The Drama Number 13 February Contents Leonid Andreyev, By
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THE DRAMA Number 13 FEBRUARY CONTENTS E NID NDRE EV b Thomas S eltzer L O A Y , y THE PRE Y BINE WOMEN a com lete Drama TT SA , p h Leonid Andre ev in t ree acts, by y PE RE A PLA WRIGHT a review b SHAKES A S A Y , y George F ullmer Reyno lds E I LE THE TRE b Luc Fr n e Pierce TH L TT ST A , y y a c ILL MIN TI N AND THE DR M b Arthur U A O A A, y Pollock ’ B Y ND H UMAN P WER b e BJORNSON S E O O , y L e M ollander . H THE INDEPENDENCE DAY PAGEANT AT W HINGT N b E M S th l . m h A O , y e S it OS R WILDE G IN a revi w of rthur Ran CA A A , e A ’ som 8 scar Wilde A riti l b e O ; C ca S tudy, y Joseph Howard THE DR M LE GUE OF MERI 1914 A A A A CA, , by M A t rs. Starr B es THE TRI L HI ORY IN MERI 11 review A CA ST A CA , by Charlton Andrews A SELECTIVE LIST OF ESSAYS AND BOOKS BOUT THE THE TRE AND OF PL S ub A A AY , p : lished durin the fourth uarter of 1913 Fr k g q , by an Chouteau Brown THE DR A M A A Quarterly R eview of D ramatic Literature No . 13 February LEONID ANDREYEV . HE rise of Andreyev was unusually rapid even in an age of such precipitate changes as characterized the Russian R lu i n ca c l h evo t o . S r e y more t an ten years ago Gorky addressed the following question to the Moscow Courier : “ Who conceals his identity behind the pseudonym of Leonid The reply was ” L ni I 898 eo d Andreyev. n 1 the Courier published hi fir t Br m nd G k s s s a a ot a aras a. In r tory, g Janna y, 2 A a n i 190 , the byss ppeared, a d n August of the same a I n the F o Th s two s i ye r, g . e e tor es forthwith car ’ ried Andreyev s fame from one end of Russia to T i inst ntaneou n the other. he r a s and se sational sue, cess won for the hitherto unknown author almost as much attention and adoration as Gorky himself was then receiving when at the highwater mark of his ula i as a li a pop r ty ter ry hero . The decade since the publication of the Abyss has been marked by important and far- reaching n R s I w in eve ts for u sia. t as that period that the Russian government suff ered defeat at the hands of a an and a Russian l suff J p , th t the peop e ered defeat rnm Af l at the hands of their gove ent . ter the g owing hopes of victory in the struggle for political freedom 5 6 LEONID ANDRE YE'V and s cial e rmen e n c u l m n o b tte t, aft r a a t a mo e tary as a ee m the es c i ri t te of th t fr do , forc of rea t on t um and es lem n R i n ie phed, the b t e e ts of uss a soc ty sank in un a a Man e h to profo d p thy. y of th se who ad given themselves up completely to the fight for emanci a i n ha sa rifi p t o , who d c ced their careers, m s and all in ac had en i el efi aced ho e , who, f t, t r y their personal selves in that generous enthusiasm and devotion to a cause which is peculiar to the Russian now in i ac i n i a in , , the b tter re t o of d s ppo t men c n i z al mm n in t, o verted the r e for the co o good to l - in ul nce nd e m n i i li m se f d ge a xtre e i d v dua s . At pres ent there are signs indicating that the Russians are ec in m i l a ic an m i r over g fro the r eth rg d orb d state . T ei na u al i alism ms u nin h r t r de see to be ret r g, and it looks as if they were getting ready to start a ne fi h li i n i un Bu w g t for the berat o of the r co try. t the years of post- revolutionary reaction have cut their marks deep into the life of the people ; and not least felt was the efi ect produced upon the lit ra ur i e t e of the per od. For in no country is literature so much a part of Ru i in n e it so ai life as it is in ss a, o country do s f th fully reflect the ideas and the spiritual and material n i i ns l n is li a u ak n co d t o of the peop e, owhere ter t re t e usl nd n es it i l so serio y, a owhere, therefore, do w e d H n fi ful c an s nflu nc . so great an i e e e ce , the t h ge h in n a s that Russian society as undergone rece t ye r , the confused and chaotic condition of its ideas and T ideals are truthfully mirrored in its literature . he l d fi n e l confident us in bo d, e ant ote of r vo t, the tr t u u i k had in uc and hic the f t re wh ch Gor y trod ed, w h was the chief characteristic of the literature of the last decade of the nineteenth century no longer n suited the mood of the vanquished revolutio ists. New and s an e s Gorky ceased to be a hero . tr g god LEONID ANDREYEV 7 arose whom the Russian intellig entzia fervently i e in u worsh pped, ach t rn ; Artzybashev wi th his n l S anin ic i i l rifi ove , wh h, w th ts g o cation of the s ual a i as n all n ex ppet te, ge er y i terpreted, swept the young Russian generation lik e a holocaust ; Merezh k ovsky and his school with their reactionary re ligions mysticism in the name of culture ; Valery Brinssov a n usl a tis ic na u e n , wo dro y r t t r , who , whe not contemplating the cheerful prospect of the de s uc i n f uni k fli h tr t o o the verse, ta es g t from the misery of this world to a world of his own creat in - i g, a sort of realistic romant c world of marvelous aut and F S olo b an e be y ; edor gu , other po t of great m i wh s in a nl n li T er t, o ees de th the o y good I fe. here are whole groups of other writers representing e cu n in Eu an li a u m a very rre t rope ter t re, fro th t of the most rigid idealism down to the extremest de n cade ce. Wi l a e th all this chase after new iter ry h roes, through all these frequent changes in literary fash i ns in in i n Ru o , Andreyev has ma ta ed his pos tio as s ’ - u sia s leading story writer and dramatist . And j st ’ as Gorky s name might stand for the epoch in Russian literature covering the last decade of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth ’ An c century, so dreyev s gives its chara ter to the literature of the subsequent period down to the n s no i nc prese t time. As yet there i ev de e of a clin in his ul i u i was ic de e pop ar ty, tho gh t pred ted years ago even by competent and favorable critics. He has himself told the story of his life in a brief sk etch of which the following is a translation “ I was born in 187 1 in Orel and studied in the mnasi w u il and in the gy um there . I as a poor p p , seventh form was always at the bottom of my class. For c n uc I ot nl u and s m im s s low o d t g o y fo r, o et e a 8 LEONID ANDREYEV as three . The pleasantest times that I passed when — in the gymnasium I recall them with satisfaction — to this very day were the intervals between the ‘ ’ u s so- call shif s an al a o ho r , the ed t , d so those r re c casi ns n w u a m o whe I as sent o t of the cl ss roo .