorrecting himself, he said, \"Eh bieri,\nLouette, give him six, for I shall only\nreturn in six days Afterwards he also\nsaid to me, \"My friend, as you have\nthe keys of the cellar, if any unfortunate\nfellow of des Bosserons or of Brunoy\nappeals to you in like trouble, give two\nbottles. Come, my friend, that is not\ngoing to ruin us, and we shall do good \".\nThus when M. Talma arrived at Brunoy\nall the inhabitants used to come out of\n■their doors, saying, their hearts breaking\nfor joy, \" Voila le houlanger de Brunoy\nqui arrive\nThe two days passed at Brunoy were\nbut as two hours for him, for Brunoy was\nhis delight.\nM. Talma said to me ; \" My friend,\nhow happy you are to remain at Brunoy!\nand I, 1 am obliged to return into the\nmidst of a crowd of people who only\nseek to do one harm, to betray one.\nHow I envy your luck!\nAt the moment when M. Talma was\nabout to set out, I asked his permission\nto go to Paris for my own affairs a few\ndays later."}, {"page_pdf": 12, "page_imprimee": "8", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.12", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3238, "texte": "M. Talma replied, \" Good, my friend,\nbut why don*t you come today with me?\nI will take you along today in my car-\nriage, and we will talk together about\nour works **.\nOn the way we said that, since some\nsand was required to sand some new\npaths, he was going to give me a letter\nto go and seek out M. Mabille, keeper\nof the forest of Senart, who was staying\nat Muette in the bois de Boulogne, which\nwas done on reaching Paris.\nM. Talma gave me the letter and\nsaid to me: \" Louette, lam acting tonight;\ncome and find me in my loge at the theatre\nand give me the answer.\n1 then went on my errand. M. Ma-\nbille received me very well since it was\nfor M. Talma. I arrive later at the\ntheatre; M. Talma is on the stage, in\nthe role of Britanriicus. I, who had never\nseen him in any costume, being in the\nwings, open my eyes as wide as a car-\nriage-way without being able to recognize\nmy master. I am much surprised when\nI see, coming straight towards me, a man\ndressed as a sovereign, in the full heat\nof his role : \" well, shall we have some\nsand ?** As for me,... I could not answer\nhim.\nFor the moment he went back on to\nthe stage and 1 recovered myself, and I\nonly recognized him the second time.\nHe said to me, \" How is it that you\nhave not answered me, Louette ?\n\" Monsieur, 1 did not recognize you ;\nyou frightened me, but we shall have\nsome sand **.\nJudge by this of the action of this\ngreat man, to mix sand into the very\nmiddle of his part !\nIN 1819 we carried out some rather\nimportant works in the poultry yard.\nM. Talma was seven or eight days drawing\nout plans. Everyone in the house saw\nclearly that we were going to have some-\nthing new, but without knowing what.\nAt last, one day, M. Talma comes to\nfind me in the melon house, saying to\nme : \" Louette my friend, I have a plan\nin my head which is going to make you\ntremble \".\nI immediately reply: \" Monsieur, work\nnever frightens me ; your purse will perhaps\ntire of the work before my courage does \".\nHe at once says to me: \" Well,\nLouette, let us get busy with this straight\naway ; I leave you three days to give me\nthe estimate for this work, for we must\nnot embark upon it without knowing\nwhere it is going to land us **.\nI set myself immediately to take mea-\nsurements and to make calculations.\nOn the morrow, at midday, M. Talma\nset out to act. I say to him, before\nleaving, both of us being seated on his\nsofa : \" Monsieur, it is necessary to allow\nfor five thousand francs* expenditure *'.\nSays he : \" Louette, you are mista-\nken ; for my part, I only make it three\nthousand five hundred francs **.\n\" But you havn*t looked at the\nwhole thing so well as I have **, I said,\n\" for you hardly calculate for anything\nbut the work of the terrace, while I find\na portion for the paver, for the stone-\ncutter, for the mason and for the car-\npenter **.\nHe replied : \" Ah, my friend, you\nsee 1 had not seen that like you. Well,\nlisten ; I set out tomorrow for Paris, 1\nwill calculate that out while acting *'.\nThe following day M. Talma arrives,\nand asks for me at once. Being in his\nstudy he makes me sit down on the same\nsofa and says to me: \" My friend, I\nhave calculated carefully according to what\nyou have told me ; I am in agreement\nwith your estimate provided that it does"}, {"page_pdf": 13, "page_imprimee": "9", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.13", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3223, "texte": "not exceed that. Come, let us step out\nfirmly and without fear ' .\nThe work being in train, the winter\ncomes upon us and even stops us. From\nthe Saturday we can do nothing more.\nM. Talma comes on the Sunday and\nsays to me : \" Well, Louette, How are\nwe getting on? \"\n\" Monsieur, you are held up \".\n\" How's that ?\n\" Monsieur, the hard frost stops us \".\nM. Talma replies ; \" But, my friend,\nit is necessary nevertheless to devise a\nway to occupy these poor fellows, since\nthey live by their daily wage. Must they\nthen die of hunger ? \"\n\" Monsieur \", said I, \"we had a\ngreat pile of stones there which we were\nto cart away ; but we have decided to\nemploy them in the courtyard \".\n\" Well! \", cries M. Talma, \" that's\nall the same; go and see all your workmen\ntoday, and get them to cart those stones.\nIf it is necessary to bring them back, they\ncan bring them back ; that will at least\nbe work and bread for a long time \".\nSee the humanity of M. JTalma!\nAccordingly when he set out the next\nday, for Paris, all the workmen were\ngathered at his carriage, wishing him a\ngood journey, and all bidding him \" Adieu,\nle pere de Brunoy\n_____ *\n!N 1820 M. Talma bought about ten\narpents T) of land at the end of his\ngarden. This land was in a very bad\nstate.\nM. Talma says to me, while we are\nwalking together in this new acquisition :\nLouette, what are we going to do with\nthis ? \"\nI reply : \" Monsieur, it is impossible\nfor us to plant in such poor ground \".\n\" Well, my friend **, says he, \" what\nmeans are we going to take to clear that\npoor land, so that it may receive the\nplantings that we wish to set there ? It\nwill all have to be cultivated with the\nplough \".\nI reply to him, \" That is not my\nintention, for that will cost you a thousand\nfrancs in two years, and your land will\nnot be clean. But you have so many\npoor people at les Bosserons who have\nno ground to plant any potatoes, beans,\nand vegetables in general. All those\ncrops demand a great deal of attention.\nYou must give each of them a little piece\nof land and deprive yourself of it for two\nyears. You will find, the third year, a\nnew soil, and very suitable for receiving\nevery kind of planting \".\nM. Talma looks at me, saying :\n\" Louette, I find your view very good\nand beneficent, for I see that we are\nagain going to render some people happy.\nCome, my friend, it is decided. You\ncan, when you please, divide them up,\nand the sooner the better, for this land\nis shocking ; it is really disgraceful.\nThe following Sunday I summon all\nthe inhabitants of les Bosserons, and give\nto each man a piece of land, enjoining\non them to cultivate well that land which\nI shall leave to them for two years. So\nthat every Sunday there were upon that\nproperty forty persons. There were the\nfathers, the mothers, the children. All\nthose unfortunate folk were possessed by\namour-propre ; it was a question of who\nwould do the best to please M. Talma.\nM. Talma used to come every Sunday\nto Brunoy, and it was his delight to go\nat once to see his colony. One should\nhave seen how he was hailed by all\nthese poor creatures ! He looked at me\nwith a satisfied air, saying: \" Louette,\ndo you believe that the produce of this\n\n(1) arpent, a measure of from- one to one and a\nhalf acres."}, {"page_pdf": 14, "page_imprimee": "10", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.14", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3056, "texte": "land will be able to compensate them for\ntheir time ? \"\n1 reply, \" Yes, Monsieur; but two\nyears would be required, for the first year\nwill not pay them \".\n\" Well, my friend, I leave it to you \".\nWe go for a walk to the Vamies\nrouges; these are the sluices of the Brunoy\nmill, which pour water into our river\nwhen that of the mill is too full. In re-\nturning from our walk we come to the\nnew property, whereon was the little re-\npublic of les Bosserons, each one in his\nsmall piece of land. M. Talma stops, and\nlooks at me, putting his hand to his\nforehead.\nHe says to me : \" My friend, that\nproduces a curious effect on me, to see\nwhole families of wretched people. I\nimagine myself to be seeing our wretched\nfolk at the Champ d* Asile. And you,\nLouette, how does it strike you ?\n\" Monsieur, if there exists a Champ\nd'Asile, that is it to the life\nEVERY Sunday, when M. Talma ar-\nrived at Brunoy, it was to hasten\nimmediately to see his Champ d'Asile;\nbut it was only we two who knew that\nname for it.\nAs he approached them the first who\nperceived him called all the others, saying,\n\" voila le pere qui arrive I \" Immediately\none saw everybody salute him, hat in\nhand, with a glad and satisfied air.\nM. Talma, on coming up to them,\nsaid : \" My friends, you work then on\nholidays and Sundays ? \"\n\" Yes, Monsieur, for the work we\nare doing here will only serve us this next\nwinter. In cultivating your land well we\nhope to gather some fine potatoes and\nbeans ; but this harvest will only come to\nus in the month of October, and we are\nobliged to work all the week to feed\nan ugly piece of furniture which we each\nhave at home\nM. Talma replies ; \" And what is\nthis ugly piece of furniture for which you\nappear to have no love?\nThe man replies, \" Monsieur, it is\nmy kneading trough ; for 1 have four\nchildren, myself and my wife ; that makes\nsix persons who must eat ; so that every\nSunday my wife takes my week's wage\nand goes to the miller. Sometimes nothing\nremains over to make the soup with, and\n! set to again on Monday, and every day\nit is the same.\nM. Talma asks him; \" But, my\nfriend, how do you manage about dres-\nsing yourself?\nThe man named Morier replies; \" Ah,\nMonsieur, we make hay and we harvest.\nEveryone has to work, the mother and\nchildren too\nM. Talma quits them sighing, and\nsays to them : \" Well, my children, 1\nhope that my land will repay you for\nyour pains \".\nAnd on leaving them M. Talma says\nto me: \" But, Louette, if after all no\npotatoes or haricots should come up, what\nwould become of the time of these un-\nfortunate people?\n1 said to him, \" Ah, Monsieur, being\nwell cultivated like that it is inevitable\nthat they come up \".\nM. Talma replies ; \" My friend, all\nthe same, I beg you, in the course of\nthe summer to observe if these unfortunate\npeople gather about the right amount for\nthe time they have devoted to this land\nwhich is so poor; for I would rather pay\nthem a wage \".\n\" Very well, Monsieur \" said I,\n\" I will take care to keep an eye on\nthat \".\nThe year was favourable. That year\nthere came out of M. Talma's property"}, {"page_pdf": 15, "page_imprimee": "11", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.15", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3370, "texte": "at least a thousand bushels of potatoes\nand about a hundred bushels of beans.\nBut the second year was even more\nadvantageous, seeing that the land was\nalready well cleaned.\nThe harvest of the two years was so\ngood that, whereas none of those unfor-\ntunate people had ever had the means of\nraising a pig, in these two years there\nhad been more than thirty pigs killed\nwhich had been reared on the potatoes\nof M. Talma's Champ d'Asile.\nM. Talma used to come on Sundays.\nI showed him the chimneys of les Bos-\nserons, a little hamlet which is at the end\nof his property; 1 said to him, \" See,\nMonsieur, all those pots boiling ; it is the\npiece of salt pork which comes out of\nyour Champ • d: Asile which is cooking \".\nHow's that, my friend ? \" says he.\n\" Monsieur, all those unfortunate people\nLave raised little pigs with the potatoes\nof their Champ d*Asile which they have\nnot been able to consume, and in this\nmoment they are rejoicing over the pains\nthey have taken ; they are all very happy \".\nCome, so much the better ! I am\n'quite as happy as they can be \".\nMoreover, should M. Talma have\nrequired their services at any hour what-\nsoever either by day or by night, he\nwould have had everybody, even those\nto whom he had never done any good,\nand all the world may believe that\nM. Talma is immortalized in Les Bosse-\nrons as at Brunoy.\nM. Talma was a man of order in\nhis household, and very straight in his\ndealings.\nIn 1820, when we had made up\nthe accounts for the end of the year, rny\naccounts being regulated, he showed me\nhis expenditure for the year for gratuities,\nto the poor as well as to his family. This\namounted to the sum of twelve thou-\nsand and fifty francs including that spent\nduring his travelling and at the capital;\nfor it must he observed that M. Talma\nhas brought up a large family, and there\nwere left on his hands five children,\nnephews and nieces, whom he had sup-\nported from the cradle. These children\nwere of two of his sisters who had died\nvery young; it was thus necessary to\nbring them up, have them educated and\nstart them .in life. When M. Talma\nrelated to me the loss of his relations and\nthe charge which was left to him, he\nalways had his eyes full of tears, saying\nto me : \" Poor Louette, if you knew\nhow I began ! for I began with nothing.\nMy father was not rich, my grandfather\nwas still less so; in fact I am but a third\ngeneration having had its origin at Pois,\nin Picardy, near Valenciennes\nEvery year, in returning from Brussels,\nit was his delight to pass through that\nvillage, in which is situated the paternal\nhouse of his father, to see all his cousins,\nmale and female. He took care to buy\ndresses, fichus, and he gathered them\ntogether and distributed all this to them\nin passing ; and it was a fete for them\neach time that M. Talma passed through\nthe village.\nM. Talma said to me: \"My friend,\nit is not altogether the relations which\ndraw me to that village ; it is that house\nwhere my father -was born ; to see two\nlittle rooms on the ground floor, one of\nwhich served as kitchen, dining-room and\nbedroom, and the other room was used\nto stable the horse and the cow. Then,\nmy friend when one comes from so poor\na dwelling, why not content oneself with\nmy house as it is ?\nI reply : '' Monsieur, that depends on\nyou ; if you wish to be satisfied and to\nrest now, you have well earned it\nHe said \" Yes, my friend, 1 shal"}, {"page_pdf": 16, "page_imprimee": "12", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.16", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3157, "texte": "not die of hunger at present, but I shall\nbe deprived of doing good ; and then I\nhave children about whom 1 must occupy\nmyself, both for their education and to\nassure them a certain existence '.\nI reply : 44 But, Monsieur, your name\nis already a heritage for them \".\n44 Yes, but it is necessary to enable\nthem, by talents in such or such a line\nas they may desire to follow, to say,\n44 we are the sons of Talma \".\nAT last came the spring, with the\nleaves growing thick on the trees,\nand our new garden grows bushy.\nM. Talma, installed with his family,\nused to go to act two or three times a\nweek.\nOne fine morning, M. Talma seeks\nme all over the garden, calls me in many\nparts of the park ; but the noise of my\nwork prevented me from hearing him.\nM. Talma had already passed twice close\nto me, but a very thick clump of trees\nprevented both of us from seeing each\nother and even from hearing each other.\nAt the third time I hear M. Talma\nblowing his nose; I say to him; 44 if you\nwant me, I am over here \".\nHe comes upon me, being very much\nheated with hurrying to and fro, and 1\neven dare to say that his appearance\nrevealed a little tamper, saying to me:\n44 My dear fellow, where the devil had\nyou gone ? for two hours I have been\nsearching for you all over the garden \".\nHis somewhat annoyed manner caused\nme to reflect, never before having seen\nhim angry.\nI reply : 44 But Monsieur, you tell\nme that you have searched for me every-\nwhere ; I am sorry if you are fatigued,\nbut it is not my fault, for I have not\nbeen away from here \".\nThen M. Talma begins to recover\nhimself a little from his chase and says\nto me : 44 My friend, what means shall\nwe take so that in the future we may find\neach other ? for our garden will always be\ngrowing larger. Then, if each time that\nI want you 1 am obliged to walk three\nleagues that will become very tiresome\nI reply to him : 44 Ah, Monsieur, we\nwill put an end to all these lost steps,\nwhich will end by fatiguing you\nM. Talma says to me : 4 4 But, my\nfriend, we must bethink ourselves of this\nmeans as soon as possible, for really this\nrunning to and fro becomes very disa-\ngreable \".\nVery well, Monsieur, you are going\ntomorrow to Paris, you must bring us\nback two whistles, one for each of us ;\nfor 1 beg you to believe that the sound\nof the whistle is more piercing than the\nsound of the voice, and will more easily\npenetrate the enclosures of the clumps of\ntrees V\nM. Talma replies to me: I believe\nthat you have struck on a good idea\nthere. Well, lam certainly going to tell\nPierre to remind me of it tomorrow \".\nSo off M. Talma sets for Paris, and\nsays to me, 44 Well, Louette, goodbye\ntill the day after tomorrow when we will\ntry the whistles\nThis did not fail. M. Talma arrives\nwith two ivory whistles ; he hastens im-\nmediately to my house with the two\nwhistles, and says to me, 44 Come, Louette,\nchoose \".\n1 answer, 44 Ah, Monsieur, 1 shall\nalready think myself happy enough to\naccept the one which does not suit you,\nrather than have the indiscretion of choo-\n• ? f\nsing .\nAt last M. Talma whistles in both,\ntakes his and gives me mine.\nHe says laughing, 44 Now then,,\nLouette, we need a rallying-call"}, {"page_pdf": 17, "page_imprimee": "13", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.17", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3057, "texte": "\" Monsieur say I, \" every mor-\nning, on coming out of the house and\nentering the grove, you will blow a\nwhistle. You will leave me time to take\nmy whistle from my pocket, and you will\nobserve well from which direction the\nsound comes. Then, you will walk in\nthe direction whence you will have judged\nthe whistle to come. When you want\nme to come to the house, you will add\na second blast, I shall know what that\nmeans\nM. Talma replies : \" Very well,\nthat's understood \".\nBut I : \" No, Monsieur, it is not yet\naltogether understood, for I have also an\nobservation to make to you \".\nM. Talma looks at me laughing and\nsaying :'' What is that ?\nI ask him : \" Well, Monsieur, if I\nhave need of you and you are in the\ngarden, have I the same right over you\nas you have over me ? Can I make use\nof my whistle to be heard by you?\nM. Talma begins to laugh and says\nto me : \" Just the same, since it is made\nfor that \".\nI reply: \" Monsieur, I make this\nremark to you because I well believe that\nthere will exist no one save myself in\nFrance, and I dare to say in Europe,\nwho will have the right to make use of\nthis insolent instrument against you \".\nM. Talma looks at me a little and\nanswers laughing: \"You too, Louette,\nwill only have this right at Brunoy M.\nWe had now thus reached a good\nunderstanding. M. Talma goes off to\ndine, and 1 say to him :\"I am going\nto work in the kitchen garden \".\nHe replies: \" Good, I am glad to\nknow where you are \".\nI had my doubts of this, for I was\nsure that he would be seized with impa-\ntience to put the whistles to the test.\n(Owing to that the whistles roused the de-\nrision of the household a little for some\ndays). In fact, M. Talma has barely\nhad time to dine when he rises again\nand comes out through the dining-room\ndoor and gives a whistle for me.\nI respond to him. He repeats it.\nI come to him in the dining -room. Eve-\nryone begins to laugh, and I also ; there-\nfore I say to M. Talma, \" There now!\nis that whistle only for fun? \"\nAnd M. Talma with his habitual\nkindly air replies, \" Yes, my friend, 1\nwas very glad to make a trial of our\ninvention ; but I am very pleased that it\ngoes well \".\nThen I made my bow, saying to\nM. Talma: \"I hope that now the\nwhistles have finished laughing ; that the\nnext time that they shall serve will be\nfor necessity, or else, having bought them\nto save your legs, they will end by tiring\nmine \".\nM. Talma replies ; \" That is true,\nthis poor Louette who has so much\nhardship, we make him walk about for\nnothing \".\nSome time afterwards M. le Comte\nd'Avoux, who was staying at Brunoy,\nwants to speak to M. Talma: not finding\nhim in his apartments, the servants say to\nhim: \" Monsieur, look in the kitchen\ngarden, Louette will find M. Talma for\nyou\nThe Comte d'Avoux comes up to\nme saying : \" Louette, could you do me\nthe kindness of telling me where Talma\n• **\nis ?\nI reply, \" Monsieur, follow me, I am\ngoing to find him \".\nI enter the grove, and, drawing my\nwhistle from my pocket, I blow it loudly.\n* It greatly surprised the Comte d'Avoux\nto see the way in which I called my\nmaster."}, {"page_pdf": 18, "page_imprimee": "14", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.18", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3159, "texte": "M. Talma is a little time in replying\nto me, because he no longer remembered\nin which pocket he had put his whistle.\nHowever, listening out for it, there is\nM. Talma responding.\nI say to M. d'Avoux : 44 Monsieur,\ntake that path there, you will find him\nnot far from here \".\nM. le Comte goes off laughing, and\nencounters M. Talma, also laughing, who\nsays to him : 44 Good day, d'Avoux ;\nyou are laughing at our invention ? But,\nmy dear fellow, the other day I searched\nfor Louette half a day without being able\nto find or meet with him. I was in a\ndetestable humour, and poor Louette said\nto me: 4 Monsieur, there is no other\nmeans to take but for each to have a\nwhistle '. And I believe that that has\nsucceeded very well\nIn 1821 M. Talma said to me, in the\nI month of September, on arriving one\nday [at Brunoy : 44 Well, Louette, have we\nplenty of poor folk in Les Bosserons? \"\nI reply : 44 Monsieur, this is not the\nmoment when the distress makes itself felt;\nit is in the month of January, for now\nthey have all just harvested ; but I know\nseveral who have no work. It is St\nMartintide that these unfortunate people\ndread ; it is the paying of the rent of\ntheir miserable huts : one is 60 francs,\nthe other 80 francs; often they and\ntheir family have not been able to earn\nthat sum in the harvest, yet out of it they\nmust also have some clothes for the\nwinter \".\nM. Talma says to me : 44 But if\nthese unfortunate folk had not work for a\nlong time, what would they do ? Die\nof hunger?\nI answer: 44 Monsieur, I believe that\nthere must always exist a providence in\nthe rich people of each commune, which\nmakes them provide for the existence\nthe poor \".\nM. Talma resumes : 4 4 Yes, you are\nright ; but since I have been at Brunoy\nI believe I have paid my share well\n\" Yes, Monsieur, but all the other\nbourgeois do not join with you in this,\nfor you do more by yourself, you alone,\neach year, than all the others put to-\ngether\nM. Talma says to me: 44 Very well,\nlet us keep on. Now come along, we\nare going to play a game of dominoes\nThat is the only game that M. Talma\nwould permit himself.\nWhile we were playing the first game,\nalmost in the middle, he looked at me\nand said to me : 44 Louette, I am thinking\nof something. I want to parquet my red\nsalon. How much will it cost me to do\nthat in point de Hongroie ? \"\nI reply : 44 Monsieur, I should require\nto know the length and the breadth\n44 That is most true \" said he.\nWell, my friend, let us leave our game\nand each take a candle, and let us go\nand take the measurements.\nHaving taken our measurements very\nexactly, we make our calculations, and\nwe find it comes to about six hundred\nfrancs.\nHe says to me : 44 Well, Louette\nthere is some work already found for the\ncarpenters, this winter. Let us go and\nfinish our game of dominoes. We will\nthink over finding something for our poor\nles Bosserons diggers.\nWe have not the time to finish our\ngame, for he stops in the act of placing\na domino, and looks at me saying :\nStop, Louette, I've thought of\nsomething. For a long time I have been\nwanting to make a little canal in the\nmeadow to render it healthier. With the\nsoil which will come out of it we will"}, {"page_pdf": 19, "page_imprimee": "15", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.19", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3085, "texte": "level our meadow well, we will stop up\nthe crooked arm which cuts our beautiful\nmeadow ; that will be twice as beautiful,\nand we are going to find work immediate-\nly for our diggers \".\nHe says to me : \" Come, stop, my\nfriend, don't let us play any more; go\nto bed ; tomorrow morning you will mea-\nsure the length and the breadth and you\nwill make the cumulations as to what that\nwill cost us In short, I say goodnight\nto him, and get up.\nM TALMA was so pleased with ha-\n» ving found work that he did not\nsleep that night. He came to knock at\nmy door the next morning before dawn,\nsaying to me :\nLouette, I am waiting for you. to\ngo to our canal \".\nI answered him : \" Pray give me time\nto dress myself \".\nHe says to me : \" All right. Well,\nLouette, I am going on ahead, bring\nalong your measure with you. We are\ngoing to carry out the work together \".\nAt last I arrived. M. Talma had\nalready nude the round of the meadow.\nI go to meet him and we set to work\nin the dew, our feet soaking. I wanted\nto send him back, for fear it should harm\nhim. He replies to me: \"My friend,\nyou speak very seriously : since you have\nchildren, your absense from them would\nbe as harmful to them as would be mine\nfrom mine \".\nMonsieur \", say I to him, \" it is\nbecause you would leave a great gap in\nthe surface of our land, but in my case,\nsave for time to open and close the grave,\nnothing would be noticeable any more \".\n\" Yes, my friend, for the public ;\nbut, should we die the same day, my\nchildren and yours would each lose the\nsame. Beyond that, it is nothing\nIn short, we continue our work:\nbreakfast time comes as we were finishing.\nI say to him : \" Well, Monsieur, we\nshall finish our calculations while break-\nfasting\nHe replies : \" Yes, but you will do\nit alone, and I, who set out for Paris at\nmidday, I still want to go round my\ngarden, and, moreover, I know nothing\nof your craft. Try and finish your cal-\nculations before I start, that I may see if\nthat will exceed the expenditure that I\nwant to incur this winter, for my household\nis only too heavy to maintain, without the\ngood that I have to do elsewhere\nFinally, at midday, M. Talma comes\nto me, having just made the round of\nhis garden.\nFie says : \" Well, my friend, what\ndo you make it?\n\" Monsieur, my whole summary shows,\napart from the inconveniencies of the water,\nwhich might impede us, 1,500 francs of\nexpenses \".\nGood ! my friend, you have told me\nthat there* are some workmen doing no-\nthing in les Bosserons, they must be taken\non tomorrow \".\nThat was Friday. I say to him:\n\" Monsieur, taking on workmen is not all,\nthe work must be planned out \".\nHe responds, \" Ah, that's true,\nLouette. Listen to me then. I act to-\nmorrow, Saturday. On Sunday I shall\ncome early, and we will plan it out to-\ngether. That will amuse me, and two\nheads are better than one \".\nIt is well to state that the delight of\nM. Talma was to lay out something new\nin his garden, so that some of his friends\nnamed him M. Da Piquet, O for they\nsaw him ceaselessly setting pegs to mark\nout paths or clumps of trees or flowers.\n\n(1) Monsieur Peg or Picket."}, {"page_pdf": 20, "page_imprimee": "16", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.20", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3045, "texte": "Meantime I set to work to prepare some\nof these pegs while awaiting M. Talma.\nON arriving from Paris his delight was\nto sit in my chimney corner, and to\neat at my table.\nM. Talma descends from his caleche\nand says to my wife: \" I am\nvery hungry.\n\" My wife replies: \" Monsieur, what\nwill you have to eat ? \"\nM. Talma saw my pot boiling, which\ncontained a neck of mutton with cabbages,\nand the neck-bone which was sticking out\nas it boiled, making the lid of the pot\nrise from time to time. In fact there was\na very good odour coming out of it.\nM. Talma says to me, with his eyes\non what he was seeing and smelling ;\n\" Louette, do me the kindness to tell me\nwhat it is making that noise in your pot,\nand what is it that smells so good!\n1 uncover the pot and show him.\nHe began to clap his hands and asked\nme where my wife was.\n1 said : \" Monsieur, she has gone to\nBrunoy to fetch some cutlets for you \".\nHe replies : \" Well, you will eat the\ncutlets and I will eat your soup. I can't\nhold out any longer; I am dying of\nhunger \".\nAnd I answer him ; Yes, and then\nthe hankering to eat of such choice\ndishes!\n\" My dear fellow, they are choice for\nme, for Louise is a good cook, but I never\nhave a better appetite than in your\nhouse \".\nMy wife arrives with the cutlets and\nfinds us at table.\n\" Allez,ma meyou can keep\nyour cutlets for your supper. Never have\nI made such a meal\nM. Talma ate only very little as a\nrule; this time he had eaten so that it\nwas a pleasure to see him; but also, to tell\nthe whole truth, I saw very well that the\nodour of his garden, which he loved so\nmuch, seasoned all the food which I could\noffer him at Brunoy.\nMONSIEUR said to me as we were walk-\ning : \" My friend Louette, I earn a\ngreat deal of money, but I do not earn\nenough yet, for I should like there not to\nbe a single poor person in Brunoy\nI reply: \" Monsieur, in the eyes of\nthe poor people you would take the place\nof M. le marquis de Brunoy. \"\nM. Talma responds: \" Yes, but I will\nmake them go in procession with barrows:\nafter me I will at least leave workmen,\nwhereas M. le marquis de Brunoy, with\nhis processions, could leave nothing but\nidlers. **\nI had compared M. Talma to M. le\nmarquis de Brunoy seeing that the marquis\nhad been for many years the seigneur of\nBrunoy, and that he employed everybody\nonly on work at the church, which he had\nhad gilded from top to bottom, as one still\nsees it. The marquis de Brunoy has held\nCorpus Christi processions which cost him\ntwo hundred thousand francs, and M.\nTalma used to say to me that he would\nrather change the whole face of his gar-\nden than spend so much money so use-\nlessly.\nIN 1822, in the month of September,\nM. Talma said to me : \" Come Louette,\nlet us arm ourselves with courage. We\nrequire a large provision of pegs. Here\nare all our poor folk who are about to\nleave our Champ d'Asile clear, and we\nshall have something to lay out.\"\nIn fact, M. Talma had not the pa-\ntience to wait till all the poor things, who\nhad each their little plot of land, had\ngathered their crops, to lay out this part"}, {"page_pdf": 21, "page_imprimee": "17", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.21", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3119, "texte": "of the garden, which was very conside-\nrable ; it contained nearly ten In\ntracing our paths we often traversed plots\nwhere there were potatoes planted and\nready to dig up. And to think that M.\nTalma took the precaution to derange the\nsticks for fear of treading on them!\n44 Louette \", said he to me, 44 are\nyou sure that we should be doing no harm\nto these poor people ? n\nI replied, 44 Monsieur, the potatoes are\nripe; have no fear.\"\nON that day the ground was dry and\nvery hard. M. Talma said to me\nwhile breakfasting : 44 Ah Louette, what\ntrouble that path there has given us! It\nhas tired me to death. It has bothered\nyou too, Louette, for you have yawned\nseveral times\".\nI answer him: 44 Ah, Monsieur, it is\nnot altogether the path which has bothe-\nred me, it is that you took your snuff,\nand I could not smoke my pipe. \".\nM. Talma: 44 What, Louette, you de-\nprive yourself of smoking for me? You\nare wrong, my friend, for I am passionately\nfond of the pipe. If Ido not smoke, it is\non the world's account.\nBut let us return to our path.\nHe said to me : 44 Louette, your hands\nmust be sore, my friend, for, the ground\nis very hard. Listen, my friend, each in\nhis turn. You have better eyes than mine ;\nperhaps we shall get along faster. \" So\nhere we are on the piece of ground. I\nset the pegs to trace the path from the\narbour which leads to the cottage, while\nM. Talma sets in his turn to the roughest\nlabour. In fact, there am I ordering my\nown master about; but I saw at once that\nwe were going to get angry because he was\nnot obedient.\nAt the fourth peg, as we were be-\nginning to turn, I said to him, 44 Pull! \"\nHe pushes.\nI repeat 44 Pull ! \"\nHe still pushes. Ma for, I begin to\nget in a rage; I swear, saying to him,\n\"but, 5..,. nom de Dieu, I didn't tell you\nto push, I told you to pull; I'm sure\nenough we are not going together any\nmore. \"\nM. Talma turns towards me saying:\n44 Forgive me, Louette, it is true. It is\n1 who am stupid.\nI reply, 44 Ah, Monsieur, I beg you\nto excuse me if I have been a little sharp\nwith you; it was to recall your attention\nto me, for I imagine that your head was\nelsewhere. \"\n44 That is true, Louette, for as we\nhad talked about an ice-house at break-\nfast, I was searching in my head for a\nplace for the ice-house.\"\nI respond: 44 Ah, Monsieur, do not\nlet us undertake ' so many things at once\nor we should do nothing well. \"\nWE finished our path in the twinkling\nof an eye, without going over it\nseveral times; which rarely happened, for\nthe one of the morning we had recom-\nmenced at least six times.\nOur path finished, I strike a light, M.\nTalma takes his pinch of snuff, both of\nus being seated on a rock. M. Talma sits\nhimself beside me, very close, so that in\ntalking, from time to time I send some\nsmoke over him.\n44 Ah, what a delicious smell that pipe\nhas, Louette! \".\nI respond: 44 So much the better,\nMonsieur, I can regale you at little cost \".\nM. Talma says to me: 44 Ah, ma foi\nLouette, now you will line out the paths\nyourself; you have better eyes than I have;\nand so we shall get finished sooner and\ntire ourselves less.\nI reply: 4 4 Monsieur, I don't want"}, {"page_pdf": 22, "page_imprimee": "18", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.22", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3113, "texte": "you even to touch them any more, for it\nis too hard a work putting in the pegs,\nwhen the ground is hard. We will only\nagree as to the plan of the paths, and I\nwill see to the rest, for I shall feel more\nat ease in ordering my under-gardener than\nyou. \"\nHe replies: \" Yes, especially when\nyou tell me to pull, and I push. \"\nI say to him: \" But, Monsieur, it is\nnot ill will; the inattention must be at-\ntributed to the ice-house which you had\nin your head. \"\nM. Talma begins again: Now,\nLouette, let us consider that ice-house. \"\n\" Very well!'' say I, '' since we wish\nto find a view point in the highest part of\nthe garden, to get a view of all that is\nbest in our surroundings, then the ice-house\nwill serve us as a view point. The earth\nwhich will come out of the excavation for\nthe ice-house will serve us to cover it\nwith, and we shall pile the earth over it\nas high as we can. \"\nMy foi \" says M. Talma, \" that's\na good idea; that is going to supply us\nwith plenty of earth. \"\nHe says to me: \" But how shall we\nbe able to decide on the height, until we\ncan mount up, at which we can see the\nhorizon well? \"\n1 reply: \"Eh ! Monsieur, you go away\ntoday, you act tomorrow, you return the\nday after tomorrow; meantime ! shall pre-\npare a double ladder of twenty-four feet,\nand you will mount up it until you can see\nall the summets of the mountains surroun-\nding your property. \"\nM. Talma looks at me, laughing, and\nsays: ts Ah, Louette, your invention is a\ngood one. lam going to hurry back from\nParis to see what we shall see. \"\nAt last it grows dusk, we take the\nroad to the house. M. Talma seats him-\nself beside my fire, and, wearied by the\nsticking in of the pegs, says to me: \" Ma\nfoi, Louette, I am not surprised if you are\nready for your bed every evening, for as\nfor me, I am done up, and I am off to\nbed. Weil, good night, till tomorrow\nmorning. \"\nTwo days later, M. Talma arrives\nfrom Paris with the gout.\nM. Talma says to me: \" And our\ndouble ladder, is it in place ? Shall we\nbe able to see that tomorrow ? \"\n\" But, Monsieur, if you cam t walk ? \"\n\" Ma foi, my dear fellow, then I will\nbe carried, I am in such a hurry to\n*l. 99\nsee it .\nTHE following morning, before the sun\nwas risen, there was a heavy dew;\nI see I\\l. Talma coming along with a little\ncrutch in his hand, a pair of shabby green\nbedroom slippers on his feet, so thin that,\nbefore he reached me, they were already\nsoaked through by the wet of the dew.\n1 begin to reprimand him, saying:\nwhat imprudence! could you not wait\ntill the dew had dried up! You deserve\nthat the gout should last for another\nmonth! \"\nHe replies: \" Louette, I can't contain\nmyself any longer until I have seen our\ninvention \".\nI say him: \" That's all right, but we\nhave to pass over a piece of turf near the\nladder, and you are going to get your feet\nsoaking wet.\nHe replies: \" Well, you shall carry\nme .\n\" I am very willing; the thing is, how\nare you to mount \".\n1 end by taking him in my arms as\nbest I can, and carrying him to the double\nladder.\nOnce arrived there, we mount each on\nour own side; when we had gone up\nabout eighteen feet M. Talma says to me;"}, {"page_pdf": 23, "page_imprimee": "19", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.23", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3214, "texte": "44 Ma foi,Louette, if we mounted twenty\nfeet more we could not get a finer view:\nlet us go down. \"\nI said: 44 going down isn't everything;\nthere is your going back: how are you\ngoing to manage ? \"\nHe says to me: 44 But, Louette, I can't\nstand on my foot any more. \"\nI reply: 4 4 Monsieur, it is your own\nimprudence; it's the damp which has al-\nready caught you on your way here, and\nwhich is having its effect. \"\nMy friend, that is all very well; to\nhave come here is but half the battle; the\nthing now is that I have got to get back\nto the house. \"\nI say to him: 44 Come, I am going to\nsummon up my courage and carry you\nback.\nBut, my friend, how are you going\nto do it ? \"\n1 take him by the arm and make him\nremount the double ladder backwards ; I\nmake him mount two rungs, always hol-\nding him by the arm; then I turn my back\nto him and say: 44 Now then, hold on\nto my shoulders, \" which he immediately\ndid. Once on my back, I say to him:\nAre you comfortable ?\n« V\nYes.\nI reply: 44 Just a minute, I must fix\nmyself so that 1 too can go easily.\nI take one of his thighs in each hand\nand then I shake myself a bit to get started.\nThen I set off with my load on my back,\ndirecting my steps towards the house.\nAs we go along, M. Talma says to\nme: 44 Ah, mon Dieu, Louette, how beau-\ntiful my garden is!\nI reply: 44 Yes, ...especially when one\ntakes a ride around it in such a carriage! \"\nM. Talma says to me: 44 Louette, am\nI very heavy? S!\nI reply: You weigh at least a hundred\nand eighty. \"\nHe retorts, laughing, 44 without the\ngood spirits? \"\nBut M. Talma was so good that one\nwould have served him just for the plea-\nsure of being ordered about by him. No,\nhe who has known and served M. Talma\nas I have, cannot honour him too highly.\nWas it needful that he should have des-\ncended so low today! No, truly, the soil\nof Pere-Lachaise ought not to consume\nsuch flesh!\n* * * &\nPierre Louette had Written the follow-\ning lines at the head of his manuscript.\nToo lengthy to constitute a title, this\nkind of introduction, it seemed to us, ought\nnevertheless not to be left in oblivion, and\nour gardener's readers will find him here\ntelling, with his usual naievite, the motives\nwhich determined him to take up the pen.\nSJ Private life of M. Talma on his\ncountry estate at Brunoy, written by his\ngardener Louette ; and conversations which\nthey have had together since 1817 until\nthe month of October 1826 relating to\nthe kindnesses of M. Talma which are inef-\nfaceable in my memory; that is why 1\nventure to write so as to dissuade people\nfrom being led into error as to the good\nconduct of M. Talma, who is irreproa-\nchable ; a man who has been great in all\nhe did, thinking always only of how to\ndo good, and always detesting to hear\ntalk of those who do evil.\nFor ten years past, i can appreciate\nhis character, the more so since 1 was not\nregarded by him as his gardener, for I can\nsay that I was his confidante and his friend:\nalso the good treatment which I received\nfrom M. Talma constrained me to attach\nmyself to his service and to defend his\ninterests, a thing which was only too na-\ntural, since he merited it as a good father\nand a good master, and he tried ever to\nmake the lot of all those who surrounded"}, {"page_pdf": 24, "page_imprimee": "20", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.24", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1291, "texte": "him, very happy. What has compelled\nme to write about this ten years' passage\nof his life when I had the honour of ser-\nving him, is the stream of people whom I\nhave lately been forced to see and hear,\nand the quantity of visitors to whom 1\nhave been obliged to show his house, and\nhis establishment in general: for it can be\nbelieved that this property is well founded\nby him, seeing that he began it with one\npoor arpent of land, and that he has ex-\ntended it to sixty-five arpents. One must\nnot suppose from this that he squandered.\nIf I make use of this term it is be-\ncause I have been forced a hundred times,\nin the last six months, to be the defender\nof his memory against persons who came\nunder the pretext of buying this unfortu-\nnate orphan estate, and that, in his very\napartments, my unfortunate ear has often\nbeen wounded by persons certainly not his\nequals, and who said: Talma was mad. He\npulled down his house ten times to change\nits shape. He has torn up all the trees,\none after another, to set them elsewhere.\nOne cannot ignore that these injustices\nhave astounded me a hundred times, for I\nknew to the contrary, and I knew that if\nM. Talma earned a great deal of money,\nit was only spent upon improving his estate,\nand in doing good wherever my master\ndirected his steps."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c019", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c019", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "20", "page_fin": "21", "image_debut": 24, "image_fin": 27, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.12", "titre_corps": "THE OPERA HOUSE OF THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES", "titre_sommaire": "THE OPERA HOUSE OF THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES", "signature_source": "GORDON CRAIG", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 24, "page_imprimee": "20", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.24", "debut_caractere": 1293, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4524, "texte": "THE OPERA HOUSE OF\nTHE PALACE OF VERSAILLES\nBY GORDON CRAIG.\n\nBUILT 1753-1770 by Architect Jacques Ange Gabriel\n(1698-1782).\nUndoubtedly it was rather a large Theatre for any\nman to order for himself and family. But it couldn't well\nbe any smaller—for this was the situation.\nIn 1753 everyone was having a theatre built for\nhimself; it was only this King who had none. The other\nKings, even the Dukes, ail had a theatre apiece; some\nhad even three or four. Down in Caserta near Napoli\nKing Carlo 111 had only last year, 1752, put architect\nLuigi Vanvitelii on to the building of a huge palace with\na theatre in a central position. It has five circles and\nsome forty-two boxes. Louis XV cannot possibly do less.\nIt looks to me as though he had seen some drawings for\nthis Caserta Theatre. And the Due always\nthreatening to have another private theatre and yet ano-\nther—even a rascally poet has a little playhouse down in\nthe Rue Traversi&re where he is producing plays and great\nactors by smiling. At Berny de Clermont put up a\nTheatre three years ago—yes, in 1750 or was it earlier;\nand there is de Grammant dancing like a man who is\nenjoying himself at Puteaux ; even Popeliniere has a play-\nhouse down in Putney—l mean Passy—and why shouldn't\nLouis XV have one—that is what he is asking himself.\nThe fault of Kings is only one but it is a grave one; it\nis this. They have always thought far far too much about\ntheir subjects and too little for themselves.\nEveryone may have his say and his Theatres.—Had\nI been a King I should, I am afraid, have come to feel\nlike that and done like that too. But not being a King,\nand there being (at present) no fear that I ever shall be\none, I can say what I like without any fear of being\nobliged later on to abide by it.\nAnd so 1 will turn to my imaginary Master of the\nWhite Horse or some other menial and will tell him to\nlisten attentively—in fact write it down. \" Write this \"\nI tell him. —\" There will be only one private playhouse\nin my Empire and it will be in this house. It will be\nlarge enough to entertain all those gentlemen and ladies of\nmy realm who so very much enjoy private theatricals that\nthey empty my Public Playhouses rendering it very dif-\nficult for them to exist. My private theatricals will have\nto be so good that anyone not enjoying them will be con-\nsidered sick and shall immediately be treated by the pri-\nvate physician of my Theatre \".\nNow when his Majesty King Louis XV called in\nthat excellent architect Jacques Ange Gabriel and ordered\nhim to build the theatre at Versailles he told him to make\nit large enough to hold 3000 such guests but he forgot to\nclose the other private Theatres.\nIt was an immense playhouse for those days, and,\nbut for the Teatro of the Duke of Parma, I should ima-\ngine the largest private Theatre ever built.\nSo Gabriel set to work in 1753, and what with one\ntrouble and another the place was only ready by 1770,\ninaugurated in that year on May 16th to celebrate the\nmarriage of the Dauphin with Marie Antoinette. It was\n144 feet long, 60 feet wide, 50 feet high, had 38 co-\nlumns, and the machines (which at that time were begin-\nning to fail to be of service so big they were becoming)\nwere constructed by the stupid Arnould."}, {"page_pdf": 27, "page_imprimee": "21", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.27", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1192, "texte": "There is no time and space to stop and apologize for\na weli meant thrust at a man bent on bamboozling us all\nfor ever, the mechanic in the Arts, but Arnould will know\nwhat 1 mean. Often he must have leaned over the bar\nof Heaven with the blessed Damozel and seen the goings\non at La Scala and the Pans Opera House and remem-\nbered too late that to make good machines for Theatricals\nthey must follow one principle and that i 5....— but I am\ngrown wiser since I was in Berlin, and friend Reinhardt's\nemissaries ever lurking behind the arras. Yes, I have a\nvery pretty idea about Theatre machines which would save\na Theatre director some thousands of pounds yearly and\nbring other thousands of pounds to the employes—espe-\ncially to the machine makers, and that without remoulding\nthe world more to my heart's desire. But to tell it is not\nmy intention. Like Lord Byron No more—no more—\nOh I never more will I be offering my ideas to anyone\ngratis. It's not being done any more by me, and my ad-\ndress is Via delta Costa di Serretto 17. Oenova. 1 erms\npayable in three parts; on signing contract, on commence-\nment of work and on completion of work.\nAnd I hope this is practical enough.\ne.g. c."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c020", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c020", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "n. p.", "page_fin": "n. p.", "image_debut": 25, "image_fin": 25, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.12.1", "titre_corps": "A PRIVATE THEATRE OF A KING", "titre_sommaire": "A PRIVATE THEATRE OF A KING", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 25, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.25", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 149, "texte": "A PRIVATE THEATRE OF A KING. THE OPERA HOUSE THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES.\nBuilt by Architect Gabriel; commenced 1753; inaugurated May 16th 1770\nPlate 2."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c021", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c021", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "21", "page_fin": "21", "image_debut": 27, "image_fin": 27, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.12.2", "titre_corps": "PLAN OF THE ROYAL PALACE OF CASERTA, SHOWING THE THEATRE BUILT BY THE ARCHITECT LUIGI VANVITELLI FOR CARLO III IN 1752", "titre_sommaire": "PLAN OF THE ROYAL PALACE OF CASERTA, SHOWING THE THEATRE BUILT BY THE ARCHITECT LUIGI VANVITELLI FOR CARLO III IN 1752", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 27, "page_imprimee": "21", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.27", "debut_caractere": 1194, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1312, "texte": "PLAN OF THE ROYAL PALACE OF\nCASERTA, SHOWING THE THEATRE\nBUILT BY THE ARCHITECT\nLUIGI VANVITELLI\nFOR CARLO III\nIN 1752"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c022", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c022", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "21", "page_fin": "23", "image_debut": 27, "image_fin": 29, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.13", "titre_corps": "THE COLOSSUS. G . B . S", "titre_sommaire": "THE COLOSSUS. G . B . S", "signature_source": "e. g. c", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 27, "page_imprimee": "21", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.27", "debut_caractere": 1314, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3276, "texte": "THE COLOSSUS.\nG . B . S.\n\nTHERE are people, Mr Henry Arthur Jones\nfor example, who object to Mr Bernard\nShaw's views his attitude his everything.\nThey find him the \"most poisonous of all the poi-\nsonous haters of England \" : the \" idol of\nopaque intellectuals and thwarted females \" :\nthe \" menace to ordered social thought and\nordered social life \" and so on.\nPeople who utter cries of that kind prove\nthat they read what Mr Shaw writes and it\nserves them jolly v/ell right.\nI do not read anything Mr Shaw writes.\n1 don't prevent myself, it is he that prevents\nme. As my study is Drama and Theatre,\nand as I see he writes plays and talks of the\nplayhouse, I always begin with a good will,\nDut after a couple of paragraphs 1 have always\nbeen forced by Mr Shaw to leave off.\nIf Mr Shaw wrote about Journalism or\nReligion i think I could read on; but he\nwrites on so many things about which others\nspeak with more authority ; about Drama and\nTheatre for example; this forces him to put\non airs, and the moment I hear the strong and\nkindly voice putting on airs all is up.\nBut here is a book 1 can read for\nMr Henderson has a good deal to ask, and\ndoes it all so well; and, while he is present,\nsomething happens which makes it possible\nfor me to listen to the replies and to watch\nG. B. S. as he is answering Mr Henderson,\nand all is charming.\nSurely no one needs assuring that nothing\ncan trip up Mr Shaw, that nothing is too much\nfor him.\nBe the question one about War or Peace,\nabout the several European Governments or\nMr. Wilson, about French Revolution or\nMr Joyce, Belgium 01* Communism, Theatre\nor Pulpit, of what to do in this event or in\nthat one —he can answer it pat. Mr Shaw\nis ever ready.\nI feel quite sure that Mr Shaw knows\nsome one thing better than the rest of us, but\nwhat is it ? What ever it is 1 shall never\nknow for I have heard him begin on nearly\n\n(1) \" Table Talk of G. B. S. \" by Archibald Henderson'\n(Chapman and Hall) appeared in 1925."}, {"page_pdf": 28, "page_imprimee": "22", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.28", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4198, "texte": "everything, and always in that spirited voice,\nand yet the voice of the debating-society\nspeaker. This stops my reading Shaw.\nOne of the most lamentable facts that\nthe Theatrical historian of the nineteenth and\ntwentieth centuries will be able to record,\nis, that its most celebrated London Dramatist\nwas able to give you a clear slick answer to\nany question anyone might put to him. He\nnever said \" I do not know \".\nIf only he had been ignorant, or innocent,\nof all things except the craft of the playwright,\nwhat a blessing such a power as his would\nhave been to our stage. We should have\nhad at least one more name to add to that\nof Tom Robertson, and, who knows, to that\nof Sheridan. As it is, the next thirty-five\nyears will have to be spent in ridding Euro-\npeans and Americans of the misrepresenta-\ntions Shaw has poured into their ears for the\nlast thirty-five years or so.\nI will not say it is \" cursed hebenon \",\nfor Shaw is as good as gold and wouldn't\nhurt a fly: but he was born when Journalism\nwas growing great, and he learned too well\nwhat fun it is to dope those who will make\nit a custom of an afternoon to go to sleep.\nAnd he didn't even pour it in quietly like\nan artist: he dinned it in so that it's really a\nwonder they didn't wake up.\nNear by where 1 live is a convent of\nwomen. They ring a bell for hours at a\ntime. A bell, not six... one bell. They\nare ringing now.\nBing—bing—bing—bing\nbing bing bing bing ( presto).\nThey are very good women and very\nclever women too who ring it; but they\nlack one little something call it art....\nsense.... mother-wit or knack,... which you\nwill. Whereas the towers of the other little\nchurches or monasteries up and down the\nvalley swing out well-made tunes and chimes\nduring the day, these good and clever wo-\nmen send up their tower one chosen sister to\npound one barren note at us:\nbing bing bing bing bing\nme me me me me\nis what it seems at last to say. Though far\noff, I almost see her as 1 listen, and I am so\nsorry. She is, I know, expressing herself\nclearly. What was that Wilde wrote about the\nlilacs ? well, it's just other than that. Only\none thing she seems able to do to vary the\nawful cleverness of her performance, the dire\nsaintliness of her devoted bell-banging ; ... it\nis to go faster and then suddenly to scuttle.\nPerhaps 1 am unfair on her to ask more\nthan sanctity from her; but from Mr Shaw,\nhe having taken to the boards, I expect more\nthan sanctity and bing. For she who bangs\nthe little bell is somehow like Mr Shaw\ngiving his opinion on all things in heaven and\nearth : it is one long string of be 11....\nDin din.\nAll I want is that she shall stop it and\nthat he shall stop it.\n1 don't differ from a thing Shaw says. I\ndon't agree either. I merely want him to\nstop, for I cannot stand the way he says it.\nAs for what he says, I am content to leave\nto trained people in Europe all questions and\ndecisions concerning Wars, Peace, Belgium,\nCommunism, Government, Mr Wilson and\nthe French Revolution. 1 will and do abide\nby what they say. 1 will not interfere ; and\nby doing this I hope, indeed I suppose, I act\nlike any other quite ordinary man.\nMr Shaw, who was not born at all an\nordinary man, .... who was, I believe, born\nto be a great priest and very holy man, for\nsome reason fell from grace, took to journa-\nlism (a big enough task one would say to\nkeep him faithful to it), then deserted jour-\nnalism and wrote plays, so many and so long\n.... ting—ting ting—ting .... that he has come\nto be thought of as a playwright.\nA playwright is one who masters the craft\nof play making to the greater lustre of the Dra-\nmatic art. Primarily (and indeed to the end)\na craftsman, he may, as he progresses, fashion\na masterpiece and so win the title of artist.\n1 cannot think Mr Shaw has won that\ntitle, and for my part I believe he never\nstrove for it.\nThe title is his, it has been forced on\nhim, but I fear that is all.\nHe gives us not what an artist gives us\nbut what a very clever man failing to be an\nartist falls back on.\nI am grieved at what is lost. I grieve\nthat by shouldering, elbowing forward, he has\nthrust aside too many a real English artist\nplaywright. That is a very great pity for\nthe English Drama."}, {"page_pdf": 29, "page_imprimee": "23", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.29", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1546, "texte": "For there is not room in any space for\nmore than will fill that space, and G. B. S.\nhas elbowed his way far too energetically for\nslighter men, yet better artists, to exist there.\nWe have now to begin putting up a few\nfences and digging ditches, so that a journalist\nof genius, a born Religious leader, however\ngifted as a preacher, may never again get into\nthe dramatic fold, and a true dramatist, how-\never slight, never be pushed out of it to\nmake room for even the cleverest of men.\nMr Shaw has been what the England of\nthe day urges practical people to be a\ntalker. He has not been a brilliant talker\nbut a mighty one. Brilliance delights and\ncharms ; it wins the hearts of men and women.\nSheridan is the brilliant talker, but I believe\nShaw could bear him down. Shaw is like a\ngreat wind ; he will, I like to think, have\ndone a power of good when these days are\ngone and we gone and the sun shines out\nagain. Shaw is a noble man and his forced\nassumption of cap and bells is the unkind\nthing the age did to him. And I, least of all,\nintend in anything I say any unkindness.\nThe trees bending underneath the blast hardly\nintend unkindness to the howling storm.\nGlorious that a man can become trans-\nformed, and, howling in cap and bells, can\nride the blast as Shaw does. All I pray\nis that no one any more confound that superb\nachievement with the achievement of the ar-\ntists; that no one studying the Drama and the\nTheatre shall stop, even for a moment, to con-\nsider this colossal event as connected in any\nway with the Theatre.\n\ne. g. c."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c024", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c024", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "23", "page_fin": "25", "image_debut": 29, "image_fin": 31, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.14", "titre_corps": "A DRAMA IN \"ACCA\" AT ZAVOV", "titre_sommaire": "A DRAMA IN \"ACCA\" AT ZAVOV", "signature_source": "FRANCOIS M. FLORIAN", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 29, "page_imprimee": "23", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.29", "debut_caractere": 1548, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3384, "texte": "A DRAMA IN \"ACCA\"\nAT ZAVOV.\nBY FRANCOIS M. FLORIAN.\nOctober 18 th 1925.\nDEAR SEMAR:\nAlthough I know 1 have not sent you\nany word of my whereabouts, save the few\nlines about the San Gallo design, for some\nmonths, I fear that I cannot write you much\neven now.\nAll I can do is to enclose the nearest\nthing that I have come across to a play in\nwhat your contributor in \" The Mask \" for\nJanuary 1924 called \" ACCA \". It does\nnot seem to be such a new language as he\nthought.\nI was in Georgia last night: I am spee-\nding away in an express tonight with hope\nof getting away from the place where \"ACCA\"\nis an accomplished fact.\nI prefer the very plainest French or En-\nglish. I will even go to the Theatre Vieux\nColombier : nay more; I will go so far as the\nEveryman Theatre in Hampstead, ... .anything\nto banish all remembrance of \" ACCA \".\nThe author of \" Films \" should really go\nto the town I have just left. Perhaps that is\nwhere he comes from. Anyhow the lan-\nguage spoken there is half Russian, half I\nknow not what; and the third half is pro-\nbably pure Georgian ; and the whole makes\nup \" ACCA \" to a T.\nBut I am leaving it swiftly ;—my train is\ngoing fast; and all I can or care to tell you\nis this.\nOn October 18th I saw a poster outside\nthe Kouslsky station at Zavov, announcing\nthat there would be performed that night at\n8 o'clock \" King Lear or Once Upon a\nTime \" by Nikolai Zolka ; and, taking this\nto be the King Lear of Shakespeare, and\nwondering how it would sound in the sweet\nGeorgian idiom, which I have always loved\nand which 1 speak and understand without\ndifficulty, I strolled round to the Moilie\nTeato after a very excellent dinner at Zap-\npa's.... Fancy old Zappa having got of\nall places. He gave me a hearty welcome\nand a spaghetti a la Napolitana as though we\nwere back in 1912.\n\n(i) Moilie Teato—Little Theatre."}, {"page_pdf": 30, "page_imprimee": "24", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.30", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3954, "texte": "In 1912 Zappa had a small but excellent\ntrattoria in Lucca. In 1919 the place was,\nI believe, burnt, and the proprietor, who had\nonce been cook in the imperial palace at St\nPetersberg (so he said) went northwards\nhoping to reestablish his fortune.\nI reached the Theatre twenty minutes be-\nfore the play began, bought a ticket and\nsmoked half a Terfoo (1) in the foyer, while\nwaiting for the curtain to rise. Meantime I\nbought a book of the words and was amazed\nat what I saw.... for I couldn't read a word\nof the stuff. It was written in 1917.\nI send you the thing. Possibly no one\nwill be able to make head nor tail of it:\nbut you might care to print the first scene so\nas to show readers of \" The Mask \" that I\nam not exaggerating. The stage directions\nare in Georgian; these I've translated for\nyou into English, and hope my pencillings\nare not too illegible. The last line of the\nscene for some unaccountable reason was to\nmy astonishment spoken in plain English\n....although it is in pure Georgian in the li-\nbretto.\nI went in and heard the first act: I could\nnot stay for more. The actors were (like all\nactors) adorable ; they did wonders; ....but\nagainst words which mean nothing no one\ncan do anything.\nHere is the first Scene.\nSCENE /.\nThe Throne Room.\nis hanging up, traced in colours on transparent\nnet. It hangs between the\nPlayers (3).\nEnter the King and his Five Daughters,\n(each Daughter has her\nheaddress) : followed Trum-\npets. The King seats throne,\naround him his five D\nEnglanders, Courtiers, Wise Man, Fool, etc.\nKING. (in gruff and petulant tones) Chou (4)\nchou, chou. Loun douning kapple de\nlure (5). Ah-malingerla fanning ma!aril\nka. Ma! points to the map with\nhis sceptre) Little liar !\nFirst Daughter forward.\nKING. Chou, loun, falli a fa.\nIst DAUGHTER. SOU, rizi a sou, samli-ka\nsofli-ko sa ! (I)\nKING. (pleased)Chou. Scandiebox!\nSecond Daughter\nMoly (2) opopoli prow ?\n2nd DAUGHTER. Aich-fafa, falita tafle, tafle\na schnap !\nKLNG. (slightly surprised,mah.es\nto rise)\n2nd DAUGHTER. Samli-ka sofli-ko sa!\nThe Court murmurs approval.\nKING. Ah ha ! .... c/aroun .... Jaroum\n(Clearing his throat)\nChou. Busybodie!\nThird Daughter leaps forward.\nBurbury billiboo, branch led and lolly ho?\n3rd DAUGHTER. Attci, attce, a adly-el-oillio\ndi oily.\nThe Courtiers murmur strong approval.\nKING. (charmed hy the oily and oillio sounds,\nand Wagging his head)\nAh, ah, ah, papala papala, papalafala.... Chou!\nThe Courtiers are all attention.\nKING. Toady-tot!\nThe Fourth Daughter leaps forward.\nBrantam ranala blam, blurry-blue ?\nThe Courtiers all crane their necks for-\nward and there is a moment's pause.\n4th DAUGHTER. Oh, uh, liquori cuori oh,\nuh—zu ?\nThe Courtiers all break out into relieved\nexclamantions.\nCOURTIERS. Ach! ta! ta! tattita-tattita-ta\n(staccato)\nKING. Frou - Frou—oh too Frou tofle frau\nChou. Darling! (There is a pause)\nThe Fifth Daughter advances.\nChop, killy crop, dolly op antica ? Match.\nsth DAUGHTER. (Shakes her head)\nKLNG. COW? Munch and a match antic an\ndolly o crop.\nCOURTIERS. Munch - and match—snatch—\noh, ither bunch ! (Murmurs of Bunch—\nSnatch—Munch)\nsth DAUGHTER. (Shakes and lowers her head).\n\n(1) The Terfoo is one of the best of cigars if you know\nhow to smoke it. In England you can get them for abniit\niod each. In Zavoff they cost 4 sacci or about 3d in English\nmoney.\n(2) Supposedly ancient Britain.\n(3) One had sometimes to dodge and peer in between the\npeninsulas and capes and under the bays and gulfs to catch\na glimpse of the speakers.\n(4) Chou or Chow: M. Paul Boulgeois (1848) has assured\nus that the significations of this word are practically endless.\n(5) Lure. See GeiselbrechPs 44 Die Zigenner inihrem\nWeseu im in ihrer Sprache n Basle (1854).\n(1) Samli-ka Sofli-ko. Compare Eloise Levi, 44 Esquisse\nsur V his to ire, les moeurs, et la langue des Khouan Paris,\n1837. Kolltnan, 1. cM p. 14: Groome, 44 Journal of Gypsy\nLore\n(2) Moly. Vide 44 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy \"}\nVol. I. Page 986."}, {"page_pdf": 31, "page_imprimee": "25", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.31", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 681, "texte": "KING. Blank a black bong. Rouf, ding ga\ndong, ding go dong. Dong!! Yong.\nConsternation. The King rises. All\nmove to the R. except the sth\nDaughter, who stands alone.\nKING. ( turning) Ex, Axe other ox—\nBurbury-burybur max. Wha !\nAll go out but the Fifth Daughter,\nwho is left alone. She raises her\neyes, looksat the Audience, shakes\nher head.\nsth DAUGHTER, It's no good answering\nthem.\nShe goes out.\n* * $\n€J The conductor of the train has just\ncome in and has said to me *' Bram zatski\nhashnahalla \". Would that mean anything to\nyou, 1 wonder? Yet it meant \"Tickets,\nplease, Sir \" to him.\nWhat a wonderful thing speech is after\nall. How really practical, how perfectly beau-\ntiful."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c026", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c026", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "25", "page_fin": "25", "image_debut": 31, "image_fin": 31, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.15", "titre_corps": "SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT", "titre_sommaire": "SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT", "signature_source": "J. S", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 31, "page_imprimee": "25", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.31", "debut_caractere": 683, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1406, "texte": "SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT.\nJ. S.\nIN 1814 Lord Byron went to Drury Lane Theatre and\nsat enthralled in a box watching Edmund Kean.\nHow old was Byron, how old Kean ? What had\neach achieved by the year 1814?\nw * *\nWe have never come across anyone yet who could\nanswer ,this question, although a glance at the two \" Lives \"\nwill settle it in a trice.\nAnd we make a note of it here only to start a\ntrain of thought.\nPoets, Playwrights, Actors are often past sixty before\nthey come face to face in their prime. Yet here was Byron,\nhere Kean; the one acting \" Shylock \" for the other, and\neach in his prime.\nWhat were the two ages ?\nByron was twenty-six and Kean was twenty-seven.\nAre we wrong, or is there some food for thought\nhere ?"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c028", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c028", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "25", "page_fin": "27", "image_debut": 31, "image_fin": 33, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.16", "titre_corps": "WHAT IS IT YOU WANT?", "titre_sommaire": "WHAT IS IT YOU WANT?", "signature_source": "YOO-NO-HOO", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 31, "page_imprimee": "25", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.31", "debut_caractere": 1408, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3494, "texte": "WHAT IS IT YOU WANT?\nBY YOO-NO-HOO.\nYOU are, it would seem, a people that\ndoes not know its own mind. And this\nmust have a decidedly disheartening effect\nupon the minds of those good people who\nare devoting time and the best of their abi-\nlities to entertaining you.\nYou write in a month more in your jour-\nnals about the Theatre and the Drama than\nItalians do in six months or longer, which\nshows me you are concerned. You seem to\nbe aware that things are not what they should\nbe, but I see no sign that you make any move\nto bring them nearer that state.\nYou have done curious things these last\ntwenty five years.\nYou have, for example, driven an English\nmanager to present you with ' Hamlet ' in\nmodern dress. Your knowledge and taste in\nmatters Theatrical seems to be so small and\nso variable that unless you get a shock you\ncan feel nothing. That there is very little to\nfeel when you go to a playhouse is, I begin\nto believe, your fault because you have been\nbusily occupied these last twenty-five years\ntelling the play-writers and actors that they\nmust think more—you've asked them to be\nmore thoughtful : you praised a genius you\nonce had for being \" \",\na thing he never was ; you even persuaded\nMr. Matthew Arnold to go and see him\nperform once, and to write about him. If by\nchance a superlatively gifted actress performed\nto you, you excused her brilliance by saying\nit was only natural—that she could not help\nit,—she \" disarmed criticism \". Just because\nshe was a born actress she disarmed the\npeople you sent to appraise her. Before most\nthings you were ready with your apologetic\ncough.\nWhen a clever playwriter came along,\ninstead of accepting his plays without a word\nsaid, and precisely for what they were worth,\nyou said he should not write plays and en-\ntered into such very long arguments with him\nthat, taking himself as seriously as you took\nhim he came to imagine humself the mouth-\npiece of a new continental Philosophy, and,\nlosing the little talent he possessed as a play-\nmaker, became a lecturer upon all things great\nand small. When producers of talent ap-"}, {"page_pdf": 32, "page_imprimee": "26", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.32", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4448, "texte": "peared you spent three or four years going\nthe round of London asking your friends and\nrelations what you should do with them.\nYou got no reply and so you did nothing\nwith them. A history of one of your stages\nis written, you \" remainder \" it. It does not\nmatter to you that it is one of the best his-\ntories ever written on the stage of a pro-\nvincial city—you have no use for it: if it\nwere badly written and illustrated and ill got\nup it would be just the same ; but being well\nwrit, well stocked with designs and finely pub-\nlished it seemed to annoy you—-and so you\nallowed it (you still allow it) to be forgotten.\nWhat is it you want ?\nOnly recently Webster's *' White Devil \"\nwas produced at the Renaissance Theatre in\nLondon. I was not able to be present but\nI have read some of the longest criticisms.\nFrom these I gather little ; but you all make\none thing clear, which is that you don't like\nthe way it was produced for the very serious\nreason that it was produced that way: and\nyou seem to feel that you would anyhow\nhave preferred Sir Barry Jackson to have pro-\nduced the play in modern dress for that\nanyhow gave you a little shock.\nNot that you liked the way Sir Barry's\nassistants produced Hamlet for you: in fact\nyou rather disliked that way; but you did\nfor once sit up and attend because you were\nroused. Plus fours being a bit too much for\nyou, you instantly decided to be equal to the\nemergency and anyhow find some reason for\ndecrying the thing.\nShall I tell you what it is 1 think you\nwant ? A year or two of utter forgetfulness\nof yourselves. I wonder if you know what I\nmean. When you see a gawky young ass of\ntwenty years of age swaggering about amongst\nyour pleasant Sunday afternoon tea tables you\nknow what's the matter with him: you forgive\nhim entirely but you know that only a year\nor so at sea or somewhere away from your\nneighbourhood will rid him of that awful self-\nconsciousness which annoys the poor lad al-\nmost as much as it does you.\nWell, that's your case. You at a theatre\nbecome just like that boy ....self-conscious\nfrom first to last. Even when apparently per-\nfectly at ease you reek of self-consciousness.\nYou take yourself seriously—your appearance\nseriously—your entrance and presence is a\nserious matter you believe, and you treat it\nas such. I see your face rounding the corner\nof the door which leads to your stall. It is\nin some ways the most perfect acting I have\never seen, and I have seen much good acting.\nYour passage to your seat is masterly—your\npause—your sitting down... astonishingly\ngood.\nExcept in Paris, where they too some-\ntimes act before the curtain, I have seen no\none act as you do. You not only deceive us\nwho see you; you positively deceive yourself.\nNow don't you ?\nYou don't think you act—now as you\nread this you even laugh at me for the sug-\ngestion—damme, my good soul, you're still\nacting. You are one and all the greatest\nactors of the century.\nOf course you cannot tolerate the stuff\nthey call \" acting \"on the boards—you alone\ncan deliver the goods—and this you proceed\nto do.\nIt has been customary to say that in Eng-\nland the art of acting is not very highly\ndeveloped. I have heard Frenchmen, Italians\nand Russians say this, and Englishmen too.\nThey say this because on coming to London\nthey go to a theatre to look for acting. They\nwait until the curtain rises and judge English\nacting from what they see on the stage.\nWhat an odd thing never to have per-\nceived that the stage in England is the very\nlast place to look for acting.\nGo the Houses of Lords and Commons;\ngo to the Lawcourts; go to the laying of,\nsome foundation stone, to the opening of a\nnational monument, to a garden party at a\ngreat mansion, or to Lords, to Newmarket,\nto Epsom. There's acting for you, and the\nvery best that is to be found in Europe today.\nI almost feel tempted to place it above the\nAmerican acting, but of this I am not abso-\nlutely sure.\nSo colossal is our histrionic sense that it\nis far easier for a young society lady to take\nup a leading part in some big production at\na moment's notice and achieve a true success,\nthan it is for a professional actress of thirty\nyears to do the same task even passibly.\n\" I have never been on a stage before \"\nshe says to the journalists as she goes on board ;\nI am being shipped to play St. Catherine\nin a wonderful production of \" The Wheel \".\nBut such an assertion won't do : she has been\non nothing else but a stage all her life."}, {"page_pdf": 33, "page_imprimee": "27", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.33", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 700, "texte": "\" Look at Mary \" says her mother when\nshe is three years old. \" don't seem to notice\nher \" she adds in a stage aside so loud that\nMary is bucked up at once and begins to\nprance:—and then Mary goes around the\nroom acting for all she is worth. Dear little\nMary—poor little fool.\n\" So unconscious \" sighs her mother, all\nexcitement; \" such a little angel—dreams all\nday—seems to notice no one and to hear\nnothing\nDear little Mary. Yes, and now Mary\nis in America or Australia acting badly for\nthe first time in her life for she has gone on\nto the stage.\nYes, I think I know what you want.\nYou want to remove the old stigma \" a nation\nof shopkeepers \", and let it be seen that you\nare a nation of actors."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c030", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c030", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "27", "page_fin": "27", "image_debut": 33, "image_fin": 33, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.17", "titre_corps": "\"REMAINDERED\"", "titre_sommaire": "\"REMAINDERED\"", "signature_source": "J. B", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 33, "page_imprimee": "27", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.33", "debut_caractere": 702, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2784, "texte": "\"REMAINDERED\".\nJ. B.\nI am one of those five hundred to a thousand\nlovers of the Theatres of yesterday and, as\na rule, am in touch with most of the books\nwhich deal with Historical research. And\nyet I had never heard of \" The Annals of\nthe Liverpool Stage\" by R. j. Broadbent\ntill three days ago. No one in England\never breathed its name to me. What enthu-\nsiasm, what civic pride! I'll swear that\nmany of you in America never heard of it\neither—and the Londoners?—and the Liver-\npoolers? what of these?\nIn Italy I believe there will be some who\nwill be really glad to hear of this book —for\nit is more like your books on your Italian\nTheatres than you might suppose—for you\nmay have heard that in England there do not\nexist more than a very few books on parti-\ncular Theatres.\nWhile you have issued at least eighty to\na hundred books on particular Theatres, we\nin England have not produced more than\nabout fifteen to twenty at the most. In\nFrance one can find some forty to sixty I\nsuppose; of these I think I have twenty; but\nI haye only about ten of the English books.\nNow though we have so few I find only\nfour modern works which are first class;\nThe Annals of Covent Garden.\nThe Lyceum and Henry Irving.\nThe Annals of the Liverpool Theatre.\nThe Hay market Theatre,\nand 1 feel that there is still room for a better\nbook on the Haymarket Theatres.\nThe work on the Liverpool Theatre was\nissued at 8/6. You can get it now for 4/-\nfor it has been \" remaindered \". Edward\nHowell, Castle Street, Liverpool can supply it.\nOur English scholars and students, our\nLeagues, Societies and Stage allowed it. Were\nthey so without genuine interest for the cause\nthey profess to have at heart that they could\nallow one of the four best books on the\nEnglish Theatre, a book which was a labour\nof love, to fade out and be reduced to 4/~.\nIt is beautifully illustrated, well bound, and\nthe book on the subject.\n\" Remaindered \"!!!!!!!\nI do feel proud of the England stage, its\nscholars, its Leagues, the League's Patrons,\nits Societies and their Patrons and all the\nrest of the humbug.\n\" Remaindered"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c032", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c032", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "28", "page_fin": "28", "image_debut": 34, "image_fin": 34, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.18", "titre_corps": "GIUSEPPE BIBIENA : A NOTE BY ALLEN CARRIC", "titre_sommaire": "GIUSEPPE BIBIENA : A NOTE BY ALLEN CARRIC", "signature_source": "ALLEN CARRIC", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 34, "page_imprimee": "28", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.34", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4251, "texte": "GIUSEPPE BIBIENA.\nA NOTE BY ALLEN CARRIC.\nJUST a little like young Lovat Fraser this\nGiuseppe of the family Galli of Bibiena.\n1 am never able to decide which of the fa-\nmily had the most talent for designing stage\nsceneries, and there were eight in the family\nwho designed them admirably; but I conti-\nnually find myself giving my vote to Giuseppe.\nThere is a design by him in sepia and\nbigio (pen and wash) in the second volume\nof the \" Monumenta Scenica \" which astounds\nme. I suppose I shall be told that anyone\ncould do it and some of his brothers or\nhis uncle or father did do something like it;\nbut I've not found that anyone can do it.\nGiuseppe was the second or third son of\nFerdinando and was born in Parma on Ja-\nnuary sth in the year 1696, and by the age\nof sixteen was so handy with the scenogra-\npher's tools that his father took him with him\nto Vienna as they called Wien in those days.\nBefore long he was helping his father in his\nwork. At twenty-one (1717) he was given\nthe same office which the Emperor Charles VI\nof Austria had conferred on his father some\nseven years before, and which the elder man\nwas now obliged to relinquish, owing to fail-\ning health.\nDr Hammitzsch seems to say that the\nfather (Ferdinando) was in 1717 made\n\" Ingenieur Theatrale \" and \" Erster Archi-\ntekt \" to the court; but I think it was earlier,\nin 1711 or 1712; for from what Zanotti tells\nus Ferdinando had left Vienna in 1715 or\n1716 and it was when he left that the young\nman Giuseppe filled his place. \" And here\neveryone can think what pleasure it gave\nFerdinando and how happy and contentedly\nhe returned to Bologna, both on account of\nthe goodness of so great a monarch (Charles\nVI of Austria) and on account of the skill\nand good fortune of this son. The marvel-\nlous thing is that Giuseppe had scarcely com-\npleted his 19th year '.\nSo that, if born in 1696 as Zanotti tells\nus, he would be nineteen in the year 1715,\nand that would be the year his father left\nVienna and the boy took his place. Mar-\nvellous indeed and excellent. Yes, I give my\nvote to Giuseppe.\nBesides sceneries this young fellow deve-\nloped the very devil of a genius for building\ntheatres.\nIn 1723 at the age of twenty-seven he\nbuilt and dressed the immense stage in Prague.\nYou will find a little plan of this Theatre in\n\" The Mask \", Volume 9, page 44. It held\n80,000 people, had a stage 39 metres broad\nand 63 deep \"and cost some 25.000 francs.\nThen the young man went up and down\nthe land building and projecting buildings ;\ngenerally Theatres, for he was for some ob-\nvious reason passionately fond of the stage,\nuntil the year 1747 when he put up the\nCourt Theatre at Bayreuth. If you have a\ncopy of Semper's series of volumes on archi-\ntecture you'll find a reproduction af a pho-\ntograph of this 18th century Theatre in the\nsection \"Theater\".\nI have never seen it, but from the photos\nand plans which I have seen it seems to be\nquite the most delicious 18th century Theatre\nthat was ever built. Rich, round, curly like\nthe corners of Giuseppe's mouth, and glitte-\nring just as glittered the eyes of the young\ngenius. Until their light went out up there in\nBerlin in the unfortunate year 1757. They\nwere fighting slaughterously about whether a\nman may or may not be the ruler of his own\ncountry, and so of course theatres had to\nclose, the arts had to stop carrying on in their\npreposterous way.\nI have never understood precisely how it\nis that war can only go on if all else stops.\nAll else seems to be able to exist without\njust having to stop other things, \" living and\nletting live \". I should have thought there must\nbe away of doing a big thing like war in\na big way, ie, by professionals, without dis-\nturbing the whole of creation.... without so\nmuch as turning a hair in fact easily and\nwithout panic; and I think this is possibly an\nidea which has occurred to some great ruler\nit is possibly worth while proving practical r\nTo do the whole job of war as it has never\nbeen done before except, so 1 hear, in\nthe East would be an achievement and\neconomic who knows ?\nP. S. And by the bye who the deuce is\n(or was) Jean-Galli de Bibiena who 1 learn\nwrote \" The Fairy Dell \" ? Is he a hoax ?\n(i) It is Ferdinando who was always known as \" il fa-\nmoso Bibiena \"."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c033", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c033", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "n. p.", "page_fin": "n. p.", "image_debut": 35, "image_fin": 35, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.19", "titre_corps": "GIUSEPPE BIBIENA", "titre_sommaire": "GIUSEPPE BIBIENA", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 35, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.35", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 39, "texte": "GIUSEPPE BIBIENA. (1696-1757).\nPlate 3."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c034", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c034", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "n. p.", "page_fin": "n. p.", "image_debut": 37, "image_fin": 37, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.20", "titre_corps": "FROM A DRAWING BY VICTOR HUGO", "titre_sommaire": "FROM A DRAWING BY VICTOR HUGO", "signature_source": "VICTOR HUGO", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 37, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.37", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 39, "texte": "FROM A DRAWING BY VICTOR HUGO.\nPlate 4."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c035", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c035", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "29", "page_fin": "29", "image_debut": 39, "image_fin": 39, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.21", "titre_corps": "VICTOR HUGO AND SARAH BERNHARDT", "titre_sommaire": "VICTOR HUGO AND SARAH BERNHARDT", "signature_source": "A. B", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 39, "page_imprimee": "29", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.39", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4119, "texte": "VICTOR HUGO AND\nSARAH BERNHARDT.\nA. B.\nMADAME BERTON in her extraordinarily\nvivid book on Sarah Bernhardt tells of\na little conversation between the great actress\nand the poet Victor Hugo.\n\" I have seen \" begins Madame Berton\n\" a dozen famous painters and six or seven\ngreat authors all listening to Sarah together\nand finding joy in it. She ruled her\nlittle court with a rod of iron, but she wrap-\nped the rod in silk\n\" Victor Hugo, watching her at work in\nher studio on one occasion (after 1811), said:\nAh, Madame, how I wish I could\npaintV \"\n' But you can! ' replied Sarah \".\n\" ' No ' said Hugo \".\n\" 'Tu es ridicule! ' responded Sarah.\n' Anyone who can write or who can act can\npaint if he tries!\n\" Then and there Sarah constituted herself\nhis teacher, with the result that Hugo became\nan extremely creditable artist, chiefly with\npen-and-ink \".\nAS I cannot recall having seen it recorded\nof any other great play-writer having de-\nsigned anything as surprisingly good as did\nHugo, I think it may interest you to see a\npiece of his work that I came across in Paris.\nIt is, I suppose, some title page to his book\n' Les Travailieurs de Mer\". M. Meaulle\nwho engraved it cut many of Hugo's designs.\nHugo writes now and again of these sketches\nand tells us his method of work.\n\" My inkstand is generally my palette; if\nI want a lighter shade, a glass of water is\nmy only requisite, though a few drops of\ncoffee are occasionally very useful... \". \" My\ndrawings, or what are called so, are some-\nwhat wild. In my undisciplined way, I use\nthe feather of my pen as much as its point\".\nTheophile Gautier wrote of him that he\nis not only a poet he is a painter, and\na painter other painters would not refuse to\nown as a brother in art \". I have no space\nto quote the whole passage here.\nVou have probably seen \" La Vague \",\ncalled by Hugo \" Ma Destinee \" it is\nthe drawing of an immense wave and is signed\n\" Victor Hugo 1868 \". You know his *' John\nBrown \", and you may know other fine things\nby him done before 1862. How cunning\nthen will seem to yqu that little apology of\nhis to Sarah Bernhardt \" Ah! Madame, how\nI wish I could paint \", and he is watching\nSarah Bernhardt paint. \" But you can \"\nsays she not knowing whether he can or no;\nin fact .... though I hate to say it.... utterly\nfooled. \"No \" said Hugo. How delightful\nthis \" No \", and quite sincere too, for he cannot\npaint if to paint means, as it meant to him,\nto do what Rubens and Velasques did, not\nas Bernhardt was doing.\nAnd how careless of Madame Berton's\nassistant Basil Woon who translated her book\ninto English not to look up the dates a little\nand discover that Hugo had been drawing\nin wash and in line for some twenty years\nor more when Bernhardt \" constituted herself\nhis teacher with the result that Hugo became\nan extremely creditable artist\nIn 1862 Hugo was writing to M. Caste!\nthe publisher saying that his things were only\n\" scrawls clumsily put on paper by a literary\nman \" and that he only consents to have\nthem published on the condition that the\nmoney derived from any sales shall be devoted\nto a fund for poor children to which he often\nsubscribed. There was an album produced,\nGautier wrote the preface, and it sold very well.\nI think that this design by Hugo and that\nby Ouida (l) form a curious proof of the talent\nfor design possessed by writers.\nGoethe was immensely able. How many\ngood designs has Mr. Kipling made: —W.\nS. Gilbert must have left many even better\nthan the bits he published with his verses,\nWho else is there ? Mr. Beerbohm obvious-\nly ; and 1 believe Sir A. W. Pinero has the\nknack. Hoffmann was quick they say. Of\nactors quite a number can do a little. Irving\ncould. Sacha Guitry is very smart at it. Ana\nEdmund Kean ? .... I wonder if he ever tried,\nwhen spouting Latin at the Inn, to draw a\nCaesar or two, a Ravine in the Alps. Fer-\nravilla had a talent, and I have a sketch by Pe-\ntrolini of Garibaldi which is amusing and good.\nBut I put Hugo at the very top of the\nwriters who could design ; and I feel sure\nthat when drawing he enjoyed himself in-\ntensely.\n(i) See \" The Mask \". Volume XI. No. 2. Frontispiece."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c036", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c036", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "30", "page_fin": "33", "image_debut": 40, "image_fin": 43, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.22", "titre_corps": "THANKS TO MR. GEORGE MOORE", "titre_sommaire": "THANKS TO MR. GEORGE MOORE", "signature_source": "E. G. C", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 40, "page_imprimee": "30", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.40", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4040, "texte": "THANKS TO\nMR. GEORGE MOORE\n\nIT was I remember in 1888 that I first\nread Mr George Moore's essay \" Mum-\nmer-Worship\" in \"The Universal Review\".\nIt struck me at the time as very \"superior\"\nvery down on the theatrical profession,\nand I thought of Mr. Moore as someone I\nwould not dare to meet, because of this su-\nperiority of his this living up in the Ma-\nsonic Lodge of Heaven.\nHow absurd this was I have come to\nlearn, for Mr. Moore was assuredly one of\nthe men a young stager should have sought\nto know ; all the painters, sculptors, musicians\nand architects knew this charming writer, and\nhis egotism did not exasperate them, so why\nshould I have been so touchy ?\nBut I seem never to have given myself\nthe opportunity of meeting him, probably be-\ncause the Theatrical folk I knew at that time\nunder-estimated Mr Moore's worth, were pre-\njudiced against him because he now and\nagain spoke French or for some equally\nstupid and childish reason. But I did read\nhis \" Mummer-Worship \" several times, at-\ntracted by it, surprised that a man could be so\ndaring as to speak so scathingly of any pro-\nfession my family was doing its best to\nadorn.\n\" Dam braces bless relaxes \" you re-\nmember : and this essay by Mr Moore began\nto brace me up, and I am grateful to it, for I\nhad before long to meet a far more staggering\nattack in Nietzsche's \" The Case of Wagner \".\nIt is an odd thing that while we of the\nEnglish professional stage doubtless use, and\nadvocate the use of, the morning's cold douche,\nwhen we get one from an able man of letters\nwe fail to recognize its true value.\nMr Moore attacked a weak spot in the\nstage and its performers, singling out for his\nsharpest correction the charming Miss Mary\nMoore.\nHe objected to the pretension of the\nactor and actress he did not see what\ngood was behind a certain trip to Germany\nand Russia which Mr Charles Wyndham had\nrecently made, playing in German and French:\nhe disliked Miss Moore's confession that\n\" In order to get as much practice as pos-\nsible in the foreign tongue in which I had\nsomewhat rashly undertaken to play, I took\nmy passage in the North German Lloyd\nsteamer \" Saal' \".\nHe finds it \" touching simplicity \" in \" a\nnew amateur \".\nMiss Mary Moore later becomes Lady\nWyndham and now wields quite a little\npower in the English Theatre. She was al-\nways very active and is so still I believe.\nA lady of remarkable tact and much charm,\na very winning personality and extremely\npretty.\nAnd I do not like to think that Mr George\nMoore, a man of culture and far more intel-\nlectual than any of us on the stage, should\nhave been quite so down on us 1 mean\non her.\nBut what are we to expect if we offend\nmen of culture. If Mr. Moore were suddenly\nto have entered Lady Wyndham's Drawing-\nroom waltzing or going on in away she\nconsiders not worthy of a man of his intelli-\ngence, wouldn't she have been down on him ?\nYou may be perfectly certain she would have\nbeen very down on him.\nAnd she would have been right, for the\nmanners of her guests in her drawingroom are\nunder her jurisdiction.\nAnd the manners of the servants of the\npublic when before the public are the concern\nof men of culture.\nIf not, who is to tell us anything who\nis to supply the cold douche ?\nAre we to be told nothing just because\nwe are actors? are we to meander on\nuncorrected ? Heaven forbid. Why should\nwe, why do we, consider ourselves absolutely\nset apart from all others as the chosen ones\nwho may never be corrected ? It is fatuous\nof us.\nHow do you suppose we can develop\nand get our brains in order if every word\nthat is said (unless it be fulsome praise) is\nto be received by us with our noses in air?\nIs it not a little preposterous, this attitude\nof ours ; let us be as superior as we can be\nbut let us stop pretending to be so.\nThis pose no, this second nature\nis the thing which holds back all chance of\ndevelopment of the actor and actress.\nYou are sniffing, already, if you be an\nactress; if an actor you consider me a fool.\nBut why? why sniff or snort?\nIt is the truth that pretension especially"}, {"page_pdf": 41, "page_imprimee": "31", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.41", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4081, "texte": "pretending to be superior when you are not\nsuperior is killing the European stage, by\nrendering the performer stupid.\nNow the European performer is not any\nmore stupid than is the European journalist\nand from the English Journalist comes very\noften the English writer of Genius.\nBut conceive a Journalist who was pre-\ntentious beyond criticism unable to stop\nchattering his excuses for himself offering\nhis \" reasons \" why he made an ass of himself.\nTry and conceive this if you can it\nis one of the things beyond your power to\nconceive because Journalism is a very serious\ncraft, very hard is the life and the rewards\nvery few.\nThere must be no side about a Journalist.\nI take this type as one to compare with\nthe actor, for the Journalist and Actor and\nActress are good friends though there are\nactors who drive pretence Jto such a pitch\nthat they even pretend to look down on the\njournalist.\nI speak of the smaller actors and journa-\nlists, not of course of the men and women of\nsense and experience. Lady Wyndham, I\nsuppose, no longer feels or thinks as she felt\non reading Mr. Moore's audacious attack.\nMr. Moore, doubtless, understands more now\nthan when he wrote the horrible thing in 1888.\nNot that I consider it at all horrible :\nit was just a mildly cool douche necessary\nand excellent; but Miss Mary Moore cannot\nbut have thought Mr. Moore a great fool.\nWhat a to-do what nonsense on our\npart to resent strong criticism, since, if we\nwon't have it, accept it, learn from it and\nbenefit, we must get the ducking the still\nharsher criticism.\nEven today we ask for it when, having\nproduced a play that is without merit, we\nperform it in a commonplace manner and reap\nsuccess with it.\nWe are the servants of the public it is\ntrue; but we are also the heirs of our ancient\nhouse and with it goes a tradition a very\nserious and fine tradition for the preservation\nof which we are responsible. I would see\nit preserved, but there are many in our ranks\nwho do not trouble themselves whether it\nflourish or die out; these are more concerned\nwith what they mistake to be the tradition.\nThey believe that the traditions of our\nhouse are these :\n1. To keep up the status of the actor.\n2. To club together in order to do this.\n3. Never to read the papers (I mean to\npretend never to read them).\n4. Not to allow the managers to usurp\nany of our privileges.\n5. To appeal always to the public.\n6. To intrigue inside our own house one\nagainst another. We don't like this \" but\nwhat would you, dear boy \".\n7. To avoid unnecessary study as being\ndetrimental to the emotional powers.\n8. To rely mainly upon the instincts;\n(but which instincts we are not quite certain).\n9. To be very careful to make no ef-\nforts to liberate the stage which might en-\ndanger our personal interests.\nIn each of these unwritten laws there is\nan ounce of good common sense which 1 for\none shall always consider carefully. But only\nan ounce.\nNow what are the real traditions of our\nhouse ? Here are some of them :\n1. To keep up the standard of acting.\n2. To keep separate the two divisions:\nthe first Creative: the second Interpretative;\nand to develop both without confusing the\none with the other.\n3. To avoid all publicity except when\non the stage.\n4. To allow no one but the workers in\nthe Theatre to place foot on the stage.\n5. To allow nothing of our technique to\nbe made public.\n6. The actor to work together with the\nplaywright, manager and fellow actors without\npersonal jealousies or fears.\n7. To work well for a modest and suf-\nficient wage to the establishment of a sounder\nHOUSE, with the hope and determination\nto better everyone's wage as the years advance.\n8. To be prepared at any time to make\nany sacrifice to save the house.\n9. To do all in our power to release\nacting and the actor from interpretative work\ncreative work being so far more valuable\nto mankind.\nifc\nAND Sarah Bernhardt cried \" Down with\nthe Tradition \". She \" cannot live on the\nsalary of the Comedie Frangaise: therefore\nwhat use in subsidy \"\n\n(i) See Stoker. (i Personal Reminiscences of Henry Ir-\nving 1906. Vol. 2, p, 114."}, {"page_pdf": 42, "page_imprimee": "32", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.42", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4333, "texte": "AN actor is one who repeats a portion of\na story invented by another\nThis is Mr. George Moore's definition of\n1888; and when in 1913 he reprinted the essay\nhe saw no reason to revise this but let it go.\nSo I take it to be his firm convinction.\nNow the curious thing is that the English\nactors have come to agree with him and\nnot only the English but many a foreign actor too.\nThis is a strange alliance Mr. Moore\nand the Actor he absolutely despises. \" Acting\nis the lowest of the arts \" he says \" if it is\nan art at all \". The actor accepts this too\nfrom Mr. Moore.\nHe seems to accept anything from Mr.\nMoore; hence my surprise at what has to be\nconsidered an alliance.\nBut Mr. Moore will not listen to me nor\nwill the actor.\nIf I tell Mr. Moore what I told him in\n1908, that acting is not an art but may be-\ncome an art when it wishes to the actor\nwill elbow forward and say \" Who are yer\na { ittin of \". If I tell the actor that our\ntradition holds some centuries of proof that\nthe actor can create and need not be \" one\nwho repeats a portion of a story invented by\nanother \" Mr Moore will storm and the actor\nwill sulk although this releases him from Mr.\nMoore and a thousand other gentlemen who\nwould like to keep all actors on the leash\nand the leash in their hand. He does not\nlike my suggestion because it practically asks\nhim to take up a heavy load and carry it\nlike a man and an artist.\nHe will take refuge in lying and will\nswear that the actor is not, and never was, a\ncreator. Thereby hugging Mr. Moore and\ncaressing his own chains.\nMr. Moore will comfort him greatly by\nsavagely (I don't think Mr. Moore was ever\nreally savage) launching epigrams at me and\nall \" producers \", \" reformers \" and the rest\nwho dare to suggest that the performer is to\nleave him and his fellow dramatists in the\nlurch. Which is human and understandable.\nThe dramatists want the actors to continue\nto carry half the Dramatic load ; the actors\nprefer that rather than a heavier one. Weak-\nness on both sides, Prompt and O. P., and\nlo ! a fine weak effect is produced.\nI, as you know, want the actor to carry\nthe whole of the Dramatic load.\nThe actors have it in their will (if any\nremains) and in their hands to do so and\nwithout upsetting anyone's apple-cart.\nSome of their calling are obviously born\nto create to improvise to be actors in\nthe very best sense of the word. Others it\nmust be admitted are more fitted to remain\ninterpreters.\nSo it seems to me that were they to talk\nthings over without disguising this fact, they\nwould be able to find some way of dividing\ntheir forces into two groups each of which\nwould help the Theatre in any case, one of\nwhich would help the Dramatists.\nIt would take some time to get things\nuntangled and back to the more traditional\nstate ; but, could they but determine to meet\nthe question and no longer to brush it aside,\neven a year or so given to finding ways and\nmeans would be time well spent.\nIt is not an easy problem, and for this\nreason not very popular.\nNo difficulty of this proportion ever is\npopular it always rests with a handful of\nmen to take up the difficult problems of any\nkind of work, and in time show the others\nthat the solution of it is much easier than they\nhad supposed.\nIn Architecture, in Painting, in all the\nArts it has always been a small group of five\nor six men at most in each land who have\naccepted the burden for the others.\nWould it be disastrous should they prove\nto their fellows that the weight was not a\nvery great one after all; and that for actors\nto create their own plays, is not going to\nshatter the Dramatists' art ?\nSome people profess to find this a dan-\ngerous proposal: if so let us \" live dange-\nrously\": but is it? it is not an easy\nsuggestion, but once the labour is over it is\nthe safest proposition the stage and its actors\nwill ever he able to make.\nI am not so foolish as to suppose that\ntomorrow some five or six actors could, by\ncooperation, create anything as subtle or as\nfine, certainly not as literary (to use a horrible\nword) as Macbeth or The School for Scandal:\nbut they might (unless ashamed to be\nprimitive .... and that would be sheer snob-\nbery) create something as simple and as sound\nas Le Medecin Malgre Lui.\nIt would take five or six comedians a little\nbit of hard work to do it but they could\ndo it. On this I stake my life."}, {"page_pdf": 43, "page_imprimee": "33", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.43", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2238, "texte": "And the way they would set about it ?\nwhat of that ?\nNeither you nor I can begin to dictate to\nactors who have once determined to create.\nThen they are the masters and we their as-\nsistants, and assistants have only to do as they\nare told and use initiative in that; and I for\none am at the actors' service to help if cal-\nled on. All they lack for the moment is the\ndetermination.\nWhen they can come to such a deter-\nmination they reach the door which leads to\ntheir freedom. That is the hour for the critic\nto sit still; for those of us who are theatre\ncraftsmen to bring every scrap of mother-wit we\nmay posses and give it to this traditional cause.\nWhat would the actors do? Would they\ndepend on the tricks they know already ?\nwould they perhaps enquire about that old\nsystem which flourished in Italy from the 15th\nto the 18th century, known as La Commedia\ndell'Arte, which means Professional Comedy ?\nI would suggest there is quite a little to be\ngleaned in that field by serious and pro-\nfessional actors of talent.\nAnd being an Englishman, I hope you\nwill not think it strange of me when 1 confess\nthat I would like to see English actors of\nstanding'and of talent being amongst those\nwho will be the first to take up this matter.\nAmericans of course will. Russians will, Ita-\nlians will; be not too sure some of these are\nnot already working in this direction.\nBut who will attempt it ? I'm not one who\ndespises little groups, but I think it is not\nreasonable of greatly gifted actors to allow\nthe nonentities to break themselves struggling\nto cope with a traditional craft of this magni-\ntude. Neither do I like the possibility of\nseeing some Dramatic writer explaining to\nour great actors what exactly the\ndell'Arte was, is, and always will be : explain-\ning how he, the writer, is the very first of\nthese comedians only he will not be\nplaying this time he will write their plays.\nThere were no plays written. They grew,\nlike hardy annuals. Phrases as well as cha-\nracters picked from the streets, from the houses,\nfrom everywhere the actors went, supplied all\nthey needed. For what a play? subtle\ntalk? complicated situations ? Not at all.\nSimple situations and ordinary talk.\nTo begin with.\nWell then, why not begin.\n\nE. G. C."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c037", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c037", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "33", "page_fin": "36", "image_debut": 43, "image_fin": 46, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.23", "titre_corps": "PIRANDELLO AND HIS ORIGINALITY", "titre_sommaire": "PIRANDELLO AND HIS ORIGINALITY", "signature_source": "HENRY PHIPS", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 43, "page_imprimee": "33", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.43", "debut_caractere": 2240, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4255, "texte": "PIRANDELLO AND\nHIS ORIGINALITY.\nBY HENRY PHIPS.\nMESSRS DENT & SONS are very much to\nbe praised for introducing Pirandello to\nthe British Puhlic. He is the latest thing,\nand Publishers so often wait till the latest is\ntoo late. Not so Dent & Sons. They issued\nthe first four or five plays some two years\nago, and now a second volume with three\nmore plays is at the service of the public.\nNew say some of the critics:—we would\nsay old.\nThis queer complicating, this restless shif-\nting of the mind, this questioning of which\none has had so much too much, is as old as\nany other defect.\n1 recall how often at the age of twenty to\ntwenty-five I put to myself just the very\nquestions which Pirandello, grown up, puts\nto his audience.\nAre we what we are? Are we where we\nare? Am I 1? 1 am myself, I know; but\nthen my self contains five or six selves. Is\nmadness sanity ? is it not the sane who are\nmad? was I born but once? am I an incar-\nnation of something which was born and died\nlong ago? Am 1....? Was 5he....? Will they\nbe....? These are a sufficiently jerky number\nof doubts to possess at twenty years of age :\nbut to treasure them up till one is sixty and\nthen bring them out as the real value is a little\ntrying to those of us who believe that to com-\nmence with the artist must have no doubts.\nThese thousand questions of the modern\nDramatist, Maeterlinck, Tchekov, and Tol-\nstoi, Strindberg sometimes, and Ibsen more\noften, are ail rather unnerving, for one may\nask, are these questions necessary ?\nIf we could have a quiet little talk with\nthe Dramatist, we in the Pit answering the\nquestions of the first Act, the Dress-circle\ntaking on those of the second Act, the Stalls\nthose of the third, and the whole house sum-\nming up the fourth and deciding something\nfor us so that we could all go home quite\nsatisfied, modern plays might do: but we get\nno chance of helping Pirandello and Mae-\nterlinck over their difficulties: all they have\ndone to help us with our worries is to saddle\n91 1 m\n•us with their own."}, {"page_pdf": 44, "page_imprimee": "34", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.44", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4320, "texte": "In short in a playhouse we want but a\npinch of the uncertain, for in no place is it\nso out of place as there.\nAnd when all is said and done about pro-\nblems, doubts and fears, does not a smile\ncome up into the face as we stand regarding\nthese feeble things, isn't that the last com-\nment ?\nInevitable tragedy, Greek or Japanese tra-\ngedy, is still the only tragedy: bubbling co-\nmedy, Italian, French and English, is still\nthe only Comedy.\nWhile the dramatist is not forced to follow\n/Eschylus or Moliere, he runs a good deal\nof risk to do anything else. Mere and there\nhe may be as original as he will, but he\nmust not fail to state whether he intends to\nbe tragic or comic. To raise up doubts and\nanxiety in our already very fuddled heads\ntoday is not playing the game. It is distinctly\nunfair on humanity and that's what the Censor\nshould be stern about.\nPirandello is in earnest; he is sincere;\nand he is vivid: he has a hundred good\nqualities, but he has failed to be a very ex-\ncellent dramatist because he has refused to\naccept the conditions laid down in the old\ngame, laid down not by you or me but by\n/Eschylus, Kalidasa, Terence, the Italians of\nthe sixteenth century.\nThese conditions curb and help the born\ndramatist —observed they make him, disre-\ngarded they wreck him. These conditions\nnave kept fresh until today all the old mas-\nterpieces of the dramatic genius. \" Le\nBourgeois Gentilhomme \", \" Agamennon \",\n\" Sakuntala \", and dozens more such works\nof art are as fresh, powerful and delicious\ntoday as when first made.\nBut folks have talked recently so much about\n\" Liberty \": certain charming and influential\npeople have done this for many years and\nunder cover of the hiss \" be free\": an as-\ntonishing number of lies were whispered into\nthe ears of the artists, and one of the tiniest\nof these was that it didn't matter if a play\nwas made like a novel or like a poem or\nhow it was made.\njust as there are some drawings which\nought to have been etched, and some etch-\nings which would be better left as pencil\nsketches, and some paintings—in short, as\nsome things have, as it were, got out of them-\nselves and into a fix, in which they seem to\nbe out of place, so appear, to me, the plays\nof Pirandello.\nThese plays seem to me most dexterous\npieces of something other than plays. Stories\nout of shape perhaps.... chapters out of no-\nvels hurredly, excitedly retold.\nDid you ever happen to read \" The Ex-\nploits of Arsene Lupin\"? Well, if you be\ninterested in Pirandello, get that book by the\nadmirable M. Maurice le Blanc and I will\nshow you something of Pirandello there.\nPublished in English by Cassell & Co.,\nnine stories make up the volume \" The Ex-\nploits of Arsene Lupin\". The third and\nfourth are where you'll find Pirandello in\nsearch of eight characters.\nAt least I am under the delusion that I\nsaw him in those chapters. Chapter three\nbegins on page 70: read it all; when you\nget to pages 91, 92, 93, I think you'll see\nwhat I saw. You'll catch a last glimpse of\nhim on page 126. Unless I am dreaming,\nwhich is as likely as not, that last glimpse\nwill be a very clear one.\n\"It's all very well\" said Lupin, '* to be\nBaudru or another, to change your personality\nas you would your boots and to select your\nappearance, your voice, your expression, your\nhandwriting. But there comes a time when you\ncease to know yourself amid all these changes ;\nand that is very sad. I feel at present as the\nman must have felt who lost his shadow. I\nam going to look for myself ..,.and to find\nmyself\".\nIt may be that readers of \" The Mask \"\nare not in the habit of studying their Mau-\nrice le Blanc. What with Marmontel, Proust\nand Jules Verne their sense of variety is\npossibly satisfied. I find I do not read any\nof these three authors. When I want to\nrelax give me Maurice le Blanc and no one\nelse. Not Hornung, not even Gaboraiu or\nde Boisgoby approaches le Blanc.\nFor had they done so, they, and not he,\nwould have lit up the path for some runner\nbefore Pirandello, ....a path he saw, and took,\nas one takes any old wrong turning.\nFor Pirandello was meant to write stories\nand not meant to start his characters telling\nstories. There are Italians who find him\noriginal. I find Moliere far more original, so\nfar as theatrical things go. And so far and\nno further should we look to go when on our\nstages."}, {"page_pdf": 45, "page_imprimee": "35", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.45", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4110, "texte": "An entrance at the back, two at each side\n—that's all.\nNo other way leads on the stage, though\nthe ways off the stage are legion.\nI speak like a critic: were I to be on the\nstage, working there, may be I should be\ntempted to suggest a little housebreaking, so\nas to open up new ways on and off the\nstage: who knows?\nNo one can be both critic and performer\nat the same moment. The mask of each is\ndistinct one from the other : as eveo each per-\nformer's mask differs like that of each writer.\n\"What city is this?\" I ask coming to\nGenova. \"No city\" cries the Earth, \" only\nan old mask which has fallen upon my face\nand which pretends—and it covers the loveliest\nhillside of all this coast. If you would see\none of my faces you must know how to see\nthrough the city\nA while ago in \" The Mask \" (I) in writing\nof Pirandello I expressed regret that the Ita-\nlian artists should have made efforts in these\nlast thirty years or so to be original.\nBy original I mean that primitive northern\nway of expressing themselves which perforce\nsuits a Blake or a Shelley or even a fine\nhearty Esquimo so very well.\nUp north we know nothing but winter and\nhard weather. Slowly but surely we express\nthis and it is\n\"Little lamb who made thee\nDost thou know who made thee\nGave thee\nthis and that and so on.\nPerfect of its kind is a little song like that,\nbut utterly innocent of most things: open-eyed\nand wondering.\nAnd as the northern genius goes tramping\nalong in the mists and the cold seeking to\nexpress a few tender things there is always\na certain fumbling, or a dogged wildness not\nto be cheated of the serious things which\nthe cold and the pale sun make us shiver in\nsaying.\nQuestioning all the time, he roams and\ntramps crying aloud \"Oh why was I bom\nwith a different face \" and \" why was Cupid\na boy?\" He stops short before a wraith\nasking. \" Did he who made the lamb make\nthee\"? and again, \" was Jesus humble? \"\nOr, with eyes on the rivers which mingle\nwith ocean, he asks with an eye on London\n\" why not I with thine\". Even when in\nthe merriest of moods, he even questions\neven the girls; he asks \" where have you\nbeen to, my pretty maid?\" and Echo an-\nswering in proper fashion, where, is rudely\ninterrupted by the daisy herself who says that\nshe has been milking;—she would, this muse\nof the northern genius,... or may be gathering\nbuttercups at Kew.\nIn short, when cold and shivering one ques-\ntions most things in detail, for the whole of\nexistence seems a mistake.\nAnd to question is to elicit a number of\nanswers. A lamb bleats, a wind howls; we\ntake both for replies: a girl grins and a lighl\ngoes out: ....all these nothings seem to us\ncharged with significance,... we are on edge.\nSo our northern originality has at any rate\na certain grim greenness, a raw youth to\ncommend it: young it certainly is: green in\nits hopeful, innocent, pale, doubt-charged\nmysticism:—it is of value in its place.\nBut out of its place ....down south ....Ca-\nspita!\nNorthern Originality in the Theatre has\ncertainly often yielded us unutterable delight;\n....I do not mean in giving us the powerfully\nmixed potions of Shakespeare, sufficient, and\nstrange. I mean those sweet little pouting\nsongs the English musical comedy stage.\nInnocence enters triumphantly there, dressed\nin pinafores trimmed with moss rosebuds,\nmore alluring than a thousand panniers and\npatches, and sings about its sweet little self—\n\" Kiss me—no you mustn't—\nfor I'm only Thirty two\nNever was such originality till the nor-\ntherner thought it out.\nBut such desperate originality as this is\nnot of value to the Italian, where the sun\nhas taught him long ago what will and what\nwont endure and he need not go singing it\nover and over.\nAnd yet even but yesterday, before this\nancient land had reawakened, just before the\ncoming of Mussolini and his many thousand\nmen, the Italian genius was beginning to see\nif it could not adopt some of the northern\noriginality, ard very fatal was the result.\n1 recall being obliged to sit one whole\nsummer at open air concerts where a band\nwailed and spluttered out metaphysical music,\n\n(i) See Book Review, Vol. X, pag, 91,"}, {"page_pdf": 46, "page_imprimee": "36", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.46", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2125, "texte": "interlarded now and again with sweet innocent\nlittle blank spaces of time put in to entrap\nthe unwary and make it think. This band\nwas one of the very best in Italy, and the\nsounds it made were some of the very\nworst in the world, all mimicked from the\nsounds in Wagner, Strauss, the Geisha, San\nToy and the rest. ...A ponderous yearning\nmixed up with the baby talk of women not\nunder thirty.\nIn their paintings too, the Italians began to\nforce themselves to be as flashy and as futile, as\nis the worst northern genius without any effort.\nEngraving seized on the northern tricks ;\narchitecture began to bulge and wriggle\nhideously: stage scenery mimicked ours. And\nall without any reason.\nAnd how queer this was in Italians, is\nobvious when one remembers that there was\nno European race except the Italian race\nwhich had mastered ever\ncreation of perfect works Their ar-\nchitecture, music, painting was perfect; their\nliterature, sculpture and drama amazing; their\nengraving, singing, dancing, scene, ...in fact\nevery craft ever known was known to them\nas no other nation knew them.\nThe Italians had all the secrets and still\nhave them.\nWhat then possessed them, what still pos-\nsesses them, to assume the virtue of our nor-\nthern \" originality'* }\nAnd Pirandello has caught fire from this\nred tissue paper with the northern lights\nbehind it.\nHis plays are no better than the Via\nXX Settembre in Genova, which is about\nthe worst looking street ever built by Ita-\nlians, with one blessing; half way down\nit is all arched like the traditional ancient\ncities.\nPirandello has one good thing about his\nplays; he is a pleasure for the modern critic\nto read: he is not dull: he has taken his\nMaurice le Blanc to heart. But there ends\nPirandello as a fine dramatist, for the rest\nis all gasps, jerks, and anxiety: in short, he\ndenies the masters. He is, to my mind, the\nvery last dramatic writer to represent anything\nthat is called Fascism although he is a good\nand true Fascist lam told. Such a doubt-\nraiser is not going to crown the Fascisti, only\nanother /Eschylus can do that, ...a man faithful\nto the very greatest traditions."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c039", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c039", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "n. p.", "page_fin": "n. p.", "image_debut": 47, "image_fin": 47, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.24", "titre_corps": "IN THE VILLA OF PRATO LINO", "titre_sommaire": "IN THE VILLA OF PRATO LINO", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 47, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.47", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 104, "texte": "IN THE VILLA OF PR ATO LINO : A LITTLE THEATRE OF ABOUT 1698.\nBuilt by Architect Antonio Ferri.\nPlate 5."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c040", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c040", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "37", "page_fin": "37", "image_debut": 49, "image_fin": 49, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.25", "titre_corps": "A LITTLE THEATRE OF THE 17th CENTURY : PRATOLINO", "titre_sommaire": "A LITTLE THEATRE OF THE 17th CENTURY : PRATOLINO", "signature_source": "JAN VAN HOLT", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 49, "page_imprimee": "37", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.49", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3806, "texte": "A LITTLE THEATRE\nOF THE 17th CENTURY.\nPRATOLINO.\nBY JAN VAN HOLT.\nPRATOLINO is near Prato and is to Prato\nwhat Little Holling is to Holling. If you\ntack ino or lino or rino on to a name in Ita-\nlian you mean its a little one. Carlo, Charles :\nCarlino, little Charles; in short, Charlie. Petrus,\nPeter: Petrolino, little Peter —in short, Peterkin.\nI was never yet in Prato or Pratolino\nalthough the two places are so near to Fi-\nrenze; and now that I am in Paris I regret\nvery much that I never visited the little Prato\nbecause it possesses a celebrated villa, built\nfor the Duke Ferdinando of Tuscany; in fact\nthe villa is, I believe, the whole place. Villa,\nvast park, and gardens, grottoes, fountains,\nand, perched on top of the villa, the Duke's\nieatro or rather teatrino little teatro.\nAnd as you see in the plan (reproduced\n1 believe for the first time in the history of\nthis world) the theatre is not a large one.\nThe stage measures 25 braccia a Panno wide\nby 21 deep: the auditorium 25 ditto square.\nA braccia a Panno is a cloth braccia ; but I\nonly can tell you what an ordinary Florentine\nbraccia measures: it is I foot 9 3//, inches: so\nthat the Teatrino measures : stage 45 feet 3\ninches x 38: auditorium 45 feet 3 inches\nsquare ; so it is almost exactly the size of the\nKilkenny Theatre (1802) that private playhouse\nbuilt for the Marquis of Ormonde by Ar-\nchitect Robertson (1).\nThis playhouse was added as a crown to\nthe house in 1698. Antonio Ferri or Ferro\nwas the architect, and, as Puliti tells us, it\nwas built \" sopra ai suoi celebri mezzanini\nai terzo piano della villa \". There had been\nperformances at this villa before 1698 as\nearly as 1683 may be even earlier. In\n1684 Filippo Acciaiuoli, that demon with\npuppets (2), was called by the Duke to perform\nat Pratolino, and he gave the Duke a teatrino\nof Burattini; it had twenty-four changes of\nscenes and a hundred and twenty-four figures.\nBut it was not until 1698, the year when\nBetterton was prosecuted for the use of\nobscene language and Mr. Evelyn \" dined\nwith Mr. Pepys and heard the rare voice of\nMr. Pule \", that Ferri built this playhouse.\nOne of the family Bibiena was called\nover to paint the Scenes. There seem to have\nbeen no palchi or boxes but a simple gallery\nat the far end. The machines for scenes look\nto me very up-to-date up to that date,\nand will I hope interest two people I very\noften think of, Miss Lily Campbell and Pro-\nfessor Allardyce Nicoll; they will instantly\nrecognize the angle of the gar garni.\nAND now tell me if this other little plan is\nnot just the kind of plan Mr Masefield\nshould have worked from this shapely thing,\nso absolutely made for fine evening clothes, one\nlittle pearl stud, thirty to sixty guests and\nnoble plays in fine verses.\nIt is the Teatro di Castelfranco built by\npoets and other letterQti of the Acpademia\ndei Filoglatti for their plays; built in 1758\nby architect Preti, sixty years later than the\nPratolino Teatrino.\nIt was so. designed that the sun could\nlight it by day, and at night candles and oil\nlamps would be used. Three rows of boxes\nat back, each row having nine boxes, and\non each side of the stage two boxes more\nwhich look out on to the stage and also have\n* * tj\nan opening looking back at Mr Masefield or\nwhoever is the host. All very charming and\nsociable, and we can well believe it looked\ngay and hospitable at night when packed. The\nbuilding still exists but I believe the light has\ngone out of it full of light were the poets.\nFull of light are the poets.... will they not\nagain light up many a little private theatre\n.... may not some of us lend our aid when\nit comes to building the next one.\n(1) We shall publish an account of this theatre in an\n•early number of \"The Mask Ed.\n(2) We shall publish an article on this curious man in\nthis volume. Ed."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c042", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c042", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "38", "page_fin": "38", "image_debut": 50, "image_fin": 50, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.26", "titre_corps": "FOREIGN NOTES", "titre_sommaire": "FOREIGN NOTES", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 50, "page_imprimee": "38", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.50", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5889, "texte": "FOREIGN NOTES.\n\nMILANO. LA SCALA.\nO. S.\nWE hear some people in Milano are seriously con-\ntemplating altering the facade of La Scala. What\na giddy notion! Who is there, with any of his faculties\nin order, who can conceive of that famous building \" La\nScala \" other than it is?\nIt was not even necessary to have raised the roof as\nwas done some years ago; neither was its stage in need\nof all those new machines installed at the same time.\nWhat was perfect about the Teatro Scala was \"La\nScala\". Piermarini had done his work well in 1778.\nIt was then as now the finest modern theatre in Europe\nand what remains of his work is still the best thing about\n\" La Scala\nIf any alterations are needed 'tis in that which is\ncalled L'Arte Teatrale.\nBetter modern operas, and another kind of singer.\nThe singer of the moment is excellent in his own way,\nand well disciplined, but not exactly as inspired as the old\nhouse deserves him to be. A better kind of singer\nis needed. A better way of staging Opera too; but\nstructural alterations are all pretention.... a sop to Cerberus\nperhaps, but what is that dog doing near the Scala's\nwalls ?\nWith all the brains how little wit. With all those\nmillions of lire how little sense. With endless examples\nin front of them as to how artists should not behave about\ntheir theatres and performances, it is really a little surpris-\ning that the Scala is handled as it is handled today by\nthose who direct its fortunes.\nAnd yet there is not a sounder man for his position\nthan Signor Scandiani. I place him above Mr Cochran\nand even above Diaghileff as an impresario. Signor Tos-\ncanini has nearly every virtue a conductor should have,\nand is especially gifted with a memory which is phenomenal.\nBut where is the Director of the Scala?... it is a Director\nthat is needed:—A man who has the one idea necessary.\nIt is obvious that if the Director be either conductor\nor impresario things will never be what they might and\nshould be; they will continually be switched off to that\npoint where impresario and conductor start their thinking.\nTheirs are side and contributory shows; a director has it\nin his power to bring things to a centre.\nI would not wish the Scala even such a careful Di-\nrector as the famous M. Rouch6 of the Paris Opera\nHouse, because Theatrical things have not come to quite\nsuch a desperate state in Italy as they are in in France.\nBut this talk of reconstructing the facade must lead\neveryone to suppose that this state is not so far away.\nIt is a nonsensical notion.\nSomething should be done, and quickly; there has\nbeen long enough to think it all over: for fifty years\npeople in Milano have puzzled how to deal with \" La\nScala \", and it could be solved in five minutes.\nNot once have they hit on the right answer to the\nconundrum.... and so they are convinced that no one else\ncan possibly hit on the right answer. And they tell you\nso, politely, delightfully, silently like true Milanese. They\nhave failed, they seem to say, so how can anyone be\nexpected to solve the riddle: \" What is the solution?\" is\ntheir delightful but quite sceptical query: and if we know\nthe answer we do not tell these sceptical men. They\nhould at least be allowed to retain the one last belief\nthey 11 ever possess, re., that ail is vain. Thus will they\nbe in any case following the lead of Paris.\nIhey invited M. Appia to Milano; remember that.\nThey did all that human striving could do to make his scene-\nries for \" Tristan a success, ....and yet they failed. Could\nthat failure be in any way attributed to the obsession for\nbuilding, the passion for machineries, the craze for a -staff\nof practical men, re., men who could do just what Paris\ndoes? Surely not. Yet building, machines, and especially\npractical men are all apt to exhaust the strongest cash-\nbox.... then there is none over to pay the artist, the wise\ndirector, the men of genius and talent. Practical men\nare never willing or able to do the silly things artists will\nd 0,... re., save a theatre for example. No, practical men\nwant paying highly.\n\nPARIS.\nEd.\n\" We are living in the days of women who smoke\nbetween the acts and youths who cover their brains with\nOxford trousers *\\\nSEYMOUR HICKS (I).\nI copied this\" out from a London newspaper which I found\nin the Caf£ Crequi. It seemed to me difficult to un-\nderstand the complaint—so I asked an American who\nalways sits at the next table to mine and who looks more\nlike a Frenchman than did M. Anatole France; an Ame-\nrican who amuses me with his odd way of looking at alt\nthings that are not either French or American.\nHe said; \"This boy Seymour is a wallow-buff if it\nmakes him down-hearted to be alive in the very place he-\nhas chosen to live. I'd like to live in London, Sir, as welt\nas any place on this earth \".\n\" But what's the idea of Oxford trousers? \" I enquired.\n\" Trousers 1* he replied sententiously \" which are made\nin Oxford \".\n\" And what makes them so annoying to Monsieur\nHicks ? \" I asked.\n\" They don't suit him, I take it, or he's out of sorts\nmay be\" he drawled.\n\"Pray what has all this to do with the Censor?\" I\npleaded, seeing the Censor mentioned.\n\" Nothing, Francois\" he answered, getting up and\nbidding me Adieu.\n1 remained puzzled; and I just dotted down the con-\nversation because I would like to put it on record, that it\nis possible, for a Frenchman to not quite understand the\nTheatrical world of London although in fullest sympathy\nwith our neighbours the English. f. m. f.\n<| Anent these same trousers someone 'sends £to us asking\nif we recall Mr Owen Seaman's verse in \" The Scholar\np ii\nFarmer :\nOxford! of whom the poet said\nThat one of your unwritten laws is\nTo back the weaker side and wed\nYour gallant heart to nobbling trorses.\nBut has he got it quite right, our correspondent 7*\nperhaps he has the trorses wrong—but backing the weaker\nside (presumably of the trorses) is right—and a very good\npoint too."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c043", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c043", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "38", "page_fin": "38", "image_debut": 50, "image_fin": 50, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.26.1", "titre_corps": "MILANO. LA SCALA", "titre_sommaire": "MILANO. LA SCALA", "signature_source": "O. S", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 50, "page_imprimee": "38", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.50", "debut_caractere": 16, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4040, "texte": "MILANO. LA SCALA.\nO. S.\nWE hear some people in Milano are seriously con-\ntemplating altering the facade of La Scala. What\na giddy notion! Who is there, with any of his faculties\nin order, who can conceive of that famous building \" La\nScala \" other than it is?\nIt was not even necessary to have raised the roof as\nwas done some years ago; neither was its stage in need\nof all those new machines installed at the same time.\nWhat was perfect about the Teatro Scala was \"La\nScala\". Piermarini had done his work well in 1778.\nIt was then as now the finest modern theatre in Europe\nand what remains of his work is still the best thing about\n\" La Scala\nIf any alterations are needed 'tis in that which is\ncalled L'Arte Teatrale.\nBetter modern operas, and another kind of singer.\nThe singer of the moment is excellent in his own way,\nand well disciplined, but not exactly as inspired as the old\nhouse deserves him to be. A better kind of singer\nis needed. A better way of staging Opera too; but\nstructural alterations are all pretention.... a sop to Cerberus\nperhaps, but what is that dog doing near the Scala's\nwalls ?\nWith all the brains how little wit. With all those\nmillions of lire how little sense. With endless examples\nin front of them as to how artists should not behave about\ntheir theatres and performances, it is really a little surpris-\ning that the Scala is handled as it is handled today by\nthose who direct its fortunes.\nAnd yet there is not a sounder man for his position\nthan Signor Scandiani. I place him above Mr Cochran\nand even above Diaghileff as an impresario. Signor Tos-\ncanini has nearly every virtue a conductor should have,\nand is especially gifted with a memory which is phenomenal.\nBut where is the Director of the Scala?... it is a Director\nthat is needed:—A man who has the one idea necessary.\nIt is obvious that if the Director be either conductor\nor impresario things will never be what they might and\nshould be; they will continually be switched off to that\npoint where impresario and conductor start their thinking.\nTheirs are side and contributory shows; a director has it\nin his power to bring things to a centre.\nI would not wish the Scala even such a careful Di-\nrector as the famous M. Rouch6 of the Paris Opera\nHouse, because Theatrical things have not come to quite\nsuch a desperate state in Italy as they are in in France.\nBut this talk of reconstructing the facade must lead\neveryone to suppose that this state is not so far away.\nIt is a nonsensical notion.\nSomething should be done, and quickly; there has\nbeen long enough to think it all over: for fifty years\npeople in Milano have puzzled how to deal with \" La\nScala \", and it could be solved in five minutes.\nNot once have they hit on the right answer to the\nconundrum.... and so they are convinced that no one else\ncan possibly hit on the right answer. And they tell you\nso, politely, delightfully, silently like true Milanese. They\nhave failed, they seem to say, so how can anyone be\nexpected to solve the riddle: \" What is the solution?\" is\ntheir delightful but quite sceptical query: and if we know\nthe answer we do not tell these sceptical men. They\nhould at least be allowed to retain the one last belief\nthey 11 ever possess, re., that ail is vain. Thus will they\nbe in any case following the lead of Paris.\nIhey invited M. Appia to Milano; remember that.\nThey did all that human striving could do to make his scene-\nries for \" Tristan a success, ....and yet they failed. Could\nthat failure be in any way attributed to the obsession for\nbuilding, the passion for machineries, the craze for a -staff\nof practical men, re., men who could do just what Paris\ndoes? Surely not. Yet building, machines, and especially\npractical men are all apt to exhaust the strongest cash-\nbox.... then there is none over to pay the artist, the wise\ndirector, the men of genius and talent. Practical men\nare never willing or able to do the silly things artists will\nd 0,... re., save a theatre for example. No, practical men\nwant paying highly."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c044", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c044", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "38", "page_fin": "38", "image_debut": 50, "image_fin": 50, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.26.2", "titre_corps": "PARIS", "titre_sommaire": "PARIS", "signature_source": "Ed", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 50, "page_imprimee": "38", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.50", "debut_caractere": 4042, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5889, "texte": "PARIS.\nEd.\n\" We are living in the days of women who smoke\nbetween the acts and youths who cover their brains with\nOxford trousers *\\\nSEYMOUR HICKS (I).\nI copied this\" out from a London newspaper which I found\nin the Caf£ Crequi. It seemed to me difficult to un-\nderstand the complaint—so I asked an American who\nalways sits at the next table to mine and who looks more\nlike a Frenchman than did M. Anatole France; an Ame-\nrican who amuses me with his odd way of looking at alt\nthings that are not either French or American.\nHe said; \"This boy Seymour is a wallow-buff if it\nmakes him down-hearted to be alive in the very place he-\nhas chosen to live. I'd like to live in London, Sir, as welt\nas any place on this earth \".\n\" But what's the idea of Oxford trousers? \" I enquired.\n\" Trousers 1* he replied sententiously \" which are made\nin Oxford \".\n\" And what makes them so annoying to Monsieur\nHicks ? \" I asked.\n\" They don't suit him, I take it, or he's out of sorts\nmay be\" he drawled.\n\"Pray what has all this to do with the Censor?\" I\npleaded, seeing the Censor mentioned.\n\" Nothing, Francois\" he answered, getting up and\nbidding me Adieu.\n1 remained puzzled; and I just dotted down the con-\nversation because I would like to put it on record, that it\nis possible, for a Frenchman to not quite understand the\nTheatrical world of London although in fullest sympathy\nwith our neighbours the English. f. m. f.\n<| Anent these same trousers someone 'sends £to us asking\nif we recall Mr Owen Seaman's verse in \" The Scholar\np ii\nFarmer :\nOxford! of whom the poet said\nThat one of your unwritten laws is\nTo back the weaker side and wed\nYour gallant heart to nobbling trorses.\nBut has he got it quite right, our correspondent 7*\nperhaps he has the trorses wrong—but backing the weaker\nside (presumably of the trorses) is right—and a very good\npoint too."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c045", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c045", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "38", "page_fin": "38", "image_debut": 50, "image_fin": 50, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.26.2.1", "titre_corps": "[Sans titre]", "titre_sommaire": "[Sans titre]", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 50, "page_imprimee": "38", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.50", "debut_caractere": 5891, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6077, "texte": "(i) For the benefit of our foreign readers we may\nthat Mr Seymour Hicks is one ot our foremost English\nactors, unique in the possession of a temperament as viva-\ncious as it is charming."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c046", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c046", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "39", "page_fin": "45", "image_debut": 51, "image_fin": 57, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27", "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": 51, "page_imprimee": "39", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.51", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6282, "texte": "BOOK REVIEWS.\n\nSOME CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS\nby Graham Sutton. (Parsons) 7/6 net.\n\nI am curiously grateful to Mr Sutton,\nbut let that never budge me from\nmy purpose which is to praise him.\n\" The thing that matters in this\nbook is its appendix \" he writes; it is\nthe first line of this collection of studies\non some nine very important and some\nless important English dramatists of the\nday, with Notes on the others. And\nthe Appendix does matter; but it is\nonly one of the things, not thing,\nwhich is the book itself.\nThe five page Appendix is valuable\nbecause it states facts which never grow\nold and often grow younger.\nThese facts are: how many plays\nthese nine dramatists have written;\nwhen they wrote them; when they\nwere produced, and who published\nthem and when.\nThe playwriters are Barker, Dane,\nDrinkwater, Ervine, Flecker, Jennings,\nMaugham, Milne, Monkhouse, Monro,\nO'Neill and Vane.\nI knew the work of most of these\nwriters and I had always wanted to\nknow something about the plays of\nMaugham, and not had the opportunity.\nIt is of Maugham I wish to write\nhere, for Mr. Sutton was the cause of\nmy reading two of his plays.\nSome of the other dramatists, the\nmore celebrated ones, are very remar-\nkable writers of plays, but even if\ntheir craftsmanship is good, it is too\noften spoiled by the creak of their\nboots. And they are apt to cooee at\nme too ;—they sometimes pop out or\npush doggedly through their plays and\nshake their heads or make faces.\nSomehow they teaze; they do not\nleave me free. This is only my im-\npression ;—others enjoy them more than\nI do.\nBut Maugham leaves me free. And\ndo you suppose that Mr. William\nArcher told me that ?\nSome of the other dramatists were\nto the late William Archer more than\nSomerset Maugham.\nIn his book \" The Old Drama and\nthe New \" (1923) he bravely cham-\npioned the new men, and I was be-\nginning to love the old fellow, when I\nsuddenly discover that this most excel-\nlent of all our playwriters, (to me the\nmost excellent), Maugham, had been\nstupidly slurred over. Not omitted—\nArcher didn't choose to do that—but\nrelegated to the third row, he who is\nobviously in the first row and by him-\nself at that.\nNot that I am thinking thoughts of\n/Eschylus and Moliere: but Maugham\nis what I'm thinking, and I will com-\npare him with no other playwriter of\nthese times.\nNot only is it Archer who omits to\ntell us properly what exactly Maugham\nis; Mr. J. T. Grein shirks it too.\nIn his \" The New World of the\nTheatre\" (1924) he mentions him\ntwice; not to say \" Maugham who\nknows the technique of the stage to\nperfection, knows, consequently, how\nto intersperse these discussions without\nmarring his theme \" ; but to apply this\nphrase to Shaw of all people, who is\njust as gawky on the stage as Maugham\nis at his ease.\nNot finding Archer or Grein willing\nto tell me anything about Maugham,\nI turned to Ashley Dukes (1911);\nbut found in his \" Modern Drama-\ntists \" that he had omitted to mention\nhim altogether.\nAt that time \" Our Betters \" and\n\" The Circle \" had not been written,\nso there is an excuse for Mr Dukes\nwhich cannot be found for Archer and\nGrein 0).\nAt present I have only read three\nplays by Maugham; \" Our Betters \",\n\" The Circle \" and \" Home and\nBeauty \". I have seen none acted, for\nI have never been in town when there\nwas one running. It was a single page\nof his set me wanting to read his plays.\nThis was the passage from \" East of\nSuez \" quoted by Mr Sutton in his\nbook. And it was a quite ordinary\nbit of play-writing such as one has\nknown ever since one could read ; but\nit was different from the modern play\nin that it had ease,directness and a\ncertain way with it which is never to\nbe defined since no one ever has been\nable to know what that way is.\nIn brief, it is the way of the true thea-\ntre artist and the true theatre craftsman.\nMaugham makes me suppose that he\nis one of those rich fellows who have\nimmense stores of genius in the cellar\nand who does not let that worry him.\n\" His plays are full of cultured,\nwitty people \" writes Mr Sutton; but\nI can't find them in \" Our Betters \"\nor \" The Circle \".\nWhat I find are beings alive.\nAnd this is one of the reasons\nMaugham delights me so. I was con-\nscious of no fireworks ; there was some\nsmart talk, which is neither clever nor\nwitty but is so real that it creates the\nimpression that we are in that witty\nLondon we have heard of daily for\nthe last fifteen years in our halfpenny\npapers, and that London really is de-\nvilish smart you know.\nI had never known the whole of\nthat London. I've been there and\nseen it in parts and I'm sorry I had\nto come away because of its size and\nits sobriety and its naughty little Pearl\nwho is the goods.\nHorrible people—and the author is\nhorrible too—so nice people tell me,\nwhen ever I am wild enough to see\nthose people;—and of course they may\nknow. I end a play of Maugham's\nknowing nothing ;—he tells me nothing\nhe doesn't seem to care about what\nthere is to know: he just shows me a\nthousand glimpses of a world. Is Bessie\ngood ? is Pearl vile ? If Shaw had\ninvented them we should know straight\naway: that's why Shaw as a drama-\ntist is impossible.\nTo me \" Our Betters \" is a beau-\ntiful piece of work; and although I\nread it only yesterday I have quite\nforgotten what it was all about.\nThat's what I call excellent. So\nwas it with me when I read \"Le\nBourgeois Gentilhomme \". I forgot all\nI had heard, but certain figures stood\nout still—an unforgettable sentence sang\non—and this is how a good play should\nact on us. No headache in the mor-\nning, and utter forgetfulness of the pre-\nceding evening.\nIn \" The Circle \" Maugham knocks\nHenrik Ibsen out in three rounds.\nHe didn't mean to make Ibsen ridi-\nculous : I doubt if he could read Ibsen,\nall he meant to do was to stroll easily\nround the ring opening bottles of cham-\npagne for us all; but he, (Ibsen), in-\nstead of raising a glass put up a problem,\n\" The Lady from the Sea \", and it\ncame against the bottle and burst like a\nfungus.\nMr Sutton, in writing of \" The\nCircle \", has put me in his debt for I\nhad to find a copy at once;—and all\nI can do to repay him is to say how\nI enjoyed myself reading it.\n\n(i) He does, I am told, give a couple\nof pages to him in his latest book 14 The\nYoungest Drama\nSo I must make good about this with\nMr Dukes. Reviewer."}, {"page_pdf": 52, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.52", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6788, "texte": "What a remarkable performance of\n\" Our Betters \" could be given if a\nfirst-rate English Company could be\nselected, if the production could be\nmade to seem more real than is usual;\nthat's the stuff to send over to Paris :\nwhereas they sent....\nThere can be no doubt that Miss\nConstance Collier and Miss Bannerman\nplayed the two principal parts in \" Our\nBetters \" better than any living English\nactresses could have done ; and Miss\nMarion Terry's performance of the\nPrincess must have contained beautiful\nwork.\nYorke Stephens, Alice Mosley, Al-\nfred Drayton, Stuart Sage, Reginald\nOwen, John Stuart, E. B. Walker and\nHenry Ford are some of the pick of\nLondon actors. But the play deserves\na firstrate English Company which has\nbeen working together for several years.\nRepertory Company ? No: for that\nmeans the creaking of boots again : the\nflat and popless bottle of Asti Spu-\nmante.\nBut no effort is made or will be\nmade, and no English Company of\nfirst-rate ability will be permitted to\nexist, since there seems to be a preju-\ndice in the profession against the three\nor four first rate foreign companies that\nalready do exist.\nDid you ever hear our actors swear\nthat Stanislavsky's Company and Musco's\nCompany were two first rate companies,\nand why they are so ? No, they\ndon't see it: it is an unfortunate halluci-\nnation ; but Garrick Street and Maida\nVale are blindly happy and there is an\nold law in the human heart which\nruns \" Pity the poor blind \".\nCome aside so that what we have\nto say may not reach their ears:—you\nsay they are deaf too ? Well then,\nthat's all right and no one will be hurt\nby what we say.\nYes, I agree with you : you've de-\nveloped the craft of playwriting so\nthat you can write a good or a bad\nplay to order.... and as these blind\nand deaf donkeys do not want a good\nplay and have no courage to leave\nyou to write as you wish you supply\nthem often as not with superb rubbish.\nExtraordinary stupid theatre folk—smart\nlads you dramatists.\nMaugham seems to me to be the\nsmartest. Not only can he supply rub-\nbish at times ; he can at the same time\ndelight himself and the solid playgoer\nof sense.\nI suppose everyone but the moles\nin Garrick Street can see this. Mau-\ngham was new to me so I was as\nblind as the other moles.\n\nJacques Galli di Bibiena.\n\nBRITISH DRAMA by Prof. Al-\nlardyce Nicoll. Harrap & Co.\nnet.\nSTAGE LIGHTING\nTLE \" THE A TRES. C. Harold\nRidge. Heffer& Sons. Cambridge.\n5/- net.\nTHERE is always one big danger\nwhich faces anyone who sets out\nto write about the Drama and the\n1 heatre. Either he is positively obliged\nto be entertaining to theatre goers, or\nhe has to be willing to bore all these\npeople to death and write a technical\nbook, interesting solely to the craftsman\nof Dramatics and Theatricals.\nAnd so it is surprising how Pro-\nfessor Nicoll has found it possible in\nhis new book to bore none and write\nsomething for everybody who is at all\nstudious. He is most tactful and pleasing,\nand manages to link up the old days\nwith today and to harmonise all things.\nHe has written a book to which we\nshall all refer time and again in the\ncourse of the next ten years, making\nit neither too long nor too short. It\nruns into 498 pages, it costs 12/—\nand the publishers are to be congra-\ntulated on a cheap book which is at\nthe same time a well made book.\nThe illustrations are excellent: there\nare sixteen of them, and an engraved\nfrontispiece.\nIf one must be at all critical I would\nsay that the subject is a little too vast for\na single volume ; but then I'd not have\nrelished four volumes. What I believe\nis best for the study of the Drama and\nTheatre is that scholars should do as\nMiss Campbell did—take a single branch\nof the huge subject and write a book\nor booklet on that branch alone.\nThe subject \" British Drama \" can\nbe divided and subdivided until we\neven come down to the last item—and\nnot the least important either—wigs.\nRoughly dotting down some of the\ndivisions we get Subject I, Plays:\nMiracle plays; Elizabethan plays; the\nMasques; Restoration Plays, and so\non, down to modern one-act plays.\nThere is enough in this one Heading,\nPlays, to occupy some fifteen or thirty\nscholars born to contribute just the one\nthing they alone really know about it;\nbut they must really know and not\nmerely repeat what we have already\nheard so often.\nSubject 2. Opera.\nSubject 3. Actors and Acting.\nSome thirty books and brochures\nare still needed, each one dealing with\na single actor or a single company.\nSubject 4. Theatre. Sub-divided\ninto some thirty or forty parts.\nA. Architecture: subdivided into\nsome fifteen parts, each part dealing\neither with some special period or with\nsome special theatre building, or with\nthe theatres of some special city at\nhome or abroad.\nB. Stenography. Some ten or\ntwelve books or booklets could be\neasily produced. Miss Campbell co-\nvers one corner of the subject perfectly.\nC. Costume.\nD. Stage management.\nE. Lighting.\nF. G. 6c H., ....continue the list as\nyou like, for I have no time or space\nhere to go on with it.\nAdd to these four divisions and\nnumberless subdivisions the important\nsubjects Dance, Masks, Marionnettes,\n(at the very least some fifteen books\ncan be prepared on these subjects) and\nwe get a notion of the size of the\nwhole undertaking which no one man\nor no one group could possibly shoulder\nalone.\nBut perhaps there already exist\nenough books on Drama and Theatre.\nI can count over two thousand in my\nown small collection, and only last\nweek a periodical told me that in fifty\nyears M. Rondel has gathered together\nsome three hundred thousand items.\nBut for all this we still have a lot\nof work to do—for only about four\nthousand of these items are of real\nvalue—if as many ; and what is needed\nis smaller, better, more exhaustive small\nbooks of some fifty to sixty pages each\ndealing with a single subject and giving\nseveral years to the building of these\nfifty pages.\nAnd Mr. C. H. Ridge supplies\none of these in his \" Stage Lighting \".\nIt is a book of a hundred pages, and\nMr. Dean and Mr. Gray have stood\nsponsers.\nOne of them should have told Mr.\nRidge that an index is essential to a\nbook of this kind, especially when ad-\ndressed, as is this one, to amateurs ... in\nwhose hands the author is \" suspec-\nted \" of believing lies the future of\n\" Drama as an art \".\nWhat Drama as no art is I am not\nquite clear. I'm afraid the author and\nhis sponsers have been reading one of\nMr. Gordon Craig's books. Yet this\ncan hardly be; for, while reference is\nmade to a number of books and peo-\nple, Mr. Craig is not one of these.\nThe book is just what is needed.\nTen such books, shorter, better if pos-\nsible, on even a sub-division of the\nlighting of stages would be valuable.\nBut let them keep well within fifty\npages and be the result of at least five\nor six years' careful work."}, {"page_pdf": 53, "page_imprimee": "41", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.53", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6474, "texte": "THEATRICAL IMPRESSIONS.\nJules Lemaitre. Herbert Jenkins. 7/6\nA Herbert Jenkins book is a lively\nbook. It is not uncouth, not un-\ndignified and not undeveloped, yet it\nwill not exchange its liveliness for any\namount of distinction, dignity or body.\nIt is not a costly thing and yet not\ncheap. It attempts to be as good as\nit can under the circumstances; it is,\nin short, a 1926 book.\nA 1926 book must first of all be\nproduced at a profit: it must appeal\nto the liyely part of the bookish public.\nIf by chance it please the super-critical\nall the better: it must anyhow first\nplease those willing to pay their 2/6,\n5/— and 7/6.\nAnd I like these prices.\n1 have always wanted to see my\n\" Songs from the Elizabethans \", selec-\nted by a man of judgement and brought\nout at 5/—. This the Firm of\nJenkins does. I want to get a good\nreadable story for 2/6. I don't want\nto have to pay more. And this the\nJenkins Firm does too. Mr. Jenkins\neven wrote the story. He wrote\nnine of them, and each one costs 2/6.\n\" Bindle \" is the most popular story\nof this author-publisher. It has already\nrun into 190,000 copies, and the\n\" Adventures of Bindle \" has run\ninto 60,000 also for 2/6. The other\nvolumes at 2/6 seem keeping pace with\nthe first two.\nBut these volumes of the House of\nJenkins are not mine to review. Mine\nis the volume \" Theatrical Impressions \":\nand a pretty little volume it makes,\nwith bright red cover and paper label.\nJules Lemaitre was a fine delicate critic,\nand these twenty-two essays are selected\nfrom ten volumes of Lemaitre's weekly\ncontributions to \" Le Journal des De-\nbats \". So says the Introductory Note,\nand I must believe that ten volumes\nexist though I don't like to credit it.\nFor the Theatrical Age of Dumas\nfils, Meilhac and Halevy, Becque,\nSardou, Lavedan, Breux and even Jules\nLemaitre is somehow not worth more\nthan, say, eight volumes at most; a\nlarge public of theatre students would\nI feel sure prefer them reduced to four.\nBut Jules Lemaitre is at any rate a\ncritic who never puts on airs nor de-\nscends to that curious habit, the occa-\nsional use of a French phrase or two.\nHe keeps to his mother-tongue all\nthrough. No Irishisms for him. His\nessay on \" Les Maris d'une Divorcee \",\na play you have forgotten or not heard\nof, by Raymond and de Gastyne,\nauthors you must have heard of, is in\nevery way admirable. He likes their\njolly play; he likes Ibsen's \"Ghosts\"\ntoo; and he likes Shakespeare's \"Le\nSonge d'une Nuit d'Et£\nAltogether Jules Lemaitre makes me\nwonder why it is we have no dramatic\ncritic in London on some famous Journal\nwho, in all he writes, could show us\nthat he really enjoys the theatre; one\nwho could manage to disguise those\negoistical sententious tones of Fleet Street\nwhich for the last twenty to thirty years\nhave bored us to death.\n\nMY LIFE IN ART by Constants\nStanislavsky. Geoffry Bles. —.\nTHE American edition of this book\nhas been already reviewed in\n\" The Mask \" in October 1924 : but\nnow an English version appears, and\nwe see it again with fresh pleasure.\nThirty shillings is too high a price\nfor the actors; it is too high for most\nbookish people. It is, we know, futile\nto tell actors and stage managers that\nif they put this book to right use they\nwill get many times their money's value\nin the lessons they will learn. The\nargument is sound but will not be lis-\ntened to.\nTo tell them they will see their\ncalling in a fresh and finer light, ...fresh,\nthat is, unless they have been steadily\nreading the eleven volumes of \" The\nMask\" all these years ...goes unheard\ninto their ears.\nStanislavsky writes of the Theatre\nand his work in it in away which\nstrikes us primarily because it is so\nunlike the way in which most players\nwrite their Memoirs :—Play fair, for\nexample.\nWe have had many volumes of\nActors* Reminiscences;...genial, comic\nand kindly: but so far as the work\nof the actor, the life of the Theatre,\nwent, they gave us little but the dates\nof certain productions, the names in-\ncluded in the castes, and a hundred\nanecdotes. Only, perhaps, in some of\nthe records written, or personally trans-\nmitted, by some who worked under\nHenry Irving, do we receive any im-\npression so dignified, so serious, as that\nwhich is produced by every page of\nthis Russian actor's book.\nSeriousness even over-seriousness\n-—is the key note of his entire attitude to\nthe Theatre: and, added to this, inte-\ngrity. Never from first to last do we\nfind anything cheap, meretricious, slip-\nshod, in his attitude to the art to which\nhe has devoted himself. Of personal\ntriumphs he relates almost nothing;\nfinancial questions, so far as his own\nadvantage is concerned, do not preoc-\ncupy him. Good work, faithful service\nof the Theatre, body and soul, these\nare all he cares for; and he exacts\nthat same spirit of service, of personal\nabnegation, from all those who work\nwith him.\nHere are some few of the apho-\nrisms he formulated for his workers:\n\" There are no small parts, there are\nonly small actors\n\" One must love art, and not oneself\n.\nin art .\n\" To-day, Hamlet, tomorrow a su-\npernumerary, but even as a supernume-\nrary you must become an artist \".\n\" All disobedience to the creative life\n\" of the theatre is a crime \".\n\" Lateness, laziness, caprice, hyste-\n\" rics, bad character, ignorance of the\n\" role, the necessity of repeating anything\n\" twice are all equally harmful to our\n\" enterprise and must be rooted out\nAnd again:—\n\" The theatre, which performs a cul-\n\" tural mission, demands of the per-\n\" sons engaged in it very much. To\n\" be the director of such an establish-\n\" ment one must be a talented expert\n\"in his own field, that is, not only as a\n\" critic, but as an actor, a stage director, a\n\" producer, a literateur, an administrator.\n\" One must know the theatre not only\n\" theoretically, but practically. One\n\" must know the construction of the\n\" stage, the architecture of the\n\" theatre itself, one must know the\n\" psychology of the mob, understand\n\" the nature and the psychology of the\n\" actor, the conditions of his creative\n\" work and life; one must have a\n\" wide literary education, tact, sensi-\n\" tivity, breeding, restraint, mind, ad-\n\" ministrative abilities and much, much\nlt M\n\" more .\nAnd here he is speaking not even\nof the Artist of the Theatre, but merely\nof the Director of a Theatre, of one\nwho is not a creative artist.\nIt is a book made for theatre\npeople;—it is to be hoped that there\nwill be found a hundred theatre people\nto purchase it in England. But we\nhave our doubts.\n\nCIRCLES"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c048", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c048", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "39", "page_fin": "40", "image_debut": 51, "image_fin": 52, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.2", "titre_corps": "SOME CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS by Graham Sutton", "titre_sommaire": "SOME CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS by Graham Sutton", "signature_source": "Jacques Galli di Bibiena", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 51, "page_imprimee": "39", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.51", "debut_caractere": 15, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6282, "texte": "SOME CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS\nby Graham Sutton. (Parsons) 7/6 net.\n\nI am curiously grateful to Mr Sutton,\nbut let that never budge me from\nmy purpose which is to praise him.\n\" The thing that matters in this\nbook is its appendix \" he writes; it is\nthe first line of this collection of studies\non some nine very important and some\nless important English dramatists of the\nday, with Notes on the others. And\nthe Appendix does matter; but it is\nonly one of the things, not thing,\nwhich is the book itself.\nThe five page Appendix is valuable\nbecause it states facts which never grow\nold and often grow younger.\nThese facts are: how many plays\nthese nine dramatists have written;\nwhen they wrote them; when they\nwere produced, and who published\nthem and when.\nThe playwriters are Barker, Dane,\nDrinkwater, Ervine, Flecker, Jennings,\nMaugham, Milne, Monkhouse, Monro,\nO'Neill and Vane.\nI knew the work of most of these\nwriters and I had always wanted to\nknow something about the plays of\nMaugham, and not had the opportunity.\nIt is of Maugham I wish to write\nhere, for Mr. Sutton was the cause of\nmy reading two of his plays.\nSome of the other dramatists, the\nmore celebrated ones, are very remar-\nkable writers of plays, but even if\ntheir craftsmanship is good, it is too\noften spoiled by the creak of their\nboots. And they are apt to cooee at\nme too ;—they sometimes pop out or\npush doggedly through their plays and\nshake their heads or make faces.\nSomehow they teaze; they do not\nleave me free. This is only my im-\npression ;—others enjoy them more than\nI do.\nBut Maugham leaves me free. And\ndo you suppose that Mr. William\nArcher told me that ?\nSome of the other dramatists were\nto the late William Archer more than\nSomerset Maugham.\nIn his book \" The Old Drama and\nthe New \" (1923) he bravely cham-\npioned the new men, and I was be-\nginning to love the old fellow, when I\nsuddenly discover that this most excel-\nlent of all our playwriters, (to me the\nmost excellent), Maugham, had been\nstupidly slurred over. Not omitted—\nArcher didn't choose to do that—but\nrelegated to the third row, he who is\nobviously in the first row and by him-\nself at that.\nNot that I am thinking thoughts of\n/Eschylus and Moliere: but Maugham\nis what I'm thinking, and I will com-\npare him with no other playwriter of\nthese times.\nNot only is it Archer who omits to\ntell us properly what exactly Maugham\nis; Mr. J. T. Grein shirks it too.\nIn his \" The New World of the\nTheatre\" (1924) he mentions him\ntwice; not to say \" Maugham who\nknows the technique of the stage to\nperfection, knows, consequently, how\nto intersperse these discussions without\nmarring his theme \" ; but to apply this\nphrase to Shaw of all people, who is\njust as gawky on the stage as Maugham\nis at his ease.\nNot finding Archer or Grein willing\nto tell me anything about Maugham,\nI turned to Ashley Dukes (1911);\nbut found in his \" Modern Drama-\ntists \" that he had omitted to mention\nhim altogether.\nAt that time \" Our Betters \" and\n\" The Circle \" had not been written,\nso there is an excuse for Mr Dukes\nwhich cannot be found for Archer and\nGrein 0).\nAt present I have only read three\nplays by Maugham; \" Our Betters \",\n\" The Circle \" and \" Home and\nBeauty \". I have seen none acted, for\nI have never been in town when there\nwas one running. It was a single page\nof his set me wanting to read his plays.\nThis was the passage from \" East of\nSuez \" quoted by Mr Sutton in his\nbook. And it was a quite ordinary\nbit of play-writing such as one has\nknown ever since one could read ; but\nit was different from the modern play\nin that it had ease,directness and a\ncertain way with it which is never to\nbe defined since no one ever has been\nable to know what that way is.\nIn brief, it is the way of the true thea-\ntre artist and the true theatre craftsman.\nMaugham makes me suppose that he\nis one of those rich fellows who have\nimmense stores of genius in the cellar\nand who does not let that worry him.\n\" His plays are full of cultured,\nwitty people \" writes Mr Sutton; but\nI can't find them in \" Our Betters \"\nor \" The Circle \".\nWhat I find are beings alive.\nAnd this is one of the reasons\nMaugham delights me so. I was con-\nscious of no fireworks ; there was some\nsmart talk, which is neither clever nor\nwitty but is so real that it creates the\nimpression that we are in that witty\nLondon we have heard of daily for\nthe last fifteen years in our halfpenny\npapers, and that London really is de-\nvilish smart you know.\nI had never known the whole of\nthat London. I've been there and\nseen it in parts and I'm sorry I had\nto come away because of its size and\nits sobriety and its naughty little Pearl\nwho is the goods.\nHorrible people—and the author is\nhorrible too—so nice people tell me,\nwhen ever I am wild enough to see\nthose people;—and of course they may\nknow. I end a play of Maugham's\nknowing nothing ;—he tells me nothing\nhe doesn't seem to care about what\nthere is to know: he just shows me a\nthousand glimpses of a world. Is Bessie\ngood ? is Pearl vile ? If Shaw had\ninvented them we should know straight\naway: that's why Shaw as a drama-\ntist is impossible.\nTo me \" Our Betters \" is a beau-\ntiful piece of work; and although I\nread it only yesterday I have quite\nforgotten what it was all about.\nThat's what I call excellent. So\nwas it with me when I read \"Le\nBourgeois Gentilhomme \". I forgot all\nI had heard, but certain figures stood\nout still—an unforgettable sentence sang\non—and this is how a good play should\nact on us. No headache in the mor-\nning, and utter forgetfulness of the pre-\nceding evening.\nIn \" The Circle \" Maugham knocks\nHenrik Ibsen out in three rounds.\nHe didn't mean to make Ibsen ridi-\nculous : I doubt if he could read Ibsen,\nall he meant to do was to stroll easily\nround the ring opening bottles of cham-\npagne for us all; but he, (Ibsen), in-\nstead of raising a glass put up a problem,\n\" The Lady from the Sea \", and it\ncame against the bottle and burst like a\nfungus.\nMr Sutton, in writing of \" The\nCircle \", has put me in his debt for I\nhad to find a copy at once;—and all\nI can do to repay him is to say how\nI enjoyed myself reading it.\n\n(i) He does, I am told, give a couple\nof pages to him in his latest book 14 The\nYoungest Drama\nSo I must make good about this with\nMr Dukes. Reviewer."}, {"page_pdf": 52, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.52", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2278, "texte": "What a remarkable performance of\n\" Our Betters \" could be given if a\nfirst-rate English Company could be\nselected, if the production could be\nmade to seem more real than is usual;\nthat's the stuff to send over to Paris :\nwhereas they sent....\nThere can be no doubt that Miss\nConstance Collier and Miss Bannerman\nplayed the two principal parts in \" Our\nBetters \" better than any living English\nactresses could have done ; and Miss\nMarion Terry's performance of the\nPrincess must have contained beautiful\nwork.\nYorke Stephens, Alice Mosley, Al-\nfred Drayton, Stuart Sage, Reginald\nOwen, John Stuart, E. B. Walker and\nHenry Ford are some of the pick of\nLondon actors. But the play deserves\na firstrate English Company which has\nbeen working together for several years.\nRepertory Company ? No: for that\nmeans the creaking of boots again : the\nflat and popless bottle of Asti Spu-\nmante.\nBut no effort is made or will be\nmade, and no English Company of\nfirst-rate ability will be permitted to\nexist, since there seems to be a preju-\ndice in the profession against the three\nor four first rate foreign companies that\nalready do exist.\nDid you ever hear our actors swear\nthat Stanislavsky's Company and Musco's\nCompany were two first rate companies,\nand why they are so ? No, they\ndon't see it: it is an unfortunate halluci-\nnation ; but Garrick Street and Maida\nVale are blindly happy and there is an\nold law in the human heart which\nruns \" Pity the poor blind \".\nCome aside so that what we have\nto say may not reach their ears:—you\nsay they are deaf too ? Well then,\nthat's all right and no one will be hurt\nby what we say.\nYes, I agree with you : you've de-\nveloped the craft of playwriting so\nthat you can write a good or a bad\nplay to order.... and as these blind\nand deaf donkeys do not want a good\nplay and have no courage to leave\nyou to write as you wish you supply\nthem often as not with superb rubbish.\nExtraordinary stupid theatre folk—smart\nlads you dramatists.\nMaugham seems to me to be the\nsmartest. Not only can he supply rub-\nbish at times ; he can at the same time\ndelight himself and the solid playgoer\nof sense.\nI suppose everyone but the moles\nin Garrick Street can see this. Mau-\ngham was new to me so I was as\nblind as the other moles.\n\nJacques Galli di Bibiena."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c049", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c049", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "40", "page_fin": "40", "image_debut": 52, "image_fin": 52, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.3", "titre_corps": "BRITISH DRAMA by Prof. Allardyce NicollSTAGE LIGHTING FOR \"LITTLE THEATRES\" by C. Harold Ridge", "titre_sommaire": "BRITISH DRAMA by Prof. Allardyce NicollSTAGE LIGHTING FOR \"LITTLE THEATRES\" by C. Harold Ridge", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 52, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.52", "debut_caractere": 2280, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6788, "texte": "BRITISH DRAMA by Prof. Al-\nlardyce Nicoll. Harrap & Co.\nnet.\nSTAGE LIGHTING\nTLE \" THE A TRES. C. Harold\nRidge. Heffer& Sons. Cambridge.\n5/- net.\nTHERE is always one big danger\nwhich faces anyone who sets out\nto write about the Drama and the\n1 heatre. Either he is positively obliged\nto be entertaining to theatre goers, or\nhe has to be willing to bore all these\npeople to death and write a technical\nbook, interesting solely to the craftsman\nof Dramatics and Theatricals.\nAnd so it is surprising how Pro-\nfessor Nicoll has found it possible in\nhis new book to bore none and write\nsomething for everybody who is at all\nstudious. He is most tactful and pleasing,\nand manages to link up the old days\nwith today and to harmonise all things.\nHe has written a book to which we\nshall all refer time and again in the\ncourse of the next ten years, making\nit neither too long nor too short. It\nruns into 498 pages, it costs 12/—\nand the publishers are to be congra-\ntulated on a cheap book which is at\nthe same time a well made book.\nThe illustrations are excellent: there\nare sixteen of them, and an engraved\nfrontispiece.\nIf one must be at all critical I would\nsay that the subject is a little too vast for\na single volume ; but then I'd not have\nrelished four volumes. What I believe\nis best for the study of the Drama and\nTheatre is that scholars should do as\nMiss Campbell did—take a single branch\nof the huge subject and write a book\nor booklet on that branch alone.\nThe subject \" British Drama \" can\nbe divided and subdivided until we\neven come down to the last item—and\nnot the least important either—wigs.\nRoughly dotting down some of the\ndivisions we get Subject I, Plays:\nMiracle plays; Elizabethan plays; the\nMasques; Restoration Plays, and so\non, down to modern one-act plays.\nThere is enough in this one Heading,\nPlays, to occupy some fifteen or thirty\nscholars born to contribute just the one\nthing they alone really know about it;\nbut they must really know and not\nmerely repeat what we have already\nheard so often.\nSubject 2. Opera.\nSubject 3. Actors and Acting.\nSome thirty books and brochures\nare still needed, each one dealing with\na single actor or a single company.\nSubject 4. Theatre. Sub-divided\ninto some thirty or forty parts.\nA. Architecture: subdivided into\nsome fifteen parts, each part dealing\neither with some special period or with\nsome special theatre building, or with\nthe theatres of some special city at\nhome or abroad.\nB. Stenography. Some ten or\ntwelve books or booklets could be\neasily produced. Miss Campbell co-\nvers one corner of the subject perfectly.\nC. Costume.\nD. Stage management.\nE. Lighting.\nF. G. 6c H., ....continue the list as\nyou like, for I have no time or space\nhere to go on with it.\nAdd to these four divisions and\nnumberless subdivisions the important\nsubjects Dance, Masks, Marionnettes,\n(at the very least some fifteen books\ncan be prepared on these subjects) and\nwe get a notion of the size of the\nwhole undertaking which no one man\nor no one group could possibly shoulder\nalone.\nBut perhaps there already exist\nenough books on Drama and Theatre.\nI can count over two thousand in my\nown small collection, and only last\nweek a periodical told me that in fifty\nyears M. Rondel has gathered together\nsome three hundred thousand items.\nBut for all this we still have a lot\nof work to do—for only about four\nthousand of these items are of real\nvalue—if as many ; and what is needed\nis smaller, better, more exhaustive small\nbooks of some fifty to sixty pages each\ndealing with a single subject and giving\nseveral years to the building of these\nfifty pages.\nAnd Mr. C. H. Ridge supplies\none of these in his \" Stage Lighting \".\nIt is a book of a hundred pages, and\nMr. Dean and Mr. Gray have stood\nsponsers.\nOne of them should have told Mr.\nRidge that an index is essential to a\nbook of this kind, especially when ad-\ndressed, as is this one, to amateurs ... in\nwhose hands the author is \" suspec-\nted \" of believing lies the future of\n\" Drama as an art \".\nWhat Drama as no art is I am not\nquite clear. I'm afraid the author and\nhis sponsers have been reading one of\nMr. Gordon Craig's books. Yet this\ncan hardly be; for, while reference is\nmade to a number of books and peo-\nple, Mr. Craig is not one of these.\nThe book is just what is needed.\nTen such books, shorter, better if pos-\nsible, on even a sub-division of the\nlighting of stages would be valuable.\nBut let them keep well within fifty\npages and be the result of at least five\nor six years' careful work."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c050", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c050", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "41", "page_fin": "41", "image_debut": 53, "image_fin": 53, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.4", "titre_corps": "THEATRICAL IMPRESSIONS by Jules Lamaitre", "titre_sommaire": "THEATRICAL IMPRESSIONS by Jules Lamaitre", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 53, "page_imprimee": "41", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.53", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2785, "texte": "THEATRICAL IMPRESSIONS.\nJules Lemaitre. Herbert Jenkins. 7/6\nA Herbert Jenkins book is a lively\nbook. It is not uncouth, not un-\ndignified and not undeveloped, yet it\nwill not exchange its liveliness for any\namount of distinction, dignity or body.\nIt is not a costly thing and yet not\ncheap. It attempts to be as good as\nit can under the circumstances; it is,\nin short, a 1926 book.\nA 1926 book must first of all be\nproduced at a profit: it must appeal\nto the liyely part of the bookish public.\nIf by chance it please the super-critical\nall the better: it must anyhow first\nplease those willing to pay their 2/6,\n5/— and 7/6.\nAnd I like these prices.\n1 have always wanted to see my\n\" Songs from the Elizabethans \", selec-\nted by a man of judgement and brought\nout at 5/—. This the Firm of\nJenkins does. I want to get a good\nreadable story for 2/6. I don't want\nto have to pay more. And this the\nJenkins Firm does too. Mr. Jenkins\neven wrote the story. He wrote\nnine of them, and each one costs 2/6.\n\" Bindle \" is the most popular story\nof this author-publisher. It has already\nrun into 190,000 copies, and the\n\" Adventures of Bindle \" has run\ninto 60,000 also for 2/6. The other\nvolumes at 2/6 seem keeping pace with\nthe first two.\nBut these volumes of the House of\nJenkins are not mine to review. Mine\nis the volume \" Theatrical Impressions \":\nand a pretty little volume it makes,\nwith bright red cover and paper label.\nJules Lemaitre was a fine delicate critic,\nand these twenty-two essays are selected\nfrom ten volumes of Lemaitre's weekly\ncontributions to \" Le Journal des De-\nbats \". So says the Introductory Note,\nand I must believe that ten volumes\nexist though I don't like to credit it.\nFor the Theatrical Age of Dumas\nfils, Meilhac and Halevy, Becque,\nSardou, Lavedan, Breux and even Jules\nLemaitre is somehow not worth more\nthan, say, eight volumes at most; a\nlarge public of theatre students would\nI feel sure prefer them reduced to four.\nBut Jules Lemaitre is at any rate a\ncritic who never puts on airs nor de-\nscends to that curious habit, the occa-\nsional use of a French phrase or two.\nHe keeps to his mother-tongue all\nthrough. No Irishisms for him. His\nessay on \" Les Maris d'une Divorcee \",\na play you have forgotten or not heard\nof, by Raymond and de Gastyne,\nauthors you must have heard of, is in\nevery way admirable. He likes their\njolly play; he likes Ibsen's \"Ghosts\"\ntoo; and he likes Shakespeare's \"Le\nSonge d'une Nuit d'Et£\nAltogether Jules Lemaitre makes me\nwonder why it is we have no dramatic\ncritic in London on some famous Journal\nwho, in all he writes, could show us\nthat he really enjoys the theatre; one\nwho could manage to disguise those\negoistical sententious tones of Fleet Street\nwhich for the last twenty to thirty years\nhave bored us to death."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c051", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c051", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "41", "page_fin": "41", "image_debut": 53, "image_fin": 53, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.5", "titre_corps": "MY LIFE IN ART by Constantin Stansilavsky", "titre_sommaire": "MY LIFE IN ART by Constantin Stansilavsky", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 53, "page_imprimee": "41", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.53", "debut_caractere": 2787, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6465, "texte": "MY LIFE IN ART by Constants\nStanislavsky. Geoffry Bles. —.\nTHE American edition of this book\nhas been already reviewed in\n\" The Mask \" in October 1924 : but\nnow an English version appears, and\nwe see it again with fresh pleasure.\nThirty shillings is too high a price\nfor the actors; it is too high for most\nbookish people. It is, we know, futile\nto tell actors and stage managers that\nif they put this book to right use they\nwill get many times their money's value\nin the lessons they will learn. The\nargument is sound but will not be lis-\ntened to.\nTo tell them they will see their\ncalling in a fresh and finer light, ...fresh,\nthat is, unless they have been steadily\nreading the eleven volumes of \" The\nMask\" all these years ...goes unheard\ninto their ears.\nStanislavsky writes of the Theatre\nand his work in it in away which\nstrikes us primarily because it is so\nunlike the way in which most players\nwrite their Memoirs :—Play fair, for\nexample.\nWe have had many volumes of\nActors* Reminiscences;...genial, comic\nand kindly: but so far as the work\nof the actor, the life of the Theatre,\nwent, they gave us little but the dates\nof certain productions, the names in-\ncluded in the castes, and a hundred\nanecdotes. Only, perhaps, in some of\nthe records written, or personally trans-\nmitted, by some who worked under\nHenry Irving, do we receive any im-\npression so dignified, so serious, as that\nwhich is produced by every page of\nthis Russian actor's book.\nSeriousness even over-seriousness\n-—is the key note of his entire attitude to\nthe Theatre: and, added to this, inte-\ngrity. Never from first to last do we\nfind anything cheap, meretricious, slip-\nshod, in his attitude to the art to which\nhe has devoted himself. Of personal\ntriumphs he relates almost nothing;\nfinancial questions, so far as his own\nadvantage is concerned, do not preoc-\ncupy him. Good work, faithful service\nof the Theatre, body and soul, these\nare all he cares for; and he exacts\nthat same spirit of service, of personal\nabnegation, from all those who work\nwith him.\nHere are some few of the apho-\nrisms he formulated for his workers:\n\" There are no small parts, there are\nonly small actors\n\" One must love art, and not oneself\n.\nin art .\n\" To-day, Hamlet, tomorrow a su-\npernumerary, but even as a supernume-\nrary you must become an artist \".\n\" All disobedience to the creative life\n\" of the theatre is a crime \".\n\" Lateness, laziness, caprice, hyste-\n\" rics, bad character, ignorance of the\n\" role, the necessity of repeating anything\n\" twice are all equally harmful to our\n\" enterprise and must be rooted out\nAnd again:—\n\" The theatre, which performs a cul-\n\" tural mission, demands of the per-\n\" sons engaged in it very much. To\n\" be the director of such an establish-\n\" ment one must be a talented expert\n\"in his own field, that is, not only as a\n\" critic, but as an actor, a stage director, a\n\" producer, a literateur, an administrator.\n\" One must know the theatre not only\n\" theoretically, but practically. One\n\" must know the construction of the\n\" stage, the architecture of the\n\" theatre itself, one must know the\n\" psychology of the mob, understand\n\" the nature and the psychology of the\n\" actor, the conditions of his creative\n\" work and life; one must have a\n\" wide literary education, tact, sensi-\n\" tivity, breeding, restraint, mind, ad-\n\" ministrative abilities and much, much\nlt M\n\" more .\nAnd here he is speaking not even\nof the Artist of the Theatre, but merely\nof the Director of a Theatre, of one\nwho is not a creative artist.\nIt is a book made for theatre\npeople;—it is to be hoped that there\nwill be found a hundred theatre people\nto purchase it in England. But we\nhave our doubts."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c052", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c052", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "41", "page_fin": "45", "image_debut": 53, "image_fin": 57, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.6", "titre_corps": "CIRCLES", "titre_sommaire": "CIRCLES", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 53, "page_imprimee": "41", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.53", "debut_caractere": 6467, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6474, "texte": "CIRCLES"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c053", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c053", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "41", "page_fin": "43", "image_debut": 53, "image_fin": 55, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.6.1", "titre_corps": "EMPTY CHAIRS by Sir Squire BancroftMUSSOLINI: His Political Speeches. 1914-1923", "titre_sommaire": "EMPTY CHAIRS by Sir Squire BancroftMUSSOLINI: His Political Speeches. 1914-1923", "signature_source": "e. g. c", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 53, "page_imprimee": "41", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.53", "debut_caractere": 6476, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6799, "texte": "EMPTY CHAIRS by Sir Squire\nBancroft. Murray. 10/6.\nMUSSOLINI: His Political Speeches.\n1914-1923. Dent & Sons. 7/6.\n\nSIR Squire Bancroft is generally sup-\nposed to be an old man. He has\noutlived Irving, Toole and Salvini,\nBernhardt and Fechter, and yet the\none thing which realty singles him out\nfrom all these is his youth."}, {"page_pdf": 54, "page_imprimee": "42", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.54", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 7381, "texte": "While he became one of the best\nLondon actors of his day by dint of\nhard work, the genius of youth he\nwas born with. To fret, to chafe, to\nbother about trifles or weighty things,\nwas not to be part of Bancroft's life:\n—\" Let the great ones worry, let me be\nhappy \", is what he seems always to have\nsaid. And so he counselled himself to\nfling away ambition and do his duty\nin that state of life to which it had\npleased God to call him.\nHe was \"brought up in some luxury\"\nhe says and \" surrounded by all the\ngentle influences \" he could desire. He\nrecalls his father on his horse. They\nwhose fathers have ridden horses very\noften develop away of holding up the\nhead tilted at an angle which gives\nstyle to the whole person. Bancroft\nbecame possessed of this style, and he\ncarries it with him today as he strolls\ndown Piccadilly and people turn to\nask themselves \" Who's that ?\nThey may well ask, for there goes\na man of exceeding good sense and\ngood heart; and he has written a\ncharming little book in which many an\nold anecdote is culled from his earlier\nbook and is as fresh as ever it was.\nBesides being fortunately born and\nbrought up (a fortune which actors\ncannot often claim) he seems to have\never possessed tact, sense and charm.\nPlaced on the sixth or seventh rung\nof the social ladder at the age of one,\nit is only natural that he should ascend\nthat ladder;—ascending it he finds him-\nself in the midst of Princes, Ambassa-\ndors, Archbishops, Chief Justices,\nDukes and the others ; and, mixing with\nthese, he raises the social status of the\nactor. He married Miss Marie Wil-\nton, unquestionably one of the most\nbrilliant and bewitching actresses of her\ntime, in nature as sunny as he was,\nand together they helped to make Lon-\ndon sparkle: so when in 1897 these\ntwo very popular people became Sir\nSquire and Lady Bancroft it was all\nas it should be. I am of the opinion\nthat Bancroft was the only English actor\nwho should have received knighthood.\nAlmost every page of his book is\nup to the mark, and the very title sug-\ngests that he is preparing another vo-\nlume. The \" Empty Chairs \" are those\nwhich were once filled by all the great\nor famous Victorians between 1865 and\n1910 round Bancroft's table. But what\nof those who still live ? 1 do not allude\nto the old men of forty (or forty-one),\nbut to the little circle of men of se-\nventy-eight or eighty-five who so far\nas 1 can see hold themselves straight,\nstep out with spirit, and cock their heads\nas in the old days, only more so, for\nthe times ate rather other than they\nwere, new forces gather, opinions matter\nless; the great men of today are not\nable it would seem to hobnob quite as\nmuch as in Bancroft's pleasant age—\nand this may of course seem cata-\nstrophic to the circle.\nAnyhow Sir Edward Clarke, Sir\nA. W. Pinero, Sir Squire Bancroft,\nSir J. Forbes Robertson, Henry Arthur\nJones, W. L. Courtney and a dozen\nmore cronies are, I think, a fair excuse\nfor a new book by Sir Squire Ban-\ncroft:—a merry book; and I believe\nthat he is slyly preparing it!\n\" That which we Fascisti are oppo-\nsing is the Bolshevist element in Ita-\nlian Socialism\". (Mussolini).\n1 hear old Bancroft saying \" Hear\nHear \" to that: and a \" what? \" turning\nto Sir Thingymy Right, adding in an\nundertone to Sir Thingymy Left \" Quite\na promising young man this Signor Mus-\nsolini\". Yes, the good bright-eyed\n\" B\" would not fail to cry \" Hear\nHear \"—but, alas, the other B. would\nmiss it entirely in the aside.\nSignor Mussolini, addressing the Se-\nnate, states :—\" Of course if the\nvote of the Senate be unanimous, it\nwill please me—(Laughter)—but you\nmust not believe that unanimity flatters\nme excessively. I entertain a thorough\ncontempt for those who have more or\nless clamorously sided with me in these\nlast days (Nov. 1922). They are so\noften the kind of people who follow\nthe fair wind and are ready to tumble\nheadlong over to the other side when\nthe wind changes direction. 1 prefer\nsincere enemies to doubtful friends\".\n1 dread to think what Sir Squire\nwould feel on hearing that.\nI fear that poor \"B \" would look\nquite a little surprised at such lan-\nguage;—but, seeing that Mussolini has\nsucceeded, he would possibly (after\"talk-\ning it over with the circle) decide to\n\" wait and see\" the play to the end.\nBut he'd find it, so far, rather \"queer\".\n1 think that no one outside the circle\n—out of every circle—could find Fa-\nscism at all odd. Circles are all right\nin a comfortable age and for lands and\nepochs where all is going along smoothly;\nthey who like and use circles found them\nin those different days admirably suited\nto their methods. But circles are often\nblighting; are apt to be a nuisance in\na period which is advancing to newer\nthings. Circles bring about much trouble\nbecause circles don't like ideas and\nfind initiative far too independent.\ni like ideas so well that I read all\nthat Signor Mussolini says and does\nand find it all well said and well done.\nPolitics I abhore. 1 wont discuss\nthem, having a fixed ideal for Go-\nvernment and Power. Politics are born\nof a failure to govern and a lack of\npower. In a house, in a stable, in a\ncarpenters shop, in a theatre, in a\nchurch or in a state what is needed is\na man who thinks more of the thing\nhe is doing than of himself; one able\nto give orders and be obeyed.\nThis as a rule is what all big wars\nproduce, and this as a rule is what a\nbig war teaches every nation: and I\nalways feel it a pity when a nation\ndoesn't learn at least that. Useless to\nregret that mankind sometimes cannot\ncome to understand it without trouble;\nuseless to point out now that previous\nto the war many men lived and wor-\nked knowing this and being all the\ntime put down as lunatics.\nAnd, what is always worse than a\npity, is, the getting together of many\npeople in a circle, and in a quite\nhonest, if rather underhand, way ar-\nranging things between themselves so\ncleverly that a people is robbed of its\nvision, stifled and fed up with unne-\ncessary luxuries, well doped by a press\n(also in the circle) so that the circle\nmay anyhow be unbroken, thrive, write\nits memoirs, and generally ruin every-\nthing with impunity.\nBut 1 am no Mussolini, no Cromwell,\nno Richelieu to speak of nations; but\nof Theatres I know something: and I\nknow that the English Theatre and the\nFrench Theatre are both being bled to\ndeath by circles.\nThese circles are composed of good\nmen and women: taken singly each\none can compare favourably with the\nbest of good fellows. Sir Squire Ban-\ncroft for example. One and all excel\nin this or that; are human, charming,\nclever, and in most respects worthy.\nBut when united,—when they form\na circle—(which by the way looks\ndelightful and worthy too)—when inside\nthat, they one and all become transfor-\nmed and begin to prey on all which\ncounts for individuality and expression.\nProvided it holds, a circle can at\nany rate boast a kind of grim if smiling\npower. It has that. Some people\nhave said that the power is often one\nused solely to revengeful purposes.\nNietzsche, Blake, Whitman, who are\nnot often heard of in circles, and never\nseen there, are apt to be rather stern\nabout the Bancrofts and the Clubs,\nGarrick or Reform, Jacobin or Work-\nmen's. By laughing a little Voltaire is\nable, just able, to tolerate a circle\nbut they do not tolerate him: so he\nends by being carried in state to the\ntomb as the circles snuff out \" Unwept,\nunhonoured and unsung \"."}, {"page_pdf": 55, "page_imprimee": "43", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.55", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3849, "texte": "\" If there is anyone who believes\nthat, to be a true Liberal, it is necessary\nto give some hundreds of irresponsible\npeople, fanatics and scoundrels, the\npower of ruining forty millions of Ita-\nlians, I refuse absolutely to give them\nthis power (Mussolini Nov. 27.\n1922).\nWhich seems to me more or less the\nway Byron liked to hear people speak\neven if he objected to have his own words\nso translated ; but he unfortunately died\nsome hundred years too early to do so.\nAnd who in our land troubles about\nwhat Byron liked to hear—or Blake\neither. As for Whitman, the man\nwas as mad as Blake and Nietzsche\nmadder than both.\nAnd of course, if a wise man pauses\nto think quietly about it, it is apt to make\nhim mad to note how fools will carry\non when clubbed together in a circle.\nM Here we go round the mulbry bush\nthe mulbry bush\nthe mulberry bush\nHere we go round \"....\nI hope England will not be very\nlong before she makes a trial of circle-\nbreaking by experimenting first on the\nTheatre circle—and its useful\ncritics* circle too : for 1 believe these\ncircles are of rather a bad than good\nuse.\nI cannot guess why Bancroft's book\nshould have set me thinking of all\nthis: but Mussolini's book has certainly\nmade it clearer than ever (and it was\nnever at all obscure at any time) that\nthe control exercised over our English\nTheatre by our good critics and our\ngood theatre men and women is just\nthe very worst control conceivable.\nIt is not to be expected that they\ncould ever come to see eye to eye with\nme in this matter because what I am\nafter is the release of the European\nTheatre from a preposterous situation,\nand the restoration of the fine tradi-\ntions it could inherit but continues to\ndisregard.\nAnd while those bland circles exist,\nand those good kind talkative men will\ngather together and discuss what is of\nlittle importance, so long will the\nTheatre be obliged to suffer every\ncurtailment of its rights,—the right to\nmove on and do something and use\nIts splendid traditions.\nWell, let us not despair. The\nTheatre is not the sole property of\nany one nation : there are other Thea-\nres than those shadowy parodies of\nthe old place to which the patient\nEnglishman and the as patient Frenchman\nare forced to go.\nBut to make sure of a thrill we had\nbest take a copy of Mussolini's Speeches\nwith us when we are obliged to sit\nout an evening's dramatics in London\nor in Paris; for these speeches are as\nmagnificent to read as they are sound\nto ponder.\nDent and Sons are indeed to be\ncongratulated on having issued this first-\nclass translation.\nThe volume is prefaced by a letter\nfrom Barone Tittoni, President of the\nItalian Senate, a man for years known\nfrom one end of Europe to the other\nand an Italian of Italians. No one\nwill take him to be a reckless firebrand\nalthough Signor Mussolini is doubtless\nstdl considered so by those in all the\ncircles.\nThey dislike him because he is not\nas moderate as they are; they cannot\nsee that moderation itself can be exces-\nsive : that never occurs to them.\nIf someone in the English Theatre\nsuggested that it would be a good thing\nif every actor were to read \" The\nMask \" (and Mr. Lennox Robinson,\nMr St. John Ervine,and one or two\nothers have done so) the circles would\nbe shocked. For \" The Mask \" says\nwhat it thinks and thinks a long time\nbefore saying it : yet the London actor\nhaving drunk, not wisely but too well,\nat the source of all foolery, is sick,\nand so can find nothing but ill to say\nabout \" The Mask \".\nAnd I am told by many that nothing\nbut a very drastic remedy can cure this\nsickness of mind.\nA milder remedy would be more to\nmy liking. I would like to see some\none put in power who would give\nthings one chance more and who would\nopen all the theatrical doors to admit\nevery scrap of genius and talent.\nBut if the doors continue to be\nclosed to genius and talent....\n\ne. g. c."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c054", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c054", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "43", "page_fin": "43", "image_debut": 55, "image_fin": 55, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.6.2", "titre_corps": "COMEDIES BY WILLIAM CONGREVE", "titre_sommaire": "COMEDIES BY WILLIAM CONGREVE", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 55, "page_imprimee": "43", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.55", "debut_caractere": 3851, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6059, "texte": "COMEDIES BY WILLIAM CON-\nGREVE, edited by Bonomy Dobree.\nHumphrey Milford. Oxford Univer*\nsity Press. London. 2/~net.\nTHE audiences of the future when\nat the theatre will lie on their\nbacks. So says Mr Dobree, the editor\nof Congreve, in another book of his\nrecently published. He has doubtless\ntalked it over with the Managers and\nthe landlords of the London Theatres,\nand, concluding that the Way of the\nWorld is a topsy-turvey way, they\nthink to correct this by eccentricity.\nMr Dobree may not mean his sug-\ngestion very seriously: so it might have\nbeen better had he left Mr George\nRobey to crack the joke? Yet Robey\nhas cracked jokes to gloomy ends;\nperhaps we are on the eve of an an-\nnouncement:\n\" Dobree and Robey,\nThe hilarious woebegone brothers\nEngland's sole mirth crackers.\nTONIGHT\nEveryone will be expected\nto lie on his back\nwhile\nDobree and Robey\nwalk over them\nPerhaps:—and then again, perhaps\nnot yet.\nI almost fear the Future of the Thea-\ntre is not going to be as eccentric as\nsome suppose: not quite as uncomfor-\ntable as partner Dobree suggests.\nJust for the moment it is prone...\nnicely sat on: in the future it may get\nup, and may put in motion its old ma<\nchinery and \" let her go Mr Asher\nBut I set out to say what a fine seriouj\nwriter is Mr. Dobree when he is in*\ntroducing us to a great fellow like\nCongreve.\nLast January, reviewing Mr.\n\" Restoration Gomedy \" in \" The\nMask \", I wrote that, lacking a popular\nedition of the plays, the best of talks\nabout Congreve \"gang aft a-gley \", and\nI expressed a wish, felt doubtless by\nthousands of readers, that, with a cheap\nedition of the \"Way of the World\nand \" The Double Dealer\", an essay\nby Mr Dobree would be the last\nperfect touch.\nAnd now Mr Humphrey Milford\nhas issued just such a volume. Four\nComedies by Congreve, neatly bound\nin cloth, on remarkable paper, in a\ngood readable type, with Mr Dobree\nas introducer, at 2/net. He must have\nread your thousands of thoughts, deir\nreaders.\nThe volume forms one of the Ox-\nford Press series of World Classics\nie. volume 276; and except for Eve-\nryman's Library I know no better se-\nries. Bell's newer Bohn series is in the\nfirst rank, By Jove, London should\nbe proud of her publishers."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c055", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c055", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "43", "page_fin": "44", "image_debut": 55, "image_fin": 56, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.6.3", "titre_corps": "NOTHING by Edward Gordon Craig", "titre_sommaire": "NOTHING by Edward Gordon Craig", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 55, "page_imprimee": "43", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.55", "debut_caractere": 6061, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6431, "texte": "NOTHING, by Edward Gordon Craig.\nChatto & Windus. 116.\nTHERE is more about the Theatre in\nthis book than meets the eye; but\nwhat does strike one at once is that it\ncontains eighteen designs made for per-\nformers.\nThis is the edition for everyone, there\nbeing a more costly edition for collectors.\nBoth editions are beautifully printed,\narranged and bound. The publisher'"}, {"page_pdf": 56, "page_imprimee": "44", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.56", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 486, "texte": "are indeed to be complimented, and the\nCurwen Press has done as it ever does,\ntaken the utmost care.\nIn this popular edition there are\ntwenty-five bookplates, some in colour:\nin the De luxe edition there are fifty-\none and a signed proof of a design\nfrom the original wood block.\nHere are the bookplates of Ellen\nTerry, Isadora Duncan, John Drew,\nMrs Brown Potter and Cissy Loftus;\nof W. H. Nevinson, Jan C. de Vos\nand William Winter. For these alone\nthe book is of historical interest,"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c056", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c056", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "44", "page_fin": "44", "image_debut": 56, "image_fin": 56, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.6.4", "titre_corps": "TOM MOORE'S DIARY", "titre_sommaire": "TOM MOORE'S DIARY", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 56, "page_imprimee": "44", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.56", "debut_caractere": 488, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1946, "texte": "TOM MOORE'S DIARY; A se-\nlection edited, with Introduction, by\nJ. B. Priestly, Cambridge University\nPress. 1925. 6/-net.\nTOM Moore's Diary has come to\nus again, and in it live my Lord\nByron, and old Rogers, and aged\nWordsworth, and Lord Holland, and,\nbest of all, old Sherry.\nWhen I hear that question of Brown-\ning's.\n\" Ah, did you once see Shelley\nplain ? \"\nfor twopence I'd cry out, \" No, thank\nthe Gods, but I see Sherry coloured\nAnd I mean no harm, I mean no\ndiscourtesy to Shelley, who has opal\ncolours in him. I mean but to pay\nSheridan once more that courtesy we\ntoo often forget to render him.\nThe world day by day speaks of\nShaw, Tolstoi, Ibsen. I with the.\nworld would invite these three modern\ngiants to supper with three ordinary\nmy choice: with Sheridan,\nByron and Goethe. 1 would like\nthe world to pass an evening with\nthese six.\nBecause it would be a famous\nevening.\nWe should dine in Paris or\nVienna.\nI'd back my Sheridan against the\nlot: I believe he'd prove the biggest\nman of the six.\nAnd here he is with Tom Moore—\nand should you want more of him try\n\" Michael Kelly's Reminiscences \";\nand if these are not enough, one act\nof the *' Rivals \" should serve. One\nscene of one act, one passage from\none scene.\nTom Moore's Diary as it comes\nfrom the Cambridge University Press\nis a delightful volumette—too small,\nfor the fun of Moore is that he can\ngo on and on; but like all the books\nfrom this press what a delight to look\nat and to touch."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c057", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c057", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "44", "page_fin": "44", "image_debut": 56, "image_fin": 56, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.6.5", "titre_corps": "A HISTORY OF THE BIRMINGHAM REPERTORY THEATRE by Bache Matthews", "titre_sommaire": "A HISTORY OF THE BIRMINGHAM REPERTORY THEATRE by Bache Matthews", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 56, "page_imprimee": "44", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.56", "debut_caractere": 1948, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5781, "texte": "A HISTORY OF THE BIRMING-\nHAM REPERTORY THEATRE\nby Bache Matthews. Chatto & Win-\ndus. 1924. 7/6 net.\nI find nothing in this book which\nconveys to me any suggestion that\nthe Birmingham Repertory is of im-\nportance to the English Stage.\n'• The lesson of the Birmingham\nRepertory Theatre\" writes Mr. G.\nBernard Shaw, \" is ....that art is kept\n\" alive, not by the established trade\n\" in it, but by the desperate efforts\n•' of art-hungry individuals to create\n\" and recreate it out of nothing for\n\" its own sake \".\nWhich is not quite correct.\nFor the Birmingham Repertory\nTheatre really cannot be said to keep\nArt alive; it keeps it more or less\ndead. To keep it alive may need\n\" desperate efforts\"; there Mr. Shaw\nis more right than I should have\nthought possible. How does he know\nthat ? But what is a \" desperate ef-\nfort \"? I refer to the genuine article.\nIn England everyone is \" desperately\npoor\"1 have lost all my money,\nI am utterly ruined \", sobs Mrs.\nMcSmithereens when reduced to a mere\n£ 6000 a year. It is now the habit\nto use the word \" desperate \" in\nEngland,—that and \" deplorable\nThe Birmingham Repertory Theatre\nhas a fine spirited leader in Sir Barry\nV. Jackson, the founder and director\nof the Theatre, at whose \" request \"\nMr. Matthews put this record together.\nThe book is carefully done. The\nTheatre, 1 consider, ill done. The\nbuilding I do not like, either, its outside\nor its inside. 1 do not like the\ndeadly serious way the theatre takes\nitself. I do not like one of the de-\nsigns in the book and 1 do distinctly\nlike the theory of playing \" Cymbe-\nline \" in modern dress. The photo\nshowing a group of the performers in\nthis play is not the worst in the book.\nBut that this should have been done, the\ntheory put into practice, is a sorry fact.\nDoubtless the actors at this theatre\nare efficient. Mr. Coats M. A. says so\nin \" An impression \" included in the\nvolume To be efficient is not enough.\n\" One always has, at the Repertory\nTheatre a sense of witnessing a tho-\nroughly conscientious interpretation \" is\nWhat Mr. R Spears, another writer,\nfeels. He says so in \" Some Impres-\nsions \" also included in the volume.\n\" A conscientious interpretation \"\nare the words which have been used\nby the hundred and fifty famous wri-\nters in \"The Era\" when describing\nperformances by provincial companies\nvisiting third-rate towns. Is that all that\ncan be said for the Birmingham Reper-\ntory Company, which has energy, and its,\nown Theatre, and capital to back it ?\nCan it be that England is terribly\nhard up for talent that it is obliged to\npraise this Repertory Theatre in apo-\nlogetic tones.\nThe efforts of Sir Barry Jackson\nand Mr Shelving to produce sceneries\nwhich shall look rather professional,\nstrikes me as wrong somewhere. Why\nnot emplo/ a Hawes Craven or some\nother genuine Scenic man and have\ndone with it if you have capital. 1\ndo not like the other thing. And I\ndo not like Sir Barry Jackson sending\nhis architect to Germany \" to see some\nof the Reinhardt Theaters \" before he\nperfected his plans:—could anything\nmore incompetent and resourceless, unin-\nformed and unnecessary, be imagined,\nAnd Sir Barry Jackson had been\narticled to an architect and had stu-\ndied at a School of Art too.\nWhen a good carpenter makes a chair\nhe don't bother about what Germany or\nRussia are doing in the chair line. He\ngoes ahead and makes it, good, light,\nsound and beautiful. That's to say if he\nbe a Sheraton or Chippendale. And who\nwants anyone less than another sort\nof Chippendale or Sheraton making\nTheatres in England. Evidently Bir-\nmingham doesn't. And it seems that\nLondon doesn't. Apparently Eng-\nland doesn't want anything in the.\nTheatre that's not genuine pinchbeck.\nBirmingham Repertory Theatre : Lyric\nTheatre, Hammersmith : Old Vic. Sur-\nrey side : Everyman, Hampstead ' the\nlist tots up to thirty or forty"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c058", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c058", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "44", "page_fin": "45", "image_debut": 56, "image_fin": 57, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.6.6", "titre_corps": "LITTLE DRESSMAKERS IN LOVE by Yoi Maraini", "titre_sommaire": "LITTLE DRESSMAKERS IN LOVE by Yoi Maraini", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 56, "page_imprimee": "44", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.56", "debut_caractere": 5783, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6533, "texte": "LI t TLE DRESSMAKERS IN\nLOVE by Yoi Maraini. Methuen.\n6/- net.\nSIGNORA MARAINI has added to\nher earlier books, published under\nher signature of ' Yoi Pawlowska *, this\nvolume of charming stories about the little\ndressmakers and modiste of Florence.\nThese ten stories, in which she\nshows sympathetic knowledge of the\nlives of these young creatures, their\nlittle comedies and tragedies, have that\ngrace which always characterises this\nwriter's work.\nAfter reading her book you come\nto feel that a few of these little ladies,\nwho flit to and fro, morning, midday\nand evening, upon the Florentine stage,\nare rather more real than the rest;\n...that \"the thousand little prototypes\nof Venus\" as the author labels thau.\nis a good enough label for the thous."}, {"page_pdf": 57, "page_imprimee": "45", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.57", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 123, "texte": "and, but that three or four of them\nsingled out by Signora Maraini are\nafter all worth a good deal better\nlabel—one apiece."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c059", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c059", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "45", "page_fin": "45", "image_debut": 57, "image_fin": 57, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.27.6.7", "titre_corps": "A GALLERY OF CHILDREN by A. A. Milne", "titre_sommaire": "A GALLERY OF CHILDREN by A. A. Milne", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 57, "page_imprimee": "45", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.57", "debut_caractere": 125, "fin_caractere_exclue": 494, "texte": "A GALLERY OF CHILDREN BY\nA. A. Milne: Illustrations by H.\nWillebeek Le Mair. Stanley Paul\n& Co. 12/6.\nANYBODY wishing to produce a\nmore charming book than this for\nthe nursery will have to put his best\nfoot forward.\nThis \" Gallery ,f contains just the\nkind of thing that small children like ;\nthe sort of illustrations that please them,\nthe quality of drama they enjoy."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c060", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c060", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "45", "page_fin": "46", "image_debut": 57, "image_fin": 58, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.28", "titre_corps": "MAGAZINES", "titre_sommaire": "MAGAZINES", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 57, "page_imprimee": "45", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.57", "debut_caractere": 496, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6620, "texte": "MAGAZINES.\n\nNOTES ON A GROUP OF\no JOURNALS. o\n\"Architecture 99 (0 \" Hohewarte 99\n\" The Calendar 9 9 W \" The London\nMercury 99 (3) \" The American Mer-\ncury 99 (4) 44 77ie Dra? (5) \" Co-\nlour 99 (6) \" Criterion 99 (7).\nIS Architecture the first to have intro-\nduced into England the discovery\nthat half tone plates can be printed on\nthe same roughish paper as is used for\nthe text, and that the \" art \" paper\nwith its polished surface can therefore\nbe banished ?\nAnyhow this was a very good thing\nto discover.\nWhat the name of the process is I\ndo not know. I suppose it is a kind\nof off set process. The first time I\never saw half tone blocks used with\nthe type upon non-polished paper was\nin 1905 when J. A. Lux issued\nHohewarte, a fortnightly magazine, in\nVienna. It was printed by Christoph\nReisser Sohne, and famously too, a\nrougher paper being used than Archi-\ntecture uses today.\nEver since I have waited, expecting\nthe same idea would be adopted all\nover Europe. It is astonishing how\nslow Europe is to adopt an idea pro-\nperly; that is to say, without loss of\ntime, loss of style and loss of money,\nAnd yet how much time, style and\nmoney would be saved if only Europe\nwould make it more possible to hurry\nup with these new ideas. And they\nare never so good, never so perfectly\nexecuted, as the day they are invented,\nArchitecture reproductions are excel-\nlent; its text I find a little less enter-\ntaining than it might be.\nIn an interesting article on \"The\nArchitect's Bookshelf \" by Mr. M. S.\nBriggs is the curious statement that\nmanuals of building construction are\nusually dull and that books on archi-\ntecture are best when not illustrated.\nBut if my Serlio, my Vignola, Vitruvio,\nand Pozzo lacked their many hundred\ncopper plates and woodcuts I should\nregret it. For all I know \" The Ar-\nchitecture of Humanism \" cited by Mr.\nBriggs may be held to be the best histo-\nrical essay of the day; but how a few\ndesigns could have hurt it is not clear\nto me. Is it so slight a work that the\nleast image would distract and lead us\nastray ?\nThe Calendar has no illustrations;\nbut then it is a lively thing; entertain-\ning too (what daring nowadays!) and\nis to my mind quite the best literary\nmagazine issued in England or Ame-\nrica. Is it a success? I ask, for\ngood things sometimes do not pay.\nAnd yet they should, for when was\nthere such a number of magazines is-\nsued in England, all of which are\ntrying to publish the best.\nIs there room for so many ?\nThe London Mercury seems to be\nhaving a long innings and would be\nmore readable were its line less long:\nand five inches and one eighth of an\ninch is too long a line unless the type\nused is a much larger one than the largest\nused in \" The London Mercury \".\nFor this reason I much prefer the\ndouble column of The American Mer-\ncury9 apparently an only too successful\naffair.\nBut neither of these Mercuries is as\nentertaining as \" The Calendar\" (whose\nline, by the way, is good, measuring\nfour inches). They are too thick—\ntoo full; perhaps too literary; not\nnimble enough for Mercury. I am\nnot conscious of quite enough happi-\nness in the writers; and more sense\nof happiness surely could not harm\nanyone's prose.\nHumor, too, is rather too often ab-\nsent from these Mercuries. It is some-\ntimes even shut out with a bang from\nthe Editorial Offices whenever a wood-\ncut or a drawing is allowed to slip in\nup the private stairs,\nThe Editors of The Dial show a\nvery nice sense of what illustrations\nare useful to any literary magazine,\nThere is always something in \" The\nDial \" which lights up the room ; *.*.a\nlittle colour-plate by Bonnard or by\nMarie Laurencin or Picasso; some**\ntimes woodcuts by Mr, Lanks or some\nother not too dull engraver ; pen and\nink sketches by Cocteau ; carvings by\nNadelman ; light things that are not\nstupid. One imagines that the \" London\nMercury \" knows of but two kinds of\nillustration ; the incompetent or the dull,\nfor I cannot recall seeing there a page\ndesign which was really worth while,\nOf course Mr. Powys Evans makes\nsome speaking likenesses of celebnties\nnow and again ; but nothing com pa -\nrable with such drawings as William\nRothenstein used to give us, a fine\nartist who one would have thought\nwas the very man to lighten up the\npages of this excellent magazine no\nmatter what it might cost, or how long\nit might take to persuade the artist,\n\" Colour \" on the other hand might\nsurely add a more worth while text\nto its magnificent collection of paintings\nand drawings. Sometimes I feel that\nin London are none but a pack of\nfools—for all their cleverness. Here\nare \" Mercury\", \"Calendar , \" Cri-\nterion \", all of them going it for all\nthey are worih outside the public\nhouse ; each of them with a harp,\nand over on the other side of the\nwater sits \" Colour ' tootling splen-\ndidly on a sackbut.\nAnd what makes me take the Lon-\ndoners for fools (and it s a delusion\nof course) is the obvious fact that the\nfour should join forces and can t:\nshould make music in concert and\nreally entertain the beer-drinkers inside\nall the public houses, visiting each in\nturn; no row about \" queering the\npitch \" ; but overhauling their instru-\nments and programme, throwing a good\nhalf of their music into the Thames ;\nrehearsing carefully, and then making a\nreal effort to entertain,\nThere'd be some sense in this ; just\nthat touch of comrnonsense which a\ntoo close attention to the point of the\npen is bound to prevent,\nWhat would not ordinary magazines\ngive to have this capacity for hard\nthinking and good writing which the\nwriters and editors of these three jour-\nnals possess ! Having these finer senses\nand greater powers why refuse to\nacquire that ordinary comrnonsense\nwhich would be such a very easy\nthing for them to get ?\n\n(1) Architecture. Monthly. The Buil-\nder Ltd, Catherine St. Aldwvch, London.\n(2) The Calendar. Monthly I I Fea-\nther stone Buildings, High Holburn, Lon-\ndon.\n(3) The London Mercury, Monthly,\n229, Strand, London.\n(4) 772<? American Mercury, Monthly,\nFifth Avenue, New York,\n(5) The Dial. Monthly, 75,2, West 13th\nSt New York.\n(6) 44 Colour Monthly, America.\n(7) The Criterion. Monthly, Adelphi,\nLondon."}, {"page_pdf": 58, "page_imprimee": "46", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.58", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6273, "texte": "Or why do no* the ordinary jour-\nnals with common sense come forward\nand offer to join with these more\nbrainy affairs.\nThen a very large audience would\nbe enchanted as well as devilish inte-\nrested.\n\nTHE SACKBUT. Curwen Press,\nLondon. Monthly.\nFROM \" The Sackbut I cull the\nfollowing :—\" When a Galli-Curci,\n\" who has been through hell and star-\n\" vation without hope of recognition,\n\" manages to get through and create\n\" a furore, there is not one amongst\n\" us who need be jealous of her success.\n\" 'She is mean * they say. Did she\n\" find generosity when she needed it\n\" most? ' She will not help a struggling\n\" artist *. Did anybody wish to help\n\" her? ' She won't admit she had\n\" tuition *. Perhaps her .teachers crip-\n\" pled her at the beginning and made\n\" impossible terms*. No, I for one\n\" am glad when some star flits across\n\" the firmament, for I know that how-\n\" ever bad the tales may be about\n\" them, they are never bad enough to\n\" satisfy my longing for revenge at the\n\" slights some of my great friends have\n\" suffered and been broken under \".\nUrsula Greville.\nThis is quite the correct spirit, and\nyet I am not sure. When the struggle\nthe artist makes grows less as success\ncomes, can there be any bad feeling\nleft either for the struggle or the op-\nposers? ...surely not.\nThe struggle is easier to cope with\nthan is the too big success.\nA great performer must bp especially\ncareful. I would suggest that Henry\nIrving is the best example to follow.\nHe goes slowly: no wild success such\nas is offered by a big city to many\nwomen performers: for he keeps the\nthing in check, as should every wise\nperformer. Success to be the genuine\nthing must glow steadily, the light in-\ncreasing in strength: a sudden flare up\nis a pity all round. I am inclined to\nthink that men like Liszt, Paganini,\nChaliapine and Irving ride and control\ntheir immense success better than do\nwomen like Rachel, Sophie Arnould,\nBernhardt and Duse, But how be\ncritical of anyone for a success achieved\nthrough the display of great talents?\nHere is a woman who sets four\ncapitals alight talking of her wonderful\nappearance and becomes practically\nqueen of a fifth for two or three\nyears: makes helf a million and spends\na million.— Is there anything to be cri-\ntical about in that? If she enjoyed\nherself all the better. If she has\nsquandered it's only what Sheridan\ndid before her. Stop them, you say:\n—help them. A very first class sug-\ngestion of yours: tell me how to do it.\nBnt I am not quite in accord with\nMiss Ursula Greville where she speaks\nof 44 slights M which her 44 great friends\nhave suffered and been broken under\nI have never yet known a really great\npersonality who suffered to the extent\nsuggested from such contemptable\nthings as, 44 slights and as for break-\ning under them, it is obvious every\nyear that genius breaks over things\nand does not go under.\n\nTHE REVIEW OF ENGLISH\nSTUDIES. Messrs. Sidgwich dr\nJackson, Quarterly. Vol.-/, Nos. 1-4.\nA Quarterly journal of English Lite-\nrature and the English Language ;\nvaluable essays useful to students of En-\nglish Literature. It proposes to raise the\nsubscription from 3 jto 5/- a copy.\n\nPUNCH. 10 BouStreet, Lon-\ndon, Weekly.\nSUDDEN THOUGHT! Does\n\" Punch \" ever get reviewed now-\nadays ? 1 seldom see anything in the\nPapers about \" Punch \" which is worth\nwhile.\nBut never have I seen a better number\nthan the Almanack for 1926 which I\nbought here for 10 lite on November\n10th of 1925.\nThe comicality of the thing started\nright away. 10 lire being about 2/—\nand November 10th almost two months\nahead of the date it is due, the which\nI take was to be January Ist 1926.\nAnd this wrings from me a roar of\nlaughter.... for the slap-stick of the age\nhas me. When, in 1826, we came\ndown to breakfast on January Ist and,\nlooking for a festive time, we found our\nMr Punch or Giovanni Punch, (for the\nfamily came from Italy), awaiting us,\nnot half an hour late but to the tick\nof 8 o'clock, the day was made mer-\nrier by his presence. Nowadays we\nget it over by then. We've all seen\nit, read it and forgotten it between\nNovember 2nd and November 12th,\ntwo months ahead of time. Screams\nof laughter : world upside down.\nThoughts are still apt.... drugs as fit as\na fiddle,... but time—time—the clock\nhands are making passes—we are mes-\nmerized.\nBut what matter when such a num-\nber of 44 Punch '* comes out—with Ber-\nnard Partridge and Raven Hill at their\nbest; Fougasse, George Morrow, and\nLewis Baumer better than ever; Ar-\nthur Watts and Armour immense, and\nFrank Reynolds seemingly unable to\nstop. Lots of other artists help to\nmake the number top-hole, and the\nletter press hasn't a dull line in it.\nBut conceive my amazement, on tur-\nning the first page, to find one of the\nmost beautiful of Fred Pegram's fine\nline drawings given away as an extra\nand on the 9th page as neat a thing as\nFellows ever did also given in extra.\nBoth of these page drawings serve to\nadvertise things (1) The Orient Line\nCruises (2), Renault's Motor Cars.\nI shall add both drawings to my col-\nlection, and a car and a cruise later.\nPegram is of course genuine 1900;\nFellows right up to date, 1926. Both\nmen's work will be carefully preserved\nby tomorrow's historian. A whole vo-\nlume oil the manners of 1900 England\nwould say less to us than Mr. Pegram\ndoes in ten or fifteen drawings of his.\nHis ladies are as perfect as was 1900.\nThey took snapshots all day as only\nPegram can tell us; they passed tea\nas Pegram shows us, and, so far as I\nknow, no one else shows us.\nAs for Mr Fellows, 1 can look very\nlong at the ladies and gentlemen he\ntells me lived in 1926. I write as\nthough I was living in 2026 :—some\none will be I hope, and 1 here and\nnow recommend him, when producing\na play of this first quarter of the 20th\ncentury, to turn to his Fellows.\nThus and only thus they stood in\nthe doorways of the big hotels ; thus\nthey glided and came out. That was\njust the face the chauffeur put on. In\nfront of all things, blocking the way,\nthe view, and the ridiculous old notion\nof life stood the motor car,... its bulky\nwheels with Kelly Cords, its immense\nlamps. Out come Mr and Mrs Larry,\nTommy or Dicky something, and Ridley\ndrives 'em home. Obviously all are\nthinking about weighty matters.,., what?\nFellows knows, and what Ts his reply\nNothing."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c061", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c061", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "45", "page_fin": "46", "image_debut": 57, "image_fin": 58, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.28.1", "titre_corps": "NOTES ON A GROUP OF JOURNALS", "titre_sommaire": "NOTES ON A GROUP OF JOURNALS", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 57, "page_imprimee": "45", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.57", "debut_caractere": 508, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6620, "texte": "NOTES ON A GROUP OF\no JOURNALS. o\n\"Architecture 99 (0 \" Hohewarte 99\n\" The Calendar 9 9 W \" The London\nMercury 99 (3) \" The American Mer-\ncury 99 (4) 44 77ie Dra? (5) \" Co-\nlour 99 (6) \" Criterion 99 (7).\nIS Architecture the first to have intro-\nduced into England the discovery\nthat half tone plates can be printed on\nthe same roughish paper as is used for\nthe text, and that the \" art \" paper\nwith its polished surface can therefore\nbe banished ?\nAnyhow this was a very good thing\nto discover.\nWhat the name of the process is I\ndo not know. I suppose it is a kind\nof off set process. The first time I\never saw half tone blocks used with\nthe type upon non-polished paper was\nin 1905 when J. A. Lux issued\nHohewarte, a fortnightly magazine, in\nVienna. It was printed by Christoph\nReisser Sohne, and famously too, a\nrougher paper being used than Archi-\ntecture uses today.\nEver since I have waited, expecting\nthe same idea would be adopted all\nover Europe. It is astonishing how\nslow Europe is to adopt an idea pro-\nperly; that is to say, without loss of\ntime, loss of style and loss of money,\nAnd yet how much time, style and\nmoney would be saved if only Europe\nwould make it more possible to hurry\nup with these new ideas. And they\nare never so good, never so perfectly\nexecuted, as the day they are invented,\nArchitecture reproductions are excel-\nlent; its text I find a little less enter-\ntaining than it might be.\nIn an interesting article on \"The\nArchitect's Bookshelf \" by Mr. M. S.\nBriggs is the curious statement that\nmanuals of building construction are\nusually dull and that books on archi-\ntecture are best when not illustrated.\nBut if my Serlio, my Vignola, Vitruvio,\nand Pozzo lacked their many hundred\ncopper plates and woodcuts I should\nregret it. For all I know \" The Ar-\nchitecture of Humanism \" cited by Mr.\nBriggs may be held to be the best histo-\nrical essay of the day; but how a few\ndesigns could have hurt it is not clear\nto me. Is it so slight a work that the\nleast image would distract and lead us\nastray ?\nThe Calendar has no illustrations;\nbut then it is a lively thing; entertain-\ning too (what daring nowadays!) and\nis to my mind quite the best literary\nmagazine issued in England or Ame-\nrica. Is it a success? I ask, for\ngood things sometimes do not pay.\nAnd yet they should, for when was\nthere such a number of magazines is-\nsued in England, all of which are\ntrying to publish the best.\nIs there room for so many ?\nThe London Mercury seems to be\nhaving a long innings and would be\nmore readable were its line less long:\nand five inches and one eighth of an\ninch is too long a line unless the type\nused is a much larger one than the largest\nused in \" The London Mercury \".\nFor this reason I much prefer the\ndouble column of The American Mer-\ncury9 apparently an only too successful\naffair.\nBut neither of these Mercuries is as\nentertaining as \" The Calendar\" (whose\nline, by the way, is good, measuring\nfour inches). They are too thick—\ntoo full; perhaps too literary; not\nnimble enough for Mercury. I am\nnot conscious of quite enough happi-\nness in the writers; and more sense\nof happiness surely could not harm\nanyone's prose.\nHumor, too, is rather too often ab-\nsent from these Mercuries. It is some-\ntimes even shut out with a bang from\nthe Editorial Offices whenever a wood-\ncut or a drawing is allowed to slip in\nup the private stairs,\nThe Editors of The Dial show a\nvery nice sense of what illustrations\nare useful to any literary magazine,\nThere is always something in \" The\nDial \" which lights up the room ; *.*.a\nlittle colour-plate by Bonnard or by\nMarie Laurencin or Picasso; some**\ntimes woodcuts by Mr, Lanks or some\nother not too dull engraver ; pen and\nink sketches by Cocteau ; carvings by\nNadelman ; light things that are not\nstupid. One imagines that the \" London\nMercury \" knows of but two kinds of\nillustration ; the incompetent or the dull,\nfor I cannot recall seeing there a page\ndesign which was really worth while,\nOf course Mr. Powys Evans makes\nsome speaking likenesses of celebnties\nnow and again ; but nothing com pa -\nrable with such drawings as William\nRothenstein used to give us, a fine\nartist who one would have thought\nwas the very man to lighten up the\npages of this excellent magazine no\nmatter what it might cost, or how long\nit might take to persuade the artist,\n\" Colour \" on the other hand might\nsurely add a more worth while text\nto its magnificent collection of paintings\nand drawings. Sometimes I feel that\nin London are none but a pack of\nfools—for all their cleverness. Here\nare \" Mercury\", \"Calendar , \" Cri-\nterion \", all of them going it for all\nthey are worih outside the public\nhouse ; each of them with a harp,\nand over on the other side of the\nwater sits \" Colour ' tootling splen-\ndidly on a sackbut.\nAnd what makes me take the Lon-\ndoners for fools (and it s a delusion\nof course) is the obvious fact that the\nfour should join forces and can t:\nshould make music in concert and\nreally entertain the beer-drinkers inside\nall the public houses, visiting each in\nturn; no row about \" queering the\npitch \" ; but overhauling their instru-\nments and programme, throwing a good\nhalf of their music into the Thames ;\nrehearsing carefully, and then making a\nreal effort to entertain,\nThere'd be some sense in this ; just\nthat touch of comrnonsense which a\ntoo close attention to the point of the\npen is bound to prevent,\nWhat would not ordinary magazines\ngive to have this capacity for hard\nthinking and good writing which the\nwriters and editors of these three jour-\nnals possess ! Having these finer senses\nand greater powers why refuse to\nacquire that ordinary comrnonsense\nwhich would be such a very easy\nthing for them to get ?\n\n(1) Architecture. Monthly. The Buil-\nder Ltd, Catherine St. Aldwvch, London.\n(2) The Calendar. Monthly I I Fea-\nther stone Buildings, High Holburn, Lon-\ndon.\n(3) The London Mercury, Monthly,\n229, Strand, London.\n(4) 772<? American Mercury, Monthly,\nFifth Avenue, New York,\n(5) The Dial. Monthly, 75,2, West 13th\nSt New York.\n(6) 44 Colour Monthly, America.\n(7) The Criterion. Monthly, Adelphi,\nLondon."}, {"page_pdf": 58, "page_imprimee": "46", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.58", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 198, "texte": "Or why do no* the ordinary jour-\nnals with common sense come forward\nand offer to join with these more\nbrainy affairs.\nThen a very large audience would\nbe enchanted as well as devilish inte-\nrested."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c062", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c062", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "46", "page_fin": "46", "image_debut": 58, "image_fin": 58, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.28.2", "titre_corps": "THE SACKBUT", "titre_sommaire": "THE SACKBUT", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 58, "page_imprimee": "46", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.58", "debut_caractere": 200, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2855, "texte": "THE SACKBUT. Curwen Press,\nLondon. Monthly.\nFROM \" The Sackbut I cull the\nfollowing :—\" When a Galli-Curci,\n\" who has been through hell and star-\n\" vation without hope of recognition,\n\" manages to get through and create\n\" a furore, there is not one amongst\n\" us who need be jealous of her success.\n\" 'She is mean * they say. Did she\n\" find generosity when she needed it\n\" most? ' She will not help a struggling\n\" artist *. Did anybody wish to help\n\" her? ' She won't admit she had\n\" tuition *. Perhaps her .teachers crip-\n\" pled her at the beginning and made\n\" impossible terms*. No, I for one\n\" am glad when some star flits across\n\" the firmament, for I know that how-\n\" ever bad the tales may be about\n\" them, they are never bad enough to\n\" satisfy my longing for revenge at the\n\" slights some of my great friends have\n\" suffered and been broken under \".\nUrsula Greville.\nThis is quite the correct spirit, and\nyet I am not sure. When the struggle\nthe artist makes grows less as success\ncomes, can there be any bad feeling\nleft either for the struggle or the op-\nposers? ...surely not.\nThe struggle is easier to cope with\nthan is the too big success.\nA great performer must bp especially\ncareful. I would suggest that Henry\nIrving is the best example to follow.\nHe goes slowly: no wild success such\nas is offered by a big city to many\nwomen performers: for he keeps the\nthing in check, as should every wise\nperformer. Success to be the genuine\nthing must glow steadily, the light in-\ncreasing in strength: a sudden flare up\nis a pity all round. I am inclined to\nthink that men like Liszt, Paganini,\nChaliapine and Irving ride and control\ntheir immense success better than do\nwomen like Rachel, Sophie Arnould,\nBernhardt and Duse, But how be\ncritical of anyone for a success achieved\nthrough the display of great talents?\nHere is a woman who sets four\ncapitals alight talking of her wonderful\nappearance and becomes practically\nqueen of a fifth for two or three\nyears: makes helf a million and spends\na million.— Is there anything to be cri-\ntical about in that? If she enjoyed\nherself all the better. If she has\nsquandered it's only what Sheridan\ndid before her. Stop them, you say:\n—help them. A very first class sug-\ngestion of yours: tell me how to do it.\nBnt I am not quite in accord with\nMiss Ursula Greville where she speaks\nof 44 slights M which her 44 great friends\nhave suffered and been broken under\nI have never yet known a really great\npersonality who suffered to the extent\nsuggested from such contemptable\nthings as, 44 slights and as for break-\ning under them, it is obvious every\nyear that genius breaks over things\nand does not go under."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c063", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c063", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "46", "page_fin": "46", "image_debut": 58, "image_fin": 58, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.28.3", "titre_corps": "THE REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES", "titre_sommaire": "THE REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 58, "page_imprimee": "46", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.58", "debut_caractere": 2857, "fin_caractere_exclue": 3137, "texte": "THE REVIEW OF ENGLISH\nSTUDIES. Messrs. Sidgwich dr\nJackson, Quarterly. Vol.-/, Nos. 1-4.\nA Quarterly journal of English Lite-\nrature and the English Language ;\nvaluable essays useful to students of En-\nglish Literature. It proposes to raise the\nsubscription from 3 jto 5/- a copy."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c064", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c064", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "46", "page_fin": "46", "image_debut": 58, "image_fin": 58, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.28.4", "titre_corps": "PUNCH", "titre_sommaire": "PUNCH", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 58, "page_imprimee": "46", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.58", "debut_caractere": 3139, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6273, "texte": "PUNCH. 10 BouStreet, Lon-\ndon, Weekly.\nSUDDEN THOUGHT! Does\n\" Punch \" ever get reviewed now-\nadays ? 1 seldom see anything in the\nPapers about \" Punch \" which is worth\nwhile.\nBut never have I seen a better number\nthan the Almanack for 1926 which I\nbought here for 10 lite on November\n10th of 1925.\nThe comicality of the thing started\nright away. 10 lire being about 2/—\nand November 10th almost two months\nahead of the date it is due, the which\nI take was to be January Ist 1926.\nAnd this wrings from me a roar of\nlaughter.... for the slap-stick of the age\nhas me. When, in 1826, we came\ndown to breakfast on January Ist and,\nlooking for a festive time, we found our\nMr Punch or Giovanni Punch, (for the\nfamily came from Italy), awaiting us,\nnot half an hour late but to the tick\nof 8 o'clock, the day was made mer-\nrier by his presence. Nowadays we\nget it over by then. We've all seen\nit, read it and forgotten it between\nNovember 2nd and November 12th,\ntwo months ahead of time. Screams\nof laughter : world upside down.\nThoughts are still apt.... drugs as fit as\na fiddle,... but time—time—the clock\nhands are making passes—we are mes-\nmerized.\nBut what matter when such a num-\nber of 44 Punch '* comes out—with Ber-\nnard Partridge and Raven Hill at their\nbest; Fougasse, George Morrow, and\nLewis Baumer better than ever; Ar-\nthur Watts and Armour immense, and\nFrank Reynolds seemingly unable to\nstop. Lots of other artists help to\nmake the number top-hole, and the\nletter press hasn't a dull line in it.\nBut conceive my amazement, on tur-\nning the first page, to find one of the\nmost beautiful of Fred Pegram's fine\nline drawings given away as an extra\nand on the 9th page as neat a thing as\nFellows ever did also given in extra.\nBoth of these page drawings serve to\nadvertise things (1) The Orient Line\nCruises (2), Renault's Motor Cars.\nI shall add both drawings to my col-\nlection, and a car and a cruise later.\nPegram is of course genuine 1900;\nFellows right up to date, 1926. Both\nmen's work will be carefully preserved\nby tomorrow's historian. A whole vo-\nlume oil the manners of 1900 England\nwould say less to us than Mr. Pegram\ndoes in ten or fifteen drawings of his.\nHis ladies are as perfect as was 1900.\nThey took snapshots all day as only\nPegram can tell us; they passed tea\nas Pegram shows us, and, so far as I\nknow, no one else shows us.\nAs for Mr Fellows, 1 can look very\nlong at the ladies and gentlemen he\ntells me lived in 1926. I write as\nthough I was living in 2026 :—some\none will be I hope, and 1 here and\nnow recommend him, when producing\na play of this first quarter of the 20th\ncentury, to turn to his Fellows.\nThus and only thus they stood in\nthe doorways of the big hotels ; thus\nthey glided and came out. That was\njust the face the chauffeur put on. In\nfront of all things, blocking the way,\nthe view, and the ridiculous old notion\nof life stood the motor car,... its bulky\nwheels with Kelly Cords, its immense\nlamps. Out come Mr and Mrs Larry,\nTommy or Dicky something, and Ridley\ndrives 'em home. Obviously all are\nthinking about weighty matters.,., what?\nFellows knows, and what Ts his reply\nNothing."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c066", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c066", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "47", "page_fin": "48", "image_debut": 59, "image_fin": 60, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29", "titre_corps": "EDITORIAL NOTES", "titre_sommaire": "EDITORIAL NOTES", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 59, "page_imprimee": "47", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.59", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6402, "texte": "EDITORIAL NOTES.\n\nA PRINCEL Y GIFT, o\nMR Charles Rutherston of Bradford\nis possessed of two things which\nseldom go hand in hand—wealth and\ntaste: and by applying his wealth to\nthe purchase of works of art he has\nin the last thirty years or so formed a\nvery remarkable collection.\nTo his wealth and taste he has\nadded a third thing—generosity.\nHe has given his collection to the\nNation ; placing in the hands of the\nManchester Corporation \" an impor-\ntant collection of oil paintings and draw-\nings, etchings, wood engravings and\nlithographs by modern artists\nThis is the act of a prince.\nIn the old days Princes gave away\nsuch things for a song : conditions were\nnot imposed.\nTimes having changed and Mr Ru-\ntherston, being more thoughtful than\nany prince was ever able to be, thinks\nout a plan by which thousands of\npeople may (he hopes) be brought to\nlove art for itself alone, re, without\npaying for it. He perfects his plan\nand then submits it with a kind smile\nto the Corporation. The Corporation\nis asked to agree that \" the capacity\nto enjoy and create true works of art\ncan be awakened in many within\nwhom it now lies dormant \" and that\naesthetic emotion is essential to in-\ndividual and communal well being \" ;\nand so the Corporation is to lend the\nworks of art, one or twenty, sixty or\ni hundred, to all and sundry other\nnaileries.\nMr Rutherston is not an idealist in\nhe stupid sense of the word ;—he is\ni serious, kindly and highly intelligent\nnan. But he has not painted pictures,\nmgraved plates or made sketches for\n;he papers to earn a living. Many\nan artist has had to do all this. And\nyou must ask such an artist what he\nthinks of Mr. Rutherston's plan to get\na reply worth your attention.\nWe believe the reply will be against\nany such notion as this Lending system.\nFor the artist is a commonsense\nman. As he enjoys what he has to\npay for he naturally supposed that the\nrest of the world (omitting dead-heads)\nwill also find more enjoyment in pos-\nsessing something for which they were\nwilling to pay, than for the cheapest of\nglimpses through a glass window of\nsomething delicious which they may\nnot possess.\nThe artist will ask Mr. Rutherston\nwhy he bought things he loved so\nmuch and why he was hot content\nmerely to look at them when loaned.\nIf Mr. Rutherston did not like bor-\nrowing why does he suppose the En-\nglish man with less means will like\nborrowing any better than did Mr.\nRutherston.\nThe artist will also point out to Mr.\nRutherston that the Lending Library\nsystem, a horrible invention of this age,\nhas not at all improved the English\ntaste for fine books. At best it has\npossibly encouraged swifter reading.\nBooks no longer have all the qualities\nthey once possessed, and this is in great\nmeasure due to the lending library.\nAgain, suppose oneself Mr. Gill the\nwood engraver : and suppose one does\nas Mr. Gill does, prints off hundreds\nof one's woodcuts at 5/— or 2/— a\npiece so that the poorer kind of public\ncan buy them.\nAt the success of Mr. Rutherston's\nscheme these cuts become worthless;\nfor Mr. Rutherston can send round\nour 5/— woodcut, loaning out what\nwe have sold him to keep for himself\nand for the visitors to his house. If\nthe artist had thought he would under-\ncut him in this way he'd have put up\nhis price.\nNo, it seems to us a bad proposal\nthis lending of 5/- prints.\nTo lend a drawing which may cost\n£lO to £2O or more and of which\nthere is but one copy is perhaps another\nproposition. We don't like it, but at\nany rate it doesn't do much harm to\nthe artist; whereas the loan of 5/—\nprints does great harm. It will in time\nurge the artist to issue 3000 copies of\na print at 6d a piece; he will then\nhave to turn printer to do it; and em-\nploy a staff of men to execute his\nweekly orders. And by the time he\nhas \" worked up his business \" he will\nhave forgotten how to draw, how to\nengrave, and will hate the whole of\nhis work.\nThe gift Mr Rutherston makes is a\nprincely one: the several conditions\nhe tacks on to the gift seem to us to\nbe wise and good; all but one, which\nis this lending idea.\nWe hope Mr Rutherston will cut it\nout of his plan. It is not an idealistic\nitem, it is a rather a sad one.\nWe agree with Mr Rutherston that\nthe capacity to enjoy and create can\nhe awakened: not by making things\nsoft, by making things hard.\nAnd we believe that Mr Rutherston\nknows this. He is not blind to Wil-\nliam Blake's work nor deaf to his\nwords.\nYou cannot but recall that phrase\nof his so much quoted in \" The\nMask \" \" Dam braces: bless relaxes *\nespecially in an age such as this.\nDid not Blake learn that bit of know-\nledge from the very fount of wisdom,\nfrom experience: was it soft or hard,\nthat experience ?\nIt was hard—too hard—almost be-\nyond his bearing. Its fault was it bra-\nced him up beyond his powers.\nSuch cruelty we do not prize al-\nthough it is a cruelty practised over-\nmuch by those in authority in lands\nwhere the labours of the artist are\nnot rewarded, and where Institutions\ndull as ditch-water are prized above\nIndividuals.\nBut we do value some strain being\nput on us. We like to know that if\nwe can make the effort we too may\npossess a pretty drawing by Albert\nRutherston ; and we're damned if we\nwant Mr. Jones fo \" show us his Ru-\ntherstons \" ; that is a little too depres-\nsing. We too want to be able to feel\nproud to possess, even if (like Lucifer\nand the rest of mankind) we have\nto suffer a little fall later on.\n\nA TT A BOY!\nIN that enchanting, though up-to-date,\npublication, \"The Literary Digest\",\nwhich is the most unpretentious affair\nwe know, and which delights us be-\ncause its knowledge of Literature is not\noverwhelming, and because it enter-\ntains us with a variety of things besides\nthose which are either Literary or Di-\ngestable, ....in this good old friend of\na Magazine, we came across a sad\nlittle paragraph about three young and\nbadly brought up Americans, re., Mr.\nF. W. Jones, Mr. D. M. Oenslager\nand Mr. J. Mielziner.\nWe say badly brought up because\nthe paragraph tells us that the way Mr.\nOenslager is taught to study the Theatre\nis to \" ransack Europe on a Harvard\nTravelling Scholarship \".\nRansack! We tremble for Yale's fu-\nture. Why send out youngsters to\n\" ransack Europeand in the holy\nname of Harvard too?\nThese boys are very proper young\nfellows and, to judge from their\nportraits, look as though a good six\n✓years more training would be just the\nthing—but not the hectic training they ve"}, {"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6108, "texte": "received up to now. They need a\ngood solid man like Barrett Clark look-\ning after them. They are good enough\nstuff, but need curbing, not exciting.\nHere, there and everywhere these\nfine fellows have heard the cry' Att-\naboy'! \"See here! you, lads; go to\nEurope and ransack it. Afterwards do\nas other Americans do, say there was\nnothing in it- and the boys have\ngone atta, and the result is something\nlittle short of mild.\nNot their fault one scrap,—abso-\nlutely the fault of this wretched Ame-\nrican system, entirely the fault of\nbeing allowed to believe in soap bub-\nbles: and Professor Baker and the\nother professors ought really to think it\nover and not cry Atta and let slip\nthese boys of war, without giving them\nsome of Lord Chesterfield's advice about\nhow not to learn things.\n\no MORRIS G A IN. o\nLADY Diana Cooper is now in the\nUnited States again fulfilling an\nengagement with Mr. Morris Gest to\nappear as the Madonna in ' he Mi-\nracle \",\nMiss Iris Tree went with her and\nis performing the part of \" The Nun\nin the same production. According to\nLady Diana, Miss Tree had never been\non the stage before and she has had\nonly a very little time to rehearse her\npart. Taking it all in all it seems rather\nhard luck to be one of the hustled.\nAltogether we do not like Mr. Morris\nGest's notion of turning the Theatre\ninto a play-ground where anyone at a\nfew weeks notice can be thrust on to\ndo the best with a star part. Still,\nwe can quite understand the argument\nof thousands of collars.\nSo we congratulate Miss Free on\nher engagement and hope she will find\nin America plenty of inspiration, come\nback rich, give up theatricals, and give\nher friends another book of verse.\nFor, Miss Tree, you are surely not\ngoing to say that the art of poesy is\ntoo difficult, having made such a suc-\ncessful start. And the stage is, we\nalways feel, for another Miss i ree.\nThere can be two, of course, but we\nnever heard of more than one of a name\nthat was really radiant.\n\nON A SAN GA\nTHE following is a second Note\nfrom Senatore Corrado Ricci, for\nlong the Head of the Italian Ministry\nof Fine Arts.\n\" The design by Sangallo Giovane\npublished in \"The Mask\" of October\n1925, Plate 11, was made, in my opi-\nnion, as an illustration of the Chapter\nof Vitruvius in which he speaks of the\nTheatre and theatre scene. The trian-\ngular machines are the periacte, and\nthe ospitij the places of the ospiti\n(guests) which one entered from the\nlateral doors, etc. etc. But perhaps\nthis has been said by others!\nCorrado Ricci.\nRoma, December 1925.\n\nTHAT SHAKESPEARE\no THEATRE. o\nDO you remember, not Sweet Alice\nfor she is unforgettable, but that\nannouncement made by Mr. Arnold\nBennett in a London newspaper in\nOctober of 1923, about \" A Shades-\npeare Theatre at Last \" ? (0\nIf so you will recall that Mr Ben-\nnett announced that Mr Dion Calthrop\nwas the man who \" out of his own\nhead, has done something concrete \",\nand the Kingsway Theatre was the\nspot. There at last was to be that\nShakespeare Theatre.\nIf you can remember all this you'll\nalso remember that seven months later,\nin May 1924, the London papers\nannounced that Mr Dion Calthrop pro-\nposed to reopen the Kingsway Theatre\nwith a revue named ' At Home * \".\nAnd now Mr Calthrop has become\na director or the director of a vast\nBroadcasting Business.\nIt may be Mr Calthrop's way of\ncoming round at last to a Shakespeare\nTheatre. He may broadcast Shake-\nspeare. If he succeeds, then Mr Ben-\nnett really ought to write once more\nabout the concrete, announcing that\nthere will be \" Shakespeare readings\nat last \".\nBut this doesn't bring the Shake-\nspeare Theatre nearer to us.\nIt is, however, a feather in the cap\nof a big firm to be able to boast that\nit has acquired the services of so ener-\ngetic a man of talent as Mr Calthrop\nand has lured him off the stage.\nIf we had the money to offer him\nwe'd lure him on again. However,\nplenty of time when we have a stage to\noffer him: and Mr Calthrop is per-\nfectly right in going to people who\nhave the sense to make him a decent\noffer:—the paragraphs, concrete arti-\ncles, need not be wasted : they should\nbe used again, just changing the name\nCalthrop to Codlin, to Baylis, to what\nyou will.\n€| To come to a better appreciation\nof what Mr. Bennett does in betweei\nhis labours of writing readable book\none should read his note about th\npart he played in founding the Lyri\nTheatre, Hammersmith, It's not every\none will go round looking for funds\nand getting them too, to help a de\nserving cause. We never imagine\nMr. Bennett capable of any thing c\nthat kind.\nVery spirited of him, it seems t\nus :—we suspect Mr. Bennett of havin\na dreadfully kind heart. The Lyrk\nHammersmith little Nigel Piayfair...\nreally it's just a bit touching.\n(1) See \" The Mask Vol. X. No. 3.\np. 138.\n\no POTENTIALITY. <\nWE are always being told of the\npotentialities in America: the\nbig word sounds potent and is in reality\nrather puff-ball.\nFor what is Potentia? is it not\nthe Possession of concealed power ?\nNow American power is revealec\nall the time: Potentiality is the possi\nhility of action. With Americans nc\naction is allowed to be possible sine*\nevery possibility is exploited in the bud\nPotentialities therefore can only be said\nto exist in a people who observe an\nimmense discretion in displaying some\nof the powers they possess.\n\nA W O R D FROM\nTHE P ÜBLISHERS\nrhe Publishers regret that, owing t\npostal delay, a revised proof c\none of the advertisements which ap\npeared in the October number of '' Th\nMask \" arrived too late for the inten\nded alterations to be made, the shee\nhaving been already printed off.\nThe corrected version would havi\navoided all personal comparison; fo\nit would be a pity if, in the advertise\nments of a periodical, place should eve\nbe found for the comparison of tb\nmerits of actors, the only place fo\nany such reference being in the bod;\nof the magazine. The Publishers sin\ncerely hope that in the advertisemen\nabove referred to no offence was givei\nto anyone.\n\nERRTA.\nJ. S.\nON page 28, last line, for \" Fair\nDeli \" read \" Fairy Doll\nOn page 39 , column 1, line 4\nfor \" they cooe at me \" read \" they\ncome at me"}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c068", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c068", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "47", "page_fin": "47", "image_debut": 59, "image_fin": 59, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29.2", "titre_corps": "A PRINCELY GIFT", "titre_sommaire": "A PRINCELY GIFT", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 59, "page_imprimee": "47", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.59", "debut_caractere": 18, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5397, "texte": "A PRINCEL Y GIFT, o\nMR Charles Rutherston of Bradford\nis possessed of two things which\nseldom go hand in hand—wealth and\ntaste: and by applying his wealth to\nthe purchase of works of art he has\nin the last thirty years or so formed a\nvery remarkable collection.\nTo his wealth and taste he has\nadded a third thing—generosity.\nHe has given his collection to the\nNation ; placing in the hands of the\nManchester Corporation \" an impor-\ntant collection of oil paintings and draw-\nings, etchings, wood engravings and\nlithographs by modern artists\nThis is the act of a prince.\nIn the old days Princes gave away\nsuch things for a song : conditions were\nnot imposed.\nTimes having changed and Mr Ru-\ntherston, being more thoughtful than\nany prince was ever able to be, thinks\nout a plan by which thousands of\npeople may (he hopes) be brought to\nlove art for itself alone, re, without\npaying for it. He perfects his plan\nand then submits it with a kind smile\nto the Corporation. The Corporation\nis asked to agree that \" the capacity\nto enjoy and create true works of art\ncan be awakened in many within\nwhom it now lies dormant \" and that\naesthetic emotion is essential to in-\ndividual and communal well being \" ;\nand so the Corporation is to lend the\nworks of art, one or twenty, sixty or\ni hundred, to all and sundry other\nnaileries.\nMr Rutherston is not an idealist in\nhe stupid sense of the word ;—he is\ni serious, kindly and highly intelligent\nnan. But he has not painted pictures,\nmgraved plates or made sketches for\n;he papers to earn a living. Many\nan artist has had to do all this. And\nyou must ask such an artist what he\nthinks of Mr. Rutherston's plan to get\na reply worth your attention.\nWe believe the reply will be against\nany such notion as this Lending system.\nFor the artist is a commonsense\nman. As he enjoys what he has to\npay for he naturally supposed that the\nrest of the world (omitting dead-heads)\nwill also find more enjoyment in pos-\nsessing something for which they were\nwilling to pay, than for the cheapest of\nglimpses through a glass window of\nsomething delicious which they may\nnot possess.\nThe artist will ask Mr. Rutherston\nwhy he bought things he loved so\nmuch and why he was hot content\nmerely to look at them when loaned.\nIf Mr. Rutherston did not like bor-\nrowing why does he suppose the En-\nglish man with less means will like\nborrowing any better than did Mr.\nRutherston.\nThe artist will also point out to Mr.\nRutherston that the Lending Library\nsystem, a horrible invention of this age,\nhas not at all improved the English\ntaste for fine books. At best it has\npossibly encouraged swifter reading.\nBooks no longer have all the qualities\nthey once possessed, and this is in great\nmeasure due to the lending library.\nAgain, suppose oneself Mr. Gill the\nwood engraver : and suppose one does\nas Mr. Gill does, prints off hundreds\nof one's woodcuts at 5/— or 2/— a\npiece so that the poorer kind of public\ncan buy them.\nAt the success of Mr. Rutherston's\nscheme these cuts become worthless;\nfor Mr. Rutherston can send round\nour 5/— woodcut, loaning out what\nwe have sold him to keep for himself\nand for the visitors to his house. If\nthe artist had thought he would under-\ncut him in this way he'd have put up\nhis price.\nNo, it seems to us a bad proposal\nthis lending of 5/- prints.\nTo lend a drawing which may cost\n£lO to £2O or more and of which\nthere is but one copy is perhaps another\nproposition. We don't like it, but at\nany rate it doesn't do much harm to\nthe artist; whereas the loan of 5/—\nprints does great harm. It will in time\nurge the artist to issue 3000 copies of\na print at 6d a piece; he will then\nhave to turn printer to do it; and em-\nploy a staff of men to execute his\nweekly orders. And by the time he\nhas \" worked up his business \" he will\nhave forgotten how to draw, how to\nengrave, and will hate the whole of\nhis work.\nThe gift Mr Rutherston makes is a\nprincely one: the several conditions\nhe tacks on to the gift seem to us to\nbe wise and good; all but one, which\nis this lending idea.\nWe hope Mr Rutherston will cut it\nout of his plan. It is not an idealistic\nitem, it is a rather a sad one.\nWe agree with Mr Rutherston that\nthe capacity to enjoy and create can\nhe awakened: not by making things\nsoft, by making things hard.\nAnd we believe that Mr Rutherston\nknows this. He is not blind to Wil-\nliam Blake's work nor deaf to his\nwords.\nYou cannot but recall that phrase\nof his so much quoted in \" The\nMask \" \" Dam braces: bless relaxes *\nespecially in an age such as this.\nDid not Blake learn that bit of know-\nledge from the very fount of wisdom,\nfrom experience: was it soft or hard,\nthat experience ?\nIt was hard—too hard—almost be-\nyond his bearing. Its fault was it bra-\nced him up beyond his powers.\nSuch cruelty we do not prize al-\nthough it is a cruelty practised over-\nmuch by those in authority in lands\nwhere the labours of the artist are\nnot rewarded, and where Institutions\ndull as ditch-water are prized above\nIndividuals.\nBut we do value some strain being\nput on us. We like to know that if\nwe can make the effort we too may\npossess a pretty drawing by Albert\nRutherston ; and we're damned if we\nwant Mr. Jones fo \" show us his Ru-\ntherstons \" ; that is a little too depres-\nsing. We too want to be able to feel\nproud to possess, even if (like Lucifer\nand the rest of mankind) we have\nto suffer a little fall later on."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c069", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c069", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "47", "page_fin": "48", "image_debut": 59, "image_fin": 60, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29.3", "titre_corps": "ATTA BOY!", "titre_sommaire": "ATTA BOY!", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 59, "page_imprimee": "47", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.59", "debut_caractere": 5399, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6402, "texte": "A TT A BOY!\nIN that enchanting, though up-to-date,\npublication, \"The Literary Digest\",\nwhich is the most unpretentious affair\nwe know, and which delights us be-\ncause its knowledge of Literature is not\noverwhelming, and because it enter-\ntains us with a variety of things besides\nthose which are either Literary or Di-\ngestable, ....in this good old friend of\na Magazine, we came across a sad\nlittle paragraph about three young and\nbadly brought up Americans, re., Mr.\nF. W. Jones, Mr. D. M. Oenslager\nand Mr. J. Mielziner.\nWe say badly brought up because\nthe paragraph tells us that the way Mr.\nOenslager is taught to study the Theatre\nis to \" ransack Europe on a Harvard\nTravelling Scholarship \".\nRansack! We tremble for Yale's fu-\nture. Why send out youngsters to\n\" ransack Europeand in the holy\nname of Harvard too?\nThese boys are very proper young\nfellows and, to judge from their\nportraits, look as though a good six\n✓years more training would be just the\nthing—but not the hectic training they ve"}, {"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "debut_caractere": 0, "fin_caractere_exclue": 783, "texte": "received up to now. They need a\ngood solid man like Barrett Clark look-\ning after them. They are good enough\nstuff, but need curbing, not exciting.\nHere, there and everywhere these\nfine fellows have heard the cry' Att-\naboy'! \"See here! you, lads; go to\nEurope and ransack it. Afterwards do\nas other Americans do, say there was\nnothing in it- and the boys have\ngone atta, and the result is something\nlittle short of mild.\nNot their fault one scrap,—abso-\nlutely the fault of this wretched Ame-\nrican system, entirely the fault of\nbeing allowed to believe in soap bub-\nbles: and Professor Baker and the\nother professors ought really to think it\nover and not cry Atta and let slip\nthese boys of war, without giving them\nsome of Lord Chesterfield's advice about\nhow not to learn things."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c070", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c070", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "48", "page_fin": "48", "image_debut": 60, "image_fin": 60, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29.4", "titre_corps": "MORRIS AGAIN", "titre_sommaire": "MORRIS AGAIN", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "debut_caractere": 785, "fin_caractere_exclue": 1962, "texte": "o MORRIS G A IN. o\nLADY Diana Cooper is now in the\nUnited States again fulfilling an\nengagement with Mr. Morris Gest to\nappear as the Madonna in ' he Mi-\nracle \",\nMiss Iris Tree went with her and\nis performing the part of \" The Nun\nin the same production. According to\nLady Diana, Miss Tree had never been\non the stage before and she has had\nonly a very little time to rehearse her\npart. Taking it all in all it seems rather\nhard luck to be one of the hustled.\nAltogether we do not like Mr. Morris\nGest's notion of turning the Theatre\ninto a play-ground where anyone at a\nfew weeks notice can be thrust on to\ndo the best with a star part. Still,\nwe can quite understand the argument\nof thousands of collars.\nSo we congratulate Miss Free on\nher engagement and hope she will find\nin America plenty of inspiration, come\nback rich, give up theatricals, and give\nher friends another book of verse.\nFor, Miss Tree, you are surely not\ngoing to say that the art of poesy is\ntoo difficult, having made such a suc-\ncessful start. And the stage is, we\nalways feel, for another Miss i ree.\nThere can be two, of course, but we\nnever heard of more than one of a name\nthat was really radiant."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c071", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c071", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "48", "page_fin": "48", "image_debut": 60, "image_fin": 60, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29.5", "titre_corps": "ON A SAN GALLO DESIGN", "titre_sommaire": "ON A SAN GALLO DESIGN", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "debut_caractere": 1964, "fin_caractere_exclue": 2526, "texte": "ON A SAN GA\nTHE following is a second Note\nfrom Senatore Corrado Ricci, for\nlong the Head of the Italian Ministry\nof Fine Arts.\n\" The design by Sangallo Giovane\npublished in \"The Mask\" of October\n1925, Plate 11, was made, in my opi-\nnion, as an illustration of the Chapter\nof Vitruvius in which he speaks of the\nTheatre and theatre scene. The trian-\ngular machines are the periacte, and\nthe ospitij the places of the ospiti\n(guests) which one entered from the\nlateral doors, etc. etc. But perhaps\nthis has been said by others!\nCorrado Ricci.\nRoma, December 1925."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c072", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c072", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "48", "page_fin": "48", "image_debut": 60, "image_fin": 60, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29.6", "titre_corps": "THAT SHAKESPEARE THEATRE", "titre_sommaire": "THAT SHAKESPEARE THEATRE", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "debut_caractere": 2528, "fin_caractere_exclue": 4757, "texte": "THAT SHAKESPEARE\no THEATRE. o\nDO you remember, not Sweet Alice\nfor she is unforgettable, but that\nannouncement made by Mr. Arnold\nBennett in a London newspaper in\nOctober of 1923, about \" A Shades-\npeare Theatre at Last \" ? (0\nIf so you will recall that Mr Ben-\nnett announced that Mr Dion Calthrop\nwas the man who \" out of his own\nhead, has done something concrete \",\nand the Kingsway Theatre was the\nspot. There at last was to be that\nShakespeare Theatre.\nIf you can remember all this you'll\nalso remember that seven months later,\nin May 1924, the London papers\nannounced that Mr Dion Calthrop pro-\nposed to reopen the Kingsway Theatre\nwith a revue named ' At Home * \".\nAnd now Mr Calthrop has become\na director or the director of a vast\nBroadcasting Business.\nIt may be Mr Calthrop's way of\ncoming round at last to a Shakespeare\nTheatre. He may broadcast Shake-\nspeare. If he succeeds, then Mr Ben-\nnett really ought to write once more\nabout the concrete, announcing that\nthere will be \" Shakespeare readings\nat last \".\nBut this doesn't bring the Shake-\nspeare Theatre nearer to us.\nIt is, however, a feather in the cap\nof a big firm to be able to boast that\nit has acquired the services of so ener-\ngetic a man of talent as Mr Calthrop\nand has lured him off the stage.\nIf we had the money to offer him\nwe'd lure him on again. However,\nplenty of time when we have a stage to\noffer him: and Mr Calthrop is per-\nfectly right in going to people who\nhave the sense to make him a decent\noffer:—the paragraphs, concrete arti-\ncles, need not be wasted : they should\nbe used again, just changing the name\nCalthrop to Codlin, to Baylis, to what\nyou will.\n€| To come to a better appreciation\nof what Mr. Bennett does in betweei\nhis labours of writing readable book\none should read his note about th\npart he played in founding the Lyri\nTheatre, Hammersmith, It's not every\none will go round looking for funds\nand getting them too, to help a de\nserving cause. We never imagine\nMr. Bennett capable of any thing c\nthat kind.\nVery spirited of him, it seems t\nus :—we suspect Mr. Bennett of havin\na dreadfully kind heart. The Lyrk\nHammersmith little Nigel Piayfair...\nreally it's just a bit touching.\n(1) See \" The Mask Vol. X. No. 3.\np. 138."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c073", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c073", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "48", "page_fin": "48", "image_debut": 60, "image_fin": 60, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29.7", "titre_corps": "POTENTIALITY", "titre_sommaire": "POTENTIALITY", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "debut_caractere": 4759, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5298, "texte": "o POTENTIALITY. <\nWE are always being told of the\npotentialities in America: the\nbig word sounds potent and is in reality\nrather puff-ball.\nFor what is Potentia? is it not\nthe Possession of concealed power ?\nNow American power is revealec\nall the time: Potentiality is the possi\nhility of action. With Americans nc\naction is allowed to be possible sine*\nevery possibility is exploited in the bud\nPotentialities therefore can only be said\nto exist in a people who observe an\nimmense discretion in displaying some\nof the powers they possess."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c074", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c074", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "48", "page_fin": "48", "image_debut": 60, "image_fin": 60, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29.8", "titre_corps": "A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHERS", "titre_sommaire": "A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHERS", "signature_source": "", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "debut_caractere": 5300, "fin_caractere_exclue": 5958, "texte": "A W O R D FROM\nTHE P ÜBLISHERS\nrhe Publishers regret that, owing t\npostal delay, a revised proof c\none of the advertisements which ap\npeared in the October number of '' Th\nMask \" arrived too late for the inten\nded alterations to be made, the shee\nhaving been already printed off.\nThe corrected version would havi\navoided all personal comparison; fo\nit would be a pity if, in the advertise\nments of a periodical, place should eve\nbe found for the comparison of tb\nmerits of actors, the only place fo\nany such reference being in the bod;\nof the magazine. The Publishers sin\ncerely hope that in the advertisemen\nabove referred to no offence was givei\nto anyone."}]}, {"article_id": "bm-bmtnaau-1926-01-01-c075", "article_bluemountain": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01#c075", "volume": "bmtnaau_1926-01_01", "ocr_source": "OCR Blue Mountain (ALTO), transcription TEI : lignes lb/@facs", "texte_sans_correction": true, "page_debut": "48", "page_fin": "48", "image_debut": 60, "image_fin": 60, "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=bmtnaau192601-01.2.29.9", "titre_corps": "ERRATA", "titre_sommaire": "ERRATA", "signature_source": "J. S", "controle": "bornes données par la structure logique METS/ALTO de Blue Mountain (blocs ALTO de chaque constituant)", "pages": [{"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "debut_caractere": 5960, "fin_caractere_exclue": 6108, "texte": "ERRTA.\nJ. S.\nON page 28, last line, for \" Fair\nDeli \" read \" Fairy Doll\nOn page 39 , column 1, line 4\nfor \" they cooe at me \" read \" they\ncome at me"}]}], "pages_ocr_originales": [{"page_pdf": 1, "page_imprimee": "couv. 1", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.1", "texte": "pjgf IHB v M £» Jgr Iffilllk -\" -\nJBm JH® dßfe dKmmmmm&m Jm» w dHL dOL,. JSfk, Jmm JHhte\nNUMBER ONE\nJANUARY\nANNUAL SUBSCRIPION < D E LUXE EDITION\nTEN SHILLINGS TWENTY SHILLINGS\n(POST FREE) g\\/ i'V? (POST FREE)\nft VM\nTWO & A HALF DOLLARS J s FIVE DOLLARS\nFOR AMERICA FOR AMERICA\nADDRESS: BOX. 444. FLORENCE. ITALY.\n\nAN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF FRAN-\nCOIS JOSEPH TALMA. BY Pierre\nLouctte his Gardener.\nSOME PRIVATE THEATRES: CASERTA\nVERSAILLES, PRATOLINO. CASTEL-\nFRANCO. With designs and plans.\nSARAH BERNHARDT & VICTOR HUGO\nwith a reproduction of a drawing by Hugo.\nGIUSEPPE BIBIENA : A NOTE BY Alien\nCarrie, with a. Portrait.\nTHANKS TO MR. GEORGE MOORE,\nby E. G. C.\nA DRAMA IN \" ACCA \" AT ZAVOV,\nby Frangois M. Florian.\nPIRANDELLO AND HIS ORIGINALITY,\nby Henry Phips.\nWHAT IS IT YOU WANT ? by Yoo-no-hoo.\nTHE COLOSSUS: G. B. S., bye. g. c.\nFOREIGN NOTES: MiLANO, PARIS,\nBOOK AND MAGAZINE REVIEWS.\nEDITORIAL NOTES."}, {"page_pdf": 2, "page_imprimee": "couv. 2", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.2", "texte": "THE MASK. JANUARY 1926\nNOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS, The Editor is always glad to consider articles and illustrations from\nexperts in theatre history and art, and which result from special research or personal experience' Where stamped\nand addressed envelopes are included, every effort will be made to return in due course rejected contributions ;\nbut under no circumstances can he hold himself responsable for safe custody or return. All articles should be ,\ntypewritten.\nAddress : The Editor ; \" The Mask \", Box 444, Florence, Italy.\n, 1 .. ~ ' * \\ • \" : . , _ '% : * i v ■ •; • 1 •' s- \"y\n_ . . A- ' . ! . - ' . - > ,\n\nLITERARY CONTENTS.\nFOREWORD . . . . ... . . John Semar .... Page 1\nFRANCOIS JOSEPH TALMA by his Gardener. , . Pierre Louette ..... 3\nWith a Foreword and Biographical Note. . . . .... . . . 6\nTHE OPERA HOUSE OF THE PALACE OF VER-\nSAILLES ......... Gordon Craig . . . . . 20\nTHE COLOSSUS. G. B. S. e.g. c. 21\nA DRAMA IN \" ACCA \"AT ZAVOV .... Francois M. Florian . . 23\nSOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT J. S. 25\nWHAT ISIT YOU WANT ? . . . . . . Yoo-No-Hoo 25\n\" REMAINDERED\" . , . . . . J. B 27\nGIUSEPPE BIBIENA . . . . . . Allen Carrie . . . . .28\nSARAH BERNHARDT AND VICTOR HUGO . . A. B. . . . , .29\nTHANKS TO MR. GEORGE MOORE . . . . E. G. C. 30\nPIRANDELLO AND HIS ORIGINALITY. . . . Henry Phips .... . 33\nA LITTLE THEATRE OF THE 17th CENTURY: PRA-\nTOLINO Jan van Holt . . . . . 37\nFOREIGN NOTES. BOOK AND MAGAZINE REVIEWS. EDITORIAL NOTES.\n\nILLUSTRATIONS.\nA DESIGN FOR A PRODUCTION OF THE BEGGARS'\nOPERA, ACT I . ....... Edward Gordon Craig. Plato 1, Face page I\nTHE OPERA HOUSE IN THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES Built by Architect Ga-\nbriel . . . B 2, ■ B 20\nGIUSEPPE BIBIENA. . . . . . . Anon . . . \" 3, \" 8 28\nREPRODUCTION OF A DRAWING by . . . . Victor Hugo . . 84, precede 829\nPLAN OF THE VILLA OF PRATOLINO SHOWING Built by Architect An-\nTHE LITTLE THEATRE tonio Ferri . . B 5, „ ■ 37\nHead and Tail Pieces from original Woodcuts and old Designs."}, {"page_pdf": 4, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.4", "texte": "A DESIGN FOR A PRODUCTION OF THE BEGGARS' OPERA. ACT I.\nBy Edward Gordon Craig.\n\nRe pi educed ft om the original drawing by kind permission' of Mr. A. E. McVitty.\n\nTHE MASK\n1926\n\nPlate 1."}, {"page_pdf": 5, "page_imprimee": "1", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.5", "texte": "The Mask\n1908 1926\n\nFOREWORD\n\nTHIS number with its contributions on Talma, Ver-\nsailles, Hugo and even Mr. George Moore seems\nto be quite a French number.\nIt should have contained some important infor-\nmation about the Theatrical section of the Paris Exhibition\nof 1925. But so badly was the propaganda department\nCl••Ve /• 9 1 1\nor this section seen to that no information whatever reach-\ned us. It seems a little incredible that in the twentieth\ncentury such an important department o! such an Exhibi-\ntion should have been managed so casually.\nPerhaps there was not much in the section to inform\nthe world about. Paris cannot be blamed. Paris like\nLondon is far too large, and too self contented. It be-\nlieves that outside Paris nothing matters, which is quite a\nnatural blunder to make. If you are immense you think\nnothing matters but yourself, whereas no one and no city\ncan ever be quite as immense as that."}, {"page_pdf": 6, "page_imprimee": "2", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.6", "texte": "Should these words meet the eye of any intelligent\nParisian he is sure to be the first to admit their truth and\nto go out resolved to tell the first important Frenchmar\nhe meets how silly it is of Paris. But in ten minutes the\nresolve will fade. Paris is so full of the dope of humai\nkindness. So like London. And it can't be helped. Wher.\n\" The Mask \" becomes huge like Paris, when we issue\nhalf a million copies monthly, we too shall put on airs\nand graces.\nWhat a pity it will be.\n\nJ. S."}, {"page_pdf": 7, "page_imprimee": "3", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.7", "texte": "FRANCOIS JOSEPH TALMA.\nINTIMATE ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT FRENCH\nACTOR BY HIS GARDENER PIERRE LOUETTE\nTRANSLATED BY D. NEVILE LEES, WITH A\nFOREWORD AND BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.\nFOREWORD\nJ. S.\nThe following Translation is taken from a\nsmall book printed in November 1869\nby Emile Voitelain et Cie, Paris.\nThis tiny brochure forms one of a series\n>/ \" Documents pour servir a de\nws Mceurs \", the collectedited by\n•edan Larchez, being \" exclusively composed\n>/ original documents Only four hundred\n:opies of the little volume were put on sale,\nand were obtainable <{ a la librairie Fr.\n12 Galerie d Orleans ( Royal).\nThe author of these Memoirs, Pierre\nLouette, the gardener of Talma, writes like a\ndramatist writes, and he thus creates for us a\nvivid picture of his Master and friend and\ntheir close intercourse on the estate which\nTalma loved.\nOne of the things I note about this disciple\nof Talma is, indeed, that he, the gardener,\n's more like Shakespeare than any cleverer,\nnore modern dramatist.\nWhen he makes his hero speak he does\nnot explain how he speaks; he still believes\nthat people have some senses left, some obser-\nvation, some alertness, indeed some imagina-\ntion. That is how Louette re\n\" Ah \" said M. Talma, \" I shall go to\nParis\". \" Ahsaid\ntiently ' or ( lowering his voice or * looking\nannoyed ' is how a less mature playwriter\nwould record it.\nThe Dramatist who adds stage directions\n(and he is so often a Democrat or a Socialist\nwho does it) has but a poor opinion of his\nfellow Workers' capacity to invent anything\nor of his readers' capacity to understand.\nThis is one of the reasons why the prefaces\nand stage directions of th\nme: they show me how low these playwri-\nters estimate the capacities of stage men and the\nreading public. Such Dramatists might learn\nmuch from the little pages of the \" Me-\nmoir es \" of Talma's gardener, Pierre Louette.\n\nBIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.\n\nFRANQOIS JOSEPH TALMA was born in\nParis on January 15th 1763 in the Rue\ndes Menetriers K\nMantzius tells us that his father was a\nvalet and his uncle a cook, reassuring us by\na note to say that 44 is shown by his\nBaptismal certificate \". The father was also\na Dentist (2), and so good a dentist that be-\nfore long he was practising the craft in London\nin one of the best of quarters, at No. 13 Old\nCavendish Street, near Cavendish Square (3).\nAnd Francois Joseph his son was with him.\nEach day young Talma would go westward\nto Manchester Square, and there at the school\nof a certain Mr, Prendergast would study how\nto multiply 9 by 7 and how firmly established\nwas the monarchy of France. And at home\nhe learned how difficult it was to pull out\nteeth but that it became easier if you were\nwell paid for it. This argument struck the\nfuture lord of Brunoy and he took to the\ndentistry business, and thus began to witness\ntragic scenes, and to study facial expression.\n\n(1) Four Biographical Dictionaries give other dates\nand places. 1, Jan. 17, 1766, London: 2, Jan. 15,\n1760: 3, Jan. 1762: 4, Jan. 15, 1767. I have followed\nthe Paris register.\n(2) Another father of a famous actor, Giuseppe Gri-\nm&ldi, father of Jo. Grimaldi, was a dentist: \"in 1760\nhe was appointed dentist to Queen Charlotte but he soon\nresigned his appointment, and commenced giving lessons in\nfencing and dancing \". R. J. Broadbent. Annals of\nthe Liverpool Stage \". 1908.\n(3) He is also said to have gone to a boarding school\nin Lambeth about 1779-1780."}, {"page_pdf": 8, "page_imprimee": "4", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.8", "texte": "This awakened a longing in him to be\nmore than an onlooker ; and, not feeling this\nto be possible, or desirable, at No. 13, he\njoined a company of amateur actors in London,\nabout 1782-83, and dentistry was soon forgotten.\nBut as Sir John Gallini, ie Giovanni An-\ndrea Battista Gallini, was the manager, he\nwho married the eldest daughter of the third\nEarl of Abingdon, Lady Elizabeth Peregrine\nBertie, and had great vogue as a dancing\nmaster, directed the dances and was stage\nmanager at the Haymarket Theatre, was crea-\nted knight of the Golden Spur by the pope\nand built Hanover Square concert Rooms,\nTalma evidently joined no second-rate com-\npany, and his associates were doubtless the\nmost elegant people, and that helps an actor\nvery considerably.\nHe returned to Paris when he was about\ntwenty or twenty-three years old, with very\nserious intentions of becoming an actor of\nmark.\nOn November 21st 1787 he made his\ndebut at the Comedie Frangaise, as Seide in\nVoltaire's 44 Mahomet\nTo prepare for this he rehearsed under\nDugazon at the little Theatre Boule-Rouge\nwhich was in the faubourg Montmartre.\nHere Madame Dugazon, then about se-\nventy-four years old, and Clairon who was\nsixty-four, watched him rehearse. The Da-\nnish actor Preisler, visiting Paris, writes back\nto Denmark in praise of Monsieur Talmad.\nIn 1789, on April Ist, he is 44 received \"\nat the Comedie Frangaise ; ie, he becomes a\nS ode t aire... but as yet only to play -\nsiemes roles in tragedies, but by good fortune\none of the premiere roles falls to him—some\nactor being over-sensitive of ruining the part\nof Charles IX in the new piece by Joseph\nChenier which was produced on November\n4th 1789. Young Captain Buonaparte comes\nto see this piece and Talma in his\nmoirs \" gives an account of a very interesting\nconversation with him. These memoirs which\nappeared in 1849-50 were edited by Alex-\nandre Dumas. It is a book which I hear\n44 The Mask \" will shortly publish in English.\nFar too much has been made of the fact\nthat Talma was among the earliest advocates\nof realism in costume. He went with the\ntimes, and the paintings of his friend and re-\nvolutionary comrade David seemed to him\nmarvels of naturalism.... revelations ....the real\nthing. Here was a Roman in a toga—with-\nout the usual 18th century plumes ;—classic,\nsolemn, nothing Theatrical. So like an actc*\nand so right. But it looked as though it\nwould take the French a long time to grow\naccustomed to this new way of doing things.\nFor they began to object at once.... when\nsuddenly a gun went off and they came to\nthe conclusion that these innovations were\nright. The actors were less easily persuaded.\nThey found Talma and Clairon and the others\nwho troubled about these external matters a\nsource of innocent merriment. So like fellow\nactors and so right. What was not right,\nand so unfair of Talma, was that he possessed\ngenius.... a finely proportioned figure and r,\nremarkable head; a voice of great beauty,\nand he took the trouble to acquire a match-\nless elocution. At first it is said he was a\nlittle stilted and monotonous in his manner ;\nbut it is added that before long he became\na model of simplicity. All of which sounds\nfamiliar and very fine but means to me very\nlittle. When I hear an actor being described\nI always become lost in the sound of the\nwords ; matchless elocution ; what does that\nmean ? it might mean Forbes Robertson\nagain, or it might mean Salvini—which does\nit mean ?\nIn 1791 Talma married Julie Carreau (l),\na rich and talented lady in whose salon were\nto be met the principal Girondists. Of the\nposition of this salon (2) I am ignorant; where\nthe happy pair lived lam no wiser. Mean-\ntime he was rising with Buonaparte, to whom\nhe was later to prove useful in little matters\nof deportment. Between Talma and Buona-\nparte there seems to have been little ceremony\n—and with Napoleon the ceremony was, after\nall, only the result of the lessons from Talma.\nIn 1808 the Emperor paid him well by\ntaking him to Erfurt and there papering the\nhouse for him with crowned heads for his\nperformances of the Mo\nIn 1 798 Talma was living in the Rue de\nMoliere, in 1802 in Rue de Seine, Faubourg\nSt. Germain. There it was he freed himself\nfrom 44 la belle Julie \" and married Charlott\nVanhove the actress, who had been Madame\nPetit.\n\n(1) \"Carcan \" prints Charles Maurice and adds she\nwas known as \" la belle Julie\n(2) One of her houses was the famous, No. 6. Rue\nChantereine, in which Josephine Beauharnais lodged in 1795"}, {"page_pdf": 9, "page_imprimee": "5", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.9", "texte": "With this charming lady he lived happily\nuntil his death in 1826.\nWhat a strange existence was Talma's—\nseeing the eighteenth century in full blossom\naround him when he was a boy and till he\nwas twenty-five. Then suddenly the Revo-\nlution shakes the world, rattling most of all\nin Paris : then comes Buonaparte—and the\neighteenth century reminiscences seem to go\nwell with the scenic show of his days : then\nthe Restoration and lastly Victor Hugo.\nIt was in 1826 that Hugo, a young man\nof twenty-four years, is invited to meet Talma\nat the house of Baron Taylor. Talma sixty-\nthree, Hugo twenty-four. And the actor tells\nthe young man how young he is and that\ntherefore he really should write a part for\nhim:—he suggests Cromwell. And Hugo\nreplies that he is just writing a play about\nCromwell—and both actor and poet are de-\nlighted and find it an extraordinary coinci-\ndence. (Baron laylor was intendant of the\nV f V~\\ 1\nRoyal Theatres, by the way). Talma is in\nsuch ecstacies that he even tells Hugo that\nhe has a portrait of Cromwell at home, hung\nup, and offers to take Hugo round to his\nhouse to see it; all is quite crazy and de-\nlightful, ....poet, actor, the dinner, the ideas....\nand then Fate steps in and spoils the plan\nfor Talma dies.\nHe died on October 19th 1826 at his\nhouse Rue de la Tour-des-Dames no. 9.\nwhere he had lived for five years.\nAnd what about Talma's death? ....no-\nthing except that Mademoiselle Mars sat that\nnight in her house across the way thoughtful,\ndepressed.\nIn this very little street we are told that\nno less than three great performers were living\nat the time—Talma, Mars and Duchenois.—\nA silent street at all times, I can imagine\nhow silent on the eve of October 19th.\nMile. Mars comes home after the rehearsal\nhaving found the Theatre closed. She is\nnow forty-eight years old :—she sees a light\nin Talma's room. She passes into her own\nhouse. She sits and thinks:—she tries to\nbelieve that oyer there her old comrade, the\nimmense genius she calls him, is dead. No,\nshe can not conceive this. Her mind begins\nto think : how did he die—like this ?—she\nleans a little to one side:—the fire flares\nup—she leans further—she begins reciting\nthose lines in Act IV Scene 111 where Sylla\ndies on his sofa—up go her feet. She is\nnow well in her part: and having in fancy\nexpired after the last word, the last sign, the\nlast hoarse cry, she pauses a moment—a tu-\nmultuous shout of applause is heard by her—\nshe gains her feet rapidly—the curtain again\nrises—she stands there with head slightly\nbent:—all this imagined and gone through\nand she feels better. She had grieved to\nthink of Talma dead, but now she is no\nlonger thinking, she is feeling—and she feels\nbetter—and ready to assume some big new\nrole. \" to triumph over death \" she cries sei-\nzing a table knife, for supper had been laid\nfor her home coming.... \" to triumph \" she\nrepeats, \" to triumph \"—only one regret, that\nshe cannot play those masculine roles, \" Sylla\",\n\" Brutus \" Pyrrhus \" Cinna \". And\nthen, lowering the point, meditatively she\ntaps with it on the table ; an in-drawn sigh\nof regret, and then another of relief: \" No,\nI was not born with Raucourt's advantages \"\nshe says. Firmly she cuts the loaf of bread\nbefore her and attacks quietly her simple\nsupper, content, after all, to be the greatest\ncomedienne of her time.\nAnd this were even correct if a certain\nM. Fouquier had not recently assured us that\nMile. Mars lived in a house in the next street.\nThe house seems to have been at the corner\nof Rue de la Rochefoucault and Rue St. La-\nzare. Probably the light she saw was in the\nback room of Talma's House.\n€}} His funeral was imposing because an\nimmense public gathered to do him honour.\nSUIVEZ done le conseil de M. de Voltaire,\nfaites des perruques, pour que ceile de\nTalma, dans Charles VI soit vendue 43 francs\net celle de Sylla, avec le costume, 160 francs.\nComme ont vient de le faire! ....Ingrats....\ncoiffeurs !\n(26 Mars 1827).\nCharles Maurice.\n\" Histoire anecdotiqne\n\nG. C."}, {"page_pdf": 10, "page_imprimee": "6", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.10", "texte": "THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.\nL. L.\n\nPIERRE LOUETTE was the gardener-steward of Talma on his estate of\nBrunoy. An old soldier, a little brusque, a bit of a grumbler, but of an\nupright character, he was, perhaps, more than any one else, impressed by the\nnoble qualities of his master. Wholly devoted to his humble duties, he could\nnot estimate either the great tragedian or the favourite of the Emperor, he had\nonly learned to respect the just and good man.\nAfter the death of Talma, he was indignant at certain slanders, and he\nhad the idea of combatting them by drawing upon his memories. This good\nfellow, who had never written anything save accounts and estimates, was,\nwithout knowing it, a precious historiographer. Even his naieve rusticity is not\nwithout merit regarded from that special view point which characterises our\ncollection. Peasants* journals are not to be found all over the country, and\nwe lacked a document such as this.\nThe MEMOIRES DE LOUETTE were published in 1829 by the\nRevue de Paris. Loeve-Veimars, then attached to its editorial department, had\nfound this pearl at Brunoy where he was resting. That there should be no\ndoubt as to its authenticity the original manuscript had been deposited with\nMe. Bonard, notary of the REVUE, but there was no need to go and\nexamine these two large copy-books\nfilled with a primitive writing and\nyellowed by the thumb of their author;\nit sufficed to read ten lines of the\nprinted text to say : it is genuine *\\\nOf style and orthography there is\nno question here, and yet it goes\nstraight to the heart like a thing most\neloquently written.\nDid the remarkable fragment pub-\nlished by the REVUE DE PARIS\nof 1829 produce a bad effect at that\ntime ? Did people mock at the touch-\ning of the memories of the\nold gardener, or did the family of\nTalma consider it their duty to oppose\ntheir continuation ? One or the other\nof these cases must be assumed, for I\nhave sought in vain in the subsequent\nvolumes for the formally promised con-\ntinuation.\n\nA NOTE ON\nTHE TRANSLATION.\nEd.\nOUR Translation, like any other\ntranslation (unless a very great\nwriter should attempt it) can be but\na failure, and the Translator asks us\nto say so.\nBut perhaps our readers will prefer\nthis to nothing.\nIf we were to reprint the French\nhere, as some day we hope to do in\na small booklet, we should call down\non our heads the displeasure of thou-\nsands who cannot read French : and\nto them we are glad to offer an En-\nglish version which will enable them\nto gain much pleasure from Pierre\nLouette's naieve records, even if there be\nlacking the full flavour of this little rustic\nchronicle in its original form.\n\nFacsimile of the Frontispiece of The Memoirs of Pierre Louetie."}, {"page_pdf": 11, "page_imprimee": "7", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.11", "texte": "THE MEMOIRS OF\nPIERRE LOUETTE.\nTALMA'S GARDENER.\nIN 1817 I entered the service of M.\nTalma. The first things that he enjoined\non me were : order in his house and\nthe greatest possible economy, pointing\nout to me that the largest fortunes melt\naway without economy and order.\nOn the 12th of this month (Sep-\ntember) we went together over all his\nproperty. M. Talma showed me at least\na hundred places where I was to plant\ntrees, indicating to me the place of each\ntree.\nIt will be seen in the continuation\nof this Memoir what a love M. Talma\nhad for his garden at Brunoy, and people\nwill be able to judge the memory of my\nmaster, apart from his great stage occu-\npations, of which I ought not to speak,\nseeing that my powers cannot extend so far.\nI ought not to speak save of that which\nI have seen and heard.\nM. Talma sets out on September 16th\nfor the Midi, and writes me not to forget\nthe trees which we had arranged about\ntogether, reminding me of all the places\nwhere we had decided to set them, naming\nto me all the groups of trees of his park\nby their names, and all the places where\nsomething was to be done ; and all this\nwhile he is every day at work on the\nstage in the principal towns of the Midu\nJudge from this of the presence of mind\nof this great man.\nM. Talma arrived on January 6th at\nBrunoy. The first thing that he asked\nme was for my accounts. That surprised\nme, considering that people had misinformed\nme, telling me that he did not pay the\nexpenses of his household, whereas I\nhave been paid every month by him du-\nring the ten years that I have had the\nhonour of serving him.\nThis same day, at eight o'clock in\nthe evening, M. falma was at supper at\nmy table when my under-gardener came in\nand, drawing me aside, told me that his\nwife had just been confined, and that he\nwas much troubled seeing that he had\nno good wine to revive her with. The\ndoctor had ordered Bordeaux wine and\nthere was none in the whole village.\nI brought him in to M. Falma, saying\nto him ; \" Monsieur, Pierre's wife has\njust been confined ; the doctor orders\nBordeaux wine and there is none in the\nwhole of Brunoy\nM. Talma immediately replied: \"My\nfriend, give him four bottles of it \"; and,\ncorrecting himself, he said, \"Eh bieri,\nLouette, give him six, for I shall only\nreturn in six days Afterwards he also\nsaid to me, \"My friend, as you have\nthe keys of the cellar, if any unfortunate\nfellow of des Bosserons or of Brunoy\nappeals to you in like trouble, give two\nbottles. Come, my friend, that is not\ngoing to ruin us, and we shall do good \".\nThus when M. Talma arrived at Brunoy\nall the inhabitants used to come out of\n■their doors, saying, their hearts breaking\nfor joy, \" Voila le houlanger de Brunoy\nqui arrive\nThe two days passed at Brunoy were\nbut as two hours for him, for Brunoy was\nhis delight.\nM. Talma said to me ; \" My friend,\nhow happy you are to remain at Brunoy!\nand I, 1 am obliged to return into the\nmidst of a crowd of people who only\nseek to do one harm, to betray one.\nHow I envy your luck!\nAt the moment when M. Talma was\nabout to set out, I asked his permission\nto go to Paris for my own affairs a few\ndays later."}, {"page_pdf": 12, "page_imprimee": "8", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.12", "texte": "M. Talma replied, \" Good, my friend,\nbut why don*t you come today with me?\nI will take you along today in my car-\nriage, and we will talk together about\nour works **.\nOn the way we said that, since some\nsand was required to sand some new\npaths, he was going to give me a letter\nto go and seek out M. Mabille, keeper\nof the forest of Senart, who was staying\nat Muette in the bois de Boulogne, which\nwas done on reaching Paris.\nM. Talma gave me the letter and\nsaid to me: \" Louette, lam acting tonight;\ncome and find me in my loge at the theatre\nand give me the answer.\n1 then went on my errand. M. Ma-\nbille received me very well since it was\nfor M. Talma. I arrive later at the\ntheatre; M. Talma is on the stage, in\nthe role of Britanriicus. I, who had never\nseen him in any costume, being in the\nwings, open my eyes as wide as a car-\nriage-way without being able to recognize\nmy master. I am much surprised when\nI see, coming straight towards me, a man\ndressed as a sovereign, in the full heat\nof his role : \" well, shall we have some\nsand ?** As for me,... I could not answer\nhim.\nFor the moment he went back on to\nthe stage and 1 recovered myself, and I\nonly recognized him the second time.\nHe said to me, \" How is it that you\nhave not answered me, Louette ?\n\" Monsieur, 1 did not recognize you ;\nyou frightened me, but we shall have\nsome sand **.\nJudge by this of the action of this\ngreat man, to mix sand into the very\nmiddle of his part !\nIN 1819 we carried out some rather\nimportant works in the poultry yard.\nM. Talma was seven or eight days drawing\nout plans. Everyone in the house saw\nclearly that we were going to have some-\nthing new, but without knowing what.\nAt last, one day, M. Talma comes to\nfind me in the melon house, saying to\nme : \" Louette my friend, I have a plan\nin my head which is going to make you\ntremble \".\nI immediately reply: \" Monsieur, work\nnever frightens me ; your purse will perhaps\ntire of the work before my courage does \".\nHe at once says to me: \" Well,\nLouette, let us get busy with this straight\naway ; I leave you three days to give me\nthe estimate for this work, for we must\nnot embark upon it without knowing\nwhere it is going to land us **.\nI set myself immediately to take mea-\nsurements and to make calculations.\nOn the morrow, at midday, M. Talma\nset out to act. I say to him, before\nleaving, both of us being seated on his\nsofa : \" Monsieur, it is necessary to allow\nfor five thousand francs* expenditure *'.\nSays he : \" Louette, you are mista-\nken ; for my part, I only make it three\nthousand five hundred francs **.\n\" But you havn*t looked at the\nwhole thing so well as I have **, I said,\n\" for you hardly calculate for anything\nbut the work of the terrace, while I find\na portion for the paver, for the stone-\ncutter, for the mason and for the car-\npenter **.\nHe replied : \" Ah, my friend, you\nsee 1 had not seen that like you. Well,\nlisten ; I set out tomorrow for Paris, 1\nwill calculate that out while acting *'.\nThe following day M. Talma arrives,\nand asks for me at once. Being in his\nstudy he makes me sit down on the same\nsofa and says to me: \" My friend, I\nhave calculated carefully according to what\nyou have told me ; I am in agreement\nwith your estimate provided that it does"}, {"page_pdf": 13, "page_imprimee": "9", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.13", "texte": "not exceed that. Come, let us step out\nfirmly and without fear ' .\nThe work being in train, the winter\ncomes upon us and even stops us. From\nthe Saturday we can do nothing more.\nM. Talma comes on the Sunday and\nsays to me : \" Well, Louette, How are\nwe getting on? \"\n\" Monsieur, you are held up \".\n\" How's that ?\n\" Monsieur, the hard frost stops us \".\nM. Talma replies ; \" But, my friend,\nit is necessary nevertheless to devise a\nway to occupy these poor fellows, since\nthey live by their daily wage. Must they\nthen die of hunger ? \"\n\" Monsieur \", said I, \"we had a\ngreat pile of stones there which we were\nto cart away ; but we have decided to\nemploy them in the courtyard \".\n\" Well! \", cries M. Talma, \" that's\nall the same; go and see all your workmen\ntoday, and get them to cart those stones.\nIf it is necessary to bring them back, they\ncan bring them back ; that will at least\nbe work and bread for a long time \".\nSee the humanity of M. JTalma!\nAccordingly when he set out the next\nday, for Paris, all the workmen were\ngathered at his carriage, wishing him a\ngood journey, and all bidding him \" Adieu,\nle pere de Brunoy\n_____ *\n!N 1820 M. Talma bought about ten\narpents T) of land at the end of his\ngarden. This land was in a very bad\nstate.\nM. Talma says to me, while we are\nwalking together in this new acquisition :\nLouette, what are we going to do with\nthis ? \"\nI reply : \" Monsieur, it is impossible\nfor us to plant in such poor ground \".\n\" Well, my friend **, says he, \" what\nmeans are we going to take to clear that\npoor land, so that it may receive the\nplantings that we wish to set there ? It\nwill all have to be cultivated with the\nplough \".\nI reply to him, \" That is not my\nintention, for that will cost you a thousand\nfrancs in two years, and your land will\nnot be clean. But you have so many\npoor people at les Bosserons who have\nno ground to plant any potatoes, beans,\nand vegetables in general. All those\ncrops demand a great deal of attention.\nYou must give each of them a little piece\nof land and deprive yourself of it for two\nyears. You will find, the third year, a\nnew soil, and very suitable for receiving\nevery kind of planting \".\nM. Talma looks at me, saying :\n\" Louette, I find your view very good\nand beneficent, for I see that we are\nagain going to render some people happy.\nCome, my friend, it is decided. You\ncan, when you please, divide them up,\nand the sooner the better, for this land\nis shocking ; it is really disgraceful.\nThe following Sunday I summon all\nthe inhabitants of les Bosserons, and give\nto each man a piece of land, enjoining\non them to cultivate well that land which\nI shall leave to them for two years. So\nthat every Sunday there were upon that\nproperty forty persons. There were the\nfathers, the mothers, the children. All\nthose unfortunate folk were possessed by\namour-propre ; it was a question of who\nwould do the best to please M. Talma.\nM. Talma used to come every Sunday\nto Brunoy, and it was his delight to go\nat once to see his colony. One should\nhave seen how he was hailed by all\nthese poor creatures ! He looked at me\nwith a satisfied air, saying: \" Louette,\ndo you believe that the produce of this\n\n(1) arpent, a measure of from- one to one and a\nhalf acres."}, {"page_pdf": 14, "page_imprimee": "10", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.14", "texte": "land will be able to compensate them for\ntheir time ? \"\n1 reply, \" Yes, Monsieur; but two\nyears would be required, for the first year\nwill not pay them \".\n\" Well, my friend, I leave it to you \".\nWe go for a walk to the Vamies\nrouges; these are the sluices of the Brunoy\nmill, which pour water into our river\nwhen that of the mill is too full. In re-\nturning from our walk we come to the\nnew property, whereon was the little re-\npublic of les Bosserons, each one in his\nsmall piece of land. M. Talma stops, and\nlooks at me, putting his hand to his\nforehead.\nHe says to me : \" My friend, that\nproduces a curious effect on me, to see\nwhole families of wretched people. I\nimagine myself to be seeing our wretched\nfolk at the Champ d* Asile. And you,\nLouette, how does it strike you ?\n\" Monsieur, if there exists a Champ\nd'Asile, that is it to the life\nEVERY Sunday, when M. Talma ar-\nrived at Brunoy, it was to hasten\nimmediately to see his Champ d'Asile;\nbut it was only we two who knew that\nname for it.\nAs he approached them the first who\nperceived him called all the others, saying,\n\" voila le pere qui arrive I \" Immediately\none saw everybody salute him, hat in\nhand, with a glad and satisfied air.\nM. Talma, on coming up to them,\nsaid : \" My friends, you work then on\nholidays and Sundays ? \"\n\" Yes, Monsieur, for the work we\nare doing here will only serve us this next\nwinter. In cultivating your land well we\nhope to gather some fine potatoes and\nbeans ; but this harvest will only come to\nus in the month of October, and we are\nobliged to work all the week to feed\nan ugly piece of furniture which we each\nhave at home\nM. Talma replies ; \" And what is\nthis ugly piece of furniture for which you\nappear to have no love?\nThe man replies, \" Monsieur, it is\nmy kneading trough ; for 1 have four\nchildren, myself and my wife ; that makes\nsix persons who must eat ; so that every\nSunday my wife takes my week's wage\nand goes to the miller. Sometimes nothing\nremains over to make the soup with, and\n! set to again on Monday, and every day\nit is the same.\nM. Talma asks him; \" But, my\nfriend, how do you manage about dres-\nsing yourself?\nThe man named Morier replies; \" Ah,\nMonsieur, we make hay and we harvest.\nEveryone has to work, the mother and\nchildren too\nM. Talma quits them sighing, and\nsays to them : \" Well, my children, 1\nhope that my land will repay you for\nyour pains \".\nAnd on leaving them M. Talma says\nto me: \" But, Louette, if after all no\npotatoes or haricots should come up, what\nwould become of the time of these un-\nfortunate people?\n1 said to him, \" Ah, Monsieur, being\nwell cultivated like that it is inevitable\nthat they come up \".\nM. Talma replies ; \" My friend, all\nthe same, I beg you, in the course of\nthe summer to observe if these unfortunate\npeople gather about the right amount for\nthe time they have devoted to this land\nwhich is so poor; for I would rather pay\nthem a wage \".\n\" Very well, Monsieur \" said I,\n\" I will take care to keep an eye on\nthat \".\nThe year was favourable. That year\nthere came out of M. Talma's property"}, {"page_pdf": 15, "page_imprimee": "11", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.15", "texte": "at least a thousand bushels of potatoes\nand about a hundred bushels of beans.\nBut the second year was even more\nadvantageous, seeing that the land was\nalready well cleaned.\nThe harvest of the two years was so\ngood that, whereas none of those unfor-\ntunate people had ever had the means of\nraising a pig, in these two years there\nhad been more than thirty pigs killed\nwhich had been reared on the potatoes\nof M. Talma's Champ d'Asile.\nM. Talma used to come on Sundays.\nI showed him the chimneys of les Bos-\nserons, a little hamlet which is at the end\nof his property; 1 said to him, \" See,\nMonsieur, all those pots boiling ; it is the\npiece of salt pork which comes out of\nyour Champ • d: Asile which is cooking \".\nHow's that, my friend ? \" says he.\n\" Monsieur, all those unfortunate people\nLave raised little pigs with the potatoes\nof their Champ d*Asile which they have\nnot been able to consume, and in this\nmoment they are rejoicing over the pains\nthey have taken ; they are all very happy \".\nCome, so much the better ! I am\n'quite as happy as they can be \".\nMoreover, should M. Talma have\nrequired their services at any hour what-\nsoever either by day or by night, he\nwould have had everybody, even those\nto whom he had never done any good,\nand all the world may believe that\nM. Talma is immortalized in Les Bosse-\nrons as at Brunoy.\nM. Talma was a man of order in\nhis household, and very straight in his\ndealings.\nIn 1820, when we had made up\nthe accounts for the end of the year, rny\naccounts being regulated, he showed me\nhis expenditure for the year for gratuities,\nto the poor as well as to his family. This\namounted to the sum of twelve thou-\nsand and fifty francs including that spent\nduring his travelling and at the capital;\nfor it must he observed that M. Talma\nhas brought up a large family, and there\nwere left on his hands five children,\nnephews and nieces, whom he had sup-\nported from the cradle. These children\nwere of two of his sisters who had died\nvery young; it was thus necessary to\nbring them up, have them educated and\nstart them .in life. When M. Talma\nrelated to me the loss of his relations and\nthe charge which was left to him, he\nalways had his eyes full of tears, saying\nto me : \" Poor Louette, if you knew\nhow I began ! for I began with nothing.\nMy father was not rich, my grandfather\nwas still less so; in fact I am but a third\ngeneration having had its origin at Pois,\nin Picardy, near Valenciennes\nEvery year, in returning from Brussels,\nit was his delight to pass through that\nvillage, in which is situated the paternal\nhouse of his father, to see all his cousins,\nmale and female. He took care to buy\ndresses, fichus, and he gathered them\ntogether and distributed all this to them\nin passing ; and it was a fete for them\neach time that M. Talma passed through\nthe village.\nM. Talma said to me: \"My friend,\nit is not altogether the relations which\ndraw me to that village ; it is that house\nwhere my father -was born ; to see two\nlittle rooms on the ground floor, one of\nwhich served as kitchen, dining-room and\nbedroom, and the other room was used\nto stable the horse and the cow. Then,\nmy friend when one comes from so poor\na dwelling, why not content oneself with\nmy house as it is ?\nI reply : '' Monsieur, that depends on\nyou ; if you wish to be satisfied and to\nrest now, you have well earned it\nHe said \" Yes, my friend, 1 shal"}, {"page_pdf": 16, "page_imprimee": "12", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.16", "texte": "not die of hunger at present, but I shall\nbe deprived of doing good ; and then I\nhave children about whom 1 must occupy\nmyself, both for their education and to\nassure them a certain existence '.\nI reply : 44 But, Monsieur, your name\nis already a heritage for them \".\n44 Yes, but it is necessary to enable\nthem, by talents in such or such a line\nas they may desire to follow, to say,\n44 we are the sons of Talma \".\nAT last came the spring, with the\nleaves growing thick on the trees,\nand our new garden grows bushy.\nM. Talma, installed with his family,\nused to go to act two or three times a\nweek.\nOne fine morning, M. Talma seeks\nme all over the garden, calls me in many\nparts of the park ; but the noise of my\nwork prevented me from hearing him.\nM. Talma had already passed twice close\nto me, but a very thick clump of trees\nprevented both of us from seeing each\nother and even from hearing each other.\nAt the third time I hear M. Talma\nblowing his nose; I say to him; 44 if you\nwant me, I am over here \".\nHe comes upon me, being very much\nheated with hurrying to and fro, and 1\neven dare to say that his appearance\nrevealed a little tamper, saying to me:\n44 My dear fellow, where the devil had\nyou gone ? for two hours I have been\nsearching for you all over the garden \".\nHis somewhat annoyed manner caused\nme to reflect, never before having seen\nhim angry.\nI reply : 44 But Monsieur, you tell\nme that you have searched for me every-\nwhere ; I am sorry if you are fatigued,\nbut it is not my fault, for I have not\nbeen away from here \".\nThen M. Talma begins to recover\nhimself a little from his chase and says\nto me : 44 My friend, what means shall\nwe take so that in the future we may find\neach other ? for our garden will always be\ngrowing larger. Then, if each time that\nI want you 1 am obliged to walk three\nleagues that will become very tiresome\nI reply to him : 44 Ah, Monsieur, we\nwill put an end to all these lost steps,\nwhich will end by fatiguing you\nM. Talma says to me : 4 4 But, my\nfriend, we must bethink ourselves of this\nmeans as soon as possible, for really this\nrunning to and fro becomes very disa-\ngreable \".\nVery well, Monsieur, you are going\ntomorrow to Paris, you must bring us\nback two whistles, one for each of us ;\nfor 1 beg you to believe that the sound\nof the whistle is more piercing than the\nsound of the voice, and will more easily\npenetrate the enclosures of the clumps of\ntrees V\nM. Talma replies to me: I believe\nthat you have struck on a good idea\nthere. Well, lam certainly going to tell\nPierre to remind me of it tomorrow \".\nSo off M. Talma sets for Paris, and\nsays to me, 44 Well, Louette, goodbye\ntill the day after tomorrow when we will\ntry the whistles\nThis did not fail. M. Talma arrives\nwith two ivory whistles ; he hastens im-\nmediately to my house with the two\nwhistles, and says to me, 44 Come, Louette,\nchoose \".\n1 answer, 44 Ah, Monsieur, 1 shall\nalready think myself happy enough to\naccept the one which does not suit you,\nrather than have the indiscretion of choo-\n• ? f\nsing .\nAt last M. Talma whistles in both,\ntakes his and gives me mine.\nHe says laughing, 44 Now then,,\nLouette, we need a rallying-call"}, {"page_pdf": 17, "page_imprimee": "13", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.17", "texte": "\" Monsieur say I, \" every mor-\nning, on coming out of the house and\nentering the grove, you will blow a\nwhistle. You will leave me time to take\nmy whistle from my pocket, and you will\nobserve well from which direction the\nsound comes. Then, you will walk in\nthe direction whence you will have judged\nthe whistle to come. When you want\nme to come to the house, you will add\na second blast, I shall know what that\nmeans\nM. Talma replies : \" Very well,\nthat's understood \".\nBut I : \" No, Monsieur, it is not yet\naltogether understood, for I have also an\nobservation to make to you \".\nM. Talma looks at me laughing and\nsaying :'' What is that ?\nI ask him : \" Well, Monsieur, if I\nhave need of you and you are in the\ngarden, have I the same right over you\nas you have over me ? Can I make use\nof my whistle to be heard by you?\nM. Talma begins to laugh and says\nto me : \" Just the same, since it is made\nfor that \".\nI reply: \" Monsieur, I make this\nremark to you because I well believe that\nthere will exist no one save myself in\nFrance, and I dare to say in Europe,\nwho will have the right to make use of\nthis insolent instrument against you \".\nM. Talma looks at me a little and\nanswers laughing: \"You too, Louette,\nwill only have this right at Brunoy M.\nWe had now thus reached a good\nunderstanding. M. Talma goes off to\ndine, and 1 say to him :\"I am going\nto work in the kitchen garden \".\nHe replies: \" Good, I am glad to\nknow where you are \".\nI had my doubts of this, for I was\nsure that he would be seized with impa-\ntience to put the whistles to the test.\n(Owing to that the whistles roused the de-\nrision of the household a little for some\ndays). In fact, M. Talma has barely\nhad time to dine when he rises again\nand comes out through the dining-room\ndoor and gives a whistle for me.\nI respond to him. He repeats it.\nI come to him in the dining -room. Eve-\nryone begins to laugh, and I also ; there-\nfore I say to M. Talma, \" There now!\nis that whistle only for fun? \"\nAnd M. Talma with his habitual\nkindly air replies, \" Yes, my friend, 1\nwas very glad to make a trial of our\ninvention ; but I am very pleased that it\ngoes well \".\nThen I made my bow, saying to\nM. Talma: \"I hope that now the\nwhistles have finished laughing ; that the\nnext time that they shall serve will be\nfor necessity, or else, having bought them\nto save your legs, they will end by tiring\nmine \".\nM. Talma replies ; \" That is true,\nthis poor Louette who has so much\nhardship, we make him walk about for\nnothing \".\nSome time afterwards M. le Comte\nd'Avoux, who was staying at Brunoy,\nwants to speak to M. Talma: not finding\nhim in his apartments, the servants say to\nhim: \" Monsieur, look in the kitchen\ngarden, Louette will find M. Talma for\nyou\nThe Comte d'Avoux comes up to\nme saying : \" Louette, could you do me\nthe kindness of telling me where Talma\n• **\nis ?\nI reply, \" Monsieur, follow me, I am\ngoing to find him \".\nI enter the grove, and, drawing my\nwhistle from my pocket, I blow it loudly.\n* It greatly surprised the Comte d'Avoux\nto see the way in which I called my\nmaster."}, {"page_pdf": 18, "page_imprimee": "14", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.18", "texte": "M. Talma is a little time in replying\nto me, because he no longer remembered\nin which pocket he had put his whistle.\nHowever, listening out for it, there is\nM. Talma responding.\nI say to M. d'Avoux : 44 Monsieur,\ntake that path there, you will find him\nnot far from here \".\nM. le Comte goes off laughing, and\nencounters M. Talma, also laughing, who\nsays to him : 44 Good day, d'Avoux ;\nyou are laughing at our invention ? But,\nmy dear fellow, the other day I searched\nfor Louette half a day without being able\nto find or meet with him. I was in a\ndetestable humour, and poor Louette said\nto me: 4 Monsieur, there is no other\nmeans to take but for each to have a\nwhistle '. And I believe that that has\nsucceeded very well\nIn 1821 M. Talma said to me, in the\nI month of September, on arriving one\nday [at Brunoy : 44 Well, Louette, have we\nplenty of poor folk in Les Bosserons? \"\nI reply : 44 Monsieur, this is not the\nmoment when the distress makes itself felt;\nit is in the month of January, for now\nthey have all just harvested ; but I know\nseveral who have no work. It is St\nMartintide that these unfortunate people\ndread ; it is the paying of the rent of\ntheir miserable huts : one is 60 francs,\nthe other 80 francs; often they and\ntheir family have not been able to earn\nthat sum in the harvest, yet out of it they\nmust also have some clothes for the\nwinter \".\nM. Talma says to me : 44 But if\nthese unfortunate folk had not work for a\nlong time, what would they do ? Die\nof hunger?\nI answer: 44 Monsieur, I believe that\nthere must always exist a providence in\nthe rich people of each commune, which\nmakes them provide for the existence\nthe poor \".\nM. Talma resumes : 4 4 Yes, you are\nright ; but since I have been at Brunoy\nI believe I have paid my share well\n\" Yes, Monsieur, but all the other\nbourgeois do not join with you in this,\nfor you do more by yourself, you alone,\neach year, than all the others put to-\ngether\nM. Talma says to me: 44 Very well,\nlet us keep on. Now come along, we\nare going to play a game of dominoes\nThat is the only game that M. Talma\nwould permit himself.\nWhile we were playing the first game,\nalmost in the middle, he looked at me\nand said to me : 44 Louette, I am thinking\nof something. I want to parquet my red\nsalon. How much will it cost me to do\nthat in point de Hongroie ? \"\nI reply : 44 Monsieur, I should require\nto know the length and the breadth\n44 That is most true \" said he.\nWell, my friend, let us leave our game\nand each take a candle, and let us go\nand take the measurements.\nHaving taken our measurements very\nexactly, we make our calculations, and\nwe find it comes to about six hundred\nfrancs.\nHe says to me : 44 Well, Louette\nthere is some work already found for the\ncarpenters, this winter. Let us go and\nfinish our game of dominoes. We will\nthink over finding something for our poor\nles Bosserons diggers.\nWe have not the time to finish our\ngame, for he stops in the act of placing\na domino, and looks at me saying :\nStop, Louette, I've thought of\nsomething. For a long time I have been\nwanting to make a little canal in the\nmeadow to render it healthier. With the\nsoil which will come out of it we will"}, {"page_pdf": 19, "page_imprimee": "15", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.19", "texte": "level our meadow well, we will stop up\nthe crooked arm which cuts our beautiful\nmeadow ; that will be twice as beautiful,\nand we are going to find work immediate-\nly for our diggers \".\nHe says to me : \" Come, stop, my\nfriend, don't let us play any more; go\nto bed ; tomorrow morning you will mea-\nsure the length and the breadth and you\nwill make the cumulations as to what that\nwill cost us In short, I say goodnight\nto him, and get up.\nM TALMA was so pleased with ha-\n» ving found work that he did not\nsleep that night. He came to knock at\nmy door the next morning before dawn,\nsaying to me :\nLouette, I am waiting for you. to\ngo to our canal \".\nI answered him : \" Pray give me time\nto dress myself \".\nHe says to me : \" All right. Well,\nLouette, I am going on ahead, bring\nalong your measure with you. We are\ngoing to carry out the work together \".\nAt last I arrived. M. Talma had\nalready nude the round of the meadow.\nI go to meet him and we set to work\nin the dew, our feet soaking. I wanted\nto send him back, for fear it should harm\nhim. He replies to me: \"My friend,\nyou speak very seriously : since you have\nchildren, your absense from them would\nbe as harmful to them as would be mine\nfrom mine \".\nMonsieur \", say I to him, \" it is\nbecause you would leave a great gap in\nthe surface of our land, but in my case,\nsave for time to open and close the grave,\nnothing would be noticeable any more \".\n\" Yes, my friend, for the public ;\nbut, should we die the same day, my\nchildren and yours would each lose the\nsame. Beyond that, it is nothing\nIn short, we continue our work:\nbreakfast time comes as we were finishing.\nI say to him : \" Well, Monsieur, we\nshall finish our calculations while break-\nfasting\nHe replies : \" Yes, but you will do\nit alone, and I, who set out for Paris at\nmidday, I still want to go round my\ngarden, and, moreover, I know nothing\nof your craft. Try and finish your cal-\nculations before I start, that I may see if\nthat will exceed the expenditure that I\nwant to incur this winter, for my household\nis only too heavy to maintain, without the\ngood that I have to do elsewhere\nFinally, at midday, M. Talma comes\nto me, having just made the round of\nhis garden.\nFie says : \" Well, my friend, what\ndo you make it?\n\" Monsieur, my whole summary shows,\napart from the inconveniencies of the water,\nwhich might impede us, 1,500 francs of\nexpenses \".\nGood ! my friend, you have told me\nthat there* are some workmen doing no-\nthing in les Bosserons, they must be taken\non tomorrow \".\nThat was Friday. I say to him:\n\" Monsieur, taking on workmen is not all,\nthe work must be planned out \".\nHe responds, \" Ah, that's true,\nLouette. Listen to me then. I act to-\nmorrow, Saturday. On Sunday I shall\ncome early, and we will plan it out to-\ngether. That will amuse me, and two\nheads are better than one \".\nIt is well to state that the delight of\nM. Talma was to lay out something new\nin his garden, so that some of his friends\nnamed him M. Da Piquet, O for they\nsaw him ceaselessly setting pegs to mark\nout paths or clumps of trees or flowers.\n\n(1) Monsieur Peg or Picket."}, {"page_pdf": 20, "page_imprimee": "16", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.20", "texte": "Meantime I set to work to prepare some\nof these pegs while awaiting M. Talma.\nON arriving from Paris his delight was\nto sit in my chimney corner, and to\neat at my table.\nM. Talma descends from his caleche\nand says to my wife: \" I am\nvery hungry.\n\" My wife replies: \" Monsieur, what\nwill you have to eat ? \"\nM. Talma saw my pot boiling, which\ncontained a neck of mutton with cabbages,\nand the neck-bone which was sticking out\nas it boiled, making the lid of the pot\nrise from time to time. In fact there was\na very good odour coming out of it.\nM. Talma says to me, with his eyes\non what he was seeing and smelling ;\n\" Louette, do me the kindness to tell me\nwhat it is making that noise in your pot,\nand what is it that smells so good!\n1 uncover the pot and show him.\nHe began to clap his hands and asked\nme where my wife was.\n1 said : \" Monsieur, she has gone to\nBrunoy to fetch some cutlets for you \".\nHe replies : \" Well, you will eat the\ncutlets and I will eat your soup. I can't\nhold out any longer; I am dying of\nhunger \".\nAnd I answer him ; Yes, and then\nthe hankering to eat of such choice\ndishes!\n\" My dear fellow, they are choice for\nme, for Louise is a good cook, but I never\nhave a better appetite than in your\nhouse \".\nMy wife arrives with the cutlets and\nfinds us at table.\n\" Allez,ma meyou can keep\nyour cutlets for your supper. Never have\nI made such a meal\nM. Talma ate only very little as a\nrule; this time he had eaten so that it\nwas a pleasure to see him; but also, to tell\nthe whole truth, I saw very well that the\nodour of his garden, which he loved so\nmuch, seasoned all the food which I could\noffer him at Brunoy.\nMONSIEUR said to me as we were walk-\ning : \" My friend Louette, I earn a\ngreat deal of money, but I do not earn\nenough yet, for I should like there not to\nbe a single poor person in Brunoy\nI reply: \" Monsieur, in the eyes of\nthe poor people you would take the place\nof M. le marquis de Brunoy. \"\nM. Talma responds: \" Yes, but I will\nmake them go in procession with barrows:\nafter me I will at least leave workmen,\nwhereas M. le marquis de Brunoy, with\nhis processions, could leave nothing but\nidlers. **\nI had compared M. Talma to M. le\nmarquis de Brunoy seeing that the marquis\nhad been for many years the seigneur of\nBrunoy, and that he employed everybody\nonly on work at the church, which he had\nhad gilded from top to bottom, as one still\nsees it. The marquis de Brunoy has held\nCorpus Christi processions which cost him\ntwo hundred thousand francs, and M.\nTalma used to say to me that he would\nrather change the whole face of his gar-\nden than spend so much money so use-\nlessly.\nIN 1822, in the month of September,\nM. Talma said to me : \" Come Louette,\nlet us arm ourselves with courage. We\nrequire a large provision of pegs. Here\nare all our poor folk who are about to\nleave our Champ d'Asile clear, and we\nshall have something to lay out.\"\nIn fact, M. Talma had not the pa-\ntience to wait till all the poor things, who\nhad each their little plot of land, had\ngathered their crops, to lay out this part"}, {"page_pdf": 21, "page_imprimee": "17", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.21", "texte": "of the garden, which was very conside-\nrable ; it contained nearly ten In\ntracing our paths we often traversed plots\nwhere there were potatoes planted and\nready to dig up. And to think that M.\nTalma took the precaution to derange the\nsticks for fear of treading on them!\n44 Louette \", said he to me, 44 are\nyou sure that we should be doing no harm\nto these poor people ? n\nI replied, 44 Monsieur, the potatoes are\nripe; have no fear.\"\nON that day the ground was dry and\nvery hard. M. Talma said to me\nwhile breakfasting : 44 Ah Louette, what\ntrouble that path there has given us! It\nhas tired me to death. It has bothered\nyou too, Louette, for you have yawned\nseveral times\".\nI answer him: 44 Ah, Monsieur, it is\nnot altogether the path which has bothe-\nred me, it is that you took your snuff,\nand I could not smoke my pipe. \".\nM. Talma: 44 What, Louette, you de-\nprive yourself of smoking for me? You\nare wrong, my friend, for I am passionately\nfond of the pipe. If Ido not smoke, it is\non the world's account.\nBut let us return to our path.\nHe said to me : 44 Louette, your hands\nmust be sore, my friend, for, the ground\nis very hard. Listen, my friend, each in\nhis turn. You have better eyes than mine ;\nperhaps we shall get along faster. \" So\nhere we are on the piece of ground. I\nset the pegs to trace the path from the\narbour which leads to the cottage, while\nM. Talma sets in his turn to the roughest\nlabour. In fact, there am I ordering my\nown master about; but I saw at once that\nwe were going to get angry because he was\nnot obedient.\nAt the fourth peg, as we were be-\nginning to turn, I said to him, 44 Pull! \"\nHe pushes.\nI repeat 44 Pull ! \"\nHe still pushes. Ma for, I begin to\nget in a rage; I swear, saying to him,\n\"but, 5..,. nom de Dieu, I didn't tell you\nto push, I told you to pull; I'm sure\nenough we are not going together any\nmore. \"\nM. Talma turns towards me saying:\n44 Forgive me, Louette, it is true. It is\n1 who am stupid.\nI reply, 44 Ah, Monsieur, I beg you\nto excuse me if I have been a little sharp\nwith you; it was to recall your attention\nto me, for I imagine that your head was\nelsewhere. \"\n44 That is true, Louette, for as we\nhad talked about an ice-house at break-\nfast, I was searching in my head for a\nplace for the ice-house.\"\nI respond: 44 Ah, Monsieur, do not\nlet us undertake ' so many things at once\nor we should do nothing well. \"\nWE finished our path in the twinkling\nof an eye, without going over it\nseveral times; which rarely happened, for\nthe one of the morning we had recom-\nmenced at least six times.\nOur path finished, I strike a light, M.\nTalma takes his pinch of snuff, both of\nus being seated on a rock. M. Talma sits\nhimself beside me, very close, so that in\ntalking, from time to time I send some\nsmoke over him.\n44 Ah, what a delicious smell that pipe\nhas, Louette! \".\nI respond: 44 So much the better,\nMonsieur, I can regale you at little cost \".\nM. Talma says to me: 44 Ah, ma foi\nLouette, now you will line out the paths\nyourself; you have better eyes than I have;\nand so we shall get finished sooner and\ntire ourselves less.\nI reply: 4 4 Monsieur, I don't want"}, {"page_pdf": 22, "page_imprimee": "18", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.22", "texte": "you even to touch them any more, for it\nis too hard a work putting in the pegs,\nwhen the ground is hard. We will only\nagree as to the plan of the paths, and I\nwill see to the rest, for I shall feel more\nat ease in ordering my under-gardener than\nyou. \"\nHe replies: \" Yes, especially when\nyou tell me to pull, and I push. \"\nI say to him: \" But, Monsieur, it is\nnot ill will; the inattention must be at-\ntributed to the ice-house which you had\nin your head. \"\nM. Talma begins again: Now,\nLouette, let us consider that ice-house. \"\n\" Very well!'' say I, '' since we wish\nto find a view point in the highest part of\nthe garden, to get a view of all that is\nbest in our surroundings, then the ice-house\nwill serve us as a view point. The earth\nwhich will come out of the excavation for\nthe ice-house will serve us to cover it\nwith, and we shall pile the earth over it\nas high as we can. \"\nMy foi \" says M. Talma, \" that's\na good idea; that is going to supply us\nwith plenty of earth. \"\nHe says to me: \" But how shall we\nbe able to decide on the height, until we\ncan mount up, at which we can see the\nhorizon well? \"\n1 reply: \"Eh ! Monsieur, you go away\ntoday, you act tomorrow, you return the\nday after tomorrow; meantime ! shall pre-\npare a double ladder of twenty-four feet,\nand you will mount up it until you can see\nall the summets of the mountains surroun-\nding your property. \"\nM. Talma looks at me, laughing, and\nsays: ts Ah, Louette, your invention is a\ngood one. lam going to hurry back from\nParis to see what we shall see. \"\nAt last it grows dusk, we take the\nroad to the house. M. Talma seats him-\nself beside my fire, and, wearied by the\nsticking in of the pegs, says to me: \" Ma\nfoi, Louette, I am not surprised if you are\nready for your bed every evening, for as\nfor me, I am done up, and I am off to\nbed. Weil, good night, till tomorrow\nmorning. \"\nTwo days later, M. Talma arrives\nfrom Paris with the gout.\nM. Talma says to me: \" And our\ndouble ladder, is it in place ? Shall we\nbe able to see that tomorrow ? \"\n\" But, Monsieur, if you cam t walk ? \"\n\" Ma foi, my dear fellow, then I will\nbe carried, I am in such a hurry to\n*l. 99\nsee it .\nTHE following morning, before the sun\nwas risen, there was a heavy dew;\nI see I\\l. Talma coming along with a little\ncrutch in his hand, a pair of shabby green\nbedroom slippers on his feet, so thin that,\nbefore he reached me, they were already\nsoaked through by the wet of the dew.\n1 begin to reprimand him, saying:\nwhat imprudence! could you not wait\ntill the dew had dried up! You deserve\nthat the gout should last for another\nmonth! \"\nHe replies: \" Louette, I can't contain\nmyself any longer until I have seen our\ninvention \".\nI say him: \" That's all right, but we\nhave to pass over a piece of turf near the\nladder, and you are going to get your feet\nsoaking wet.\nHe replies: \" Well, you shall carry\nme .\n\" I am very willing; the thing is, how\nare you to mount \".\n1 end by taking him in my arms as\nbest I can, and carrying him to the double\nladder.\nOnce arrived there, we mount each on\nour own side; when we had gone up\nabout eighteen feet M. Talma says to me;"}, {"page_pdf": 23, "page_imprimee": "19", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.23", "texte": "44 Ma foi,Louette, if we mounted twenty\nfeet more we could not get a finer view:\nlet us go down. \"\nI said: 44 going down isn't everything;\nthere is your going back: how are you\ngoing to manage ? \"\nHe says to me: 44 But, Louette, I can't\nstand on my foot any more. \"\nI reply: 4 4 Monsieur, it is your own\nimprudence; it's the damp which has al-\nready caught you on your way here, and\nwhich is having its effect. \"\nMy friend, that is all very well; to\nhave come here is but half the battle; the\nthing now is that I have got to get back\nto the house. \"\nI say to him: 44 Come, I am going to\nsummon up my courage and carry you\nback.\nBut, my friend, how are you going\nto do it ? \"\n1 take him by the arm and make him\nremount the double ladder backwards ; I\nmake him mount two rungs, always hol-\nding him by the arm; then I turn my back\nto him and say: 44 Now then, hold on\nto my shoulders, \" which he immediately\ndid. Once on my back, I say to him:\nAre you comfortable ?\n« V\nYes.\nI reply: 44 Just a minute, I must fix\nmyself so that 1 too can go easily.\nI take one of his thighs in each hand\nand then I shake myself a bit to get started.\nThen I set off with my load on my back,\ndirecting my steps towards the house.\nAs we go along, M. Talma says to\nme: 44 Ah, mon Dieu, Louette, how beau-\ntiful my garden is!\nI reply: 44 Yes, ...especially when one\ntakes a ride around it in such a carriage! \"\nM. Talma says to me: 44 Louette, am\nI very heavy? S!\nI reply: You weigh at least a hundred\nand eighty. \"\nHe retorts, laughing, 44 without the\ngood spirits? \"\nBut M. Talma was so good that one\nwould have served him just for the plea-\nsure of being ordered about by him. No,\nhe who has known and served M. Talma\nas I have, cannot honour him too highly.\nWas it needful that he should have des-\ncended so low today! No, truly, the soil\nof Pere-Lachaise ought not to consume\nsuch flesh!\n* * * &\nPierre Louette had Written the follow-\ning lines at the head of his manuscript.\nToo lengthy to constitute a title, this\nkind of introduction, it seemed to us, ought\nnevertheless not to be left in oblivion, and\nour gardener's readers will find him here\ntelling, with his usual naievite, the motives\nwhich determined him to take up the pen.\nSJ Private life of M. Talma on his\ncountry estate at Brunoy, written by his\ngardener Louette ; and conversations which\nthey have had together since 1817 until\nthe month of October 1826 relating to\nthe kindnesses of M. Talma which are inef-\nfaceable in my memory; that is why 1\nventure to write so as to dissuade people\nfrom being led into error as to the good\nconduct of M. Talma, who is irreproa-\nchable ; a man who has been great in all\nhe did, thinking always only of how to\ndo good, and always detesting to hear\ntalk of those who do evil.\nFor ten years past, i can appreciate\nhis character, the more so since 1 was not\nregarded by him as his gardener, for I can\nsay that I was his confidante and his friend:\nalso the good treatment which I received\nfrom M. Talma constrained me to attach\nmyself to his service and to defend his\ninterests, a thing which was only too na-\ntural, since he merited it as a good father\nand a good master, and he tried ever to\nmake the lot of all those who surrounded"}, {"page_pdf": 24, "page_imprimee": "20", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.24", "texte": "him, very happy. What has compelled\nme to write about this ten years' passage\nof his life when I had the honour of ser-\nving him, is the stream of people whom I\nhave lately been forced to see and hear,\nand the quantity of visitors to whom 1\nhave been obliged to show his house, and\nhis establishment in general: for it can be\nbelieved that this property is well founded\nby him, seeing that he began it with one\npoor arpent of land, and that he has ex-\ntended it to sixty-five arpents. One must\nnot suppose from this that he squandered.\nIf I make use of this term it is be-\ncause I have been forced a hundred times,\nin the last six months, to be the defender\nof his memory against persons who came\nunder the pretext of buying this unfortu-\nnate orphan estate, and that, in his very\napartments, my unfortunate ear has often\nbeen wounded by persons certainly not his\nequals, and who said: Talma was mad. He\npulled down his house ten times to change\nits shape. He has torn up all the trees,\none after another, to set them elsewhere.\nOne cannot ignore that these injustices\nhave astounded me a hundred times, for I\nknew to the contrary, and I knew that if\nM. Talma earned a great deal of money,\nit was only spent upon improving his estate,\nand in doing good wherever my master\ndirected his steps.\n\nTHE OPERA HOUSE OF\nTHE PALACE OF VERSAILLES\nBY GORDON CRAIG.\n\nBUILT 1753-1770 by Architect Jacques Ange Gabriel\n(1698-1782).\nUndoubtedly it was rather a large Theatre for any\nman to order for himself and family. But it couldn't well\nbe any smaller—for this was the situation.\nIn 1753 everyone was having a theatre built for\nhimself; it was only this King who had none. The other\nKings, even the Dukes, ail had a theatre apiece; some\nhad even three or four. Down in Caserta near Napoli\nKing Carlo 111 had only last year, 1752, put architect\nLuigi Vanvitelii on to the building of a huge palace with\na theatre in a central position. It has five circles and\nsome forty-two boxes. Louis XV cannot possibly do less.\nIt looks to me as though he had seen some drawings for\nthis Caserta Theatre. And the Due always\nthreatening to have another private theatre and yet ano-\nther—even a rascally poet has a little playhouse down in\nthe Rue Traversi&re where he is producing plays and great\nactors by smiling. At Berny de Clermont put up a\nTheatre three years ago—yes, in 1750 or was it earlier;\nand there is de Grammant dancing like a man who is\nenjoying himself at Puteaux ; even Popeliniere has a play-\nhouse down in Putney—l mean Passy—and why shouldn't\nLouis XV have one—that is what he is asking himself.\nThe fault of Kings is only one but it is a grave one; it\nis this. They have always thought far far too much about\ntheir subjects and too little for themselves.\nEveryone may have his say and his Theatres.—Had\nI been a King I should, I am afraid, have come to feel\nlike that and done like that too. But not being a King,\nand there being (at present) no fear that I ever shall be\none, I can say what I like without any fear of being\nobliged later on to abide by it.\nAnd so 1 will turn to my imaginary Master of the\nWhite Horse or some other menial and will tell him to\nlisten attentively—in fact write it down. \" Write this \"\nI tell him. —\" There will be only one private playhouse\nin my Empire and it will be in this house. It will be\nlarge enough to entertain all those gentlemen and ladies of\nmy realm who so very much enjoy private theatricals that\nthey empty my Public Playhouses rendering it very dif-\nficult for them to exist. My private theatricals will have\nto be so good that anyone not enjoying them will be con-\nsidered sick and shall immediately be treated by the pri-\nvate physician of my Theatre \".\nNow when his Majesty King Louis XV called in\nthat excellent architect Jacques Ange Gabriel and ordered\nhim to build the theatre at Versailles he told him to make\nit large enough to hold 3000 such guests but he forgot to\nclose the other private Theatres.\nIt was an immense playhouse for those days, and,\nbut for the Teatro of the Duke of Parma, I should ima-\ngine the largest private Theatre ever built.\nSo Gabriel set to work in 1753, and what with one\ntrouble and another the place was only ready by 1770,\ninaugurated in that year on May 16th to celebrate the\nmarriage of the Dauphin with Marie Antoinette. It was\n144 feet long, 60 feet wide, 50 feet high, had 38 co-\nlumns, and the machines (which at that time were begin-\nning to fail to be of service so big they were becoming)\nwere constructed by the stupid Arnould."}, {"page_pdf": 25, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.25", "texte": "A PRIVATE THEATRE OF A KING. THE OPERA HOUSE THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES.\nBuilt by Architect Gabriel; commenced 1753; inaugurated May 16th 1770\nPlate 2.\n\nTHE MASK\n1926"}, {"page_pdf": 27, "page_imprimee": "21", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.27", "texte": "There is no time and space to stop and apologize for\na weli meant thrust at a man bent on bamboozling us all\nfor ever, the mechanic in the Arts, but Arnould will know\nwhat 1 mean. Often he must have leaned over the bar\nof Heaven with the blessed Damozel and seen the goings\non at La Scala and the Pans Opera House and remem-\nbered too late that to make good machines for Theatricals\nthey must follow one principle and that i 5....— but I am\ngrown wiser since I was in Berlin, and friend Reinhardt's\nemissaries ever lurking behind the arras. Yes, I have a\nvery pretty idea about Theatre machines which would save\na Theatre director some thousands of pounds yearly and\nbring other thousands of pounds to the employes—espe-\ncially to the machine makers, and that without remoulding\nthe world more to my heart's desire. But to tell it is not\nmy intention. Like Lord Byron No more—no more—\nOh I never more will I be offering my ideas to anyone\ngratis. It's not being done any more by me, and my ad-\ndress is Via delta Costa di Serretto 17. Oenova. 1 erms\npayable in three parts; on signing contract, on commence-\nment of work and on completion of work.\nAnd I hope this is practical enough.\ne.g. c.\n\nPLAN OF THE ROYAL PALACE OF\nCASERTA, SHOWING THE THEATRE\nBUILT BY THE ARCHITECT\nLUIGI VANVITELLI\nFOR CARLO III\nIN 1752\n\nTHE COLOSSUS.\nG . B . S.\n\nTHERE are people, Mr Henry Arthur Jones\nfor example, who object to Mr Bernard\nShaw's views his attitude his everything.\nThey find him the \"most poisonous of all the poi-\nsonous haters of England \" : the \" idol of\nopaque intellectuals and thwarted females \" :\nthe \" menace to ordered social thought and\nordered social life \" and so on.\nPeople who utter cries of that kind prove\nthat they read what Mr Shaw writes and it\nserves them jolly v/ell right.\nI do not read anything Mr Shaw writes.\n1 don't prevent myself, it is he that prevents\nme. As my study is Drama and Theatre,\nand as I see he writes plays and talks of the\nplayhouse, I always begin with a good will,\nDut after a couple of paragraphs 1 have always\nbeen forced by Mr Shaw to leave off.\nIf Mr Shaw wrote about Journalism or\nReligion i think I could read on; but he\nwrites on so many things about which others\nspeak with more authority ; about Drama and\nTheatre for example; this forces him to put\non airs, and the moment I hear the strong and\nkindly voice putting on airs all is up.\nBut here is a book 1 can read for\nMr Henderson has a good deal to ask, and\ndoes it all so well; and, while he is present,\nsomething happens which makes it possible\nfor me to listen to the replies and to watch\nG. B. S. as he is answering Mr Henderson,\nand all is charming.\nSurely no one needs assuring that nothing\ncan trip up Mr Shaw, that nothing is too much\nfor him.\nBe the question one about War or Peace,\nabout the several European Governments or\nMr. Wilson, about French Revolution or\nMr Joyce, Belgium 01* Communism, Theatre\nor Pulpit, of what to do in this event or in\nthat one —he can answer it pat. Mr Shaw\nis ever ready.\nI feel quite sure that Mr Shaw knows\nsome one thing better than the rest of us, but\nwhat is it ? What ever it is 1 shall never\nknow for I have heard him begin on nearly\n\n(1) \" Table Talk of G. B. S. \" by Archibald Henderson'\n(Chapman and Hall) appeared in 1925."}, {"page_pdf": 28, "page_imprimee": "22", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.28", "texte": "everything, and always in that spirited voice,\nand yet the voice of the debating-society\nspeaker. This stops my reading Shaw.\nOne of the most lamentable facts that\nthe Theatrical historian of the nineteenth and\ntwentieth centuries will be able to record,\nis, that its most celebrated London Dramatist\nwas able to give you a clear slick answer to\nany question anyone might put to him. He\nnever said \" I do not know \".\nIf only he had been ignorant, or innocent,\nof all things except the craft of the playwright,\nwhat a blessing such a power as his would\nhave been to our stage. We should have\nhad at least one more name to add to that\nof Tom Robertson, and, who knows, to that\nof Sheridan. As it is, the next thirty-five\nyears will have to be spent in ridding Euro-\npeans and Americans of the misrepresenta-\ntions Shaw has poured into their ears for the\nlast thirty-five years or so.\nI will not say it is \" cursed hebenon \",\nfor Shaw is as good as gold and wouldn't\nhurt a fly: but he was born when Journalism\nwas growing great, and he learned too well\nwhat fun it is to dope those who will make\nit a custom of an afternoon to go to sleep.\nAnd he didn't even pour it in quietly like\nan artist: he dinned it in so that it's really a\nwonder they didn't wake up.\nNear by where 1 live is a convent of\nwomen. They ring a bell for hours at a\ntime. A bell, not six... one bell. They\nare ringing now.\nBing—bing—bing—bing\nbing bing bing bing ( presto).\nThey are very good women and very\nclever women too who ring it; but they\nlack one little something call it art....\nsense.... mother-wit or knack,... which you\nwill. Whereas the towers of the other little\nchurches or monasteries up and down the\nvalley swing out well-made tunes and chimes\nduring the day, these good and clever wo-\nmen send up their tower one chosen sister to\npound one barren note at us:\nbing bing bing bing bing\nme me me me me\nis what it seems at last to say. Though far\noff, I almost see her as 1 listen, and I am so\nsorry. She is, I know, expressing herself\nclearly. What was that Wilde wrote about the\nlilacs ? well, it's just other than that. Only\none thing she seems able to do to vary the\nawful cleverness of her performance, the dire\nsaintliness of her devoted bell-banging ; ... it\nis to go faster and then suddenly to scuttle.\nPerhaps 1 am unfair on her to ask more\nthan sanctity from her; but from Mr Shaw,\nhe having taken to the boards, I expect more\nthan sanctity and bing. For she who bangs\nthe little bell is somehow like Mr Shaw\ngiving his opinion on all things in heaven and\nearth : it is one long string of be 11....\nDin din.\nAll I want is that she shall stop it and\nthat he shall stop it.\n1 don't differ from a thing Shaw says. I\ndon't agree either. I merely want him to\nstop, for I cannot stand the way he says it.\nAs for what he says, I am content to leave\nto trained people in Europe all questions and\ndecisions concerning Wars, Peace, Belgium,\nCommunism, Government, Mr Wilson and\nthe French Revolution. 1 will and do abide\nby what they say. 1 will not interfere ; and\nby doing this I hope, indeed I suppose, I act\nlike any other quite ordinary man.\nMr Shaw, who was not born at all an\nordinary man, .... who was, I believe, born\nto be a great priest and very holy man, for\nsome reason fell from grace, took to journa-\nlism (a big enough task one would say to\nkeep him faithful to it), then deserted jour-\nnalism and wrote plays, so many and so long\n.... ting—ting ting—ting .... that he has come\nto be thought of as a playwright.\nA playwright is one who masters the craft\nof play making to the greater lustre of the Dra-\nmatic art. Primarily (and indeed to the end)\na craftsman, he may, as he progresses, fashion\na masterpiece and so win the title of artist.\n1 cannot think Mr Shaw has won that\ntitle, and for my part I believe he never\nstrove for it.\nThe title is his, it has been forced on\nhim, but I fear that is all.\nHe gives us not what an artist gives us\nbut what a very clever man failing to be an\nartist falls back on.\nI am grieved at what is lost. I grieve\nthat by shouldering, elbowing forward, he has\nthrust aside too many a real English artist\nplaywright. That is a very great pity for\nthe English Drama."}, {"page_pdf": 29, "page_imprimee": "23", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.29", "texte": "For there is not room in any space for\nmore than will fill that space, and G. B. S.\nhas elbowed his way far too energetically for\nslighter men, yet better artists, to exist there.\nWe have now to begin putting up a few\nfences and digging ditches, so that a journalist\nof genius, a born Religious leader, however\ngifted as a preacher, may never again get into\nthe dramatic fold, and a true dramatist, how-\never slight, never be pushed out of it to\nmake room for even the cleverest of men.\nMr Shaw has been what the England of\nthe day urges practical people to be a\ntalker. He has not been a brilliant talker\nbut a mighty one. Brilliance delights and\ncharms ; it wins the hearts of men and women.\nSheridan is the brilliant talker, but I believe\nShaw could bear him down. Shaw is like a\ngreat wind ; he will, I like to think, have\ndone a power of good when these days are\ngone and we gone and the sun shines out\nagain. Shaw is a noble man and his forced\nassumption of cap and bells is the unkind\nthing the age did to him. And I, least of all,\nintend in anything I say any unkindness.\nThe trees bending underneath the blast hardly\nintend unkindness to the howling storm.\nGlorious that a man can become trans-\nformed, and, howling in cap and bells, can\nride the blast as Shaw does. All I pray\nis that no one any more confound that superb\nachievement with the achievement of the ar-\ntists; that no one studying the Drama and the\nTheatre shall stop, even for a moment, to con-\nsider this colossal event as connected in any\nway with the Theatre.\n\ne. g. c.\n\nA DRAMA IN \"ACCA\"\nAT ZAVOV.\nBY FRANCOIS M. FLORIAN.\nOctober 18 th 1925.\nDEAR SEMAR:\nAlthough I know 1 have not sent you\nany word of my whereabouts, save the few\nlines about the San Gallo design, for some\nmonths, I fear that I cannot write you much\neven now.\nAll I can do is to enclose the nearest\nthing that I have come across to a play in\nwhat your contributor in \" The Mask \" for\nJanuary 1924 called \" ACCA \". It does\nnot seem to be such a new language as he\nthought.\nI was in Georgia last night: I am spee-\nding away in an express tonight with hope\nof getting away from the place where \"ACCA\"\nis an accomplished fact.\nI prefer the very plainest French or En-\nglish. I will even go to the Theatre Vieux\nColombier : nay more; I will go so far as the\nEveryman Theatre in Hampstead, ... .anything\nto banish all remembrance of \" ACCA \".\nThe author of \" Films \" should really go\nto the town I have just left. Perhaps that is\nwhere he comes from. Anyhow the lan-\nguage spoken there is half Russian, half I\nknow not what; and the third half is pro-\nbably pure Georgian ; and the whole makes\nup \" ACCA \" to a T.\nBut I am leaving it swiftly ;—my train is\ngoing fast; and all I can or care to tell you\nis this.\nOn October 18th I saw a poster outside\nthe Kouslsky station at Zavov, announcing\nthat there would be performed that night at\n8 o'clock \" King Lear or Once Upon a\nTime \" by Nikolai Zolka ; and, taking this\nto be the King Lear of Shakespeare, and\nwondering how it would sound in the sweet\nGeorgian idiom, which I have always loved\nand which 1 speak and understand without\ndifficulty, I strolled round to the Moilie\nTeato after a very excellent dinner at Zap-\npa's.... Fancy old Zappa having got of\nall places. He gave me a hearty welcome\nand a spaghetti a la Napolitana as though we\nwere back in 1912.\n\n(i) Moilie Teato—Little Theatre."}, {"page_pdf": 30, "page_imprimee": "24", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.30", "texte": "In 1912 Zappa had a small but excellent\ntrattoria in Lucca. In 1919 the place was,\nI believe, burnt, and the proprietor, who had\nonce been cook in the imperial palace at St\nPetersberg (so he said) went northwards\nhoping to reestablish his fortune.\nI reached the Theatre twenty minutes be-\nfore the play began, bought a ticket and\nsmoked half a Terfoo (1) in the foyer, while\nwaiting for the curtain to rise. Meantime I\nbought a book of the words and was amazed\nat what I saw.... for I couldn't read a word\nof the stuff. It was written in 1917.\nI send you the thing. Possibly no one\nwill be able to make head nor tail of it:\nbut you might care to print the first scene so\nas to show readers of \" The Mask \" that I\nam not exaggerating. The stage directions\nare in Georgian; these I've translated for\nyou into English, and hope my pencillings\nare not too illegible. The last line of the\nscene for some unaccountable reason was to\nmy astonishment spoken in plain English\n....although it is in pure Georgian in the li-\nbretto.\nI went in and heard the first act: I could\nnot stay for more. The actors were (like all\nactors) adorable ; they did wonders; ....but\nagainst words which mean nothing no one\ncan do anything.\nHere is the first Scene.\nSCENE /.\nThe Throne Room.\nis hanging up, traced in colours on transparent\nnet. It hangs between the\nPlayers (3).\nEnter the King and his Five Daughters,\n(each Daughter has her\nheaddress) : followed Trum-\npets. The King seats throne,\naround him his five D\nEnglanders, Courtiers, Wise Man, Fool, etc.\nKING. (in gruff and petulant tones) Chou (4)\nchou, chou. Loun douning kapple de\nlure (5). Ah-malingerla fanning ma!aril\nka. Ma! points to the map with\nhis sceptre) Little liar !\nFirst Daughter forward.\nKING. Chou, loun, falli a fa.\nIst DAUGHTER. SOU, rizi a sou, samli-ka\nsofli-ko sa ! (I)\nKING. (pleased)Chou. Scandiebox!\nSecond Daughter\nMoly (2) opopoli prow ?\n2nd DAUGHTER. Aich-fafa, falita tafle, tafle\na schnap !\nKLNG. (slightly surprised,mah.es\nto rise)\n2nd DAUGHTER. Samli-ka sofli-ko sa!\nThe Court murmurs approval.\nKING. Ah ha ! .... c/aroun .... Jaroum\n(Clearing his throat)\nChou. Busybodie!\nThird Daughter leaps forward.\nBurbury billiboo, branch led and lolly ho?\n3rd DAUGHTER. Attci, attce, a adly-el-oillio\ndi oily.\nThe Courtiers murmur strong approval.\nKING. (charmed hy the oily and oillio sounds,\nand Wagging his head)\nAh, ah, ah, papala papala, papalafala.... Chou!\nThe Courtiers are all attention.\nKING. Toady-tot!\nThe Fourth Daughter leaps forward.\nBrantam ranala blam, blurry-blue ?\nThe Courtiers all crane their necks for-\nward and there is a moment's pause.\n4th DAUGHTER. Oh, uh, liquori cuori oh,\nuh—zu ?\nThe Courtiers all break out into relieved\nexclamantions.\nCOURTIERS. Ach! ta! ta! tattita-tattita-ta\n(staccato)\nKING. Frou - Frou—oh too Frou tofle frau\nChou. Darling! (There is a pause)\nThe Fifth Daughter advances.\nChop, killy crop, dolly op antica ? Match.\nsth DAUGHTER. (Shakes her head)\nKLNG. COW? Munch and a match antic an\ndolly o crop.\nCOURTIERS. Munch - and match—snatch—\noh, ither bunch ! (Murmurs of Bunch—\nSnatch—Munch)\nsth DAUGHTER. (Shakes and lowers her head).\n\n(1) The Terfoo is one of the best of cigars if you know\nhow to smoke it. In England you can get them for abniit\niod each. In Zavoff they cost 4 sacci or about 3d in English\nmoney.\n(2) Supposedly ancient Britain.\n(3) One had sometimes to dodge and peer in between the\npeninsulas and capes and under the bays and gulfs to catch\na glimpse of the speakers.\n(4) Chou or Chow: M. Paul Boulgeois (1848) has assured\nus that the significations of this word are practically endless.\n(5) Lure. See GeiselbrechPs 44 Die Zigenner inihrem\nWeseu im in ihrer Sprache n Basle (1854).\n(1) Samli-ka Sofli-ko. Compare Eloise Levi, 44 Esquisse\nsur V his to ire, les moeurs, et la langue des Khouan Paris,\n1837. Kolltnan, 1. cM p. 14: Groome, 44 Journal of Gypsy\nLore\n(2) Moly. Vide 44 Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy \"}\nVol. I. Page 986."}, {"page_pdf": 31, "page_imprimee": "25", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.31", "texte": "KING. Blank a black bong. Rouf, ding ga\ndong, ding go dong. Dong!! Yong.\nConsternation. The King rises. All\nmove to the R. except the sth\nDaughter, who stands alone.\nKING. ( turning) Ex, Axe other ox—\nBurbury-burybur max. Wha !\nAll go out but the Fifth Daughter,\nwho is left alone. She raises her\neyes, looksat the Audience, shakes\nher head.\nsth DAUGHTER, It's no good answering\nthem.\nShe goes out.\n* * $\n€J The conductor of the train has just\ncome in and has said to me *' Bram zatski\nhashnahalla \". Would that mean anything to\nyou, 1 wonder? Yet it meant \"Tickets,\nplease, Sir \" to him.\nWhat a wonderful thing speech is after\nall. How really practical, how perfectly beau-\ntiful.\n\nSOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT.\nJ. S.\nIN 1814 Lord Byron went to Drury Lane Theatre and\nsat enthralled in a box watching Edmund Kean.\nHow old was Byron, how old Kean ? What had\neach achieved by the year 1814?\nw * *\nWe have never come across anyone yet who could\nanswer ,this question, although a glance at the two \" Lives \"\nwill settle it in a trice.\nAnd we make a note of it here only to start a\ntrain of thought.\nPoets, Playwrights, Actors are often past sixty before\nthey come face to face in their prime. Yet here was Byron,\nhere Kean; the one acting \" Shylock \" for the other, and\neach in his prime.\nWhat were the two ages ?\nByron was twenty-six and Kean was twenty-seven.\nAre we wrong, or is there some food for thought\nhere ?\n\nWHAT IS IT YOU WANT?\nBY YOO-NO-HOO.\nYOU are, it would seem, a people that\ndoes not know its own mind. And this\nmust have a decidedly disheartening effect\nupon the minds of those good people who\nare devoting time and the best of their abi-\nlities to entertaining you.\nYou write in a month more in your jour-\nnals about the Theatre and the Drama than\nItalians do in six months or longer, which\nshows me you are concerned. You seem to\nbe aware that things are not what they should\nbe, but I see no sign that you make any move\nto bring them nearer that state.\nYou have done curious things these last\ntwenty five years.\nYou have, for example, driven an English\nmanager to present you with ' Hamlet ' in\nmodern dress. Your knowledge and taste in\nmatters Theatrical seems to be so small and\nso variable that unless you get a shock you\ncan feel nothing. That there is very little to\nfeel when you go to a playhouse is, I begin\nto believe, your fault because you have been\nbusily occupied these last twenty-five years\ntelling the play-writers and actors that they\nmust think more—you've asked them to be\nmore thoughtful : you praised a genius you\nonce had for being \" \",\na thing he never was ; you even persuaded\nMr. Matthew Arnold to go and see him\nperform once, and to write about him. If by\nchance a superlatively gifted actress performed\nto you, you excused her brilliance by saying\nit was only natural—that she could not help\nit,—she \" disarmed criticism \". Just because\nshe was a born actress she disarmed the\npeople you sent to appraise her. Before most\nthings you were ready with your apologetic\ncough.\nWhen a clever playwriter came along,\ninstead of accepting his plays without a word\nsaid, and precisely for what they were worth,\nyou said he should not write plays and en-\ntered into such very long arguments with him\nthat, taking himself as seriously as you took\nhim he came to imagine humself the mouth-\npiece of a new continental Philosophy, and,\nlosing the little talent he possessed as a play-\nmaker, became a lecturer upon all things great\nand small. When producers of talent ap-"}, {"page_pdf": 32, "page_imprimee": "26", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.32", "texte": "peared you spent three or four years going\nthe round of London asking your friends and\nrelations what you should do with them.\nYou got no reply and so you did nothing\nwith them. A history of one of your stages\nis written, you \" remainder \" it. It does not\nmatter to you that it is one of the best his-\ntories ever written on the stage of a pro-\nvincial city—you have no use for it: if it\nwere badly written and illustrated and ill got\nup it would be just the same ; but being well\nwrit, well stocked with designs and finely pub-\nlished it seemed to annoy you—-and so you\nallowed it (you still allow it) to be forgotten.\nWhat is it you want ?\nOnly recently Webster's *' White Devil \"\nwas produced at the Renaissance Theatre in\nLondon. I was not able to be present but\nI have read some of the longest criticisms.\nFrom these I gather little ; but you all make\none thing clear, which is that you don't like\nthe way it was produced for the very serious\nreason that it was produced that way: and\nyou seem to feel that you would anyhow\nhave preferred Sir Barry Jackson to have pro-\nduced the play in modern dress for that\nanyhow gave you a little shock.\nNot that you liked the way Sir Barry's\nassistants produced Hamlet for you: in fact\nyou rather disliked that way; but you did\nfor once sit up and attend because you were\nroused. Plus fours being a bit too much for\nyou, you instantly decided to be equal to the\nemergency and anyhow find some reason for\ndecrying the thing.\nShall I tell you what it is 1 think you\nwant ? A year or two of utter forgetfulness\nof yourselves. I wonder if you know what I\nmean. When you see a gawky young ass of\ntwenty years of age swaggering about amongst\nyour pleasant Sunday afternoon tea tables you\nknow what's the matter with him: you forgive\nhim entirely but you know that only a year\nor so at sea or somewhere away from your\nneighbourhood will rid him of that awful self-\nconsciousness which annoys the poor lad al-\nmost as much as it does you.\nWell, that's your case. You at a theatre\nbecome just like that boy ....self-conscious\nfrom first to last. Even when apparently per-\nfectly at ease you reek of self-consciousness.\nYou take yourself seriously—your appearance\nseriously—your entrance and presence is a\nserious matter you believe, and you treat it\nas such. I see your face rounding the corner\nof the door which leads to your stall. It is\nin some ways the most perfect acting I have\never seen, and I have seen much good acting.\nYour passage to your seat is masterly—your\npause—your sitting down... astonishingly\ngood.\nExcept in Paris, where they too some-\ntimes act before the curtain, I have seen no\none act as you do. You not only deceive us\nwho see you; you positively deceive yourself.\nNow don't you ?\nYou don't think you act—now as you\nread this you even laugh at me for the sug-\ngestion—damme, my good soul, you're still\nacting. You are one and all the greatest\nactors of the century.\nOf course you cannot tolerate the stuff\nthey call \" acting \"on the boards—you alone\ncan deliver the goods—and this you proceed\nto do.\nIt has been customary to say that in Eng-\nland the art of acting is not very highly\ndeveloped. I have heard Frenchmen, Italians\nand Russians say this, and Englishmen too.\nThey say this because on coming to London\nthey go to a theatre to look for acting. They\nwait until the curtain rises and judge English\nacting from what they see on the stage.\nWhat an odd thing never to have per-\nceived that the stage in England is the very\nlast place to look for acting.\nGo the Houses of Lords and Commons;\ngo to the Lawcourts; go to the laying of,\nsome foundation stone, to the opening of a\nnational monument, to a garden party at a\ngreat mansion, or to Lords, to Newmarket,\nto Epsom. There's acting for you, and the\nvery best that is to be found in Europe today.\nI almost feel tempted to place it above the\nAmerican acting, but of this I am not abso-\nlutely sure.\nSo colossal is our histrionic sense that it\nis far easier for a young society lady to take\nup a leading part in some big production at\na moment's notice and achieve a true success,\nthan it is for a professional actress of thirty\nyears to do the same task even passibly.\n\" I have never been on a stage before \"\nshe says to the journalists as she goes on board ;\nI am being shipped to play St. Catherine\nin a wonderful production of \" The Wheel \".\nBut such an assertion won't do : she has been\non nothing else but a stage all her life."}, {"page_pdf": 33, "page_imprimee": "27", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.33", "texte": "\" Look at Mary \" says her mother when\nshe is three years old. \" don't seem to notice\nher \" she adds in a stage aside so loud that\nMary is bucked up at once and begins to\nprance:—and then Mary goes around the\nroom acting for all she is worth. Dear little\nMary—poor little fool.\n\" So unconscious \" sighs her mother, all\nexcitement; \" such a little angel—dreams all\nday—seems to notice no one and to hear\nnothing\nDear little Mary. Yes, and now Mary\nis in America or Australia acting badly for\nthe first time in her life for she has gone on\nto the stage.\nYes, I think I know what you want.\nYou want to remove the old stigma \" a nation\nof shopkeepers \", and let it be seen that you\nare a nation of actors.\n\n\"REMAINDERED\".\nJ. B.\nI am one of those five hundred to a thousand\nlovers of the Theatres of yesterday and, as\na rule, am in touch with most of the books\nwhich deal with Historical research. And\nyet I had never heard of \" The Annals of\nthe Liverpool Stage\" by R. j. Broadbent\ntill three days ago. No one in England\never breathed its name to me. What enthu-\nsiasm, what civic pride! I'll swear that\nmany of you in America never heard of it\neither—and the Londoners?—and the Liver-\npoolers? what of these?\nIn Italy I believe there will be some who\nwill be really glad to hear of this book —for\nit is more like your books on your Italian\nTheatres than you might suppose—for you\nmay have heard that in England there do not\nexist more than a very few books on parti-\ncular Theatres.\nWhile you have issued at least eighty to\na hundred books on particular Theatres, we\nin England have not produced more than\nabout fifteen to twenty at the most. In\nFrance one can find some forty to sixty I\nsuppose; of these I think I have twenty; but\nI haye only about ten of the English books.\nNow though we have so few I find only\nfour modern works which are first class;\nThe Annals of Covent Garden.\nThe Lyceum and Henry Irving.\nThe Annals of the Liverpool Theatre.\nThe Hay market Theatre,\nand 1 feel that there is still room for a better\nbook on the Haymarket Theatres.\nThe work on the Liverpool Theatre was\nissued at 8/6. You can get it now for 4/-\nfor it has been \" remaindered \". Edward\nHowell, Castle Street, Liverpool can supply it.\nOur English scholars and students, our\nLeagues, Societies and Stage allowed it. Were\nthey so without genuine interest for the cause\nthey profess to have at heart that they could\nallow one of the four best books on the\nEnglish Theatre, a book which was a labour\nof love, to fade out and be reduced to 4/~.\nIt is beautifully illustrated, well bound, and\nthe book on the subject.\n\" Remaindered \"!!!!!!!\nI do feel proud of the England stage, its\nscholars, its Leagues, the League's Patrons,\nits Societies and their Patrons and all the\nrest of the humbug.\n\" Remaindered"}, {"page_pdf": 34, "page_imprimee": "28", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.34", "texte": "GIUSEPPE BIBIENA.\nA NOTE BY ALLEN CARRIC.\nJUST a little like young Lovat Fraser this\nGiuseppe of the family Galli of Bibiena.\n1 am never able to decide which of the fa-\nmily had the most talent for designing stage\nsceneries, and there were eight in the family\nwho designed them admirably; but I conti-\nnually find myself giving my vote to Giuseppe.\nThere is a design by him in sepia and\nbigio (pen and wash) in the second volume\nof the \" Monumenta Scenica \" which astounds\nme. I suppose I shall be told that anyone\ncould do it and some of his brothers or\nhis uncle or father did do something like it;\nbut I've not found that anyone can do it.\nGiuseppe was the second or third son of\nFerdinando and was born in Parma on Ja-\nnuary sth in the year 1696, and by the age\nof sixteen was so handy with the scenogra-\npher's tools that his father took him with him\nto Vienna as they called Wien in those days.\nBefore long he was helping his father in his\nwork. At twenty-one (1717) he was given\nthe same office which the Emperor Charles VI\nof Austria had conferred on his father some\nseven years before, and which the elder man\nwas now obliged to relinquish, owing to fail-\ning health.\nDr Hammitzsch seems to say that the\nfather (Ferdinando) was in 1717 made\n\" Ingenieur Theatrale \" and \" Erster Archi-\ntekt \" to the court; but I think it was earlier,\nin 1711 or 1712; for from what Zanotti tells\nus Ferdinando had left Vienna in 1715 or\n1716 and it was when he left that the young\nman Giuseppe filled his place. \" And here\neveryone can think what pleasure it gave\nFerdinando and how happy and contentedly\nhe returned to Bologna, both on account of\nthe goodness of so great a monarch (Charles\nVI of Austria) and on account of the skill\nand good fortune of this son. The marvel-\nlous thing is that Giuseppe had scarcely com-\npleted his 19th year '.\nSo that, if born in 1696 as Zanotti tells\nus, he would be nineteen in the year 1715,\nand that would be the year his father left\nVienna and the boy took his place. Mar-\nvellous indeed and excellent. Yes, I give my\nvote to Giuseppe.\nBesides sceneries this young fellow deve-\nloped the very devil of a genius for building\ntheatres.\nIn 1723 at the age of twenty-seven he\nbuilt and dressed the immense stage in Prague.\nYou will find a little plan of this Theatre in\n\" The Mask \", Volume 9, page 44. It held\n80,000 people, had a stage 39 metres broad\nand 63 deep \"and cost some 25.000 francs.\nThen the young man went up and down\nthe land building and projecting buildings ;\ngenerally Theatres, for he was for some ob-\nvious reason passionately fond of the stage,\nuntil the year 1747 when he put up the\nCourt Theatre at Bayreuth. If you have a\ncopy of Semper's series of volumes on archi-\ntecture you'll find a reproduction af a pho-\ntograph of this 18th century Theatre in the\nsection \"Theater\".\nI have never seen it, but from the photos\nand plans which I have seen it seems to be\nquite the most delicious 18th century Theatre\nthat was ever built. Rich, round, curly like\nthe corners of Giuseppe's mouth, and glitte-\nring just as glittered the eyes of the young\ngenius. Until their light went out up there in\nBerlin in the unfortunate year 1757. They\nwere fighting slaughterously about whether a\nman may or may not be the ruler of his own\ncountry, and so of course theatres had to\nclose, the arts had to stop carrying on in their\npreposterous way.\nI have never understood precisely how it\nis that war can only go on if all else stops.\nAll else seems to be able to exist without\njust having to stop other things, \" living and\nletting live \". I should have thought there must\nbe away of doing a big thing like war in\na big way, ie, by professionals, without dis-\nturbing the whole of creation.... without so\nmuch as turning a hair in fact easily and\nwithout panic; and I think this is possibly an\nidea which has occurred to some great ruler\nit is possibly worth while proving practical r\nTo do the whole job of war as it has never\nbeen done before except, so 1 hear, in\nthe East would be an achievement and\neconomic who knows ?\nP. S. And by the bye who the deuce is\n(or was) Jean-Galli de Bibiena who 1 learn\nwrote \" The Fairy Dell \" ? Is he a hoax ?\n(i) It is Ferdinando who was always known as \" il fa-\nmoso Bibiena \"."}, {"page_pdf": 35, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.35", "texte": "GIUSEPPE BIBIENA. (1696-1757).\nPlate 3.\n\nTHE MASK\n1926"}, {"page_pdf": 37, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.37", "texte": "FROM A DRAWING BY VICTOR HUGO.\nPlate 4.\n\nTHE MASK\n1926"}, {"page_pdf": 39, "page_imprimee": "29", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.39", "texte": "VICTOR HUGO AND\nSARAH BERNHARDT.\nA. B.\nMADAME BERTON in her extraordinarily\nvivid book on Sarah Bernhardt tells of\na little conversation between the great actress\nand the poet Victor Hugo.\n\" I have seen \" begins Madame Berton\n\" a dozen famous painters and six or seven\ngreat authors all listening to Sarah together\nand finding joy in it. She ruled her\nlittle court with a rod of iron, but she wrap-\nped the rod in silk\n\" Victor Hugo, watching her at work in\nher studio on one occasion (after 1811), said:\nAh, Madame, how I wish I could\npaintV \"\n' But you can! ' replied Sarah \".\n\" ' No ' said Hugo \".\n\" 'Tu es ridicule! ' responded Sarah.\n' Anyone who can write or who can act can\npaint if he tries!\n\" Then and there Sarah constituted herself\nhis teacher, with the result that Hugo became\nan extremely creditable artist, chiefly with\npen-and-ink \".\nAS I cannot recall having seen it recorded\nof any other great play-writer having de-\nsigned anything as surprisingly good as did\nHugo, I think it may interest you to see a\npiece of his work that I came across in Paris.\nIt is, I suppose, some title page to his book\n' Les Travailieurs de Mer\". M. Meaulle\nwho engraved it cut many of Hugo's designs.\nHugo writes now and again of these sketches\nand tells us his method of work.\n\" My inkstand is generally my palette; if\nI want a lighter shade, a glass of water is\nmy only requisite, though a few drops of\ncoffee are occasionally very useful... \". \" My\ndrawings, or what are called so, are some-\nwhat wild. In my undisciplined way, I use\nthe feather of my pen as much as its point\".\nTheophile Gautier wrote of him that he\nis not only a poet he is a painter, and\na painter other painters would not refuse to\nown as a brother in art \". I have no space\nto quote the whole passage here.\nVou have probably seen \" La Vague \",\ncalled by Hugo \" Ma Destinee \" it is\nthe drawing of an immense wave and is signed\n\" Victor Hugo 1868 \". You know his *' John\nBrown \", and you may know other fine things\nby him done before 1862. How cunning\nthen will seem to yqu that little apology of\nhis to Sarah Bernhardt \" Ah! Madame, how\nI wish I could paint \", and he is watching\nSarah Bernhardt paint. \" But you can \"\nsays she not knowing whether he can or no;\nin fact .... though I hate to say it.... utterly\nfooled. \"No \" said Hugo. How delightful\nthis \" No \", and quite sincere too, for he cannot\npaint if to paint means, as it meant to him,\nto do what Rubens and Velasques did, not\nas Bernhardt was doing.\nAnd how careless of Madame Berton's\nassistant Basil Woon who translated her book\ninto English not to look up the dates a little\nand discover that Hugo had been drawing\nin wash and in line for some twenty years\nor more when Bernhardt \" constituted herself\nhis teacher with the result that Hugo became\nan extremely creditable artist\nIn 1862 Hugo was writing to M. Caste!\nthe publisher saying that his things were only\n\" scrawls clumsily put on paper by a literary\nman \" and that he only consents to have\nthem published on the condition that the\nmoney derived from any sales shall be devoted\nto a fund for poor children to which he often\nsubscribed. There was an album produced,\nGautier wrote the preface, and it sold very well.\nI think that this design by Hugo and that\nby Ouida (l) form a curious proof of the talent\nfor design possessed by writers.\nGoethe was immensely able. How many\ngood designs has Mr. Kipling made: —W.\nS. Gilbert must have left many even better\nthan the bits he published with his verses,\nWho else is there ? Mr. Beerbohm obvious-\nly ; and 1 believe Sir A. W. Pinero has the\nknack. Hoffmann was quick they say. Of\nactors quite a number can do a little. Irving\ncould. Sacha Guitry is very smart at it. Ana\nEdmund Kean ? .... I wonder if he ever tried,\nwhen spouting Latin at the Inn, to draw a\nCaesar or two, a Ravine in the Alps. Fer-\nravilla had a talent, and I have a sketch by Pe-\ntrolini of Garibaldi which is amusing and good.\nBut I put Hugo at the very top of the\nwriters who could design ; and I feel sure\nthat when drawing he enjoyed himself in-\ntensely.\n(i) See \" The Mask \". Volume XI. No. 2. Frontispiece."}, {"page_pdf": 40, "page_imprimee": "30", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.40", "texte": "THANKS TO\nMR. GEORGE MOORE\n\nIT was I remember in 1888 that I first\nread Mr George Moore's essay \" Mum-\nmer-Worship\" in \"The Universal Review\".\nIt struck me at the time as very \"superior\"\nvery down on the theatrical profession,\nand I thought of Mr. Moore as someone I\nwould not dare to meet, because of this su-\nperiority of his this living up in the Ma-\nsonic Lodge of Heaven.\nHow absurd this was I have come to\nlearn, for Mr. Moore was assuredly one of\nthe men a young stager should have sought\nto know ; all the painters, sculptors, musicians\nand architects knew this charming writer, and\nhis egotism did not exasperate them, so why\nshould I have been so touchy ?\nBut I seem never to have given myself\nthe opportunity of meeting him, probably be-\ncause the Theatrical folk I knew at that time\nunder-estimated Mr Moore's worth, were pre-\njudiced against him because he now and\nagain spoke French or for some equally\nstupid and childish reason. But I did read\nhis \" Mummer-Worship \" several times, at-\ntracted by it, surprised that a man could be so\ndaring as to speak so scathingly of any pro-\nfession my family was doing its best to\nadorn.\n\" Dam braces bless relaxes \" you re-\nmember : and this essay by Mr Moore began\nto brace me up, and I am grateful to it, for I\nhad before long to meet a far more staggering\nattack in Nietzsche's \" The Case of Wagner \".\nIt is an odd thing that while we of the\nEnglish professional stage doubtless use, and\nadvocate the use of, the morning's cold douche,\nwhen we get one from an able man of letters\nwe fail to recognize its true value.\nMr Moore attacked a weak spot in the\nstage and its performers, singling out for his\nsharpest correction the charming Miss Mary\nMoore.\nHe objected to the pretension of the\nactor and actress he did not see what\ngood was behind a certain trip to Germany\nand Russia which Mr Charles Wyndham had\nrecently made, playing in German and French:\nhe disliked Miss Moore's confession that\n\" In order to get as much practice as pos-\nsible in the foreign tongue in which I had\nsomewhat rashly undertaken to play, I took\nmy passage in the North German Lloyd\nsteamer \" Saal' \".\nHe finds it \" touching simplicity \" in \" a\nnew amateur \".\nMiss Mary Moore later becomes Lady\nWyndham and now wields quite a little\npower in the English Theatre. She was al-\nways very active and is so still I believe.\nA lady of remarkable tact and much charm,\na very winning personality and extremely\npretty.\nAnd I do not like to think that Mr George\nMoore, a man of culture and far more intel-\nlectual than any of us on the stage, should\nhave been quite so down on us 1 mean\non her.\nBut what are we to expect if we offend\nmen of culture. If Mr. Moore were suddenly\nto have entered Lady Wyndham's Drawing-\nroom waltzing or going on in away she\nconsiders not worthy of a man of his intelli-\ngence, wouldn't she have been down on him ?\nYou may be perfectly certain she would have\nbeen very down on him.\nAnd she would have been right, for the\nmanners of her guests in her drawingroom are\nunder her jurisdiction.\nAnd the manners of the servants of the\npublic when before the public are the concern\nof men of culture.\nIf not, who is to tell us anything who\nis to supply the cold douche ?\nAre we to be told nothing just because\nwe are actors? are we to meander on\nuncorrected ? Heaven forbid. Why should\nwe, why do we, consider ourselves absolutely\nset apart from all others as the chosen ones\nwho may never be corrected ? It is fatuous\nof us.\nHow do you suppose we can develop\nand get our brains in order if every word\nthat is said (unless it be fulsome praise) is\nto be received by us with our noses in air?\nIs it not a little preposterous, this attitude\nof ours ; let us be as superior as we can be\nbut let us stop pretending to be so.\nThis pose no, this second nature\nis the thing which holds back all chance of\ndevelopment of the actor and actress.\nYou are sniffing, already, if you be an\nactress; if an actor you consider me a fool.\nBut why? why sniff or snort?\nIt is the truth that pretension especially"}, {"page_pdf": 41, "page_imprimee": "31", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.41", "texte": "pretending to be superior when you are not\nsuperior is killing the European stage, by\nrendering the performer stupid.\nNow the European performer is not any\nmore stupid than is the European journalist\nand from the English Journalist comes very\noften the English writer of Genius.\nBut conceive a Journalist who was pre-\ntentious beyond criticism unable to stop\nchattering his excuses for himself offering\nhis \" reasons \" why he made an ass of himself.\nTry and conceive this if you can it\nis one of the things beyond your power to\nconceive because Journalism is a very serious\ncraft, very hard is the life and the rewards\nvery few.\nThere must be no side about a Journalist.\nI take this type as one to compare with\nthe actor, for the Journalist and Actor and\nActress are good friends though there are\nactors who drive pretence Jto such a pitch\nthat they even pretend to look down on the\njournalist.\nI speak of the smaller actors and journa-\nlists, not of course of the men and women of\nsense and experience. Lady Wyndham, I\nsuppose, no longer feels or thinks as she felt\non reading Mr. Moore's audacious attack.\nMr. Moore, doubtless, understands more now\nthan when he wrote the horrible thing in 1888.\nNot that I consider it at all horrible :\nit was just a mildly cool douche necessary\nand excellent; but Miss Mary Moore cannot\nbut have thought Mr. Moore a great fool.\nWhat a to-do what nonsense on our\npart to resent strong criticism, since, if we\nwon't have it, accept it, learn from it and\nbenefit, we must get the ducking the still\nharsher criticism.\nEven today we ask for it when, having\nproduced a play that is without merit, we\nperform it in a commonplace manner and reap\nsuccess with it.\nWe are the servants of the public it is\ntrue; but we are also the heirs of our ancient\nhouse and with it goes a tradition a very\nserious and fine tradition for the preservation\nof which we are responsible. I would see\nit preserved, but there are many in our ranks\nwho do not trouble themselves whether it\nflourish or die out; these are more concerned\nwith what they mistake to be the tradition.\nThey believe that the traditions of our\nhouse are these :\n1. To keep up the status of the actor.\n2. To club together in order to do this.\n3. Never to read the papers (I mean to\npretend never to read them).\n4. Not to allow the managers to usurp\nany of our privileges.\n5. To appeal always to the public.\n6. To intrigue inside our own house one\nagainst another. We don't like this \" but\nwhat would you, dear boy \".\n7. To avoid unnecessary study as being\ndetrimental to the emotional powers.\n8. To rely mainly upon the instincts;\n(but which instincts we are not quite certain).\n9. To be very careful to make no ef-\nforts to liberate the stage which might en-\ndanger our personal interests.\nIn each of these unwritten laws there is\nan ounce of good common sense which 1 for\none shall always consider carefully. But only\nan ounce.\nNow what are the real traditions of our\nhouse ? Here are some of them :\n1. To keep up the standard of acting.\n2. To keep separate the two divisions:\nthe first Creative: the second Interpretative;\nand to develop both without confusing the\none with the other.\n3. To avoid all publicity except when\non the stage.\n4. To allow no one but the workers in\nthe Theatre to place foot on the stage.\n5. To allow nothing of our technique to\nbe made public.\n6. The actor to work together with the\nplaywright, manager and fellow actors without\npersonal jealousies or fears.\n7. To work well for a modest and suf-\nficient wage to the establishment of a sounder\nHOUSE, with the hope and determination\nto better everyone's wage as the years advance.\n8. To be prepared at any time to make\nany sacrifice to save the house.\n9. To do all in our power to release\nacting and the actor from interpretative work\ncreative work being so far more valuable\nto mankind.\nifc\nAND Sarah Bernhardt cried \" Down with\nthe Tradition \". She \" cannot live on the\nsalary of the Comedie Frangaise: therefore\nwhat use in subsidy \"\n\n(i) See Stoker. (i Personal Reminiscences of Henry Ir-\nving 1906. Vol. 2, p, 114."}, {"page_pdf": 42, "page_imprimee": "32", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.42", "texte": "AN actor is one who repeats a portion of\na story invented by another\nThis is Mr. George Moore's definition of\n1888; and when in 1913 he reprinted the essay\nhe saw no reason to revise this but let it go.\nSo I take it to be his firm convinction.\nNow the curious thing is that the English\nactors have come to agree with him and\nnot only the English but many a foreign actor too.\nThis is a strange alliance Mr. Moore\nand the Actor he absolutely despises. \" Acting\nis the lowest of the arts \" he says \" if it is\nan art at all \". The actor accepts this too\nfrom Mr. Moore.\nHe seems to accept anything from Mr.\nMoore; hence my surprise at what has to be\nconsidered an alliance.\nBut Mr. Moore will not listen to me nor\nwill the actor.\nIf I tell Mr. Moore what I told him in\n1908, that acting is not an art but may be-\ncome an art when it wishes to the actor\nwill elbow forward and say \" Who are yer\na { ittin of \". If I tell the actor that our\ntradition holds some centuries of proof that\nthe actor can create and need not be \" one\nwho repeats a portion of a story invented by\nanother \" Mr Moore will storm and the actor\nwill sulk although this releases him from Mr.\nMoore and a thousand other gentlemen who\nwould like to keep all actors on the leash\nand the leash in their hand. He does not\nlike my suggestion because it practically asks\nhim to take up a heavy load and carry it\nlike a man and an artist.\nHe will take refuge in lying and will\nswear that the actor is not, and never was, a\ncreator. Thereby hugging Mr. Moore and\ncaressing his own chains.\nMr. Moore will comfort him greatly by\nsavagely (I don't think Mr. Moore was ever\nreally savage) launching epigrams at me and\nall \" producers \", \" reformers \" and the rest\nwho dare to suggest that the performer is to\nleave him and his fellow dramatists in the\nlurch. Which is human and understandable.\nThe dramatists want the actors to continue\nto carry half the Dramatic load ; the actors\nprefer that rather than a heavier one. Weak-\nness on both sides, Prompt and O. P., and\nlo ! a fine weak effect is produced.\nI, as you know, want the actor to carry\nthe whole of the Dramatic load.\nThe actors have it in their will (if any\nremains) and in their hands to do so and\nwithout upsetting anyone's apple-cart.\nSome of their calling are obviously born\nto create to improvise to be actors in\nthe very best sense of the word. Others it\nmust be admitted are more fitted to remain\ninterpreters.\nSo it seems to me that were they to talk\nthings over without disguising this fact, they\nwould be able to find some way of dividing\ntheir forces into two groups each of which\nwould help the Theatre in any case, one of\nwhich would help the Dramatists.\nIt would take some time to get things\nuntangled and back to the more traditional\nstate ; but, could they but determine to meet\nthe question and no longer to brush it aside,\neven a year or so given to finding ways and\nmeans would be time well spent.\nIt is not an easy problem, and for this\nreason not very popular.\nNo difficulty of this proportion ever is\npopular it always rests with a handful of\nmen to take up the difficult problems of any\nkind of work, and in time show the others\nthat the solution of it is much easier than they\nhad supposed.\nIn Architecture, in Painting, in all the\nArts it has always been a small group of five\nor six men at most in each land who have\naccepted the burden for the others.\nWould it be disastrous should they prove\nto their fellows that the weight was not a\nvery great one after all; and that for actors\nto create their own plays, is not going to\nshatter the Dramatists' art ?\nSome people profess to find this a dan-\ngerous proposal: if so let us \" live dange-\nrously\": but is it? it is not an easy\nsuggestion, but once the labour is over it is\nthe safest proposition the stage and its actors\nwill ever he able to make.\nI am not so foolish as to suppose that\ntomorrow some five or six actors could, by\ncooperation, create anything as subtle or as\nfine, certainly not as literary (to use a horrible\nword) as Macbeth or The School for Scandal:\nbut they might (unless ashamed to be\nprimitive .... and that would be sheer snob-\nbery) create something as simple and as sound\nas Le Medecin Malgre Lui.\nIt would take five or six comedians a little\nbit of hard work to do it but they could\ndo it. On this I stake my life."}, {"page_pdf": 43, "page_imprimee": "33", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.43", "texte": "And the way they would set about it ?\nwhat of that ?\nNeither you nor I can begin to dictate to\nactors who have once determined to create.\nThen they are the masters and we their as-\nsistants, and assistants have only to do as they\nare told and use initiative in that; and I for\none am at the actors' service to help if cal-\nled on. All they lack for the moment is the\ndetermination.\nWhen they can come to such a deter-\nmination they reach the door which leads to\ntheir freedom. That is the hour for the critic\nto sit still; for those of us who are theatre\ncraftsmen to bring every scrap of mother-wit we\nmay posses and give it to this traditional cause.\nWhat would the actors do? Would they\ndepend on the tricks they know already ?\nwould they perhaps enquire about that old\nsystem which flourished in Italy from the 15th\nto the 18th century, known as La Commedia\ndell'Arte, which means Professional Comedy ?\nI would suggest there is quite a little to be\ngleaned in that field by serious and pro-\nfessional actors of talent.\nAnd being an Englishman, I hope you\nwill not think it strange of me when 1 confess\nthat I would like to see English actors of\nstanding'and of talent being amongst those\nwho will be the first to take up this matter.\nAmericans of course will. Russians will, Ita-\nlians will; be not too sure some of these are\nnot already working in this direction.\nBut who will attempt it ? I'm not one who\ndespises little groups, but I think it is not\nreasonable of greatly gifted actors to allow\nthe nonentities to break themselves struggling\nto cope with a traditional craft of this magni-\ntude. Neither do I like the possibility of\nseeing some Dramatic writer explaining to\nour great actors what exactly the\ndell'Arte was, is, and always will be : explain-\ning how he, the writer, is the very first of\nthese comedians only he will not be\nplaying this time he will write their plays.\nThere were no plays written. They grew,\nlike hardy annuals. Phrases as well as cha-\nracters picked from the streets, from the houses,\nfrom everywhere the actors went, supplied all\nthey needed. For what a play? subtle\ntalk? complicated situations ? Not at all.\nSimple situations and ordinary talk.\nTo begin with.\nWell then, why not begin.\n\nE. G. C.\n\nPIRANDELLO AND\nHIS ORIGINALITY.\nBY HENRY PHIPS.\nMESSRS DENT & SONS are very much to\nbe praised for introducing Pirandello to\nthe British Puhlic. He is the latest thing,\nand Publishers so often wait till the latest is\ntoo late. Not so Dent & Sons. They issued\nthe first four or five plays some two years\nago, and now a second volume with three\nmore plays is at the service of the public.\nNew say some of the critics:—we would\nsay old.\nThis queer complicating, this restless shif-\nting of the mind, this questioning of which\none has had so much too much, is as old as\nany other defect.\n1 recall how often at the age of twenty to\ntwenty-five I put to myself just the very\nquestions which Pirandello, grown up, puts\nto his audience.\nAre we what we are? Are we where we\nare? Am I 1? 1 am myself, I know; but\nthen my self contains five or six selves. Is\nmadness sanity ? is it not the sane who are\nmad? was I born but once? am I an incar-\nnation of something which was born and died\nlong ago? Am 1....? Was 5he....? Will they\nbe....? These are a sufficiently jerky number\nof doubts to possess at twenty years of age :\nbut to treasure them up till one is sixty and\nthen bring them out as the real value is a little\ntrying to those of us who believe that to com-\nmence with the artist must have no doubts.\nThese thousand questions of the modern\nDramatist, Maeterlinck, Tchekov, and Tol-\nstoi, Strindberg sometimes, and Ibsen more\noften, are ail rather unnerving, for one may\nask, are these questions necessary ?\nIf we could have a quiet little talk with\nthe Dramatist, we in the Pit answering the\nquestions of the first Act, the Dress-circle\ntaking on those of the second Act, the Stalls\nthose of the third, and the whole house sum-\nming up the fourth and deciding something\nfor us so that we could all go home quite\nsatisfied, modern plays might do: but we get\nno chance of helping Pirandello and Mae-\nterlinck over their difficulties: all they have\ndone to help us with our worries is to saddle\n91 1 m\n•us with their own."}, {"page_pdf": 44, "page_imprimee": "34", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.44", "texte": "In short in a playhouse we want but a\npinch of the uncertain, for in no place is it\nso out of place as there.\nAnd when all is said and done about pro-\nblems, doubts and fears, does not a smile\ncome up into the face as we stand regarding\nthese feeble things, isn't that the last com-\nment ?\nInevitable tragedy, Greek or Japanese tra-\ngedy, is still the only tragedy: bubbling co-\nmedy, Italian, French and English, is still\nthe only Comedy.\nWhile the dramatist is not forced to follow\n/Eschylus or Moliere, he runs a good deal\nof risk to do anything else. Mere and there\nhe may be as original as he will, but he\nmust not fail to state whether he intends to\nbe tragic or comic. To raise up doubts and\nanxiety in our already very fuddled heads\ntoday is not playing the game. It is distinctly\nunfair on humanity and that's what the Censor\nshould be stern about.\nPirandello is in earnest; he is sincere;\nand he is vivid: he has a hundred good\nqualities, but he has failed to be a very ex-\ncellent dramatist because he has refused to\naccept the conditions laid down in the old\ngame, laid down not by you or me but by\n/Eschylus, Kalidasa, Terence, the Italians of\nthe sixteenth century.\nThese conditions curb and help the born\ndramatist —observed they make him, disre-\ngarded they wreck him. These conditions\nnave kept fresh until today all the old mas-\nterpieces of the dramatic genius. \" Le\nBourgeois Gentilhomme \", \" Agamennon \",\n\" Sakuntala \", and dozens more such works\nof art are as fresh, powerful and delicious\ntoday as when first made.\nBut folks have talked recently so much about\n\" Liberty \": certain charming and influential\npeople have done this for many years and\nunder cover of the hiss \" be free\": an as-\ntonishing number of lies were whispered into\nthe ears of the artists, and one of the tiniest\nof these was that it didn't matter if a play\nwas made like a novel or like a poem or\nhow it was made.\njust as there are some drawings which\nought to have been etched, and some etch-\nings which would be better left as pencil\nsketches, and some paintings—in short, as\nsome things have, as it were, got out of them-\nselves and into a fix, in which they seem to\nbe out of place, so appear, to me, the plays\nof Pirandello.\nThese plays seem to me most dexterous\npieces of something other than plays. Stories\nout of shape perhaps.... chapters out of no-\nvels hurredly, excitedly retold.\nDid you ever happen to read \" The Ex-\nploits of Arsene Lupin\"? Well, if you be\ninterested in Pirandello, get that book by the\nadmirable M. Maurice le Blanc and I will\nshow you something of Pirandello there.\nPublished in English by Cassell & Co.,\nnine stories make up the volume \" The Ex-\nploits of Arsene Lupin\". The third and\nfourth are where you'll find Pirandello in\nsearch of eight characters.\nAt least I am under the delusion that I\nsaw him in those chapters. Chapter three\nbegins on page 70: read it all; when you\nget to pages 91, 92, 93, I think you'll see\nwhat I saw. You'll catch a last glimpse of\nhim on page 126. Unless I am dreaming,\nwhich is as likely as not, that last glimpse\nwill be a very clear one.\n\"It's all very well\" said Lupin, '* to be\nBaudru or another, to change your personality\nas you would your boots and to select your\nappearance, your voice, your expression, your\nhandwriting. But there comes a time when you\ncease to know yourself amid all these changes ;\nand that is very sad. I feel at present as the\nman must have felt who lost his shadow. I\nam going to look for myself ..,.and to find\nmyself\".\nIt may be that readers of \" The Mask \"\nare not in the habit of studying their Mau-\nrice le Blanc. What with Marmontel, Proust\nand Jules Verne their sense of variety is\npossibly satisfied. I find I do not read any\nof these three authors. When I want to\nrelax give me Maurice le Blanc and no one\nelse. Not Hornung, not even Gaboraiu or\nde Boisgoby approaches le Blanc.\nFor had they done so, they, and not he,\nwould have lit up the path for some runner\nbefore Pirandello, ....a path he saw, and took,\nas one takes any old wrong turning.\nFor Pirandello was meant to write stories\nand not meant to start his characters telling\nstories. There are Italians who find him\noriginal. I find Moliere far more original, so\nfar as theatrical things go. And so far and\nno further should we look to go when on our\nstages."}, {"page_pdf": 45, "page_imprimee": "35", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.45", "texte": "An entrance at the back, two at each side\n—that's all.\nNo other way leads on the stage, though\nthe ways off the stage are legion.\nI speak like a critic: were I to be on the\nstage, working there, may be I should be\ntempted to suggest a little housebreaking, so\nas to open up new ways on and off the\nstage: who knows?\nNo one can be both critic and performer\nat the same moment. The mask of each is\ndistinct one from the other : as eveo each per-\nformer's mask differs like that of each writer.\n\"What city is this?\" I ask coming to\nGenova. \"No city\" cries the Earth, \" only\nan old mask which has fallen upon my face\nand which pretends—and it covers the loveliest\nhillside of all this coast. If you would see\none of my faces you must know how to see\nthrough the city\nA while ago in \" The Mask \" (I) in writing\nof Pirandello I expressed regret that the Ita-\nlian artists should have made efforts in these\nlast thirty years or so to be original.\nBy original I mean that primitive northern\nway of expressing themselves which perforce\nsuits a Blake or a Shelley or even a fine\nhearty Esquimo so very well.\nUp north we know nothing but winter and\nhard weather. Slowly but surely we express\nthis and it is\n\"Little lamb who made thee\nDost thou know who made thee\nGave thee\nthis and that and so on.\nPerfect of its kind is a little song like that,\nbut utterly innocent of most things: open-eyed\nand wondering.\nAnd as the northern genius goes tramping\nalong in the mists and the cold seeking to\nexpress a few tender things there is always\na certain fumbling, or a dogged wildness not\nto be cheated of the serious things which\nthe cold and the pale sun make us shiver in\nsaying.\nQuestioning all the time, he roams and\ntramps crying aloud \"Oh why was I bom\nwith a different face \" and \" why was Cupid\na boy?\" He stops short before a wraith\nasking. \" Did he who made the lamb make\nthee\"? and again, \" was Jesus humble? \"\nOr, with eyes on the rivers which mingle\nwith ocean, he asks with an eye on London\n\" why not I with thine\". Even when in\nthe merriest of moods, he even questions\neven the girls; he asks \" where have you\nbeen to, my pretty maid?\" and Echo an-\nswering in proper fashion, where, is rudely\ninterrupted by the daisy herself who says that\nshe has been milking;—she would, this muse\nof the northern genius,... or may be gathering\nbuttercups at Kew.\nIn short, when cold and shivering one ques-\ntions most things in detail, for the whole of\nexistence seems a mistake.\nAnd to question is to elicit a number of\nanswers. A lamb bleats, a wind howls; we\ntake both for replies: a girl grins and a lighl\ngoes out: ....all these nothings seem to us\ncharged with significance,... we are on edge.\nSo our northern originality has at any rate\na certain grim greenness, a raw youth to\ncommend it: young it certainly is: green in\nits hopeful, innocent, pale, doubt-charged\nmysticism:—it is of value in its place.\nBut out of its place ....down south ....Ca-\nspita!\nNorthern Originality in the Theatre has\ncertainly often yielded us unutterable delight;\n....I do not mean in giving us the powerfully\nmixed potions of Shakespeare, sufficient, and\nstrange. I mean those sweet little pouting\nsongs the English musical comedy stage.\nInnocence enters triumphantly there, dressed\nin pinafores trimmed with moss rosebuds,\nmore alluring than a thousand panniers and\npatches, and sings about its sweet little self—\n\" Kiss me—no you mustn't—\nfor I'm only Thirty two\nNever was such originality till the nor-\ntherner thought it out.\nBut such desperate originality as this is\nnot of value to the Italian, where the sun\nhas taught him long ago what will and what\nwont endure and he need not go singing it\nover and over.\nAnd yet even but yesterday, before this\nancient land had reawakened, just before the\ncoming of Mussolini and his many thousand\nmen, the Italian genius was beginning to see\nif it could not adopt some of the northern\noriginality, ard very fatal was the result.\n1 recall being obliged to sit one whole\nsummer at open air concerts where a band\nwailed and spluttered out metaphysical music,\n\n(i) See Book Review, Vol. X, pag, 91,"}, {"page_pdf": 46, "page_imprimee": "36", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.46", "texte": "interlarded now and again with sweet innocent\nlittle blank spaces of time put in to entrap\nthe unwary and make it think. This band\nwas one of the very best in Italy, and the\nsounds it made were some of the very\nworst in the world, all mimicked from the\nsounds in Wagner, Strauss, the Geisha, San\nToy and the rest. ...A ponderous yearning\nmixed up with the baby talk of women not\nunder thirty.\nIn their paintings too, the Italians began to\nforce themselves to be as flashy and as futile, as\nis the worst northern genius without any effort.\nEngraving seized on the northern tricks ;\narchitecture began to bulge and wriggle\nhideously: stage scenery mimicked ours. And\nall without any reason.\nAnd how queer this was in Italians, is\nobvious when one remembers that there was\nno European race except the Italian race\nwhich had mastered ever\ncreation of perfect works Their ar-\nchitecture, music, painting was perfect; their\nliterature, sculpture and drama amazing; their\nengraving, singing, dancing, scene, ...in fact\nevery craft ever known was known to them\nas no other nation knew them.\nThe Italians had all the secrets and still\nhave them.\nWhat then possessed them, what still pos-\nsesses them, to assume the virtue of our nor-\nthern \" originality'* }\nAnd Pirandello has caught fire from this\nred tissue paper with the northern lights\nbehind it.\nHis plays are no better than the Via\nXX Settembre in Genova, which is about\nthe worst looking street ever built by Ita-\nlians, with one blessing; half way down\nit is all arched like the traditional ancient\ncities.\nPirandello has one good thing about his\nplays; he is a pleasure for the modern critic\nto read: he is not dull: he has taken his\nMaurice le Blanc to heart. But there ends\nPirandello as a fine dramatist, for the rest\nis all gasps, jerks, and anxiety: in short, he\ndenies the masters. He is, to my mind, the\nvery last dramatic writer to represent anything\nthat is called Fascism although he is a good\nand true Fascist lam told. Such a doubt-\nraiser is not going to crown the Fascisti, only\nanother /Eschylus can do that, ...a man faithful\nto the very greatest traditions."}, {"page_pdf": 47, "page_imprimee": "n. p.", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.47", "texte": "IN THE VILLA OF PR ATO LINO : A LITTLE THEATRE OF ABOUT 1698.\nBuilt by Architect Antonio Ferri.\nPlate 5.\n\nTHE MASK\n1926"}, {"page_pdf": 49, "page_imprimee": "37", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.49", "texte": "A LITTLE THEATRE\nOF THE 17th CENTURY.\nPRATOLINO.\nBY JAN VAN HOLT.\nPRATOLINO is near Prato and is to Prato\nwhat Little Holling is to Holling. If you\ntack ino or lino or rino on to a name in Ita-\nlian you mean its a little one. Carlo, Charles :\nCarlino, little Charles; in short, Charlie. Petrus,\nPeter: Petrolino, little Peter —in short, Peterkin.\nI was never yet in Prato or Pratolino\nalthough the two places are so near to Fi-\nrenze; and now that I am in Paris I regret\nvery much that I never visited the little Prato\nbecause it possesses a celebrated villa, built\nfor the Duke Ferdinando of Tuscany; in fact\nthe villa is, I believe, the whole place. Villa,\nvast park, and gardens, grottoes, fountains,\nand, perched on top of the villa, the Duke's\nieatro or rather teatrino little teatro.\nAnd as you see in the plan (reproduced\n1 believe for the first time in the history of\nthis world) the theatre is not a large one.\nThe stage measures 25 braccia a Panno wide\nby 21 deep: the auditorium 25 ditto square.\nA braccia a Panno is a cloth braccia ; but I\nonly can tell you what an ordinary Florentine\nbraccia measures: it is I foot 9 3//, inches: so\nthat the Teatrino measures : stage 45 feet 3\ninches x 38: auditorium 45 feet 3 inches\nsquare ; so it is almost exactly the size of the\nKilkenny Theatre (1802) that private playhouse\nbuilt for the Marquis of Ormonde by Ar-\nchitect Robertson (1).\nThis playhouse was added as a crown to\nthe house in 1698. Antonio Ferri or Ferro\nwas the architect, and, as Puliti tells us, it\nwas built \" sopra ai suoi celebri mezzanini\nai terzo piano della villa \". There had been\nperformances at this villa before 1698 as\nearly as 1683 may be even earlier. In\n1684 Filippo Acciaiuoli, that demon with\npuppets (2), was called by the Duke to perform\nat Pratolino, and he gave the Duke a teatrino\nof Burattini; it had twenty-four changes of\nscenes and a hundred and twenty-four figures.\nBut it was not until 1698, the year when\nBetterton was prosecuted for the use of\nobscene language and Mr. Evelyn \" dined\nwith Mr. Pepys and heard the rare voice of\nMr. Pule \", that Ferri built this playhouse.\nOne of the family Bibiena was called\nover to paint the Scenes. There seem to have\nbeen no palchi or boxes but a simple gallery\nat the far end. The machines for scenes look\nto me very up-to-date up to that date,\nand will I hope interest two people I very\noften think of, Miss Lily Campbell and Pro-\nfessor Allardyce Nicoll; they will instantly\nrecognize the angle of the gar garni.\nAND now tell me if this other little plan is\nnot just the kind of plan Mr Masefield\nshould have worked from this shapely thing,\nso absolutely made for fine evening clothes, one\nlittle pearl stud, thirty to sixty guests and\nnoble plays in fine verses.\nIt is the Teatro di Castelfranco built by\npoets and other letterQti of the Acpademia\ndei Filoglatti for their plays; built in 1758\nby architect Preti, sixty years later than the\nPratolino Teatrino.\nIt was so. designed that the sun could\nlight it by day, and at night candles and oil\nlamps would be used. Three rows of boxes\nat back, each row having nine boxes, and\non each side of the stage two boxes more\nwhich look out on to the stage and also have\n* * tj\nan opening looking back at Mr Masefield or\nwhoever is the host. All very charming and\nsociable, and we can well believe it looked\ngay and hospitable at night when packed. The\nbuilding still exists but I believe the light has\ngone out of it full of light were the poets.\nFull of light are the poets.... will they not\nagain light up many a little private theatre\n.... may not some of us lend our aid when\nit comes to building the next one.\n(1) We shall publish an account of this theatre in an\n•early number of \"The Mask Ed.\n(2) We shall publish an article on this curious man in\nthis volume. Ed."}, {"page_pdf": 50, "page_imprimee": "38", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.50", "texte": "FOREIGN NOTES.\n\nMILANO. LA SCALA.\nO. S.\nWE hear some people in Milano are seriously con-\ntemplating altering the facade of La Scala. What\na giddy notion! Who is there, with any of his faculties\nin order, who can conceive of that famous building \" La\nScala \" other than it is?\nIt was not even necessary to have raised the roof as\nwas done some years ago; neither was its stage in need\nof all those new machines installed at the same time.\nWhat was perfect about the Teatro Scala was \"La\nScala\". Piermarini had done his work well in 1778.\nIt was then as now the finest modern theatre in Europe\nand what remains of his work is still the best thing about\n\" La Scala\nIf any alterations are needed 'tis in that which is\ncalled L'Arte Teatrale.\nBetter modern operas, and another kind of singer.\nThe singer of the moment is excellent in his own way,\nand well disciplined, but not exactly as inspired as the old\nhouse deserves him to be. A better kind of singer\nis needed. A better way of staging Opera too; but\nstructural alterations are all pretention.... a sop to Cerberus\nperhaps, but what is that dog doing near the Scala's\nwalls ?\nWith all the brains how little wit. With all those\nmillions of lire how little sense. With endless examples\nin front of them as to how artists should not behave about\ntheir theatres and performances, it is really a little surpris-\ning that the Scala is handled as it is handled today by\nthose who direct its fortunes.\nAnd yet there is not a sounder man for his position\nthan Signor Scandiani. I place him above Mr Cochran\nand even above Diaghileff as an impresario. Signor Tos-\ncanini has nearly every virtue a conductor should have,\nand is especially gifted with a memory which is phenomenal.\nBut where is the Director of the Scala?... it is a Director\nthat is needed:—A man who has the one idea necessary.\nIt is obvious that if the Director be either conductor\nor impresario things will never be what they might and\nshould be; they will continually be switched off to that\npoint where impresario and conductor start their thinking.\nTheirs are side and contributory shows; a director has it\nin his power to bring things to a centre.\nI would not wish the Scala even such a careful Di-\nrector as the famous M. Rouch6 of the Paris Opera\nHouse, because Theatrical things have not come to quite\nsuch a desperate state in Italy as they are in in France.\nBut this talk of reconstructing the facade must lead\neveryone to suppose that this state is not so far away.\nIt is a nonsensical notion.\nSomething should be done, and quickly; there has\nbeen long enough to think it all over: for fifty years\npeople in Milano have puzzled how to deal with \" La\nScala \", and it could be solved in five minutes.\nNot once have they hit on the right answer to the\nconundrum.... and so they are convinced that no one else\ncan possibly hit on the right answer. And they tell you\nso, politely, delightfully, silently like true Milanese. They\nhave failed, they seem to say, so how can anyone be\nexpected to solve the riddle: \" What is the solution?\" is\ntheir delightful but quite sceptical query: and if we know\nthe answer we do not tell these sceptical men. They\nhould at least be allowed to retain the one last belief\nthey 11 ever possess, re., that ail is vain. Thus will they\nbe in any case following the lead of Paris.\nIhey invited M. Appia to Milano; remember that.\nThey did all that human striving could do to make his scene-\nries for \" Tristan a success, ....and yet they failed. Could\nthat failure be in any way attributed to the obsession for\nbuilding, the passion for machineries, the craze for a -staff\nof practical men, re., men who could do just what Paris\ndoes? Surely not. Yet building, machines, and especially\npractical men are all apt to exhaust the strongest cash-\nbox.... then there is none over to pay the artist, the wise\ndirector, the men of genius and talent. Practical men\nare never willing or able to do the silly things artists will\nd 0,... re., save a theatre for example. No, practical men\nwant paying highly.\n\nPARIS.\nEd.\n\" We are living in the days of women who smoke\nbetween the acts and youths who cover their brains with\nOxford trousers *\\\nSEYMOUR HICKS (I).\nI copied this\" out from a London newspaper which I found\nin the Caf£ Crequi. It seemed to me difficult to un-\nderstand the complaint—so I asked an American who\nalways sits at the next table to mine and who looks more\nlike a Frenchman than did M. Anatole France; an Ame-\nrican who amuses me with his odd way of looking at alt\nthings that are not either French or American.\nHe said; \"This boy Seymour is a wallow-buff if it\nmakes him down-hearted to be alive in the very place he-\nhas chosen to live. I'd like to live in London, Sir, as welt\nas any place on this earth \".\n\" But what's the idea of Oxford trousers? \" I enquired.\n\" Trousers 1* he replied sententiously \" which are made\nin Oxford \".\n\" And what makes them so annoying to Monsieur\nHicks ? \" I asked.\n\" They don't suit him, I take it, or he's out of sorts\nmay be\" he drawled.\n\"Pray what has all this to do with the Censor?\" I\npleaded, seeing the Censor mentioned.\n\" Nothing, Francois\" he answered, getting up and\nbidding me Adieu.\n1 remained puzzled; and I just dotted down the con-\nversation because I would like to put it on record, that it\nis possible, for a Frenchman to not quite understand the\nTheatrical world of London although in fullest sympathy\nwith our neighbours the English. f. m. f.\n<| Anent these same trousers someone 'sends £to us asking\nif we recall Mr Owen Seaman's verse in \" The Scholar\np ii\nFarmer :\nOxford! of whom the poet said\nThat one of your unwritten laws is\nTo back the weaker side and wed\nYour gallant heart to nobbling trorses.\nBut has he got it quite right, our correspondent 7*\nperhaps he has the trorses wrong—but backing the weaker\nside (presumably of the trorses) is right—and a very good\npoint too.\n\n(i) For the benefit of our foreign readers we may\nthat Mr Seymour Hicks is one ot our foremost English\nactors, unique in the possession of a temperament as viva-\ncious as it is charming."}, {"page_pdf": 51, "page_imprimee": "39", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.51", "texte": "BOOK REVIEWS.\n\nSOME CONTEMPORARY DRAMATISTS\nby Graham Sutton. (Parsons) 7/6 net.\n\nI am curiously grateful to Mr Sutton,\nbut let that never budge me from\nmy purpose which is to praise him.\n\" The thing that matters in this\nbook is its appendix \" he writes; it is\nthe first line of this collection of studies\non some nine very important and some\nless important English dramatists of the\nday, with Notes on the others. And\nthe Appendix does matter; but it is\nonly one of the things, not thing,\nwhich is the book itself.\nThe five page Appendix is valuable\nbecause it states facts which never grow\nold and often grow younger.\nThese facts are: how many plays\nthese nine dramatists have written;\nwhen they wrote them; when they\nwere produced, and who published\nthem and when.\nThe playwriters are Barker, Dane,\nDrinkwater, Ervine, Flecker, Jennings,\nMaugham, Milne, Monkhouse, Monro,\nO'Neill and Vane.\nI knew the work of most of these\nwriters and I had always wanted to\nknow something about the plays of\nMaugham, and not had the opportunity.\nIt is of Maugham I wish to write\nhere, for Mr. Sutton was the cause of\nmy reading two of his plays.\nSome of the other dramatists, the\nmore celebrated ones, are very remar-\nkable writers of plays, but even if\ntheir craftsmanship is good, it is too\noften spoiled by the creak of their\nboots. And they are apt to cooee at\nme too ;—they sometimes pop out or\npush doggedly through their plays and\nshake their heads or make faces.\nSomehow they teaze; they do not\nleave me free. This is only my im-\npression ;—others enjoy them more than\nI do.\nBut Maugham leaves me free. And\ndo you suppose that Mr. William\nArcher told me that ?\nSome of the other dramatists were\nto the late William Archer more than\nSomerset Maugham.\nIn his book \" The Old Drama and\nthe New \" (1923) he bravely cham-\npioned the new men, and I was be-\nginning to love the old fellow, when I\nsuddenly discover that this most excel-\nlent of all our playwriters, (to me the\nmost excellent), Maugham, had been\nstupidly slurred over. Not omitted—\nArcher didn't choose to do that—but\nrelegated to the third row, he who is\nobviously in the first row and by him-\nself at that.\nNot that I am thinking thoughts of\n/Eschylus and Moliere: but Maugham\nis what I'm thinking, and I will com-\npare him with no other playwriter of\nthese times.\nNot only is it Archer who omits to\ntell us properly what exactly Maugham\nis; Mr. J. T. Grein shirks it too.\nIn his \" The New World of the\nTheatre\" (1924) he mentions him\ntwice; not to say \" Maugham who\nknows the technique of the stage to\nperfection, knows, consequently, how\nto intersperse these discussions without\nmarring his theme \" ; but to apply this\nphrase to Shaw of all people, who is\njust as gawky on the stage as Maugham\nis at his ease.\nNot finding Archer or Grein willing\nto tell me anything about Maugham,\nI turned to Ashley Dukes (1911);\nbut found in his \" Modern Drama-\ntists \" that he had omitted to mention\nhim altogether.\nAt that time \" Our Betters \" and\n\" The Circle \" had not been written,\nso there is an excuse for Mr Dukes\nwhich cannot be found for Archer and\nGrein 0).\nAt present I have only read three\nplays by Maugham; \" Our Betters \",\n\" The Circle \" and \" Home and\nBeauty \". I have seen none acted, for\nI have never been in town when there\nwas one running. It was a single page\nof his set me wanting to read his plays.\nThis was the passage from \" East of\nSuez \" quoted by Mr Sutton in his\nbook. And it was a quite ordinary\nbit of play-writing such as one has\nknown ever since one could read ; but\nit was different from the modern play\nin that it had ease,directness and a\ncertain way with it which is never to\nbe defined since no one ever has been\nable to know what that way is.\nIn brief, it is the way of the true thea-\ntre artist and the true theatre craftsman.\nMaugham makes me suppose that he\nis one of those rich fellows who have\nimmense stores of genius in the cellar\nand who does not let that worry him.\n\" His plays are full of cultured,\nwitty people \" writes Mr Sutton; but\nI can't find them in \" Our Betters \"\nor \" The Circle \".\nWhat I find are beings alive.\nAnd this is one of the reasons\nMaugham delights me so. I was con-\nscious of no fireworks ; there was some\nsmart talk, which is neither clever nor\nwitty but is so real that it creates the\nimpression that we are in that witty\nLondon we have heard of daily for\nthe last fifteen years in our halfpenny\npapers, and that London really is de-\nvilish smart you know.\nI had never known the whole of\nthat London. I've been there and\nseen it in parts and I'm sorry I had\nto come away because of its size and\nits sobriety and its naughty little Pearl\nwho is the goods.\nHorrible people—and the author is\nhorrible too—so nice people tell me,\nwhen ever I am wild enough to see\nthose people;—and of course they may\nknow. I end a play of Maugham's\nknowing nothing ;—he tells me nothing\nhe doesn't seem to care about what\nthere is to know: he just shows me a\nthousand glimpses of a world. Is Bessie\ngood ? is Pearl vile ? If Shaw had\ninvented them we should know straight\naway: that's why Shaw as a drama-\ntist is impossible.\nTo me \" Our Betters \" is a beau-\ntiful piece of work; and although I\nread it only yesterday I have quite\nforgotten what it was all about.\nThat's what I call excellent. So\nwas it with me when I read \"Le\nBourgeois Gentilhomme \". I forgot all\nI had heard, but certain figures stood\nout still—an unforgettable sentence sang\non—and this is how a good play should\nact on us. No headache in the mor-\nning, and utter forgetfulness of the pre-\nceding evening.\nIn \" The Circle \" Maugham knocks\nHenrik Ibsen out in three rounds.\nHe didn't mean to make Ibsen ridi-\nculous : I doubt if he could read Ibsen,\nall he meant to do was to stroll easily\nround the ring opening bottles of cham-\npagne for us all; but he, (Ibsen), in-\nstead of raising a glass put up a problem,\n\" The Lady from the Sea \", and it\ncame against the bottle and burst like a\nfungus.\nMr Sutton, in writing of \" The\nCircle \", has put me in his debt for I\nhad to find a copy at once;—and all\nI can do to repay him is to say how\nI enjoyed myself reading it.\n\n(i) He does, I am told, give a couple\nof pages to him in his latest book 14 The\nYoungest Drama\nSo I must make good about this with\nMr Dukes. Reviewer."}, {"page_pdf": 52, "page_imprimee": "40", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.52", "texte": "What a remarkable performance of\n\" Our Betters \" could be given if a\nfirst-rate English Company could be\nselected, if the production could be\nmade to seem more real than is usual;\nthat's the stuff to send over to Paris :\nwhereas they sent....\nThere can be no doubt that Miss\nConstance Collier and Miss Bannerman\nplayed the two principal parts in \" Our\nBetters \" better than any living English\nactresses could have done ; and Miss\nMarion Terry's performance of the\nPrincess must have contained beautiful\nwork.\nYorke Stephens, Alice Mosley, Al-\nfred Drayton, Stuart Sage, Reginald\nOwen, John Stuart, E. B. Walker and\nHenry Ford are some of the pick of\nLondon actors. But the play deserves\na firstrate English Company which has\nbeen working together for several years.\nRepertory Company ? No: for that\nmeans the creaking of boots again : the\nflat and popless bottle of Asti Spu-\nmante.\nBut no effort is made or will be\nmade, and no English Company of\nfirst-rate ability will be permitted to\nexist, since there seems to be a preju-\ndice in the profession against the three\nor four first rate foreign companies that\nalready do exist.\nDid you ever hear our actors swear\nthat Stanislavsky's Company and Musco's\nCompany were two first rate companies,\nand why they are so ? No, they\ndon't see it: it is an unfortunate halluci-\nnation ; but Garrick Street and Maida\nVale are blindly happy and there is an\nold law in the human heart which\nruns \" Pity the poor blind \".\nCome aside so that what we have\nto say may not reach their ears:—you\nsay they are deaf too ? Well then,\nthat's all right and no one will be hurt\nby what we say.\nYes, I agree with you : you've de-\nveloped the craft of playwriting so\nthat you can write a good or a bad\nplay to order.... and as these blind\nand deaf donkeys do not want a good\nplay and have no courage to leave\nyou to write as you wish you supply\nthem often as not with superb rubbish.\nExtraordinary stupid theatre folk—smart\nlads you dramatists.\nMaugham seems to me to be the\nsmartest. Not only can he supply rub-\nbish at times ; he can at the same time\ndelight himself and the solid playgoer\nof sense.\nI suppose everyone but the moles\nin Garrick Street can see this. Mau-\ngham was new to me so I was as\nblind as the other moles.\n\nJacques Galli di Bibiena.\n\nBRITISH DRAMA by Prof. Al-\nlardyce Nicoll. Harrap & Co.\nnet.\nSTAGE LIGHTING\nTLE \" THE A TRES. C. Harold\nRidge. Heffer& Sons. Cambridge.\n5/- net.\nTHERE is always one big danger\nwhich faces anyone who sets out\nto write about the Drama and the\n1 heatre. Either he is positively obliged\nto be entertaining to theatre goers, or\nhe has to be willing to bore all these\npeople to death and write a technical\nbook, interesting solely to the craftsman\nof Dramatics and Theatricals.\nAnd so it is surprising how Pro-\nfessor Nicoll has found it possible in\nhis new book to bore none and write\nsomething for everybody who is at all\nstudious. He is most tactful and pleasing,\nand manages to link up the old days\nwith today and to harmonise all things.\nHe has written a book to which we\nshall all refer time and again in the\ncourse of the next ten years, making\nit neither too long nor too short. It\nruns into 498 pages, it costs 12/—\nand the publishers are to be congra-\ntulated on a cheap book which is at\nthe same time a well made book.\nThe illustrations are excellent: there\nare sixteen of them, and an engraved\nfrontispiece.\nIf one must be at all critical I would\nsay that the subject is a little too vast for\na single volume ; but then I'd not have\nrelished four volumes. What I believe\nis best for the study of the Drama and\nTheatre is that scholars should do as\nMiss Campbell did—take a single branch\nof the huge subject and write a book\nor booklet on that branch alone.\nThe subject \" British Drama \" can\nbe divided and subdivided until we\neven come down to the last item—and\nnot the least important either—wigs.\nRoughly dotting down some of the\ndivisions we get Subject I, Plays:\nMiracle plays; Elizabethan plays; the\nMasques; Restoration Plays, and so\non, down to modern one-act plays.\nThere is enough in this one Heading,\nPlays, to occupy some fifteen or thirty\nscholars born to contribute just the one\nthing they alone really know about it;\nbut they must really know and not\nmerely repeat what we have already\nheard so often.\nSubject 2. Opera.\nSubject 3. Actors and Acting.\nSome thirty books and brochures\nare still needed, each one dealing with\na single actor or a single company.\nSubject 4. Theatre. Sub-divided\ninto some thirty or forty parts.\nA. Architecture: subdivided into\nsome fifteen parts, each part dealing\neither with some special period or with\nsome special theatre building, or with\nthe theatres of some special city at\nhome or abroad.\nB. Stenography. Some ten or\ntwelve books or booklets could be\neasily produced. Miss Campbell co-\nvers one corner of the subject perfectly.\nC. Costume.\nD. Stage management.\nE. Lighting.\nF. G. 6c H., ....continue the list as\nyou like, for I have no time or space\nhere to go on with it.\nAdd to these four divisions and\nnumberless subdivisions the important\nsubjects Dance, Masks, Marionnettes,\n(at the very least some fifteen books\ncan be prepared on these subjects) and\nwe get a notion of the size of the\nwhole undertaking which no one man\nor no one group could possibly shoulder\nalone.\nBut perhaps there already exist\nenough books on Drama and Theatre.\nI can count over two thousand in my\nown small collection, and only last\nweek a periodical told me that in fifty\nyears M. Rondel has gathered together\nsome three hundred thousand items.\nBut for all this we still have a lot\nof work to do—for only about four\nthousand of these items are of real\nvalue—if as many ; and what is needed\nis smaller, better, more exhaustive small\nbooks of some fifty to sixty pages each\ndealing with a single subject and giving\nseveral years to the building of these\nfifty pages.\nAnd Mr. C. H. Ridge supplies\none of these in his \" Stage Lighting \".\nIt is a book of a hundred pages, and\nMr. Dean and Mr. Gray have stood\nsponsers.\nOne of them should have told Mr.\nRidge that an index is essential to a\nbook of this kind, especially when ad-\ndressed, as is this one, to amateurs ... in\nwhose hands the author is \" suspec-\nted \" of believing lies the future of\n\" Drama as an art \".\nWhat Drama as no art is I am not\nquite clear. I'm afraid the author and\nhis sponsers have been reading one of\nMr. Gordon Craig's books. Yet this\ncan hardly be; for, while reference is\nmade to a number of books and peo-\nple, Mr. Craig is not one of these.\nThe book is just what is needed.\nTen such books, shorter, better if pos-\nsible, on even a sub-division of the\nlighting of stages would be valuable.\nBut let them keep well within fifty\npages and be the result of at least five\nor six years' careful work."}, {"page_pdf": 53, "page_imprimee": "41", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.53", "texte": "THEATRICAL IMPRESSIONS.\nJules Lemaitre. Herbert Jenkins. 7/6\nA Herbert Jenkins book is a lively\nbook. It is not uncouth, not un-\ndignified and not undeveloped, yet it\nwill not exchange its liveliness for any\namount of distinction, dignity or body.\nIt is not a costly thing and yet not\ncheap. It attempts to be as good as\nit can under the circumstances; it is,\nin short, a 1926 book.\nA 1926 book must first of all be\nproduced at a profit: it must appeal\nto the liyely part of the bookish public.\nIf by chance it please the super-critical\nall the better: it must anyhow first\nplease those willing to pay their 2/6,\n5/— and 7/6.\nAnd I like these prices.\n1 have always wanted to see my\n\" Songs from the Elizabethans \", selec-\nted by a man of judgement and brought\nout at 5/—. This the Firm of\nJenkins does. I want to get a good\nreadable story for 2/6. I don't want\nto have to pay more. And this the\nJenkins Firm does too. Mr. Jenkins\neven wrote the story. He wrote\nnine of them, and each one costs 2/6.\n\" Bindle \" is the most popular story\nof this author-publisher. It has already\nrun into 190,000 copies, and the\n\" Adventures of Bindle \" has run\ninto 60,000 also for 2/6. The other\nvolumes at 2/6 seem keeping pace with\nthe first two.\nBut these volumes of the House of\nJenkins are not mine to review. Mine\nis the volume \" Theatrical Impressions \":\nand a pretty little volume it makes,\nwith bright red cover and paper label.\nJules Lemaitre was a fine delicate critic,\nand these twenty-two essays are selected\nfrom ten volumes of Lemaitre's weekly\ncontributions to \" Le Journal des De-\nbats \". So says the Introductory Note,\nand I must believe that ten volumes\nexist though I don't like to credit it.\nFor the Theatrical Age of Dumas\nfils, Meilhac and Halevy, Becque,\nSardou, Lavedan, Breux and even Jules\nLemaitre is somehow not worth more\nthan, say, eight volumes at most; a\nlarge public of theatre students would\nI feel sure prefer them reduced to four.\nBut Jules Lemaitre is at any rate a\ncritic who never puts on airs nor de-\nscends to that curious habit, the occa-\nsional use of a French phrase or two.\nHe keeps to his mother-tongue all\nthrough. No Irishisms for him. His\nessay on \" Les Maris d'une Divorcee \",\na play you have forgotten or not heard\nof, by Raymond and de Gastyne,\nauthors you must have heard of, is in\nevery way admirable. He likes their\njolly play; he likes Ibsen's \"Ghosts\"\ntoo; and he likes Shakespeare's \"Le\nSonge d'une Nuit d'Et£\nAltogether Jules Lemaitre makes me\nwonder why it is we have no dramatic\ncritic in London on some famous Journal\nwho, in all he writes, could show us\nthat he really enjoys the theatre; one\nwho could manage to disguise those\negoistical sententious tones of Fleet Street\nwhich for the last twenty to thirty years\nhave bored us to death.\n\nMY LIFE IN ART by Constants\nStanislavsky. Geoffry Bles. —.\nTHE American edition of this book\nhas been already reviewed in\n\" The Mask \" in October 1924 : but\nnow an English version appears, and\nwe see it again with fresh pleasure.\nThirty shillings is too high a price\nfor the actors; it is too high for most\nbookish people. It is, we know, futile\nto tell actors and stage managers that\nif they put this book to right use they\nwill get many times their money's value\nin the lessons they will learn. The\nargument is sound but will not be lis-\ntened to.\nTo tell them they will see their\ncalling in a fresh and finer light, ...fresh,\nthat is, unless they have been steadily\nreading the eleven volumes of \" The\nMask\" all these years ...goes unheard\ninto their ears.\nStanislavsky writes of the Theatre\nand his work in it in away which\nstrikes us primarily because it is so\nunlike the way in which most players\nwrite their Memoirs :—Play fair, for\nexample.\nWe have had many volumes of\nActors* Reminiscences;...genial, comic\nand kindly: but so far as the work\nof the actor, the life of the Theatre,\nwent, they gave us little but the dates\nof certain productions, the names in-\ncluded in the castes, and a hundred\nanecdotes. Only, perhaps, in some of\nthe records written, or personally trans-\nmitted, by some who worked under\nHenry Irving, do we receive any im-\npression so dignified, so serious, as that\nwhich is produced by every page of\nthis Russian actor's book.\nSeriousness even over-seriousness\n-—is the key note of his entire attitude to\nthe Theatre: and, added to this, inte-\ngrity. Never from first to last do we\nfind anything cheap, meretricious, slip-\nshod, in his attitude to the art to which\nhe has devoted himself. Of personal\ntriumphs he relates almost nothing;\nfinancial questions, so far as his own\nadvantage is concerned, do not preoc-\ncupy him. Good work, faithful service\nof the Theatre, body and soul, these\nare all he cares for; and he exacts\nthat same spirit of service, of personal\nabnegation, from all those who work\nwith him.\nHere are some few of the apho-\nrisms he formulated for his workers:\n\" There are no small parts, there are\nonly small actors\n\" One must love art, and not oneself\n.\nin art .\n\" To-day, Hamlet, tomorrow a su-\npernumerary, but even as a supernume-\nrary you must become an artist \".\n\" All disobedience to the creative life\n\" of the theatre is a crime \".\n\" Lateness, laziness, caprice, hyste-\n\" rics, bad character, ignorance of the\n\" role, the necessity of repeating anything\n\" twice are all equally harmful to our\n\" enterprise and must be rooted out\nAnd again:—\n\" The theatre, which performs a cul-\n\" tural mission, demands of the per-\n\" sons engaged in it very much. To\n\" be the director of such an establish-\n\" ment one must be a talented expert\n\"in his own field, that is, not only as a\n\" critic, but as an actor, a stage director, a\n\" producer, a literateur, an administrator.\n\" One must know the theatre not only\n\" theoretically, but practically. One\n\" must know the construction of the\n\" stage, the architecture of the\n\" theatre itself, one must know the\n\" psychology of the mob, understand\n\" the nature and the psychology of the\n\" actor, the conditions of his creative\n\" work and life; one must have a\n\" wide literary education, tact, sensi-\n\" tivity, breeding, restraint, mind, ad-\n\" ministrative abilities and much, much\nlt M\n\" more .\nAnd here he is speaking not even\nof the Artist of the Theatre, but merely\nof the Director of a Theatre, of one\nwho is not a creative artist.\nIt is a book made for theatre\npeople;—it is to be hoped that there\nwill be found a hundred theatre people\nto purchase it in England. But we\nhave our doubts.\n\nCIRCLES\n\nEMPTY CHAIRS by Sir Squire\nBancroft. Murray. 10/6.\nMUSSOLINI: His Political Speeches.\n1914-1923. Dent & Sons. 7/6.\n\nSIR Squire Bancroft is generally sup-\nposed to be an old man. He has\noutlived Irving, Toole and Salvini,\nBernhardt and Fechter, and yet the\none thing which realty singles him out\nfrom all these is his youth."}, {"page_pdf": 54, "page_imprimee": "42", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.54", "texte": "While he became one of the best\nLondon actors of his day by dint of\nhard work, the genius of youth he\nwas born with. To fret, to chafe, to\nbother about trifles or weighty things,\nwas not to be part of Bancroft's life:\n—\" Let the great ones worry, let me be\nhappy \", is what he seems always to have\nsaid. And so he counselled himself to\nfling away ambition and do his duty\nin that state of life to which it had\npleased God to call him.\nHe was \"brought up in some luxury\"\nhe says and \" surrounded by all the\ngentle influences \" he could desire. He\nrecalls his father on his horse. They\nwhose fathers have ridden horses very\noften develop away of holding up the\nhead tilted at an angle which gives\nstyle to the whole person. Bancroft\nbecame possessed of this style, and he\ncarries it with him today as he strolls\ndown Piccadilly and people turn to\nask themselves \" Who's that ?\nThey may well ask, for there goes\na man of exceeding good sense and\ngood heart; and he has written a\ncharming little book in which many an\nold anecdote is culled from his earlier\nbook and is as fresh as ever it was.\nBesides being fortunately born and\nbrought up (a fortune which actors\ncannot often claim) he seems to have\never possessed tact, sense and charm.\nPlaced on the sixth or seventh rung\nof the social ladder at the age of one,\nit is only natural that he should ascend\nthat ladder;—ascending it he finds him-\nself in the midst of Princes, Ambassa-\ndors, Archbishops, Chief Justices,\nDukes and the others ; and, mixing with\nthese, he raises the social status of the\nactor. He married Miss Marie Wil-\nton, unquestionably one of the most\nbrilliant and bewitching actresses of her\ntime, in nature as sunny as he was,\nand together they helped to make Lon-\ndon sparkle: so when in 1897 these\ntwo very popular people became Sir\nSquire and Lady Bancroft it was all\nas it should be. I am of the opinion\nthat Bancroft was the only English actor\nwho should have received knighthood.\nAlmost every page of his book is\nup to the mark, and the very title sug-\ngests that he is preparing another vo-\nlume. The \" Empty Chairs \" are those\nwhich were once filled by all the great\nor famous Victorians between 1865 and\n1910 round Bancroft's table. But what\nof those who still live ? 1 do not allude\nto the old men of forty (or forty-one),\nbut to the little circle of men of se-\nventy-eight or eighty-five who so far\nas 1 can see hold themselves straight,\nstep out with spirit, and cock their heads\nas in the old days, only more so, for\nthe times ate rather other than they\nwere, new forces gather, opinions matter\nless; the great men of today are not\nable it would seem to hobnob quite as\nmuch as in Bancroft's pleasant age—\nand this may of course seem cata-\nstrophic to the circle.\nAnyhow Sir Edward Clarke, Sir\nA. W. Pinero, Sir Squire Bancroft,\nSir J. Forbes Robertson, Henry Arthur\nJones, W. L. Courtney and a dozen\nmore cronies are, I think, a fair excuse\nfor a new book by Sir Squire Ban-\ncroft:—a merry book; and I believe\nthat he is slyly preparing it!\n\" That which we Fascisti are oppo-\nsing is the Bolshevist element in Ita-\nlian Socialism\". (Mussolini).\n1 hear old Bancroft saying \" Hear\nHear \" to that: and a \" what? \" turning\nto Sir Thingymy Right, adding in an\nundertone to Sir Thingymy Left \" Quite\na promising young man this Signor Mus-\nsolini\". Yes, the good bright-eyed\n\" B\" would not fail to cry \" Hear\nHear \"—but, alas, the other B. would\nmiss it entirely in the aside.\nSignor Mussolini, addressing the Se-\nnate, states :—\" Of course if the\nvote of the Senate be unanimous, it\nwill please me—(Laughter)—but you\nmust not believe that unanimity flatters\nme excessively. I entertain a thorough\ncontempt for those who have more or\nless clamorously sided with me in these\nlast days (Nov. 1922). They are so\noften the kind of people who follow\nthe fair wind and are ready to tumble\nheadlong over to the other side when\nthe wind changes direction. 1 prefer\nsincere enemies to doubtful friends\".\n1 dread to think what Sir Squire\nwould feel on hearing that.\nI fear that poor \"B \" would look\nquite a little surprised at such lan-\nguage;—but, seeing that Mussolini has\nsucceeded, he would possibly (after\"talk-\ning it over with the circle) decide to\n\" wait and see\" the play to the end.\nBut he'd find it, so far, rather \"queer\".\n1 think that no one outside the circle\n—out of every circle—could find Fa-\nscism at all odd. Circles are all right\nin a comfortable age and for lands and\nepochs where all is going along smoothly;\nthey who like and use circles found them\nin those different days admirably suited\nto their methods. But circles are often\nblighting; are apt to be a nuisance in\na period which is advancing to newer\nthings. Circles bring about much trouble\nbecause circles don't like ideas and\nfind initiative far too independent.\ni like ideas so well that I read all\nthat Signor Mussolini says and does\nand find it all well said and well done.\nPolitics I abhore. 1 wont discuss\nthem, having a fixed ideal for Go-\nvernment and Power. Politics are born\nof a failure to govern and a lack of\npower. In a house, in a stable, in a\ncarpenters shop, in a theatre, in a\nchurch or in a state what is needed is\na man who thinks more of the thing\nhe is doing than of himself; one able\nto give orders and be obeyed.\nThis as a rule is what all big wars\nproduce, and this as a rule is what a\nbig war teaches every nation: and I\nalways feel it a pity when a nation\ndoesn't learn at least that. Useless to\nregret that mankind sometimes cannot\ncome to understand it without trouble;\nuseless to point out now that previous\nto the war many men lived and wor-\nked knowing this and being all the\ntime put down as lunatics.\nAnd, what is always worse than a\npity, is, the getting together of many\npeople in a circle, and in a quite\nhonest, if rather underhand, way ar-\nranging things between themselves so\ncleverly that a people is robbed of its\nvision, stifled and fed up with unne-\ncessary luxuries, well doped by a press\n(also in the circle) so that the circle\nmay anyhow be unbroken, thrive, write\nits memoirs, and generally ruin every-\nthing with impunity.\nBut 1 am no Mussolini, no Cromwell,\nno Richelieu to speak of nations; but\nof Theatres I know something: and I\nknow that the English Theatre and the\nFrench Theatre are both being bled to\ndeath by circles.\nThese circles are composed of good\nmen and women: taken singly each\none can compare favourably with the\nbest of good fellows. Sir Squire Ban-\ncroft for example. One and all excel\nin this or that; are human, charming,\nclever, and in most respects worthy.\nBut when united,—when they form\na circle—(which by the way looks\ndelightful and worthy too)—when inside\nthat, they one and all become transfor-\nmed and begin to prey on all which\ncounts for individuality and expression.\nProvided it holds, a circle can at\nany rate boast a kind of grim if smiling\npower. It has that. Some people\nhave said that the power is often one\nused solely to revengeful purposes.\nNietzsche, Blake, Whitman, who are\nnot often heard of in circles, and never\nseen there, are apt to be rather stern\nabout the Bancrofts and the Clubs,\nGarrick or Reform, Jacobin or Work-\nmen's. By laughing a little Voltaire is\nable, just able, to tolerate a circle\nbut they do not tolerate him: so he\nends by being carried in state to the\ntomb as the circles snuff out \" Unwept,\nunhonoured and unsung \"."}, {"page_pdf": 55, "page_imprimee": "43", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.55", "texte": "\" If there is anyone who believes\nthat, to be a true Liberal, it is necessary\nto give some hundreds of irresponsible\npeople, fanatics and scoundrels, the\npower of ruining forty millions of Ita-\nlians, I refuse absolutely to give them\nthis power (Mussolini Nov. 27.\n1922).\nWhich seems to me more or less the\nway Byron liked to hear people speak\neven if he objected to have his own words\nso translated ; but he unfortunately died\nsome hundred years too early to do so.\nAnd who in our land troubles about\nwhat Byron liked to hear—or Blake\neither. As for Whitman, the man\nwas as mad as Blake and Nietzsche\nmadder than both.\nAnd of course, if a wise man pauses\nto think quietly about it, it is apt to make\nhim mad to note how fools will carry\non when clubbed together in a circle.\nM Here we go round the mulbry bush\nthe mulbry bush\nthe mulberry bush\nHere we go round \"....\nI hope England will not be very\nlong before she makes a trial of circle-\nbreaking by experimenting first on the\nTheatre circle—and its useful\ncritics* circle too : for 1 believe these\ncircles are of rather a bad than good\nuse.\nI cannot guess why Bancroft's book\nshould have set me thinking of all\nthis: but Mussolini's book has certainly\nmade it clearer than ever (and it was\nnever at all obscure at any time) that\nthe control exercised over our English\nTheatre by our good critics and our\ngood theatre men and women is just\nthe very worst control conceivable.\nIt is not to be expected that they\ncould ever come to see eye to eye with\nme in this matter because what I am\nafter is the release of the European\nTheatre from a preposterous situation,\nand the restoration of the fine tradi-\ntions it could inherit but continues to\ndisregard.\nAnd while those bland circles exist,\nand those good kind talkative men will\ngather together and discuss what is of\nlittle importance, so long will the\nTheatre be obliged to suffer every\ncurtailment of its rights,—the right to\nmove on and do something and use\nIts splendid traditions.\nWell, let us not despair. The\nTheatre is not the sole property of\nany one nation : there are other Thea-\nres than those shadowy parodies of\nthe old place to which the patient\nEnglishman and the as patient Frenchman\nare forced to go.\nBut to make sure of a thrill we had\nbest take a copy of Mussolini's Speeches\nwith us when we are obliged to sit\nout an evening's dramatics in London\nor in Paris; for these speeches are as\nmagnificent to read as they are sound\nto ponder.\nDent and Sons are indeed to be\ncongratulated on having issued this first-\nclass translation.\nThe volume is prefaced by a letter\nfrom Barone Tittoni, President of the\nItalian Senate, a man for years known\nfrom one end of Europe to the other\nand an Italian of Italians. No one\nwill take him to be a reckless firebrand\nalthough Signor Mussolini is doubtless\nstdl considered so by those in all the\ncircles.\nThey dislike him because he is not\nas moderate as they are; they cannot\nsee that moderation itself can be exces-\nsive : that never occurs to them.\nIf someone in the English Theatre\nsuggested that it would be a good thing\nif every actor were to read \" The\nMask \" (and Mr. Lennox Robinson,\nMr St. John Ervine,and one or two\nothers have done so) the circles would\nbe shocked. For \" The Mask \" says\nwhat it thinks and thinks a long time\nbefore saying it : yet the London actor\nhaving drunk, not wisely but too well,\nat the source of all foolery, is sick,\nand so can find nothing but ill to say\nabout \" The Mask \".\nAnd I am told by many that nothing\nbut a very drastic remedy can cure this\nsickness of mind.\nA milder remedy would be more to\nmy liking. I would like to see some\none put in power who would give\nthings one chance more and who would\nopen all the theatrical doors to admit\nevery scrap of genius and talent.\nBut if the doors continue to be\nclosed to genius and talent....\n\ne. g. c.\n\nCOMEDIES BY WILLIAM CON-\nGREVE, edited by Bonomy Dobree.\nHumphrey Milford. Oxford Univer*\nsity Press. London. 2/~net.\nTHE audiences of the future when\nat the theatre will lie on their\nbacks. So says Mr Dobree, the editor\nof Congreve, in another book of his\nrecently published. He has doubtless\ntalked it over with the Managers and\nthe landlords of the London Theatres,\nand, concluding that the Way of the\nWorld is a topsy-turvey way, they\nthink to correct this by eccentricity.\nMr Dobree may not mean his sug-\ngestion very seriously: so it might have\nbeen better had he left Mr George\nRobey to crack the joke? Yet Robey\nhas cracked jokes to gloomy ends;\nperhaps we are on the eve of an an-\nnouncement:\n\" Dobree and Robey,\nThe hilarious woebegone brothers\nEngland's sole mirth crackers.\nTONIGHT\nEveryone will be expected\nto lie on his back\nwhile\nDobree and Robey\nwalk over them\nPerhaps:—and then again, perhaps\nnot yet.\nI almost fear the Future of the Thea-\ntre is not going to be as eccentric as\nsome suppose: not quite as uncomfor-\ntable as partner Dobree suggests.\nJust for the moment it is prone...\nnicely sat on: in the future it may get\nup, and may put in motion its old ma<\nchinery and \" let her go Mr Asher\nBut I set out to say what a fine seriouj\nwriter is Mr. Dobree when he is in*\ntroducing us to a great fellow like\nCongreve.\nLast January, reviewing Mr.\n\" Restoration Gomedy \" in \" The\nMask \", I wrote that, lacking a popular\nedition of the plays, the best of talks\nabout Congreve \"gang aft a-gley \", and\nI expressed a wish, felt doubtless by\nthousands of readers, that, with a cheap\nedition of the \"Way of the World\nand \" The Double Dealer\", an essay\nby Mr Dobree would be the last\nperfect touch.\nAnd now Mr Humphrey Milford\nhas issued just such a volume. Four\nComedies by Congreve, neatly bound\nin cloth, on remarkable paper, in a\ngood readable type, with Mr Dobree\nas introducer, at 2/net. He must have\nread your thousands of thoughts, deir\nreaders.\nThe volume forms one of the Ox-\nford Press series of World Classics\nie. volume 276; and except for Eve-\nryman's Library I know no better se-\nries. Bell's newer Bohn series is in the\nfirst rank, By Jove, London should\nbe proud of her publishers.\n\nNOTHING, by Edward Gordon Craig.\nChatto & Windus. 116.\nTHERE is more about the Theatre in\nthis book than meets the eye; but\nwhat does strike one at once is that it\ncontains eighteen designs made for per-\nformers.\nThis is the edition for everyone, there\nbeing a more costly edition for collectors.\nBoth editions are beautifully printed,\narranged and bound. The publisher'"}, {"page_pdf": 56, "page_imprimee": "44", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.56", "texte": "are indeed to be complimented, and the\nCurwen Press has done as it ever does,\ntaken the utmost care.\nIn this popular edition there are\ntwenty-five bookplates, some in colour:\nin the De luxe edition there are fifty-\none and a signed proof of a design\nfrom the original wood block.\nHere are the bookplates of Ellen\nTerry, Isadora Duncan, John Drew,\nMrs Brown Potter and Cissy Loftus;\nof W. H. Nevinson, Jan C. de Vos\nand William Winter. For these alone\nthe book is of historical interest,\n\nTOM MOORE'S DIARY; A se-\nlection edited, with Introduction, by\nJ. B. Priestly, Cambridge University\nPress. 1925. 6/-net.\nTOM Moore's Diary has come to\nus again, and in it live my Lord\nByron, and old Rogers, and aged\nWordsworth, and Lord Holland, and,\nbest of all, old Sherry.\nWhen I hear that question of Brown-\ning's.\n\" Ah, did you once see Shelley\nplain ? \"\nfor twopence I'd cry out, \" No, thank\nthe Gods, but I see Sherry coloured\nAnd I mean no harm, I mean no\ndiscourtesy to Shelley, who has opal\ncolours in him. I mean but to pay\nSheridan once more that courtesy we\ntoo often forget to render him.\nThe world day by day speaks of\nShaw, Tolstoi, Ibsen. I with the.\nworld would invite these three modern\ngiants to supper with three ordinary\nmy choice: with Sheridan,\nByron and Goethe. 1 would like\nthe world to pass an evening with\nthese six.\nBecause it would be a famous\nevening.\nWe should dine in Paris or\nVienna.\nI'd back my Sheridan against the\nlot: I believe he'd prove the biggest\nman of the six.\nAnd here he is with Tom Moore—\nand should you want more of him try\n\" Michael Kelly's Reminiscences \";\nand if these are not enough, one act\nof the *' Rivals \" should serve. One\nscene of one act, one passage from\none scene.\nTom Moore's Diary as it comes\nfrom the Cambridge University Press\nis a delightful volumette—too small,\nfor the fun of Moore is that he can\ngo on and on; but like all the books\nfrom this press what a delight to look\nat and to touch.\n\nA HISTORY OF THE BIRMING-\nHAM REPERTORY THEATRE\nby Bache Matthews. Chatto & Win-\ndus. 1924. 7/6 net.\nI find nothing in this book which\nconveys to me any suggestion that\nthe Birmingham Repertory is of im-\nportance to the English Stage.\n'• The lesson of the Birmingham\nRepertory Theatre\" writes Mr. G.\nBernard Shaw, \" is ....that art is kept\n\" alive, not by the established trade\n\" in it, but by the desperate efforts\n•' of art-hungry individuals to create\n\" and recreate it out of nothing for\n\" its own sake \".\nWhich is not quite correct.\nFor the Birmingham Repertory\nTheatre really cannot be said to keep\nArt alive; it keeps it more or less\ndead. To keep it alive may need\n\" desperate efforts\"; there Mr. Shaw\nis more right than I should have\nthought possible. How does he know\nthat ? But what is a \" desperate ef-\nfort \"? I refer to the genuine article.\nIn England everyone is \" desperately\npoor\"1 have lost all my money,\nI am utterly ruined \", sobs Mrs.\nMcSmithereens when reduced to a mere\n£ 6000 a year. It is now the habit\nto use the word \" desperate \" in\nEngland,—that and \" deplorable\nThe Birmingham Repertory Theatre\nhas a fine spirited leader in Sir Barry\nV. Jackson, the founder and director\nof the Theatre, at whose \" request \"\nMr. Matthews put this record together.\nThe book is carefully done. The\nTheatre, 1 consider, ill done. The\nbuilding I do not like, either, its outside\nor its inside. 1 do not like the\ndeadly serious way the theatre takes\nitself. I do not like one of the de-\nsigns in the book and 1 do distinctly\nlike the theory of playing \" Cymbe-\nline \" in modern dress. The photo\nshowing a group of the performers in\nthis play is not the worst in the book.\nBut that this should have been done, the\ntheory put into practice, is a sorry fact.\nDoubtless the actors at this theatre\nare efficient. Mr. Coats M. A. says so\nin \" An impression \" included in the\nvolume To be efficient is not enough.\n\" One always has, at the Repertory\nTheatre a sense of witnessing a tho-\nroughly conscientious interpretation \" is\nWhat Mr. R Spears, another writer,\nfeels. He says so in \" Some Impres-\nsions \" also included in the volume.\n\" A conscientious interpretation \"\nare the words which have been used\nby the hundred and fifty famous wri-\nters in \"The Era\" when describing\nperformances by provincial companies\nvisiting third-rate towns. Is that all that\ncan be said for the Birmingham Reper-\ntory Company, which has energy, and its,\nown Theatre, and capital to back it ?\nCan it be that England is terribly\nhard up for talent that it is obliged to\npraise this Repertory Theatre in apo-\nlogetic tones.\nThe efforts of Sir Barry Jackson\nand Mr Shelving to produce sceneries\nwhich shall look rather professional,\nstrikes me as wrong somewhere. Why\nnot emplo/ a Hawes Craven or some\nother genuine Scenic man and have\ndone with it if you have capital. 1\ndo not like the other thing. And I\ndo not like Sir Barry Jackson sending\nhis architect to Germany \" to see some\nof the Reinhardt Theaters \" before he\nperfected his plans:—could anything\nmore incompetent and resourceless, unin-\nformed and unnecessary, be imagined,\nAnd Sir Barry Jackson had been\narticled to an architect and had stu-\ndied at a School of Art too.\nWhen a good carpenter makes a chair\nhe don't bother about what Germany or\nRussia are doing in the chair line. He\ngoes ahead and makes it, good, light,\nsound and beautiful. That's to say if he\nbe a Sheraton or Chippendale. And who\nwants anyone less than another sort\nof Chippendale or Sheraton making\nTheatres in England. Evidently Bir-\nmingham doesn't. And it seems that\nLondon doesn't. Apparently Eng-\nland doesn't want anything in the.\nTheatre that's not genuine pinchbeck.\nBirmingham Repertory Theatre : Lyric\nTheatre, Hammersmith : Old Vic. Sur-\nrey side : Everyman, Hampstead ' the\nlist tots up to thirty or forty\n\nLI t TLE DRESSMAKERS IN\nLOVE by Yoi Maraini. Methuen.\n6/- net.\nSIGNORA MARAINI has added to\nher earlier books, published under\nher signature of ' Yoi Pawlowska *, this\nvolume of charming stories about the little\ndressmakers and modiste of Florence.\nThese ten stories, in which she\nshows sympathetic knowledge of the\nlives of these young creatures, their\nlittle comedies and tragedies, have that\ngrace which always characterises this\nwriter's work.\nAfter reading her book you come\nto feel that a few of these little ladies,\nwho flit to and fro, morning, midday\nand evening, upon the Florentine stage,\nare rather more real than the rest;\n...that \"the thousand little prototypes\nof Venus\" as the author labels thau.\nis a good enough label for the thous."}, {"page_pdf": 57, "page_imprimee": "45", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.57", "texte": "and, but that three or four of them\nsingled out by Signora Maraini are\nafter all worth a good deal better\nlabel—one apiece.\n\nA GALLERY OF CHILDREN BY\nA. A. Milne: Illustrations by H.\nWillebeek Le Mair. Stanley Paul\n& Co. 12/6.\nANYBODY wishing to produce a\nmore charming book than this for\nthe nursery will have to put his best\nfoot forward.\nThis \" Gallery ,f contains just the\nkind of thing that small children like ;\nthe sort of illustrations that please them,\nthe quality of drama they enjoy.\n\nMAGAZINES.\n\nNOTES ON A GROUP OF\no JOURNALS. o\n\"Architecture 99 (0 \" Hohewarte 99\n\" The Calendar 9 9 W \" The London\nMercury 99 (3) \" The American Mer-\ncury 99 (4) 44 77ie Dra? (5) \" Co-\nlour 99 (6) \" Criterion 99 (7).\nIS Architecture the first to have intro-\nduced into England the discovery\nthat half tone plates can be printed on\nthe same roughish paper as is used for\nthe text, and that the \" art \" paper\nwith its polished surface can therefore\nbe banished ?\nAnyhow this was a very good thing\nto discover.\nWhat the name of the process is I\ndo not know. I suppose it is a kind\nof off set process. The first time I\never saw half tone blocks used with\nthe type upon non-polished paper was\nin 1905 when J. A. Lux issued\nHohewarte, a fortnightly magazine, in\nVienna. It was printed by Christoph\nReisser Sohne, and famously too, a\nrougher paper being used than Archi-\ntecture uses today.\nEver since I have waited, expecting\nthe same idea would be adopted all\nover Europe. It is astonishing how\nslow Europe is to adopt an idea pro-\nperly; that is to say, without loss of\ntime, loss of style and loss of money,\nAnd yet how much time, style and\nmoney would be saved if only Europe\nwould make it more possible to hurry\nup with these new ideas. And they\nare never so good, never so perfectly\nexecuted, as the day they are invented,\nArchitecture reproductions are excel-\nlent; its text I find a little less enter-\ntaining than it might be.\nIn an interesting article on \"The\nArchitect's Bookshelf \" by Mr. M. S.\nBriggs is the curious statement that\nmanuals of building construction are\nusually dull and that books on archi-\ntecture are best when not illustrated.\nBut if my Serlio, my Vignola, Vitruvio,\nand Pozzo lacked their many hundred\ncopper plates and woodcuts I should\nregret it. For all I know \" The Ar-\nchitecture of Humanism \" cited by Mr.\nBriggs may be held to be the best histo-\nrical essay of the day; but how a few\ndesigns could have hurt it is not clear\nto me. Is it so slight a work that the\nleast image would distract and lead us\nastray ?\nThe Calendar has no illustrations;\nbut then it is a lively thing; entertain-\ning too (what daring nowadays!) and\nis to my mind quite the best literary\nmagazine issued in England or Ame-\nrica. Is it a success? I ask, for\ngood things sometimes do not pay.\nAnd yet they should, for when was\nthere such a number of magazines is-\nsued in England, all of which are\ntrying to publish the best.\nIs there room for so many ?\nThe London Mercury seems to be\nhaving a long innings and would be\nmore readable were its line less long:\nand five inches and one eighth of an\ninch is too long a line unless the type\nused is a much larger one than the largest\nused in \" The London Mercury \".\nFor this reason I much prefer the\ndouble column of The American Mer-\ncury9 apparently an only too successful\naffair.\nBut neither of these Mercuries is as\nentertaining as \" The Calendar\" (whose\nline, by the way, is good, measuring\nfour inches). They are too thick—\ntoo full; perhaps too literary; not\nnimble enough for Mercury. I am\nnot conscious of quite enough happi-\nness in the writers; and more sense\nof happiness surely could not harm\nanyone's prose.\nHumor, too, is rather too often ab-\nsent from these Mercuries. It is some-\ntimes even shut out with a bang from\nthe Editorial Offices whenever a wood-\ncut or a drawing is allowed to slip in\nup the private stairs,\nThe Editors of The Dial show a\nvery nice sense of what illustrations\nare useful to any literary magazine,\nThere is always something in \" The\nDial \" which lights up the room ; *.*.a\nlittle colour-plate by Bonnard or by\nMarie Laurencin or Picasso; some**\ntimes woodcuts by Mr, Lanks or some\nother not too dull engraver ; pen and\nink sketches by Cocteau ; carvings by\nNadelman ; light things that are not\nstupid. One imagines that the \" London\nMercury \" knows of but two kinds of\nillustration ; the incompetent or the dull,\nfor I cannot recall seeing there a page\ndesign which was really worth while,\nOf course Mr. Powys Evans makes\nsome speaking likenesses of celebnties\nnow and again ; but nothing com pa -\nrable with such drawings as William\nRothenstein used to give us, a fine\nartist who one would have thought\nwas the very man to lighten up the\npages of this excellent magazine no\nmatter what it might cost, or how long\nit might take to persuade the artist,\n\" Colour \" on the other hand might\nsurely add a more worth while text\nto its magnificent collection of paintings\nand drawings. Sometimes I feel that\nin London are none but a pack of\nfools—for all their cleverness. Here\nare \" Mercury\", \"Calendar , \" Cri-\nterion \", all of them going it for all\nthey are worih outside the public\nhouse ; each of them with a harp,\nand over on the other side of the\nwater sits \" Colour ' tootling splen-\ndidly on a sackbut.\nAnd what makes me take the Lon-\ndoners for fools (and it s a delusion\nof course) is the obvious fact that the\nfour should join forces and can t:\nshould make music in concert and\nreally entertain the beer-drinkers inside\nall the public houses, visiting each in\nturn; no row about \" queering the\npitch \" ; but overhauling their instru-\nments and programme, throwing a good\nhalf of their music into the Thames ;\nrehearsing carefully, and then making a\nreal effort to entertain,\nThere'd be some sense in this ; just\nthat touch of comrnonsense which a\ntoo close attention to the point of the\npen is bound to prevent,\nWhat would not ordinary magazines\ngive to have this capacity for hard\nthinking and good writing which the\nwriters and editors of these three jour-\nnals possess ! Having these finer senses\nand greater powers why refuse to\nacquire that ordinary comrnonsense\nwhich would be such a very easy\nthing for them to get ?\n\n(1) Architecture. Monthly. The Buil-\nder Ltd, Catherine St. Aldwvch, London.\n(2) The Calendar. Monthly I I Fea-\nther stone Buildings, High Holburn, Lon-\ndon.\n(3) The London Mercury, Monthly,\n229, Strand, London.\n(4) 772<? American Mercury, Monthly,\nFifth Avenue, New York,\n(5) The Dial. Monthly, 75,2, West 13th\nSt New York.\n(6) 44 Colour Monthly, America.\n(7) The Criterion. Monthly, Adelphi,\nLondon."}, {"page_pdf": 58, "page_imprimee": "46", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.58", "texte": "Or why do no* the ordinary jour-\nnals with common sense come forward\nand offer to join with these more\nbrainy affairs.\nThen a very large audience would\nbe enchanted as well as devilish inte-\nrested.\n\nTHE SACKBUT. Curwen Press,\nLondon. Monthly.\nFROM \" The Sackbut I cull the\nfollowing :—\" When a Galli-Curci,\n\" who has been through hell and star-\n\" vation without hope of recognition,\n\" manages to get through and create\n\" a furore, there is not one amongst\n\" us who need be jealous of her success.\n\" 'She is mean * they say. Did she\n\" find generosity when she needed it\n\" most? ' She will not help a struggling\n\" artist *. Did anybody wish to help\n\" her? ' She won't admit she had\n\" tuition *. Perhaps her .teachers crip-\n\" pled her at the beginning and made\n\" impossible terms*. No, I for one\n\" am glad when some star flits across\n\" the firmament, for I know that how-\n\" ever bad the tales may be about\n\" them, they are never bad enough to\n\" satisfy my longing for revenge at the\n\" slights some of my great friends have\n\" suffered and been broken under \".\nUrsula Greville.\nThis is quite the correct spirit, and\nyet I am not sure. When the struggle\nthe artist makes grows less as success\ncomes, can there be any bad feeling\nleft either for the struggle or the op-\nposers? ...surely not.\nThe struggle is easier to cope with\nthan is the too big success.\nA great performer must bp especially\ncareful. I would suggest that Henry\nIrving is the best example to follow.\nHe goes slowly: no wild success such\nas is offered by a big city to many\nwomen performers: for he keeps the\nthing in check, as should every wise\nperformer. Success to be the genuine\nthing must glow steadily, the light in-\ncreasing in strength: a sudden flare up\nis a pity all round. I am inclined to\nthink that men like Liszt, Paganini,\nChaliapine and Irving ride and control\ntheir immense success better than do\nwomen like Rachel, Sophie Arnould,\nBernhardt and Duse, But how be\ncritical of anyone for a success achieved\nthrough the display of great talents?\nHere is a woman who sets four\ncapitals alight talking of her wonderful\nappearance and becomes practically\nqueen of a fifth for two or three\nyears: makes helf a million and spends\na million.— Is there anything to be cri-\ntical about in that? If she enjoyed\nherself all the better. If she has\nsquandered it's only what Sheridan\ndid before her. Stop them, you say:\n—help them. A very first class sug-\ngestion of yours: tell me how to do it.\nBnt I am not quite in accord with\nMiss Ursula Greville where she speaks\nof 44 slights M which her 44 great friends\nhave suffered and been broken under\nI have never yet known a really great\npersonality who suffered to the extent\nsuggested from such contemptable\nthings as, 44 slights and as for break-\ning under them, it is obvious every\nyear that genius breaks over things\nand does not go under.\n\nTHE REVIEW OF ENGLISH\nSTUDIES. Messrs. Sidgwich dr\nJackson, Quarterly. Vol.-/, Nos. 1-4.\nA Quarterly journal of English Lite-\nrature and the English Language ;\nvaluable essays useful to students of En-\nglish Literature. It proposes to raise the\nsubscription from 3 jto 5/- a copy.\n\nPUNCH. 10 BouStreet, Lon-\ndon, Weekly.\nSUDDEN THOUGHT! Does\n\" Punch \" ever get reviewed now-\nadays ? 1 seldom see anything in the\nPapers about \" Punch \" which is worth\nwhile.\nBut never have I seen a better number\nthan the Almanack for 1926 which I\nbought here for 10 lite on November\n10th of 1925.\nThe comicality of the thing started\nright away. 10 lire being about 2/—\nand November 10th almost two months\nahead of the date it is due, the which\nI take was to be January Ist 1926.\nAnd this wrings from me a roar of\nlaughter.... for the slap-stick of the age\nhas me. When, in 1826, we came\ndown to breakfast on January Ist and,\nlooking for a festive time, we found our\nMr Punch or Giovanni Punch, (for the\nfamily came from Italy), awaiting us,\nnot half an hour late but to the tick\nof 8 o'clock, the day was made mer-\nrier by his presence. Nowadays we\nget it over by then. We've all seen\nit, read it and forgotten it between\nNovember 2nd and November 12th,\ntwo months ahead of time. Screams\nof laughter : world upside down.\nThoughts are still apt.... drugs as fit as\na fiddle,... but time—time—the clock\nhands are making passes—we are mes-\nmerized.\nBut what matter when such a num-\nber of 44 Punch '* comes out—with Ber-\nnard Partridge and Raven Hill at their\nbest; Fougasse, George Morrow, and\nLewis Baumer better than ever; Ar-\nthur Watts and Armour immense, and\nFrank Reynolds seemingly unable to\nstop. Lots of other artists help to\nmake the number top-hole, and the\nletter press hasn't a dull line in it.\nBut conceive my amazement, on tur-\nning the first page, to find one of the\nmost beautiful of Fred Pegram's fine\nline drawings given away as an extra\nand on the 9th page as neat a thing as\nFellows ever did also given in extra.\nBoth of these page drawings serve to\nadvertise things (1) The Orient Line\nCruises (2), Renault's Motor Cars.\nI shall add both drawings to my col-\nlection, and a car and a cruise later.\nPegram is of course genuine 1900;\nFellows right up to date, 1926. Both\nmen's work will be carefully preserved\nby tomorrow's historian. A whole vo-\nlume oil the manners of 1900 England\nwould say less to us than Mr. Pegram\ndoes in ten or fifteen drawings of his.\nHis ladies are as perfect as was 1900.\nThey took snapshots all day as only\nPegram can tell us; they passed tea\nas Pegram shows us, and, so far as I\nknow, no one else shows us.\nAs for Mr Fellows, 1 can look very\nlong at the ladies and gentlemen he\ntells me lived in 1926. I write as\nthough I was living in 2026 :—some\none will be I hope, and 1 here and\nnow recommend him, when producing\na play of this first quarter of the 20th\ncentury, to turn to his Fellows.\nThus and only thus they stood in\nthe doorways of the big hotels ; thus\nthey glided and came out. That was\njust the face the chauffeur put on. In\nfront of all things, blocking the way,\nthe view, and the ridiculous old notion\nof life stood the motor car,... its bulky\nwheels with Kelly Cords, its immense\nlamps. Out come Mr and Mrs Larry,\nTommy or Dicky something, and Ridley\ndrives 'em home. Obviously all are\nthinking about weighty matters.,., what?\nFellows knows, and what Ts his reply\nNothing."}, {"page_pdf": 59, "page_imprimee": "47", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.59", "texte": "EDITORIAL NOTES.\n\nA PRINCEL Y GIFT, o\nMR Charles Rutherston of Bradford\nis possessed of two things which\nseldom go hand in hand—wealth and\ntaste: and by applying his wealth to\nthe purchase of works of art he has\nin the last thirty years or so formed a\nvery remarkable collection.\nTo his wealth and taste he has\nadded a third thing—generosity.\nHe has given his collection to the\nNation ; placing in the hands of the\nManchester Corporation \" an impor-\ntant collection of oil paintings and draw-\nings, etchings, wood engravings and\nlithographs by modern artists\nThis is the act of a prince.\nIn the old days Princes gave away\nsuch things for a song : conditions were\nnot imposed.\nTimes having changed and Mr Ru-\ntherston, being more thoughtful than\nany prince was ever able to be, thinks\nout a plan by which thousands of\npeople may (he hopes) be brought to\nlove art for itself alone, re, without\npaying for it. He perfects his plan\nand then submits it with a kind smile\nto the Corporation. The Corporation\nis asked to agree that \" the capacity\nto enjoy and create true works of art\ncan be awakened in many within\nwhom it now lies dormant \" and that\naesthetic emotion is essential to in-\ndividual and communal well being \" ;\nand so the Corporation is to lend the\nworks of art, one or twenty, sixty or\ni hundred, to all and sundry other\nnaileries.\nMr Rutherston is not an idealist in\nhe stupid sense of the word ;—he is\ni serious, kindly and highly intelligent\nnan. But he has not painted pictures,\nmgraved plates or made sketches for\n;he papers to earn a living. Many\nan artist has had to do all this. And\nyou must ask such an artist what he\nthinks of Mr. Rutherston's plan to get\na reply worth your attention.\nWe believe the reply will be against\nany such notion as this Lending system.\nFor the artist is a commonsense\nman. As he enjoys what he has to\npay for he naturally supposed that the\nrest of the world (omitting dead-heads)\nwill also find more enjoyment in pos-\nsessing something for which they were\nwilling to pay, than for the cheapest of\nglimpses through a glass window of\nsomething delicious which they may\nnot possess.\nThe artist will ask Mr. Rutherston\nwhy he bought things he loved so\nmuch and why he was hot content\nmerely to look at them when loaned.\nIf Mr. Rutherston did not like bor-\nrowing why does he suppose the En-\nglish man with less means will like\nborrowing any better than did Mr.\nRutherston.\nThe artist will also point out to Mr.\nRutherston that the Lending Library\nsystem, a horrible invention of this age,\nhas not at all improved the English\ntaste for fine books. At best it has\npossibly encouraged swifter reading.\nBooks no longer have all the qualities\nthey once possessed, and this is in great\nmeasure due to the lending library.\nAgain, suppose oneself Mr. Gill the\nwood engraver : and suppose one does\nas Mr. Gill does, prints off hundreds\nof one's woodcuts at 5/— or 2/— a\npiece so that the poorer kind of public\ncan buy them.\nAt the success of Mr. Rutherston's\nscheme these cuts become worthless;\nfor Mr. Rutherston can send round\nour 5/— woodcut, loaning out what\nwe have sold him to keep for himself\nand for the visitors to his house. If\nthe artist had thought he would under-\ncut him in this way he'd have put up\nhis price.\nNo, it seems to us a bad proposal\nthis lending of 5/- prints.\nTo lend a drawing which may cost\n£lO to £2O or more and of which\nthere is but one copy is perhaps another\nproposition. We don't like it, but at\nany rate it doesn't do much harm to\nthe artist; whereas the loan of 5/—\nprints does great harm. It will in time\nurge the artist to issue 3000 copies of\na print at 6d a piece; he will then\nhave to turn printer to do it; and em-\nploy a staff of men to execute his\nweekly orders. And by the time he\nhas \" worked up his business \" he will\nhave forgotten how to draw, how to\nengrave, and will hate the whole of\nhis work.\nThe gift Mr Rutherston makes is a\nprincely one: the several conditions\nhe tacks on to the gift seem to us to\nbe wise and good; all but one, which\nis this lending idea.\nWe hope Mr Rutherston will cut it\nout of his plan. It is not an idealistic\nitem, it is a rather a sad one.\nWe agree with Mr Rutherston that\nthe capacity to enjoy and create can\nhe awakened: not by making things\nsoft, by making things hard.\nAnd we believe that Mr Rutherston\nknows this. He is not blind to Wil-\nliam Blake's work nor deaf to his\nwords.\nYou cannot but recall that phrase\nof his so much quoted in \" The\nMask \" \" Dam braces: bless relaxes *\nespecially in an age such as this.\nDid not Blake learn that bit of know-\nledge from the very fount of wisdom,\nfrom experience: was it soft or hard,\nthat experience ?\nIt was hard—too hard—almost be-\nyond his bearing. Its fault was it bra-\nced him up beyond his powers.\nSuch cruelty we do not prize al-\nthough it is a cruelty practised over-\nmuch by those in authority in lands\nwhere the labours of the artist are\nnot rewarded, and where Institutions\ndull as ditch-water are prized above\nIndividuals.\nBut we do value some strain being\nput on us. We like to know that if\nwe can make the effort we too may\npossess a pretty drawing by Albert\nRutherston ; and we're damned if we\nwant Mr. Jones fo \" show us his Ru-\ntherstons \" ; that is a little too depres-\nsing. We too want to be able to feel\nproud to possess, even if (like Lucifer\nand the rest of mankind) we have\nto suffer a little fall later on.\n\nA TT A BOY!\nIN that enchanting, though up-to-date,\npublication, \"The Literary Digest\",\nwhich is the most unpretentious affair\nwe know, and which delights us be-\ncause its knowledge of Literature is not\noverwhelming, and because it enter-\ntains us with a variety of things besides\nthose which are either Literary or Di-\ngestable, ....in this good old friend of\na Magazine, we came across a sad\nlittle paragraph about three young and\nbadly brought up Americans, re., Mr.\nF. W. Jones, Mr. D. M. Oenslager\nand Mr. J. Mielziner.\nWe say badly brought up because\nthe paragraph tells us that the way Mr.\nOenslager is taught to study the Theatre\nis to \" ransack Europe on a Harvard\nTravelling Scholarship \".\nRansack! We tremble for Yale's fu-\nture. Why send out youngsters to\n\" ransack Europeand in the holy\nname of Harvard too?\nThese boys are very proper young\nfellows and, to judge from their\nportraits, look as though a good six\n✓years more training would be just the\nthing—but not the hectic training they ve"}, {"page_pdf": 60, "page_imprimee": "48", "url_page": "https://bluemountain.princeton.edu/bluemtn/?a=d&d=bmtnaau192601-01.1.60", "texte": "received up to now. They need a\ngood solid man like Barrett Clark look-\ning after them. They are good enough\nstuff, but need curbing, not exciting.\nHere, there and everywhere these\nfine fellows have heard the cry' Att-\naboy'! \"See here! you, lads; go to\nEurope and ransack it. Afterwards do\nas other Americans do, say there was\nnothing in it- and the boys have\ngone atta, and the result is something\nlittle short of mild.\nNot their fault one scrap,—abso-\nlutely the fault of this wretched Ame-\nrican system, entirely the fault of\nbeing allowed to believe in soap bub-\nbles: and Professor Baker and the\nother professors ought really to think it\nover and not cry Atta and let slip\nthese boys of war, without giving them\nsome of Lord Chesterfield's advice about\nhow not to learn things.\n\no MORRIS G A IN. o\nLADY Diana Cooper is now in the\nUnited States again fulfilling an\nengagement with Mr. Morris Gest to\nappear as the Madonna in ' he Mi-\nracle \",\nMiss Iris Tree went with her and\nis performing the part of \" The Nun\nin the same production. According to\nLady Diana, Miss Tree had never been\non the stage before and she has had\nonly a very little time to rehearse her\npart. Taking it all in all it seems rather\nhard luck to be one of the hustled.\nAltogether we do not like Mr. Morris\nGest's notion of turning the Theatre\ninto a play-ground where anyone at a\nfew weeks notice can be thrust on to\ndo the best with a star part. Still,\nwe can quite understand the argument\nof thousands of collars.\nSo we congratulate Miss Free on\nher engagement and hope she will find\nin America plenty of inspiration, come\nback rich, give up theatricals, and give\nher friends another book of verse.\nFor, Miss Tree, you are surely not\ngoing to say that the art of poesy is\ntoo difficult, having made such a suc-\ncessful start. And the stage is, we\nalways feel, for another Miss i ree.\nThere can be two, of course, but we\nnever heard of more than one of a name\nthat was really radiant.\n\nON A SAN GA\nTHE following is a second Note\nfrom Senatore Corrado Ricci, for\nlong the Head of the Italian Ministry\nof Fine Arts.\n\" The design by Sangallo Giovane\npublished in \"The Mask\" of October\n1925, Plate 11, was made, in my opi-\nnion, as an illustration of the Chapter\nof Vitruvius in which he speaks of the\nTheatre and theatre scene. The trian-\ngular machines are the periacte, and\nthe ospitij the places of the ospiti\n(guests) which one entered from the\nlateral doors, etc. etc. But perhaps\nthis has been said by others!\nCorrado Ricci.\nRoma, December 1925.\n\nTHAT SHAKESPEARE\no THEATRE. o\nDO you remember, not Sweet Alice\nfor she is unforgettable, but that\nannouncement made by Mr. Arnold\nBennett in a London newspaper in\nOctober of 1923, about \" A Shades-\npeare Theatre at Last \" ? (0\nIf so you will recall that Mr Ben-\nnett announced that Mr Dion Calthrop\nwas the man who \" out of his own\nhead, has done something concrete \",\nand the Kingsway Theatre was the\nspot. There at last was to be that\nShakespeare Theatre.\nIf you can remember all this you'll\nalso remember that seven months later,\nin May 1924, the London papers\nannounced that Mr Dion Calthrop pro-\nposed to reopen the Kingsway Theatre\nwith a revue named ' At Home * \".\nAnd now Mr Calthrop has become\na director or the director of a vast\nBroadcasting Business.\nIt may be Mr Calthrop's way of\ncoming round at last to a Shakespeare\nTheatre. He may broadcast Shake-\nspeare. If he succeeds, then Mr Ben-\nnett really ought to write once more\nabout the concrete, announcing that\nthere will be \" Shakespeare readings\nat last \".\nBut this doesn't bring the Shake-\nspeare Theatre nearer to us.\nIt is, however, a feather in the cap\nof a big firm to be able to boast that\nit has acquired the services of so ener-\ngetic a man of talent as Mr Calthrop\nand has lured him off the stage.\nIf we had the money to offer him\nwe'd lure him on again. However,\nplenty of time when we have a stage to\noffer him: and Mr Calthrop is per-\nfectly right in going to people who\nhave the sense to make him a decent\noffer:—the paragraphs, concrete arti-\ncles, need not be wasted : they should\nbe used again, just changing the name\nCalthrop to Codlin, to Baylis, to what\nyou will.\n€| To come to a better appreciation\nof what Mr. Bennett does in betweei\nhis labours of writing readable book\none should read his note about th\npart he played in founding the Lyri\nTheatre, Hammersmith, It's not every\none will go round looking for funds\nand getting them too, to help a de\nserving cause. We never imagine\nMr. Bennett capable of any thing c\nthat kind.\nVery spirited of him, it seems t\nus :—we suspect Mr. Bennett of havin\na dreadfully kind heart. The Lyrk\nHammersmith little Nigel Piayfair...\nreally it's just a bit touching.\n(1) See \" The Mask Vol. X. No. 3.\np. 138.\n\no POTENTIALITY. <\nWE are always being told of the\npotentialities in America: the\nbig word sounds potent and is in reality\nrather puff-ball.\nFor what is Potentia? is it not\nthe Possession of concealed power ?\nNow American power is revealec\nall the time: Potentiality is the possi\nhility of action. With Americans nc\naction is allowed to be possible sine*\nevery possibility is exploited in the bud\nPotentialities therefore can only be said\nto exist in a people who observe an\nimmense discretion in displaying some\nof the powers they possess.\n\nA W O R D FROM\nTHE P ÜBLISHERS\nrhe Publishers regret that, owing t\npostal delay, a revised proof c\none of the advertisements which ap\npeared in the October number of '' Th\nMask \" arrived too late for the inten\nded alterations to be made, the shee\nhaving been already printed off.\nThe corrected version would havi\navoided all personal comparison; fo\nit would be a pity if, in the advertise\nments of a periodical, place should eve\nbe found for the comparison of tb\nmerits of actors, the only place fo\nany such reference being in the bod;\nof the magazine. The Publishers sin\ncerely hope that in the advertisemen\nabove referred to no offence was givei\nto anyone.\n\nERRTA.\nJ. S.\nON page 28, last line, for \" Fair\nDeli \" read \" Fairy Doll\nOn page 39 , column 1, line 4\nfor \" they cooe at me \" read \" they\ncome at me\n\nAll Rights reserved. January 1926.\nGerente responsabile Antonio Maraini\\\nTipografia Giuntina, Fir en Be*"}]}