AMERICAN DRAMA VERSUS LITERATURE

T he Annual Hopwood Address, Delivered]une I, 1938

By WALTER PRICHARD EATON

N a recent critical article about the plays that it failed in Congreve's own day. It of Eugene O'Neill, Professor Homer was not till I became a worker in the the­ I E. Woodbridge, of Wesleyan Uni­ atre myself that I realized a failure before versity, remarks that ((up to the Great one's contemporaries means a failure before War we (i.e., the United States) produced posterity, and not till I saw ((The Way almost no plays of more than immediate of the World" produced that I realized contemporary interest-almost none which not only that it isn't the most brilliant com­ had literary value or prospect of perma­ edy in the language, but is actually a very nence." He speaks of Quinn's collection, bad play. It has passages of dazzling dia­ Representative American Plays, as ((de­ logue-yes. The literary style is brilliant pressing," and concludes, ((To get up much in the extreme. There is a charming female interest in the American theatre before character, and one scene for her of delicious O'Neill one must consider it from the his­ comedy on the stage. But the play pursues torical or sociological point of view." a long, confused, and tedious way in getting Well, why not? Is it not perhaps true to it. In plain language, it is a bore. Con­ that in our study of the drama, certainly greve's contemporaries were right. So why, our academic study, we have put an empha­ I now ask myself, should I bow down to sis on the literary side which neither the this play, which is a bad play, because the nature of the drama nor the function of the dialogue has literary charm? Literary theatre wholly warrants, and dismissed as charm is an accident, or overtone, of drama, unworthy of study much which properly not its end. The end of drama is the emo­ considered is interesting and important? tional excitation of an audience in a theatre. Is it not true, for example, that a great deal If that fails, all fails. If that is achieved, of Elizabethan drama has lived as litera­ even without the aid of literature, we have ture (though some of it I venture hereti­ at least a living playhouse. cally to hazard is less exalted literature than In recent years I have had numerous I was taught in college) by virtue of its opportunities to see revivals of all sorts of poetry, when actually as permanent drama, plays, from various languages and periods. as stuff capable of being acted in a theatre Among them have been dramas more or today and holding an audience, it is quite less famous in the annals of English litera­ as dead as the earlier American dramas ture, and several of the earlier American which so depress Professor Woodbridge? plays which so depress Professor W ood­ I was taught, and trustingly believed, that bridge (and, lest I seem to single him out, ((The Way of the World" is one of the many other commentators on our native lit­ most brilliant comedies in our language, erature). It is, I assure you, a fact that some­ in spite of the fact staring me in the face thing of theatrical verve and effectiveness THE QUARTERLY REVIEW still lives in certain of these American torical curiosity. But it is undoubtedly a works which is painfully absent from their fact that in the majority of cases true sur­ resounding literary rivals. Making all due vival-that is, the ability to meet the test allowance for the greater historical interest, of paying audiences in the theatre of com­ to a native audience, in an American play, merce, generation after generation-is de­ it is still impossible not to find the audience pendent on romantic timelessness of theme, response to «The Contrast" or «Fashion" and on poetry, on a heightened speech much more warm and spontaneous than to which transcends its own hour and still most Restoration comedies, and certainly sings to the hearts of later ages. And such than to such a Restoration tragedy as poetry is so infrequently written by men «Venice Preserved." Indeed, an American who can also write plays, and only in tragedy in the heroic verse drama tradition, periods when it is a fresh and natural ex­ Boker's «Francesca di Rimini," is far more pression, not a traditional mould, that the effective in the theatre today than «Venice chances for survival of any plays in the Preserved" or any of its companions, even theatre are slight indeed. though it is included in Quinn's "depress­ This is particularly true of the realistic ing" collection of Americana. plays characteristic of our generation and It is not my purpose, however, to defend the years just preceding it. Indeed, we these plays as enduring works of art. It might almost say that the better they met would be as difficult to do that as to defend the exacting test of realism, the slighter as enduring works of art nearly all the were their survival chances; for what gave plays produced in England from the end to the modern drama, i.e., the drama since of the Restoration to the days of Gilbert, Ibsen, its vital appeal and its great creative Wilde, and Shaw. If you left out two plays dignity was its newly found technical abil­ by Sheridan and one by Goldsmith, what ity to comment seriously on the contempor­ collection of eighteenth century English ary scene, to be a weapon, consciously plays could you honestly read without de­ employed, of social criticism and even of pression. And how about a collection of reform. You may if you like call it journal­ English plays from 1800to 1860. We must istic, in the sense that it was deliberately rule out entirely the closet dramas of the contemporaneous, and deliberately dis­ great poets, for their theatrical future is ad­ carded all «fine writing" and "bookish" or mitted. Who now could read, let alone sit "literary" language in favor of the actual through, without depression, "London As­ conversational vernacular of the hour. Not surance," «Money," «Richelieu" (unless to have done so would have defeated its Booth came back to play it), «Virginius," own ends, shattered the illusion it sought "The Lady of Lyons," or even perhaps to create. But by so doing it paid the price most of Robertson's comedies and Gilbert's of impermanence. "Pygmalion and Galatea"? The fact of the Until the coming of modern realism, the matter is that only in widely separated life of a successful play in the the theatre periods do playwrights arise who combine could often be reckoned by half centuries, with enduring theatrical situation an en­ at least. Most comedies were based on far­ during literary style, and hence create for cical intrigue. You recall Pinero's definition posterity. of a classic comedy-"A successful farce It is not entirely true, as Somerset by an author who is dead." It is the farce in Maugham implies in his latest book of "The Rivals" which has given it a superior craftsman autobiography, that poetry is es­ theatrical vitality to «The School for Scan­ sential for survival. Sheridan has certainly dal." Moliere is farcical to such an extent survived, or at any rate until very recent that in translation his plays, when acted, times, as a living dramatist, not a mere his- seem almost burlesque. Blank verse tragedy AMERICAN DRAMA VERSUS LITERATURE established a tradition which was accepted about "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray"? for generation after generation, and the How well I recall the tears I wept over theatrically effective plays written in that Paula's fate in the nineties-and how dis­ tradition were the vehicles for actors age tressingly uninterested I was in it at a recent I after age. "Venice Preserved," to us a revival, by which time society had some.. I dreary waste of pretentious bombast and thing else to think about more important I unmotivated incident, gave tragediennes a than Victorian taboos. Another illustration chance to snuggle bloody ghosts and go from the nineties is Henry Arthur Jones's pathetically mad from 1682 well into the comedy of manners, "The Liars," a bril­ nineteenth century. It had dropped from the liant play, beautifully constructed, and in repertoire after the Civil War, but was its day deliciously amusing. But why does revived at Booth's Theatre in 1874, in a the heroine have to lie to her husband, and new version made by Dion Boucicault, with induce all her friends to lie, also, in her a long speech for Pierre incorporated from behalf? Because she has gone to dinner with Byron's "Marino Faliero." John McCul­ another man! Since, today, she would sim­ lough played Pierre, and Fanny Brough, ply call her husband up and tell him to later noted as a comedienne, played Belvi­ leave the front door unlatched, the present dera, evidently very badly. The revival did generation finds no validity in the premise, not succeed. Post war taste had definitely and hence no fun in the play. It is hope­ dated the old play. lessly "dated" because once it was dated so Fromstill fartherback, Massinger's"New accurately. Way to Pay Old Debts" survived into the Shaw (like Ibsen) was wiser in his gen­ repertoire of numerous nineteenth century eration. He dated his plays ahead. But even tragedians, until the last quarter of the cen­ he, a wit as keen as any Restoration writer, tury. But when WalterHampden attempted a literary stylist who has to be considered to revive it in this century, he speedily dis­ in the same class with Swift, an intellect covered it an old way to contract new debts. far deeper and incomparably more earnest' In general, we may almost say that a thor­ of purpose than Congreve or WycherIey, oughly successful play could, until com­ did not date his plays, perhaps, far enough paratively recent times, count on at least ahead for immortality. Already we have half a century of theatrical life. made many of his ideas our own, and the But plays in our day, as successful at young even call him "old fogy." "Can­ the time of first production, and I venture dida," which does not deal with social ideas with no hesitancy to say often superior in so much as with emotions, "Saint Joan," technical construction and intellectual poirtt, which is an historical work, and possibly even sometimes in emotional appeal, can "Heartbreak House" because it is so closely hardly count on more than a decade or two and subtly connected with one of the world's of theatrical life. It is true that Ibsen's most shattering events, the Great War, may "Doll's House," the opening gun in that survive a long while. But the others seem author's campaign for the modern drama, already slipping from our repertoire. Who first produced in 1879, was successfully re­ of my hearers, I wonder, recalls that one­ vived in New York last winter. But even act masterpiece by J. M. Barrie, "The Old that seemed, as we say, a trifle "dated." Lady Shows her Medals"? Barrie was After all, Nora won her battle some time moved, as we all were, by the psychology ago. We all admit women are people now of war time, by the mass urge to do each -{)r Heaven help us if we don't. The play his bit. He had that psychology to rely on had a job to do; it did it; and that's that. in his audience--he knew exactly the extent Its permanence is not on the stage, but­ and direction of potential response; and shall we say?-in the ballot box. And how with sure, quick strokes of mingled comedy 286 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW and pathos (the ideal stroke to use if you But there is no need to labor the point can master it) he drew our tears. But a further. Even were our theatre conducted whole new generation of theatre-goers has as it used to be, with resident stock com­ grown up since the War. They know noth­ panies, everywhere, slapping a great num­ ing of that psychology which Barrie relied ber of plays on to their stages, in repertoire, on, which was so important a contemporary with the minimum of cost and scenic origi­ element in the success of his play. Would nality and fitness, and of course depending it have the original effect on this new gen­ largely on constant revivals, it would still eration? Certainly only in part. In another be impossible for modern realistic plays to generation it may be quite forgotten. enjoy the length of life successful dramas Only a little over a decade ago an Ameri­ could formerly anticipate, especially if they can play was produced which aroused great were written in verse and ignored contem­ interest. It was called "What Price Glory?" porary themes. The greater the faithfulness and was a lusty, bawdy, disillusioned yet of the realistic play to the speech, the cus­ oddly heroic story of a company of Ameri­ toms, the ways of thinking and still more can marines, "hardboiled" professional sol­ of feeling, of its hour-in other words, the diers, in the Great War. No one questioned better it very often is as a realistic play­ its realism, which went, of course, deeper the less its chance of survival. And, we may than expletives and mud-caked uniforms. add, the more difficult for a critic of a later It caught the spirit of bitter disillusion in date to judge its merits from any ordinary most of us at the time, and simultaneously academic, or literary, standards. It can only gave us a kind of grimly comic insight into be estimated fairly by taking, in Professor the ironic contrast between amorous in­ Woodbridge's phrase, "the historical or stincts deeper than battle lust, and doggedly sociological point of view," and also, I fear, courageous devotion to duty. It was a fine the theatrical point of view-something play, full of color, excitement, humor, which, alas, too many academic critics are truth. But when have you seen it revived? incapable of doing. Its theatrical life was two or three brief Let us now try to take these points of years. Another enormously effective play view in considering a certain very famous produced in 1926 was "Broadway." It was American play, to be found in Quinn's ('de­ the saga of the prohibition era, it swirled pressing" collection. It is a. play made from madly, to a jazz rhythm, through the back an even more famous piece of literature, rooms of a "speak-easy," with gangster and but of literature in the printed play you "hoofers" and cheap girls and gun fire and will find a great dearth. Perhaps only one murder keeping you on the edge of your line. That line begins, "Are we so soon for­ seat. It was realistic, and as a. play has no got?" And the speaker is Rip Van Winkle. way to be "literary," so far as the academic Irving's story of Rip Van Winkle con­ critics seem to apply the term to drama, tains scarcely two hundred words of dia­ ,ave through its dialogue, I suppose logue, and its entire narrative could be ((Broadway" was quite without literary condensed into a couple of pages. But merit. One touch of "literature" would through the magic of literature, the crea­ nave sent illusion reeling. It would have tion of atmosphere, it has so saturated the :>cen as out of place as a bar of Beethoven Catskill Mountains with a legendary haze Tom the "speak-easy" saxaphones. But it that all the water system tunnels and cement ;\Ta5 capital theatre, and enjoyed a huge suc­ roads and filling stations and boarding :ess. Where is it now? It has vanished with houses cannot dispel it. Irving's Catskills, he Noble Experiment which it so ironically for most Americans, are more real than the 1ymned. Its realism both gave it its life, reality. But what is there dramatic in all md took its life away. this? Only the satisfaction of a human AMERICAN DRAMA VERSUS LITERATURE

JOSEPH JEFFERSON AS RIP VAN WINKLE curiosity to learn what would happen to a is largely impossible, the material is thin man if he slept twenty years, and then came and baffiing. It proved so baffiing, indeed, back: to his home. The character of Rip in that from 1829 when the first stage version Irving's sketch is lightly drawn. It scarcely was made, until 1865, when Joseph Jef­ moves out of the second dimension. His ferson called in Dion Boucicault to help expulsion from home is the hint of drama, and produced, in London, the famous ver­ not the realization. To the playwright, for sion which was to serve him the rest of his whom that legendary haze created by Irving life, no play about Rip satisfied either the 188 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW

actors or the public. Yet both actors and this play can hardly be ignored. But from public hungered for such a play, the actors the theatrical point of view, also, it should because they felt in the part the opportunity not be ignored, and so considered its merits for rich and picturesque character delinea­ are much greater than the literary approach tion and emotional possibilities, the public can disclose. Far from being depressing, it because the story gave them, the children is highly stimulating. of a new raw country, a sense of the past, Its greatest and most obvious merit, of a background of legend. course, is in the opportunity it gives the Now, Joseph Jefferson was an actor who skilled actor to enlarge Irving's pale figure combined a delicate and highly trained into a living character, a lovable character craftsmanship with an enormously winning whose amiable virtues .are his weaknesses, personality, and both were peculiarly who can'resist anything but temptation, and adapted to the potential demands of Rip. in whose mind a mingled shrewdness and He could be entrusted himself to develop humor and·naivete were forever resulting the character into three dimensions on the in the most delightful of surprises. stage without violence to Irving, but he Hereis one of his speeches, when he re­ couldn't do it without more framework of calls his wedding day: "My! My! Yah, plot and dialogue than Irving had provided. we was a fine couple altogether." And he Atmosphere doesn't make a plot. Boucicault holds out his cup for the. schnapps Nick gave him the plot, devised the progressive Vedder is dispensing. But when Nick starts situations in which Rip's character could be to add water, he cries, "Stop! I rome along revealed and developed, the sleepaccounted mitout that, Nick Vedder." Then his inind fOT, and the return illustrated by incidents reverts to Gretchen again, butthe mood has which would bringout its pathos and round shifted from past to present. "Good licker the story to a happy.close. If you read the and water is like man and wife. . •• They text of this Boucicauli-Jefferson play today, don't agree together." And now he has you will not be impressed with much of the rounded the years of his married life, and dialogue, you will feel, perhaps, that the completes his speech· with a laugh: "I al­ trumped up business of the deeds and the ways like my licker single." A speech like villainy of Derrick in Act I is a sad descent this was not devised with any thought of fro~ Irving's deliCate art, you will think its effect in print. It was devised to give the Rip's expulsion from home a bit like a comic actor oppOrtunity. to illuminate character, strip, andfor most of the scene in the mOUn­ to create that undercurrent of emotion, of tains (so magically evoked by Irving) you life in process, which is the heart of theatre. will be confronted only by stage directions, The· extraordinary charm and vitality of which, unless written by Shaw or Barrie, Jefferson's Rip testifies to how well the u-e among the least literary of human word playwrights succeeded. lrrangements. You will, perhaps, be de­ Because we loved Rip, because we wept pressed, and deem all this unworthy of to see him driven into the storm, because he lttention. had become endeared to us as a living per­ . Yet the fact remains that from 1 865 until son, the pathos of his return and his bewil­ lfter 1900, Jefferson played Rip in every derment at being unrecognized took on, :ity in the land, to see him was a part of the with Jefferson, a dignity almost like Lears. ~ucation of every American child, and not But that mood was not long to be sustained. o have seen him was to have missed one of This is a happy play, as Irving's is a happy he most charming, the most moving, the story. But, because it is a play, and Rip is nost enchanting experiences the theatre of the hero, he must on the stage do something hat, or any other day, afforded. ,From the volitional. He foils the villain. He tries and loint of view of American cultural history, fails again to resist temptation. His final AMERICAN DRAMA VERSUS LITERATURE

words are the familiar toast gurgled into his with him. Finally, there is no longer in our tankard. theatre public the urge for the comfort of In the mountain scene, when Rip en­ legend to give us background. The play's counters the ghostly crew and drinks the mission in our social history has been ful­ potion, the theatre was able as early as I 865 filled. But because it was--and still is--a (and would be far more able today) to cre­ theatrical framework which enables a skilled ate by costumes, lights, and scenery its equiv­ actor, with the right temperament, to fill in alent of Irving's magic description. This a humorous and tender and touching char­ scene, in which Hudson's crew never speak, acter study, and imparts stage vividness to thus emphasizing Rip's growing loneliness one of the humanity's famous folk tales, and terror, was of Jefferson's own contriv­ "Rip Van Winkle" cannot justly be dis­ ing. Rip's humor was not in complete abey­ missed as either depressing or insignificant. ance till the end, which intensified the Properly considered, it gives us consider­ uncanny strangeness. Naturally, when you able respect for the American theatre of our read the stage directions without willingness fathers. or power to visualize them carried out in Let us go back now to the decades before terms of theatre, and read Rip's monologue the Civil War, and consider a form of without power to visualize the solemn, American theatrical entertainment which nodding, sinister crew who pressed close cannot be represented in any collection of around him, or the actor's changing expres­ American plays, but which I think can be sions and the tones and inflections of his shown to have greatly influenced the plays, voice, you are not moved as you are by or perhaps we had better say the audiences, literature, and there is little for your mind which followed. I refer to the so-called to get hold of. Yet dramatic literature is negro minstrels. In any serious academic there, if by that term we may be permitted study of the drama as a literary art, the min­ to mean something which' can create that strels have, I'm sure, no recognition. They responsive emotion peculiar to the theatre, came about in the early forties as a result of roused by situations in which character is the success of certain men, whom we would truly displayed and the imagination of the now call vaudeville performers, blacking audience released. It is there as surely as up and imitating negro singers and dancers. music is in the black: lines and dots of a A group of these performers got together Mozart score. and by pooling their resources were able to Many of you will say, I know, that I am give an entire evening'sentertainment. Soon finding in the play of "Rip Van Winkle" the country was flooded with minstrel rather more my memories of the great actor troups, and for at least two decades the who played it than its actual merits. The negro minstrels were undoubtedly the most merits were those of Joseph Jefferson. Booth widely popular form of entertainment in was almost equally regnant as Hamlet from America. Their popularity endured, in I 865 to 1892, but others have shone as diminishing degree, until the present cen­ Hamlet since: no one has succeeded in mak­ tury, and the curious theatrical form they ing Rip live again, or only sporadically. evolved is still employed by amateurs. The That last is true, and for more than one Elks probably gave a minstrel show in your reason. "Hamlet"is a great play from every town last winter. angle, written in a poetic dialogue seem­ In general, the minstrel show was divided ingly as enduring as the English language. into three parts. Part oner " • sA3Il; found Much of the secondary dialogue of Rip is the whole troupe ina semicircle on the stage, as old fashioned as a black walnut hat-rack. with the Interlocutor in the middle, and the Jefferson held the play so exclusively his two chief comedians as Bones, or End Men, own for forty years that it seemed to die and between jokes the rest, solo or in chorus, THE QUARTERLY REVIEW sang, danced, and played their banjos. Fin­ prisingly large number of genuine artists, ally they all marched out to a stirring tune who could develop their interludes into called a "walk around." Part two was an character studies. One such typical minstrel interlude, which often contained as its meat character interlude survives to this day on a satirical political stump speech. Part three the radio--the Amos and Andy skits. But was a short play, not necessarily with negro even these character interludes were a part characters (but played in black face). of the contemporaneous appeal, because The initial appeal of the minstrels, of they were based on a realistic observation course, was in their exploitation of African of negro life. There was no hint of literary rhythm and the warm, simple humor of the creation about them, no likeness to the clas­ negro. Their employment of these things sic repertoire the elder Booth may have was but partial and imperfect, yet it gave us been playing across the street, or to For­ our best loved American songs, the songs of rest's thunderously rhetorical Indian chief­ Stephen Foster. "Oh, Susanna" so captured tain, Metamora. the country that it was the marching song Now, there is a profound psychological of the forty-niners across the continent. "Old difference between sitting across the gulf Folks at Home" still remains the most of the orchestra pit, watching actors move beautiful song composed by an American. and declaim in an imagined story, and sitting "Dixie," now the national song of the ready to chuckle when a black face Bones South, was written by Dan Emmet (whose on the stage looks right down at you and parents were ardent Abolitionists) as a min­ tosses off a gag about your next door neigh­ strel "walk around." The black faces were bor. And there is an equally profound dif­ burlesqued, the songs were often senti­ ference between your response to satire, mental and imperfectly negroid, the jokes however witty, directed at Bob Acres or a were often those of the negro only in the Restoration huband, and satire, be it ever dialect in which they were spoken. Never­ so crude, directed at the man in the White theless, something peculiarly American, and House at the moment, or whatever event something familiar to all of us, was at the or fad might be uppermost in the national base of the appeal. consciousness. Passing over the musical ap­ But there was something else. The min­ peal of the minstrels, which in their earlier strel shows were intimate, contemporaneous, years, at least, was deservedly great, their they made the audience a part of the enter­ appeal by the spoken word, and by inter­ tainment. Here were not actors removed ludes of character delineation, was to a con­ across a void and living imagined lives siderable extent revolutionary, because it apart, but jolly men facing you directly and brought intimacy into the playhouse, and aiming their songs and gags right at you. the pleasurable excitement of contemporary More than that, the gags were changed comment, and a genuine, if crude, concep­ from night to night, from town to town. tion of realism. Negro life was too dose to The Interlocutor and the End Men made us, bulked too large in our consciousness, to it a point to learn something harmlessly permit any grave tamperings with its more funny about leading citizens of any town obvious aspects. they played in, and nobody in the audience In 1829 Edwin Forrest, the American knew when he or his neighbor would be­ born tragedian, offered a prize of $500 for come the butt of laughter. Similarly, com­ a play on a native theme, and the result of ment on contemporary events of national this first prize play contest in our history scope were constantly incorporated into the was a drama by ]ohnAugustus Stone, called text of the entertainment, particularly, of "Metamora," which was concerned with the course, in the burlesque stump speech. Indian Wars in Rhode Island. Unfortun­ There were, too, among the minstrels, a sur- ately, the full text of this work has not AMERICAN DRAMA VERSUS LITERATURE survived, although the drama was played by both here and in England played a leading Forrest for many years. But the actor's own part in laughing stale tradition out of the part is treasured at the Forrest home in theatre. When, four years later, Dion Philadelphia, and causes us to wonder how Boucicault produced his drama, "The Octo­ even Forrest could have poured forth these roon," he put an Indian into the play, and surges of heroically rhythmed prose with­ played the role himself. But this Indian out being a trifle ridiculous-although, to did not speak like Metamora. In fact, he be sure, they are no more bombastic and in­ did not speak at all. He merely grunted. flated than the speeches in the great Sheri­ The Indian however, was a minor figure dan's version of "Pizzaro," which Mrs. in "The Octoroon." What counted most Siddons thundered in Old Drury. heavily were the negro slaves, and of course Here is a fair sample of theOctoroon herself,whose how John Augustus Stone tragic predicament was, and Edwin Forrest repre­ and still is, the stuff of sented the speech and char­ drama. The play opens acter of a Narragansett with a little plantation chief in the Colonial days: genre picture which even today has humor and The pale faces are around me charm and truth; and the thicker than the leaves of sum­ later scene of the enforced mer. I chase the hart in the slave auction held audi­ hunting grounds; he leads me ences tense only two years to the white man's village. I drive my canoe into the rivers; ago, in a summer theatre they are full of the white production which I wit­ man's ships. I visit the graves nessed. The role of Old of my fathers; they are lost in Pete was almost always the white man's corn fields. played by some actor They come like the waves of trained in the minstrels, the ocean forever rolling upon and was long looked upon the shore. Surge after surge, as a choice part in our na­ they dash upon the beach, and tive repertoire. If you will every foam drop is a white bear wi th me for a moment, man. They swarm over the land like the doves of winter, I shouldlike to include here and the red men are dropping the opening scene of "The like withered leaves. Octoroon." It opens on a view of the plantation of There was in this sort of Terrebonne, in Louisiana. language, and in Forrest's A branch of the Missis­ manner of delivery, un­ sippi is seen winding doubtedly an emotional re­ through the estate. A low­ lease for our ancestors difficult to un­ built but extensive planter's dwelling, derstand today. But even for some of surrounded by a veranda and raised a few them it had its humorous side, and John feet from the ground, occupies the left side. Brougham's famous burlesque of "Meta­ On the right stand a table and chairs. GRACE mora" and all the Indian plays which is discovered sitting at the breakfast table followed it, which he called "Pokahontas" with the negro children. and produced in I 855, was one of those im­ (SOLON enters from the house.) portant burlesques of the mid-century that SOLON. Yah! you bomn'ble fry-git out-a THE QUARTERLY REVIEW

gen'leman can't pass for you. GEO. I was up before daylight. We got the GRACE. (Seizing a fly whisk) Hee!-ha,gitout. horses saddled and galloped down the shell (She drives the children away: in escaping road over the Piney Patch j then coasting the they tumble against SOLON, who falls with the Bayou Lake, we crossed the long swamps by tray; the children steal the bananas and rolls Paul's Path, and so came home again. that fall about) MRS. PEYTON. You seem already familiar with (Enter PETE, who is lame; he carries a mop the names of every spot on the estate. and pail.) GEO. Just one month ago I quitted Paris. I left PETE. Hay! Laws a massy! why, dar out! drop that siren city as I would have left a beloved dat banana! I'll murder dis yere crowd. (He woman. chases the children, who leap over the railing at It is apparent, is it not, that when Old back. Exit, SoLON.) Oem little niggers is a Pete leaves the stage, he takes with him judgment upon dis generation. something recognizably real and recogniz­ (Enter GEORGE from the house). ably illusive as we know the theatre today. GEO. What's the matter, Pete? Pete talks something like a negro. George, PETE. It's dem black trash, Mas'r George; dis and to a lesser extent his Mama, talk like ere property wants elaring; dem's gettin' too the stage characters Boucicault had been numerous round: when I gets time I'll kill some on 'em, sure! maneuvering in half a hundred plays be­ GEO. They don't seem to be scared by the threat. fore. We must not forget, of course, that PETE. Stop, you varmin! Stop till I get enough "The Octoroon" had been preceded by of you in one place! "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which had prepared GEO. Were they all born on this estate? us to find pathos and humor in negro life. PETE. Guess dey nebber was born, dem t'ings! But that hardly explains the superior real­ what, dem? Git away! Born here, dem ism Boucicault displays in handling his darkies? What, on Terrebonne! Don't b'Iieve negro characters over his treatment of his it, Mas'r George; dem black t'ings nebber whites. In handling his whites, he was work­ was born at all; dey swarmed one mornin' on ing in a convention. In handling his negro~ a sassafras tree in de swamp; I cotched 'em; he was working with material familiar in dey ain't no count. Don't believe dey'll turn daily life, but comparatively new in the out niggers when dey're growed; dey'll come out sunthin else. theatre--only a generation old. And that GRACE. Yes, Mas'r George, dey was born here, generation had seen the negro chiefly repre­ and old Pete is fonder on 'em dan he is of sented by minstrels, i.e., intimately and with his fiddle of a Sunday. a crude and kindly realism. It is hard to PETE. What? Oem tings--dem?-get away. avoid the belief that the minstrels had a (Makes blow at the children.) Born here, dem defitlite effect upon the best parts of Bouci­ darkies? Don't believe it, Mas'r George. No. cault's best play on an American theme. One morning dey swarmed on a sassafras tree And it is impossible to avoid the belief that in de swamp and I cotched 'em all in a sieve-­ they had an effect upon American audiences, dats how dey come on top of dis yearth-git making them perhaps subconsciously dis­ out you, ya, ya! (Laughs) (Exit GRACE) satisfied with too much aloofness in the (Enter, MRS. PEYTON from the house.) theatre, eager for the delights of the con­ MRS. PEYTON. So, Pete, you are spoiling those temporary reference and the tang of the children as usual. PETE. Dat's right, missus, gib it to old Pete! he's moment's reality, and hence in the long run allers in for 'it. Git away, dere! Ya! if dey preparing them for the advent of the mod­ ain't all lighted, like coons, on dat snake fence, ern realistic drama. In fact, I have a sus­ jest out 0' shot. Look dar! Ya, ya! Oem debils picion that if the Civil War had not sud­ Ya! ... Git down dar. I'm arter you! (Hob­ denly intervened~ we would have evolved bles off) a modern drama for ourselves and not been MRS. PEYTON. You are out early this morning, forced to get it by importing the comedies George. of Tom Robertson. AMERICAN DRAMA VERSUS LITERATURE 293

Nothing is more futile, though we all Boston) of a now seemingly immortal work, indulge in the pastime, than predicting the "The Mikado." To be sure, I was a trifle immortality of contemporary works of art. young to be thinking of immortality, but I Anyone of us, who has reached middle age, cannot recall that any of my elders talked can recall evenings of high excitement in the about it, either. They were too busy sing­ theatre, or books which roused him to a ing "The flowers that bloom in the Spring, burning pitch of enthusiasm, and yet, today, tra-Ia-." We all had a wonderful time­ those plays, those books, are accumulating and waited for the next one. But at how dust. What of it? If in their day and hour many other plays have you and I been pres­ they accomplished well what they set out to ent when we had as wonderful-well, al­ do, that is enough, and their immortality is most as wonderful, a time, but which have to be found in the effects they had. on those not achieved permanence either in the the­ who saw or read them, and on the artists atre repertoire, or on the printed page? who followed. Who of my generation can Their number is considerable, even for forget the enormous excitement with which those people who are not yet old. We know we pounced upon a new story by Kipling? that those plays, as performed in their day Today the young read him, if at all, either and hour, had an artistic validity which with apathy or resentment at his "Empire made them important. And we are bound to complex," as they call it. I fear I do myself. assume, therefore, that if later critics find But that isn't to say that he was not a great them "depressing" it is because those critics force in the nineties. Can anyone, I won­ are not able properly to appreciate them in der, recall James A. Heme at the end of their social, historical, and above all their "Shore Acres," when he fixed the old theatrical setting. kitchen for the night and went upstairs to bed? All the humble, homely, and heart­ Hence it is that the study of dramasolely, warming quality of rural New England life or chiefly, from the printed text and the lit­ was in that scene, and the sweet simplicity erary point of view not only results in fail­ of brave old age. It was the beginnings, too, ure to understand many interesting and im­ of American realistic drama, but we didn't portant examples of playmaking, but ac­ know that (though Herne did). We ac­ tually sometimes in a distortion of the real cepted it as touching and tender, a poem of progression and direction of dramatic art. the familiar. But I dare say "Shore Acres" For a long time (and I fear sometimes even would prove depressing to the literary critic today) Goldsmith and Sheridan were repre­ today. It has no permanence on the printed sented as the apex to which British drama page. It was compounded of an actor's art, climbed in the eighteenth century. But, as a pantomime, a stage setting, and the spirit matter of fact, they were both throwbacks. of 1893. The future was not with either man, though If you had been present some night in a the literature was. It was far more with Lillo minstrel hall when the black faced come­ and his "London Merchant," which as a dians on the stage tuned their banjos, paused literary production is certainly depressing. a moment for silence, and then began to The future in the nineteenth century, was sing "Way down upon the Swanee Ribber," not with "Richelieu" or "Virginius" or would you have known that you were pres­ "London Assurance," but with the burlettas ent at the birth of something immortal? produced by Madame Vestris. In America D Would you have cared? The minstrels, you thefuture was not with Boker's"Francesca,"/{; may be sure, had no thought of immortality "Mose the Fireman," the negro minstrels"'"' for their songs. They thought only of enter­ and "Yankee Hill." In fact, to study the taining the paying customers. I was myself history of drama from a collection of the present at the birth (at least, the birth in literary highlights of various periods may THE QUARTERLY REVIEW very easily result in missing almost com­ speakers. Many critics declared that here pletely the true line of evolution, and never was a new dimension added to drama, that in seeing the sources of even the master works the future all dramatists would be forced to themselves. employ the device. So far as I have noticed, Think for a moment of the present situa­ no dramatists have, not even O'Neill him­ tion in the theatre. Apparently a fresh crea­ self after one subsequent and disastrous at­ tive style soon reaches its maximum effec­ tempt in "Dynamo." Verily, Cassandra's tiveness, becomes universally accepted, and robe is a perilous garment. then declines-all in a space of two genera­ I profoundly hope that none of you is tions. It was so with Elizabethan drama, assuming that I therefore attach no impor­ with Restoration comedy, and it now seems tance to "Strange Interlude" as a work of to be true of realism. We in America, mas­ art or a subject for study, and still more tering the medium later, did not reach our that I am advocating any neglect or mini­ peak till the 1920'5; Europe's peak came mizing of the intellectual and poetic ap­ before the War. But already the decline is proach to play writing. No student, and evident. Our drama is obviously entering a certainly no artist, should be unaware of period of eclecticism, of almost random ex­ the best that has been done in the past, and periment, and finding outlets, too, on screen no artist can have too much to say, nor say I and radio hitherto unknown. Maxwell An­ it too well, for his generation. But to succeed f derson writes in verse, combining realistic in his generation (which he must do, or he I tight construction with the diffusion and is no dramatist at all) the theatrical artist freedom in speech of an older poetic tradi­ must say things which are understandable f tion. A play without scenery, employing a and vital to his contemporaries, and he must I combination of Greek chorus, Chinese say them irv a speech they can accept. He I property man, and Josh Whitcomb, wins the must rouse emotional interest and create i Pulitzer prize. Out and out realism wins illusion. And what all along I have been I, the critic's prize-"Of Mice and Men." trying myself to say is simply this :-that ! Ireland's leading playwright, Sean O'Casey in many, if not most periods of the theatre, deserts realism of which he was a master, emotional interest has been aroused and for a curious· jumble of symbolism and illusion created by plays, even by mere en­ poetry which defies classification. The tertainments, which may not evoke any such screen's greatest popular triumph this year responses from us· today, which may lack is an animated illustration of a Grimm's the literary Savor to keep them enduring fairy tale. The radio seeks to rouse in print and the intellectual pith to survive your imagination purely by sounds and the changing years. Because this is true of spoken words. Somewhere here is the germ so much American drama before the turn of of the future, but who can say where? the current century, we have almost com­ One prediction is as good as another. Some pletely ignored any study of our native day in the future it will be known. But what playhouse; we have dubbed it depressing if it were in a play, or series of plays, or in and unworthy. We have been unwilling to a picture or a radio broadcast, which had study it, not as printed literature, but as a little or no literary merit, which is quite score from which our actors made music for unlikely to be printed in an anthology, be­ your parents and mine, as a precious (and, tween O'Neill's "Strange Interlude" and when so studied, fascinating) record of the Anderson's "Masque of Kings"? emotional responses of our forebears which O'Neill's HStrange Interlude" contained constitutes perhaps the subtlest and surest 1 new kind of stage soliloquy, spoken while clue for a. spiritual reconstruction of the )ther characters were present, and supposed past. :0 represent the subconscious thought of the No more than you and I today, did our AMERICAN DRAMA VERSUS LITERATURE ancestors go to the theatre to be educated, England because they were ((literary"­ or to do right by literature. Even as you and i.e., too often because they were Elizabethan . I, they went to be entertained. An under­ or Restoration, it is I who am depressed. i standing analysis of what plays most enter­ The style of those plays, the weight of their 1 tained-for there can really be no drama tradition, was a back drag on the English ( without audiences-will not only explain as well as the American stage for genera- I them, but will disclose as nothing else can tions. There is something stirring and line the true lines of theatrical evolution, the about a poor, crude little Yankee comedy, true steps by which drama advances--or, brashly unconscious of its depressing lack of if you like, recedes. Such study will, alas, literature yet rousing our ancestors to gales sometimes call for more historical sympathy of laughter by its native tang and truth. I than critical literary acumen. It will entail see the Future there. I see the plays which some knowledge of stage practice, and the are most important and interesting to you imagination to visualize a printed direction and me today j just as only that is really I into an emotional effect. It will entail the vital today which is not imitative, tradi­ reading of some texts painfully deficient in tional, but which speaks to us frankly in our enduring literary value or intellectual ro­ own idiom. The past of the American the­ bustness. But it will vitalize the past of the atre does not depress me. It couldn'tj-I American theatre for anyone who honestly saw Joe Jefferson play Rip Van Winkle. attempts it, and will in the long run cause You may take your ((Duchess of Mallin and I neitherdepression nor a sense of wasted time. go off with her in a library corner or a class- I When I think of the time many and many room if you like. I find Rip far more con- I a. student has spent upon dead dramas from genial. I !

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