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diff --git a/26320-8.txt b/26320-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6948846 --- /dev/null +++ b/26320-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8123 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merry-Go-Round, by Carl Van Vechten + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Merry-Go-Round + +Author: Carl Van Vechten + +Release Date: August 15, 2008 [EBook #26320] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRY-GO-ROUND *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Diane Monico, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced +from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print +project.) + + + + + + + + + +The +Merry-Go-Round + +[Illustration] + + + + +_BOOKS BY_ +_CARL VAN VECHTEN_ + +MUSIC AFTER THE GREAT WAR 1915 + +MUSIC AND BAD MANNERS 1916 + +INTERPRETERS AND INTERPRETATIONS 1917 + +THE MERRY-GO-ROUND 1918 + +THE MUSIC OF SPAIN 1918 + + + + +The +Merry-Go-Round + +_Carl Van Vechten_ + + +_"Tournez, tournez, bons chevaux de bois, + Tournez cent tours, tournez mille tours, + Tournez souvent et tournez toujours, + Tournez, tournez au sons de hautbois."_ + PAUL VERLAINE + + +[Illustration] + +New York Alfred A. Knopf + +MCMXVIII + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY +ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +Contents + + + PAGE + +IN DEFENCE OF BAD TASTE 11 + +MUSIC AND SUPERMUSIC 23 + +EDGAR SALTUS 37 + +THE NEW ART OF THE SINGER 93 + +_Au Bal Musette_ 125 + +MUSIC AND COOKING 149 + +AN INTERRUPTED CONVERSATION 179 + +THE AUTHORITATIVE WORK ON AMERICAN MUSIC 197 + +OLD DAYS AND NEW 215 + +TWO YOUNG AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS 227 + +_De Senectute Cantorum_ 245 + +IMPRESSIONS IN THE THEATRE + + I _The Land of Joy_ 281 + + II A Note on Mimi Aguglia 298 + + III The New Isadora 307 + + IV Margaret Anglin Produces _As You Like It_ 318 + +THE MODERN COMPOSERS AT A GLANCE 329 + +FOOTNOTES 330 + +INDEX 331 + + + + + Some of these essays have appeared in "The Smart Set," + "Reedy's Mirror," "Vanity Fair," "The Chronicle," "The + Theatre," "The Bellman," "The Musical Quarterly," "Rogue," + "The New York Press," and "The New York Globe." In their + present form, however, they have undergone considerable + redressing. + + + + +In Defence of Bad Taste + + + "_It is a painful thing, at best, to live up to one's + bricabric, if one has any; but to live up to the bricabric + of many lands and of many centuries is a strain which no + wise man would dream of inflicting upon his constitution._" + + Agnes Repplier. + + + + +In Defence of Bad Taste + + +In America, where men are supposed to know nothing about matters of +taste and where women have their dresses planned for them, the +household decorator has become an important factor in domestic life. +Out of an even hundred rich men how many can say that they have had +anything to do with the selection or arrangement of the furnishings +for their homes? In theatre programs these matters are regulated and +due credit is given to the various firms who have supplied the myriad +appeals to the eye; one knows who thought out the combinations of +shoes, hats, and parasols, and one knows where each separate article +was purchased. Why could not some similar plan of appreciation be +followed in the houses of our very rich? Why not, for instance, a card +in the hall something like the following: + + _This house was furnished and decorated according + to the taste of Marcel of the Dilly-Billy Shop_ + +or + + _We are living in the kind of house Miss Simone + O'Kelly thought we should live in. The + decorations are pure Louis XV and + the furniture is authentic._ + +It is not difficult, of course, to differentiate the personal from the +impersonal. Nothing clings so ill to the back as borrowed finery and I +have yet to find the family which has settled itself fondly and +comfortably in chairs which were a part of some one else's aesthetic +plan. As a matter of fact many of our millionaires would be more at +home in an atmosphere concocted from the ingredients of plain pine +tables and blanket-covered mattresses than they are surrounded by the +frippery of China and the frivolity of France. If these gentlemen were +fortunate enough to enjoy sufficient confidence in their own taste to +give it a thorough test it is not safe to think of the extreme burden +that would be put on the working capacity of the factories of the +Grand Rapids furniture companies. We might find a few emancipated +souls scouring the town for heavy refectory tables and divans into +which one could sink, reclining or upright, with a perfect sense of +ease, but these would be as rare as Steinway pianos in Coney Island. + +For Americans are meek in such matters. They credit themselves with no +taste. They fear comparison. If the very much sought-after Simone +O'Kelly has decorated Mr. B.'s house Mr. M. does not dare to struggle +along with merely his own ideas in furnishing his. He calls in an +expert who begins, rather inauspiciously, by painting the dining-room +salmon pink. The tables and chairs will be made by somebody on Tenth +Street, exact copies of a set to be found in the Musée Carnavalet. The +legs under the table are awkwardly arranged for diners but they look +very well when the table is unclothed. The decorator plans to hang Mr. +M.'s personal bedroom in pale plum colour. Mr. M. rebels at this. "I +detest," he remarks mildly, "all variants of purple." "Very well," +acquiesces the decorator, "we will make it green." In the end Mr. M.'s +worst premonitions are realized: the walls are resplendent in a +striking shade of magenta. Along the edge of each panel of Chinese +brocade a narrow band of absinthe velvet ribbon gives the necessary +contrast. The furniture is painted in dull ivory with touches of gold +and beryl and the bed cover is peacock blue. Four round cushions of a +similar shade repose on the floor at the foot of the bed. The fat +manufacturer's wife as she enters this triumph of decoration which +might satisfy Louise de la Vallière or please Doris Keane, is an +anachronistic figure and she is aware of it. She prefers, on the +whole, the brass bedsteads of the summer hotels. Mr. M. himself feels +ridiculous. He never enters the room without a groan and a remark on +the order of "Good God, what a colour!" His personal taste finds its +supreme enjoyment in the Circassian walnut panelling, desk, and tables +of the directors' room in the Millionaire's Trust and Savings Bank. +"Rich and tasteful": how many times he has used this phrase to express +his approval! In the mid-Victorian red plush of his club, too, he is +comfortable. "Waiter, another whiskey and soda!" + +Mildred is expected home after her first year in boarding school. Her +mother wishes to environ her, so to speak. Mildred is delicate in her +tastes, so delicate that she scarcely ever expresses herself. Her mind +and body are pure; her heart beats faster when she learns of distress. +Voluptuousness, Venus, and Vice are all merely words to her. Mother +does not explain this to the decorator. "My daughter is returning from +school," she says, "I want her room done." "What style of room?" +"After all you are supposed to know that. I am engaging you to arrange +it for me." "Your daughter, I take it, is a modern girl?" "You may +assume as much." In despair for a hint the decorator steals a look at +a photograph of the miss, full-lipped, melting dark eyes, and +blue-black hair. Sensing an houri he hangs the walls with a deep shade +of Persian orange, over which flit tropical birds of emerald and +azure; strange pomegranates bleed their seeds at regular intervals. +The couch is an adaptation, in colour, of the celebrated _Sumurun_ +bed. The dressing table and the _chaise-longue_ are of Chinese +lacquer. A heavy bronze incense burner pours forth fumes of Bichara's +_Scheherazade_. From the window frames, stifling the light, depend +flame-coloured brocaded curtains embroidered in Egyptian enamelled +beads. It is a triumph, this chamber, of _style Ballet Russe_. Diana +is banished ... and shrinking Mildred, returning from school, finds +her demure soul at variance with her surroundings. + +A man's house should be the expression of the man himself. All the +books on the subject and even the household decorators themselves will +tell you that. But, if the decoration of a house is to express its +owner, it is necessary that he himself inspire it, which implies, of +course, the possession of ideas, even though they be bad. And men in +these United States are not expected to display mental anguish or +pleasure when confronted by colour combinations. In America one is +constantly hearing young ladies say, "He's a man and so, of course, +knows nothing about colour," or "Of course a man never looks at +clothes." It does not seem to be necessary to argue this point. One +has only to remember that Veronese was a man; so was Velasquez. Even +Paul Poiret and Leon Bakst belong to the sex of Adam. Nevertheless +most Americans still consider it a little _efféminé_, a trifle +_declassé_, for a business man (allowances are sometimes made for +poets, musicians, actors, and people who live in Greenwich Village), +to make any references to colour or form. He may admire, with obvious +emphasis on the women they lightly enclose, the costumes of the +_Follies_ but he is not permitted to exhibit knowledge of materials +and any suddenly expressed desire on his part to rush into a shop and +hug some bit of colour from the show window to his heart would be +regarded as a symptom of madness. + +The audience which gives the final verdict on a farce makes allowances +for the author; permits him the use of certain conventions. For +example, he is given leave to introduce a hotel corridor into his last +act with seven doors opening on a common hallway so that his +characters may conveniently and persistently enter the wrong rooms. +It may be supposed that I ask for some such license from my audience. +"How ridiculous," you may be saying, "I know of interior decorators +who spend weeks in reading out the secrets of their clients' souls in +order to provide their proper settings." There doubtless are interior +decorators who succeed in giving a home the appearance of a well-kept +hotel where guests may mingle comfortably and freely. I should not +wish to deny this. But I do deny that soul-study is a requirement for +the profession. If a man (or a woman) has a soul it will not be a +decorator who will discover its fitting housing. Others may object, +"But bad taste is rampant. Surely it is better to be guided by some +one who knows than to surround oneself with rocking chairs, plaster +casts of the Winged Victory, and photographs of various madonnas." I +say that it is _not_ better. It is better for each man to express +himself, through his taste, as well as through his tongue or his pen, +as he may. And it is only through such expression that he will finally +arrive (if he ever can) at a condition of household furnishing which +will say something to his neighbour as well as to himself. It is a +pleasure when one leaves a dinner party to be able to observe "That is +_his_ house," just as it is a pleasure when one leaves a concert to +remember that a composer has expressed himself and not the result of +seven years study in Berlin or Paris. + +But Americans have little aptitude for self-expression. They prefer to +huddle, like cattle, under unspeakable whips when matters of art are +under discussion. They fear ridicule. As a consequence many of the +richest men in this country never really live in their own homes, +never are comfortable for a moment, although the walls are hung double +with Fragonards and hawthorne vases stand so deep upon the tables that +no space remains for the "Saturday Review" or "le Temps." And they +never, never, never, will know the pleasure which comes while +stumbling down a side street in London, or in the mouldy corners of +the Venetian ghetto, or in the Marché du Temple in Paris, or, heaven +knows, in New York, on lower Fourth Avenue, or in Chinatown, or in a +Russian brass shop on Allen Street, or in a big department store (as +often there as anywhere) in finding just the lamp for just the table +in just the corner, or in discovering a bit of brocade, perhaps the +ragged remnant of a waistcoat belonging to an aristocrat of the +Directorate, which will lighten the depths of a certain room, or a +chair which goes miraculously with a desk already possessed, or a +Chinese mirror which one had almost decided did not exist. Nor will +they ever experience the joy of sudden decision in front of a picture +by Matisse, which ends in the sale of a Delacroix. Nor can they feel +the thrill which is part of the replacing of a make-shift rug by _the_ +rug of rugs (let us hope it was Solomon's!). + +I know a lady in Paris whose salon presents a different aspect each +summer. Do her Picassos go, a new Spanish painter has replaced them. +Have you missed the Gibbons carving? Spanish church carving has taken +its place. "And where are your Venetian embroideries?" "I sold them to +the Marquise de V.... The money served to buy these Persian +miniatures." This lady has travelled far. She is not experimenting in +doubtful taste or bad art; she is not even experimenting in her own +taste: she is simply enjoying different epochs, different artists, +different forms of art, each in its turn, for so long as it says +anything to her. Her house is not a museum. Space and comfort demand +exclusion but she excludes nothing forever that she desires.... She +exchanges. + +Taste at best is relative. It is an axiom that anybody else's taste +can never say anything to you although you may feel perfectly certain +that it is better than your own. If more of the money of the rich +were spent in encouraging children to develop their own ideas in +furnishing their own rooms it would serve a better purpose than it +does now when it is dropped into the ample pockets of the professional +decorators. Oscar Wilde wrote, "A colour sense is more important in +the development of the individual than a sense of right and wrong." +Any young boy or girl can learn something about such matters; most of +them, if not shamed out of it, take a natural interest in their +surroundings. You will see how true this is if you attempt to +rearrange a child's room. Those who have bad taste, relatively, should +literally be allowed to make their own beds. On the whole it is +preferable to be comfortable in red and green velvet upholstery than +to be beautiful and unhappy in a household decorator's gilded cage. + + _September 3, 1915._ + + + + +Music and Supermusic + + + "_To know whether you are enjoying a piece of music or not + you must see whether you find yourself looking at the + advertisements of Pears' soap at the end of the program._" + + Samuel Butler. + + + + +Music and Supermusic + + +What is the distinction in the mind of Everycritic between good music +and bad music, in the mind of Everyman between popular music and +"classical" music? What is the essential difference between an air by +Mozart and an air by Jerome Kern? Why is Chopin's _G minor nocturne_ +better music than Thécla Badarzewska's _La Prière d'une Vierge_? Why +is a music drama by Richard Wagner preferable to a music drama by +Horatio W. Parker? What makes a melody distinguished? What makes a +melody commonplace or cheap? Why do some melodies ring in our ears +generation after generation while others enjoy but a brief popularity? +Why do certain composers, such as Raff and Mendelssohn, hailed as +geniuses while they were yet alive, soon sink into semi-obscurity, +while others, such as Robert Franz and Moussorgsky, almost +unrecognized by their contemporaries, grow in popularity? Are there no +answers to these conundrums and the thousand others that might be +asked by a person with a slight attack of curiosity?... No one _does_ +ask and assuredly no one answers. These riddles, it would seem, are +included among the forbidden mysteries of the sphynx. The critics +assert with authority and some show of erudition that the Spohrs, the +Mendelssohns, the Humperdincks, and the Montemezzis are great +composers. They usually admire the grandchildren of Old Lady Tradition +but they neglect to justify this partiality. Nor can we trust the +public with its favourite Piccinnis and Puccinis.... What then is the +test of supermusic? + +For we know, as well as we can know anything, that there is music and +supermusic. Rubinstein wrote music; Beethoven wrote supermusic (Mr. +Finck may contradict this statement). Bellini wrote operas; Mozart +wrote superoperas. Jensen wrote songs; Schubert wrote supersongs. The +superiority of _Voi che sapete_ as a vocal melody over _Ah! non +giunge_ is not generally contested; neither can we hesitate very long +over the question whether or not _Der Leiermann_ is a better song than +_Lehn' deine Wang'_. Probably even Mr. Finck will admit that the +_Sonata Appassionata_ is finer music than the most familiar portrait +(I think it is No. 22) in the _Kamennoi-Ostrow_ set. But, if we agree +to put Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and a few others on +marmorean pedestals in a special Hall of Fame (and this is a +compromise on my part, at any rate, as I consider much of the music +written by even these men to be below any moderately high standard), +what about the rest? Mr. Finck prefers Johann Strauss to Brahms, nay +more to Richard himself! He has written a whole book for no other +reason, it would seem, than to prove that the author of _Tod und +Verklärung_ is a very much over-rated individual. At times sitting +despondently in Carnegie Hall, I am secretly inclined to agree with +him. Personally I can say that I prefer Irving Berlin's music to that +of Edward MacDowell and I would like to have some one prove to me that +this position is untenable. + +What is the test of supermusic? I have read that fashionable music, +music composed in a style welcomed and appreciated by its contemporary +hearers is seldom supermusic. Yet Handel wrote fashionable music, and +so much other of the music of that epoch is Handelian that it is often +difficult to be sure where George Frederick left off and somebody else +began. Bellini wrote fashionable music and _Norma_ and _La Sonnambula_ +sound a trifle faded although they are still occasionally performed, +but Rossini, whose only desire was to please his public, (Liszt once +observed "Rossini and Co. always close with 'I remain your very +humble servant'"), wrote melodies in _Il Barbiere di Siviglia_ which +sound as fresh to us today as they did when they were first composed. +And when this prodigiously gifted musician-cook turned his back to the +public to write _Guillaume Tell_ he penned a work which critics have +consistently told us is a masterpiece, but which is as seldom +performed today as any opera of the early Nineteenth Century which +occasionally gains a hearing at all. Therefor we must be wary of the +old men who tell us that we shall soon tire of the music of Puccini +because it is fashionable. + +Popularity is scarcely a test. I have mentioned Mendelssohn. Never was +there a more popular composer, and yet aside from the violin concerto +what work of his has maintained its place in the concert repertory? +Yet Chopin, whose name is seldom absent from the program of a pianist, +was a god in his own time and the most brilliant woman of his epoch +fell in love with him, as Philip Moeller has recently reminded us in +his very amusing play. On the other hand there is the case of Robert +Franz whose songs never achieved real popularity during his lifetime, +but which are frequently, almost invariably indeed, to be found on +song recital programs today and which are more and more appreciated. +The critics are praising him, the public likes him: they buy his +songs. And there is also the case of Max Reger who was not popular, is +not popular, and never will be popular. + +Can we judge music by academic standards? Certainly not. Even the +hoary old academicians themselves can answer this question correctly +if you put it in relation to any composer born before 1820. The +greatest composers have seldom respected the rules. Beethoven in his +last sonatas and string quartets slapped all the pedants in the ears; +yet I believe you will find astonishingly few rules broken by Mozart, +one of the gods in the mythology of art music, and Berlioz, who broke +all the rules, is more interesting to us today as a writer of prose +than as a writer of music. + +Is simple music supermusic? Certainly not invariably. _Vedrai Carino_ +is a simple tune, almost as simple as a folk-song and we set great +store by it; yet Michael William Balfe wrote twenty-seven operas +filled with similarly simple tunes and in a selective draft of +composers his number would probably be 9,768. The _Ave Maria_ of +Schubert is a simple tune; so is the _Meditation_ from _Thais_. Why do +we say that one is better than the other. + +Or is supermusic always grand, sad, noble, or emotional? There must be +another violent head shaking here. The air from _Oberon, Ocean, thou +mighty monster_, is so grand that scarcely a singer can be found today +capable of interpreting it, although many sopranos puff and steam +through it, for all the world like pinguid gentlemen climbing the +stairs to the towers of Notre Dame. The _Fifth Symphony_ of Beethoven +is both grand and noble; probably no one will be found who will deny +that it is supermusic, but Mahler's _Symphony of the Thousand_ is +likewise grand and noble, and futile and bombastic to boot. _Or sai +chi l'onore_ is a grand air, but _Robert je t'aime_ is equally grand +in intention, at least. _Der Tod und das Mädchen_ is sad; so is _Les +Larmes_ in _Werther_.... But a very great deal of supermusic is +neither grand nor sad. Haydn's symphonies are usually as light-hearted +and as light-waisted as possible. Mozart's _Figaro_ scarcely seems to +have a care. Listen to Beethoven's _Fourth_ and _Eighth Symphonies_, +_Il Barbiere_ again, _Die Meistersinger_.... But do not be misled: +Massenet's _Don Quichotte_ is light music; so is Mascagni's +_Lodoletta_.... + +Is music to be prized and taken to our hearts because it is +contrapuntal and complex? We frequently hear it urged that Bach (who +was more or less forgotten for a hundred years, by the way) was the +greatest of composers and his music is especially intricate. He is the +one composer, indeed, who can _never_ be played with one finger! But +poor unimportant forgotten Max Reger also wrote in the most +complicated forms; the great Gluck in the simplest. Gluck, indeed, has +even been considered weak in counterpoint and fugue. Meyerbeer, it is +said, was also weak in counterpoint and fugue. Is he therefor to be +regarded as the peer of Gluck? Is Mozart's _G minor Symphony_ more +important (because it is more complicated) than the same composer's, +_Batti, Batti_? + +We learn from some sources that music stands or falls by its melody +but what is good melody? According to his contemporaries Wagner's +music dramas were lacking in melody. _Sweet Marie_ is certainly a +melody; why is it not as good a melody as _The Old Folks at Home_? Why +is Musetta's waltz more popular than Gretel's? It is no better as +melody. As a matter of fact there is, has been, and for ever will be +war over this question of melody, because the point of view on the +subject is continually changing. As Cyril Scott puts it in his book, +"The Philosophy of Modernism": "at one time it (melody) extended over +a few bars and then came to a close, being, as it were, a kind of +sentence, which, after running for the moment, arrived at a full stop, +or semicolon. Take this and compare it with the modern tendency: for +that modern tendency is to argue that a melody might go on +indefinitely almost; there is no reason why it should come to a full +stop, for it is not a sentence, but more a line, which, like the +rambling incurvations of a frieze, requires no rule to stop it, but +alone the will and taste of its engenderer." + +Or is harmonization the important factor? Folk-songs are not +harmonized at all, and yet certain musicians, Cecil Sharp for example, +devote their lives to collecting them, while others, like Percy +Grainger, base their compositions on them. On the other hand such +music as Debussy's _Iberia_ depends for its very existence on its +beautiful harmonies. The harmonies of Gluck are extremely simple, +those of Richard Strauss extremely complex. + +H. T. Finck says somewhere that one of the greatest charms of music is +modulation but the old church composers who wrote in the "modes" never +modulated at all. Erik Satie seldom avails himself of this modern +device. It is a question whether Leo Ornstein modulates. If we may +take him at his word Arnold Schoenberg has a system of modulation. At +least it is his very own. + +Are long compositions better than short ones? This may seem a silly +question but I have read criticisms based on a theory that they were. +Listen, for example, to de Quincy: "A song, an air, a tune,--that is, +a short succession of notes revolving rapidly upon itself,--how could +that by possibility offer a field of compass sufficient for the +development of great musical effects? The preparation pregnant with +the future, the remote correspondence, the questions, as it were, +which to a deep musical sense are asked in one passage, and answered +in another; the iteration and ingemination of a given effect, moving +through subtile variations that sometimes disguise the theme, +sometimes fitfully reveal it, sometimes throw it out tumultuously to +the daylight,--these and ten thousand forms of self-conflicting +musical passion--what room could they find, what opening, for +utterance, in so limited a field as an air or song?" After this +broadside permit me to quote a verse of Gérard de Nerval: + + _"Il est un air pour qui je donnerais + Tout Rossini, tout Mozart, et tout Weber, + Un air très-vieux, languissant et funèbre, + Qui pour moi seul a des charmes secrets."_ + +And now let us dispassionately, if possible, regard the evidence. +Richard Strauss's _Alpine Symphony_, admittedly one of his weakest +works and considered very tiresome even by ardent Straussians, plays +for nearly an hour while any one can sing _Der Erlkönig_ in three +minutes. Are short compositions better than long ones? Answer: _Love +me and the World is Mine_ is a short song (although it seldom sounds +so) while Schubert's _C major Symphony_ is called the "symphony of +heavenly length." + +Is what is new better than what is old? Is what is old better than +what is new? Schoenberg is new; is he therefor to be considered better +than Beethoven? Stravinsky is new; is he therefor to be considered +worse than Liszt? + +Is an opera better than a song? Compare _Pagliacci_ and Strauss's +_Ständchen_. Is a string quartet better than a piece for the piano? +But I grow weary.... Under the circumstances it would seem that if you +have any strong opinions about music you are perfectly entitled to +them, for the critics do not agree and you will find many of them +basing their criticism on some of the various hypotheses I have +advanced. H. T. Finck tells us that the sonata form is illogical, +forgetting perhaps that once it served its purpose; Jean Marnold +dubbed _Armide_ an _oeuvre bâtarde_; John F. Runciman called +_Parsifal_ "decrepit stuff," while Ernest Newman assures us that it +is "marvellous"; Pierre Lalo and Philip Hale disagree on the subject +of Debussy's _La Mer_ while W. J. Henderson and James Huneker wrangle +over Richard Strauss's _Don Quixote_. + +The clue to the whole matter lies in a short phrase: Imitative work is +always bad. Music that tries to be something that something else has +been may be thrown aside as worthless. It will not endure although it +may sometimes please the zanies and jackoclocks of a generation. The +critic, therefor, who comes nearest to the heart of the matter, is he +who, either through instinct or familiarity with the various phenomena +of music, is able to judge of a work's originality. There must be +individuality in new music to make it worthy of our attention, and +that, after all is all that matters. For the tiniest folk-song often +persists in the hearts and minds of the people, often stirs the pulse +of a musician, pursuing its tuneful way through two centuries, while a +mighty thundering symphony of the same period may lie dead and +rotting, food for the Niptus Hololencus and the Blatta Germanica. We +still sing _The Old Folks At Home_ and _Le Cycle du Vin_ but we have +laid aside _Di Tanti Palpiti_. Any piece of music possessing the +certain magic power of individuality is of value, it matters not +whether it be symphony or song, opera or dance. What most critics +have forgotten is that in Music matter, form, and idea are one. In +painting, in poetry the idea, the words, the form, may be separated; +each may play its part, but in music there is no idea without form, no +form without idea. That is what makes musical criticism difficult. + + _January 24, 1918._ + + + + +Edgar Saltus + + _"O no, we never mention him, + His name is never heard!"_ + + Old Ballad. + + + + +Edgar Saltus + + +To write about Edgar Saltus should be _vieux jeu_. The man is an +American; he was born in 1858; he accomplished some of his best work +in the Eighties and the Nineties, in the days when mutton-legged +sleeves, whatnots, Rogers groups, cat-tails, peacock feathers, +Japanese fans, musk-mellon seed collars, and big-wheeled bicycles were +in vogue. He has written history, fiction, poetry, literary criticism, +and philosophy, and to all these forms he has brought sympathy, +erudition, a fresh point of view, and a radiant style. He has +imagination and he understands the gentle art of arranging facts in +kaleidoscopic patterns so that they may attract and not repel the +reader. America, indeed, has not produced a round dozen authors who +equal him as a brilliant stylist with a great deal to say. And yet +this man, who wrote some of his best books in the Eighties and who is +still alive, has been allowed to drift into comparative oblivion. Even +his early reviewers shoved him impatiently aside or ignored him +altogether; a writer in "Belford's Magazine" for July, 1888, says: +"Edgar Saltus should have his name changed to Edgar Assaulted." Soon +he became a literary leper. The doctors and professors would have none +of him. To most of them, nowadays, I suppose, he is only a name. Many +of them have never read any of his books. I do not even remember to +have seen him mentioned in the works of James Huneker and you will not +find his name in Barrett Wendell's "A History of American Literature" +(1901), "A Reader's History of American Literature" by Thomas +Wentworth Higginson and Henry Walcott Boynton (1903), Katherine Lee +Bates's "American Literature" (1898), "A Manual of American +Literature," edited by Theodore Stanton (1909), William B. Cairns's "A +History of American Literature" (1912), William Edward Simonds's "A +Student's History of American Literature" (1909), Fred Lewis Pattee's +"A History of American Literature Since 1870" (1915), John Macy's "The +Spirit of American Literature" (1913), or William Lyon Phelps's "The +Advance of the English Novel" (1916). The third volume of "The +Cambridge History of American Literature," bringing the subject up to +1900, has not yet appeared but I should be amazed to discover that the +editors had decided to include Saltus therein. Curiously enough he is +mentioned in Oscar Fay Adams's "A Dictionary of American Authors" +(1901 edition) and, of all places, I have found a reference to him in +one of Agnes Repplier's books. + +You will find few essays about the man or his work in current or +anterior periodicals. There is, to be sure, the article by Ramsay +Colles, entitled "A Publicist: Edgar Saltus," published in the +"Westminster Magazine" for October, 1904, but this essay could have +won our author no adherents. If any one had the courage to wade +through its muddy paragraphs he doubtless emerged vowing never to read +Saltus. Besides only the novels are touched on. In 1903 G. F. +Monkshood and George Gamble arranged a compilation from Saltus's work +which they entitled "Wit and Wisdom from Edgar Saltus" (Greening and +Co., London). The work is done without sense or sensitiveness and the +prefatory essay is without salt or flavour of any sort. An anonymous +writer in "Current Literature" for July, 1907, asks plaintively why +this author has been permitted to remain in obscurity and quotes from +some of the reviews. In "The Philistine" for October, 1907, Elbert +Hubbard takes a hand in the game. He says, "Edgar Saltus is the best +writer in America--with a few insignificant exceptions," but he +deplores the fact that Saltus knows nothing about the cows and +chickens; only cities and gods seem to interest him. Still there is +some atmosphere in this study, which is devoted to one book, "The +Lords of the Ghostland." In the New York Public Library four of +Saltus's books and one of his translations (about one-sixth of his +published work) are listed. You may also find there in a series of +volumes entitled "Nations of the World" his supplementary chapters +bringing the books up to date. That is all. + +All these years, of course, Saltus has had his admiring circle,[1] +people of intelligence, of whom, unfortunately, I cannot say that I +was one. These, who have been content to read and admire without +spreading the news, may well be inclined to regard my performance as +repetitive and impertinent. Of these I must crave indulgence and of +Saltus himself too. For he, knowing how well he has done his work, +must sit like Buddha, ironic and indulgent, smiling on the poor +benighted who have yet to approach his altars. Once, at least, he +spoke: "A book that pleases no one may be poor. The book that pleases +every one is detestable." + +I seem to remember to have heard his name all my life, but until +recently I have not read one line concerning or by him. I find that my +friends, many of whom are extensive readers, are in the same sad state +of ignorance. There is an exception and that exception is responsible +for my conversion. For six years, no less, Edna Kenton has been urging +me to read Edgar Saltus. She has been gently insinuating but firm. +None of us can struggle forever against fate or a determined woman. In +the end I capitulated, purchased a book by Edgar Saltus at random, and +read it ... at one sitting. I sought for more. As most of his books +are out of print and as the list in the Public Library conspicuously +omits all but one of his best _opera_ the matter presented +difficulties. However, a little diligent search in the old book shops +accomplished wonders. In less than two weeks I had dug up twenty-two +titles and in less than two weeks I had read twenty-four; since then I +have consumed the other four. There are few writers in American or any +other literature who can survive such a test; there are few writers +who have given me such keen pleasure. + +The events of his life, mostly remain shrouded in mystery. His comings +and goings are not reported in the newspapers; he does not make +public speeches; and his name is seldom, if ever, mentioned "among +those present." That he has been married and has one daughter "Who's +Who" proclaims, together with the few biographical details mentioned +below. That is all. May we not herein find some small explanation for +his apparent neglect? Many thousands of lesser men have lifted +themselves to "literary" prominence by blowing their own tubas and +striking their own crotals. Even in the case of a man of such manifest +genius as George Bernard Shaw we may be permitted to doubt if he would +be so well known, had he not taken the trouble to erect monuments to +himself on every possible occasion in every possible location. Fame is +a quaint old-fashioned body, who loves to be pursued. She seldom, if +ever, runs after anybody except in her well-known rôle of necrophile. + +Edgar Evertson Saltus was born in New York City June 8, 1858. He is a +lineal descendant of Admiral Kornelis Evertson, the commander of the +Dutch fleet, who captured New York from the English, August 9, 1673. +Francis Saltus, the poet, was his brother. He enjoyed a cosmopolitan +education which may be regarded as an important factor in the +development of his tastes and ideas. From St. Paul's School in Concord +he migrated to the Sorbonne in Paris, and thence to Heidelberg and +Munich, where he bathed in the newer Germanic philosophies. Finally he +took a course of law at Columbia University. The influence of this +somewhat heterogeneous seminary life is manifest in all his future +writing. Beginning, no doubt, as a disciple of Emerson in New England, +he fell under the spell of Balzac in Paris, of Schopenhauer and von +Hartmann in Germany. Pages might be brought forward as evidence that +he had a thorough classical education. His knowledge of languages made +it easy for him to drink deeply at many fountain heads. If Oscar Wilde +found his chief inspiration in Huysmans's "A Rebours," it is certain +that Saltus also quaffed intoxicating draughts at this source. Indeed +in one of his books he refers to Huysmans as his friend. It is further +apparent that he is acquainted with the works of Barbey d'Aurevilly, +Josephin Péladan,[2] Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, +Catulle Mendès, and Jules Laforgue, especially the Laforgue of the +"Moralités Legendaires." His kinship with these writers is near, but +through this mixed blood run strains inherited from the early pagans, +the mediaeval monks, the Germanic philosophers, and London of the +Eighteen Nineties (although there is not one word about Saltus in +Holbrook Jackson's book of the period), and perhaps, after all, his +nearest literary relative was an American, Edgar Allan Poe, who +bequeathed to him a garret full of strange odds and ends. But Saltus +surpasses Poe in almost every respect save as a poet. + +Joseph Hergesheimer has expressed a theory to the effect that great +art is always provincial, never cosmopolitan; that only provincial art +is universal in its appeal. Like every other theory this one is to a +large extent true, but Hergesheimer in his arbitrary summing up, has +forgotten the fantastic. The fantastic in literature, in art of any +kind, can never be provincial. The work of Poe is not provincial; nor +is that of Gustave Moreau, an artist with whom Edgar Saltus can very +readily be compared. If you have visited the Musée Moreau in Paris +where, in the studio of the dead painter, is gathered together the +most complete collection of his works, which lend themselves to +endless inspection, you can, in a sense, reconstruct for yourself an +idea of the works of Edgar Saltus. One finds therein the same +unicorns, the same fabulous monsters, the same virgins on the rocks, +the same exotic and undreamed of flora and fauna, the same mystic +paganism, the same exquisitely jewelled workmanship. One can find +further analogies in the Aubrey Beardsley of "Under the Hill," in the +elaborate stylized irony of Max Beerbohm. Surely not provincials +these, but just as surely artists. + +Moreover Saltus's style may be said to possess American +characteristics. It is dashing and rapid, and as clear as the water in +Southern seas. The man has a penchant for short and nervous sentences, +but they are never jerky. They explode like so many firecrackers and +remind one of the great national holiday!... Nevertheless Edgar Saltus +should have been born in France. + +His essays, whether they deal with literary criticism, history, +religion (which is almost an obsession with this writer), +devil-worship, or cooking, are pervaded by that rare quality, charm. +Somewhere he quotes a French aphorism: + + _"Etre riche n'est pas l'affaire, + Toute l'affaire est de charmer,"_ + +which might be applied to his own work. There is a deep and beneficent +guile in the simplicity of his style, as limpid as a brook, and yet, +as over a brook, in its overtones hover a myriad of sparkling +dragon-flies and butterflies; in its depths lie a plethora of trout. +He deals with the most obstruse and abstract subjects with such ease +and grace, without for one moment laying aside the badge of authority, +that they assume a mysterious fascination to catch the eye of the +passerby. In his fictions he has sometimes cultivated a more hectic +style, but that in itself constitutes one of the bases of its +richness. Scarcely a word but evokes an image, a strange, bizarre +image, often a complication of images. He is never afraid of the +colloquial, never afraid of slang even, and he often weaves lovely +patterns with obsolete or technical words. These lines, in which +Saltus paid tribute to Gautier, he might, with equal justice, have +applied to himself: "No one could torment a fancy more delicately than +he; he had the gift of adjective; he scented a new one afar like a +truffle; and from the Morgue of the dictionary he dragged forgotten +beauties. He dowered the language of his day with every tint of dawn +and every convulsion of sunset; he invented metaphors that were worth +a king's ransom, and figures of speech that deserve the Prix Montyon. +Then reviewing his work, he formulated an axiom which will go down +with a nimbus through time: Whomsoever a thought however complex, a +vision however apocalyptic, surprises without words to convey it, is +not a writer. The inexpressible does not exist." It is impossible to +taste at this man's table. One must eat the whole dinner to appreciate +its opulent inevitability. Still I may offer a few olives, a branch or +two of succulent celery to those who have not as yet been invited to +sit down. One of his ladies walks the Avenue in a gown the "color of +fried smelts." Such figurative phrases as "Her eyes were of that +green-grey which is caught in an icicle held over grass," "The sand is +as fine as face powder, _nuance_ Rachel, packed hard," "Death, it may +be, is not merely a law but a place, perhaps a garage which the +traveller reaches on a demolished motor, but whence none can proceed +until all old scores are paid," "The ocean resembled nothing so much +as an immense blue syrup," "She was a pale freckled girl, with hair +the shade of Bavarian beer," "The sun rose from the ocean like an +indolent girl from her bath," "Night, that queen who reigns only when +she falls, shook out the shroud she wears for gown," are to be found +on every page. Certain phrases sound good to him and are re-used: +"Disappearances are deceptive," "ruedelapaixian" (to describe a +dress), "toilet of the ring" (lifted from the bull-fight in "Mr. +Incoul's Misadventure" to do service in an account of the arena games +under Nero in "Imperial Purple"), but repetition of this kind is +infrequent in his works and seemingly unnecessary. Ideas and phrases, +endless chains of them, spurt from the point of his ardent pen. +Standing on his magic carpet he shakes new sins out of his sleeve as a +conjurer shakes out white rabbits and juggles words with an exquisite +dexterity. He is, indeed, the _jongleur de notre âme_! + +From the beginning, his style has attracted the attention of the few +and no one, I am sure, has ever written a three line review of a book +by Saltus without referring to it. Mme. Amélie Rives has quoted Oscar +Wilde as saying to her one night at dinner, "In Edgar Saltus's work +passion struggles with grammar on every page!" Percival Pollard has +dubbed him a "prose paranoiac," and Elbert Hubbard says, "He writes so +well that he grows enamoured of his own style and is subdued like the +dyer's hand; he becomes intoxicated on the lure of lines and the roll +of phrases. He is woozy on words--locoed by syntax and prosody. The +libation he pours is flavoured with euphues. It is all like a cherry +in a morning Martini." A phrase which Remy de Gourmont uses to +describe Villiers de l'Isle Adam might be applied with equal success +to the author of "The Lords of the Ghostland": "_L'idéalisme de +Villiers était un véritable idéalisme verbal, c'est-à-dire qu'il +croyait vraiment à la puissance évocatrice des mots, à leur vertu +magique._" And we may listen to Saltus's own testimony in the matter: +"It may be noted that in literature only three things count, style, +style polished, style repolished; these imagination and the art of +transition aid, but do not enhance. As for style, it may be defined as +the sorcery of syllables, the fall of sentences, the use of the exact +term, the pursuit of a repetition even unto the thirtieth and fortieth +line. Grammar is an adjunct but not an obligation. No grammarian ever +wrote a thing that was fit to read." + +At his worst--and his worst can be monstrous!--garbed fantastically in +purple patches and gaudy rags, he wallows in muddy puddles of Burgundy +and gold dust; even then he is unflagging and holds the attention in a +vise. His women have eyes which are purple pools, their hair is bitten +by combs, their lips are scarlet threads. Even the names of his +characters, Roanoke Raritan, Ruis Ixar, Tancred Ennever, Erastus +Varick, Gulian Verplank, Melancthon Orr, Justine Dunnellen, Roland +Mistrial, Giselle Oppensheim, Yoda Jones, Stella Sixmuth, Violet +Silverstairs, Sallie Malakoff, Shane Wyvell, Dugald Maule, Eden +Menemon (it will be observed that he has a persistent, balefully +procacious, perhaps, indeed, Freudian predilection for the letters U, +V, and X),[3] are fantastic and fabulous ... sometimes almost +frivolous. And here we may find our paradox. His sense of humour is +abnormal, sometimes expressed directly by way of epigram or sly +wording but may it not also occasionally express itself indirectly in +these purple towers of painted velvet words, extravagant fables, and +unbelievable characters he is so fond of erecting? Some of his work +almost approaches the burlesque in form. He carries his manner to a +point where he seems to laugh at it himself, and then, with a touch of +poignant realism or a poetic phrase, he confounds the reader's +judgment. The virtuosity of the performance is breath-taking! + +He is always the snob (somewhere he defends the snob in an essay): +rich food ("half-mourning" [artichoke hearts and truffles], "filet of +reindeer," a cygnet in its plumage bearing an orchid in its beak, +"heron's eggs whipped with wine into an amber foam," "mashed +grasshoppers baked in saffron"), rich clothes, rich people interest +him. There is no poverty in his books. His creatures do not toil. They +cut coupons off bonds. Sometimes they write or paint, but for the most +part they are free to devote themselves exclusively to the pursuit of +emotional experience, eating, reading, and travelling the while. And +when they have finished dining they wipe their hands, wetted in a +golden bowl, in the curly hair of a tiny serving boy. A character in +"Madam Sapphira" explains this tendency: "A writer, if he happens to +be worth his syndicate, never chooses a subject. The subject chooses +him. He writes what he must, not what he might. That's the thing the +public can't understand." + +There is always a preoccupation with ancient life, sometimes freely +expressed as in "Imperial Purple," but more often suggested by plot, +phrase, or scene. He kills more people than Caligula killed during the +whole course of his bloody reign. Murders, suicides, and other forms +of sudden death flash their sensations across his pages. Webster and +the other Elizabethans never steeped themselves so completely in gore. +In almost every book there is an orgy of death and he has been +ingenious in varying its forms. The poisons of rafflesia, muscarine, +and orsere are introduced in his fictions; somewhere he devotes an +essay to toxicology. Daggers with blades like needles, pistols, +drownings, asphyxiations, play their rôles ... and in one book there +is a crucifixion! + +Again I find that Mr. Saltus has said his word on the subject: "In +fiction as in history it is the shudder that tells. Hugo could find no +higher compliment for Baudelaire than to announce that the latter had +discovered a new one. For new shudders are as rare as new vices; +antiquity has made them all seem trite. The apt commingling of the +horrible and the trivial, pathos and ferocity, is yet the one secret +of enduring work--a secret, parenthetically, which Hugo knew as no one +else." + +His fables depend in most instances upon sexual abberrations, curious +coincidences, fantastic happenings. Rapes and incests decorate his +pages. He does not ask us to believe his monstrous stories; he compels +us to. He carries us by means of the careless expenditure of many +passages of somewhat ribald beauty, along with him, captive to his +pervasive charm. We are constantly reminded, in endless, almost +wearisome, imagery, of gold and purple, foreign languages, esoteric +philosophies, foods the names of which strike the ear as graciously +as they themselves might strike the tongue. From Huysmans he has +learned the formula for ravishing all our senses. Words are often used +for their own sakes to call up images, colour flits across every page, +across, indeed, every line. We taste, we smell, we see. There is the +pomp and circumstance of the Roman Catholic ritual in these pages, the +Roman Catholic ritual well supplied with mythical monsters, singing +flowers, and blooming women. Strange scarlet and mulberry threads form +the woof of these tapestries, threads pulled with great labour from +all the art of the past. There is, in much of his work, an +undercurrent of subtle sensuous erotic poison; in one of her stories +Edna Kenton tells us that _chartreuse jaune_ and bananas form such a +poison. There is a suggestion of _chartreuse jaune_ and bananas in +much of the work of Edgar Saltus. + +He is constantly obsessed by the mysteries of love and death, the +veils of Isis, the secrets of Moses. While others were delving in the +American soil his soul sped afar; he is not even a cosmopolitan; he is +a Greek, a Brahmin, a worshipper of Ishtar. There is a prodigious and +prodigal display of genius in his work, savannahs of epigrams, forests +of ideas, phrases enough to fill the ocean.[4] There is enough +material in the romances of Edgar Saltus to furnish all the cinema +companies in America with scenarios for a twelve-month. + +Early in the Eighties a writer in "The Argus" referred to him as "the +prose laureate of pessimism." His philosophy may be summed up in a few +phrases: Nothing matters, Whatever will be is, Everything is possible, +and Since we live today let us make the best of it and live in Paris. +And through all the _opera_ of Saltus, through the rapes and murders, +the religious, philosophical, and social discussions, rings +Cherubino's still unanswered question, _Che cosa e amor?_ like a +persistent refrain. + +After having said so much it seems unnecessary to add that I strongly +advise the reader to go out and buy all the books of Edgar Saltus he +can find (and to find many will require patience and dexterity, as +most of them are out of print). To further aid him in the matter I +have prepared a short catalogue and with his permission I will guide +him gently through this new land. I have also added a list of +publishers, together with the dates of publication, although I cannot, +in some instances, vouch for their having been the original imprints. +It may be noted that almost all his books have been reprinted in +England.[5] + +"Balzac,"[6] signed Edgar Evertson Saltus (for a time he used his full +name) is such good literary criticism and such good personal biography +that one wishes the author had tried the form again. He did not save +in his prefaces to his translations, his essay on Victor Hugo, and his +short study of Oscar Wilde. In its miniature way, for the book is +slight, "Balzac" is as good of its kind as James Huneker's "Chopin," +Auguste Ehrhard's "Fanny Elssler," and Frank Harris's "Oscar Wilde." +In style it is superior to any of these. It is a very pretty +performance for a début and if it is out of print, as I think it is, +some enterprising publisher should serve it to the public in a new +edition. The two most interesting chapters, largely anecdotal but +continuously illuminating, are entitled "The Vagaries of Genius," +wherein one may find an infinitude of details concerning the manner +in which Balzac worked, and "The Chase for Gold," but tucked in +somewhere else is a charming digression about realism in fiction and +the bibliography should still be of use to students. Saltus tells us +that Balzac took all his characters' names from life, frequently from +signs which he observed on the street. In this respect Saltus +certainly has not followed him; in another he has been more imitative: +I refer to the Balzacian trick of carrying people from one book to +another. + +"The Philosophy of Disenchantment"[7] is an ingratiating account of +the pessimism of Schopenhauer, a philosophy with which it would seem, +Saltus is fully in accord. Two-thirds of the book is allotted to +Schopenhauer, but the remainder is devoted to an exposition of the +teachings of von Hartmann and a final essay, "Is Life an Affliction?" +which query the author seems to answer in the affirmative. One of the +best-known of the Saltus books, "The Philosophy of Disenchantment" is +written in a clear, translucent style without the iridescence which +decorates his later _opera_. + +"After-Dinner Stories from Balzac, done into English by Myndart +Verelst (obviously E. S.) with an introduction by Edgar Saltus"[8] +contains four of the Frenchman's tales, "The Red Inn," "Madame +Firmiani," "The 'Grande Bretèche'," and "Madame de Beauséant." The +introduction is written in Saltus's most beguiling manner and may be +referred to as one of the most delightful short essays on Balzac +extant. The dedication is to V. A. B. + +"The Anatomy of Negation"[9] is Saltus's best book in his earlier +manner, which is as free from flamboyancy as early Gothic, and one of +his most important contributions to our literature. The work is a +history of antitheism from Kapila to Leconte de Lisle and, while the +writer in a brief prefatory notice disavows all responsibility for the +opinions of others, it can readily be felt that the book is a labour +of love and that his sympathy lies with the iconoclasts through the +centuries. The chapter entitled, "The Convulsions of the Church," a +brief history of Christianity, is one of the most brilliant passages +to be found in any of the works of this very brilliant writer. Indeed, +if you are searching for the soul of Saltus you could not do better +than turn to this chapter. Of Jesus he says, "He was the most +entrancing of nihilists but no innovator." Here is another excerpt: +"Paganism was not dead; it had merely fallen asleep. Isis gave way to +Mary; apotheosis was replaced by canonization; the divinities were +succeeded by saints; and, Africa aiding, the Church surged from +mythology with the Trinity for tiara." Again: "Satan was Jew from horn +to hoof. The registry of his birth is contained in the evolution of +Hebraic thought." Never was any book so full of erudition and ideas so +easy to read, a fascinating _opus_, written by a true sceptic. +Following the Baedeker system, adopted so amusingly by Henry T. Finck +in his "Songs and Song Writers," this book should be triple-starred. + +"Tales before Supper, from Théophile Gautier and Prosper Mérimée, told +in English by Myndart Verelst and delayed with a proem by Edgar +Saltus."[10] Translation again. The stories are "Avatar" and "The +Venus of Ille." The essay at the beginning is a very charming +performance. This book is dedicated to E. C. R. + +"Mr. Incoul's Misadventure,"[11] Saltus's first novel, is also the +best of his numerous fictions. It, too, should be triple-starred in +any guide book through this _opus_-land. In it will be found, +super-distilled, the very essence of all the best qualities of this +writer. It is written with fine reserve; the story holds; the +characters are unusually well observed, felt, and expressed. Irony +shines through the pages and the final cadence includes a murder and a +suicide. For the former, bromide of potassium and gas are utilized in +combination; for the latter laudanum, taken hypodermically, suffices. +There are scenes in Biarritz and Northern Spain which include a +thrilling picture of a bull-fight. There is an interesting glimpse of +the Paris Opéra. There is a description of an epithumetic library +which embraces many forbidden titles, (How that "baron of moral +endeavour ... the professional hound of heaven," Anthony Comstock, +would have gloated over these shelves!), a vibrant page about Goya, +and another about a Thibetian cat. Many passages could be brought +forward as evidence that Mr. Saltus loves the fire-side sphynx. The +Mr. Incoul of the title gives one a very excellent idea of how inhuman +a just man can be. There is not a single slip in the skilful +delineation of this monster. The beautiful heroine vaguely shambles +into a tapestried background. She is _moyen age_ in her appealing +weakness. The _jeune premier_, Lenox Leigh, is well drawn and +lighted. Time after time the author strikes subtle harmonies which +must have delighted Henry James. Why is this book not dedicated to +author of "The Turn of the Screw" rather than to "E. A. S."? The pages +are permeated with suspense, horror, information, irony, and charm, +about evenly distributed, all of which qualities are expressed in the +astounding title (astounding after you have read the book). There is a +white marriage in this tale, stipulated in the hymeneal bond. In 1877 +Tschaikovsky made a similar agreement with the woman he married. + +"The Truth About Tristrem Varick"[12] is written with the same +restraint which characterizes the style of "Mr. Incoul's +Misadventure," a restraint seldom to be encountered in Saltus's later +fictions. One of the angles of the plot in which an irate father +attempts to suppress a marriage by suggesting incest, bobs up twice +again in his stories, for the last time nearly thirty years later in +"The Monster." Irony is the keynote of the work, a keynote sounded in +the dedication, "To my master, the philosopher of the unconscious, +Eduard von Hartmann, this attempt in ornamental disenchantment is +dutifully inscribed." The heroine, as frequently happens with Saltus +heroines, is veiled with the mysteries of Isis; we do not see the +workings of her mind and so we can sympathize with Varick, who pursues +her with persistent misunderstanding and arduous devotion through 240 +pages. He attributes her aloofness to his father's unfounded charge +against his mother and her father. When he learns that she has borne a +child he suspects rape and, with a needle-like dagger that leaves no +sign, he kills the man he believes to have seduced her. Then he goes +to the lady to receive her thanks, only to learn that she loved the +man he has killed. Varick gives himself into the hands of the police, +confesses, and is delivered to justice, the lady gloating. A +strikingly pessimistic tale, only less good than "Mr. Incoul." There +is superb writing in these pages, many delightful passages. _La +Cenerentola_ and _Lucrezia Borgia_ are mentioned in passing. Saltus +has (or had) an exuberant fondness for Donizetti and Rossini. Here is +a telling bit of art criticism (attributed to a character) descriptive +of the Paris Salon: "There was a Manet or two, a Moreau and a dozen +excellent landscapes, but the rest represented the apotheosis of +mediocrity. The pictures which Gerome, Cabanel, Bouguereau, and the +acolytes of these pastry-cooks exposed were stupid and sterile as +church doors." This required courage in 1888. One wonders where Kenyon +Cox was at the time! Give this book at least two stars. + +"Eden"[13] is the third of Saltus's fictions and possibly the poorest +of the three. Eden is the name of the heroine whose further name is +Menemon. Stuyvesant Square is her original habitat but she migrates to +Fifth Avenue. The tide is flowing South again nowadays. Her husband is +almost too good, but nevertheless appearances seem against him until +he explains that the lady with whom he has been seen in a cab is his +daughter by a former marriage, and the young man who seems to have +been making love to Eden is his son. Characteristic of Saltus is the +use of the Spanish word for nightingale. There are no deaths, no +suicides, no murders in these pages: a very eunuch of a book! A motto +from Tasso, "_Perdute e tutto il tempo che in amor non si spende_" +adorns the title page and the work is dedicated to "E----H +Amicissima." + +With "The Pace that Kills"[14] Saltus doffs his old coat and dons a +new and gaudier garment. Possibly he owed this change in style to the +influence of the London movement so interestingly described in +Holbrook Jackson's "The Eighteen-Nineties." The book begins with +abortion and ends with a drop over a ferry-boat into the icy East +River. There is an averted strangulation of a baby and for the second +time in a Saltus _opus_ a dying millionaire leaves his fortune to the +St. Nicholas Hospital. Was Saltus ballyhooing for this institution? +The hero is a modern Don Juan. Alphabet Jones appears occasionally, as +he does in many of the other novels. This Balzacian trick obsessed the +author for a time. The book is dedicated to John S. Rutherford and +bears as a motto on its title page this quotation from Rabusson: +"_Pourquoi la mort? Dites, plutôt, pourquoi la vie?_" + +In "A Transaction in Hearts"[15] the Reverend Christopher Gonfallon +falls in love with his wife's sister, Claire. A New England countess, +a subsidiary figure, suggests d'Aurevilly. This story originally +appeared in "Lippincott's Magazine" and the editor who accepted it was +dismissed. A year or so later a new editor published "The Picture of +Dorian Gray." Still later Saltus tells me he met Oscar Wilde in London +and the Irish poet asked him for news of the new editor. "He's quite +well," answered Saltus. Wilde did not seem to be pleased: "When your +story appeared the editor was removed; when mine appeared I supposed +he would be hanged. Now you tell me he is quite well. It is most +disheartening." Saltus then asked Wilde why Dorian Gray was cut by his +friends. Wilde turned it over. "I fancy they saw him eating fish with +his knife." + +"A Transient Guest and other Episodes"[16] contains three short tales +besides the title story: "The Grand Duke's Riches," an account of an +ingenious robbery at the Brevoort, "A Maid of Athens," and "Fausta," a +story of love, revenge, and death in Cuba. If the final cadence of the +book is a dagger thrust the prelude is a subtle poison, rafflesia, a +Sumatran plant, intended for the hero, Tancred Ennever, but consumed +with fatal results by his faithful fox terrier, Zut Alors. The story +is arresting and, as frequently happens in Saltus romances, a man +finds himself no match for a woman. "A Transient Guest" is dedicated +to K. J. M. + +The slender volume entitled "Love and Lore"[17] contains a short +series of slight essays, interrupted by slighter sonnets, on subjects +which, for the most part, Saltus has treated at greater length and +with greater effect elsewhere. He makes a whimsical plea for a modern +revival of the Court of Love and in "Morality in Fiction" he derides +that Puritanism in American letters whose dark scourge H. L. Mencken +still pursues with a cat-o'-nine-tails and a hand grenade. He gives us +a fanciful set of rules for a novelist which, happily, he has ignored +in his own fictions. The most interesting, personal, and charming +chapter, although palpably derived from "The Philosophy of +Disenchantment," is that entitled "What Pessimism Is Not"; here again +we are in the heart of the author's philosophy. Those who like to read +books about the Iberian Peninsula can scarcely afford to miss +"Fabulous Andalucia," in which an able brief for the race of Othello +is presented: "Under the Moors, Cordova surpassed Baghdad. They wrote +more poetry than all the other nations put together. It was they who +invented rhyme; they wrote everything in it, contracts, challenges, +treaties, treatises, diplomatic notes and messages of love. From the +earliest khalyf down to Boabdil, the courts of Granada, of Cordova and +of Seville were peopled with poets, or, as they were termed, with +makers of Ghazels. It was they who gave us the dulcimer, the hautbois +and the guitar; it was they who invented the serenade. We are +indebted to them for algebra and for the canons of chivalry as +well.... It was from them that came the first threads of light which +preceded the Renaissance. Throughout mediaeval Europe they were the +only people that thought." The book is dedicated to Edgar Fawcett, +"perfect poet--perfect friend" and is embellished with a portrait of +its author. + +"The Story Without a Name"[18] is a translation of "Une Histoire Sans +Nom" of Barbey d'Aurevilly, and is preceded by one of Saltus's +charming and atmospheric literary essays, the best on d'Aurevilly to +be found in English. When this book first appeared, Mr. Saltus informs +me, a reviewer, "who contrived to be both amusing and complimentary," +said that Barbey d'Aurevilly was a fictitious person and that this +vile story was Saltus's own vile work! + +"Mary Magdalen,"[19] on the whole disappointing, is nevertheless one +of the important Saltus _opera_. The opening chapters, like Oscar +Wilde's _Salome_ (published two years later than "Mary Magdalen") owe +much to Flaubert's "Hérodias." The dance on the hands is a detail +from Flaubert, a detail which Tissot followed in his painting of +Salome.... From the later chapters it is possible that Paul Heyse +filched an idea. The turning point of his drama, _Maria von Magdala_, +hinges on Judas's love for Mary and his jealousy of Jesus. Saltus +develops exactly this situation. Heyse's play appeared in 1899, eight +years after Saltus's novel. However, Saltus has protested to me that +it is an idea that might have occurred to any one. "I put it in," he +added, "to make the action more nervous." The book begins well with a +description of Herod's court and Rome in Judea, but as a whole it is +unsatisfactory. Once the plot develops Saltus seems to lose interest. +He lazily quotes whole scenes from the Bible (George Moore very +cleverly avoided this pitfall in "The Brook Kerith"). The early +chapters suggest "Imperial Purple," which appeared a year later and +upon which he may well have been at work at this time. There is a +foreshadowing, too, of "The Lords of the Ghostland" in a very amusing +and slightly cynical passage in which Mary as a child listens to +Sephorah the sorceress tell legends and myths of Assyria and Egypt. +Mary interrupts with "Why you mean Moses! You mean Noah!" just as a +child of today, if confronted with the situations in the Greek dramas +would attribute them to Bayard Veiller or Eugene Walter. Saltus is too +much of a scholar to find much novelty in Christianity. But aside from +this passage cynicism is lacking from this book, a quality which makes +another story on the same theme, "Le Procurateur de Judée," one of the +greatest short stories in any language. Mary's sins are quickly passed +over and we come almost immediately to her conversion. Herod Antipas, +with his "fan-shaped beard" and vacillating Pilate, quite comparable +to a modern politician, are the most human and best-realized +characters in a book which should have been greater than it is. "Mary +Magdalen" is dedicated to Henry James. + +"The facts in the Curious Case of H. Hyrtl, esq."[20] is a slight yarn +in the mellow Stevenson manner, with a kindly old gentleman as the +messenger of the supernatural who provides the wherewithal for a +marriage between an impoverished artist, who is painting +Heliogabolus's feast of roses, and his sweet young thing. Quite a +departure this from the usual Saltus manner; nevertheless there are +two deaths, one by shock, the other in a railway accident. The plot +depends on as many impossible entrances and exits as a Palais Royal +farce and the reader is asked to believe in many coincidences. The +book is dedicated to Lorillard Ronalds who, the author explains in a +few French phrases, asked him to write something "_de très pure et de +très chaste, pour une jeunesse, sans doute_." He adds that the story +is a rewriting of a tale which had appeared twenty years earlier. + +"Imperial Purple"[21] marks the high-tide of Saltus's peculiar genius. +The emperors of imperial decadent Rome are led by the chains of art +behind the chariot wheels of the poet: Julius Cæsar, whom Cato called +"that woman," Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, the wicked Agrippina, for +whom Agnes Repplier named her cat, Claudius, Nero, Hadrian, Vespasian, +down to the incredible Heliogabolus. Saltus, who has given us many +vivid details concerning the lives of his predecessors, seemingly +falters at this dread name, but only seemingly. More can be found +about this extraordinary and perverse emperor in Lombard's "L'Agonie" +and in Franz Blei's "The Powder Puff," but, although Saltus is brief, +he evokes an atmosphere and a picture in a few short paragraphs. The +sheer lyric quality of this book has remained unsurpassed by this +author. Indeed it is rare in all literature. Page after page that +Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, or J. K. Huysmans might have been glad to +sign might be set before you. The man writes with invention, with sap, +with urge. Our eyes are not clogged with foot-notes and references. It +is plain that our author has delved in the "Scriptores Historiæ +Augustæ," that he has read Lampridius, Suetonius, and the others, but +he does not strive to make us aware of it. The historical form has at +last found a poet to render it supportable. Blood runs across the +pages; gore and booty are the principal themes; and yet Beauty struts +supreme through the horror. The author's sympathy is his password, a +sympathy which he occasionally exposes, for he is not above pinning +his heart to his sleeve, as, for example, when he says, "In spite of +Augustus's boast, the city was not by any means of marble. It was +filled with crooked little streets, with the atrocities of the +Tarquins, with houses unsightly and perilous, with the moss and dust +of ages; it compared with Alexandria as London compares with Paris; it +had a splendour of its own, but a splendour that could be heightened." +Here is a picture of squalid Rome: "In the subura, where at night +women sat in high chairs, ogling the passer with painted eyes, there +was still plenty of brick; tall tenements, soiled linen, the odor of +Whitechapel and St. Giles. The streets were noisy with match-pedlars, +with vendors of cake and tripe and coke; there were touts there too, +altars to unimportant divinities, lying Jews who dealt in old clothes, +in obscene pictures and unmentionable wares; at the crossings there +were thimbleriggers, clowns and jugglers, who made glass balls appear +and disappear surprisingly; there were doorways decorated with curious +invitations, gossipy barber shops, where, through the liberality of +politicians, the scum of a great city was shaved, curled and painted +free; and there were public houses, where vagabond slaves and sexless +priests drank the mulled wine of Crete, supped on the flesh of beasts +slaughtered in the arena, or watched the Syrian women twist to the +click of castanets." The account of the arena under Nero should not be +missed, but it is too long to quote here. The book, which we give +three stars, is dedicated to Edwin Albert Schroeder. Fortunately, of +all Saltus's works, it is the most readily procurable. + +"Imperial Purple" has had a curious history. Belford, Clarke and Co., +who hid their identity behind the "Morrill, Higgins" imprint, failed +shortly after they had issued the book. "Presently," Mr. Saltus writes +me, "a Chicago bibliofilou brought it out as the work of some one else +and called it 'The Sins of Nero.'" Meanwhile Greening published it in +London and finally Mitchell Kennerley reprinted it in New York. In +1911 Macmillan in London brought out "The Amazing Emperor +Heliogabolus" by the Reverend John Stuart Hay of Oxford. In the +preface to this book I found the following: "I have also the +permission of Mr. E. E. Saltus of Harvard University (_sic_) to quote +his vivid and beautiful studies on the Roman Empire and her customs. I +am also deeply indebted to Mr. Walter Pater, Mr. J. A. Symonds, and +Mr. Saltus for many a _tournure de phrase_ and picturesque rendering +of Tacitus, Suetonious, Lampridius, and the rest." The Reverend Doctor +certainly helped himself to "Imperial Purple." Words, sentences, nay +whole paragraphs appear without the formality of quotation marks, +without any indication, indeed, save these lines in the preface, that +they are not part of the Doctor's own imagination, unless one compares +them with the style in which the rest of the book is written. "In one +instance," Mr. Saltus writes me, "he gave a paragraph of mine as his +own. Later on he added, 'as we have already said' and repeated the +paragraph. The plural struck me as singular." + +"Madam Sapphira"[22] is a vivid study in unchastened womanhood. We see +but little of the lady in the 251 pages of this "Fifth Avenue Story"; +her character is exposed to us through the experiences of her poor +fool husband, who colloquially would be called a simp, by denizens of +the Low World a boob. He redeems himself to some extent by sending +Madam Sapphira a belated bouquet of cyanide of potassium. On the +whole, though characters and phrases in his work might be brought +forward to prove the contrary, Mr. Saltus obviously has a low opinion +of women and thinks that men do better without them. The greater part +of the time he appears to agree with Posthumus: + + "Could I find out + The woman's part in me! For there's no motion + That tends to vice in man but I affirm + It is the woman's part; be it lying, note it + The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers; + Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers; + Ambitions, covetings, changes of prides, disdain, + Nice longings, slanders, mutability, + All faults that may be named, nay that hell knows, + Why, hers, in part or all; but rather, all; + For even to vice + They are not constant, but are changing still + One vice of a minute old for one + Not half so old as that. I'll write against them, + Detest them, curse them.--Yet 'tis greater skill + In a true hate, to pray they have their will: + The very devils cannot plague them better." + +"Enthralled, a story of international life setting forth the curious +circumstances concerning Lord Cloden and Oswald Quain":[23] a mad +_opus_ this, an insane phantasmagoria of crime, avarice, and murder. +For the second time in this author's novels incest plays a rôle. This +time it is real. Quain is indeed the half-brother of the lady who +desires to marry him. He is as vile and virulent a villain as any who +stalks through the pages of Ann Ker, Eliza Bromley, or Mrs. Radcliffe. +A Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde motive is sounded. An ugly man comes back +from London a handsome fellow after visits to a certain doctor who +rearranges the lines of his face. The transformation is effected every +day now (some of our prominent actresses are said to have benefited +by this operation), but in 1894 the mechanism of the trick must have +been appallingly creaky. This story, indeed, borders on the burlesque +and has almost as much claim to the title as "The Green Carnation." +Was the author laughing at the Eighteen Nineties? The period is subtly +evoked in one detail, constantly reiterated in Saltus's early books: +ladies and gentlemen when they leave a room "push aside the +portieres." Sometimes the "rings jingle." He has in most instances +mercifully spared us further descriptions of the interiors of New York +houses at this epoch.... At a dinner party one of the guests refers to +Howells as the "foremost novelist who is never read." The book is +dedicated to "Cherubina, _dulcissime rerum_." Saltus returned to the +central theme of "Enthralled" in a story called "The Impostor," +printed in "Ainslee's" for May, 1917. + +"When Dreams Come True"[24] again brings us in touch with Tancred +Ennever, the stupid hero of "The Transient Guest." In the meantime he +has become an almost intolerable prig. It is probable that Saltus +meant more by this fable than he has let appear. The roar of the waves +on the coast of Lesbos is distinctly audible for a time and the +dénoûment seems to belong to quite another story.... Ennever has +turned author. We are informed that he has completed studies on +Huysmans and Leconte de Lisle; he is also engaged on a "Historia +Amoris." There is an interesting passage relating to the names of +great writers. Alphabet Jones assures us that they are always "in two +syllables with the accent on the first. Oyez: Homer, Sappho, Horace, +Dante, Petrarch, Ronsard, Shakespeare, Hugo, Swinburne ... Balzac, +Flaubert, Huysmans, Michelet, Renan." The reader is permitted to add +... "Saltus"! + +"Purple and Fine Women"[25] is a misnamed book. It should be called +"Philosophic Fables." The first two stories are French in form. Paul +Bourget himself is the hero of one of them! In "The Princess of the +Sun" we are offered a new and fantastic version of the Coppelia story. +"The Dear Departed" finds Saltus in a murderous amorous mood again. In +"The Princess of the Golden Isles" a new poison is introduced, +muscarine. Alchemy furnishes the theme for one tale; the protagonist +seeks an alcahest, a human victim for his crucible. We are left in +doubt as to whether he chooses his wife, who wears a diamond set in +one of her teeth, or a gorilla. There are dramas of dual personality +and of death. Metaphysics and spiritualism rise dimly out of the charm +of this book. There is a duchess who mews like a cat and somewhere we +are assured that _Perche non posso odiarte_ from _La Sonnnambula_ is +the most beautiful aria in the Italian repertory. Here is a true and +soul-revealing epigram: "The best way to master a subject of which you +are ignorant is to write it up." Certainly not Saltus at his best, +this _opus_, but far from his worst. + +"The Perfume of Eros"[26] is frenzied fiction again; amnesia, +drunkenness, white slavery, sex, are its mingled themes. There is a +pretty picture, recognizable in any smart community, of a witty woman +of fashion, and a full-length portrait of a bounder. "The Yellow Fay," +Saltus's _cliché_ for the Demon Rum, was the original title of this +"Fifth Avenue Incident." Romance and Realism consort lovingly together +in its pages. There is an unforgetable passage descriptive of a young +man ridding himself of his mistress. He interrupts his flow of +explanation to hand her a card case, which she promptly throws out of +the window. + +"'That is an agreeable way of getting rid of twelve thousand dollars,' +he remarked. + +"Yet, however lightly he affected to speak, the action annoyed him. +Like all men of large means he was close. It seemed to him beastly to +lose such a sum. He got up, went to the window and looked down. He +could not see the case and he much wanted to go and look for it. But +that for the moment Marie prevented." + +"The Pomps of Satan"[27] is replete with grace and graciousness, and +full of charm, a quality more valuable to its possessor than +juvenility, our author tells us in a chapter concerning the lost +elixir of youth. Neither form nor matter assume ponderous shape in +this volume, which in the quality of its contents reminds one faintly +of Franz Blei's lady's breviary, "The Powder Puff," but Saltus's book +is the more ingratiating of the two. Satan's pomps are varied; the +author exposes his whims, his ideas, images the past, forecasts the +future, deplores the present. There is a chapter on cooking and we +learn that Saltus does not care for food prepared in the German style +... nor yet in the American. He forbids us champagne: "Champagne is +not a wine. It is a beverage, lighter indeed than brandy and soda, +but, like cologne, fit only for demi-reps." But he seems untrue to +himself in an essay condemning the use of perfumes. His own books are +heavily scented. With the rare prescience and clairvoyance of an +artist he includes the German Kaiser in a chapter on hyenas (in +1906!); therein stalk the blood-stained shadows of Caligula, +Caracalla, Atilla, Tamerlane, Cesare Borgia, Philip II, and Ivan the +Terrible. The paragraph is worth quoting: "Power consists in having a +million bayonets behind you. Its diffusion is not general. But there +are people who possess it. For one, the German Kaiser. Not long since +somebody or other diagnosed in him the habitual criminal. We doubt +that he is that. But we suspect that, were it not for the press, he +would show more of primitive man than he has thus far thought +judicious." Has Mme. de Thèbes done better? Saltus also foresaw +Gertrude Stein. Peering into the future he wrote: "When that day comes +the models of literary excellence will not be the long and windy +sentences of accredited bores, but ample brevities, such as the 'N' on +Napoleon's tomb, in which, in less than a syllable, an epoch, and the +glory of it, is resumed." Saltus forsakes his previous choice from +Bellini and installs _Tu che a Dio_ as his favourite Italian opera +air. Here is another flash of self-revealment: "Byzance is rumoured +to have been the sewer of every sin, yet such was its beauty that it +is the canker of our heart we could not have lived there." Always this +turning to the far past, this delving in rosetta stones and +palimpsests, this preoccupation with the sights and sins of the +ancient gods and kings. A chapter on poisons, another on Gille de +Retz, which probably owes something to "La Bas," betray this +preference. He playfully suggests that the Academy of Arts and Letters +be filled up with young nobodies: "They have, indeed, done nothing +yet. But therein is their charm. An academy composed of young people +who have done nothing yet would be more alluring than one made up of +fossils who are unable to do anything more." Herein are contained +enough aphorisms and epigrams to make up a new book of Solomonic +wisdom. Hardly as evenly inspired as "Imperial Purple," "The Pomps of +Satan" is more dashing and more varied. It is also more tired. + +"Vanity Square"[28] in Stella Sixmuth boasts such a "vampire" as even +Theda Bara is seldom called upon to portray. Not until the final +chapters of this mystery story do we discover that this lady has been +poisoning a rich man's wife, with an eye on the rich man's heart and +hand. Oraere is this slow and subtle poison which leaves no subsequent +trace. She is thwarted but in a subsequent attempt she is successful. +Robert Hichens has used this theme in "Bella Donna." There is a +suicide by pistol. An exciting story but little else, this book +contains fewer references to the gods and the cæsars than is usual +with Saltus. To compensate there are long discussions about phobias, +dual personalities (a girl with six is described) and theories about +future existence. Vanity Square, we are told, is bounded by Central +Park, Madison Avenue, Seventy-second Street and the Plaza. + +It will be remembered that Tancred Ennever was at work on "Historia +Amoris"[29] in 1895, which would seem to indicate that Saltus had +begun to collect material for it himself at that time. The title is a +literal description of the contents of the book: it is a history of +love. Such a work might have been made purely anecdotal or scientific, +but Saltus's purpose has been at once more serious and more graceful, +to show how the love currents flowed through the centuries, to show +what effect period life had on love and what effect love had on period +life. Beginning with Babylon and passing on through the "Song of +Songs" we meet Helen of Troy, Scheherazade (though but briefly), +Sappho (to whom an entire chapter is devoted), Cleopatra (whom Heine +called "_cette reine entretenue_"), Mary Magdalen, Héloïse.... The +Courts of Love are described and deductions are drawn as to the effect +of the Renaissance on the Gay Science. "Historia Amoris" is concluded +by a Schopenhauerian essay on "The Law of Attraction." Cicisbeism is +not treated in extenso, as it should be, and I also missed the +fragrant name of Sophie Arnould. Readers of "Love and Lore," "The +Pomps of Satan," "Imperial Purple," and "The Lords of the Ghostland" +will find much of their material adjusted to the purposes of this +History of Love, which, nevertheless, no one interested in Saltus can +afford to miss. + +In "The Lords of the Ghostland, a history of the ideal,"[30] Saltus +returns to the theme of "The Anatomy of Negation." The newer work is +both more cynical and more charming. It is, of course, a history and a +comparison of religions. With Reinach Saltus believes that +Christianity owes much to its ancestors. Brahma, Ormuzd, Amon-Râ, +Bel-Marduk, Jehovah, Zeus, Jupiter, and many lesser deities parade +before us in defile. Prejudice, intolerance, tolerance even are +lacking from this book, as they were from "Imperial Purple." "The +Lords of the Ghostland" is neither reverent nor irreverent, it is +unreverent. Mr. Saltus finds joy in writing about the gods, the joy of +a poet, and if his chiefest pleasure is to extol the gods of Greece +that is only what might be expected of this truly pagan spirit. +Students of comparative theology can learn much from these pages, but +they will learn it unwittingly, for the poet supersedes the teacher. +Saltus is never professorial. The scientific spirit is never to the +fore; no marshalling of dull facts for their own sakes. Nevertheless I +suspect that the book contains more absorbing information than any +similar volume on the subject. With a fascinating and guileful style +this divine devil of an author leads us on to the spot where he can +point out to us that the only original feature of Christianity is the +crucifixion, and even that is foreshadowed in Hindoo legend, in which +Krishna dies, nailed by arrows to a tree. This book should be required +reading for the first class in isogogies. + +Most of the scenes of "Daughters of the Rich"[31] are laid in Paris. +The plot hinges on mistaken identity and the whole is a very +ingenious detective story. The book begins rather than ends with a +murder, but that is because the tale is told backward. Through lies, +deceit, and treachery the woman in the case, one Sallie Malakoff, +betrays the hero into marriage with her. When he discovers her perfidy +he cheerfully cuts her throat from ear to ear and goes to join the +lady from whom he has been estranged. She receives him with open arms +and suggests wedding bells. No woman, she asserts, could resist a man +who has killed another woman for her sake. This is decidedly a Roman +point of view! Some of the action takes place in a house on the Avenue +Malakoff, which must have been near the _hôtel_ of the Princesse de +Sagan and the apartment occupied by Miss Mary Garden.... A fat +manufacturer's wife confronts the proposal of a mercenary duke with an +epic rejoinder: "Pay a man a million dollars to sleep with my +daughter! Never!"... Again Saltus demonstrates how completely he is +master of the story-telling gift, how surely he possesses the power to +compel breathless attention. + +"The Monster"[32] is fiction, incredible, insane fiction. The monster +is incest, in this instance _inceste manqué_ because it doesn't come +off. On the eve of a runaway marriage Leilah Ogsten is informed by +her father that her intended husband is her own brother (he inculpates +her mother in the scandal). Leilah disappears and to put barriers +between her and the man she loves becomes the bride of another. +Verplank pursues. There are two fabulous duels and a scene in which +our hero is mangled by dogs. The stage (for we are always in some +extravagant theatre) is frequently set in Paris and the familiar +scenes of the capital are in turn exposed to our view. It is all mad, +full of purple patches and crimson splotches and yet, once opened, it +is impossible to lay the book down until it is completed. From this +novel Mr. Saltus fashioned his only play, _The Gates of Life_, which +he sent to Charles Frohman and which Mr. Frohman returned. The piece +has neither been produced nor published. + +Last year (1917) the Brothers of the Book in Chicago published +privately an extremely limited edition (474 copies) of a book by Edgar +Saltus entitled, "Oscar Wilde: An Idler's Impression," which contains +only twenty-six pages, but those twenty-six pages are very beautiful. +They evoke a spirit from the dead. Indeed, I doubt if even Saltus has +done better than his description of a strange occurrence in a Regent +Street Restaurant on a certain night when he was supping with Wilde +and Wilde was reading _Salome_ to him: "apropos of nothing, or rather +with what to me at the time was curious irrelevance, Oscar, while +tossing off glass after glass of liquor, spoke of Phémé, a goddess +rare even in mythology, who after appearing twice in Homer, flashed +through a verse of Hesiod and vanished behind a page of Herodotus. In +telling of her, suddenly his eyes lifted, his mouth contracted, a +spasm of pain--or was it dread?--had gripped him. A moment only. His +face relaxed. It had gone. + +"I have since wondered, could he have evoked the goddess then? For +Phémé typified what modern occultism terms the impact--the premonition +that surges and warns. It was Wilde's fate to die three times--to die +in the dock, to die in prison, to die all along the boulevards of +Paris. Often since I have wondered could the goddess have been +lifting, however slightly, some fringe of the crimson curtain, behind +which, in all its horror, his destiny crouched. If so, he braved it. + +"I had looked away. I looked again. Before me was a fat pauper, florid +and over-dressed, who, in the voice of an immortal, was reading the +fantasies of the damned. In his hand was a manuscript, and we were +supping on _Salome_." + +Edgar Saltus began with Balzac in 1884 and he has reached Oscar Wilde +in 1917. His other literary essays, on Gautier and Mérimée in "Tales +Before Supper," on Barbey d'Aurevilly in "The Story Without a Name," +and on Victor Hugo in "The Forum" (June, 1912,) all display the finest +qualities of his genius. Pervaded with his rare charm they are +clairvoyant and illuminating, more than that arresting. They should be +brought together in one volume, especially as they are at present +absolutely inaccessible, terrifyingly so, every one of them. And if +they are to be thus collected may we not hope for one or two new +essays with, say, for subjects, Flaubert and Huysmans? + +It is, you may perceive, as an essayist, a historian, an amateur +philosopher that Saltus excels, but his fiction should not be +underrated on that account. His novels indeed are half essays, just as +his essays are half novels. Even the worst of them contains charming +pages, delightful and unexpected interruptions. His series of fables +suggests a vast _Comédie Inhumaine_ but this statement must not be +regarded as dispraise: it is merely description. You will find +something of the same quality in the work of Edgar Allan Poe, but +Saltus has more grace and charm than Poe, if less intensity. After one +dip into realism ("Mr. Incoul's Misadventure") Saltus became an +incorrigible romantic. All his characters are the inventions of an +errant fancy; scarcely one of them suggests a human being, but they +are none the less creations of art. This, perhaps, was a daring +procedure in an era devoted to the exploitation in fiction of the +facts of hearth and home.... After all, however, his way may be the +better way. Personally I may say that my passion for realism is on the +wane. + +In these strange tales we pass through the familiar haunts of +metropolitan life, but the creatures are amazingly unfamiliar. They +have horns and hoofs, halos and wings, or fins and tails. An esoteric +band of fabulous monsters these: harpies and vampires take tea at +Sherry's; succubi and incubbi are observed buying opal rings at +Tiffany's; fairies, angels, dwarfs, and elves, bearing branches of +asphodel, trip lightly down Waverly Place; peris, amshaspahands, æsir, +izeds, and goblins sleep at the Brevoort; seraphim and cherubim +decorate drawing rooms on Irving Place; griffons, chimeras, and +sphynxes take courses in philosophy at Harvard; willis and sylphs sing +airs from _Lucia di Lammermoor_ and _Le Nozze di Figaro_; naiads and +mermaids embark on the Cunard Line; centaurs and amazons drive in the +Florentine Cascine; kobolds, gnomes, and trolls stab, shoot, and +poison one another; and a satyr meets the martichoras in Gramercy +Park. No such pictures of monstrous, diverting, sensuous existence can +be found elsewhere save in the paintings of Arnold Böcklin, Franz von +Stuck, and above all those of Gustave Moreau. If he had done nothing +else Edgar Saltus should be famous for having given New York a +mythology of its own! + + _January 12, 1918._ + + + + +The New Art of the Singer + + "_It's the law of life that nothing new can come into the + world without pain._" + + Karen Borneman. + + + + +The New Art of the Singer + + +The art of vocalization is retarding the progress of the modern music +drama. That is the simple fact although, doubtless, you are as +accustomed as I am to hearing it expressed _à rebours_. How many times +have we read that the art of singing is in its decadence, that soon +there would not be one artist left fitted to deliver vocal music in +public. The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe wrote something of the sort in 1825 +for he found the great Catalani but a sorry travesty of his early +favourites, Pacchierotti and Banti. I protest against this +misconception. Any one who asserts that there are laws which govern +singing, physical, scientific laws, must pay court to other ears than +mine. I have heard this same man for twenty years shouting in the +market place that a piece without action was not a play (usually the +drama he referred to had more real action than that which decorates +the progress of _Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model_), that a +composition without melody (meaning something by Richard Wagner, +Robert Franz, or even Edvard Grieg) was not music, that verse without +rhyme was not poetry. This same type of brilliant mind will go on to +aver (forgetting the Scot) that men who wear skirts are not men, +(forgetting the Spaniards) that women who smoke cigars are not women, +and to settle numberless other matters in so silly a manner that a ten +year old, half-witted school boy, after three minutes light thinking, +could be depended upon to do better. + +The rules for the art of singing, laid down in the Seventeenth and +Eighteenth Centuries, have become obsolete. How could it be otherwise? +They were contrived to fit a certain style of composition. We have but +the briefest knowledge, indeed, of how people sang before 1700, +although records exist praising the performances of Archilei and +others. If a different standard for the criticism of vocalization +existed before 1600 there is no reason why there should not after +1917. As a matter of fact, maugre much authoritative opinion to the +contrary, a different standard does exist. In certain respects the new +standard is taken for granted. We do not, for example, expect to hear +male sopranos at the opera. The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe admired this +artificial form of voice almost to the exclusion of all others. His +favourite singer, indeed, Pacchierotti, was a male soprano. But other +breaks have been made with tradition, breaks which are not yet taken +for granted. When you find that all but one or two of the singers in +every opera house in the world are ignoring the rules in some respect +or other you may be certain, in spite of the protests of the +professors, that the rules are dead. Their excuse has disappeared and +they remain only as silly commandments made to fit an old religion. A +singer in Handel's day was accustomed to stand in one spot on the +stage and sing; nothing else was required of him. He was not asked to +walk about or to act; even expression in his singing was limited to +pathos. The singers of this period, Nicolini, Senesino, Cuzzoni, +Faustina, Caffarelli, Farinelli, Carestini, Gizziello, and +Pacchierotti, devoted their study years to preparing their voices for +the display of a certain definite kind of florid music. They had +nothing else to learn. As a consequence they were expected to be +particularly efficient. Porpora, Caffarelli's teacher, is said to have +spent six years on his pupil before he sent him forth to be "the +greatest singer in the world." Contemporary critics appear to have +been highly pleased with the result but there is some excuse for H. T. +Finck's impatience, expressed in "Songs and Song Writers": "The +favourites of the eighteenth-century Italian audiences were artificial +male sopranos, like Farinelli, who was frantically applauded for such +circus tricks as beating a trumpeter in holding on to a note, or +racing with an orchestra and getting ahead of it; or Caffarelli, who +entertained his audiences by singing, _in one breath_, a chromatic +chain of trills up and down two octaves. Caffarelli was a pupil of the +famous vocal teacher Porpora, who wrote operas consisting chiefly of +monotonous successions of florid arias resembling the music that is +now written for flutes and violins." All very well for the day, no +doubt, but could Cuzzoni sing Isolde? Could Faustina sing Mélisande? +And what modern parts would be allotted to the Julian Eltinges of the +Eighteenth Century? + +When composers began to set dramatic texts to music trouble +immediately appeared at the door. For example, the contemporaries of +Sophie Arnould, the "creator" of _Iphigénie en Aulide_, are agreed +that she was greater as an actress than she was as a singer. David +Garrick, indeed, pronounced her a finer actress than Clairon. From +that day to this there has been a continual triangular conflict +between critic, composer, and singer, which up to date, it must be +admitted, has been won by the academic pundits, for, although the +singer has struggled, she has generally bent under the blows of the +critical knout, thereby holding the lyric drama more or less in the +state it was in a hundred years ago (every critic and almost every +composer will tell you that any modern opera can be sung according to +the laws of _bel canto_ and enough singers exist, unfortunately, to +justify this assertion) save that the music is not so well sung, +according to the old standards, as it was then. No singer has had +quite the courage to entirely defy tradition, to refuse to study with +a teacher, to embody her own natural ideas in the performance of +music, to found a new school ... but there have been many rebells. + +The operas of Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini, as a whole, do +not demand great histrionic exertion from their interpreters and for a +time singers trained in the old Handelian tradition met every +requirement of these composers and their audiences. If more action was +demanded than in Handel's day the newer music, in compensation, was +easier to sing. But even early in the Nineteenth Century we observe +that those artists who strove to be actors as well as singers lost +something in vocal facility (really they were pushing on to the new +technique). I need only speak of Ronconi and Mme. Pasta. The lady was +admittedly the greatest lyric artist of her day although it is +recorded that her slips from true intonation were frequent. When she +could no longer command a steady tone the _beaux restes_ of her art +and her authoritative style caused Pauline Viardot, who was hearing +her then for the first time, to burst into tears. Ronconi's voice, +according to Chorley, barely exceeded an octave; it was weak and +habitually out of tune. This baritone was not gifted with vocal +agility and he was monotonous in his use of ornament. Nevertheless +this same Chorley admits that Ronconi afforded him more pleasure in +the theatre than almost any other singer he ever heard! If this critic +did not rise to the occasion here and point the way to the future in +another place he had a faint glimmering of the coming revolution: +"There might, there _should_ be yet, a new _Medea_ as an opera. +Nothing can be grander, more antique, more Greek, than Cherubini's +setting of the 'grand fiendish part' (to quote the words of Mrs. +Siddons on Lady Macbeth). But, as music, it becomes simply impossible +to be executed, so frightful is the strain on the energies of her who +is to present the heroine. Compared with this character, Beethoven's +Leonora, Weber's Euryanthe, are only so much child's play." This is +topsy-turvy reasoning, of course, but at the same time it is +suggestive. + +The modern orchestra dug a deeper breach between the two schools. +Wagner called upon the singer to express powerful emotion, passionate +feeling, over a great body of sound, nay, in many instances, _against_ +a great body of sound. (It is significant that Wagner himself admitted +that it was a singer [Madame Schroeder-Devrient] who revealed to him +the possibilities of dramatic singing. He boasted that he was the only +one to learn the lesson. "She was the first artist," writes H. T. +Finck, "who fully revealed the fact that in a dramatic opera there may +be situations where _characteristic_ singing is of more importance +than _beautiful_ singing.") It is small occasion for wonder that +singers began to bark. Indeed they nearly expired under the strain of +trying successfully to mingle Porpora and passion. According to W. F. +Apthorp, Max Alvary once said that, considering the emotional +intensity of music and situations, the constant co-operation of the +surging orchestra, and, most of all, the unconquerable feeling of the +reality of it all, it was a wonder that singing actors did not go +stark mad, before the very faces of the audience, in parts like +Tristan or Siegfried.... The critics, however, were inexorable; they +stood by their guns. There was but one way to sing the new music and +that was the way of Bernacchi and Pistocchi. In time, by dint of +persevering, talking night and day, writing day and night, they +convinced the singer. The music drama developed but the singer was +held in his place. Some artists, great geniuses, of course, made the +compromise successfully.... Jean de Reszke, for example, and Lilli +Lehmann, who said to H. E. Krehbiel ("Chapters of Opera"): "It is +easier to sing all three Brünnhildes than one Norma. You are so +carried away by the dramatic emotion, the action, and the scene, that +you do not have to think how to sing the words. That comes of itself" +... but they made the further progress of the composer more difficult +thereby; music remained merely pretty. The successors of these supple +singers even learned to sing Richard Strauss with broad cantilena +effects. As for Puccini! At a performance of _Madama Butterfly_ a +Japanese once asked why the singers were producing those nice round +tones in moments of passion; why not ugly sounds? + +Will any composer arise with the courage to write an opera which +_cannot_ be sung? Stravinsky almost did this in _The Nightingale_ but +the break must be more complete. Think of the range of sounds made by +the Japanese, the gipsy, the Chinese, the Spanish folk-singers. The +newest composer may ask for shrieks, squeaks, groans, screams, a +thousand delicate shades of guttural and falsetto vocal tones from his +interpreters. Why should the gamut of expression on our opera stage be +so much more limited than it is in our music halls? Why should the +Hottentots be able to make so many delightful noises that we are +incapable of producing? Composers up to date have taken into account a +singer's apparent inability to bridge difficult intervals. It is only +by ignoring all such limitations that the new music will definitely +emerge, the new art of the singer be born. What marvellous effects +might be achieved by skipping from octave to octave in the human +voice! When will the obfusc pundits stop shouting for what Avery +Hopwood calls "ascending and descending tetrarchs!" + +But, some one will argue, with the passing of _bel canto_ what will +become of the operas of Mozart, Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti? Who +will sing them? Fear not, lover of the golden age of song, _bel canto_ +is not passing as swiftly as that. Singers will continue to be born +into this world who are able to cope with the floridity of this music, +for they are born, not made. Amelita Galli-Curci will have her +successors, just as Adelina Patti had hers. Singers of this kind begin +to sing naturally in their infancy and they continue to sing, just +sing.... One touch of drama or emotion and their voices disappear. +Remember Nellie Melba's sad experience with _Siegfried_. The great +Mario had scarcely studied singing (one authority says that he had +taken a few lessons of Meyerbeer!) when he made his début in _Robert, +le Diable_ and there is no evidence that he studied very much +afterwards. Melba, herself, spent less than a year with Mme. Marchesi +in preparation for her opera career. Mme. Galli-Curci asserts that she +has had very little to do with professors and I do not think Mme. +Tetrazzini passed her youth in mastering _vocalizzi_. As a matter of +fact she studied singing only six months. Adelina Patti told Dr. +Hanslick that she had sung _Una voce poco fà_ at the age of seven with +the same embellishments which she used later when she appeared in the +opera in which the air occurs. No, these singers are freaks of nature +like tortoise-shell cats and like those rare felines they are usually +females of late, although such singers as Battistini and Bonci remind +us that men once sang with as much agility as women. But when this +type of singer finally becomes extinct naturally the operas which +depend on it will disappear too for the same reason that the works of +Monteverde and Handel have dropped out of the repertory, that the +Greek tragedies and the Elizabethan interludes are no longer current +on our stage. None of our actors understands the style of Chinese +plays; consequently it would be impossible to present one of them in +our theatre. As Deirdre says in Synge's great play, "It's a heartbreak +to the wise that it's for a short space we have the same things only." +We cannot, indeed, have everything. No one doubts that the plays of +Æschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles are great dramas; the operas I have +just referred to can also be admired in the closet and probably they +will be. Even today no more than two works of Rossini, the most +popular composer of the early Nineteenth Century, are to be heard. +What has become of _Semiramide_, _La Cenerentola_, and the others? +There are no singers to sing them and so they have been dropped from +the repertory without being missed. Can any of our young misses hum +_Di Tanti Palpiti_? You know they cannot. I doubt if you can find two +girls in New York (and I mean girls with a musical education) who can +tell you in what opera the air belongs and yet in the early Twenties +this tune was as popular as _Un Bel Di_ is today. + +Coloratura singing has been called heartless, not altogether without +reason. At one time its exemplars fired composers to their best +efforts. That day has passed. That day passed seventy years ago. It +may occur to you that there is something wrong when singers of a +certain type can only find the proper means to exploit their voices in +works of the past, operas which are dead. It is to be noted that +Nellie Melba and Amelita Galli-Curci are absolutely unfitted to sing +in music dramas even so early as those of Richard Wagner; Dukas, +Strauss, and Stravinsky are utterly beyond them. Even Adelina Patti +and Marcella Sembrich appeared in few, if any, new works of +importance. They had no bearing on the march of musical history. Here +is an entirely paradoxical situation; a set of interpreters who exist, +it would seem, only for the purpose of delivering to us the art of the +past. What would we think of an actor who could make no effect save in +the tragedies of Corneille? It is such as these who have kept Leo +Ornstein from writing an opera. Berlioz forewarned us in his +"Memoirs." He was one of the first to foresee the coming day: "We +shall always find a fair number of female singers, popular from their +brilliant singing of brilliant trifles, and odious to the great +masters because utterly incapable of properly interpreting them. They +have voices, a certain knowledge of music, and flexible throats: they +are lacking in soul, brain, and heart. Such women are regular monsters +and all the more formidable to composers because they are often +charming monsters. This explains the weakness of certain masters in +writing falsely sentimental parts, which attract the public by their +brilliancy. It also explains the number of degenerate works, the +gradual degradation of style, the destruction of all sense of +expression, the neglect of dramatic properties, the contempt for the +true, the grand, and the beautiful, and the cynicism and decrepitude +of art in certain countries." + +So, even if, as the ponderous criticasters are continually pointing +out, the age of _bel canto_ is really passing there is no actual +occasion for grief. All fashions in art pass and what is known as _bel +canto_ is just as much a fashion as the bombastic style of acting that +prevailed in Victor Hugo's day or the "realistic" style of acting we +prefer today. All interpretative art is based primarily on the +material with which it deals and with contemporary public taste. This +kind of singing is a direct derivative of a certain school of opera +and as that school of opera is fading more expressive methods of +singing are coming to the fore. The very first principle of _bel +canto_, an equalized scale, is a false one. With an equalized scale a +singer can produce a perfectly ordered series of notes, a charming +string of matched pearls, but nothing else. It is worthy of note that +it is impossible to sing Spanish or negro folk-songs with an equalized +scale. Almost all folk-music, indeed, exacts a vocal method of its +interpreter quite distinct from that of the art song. + +We know now that true beauty lies deeper than in the emission of +"perfect tone." Beauty is truth and expressiveness. The new art of the +singer should develop to the highest degree the significance of the +text. Calvé once said that she did not become a real artist until she +forgot that she had a beautiful voice and thought only of the proper +expression the music demanded. + +Of the old method of singing only one quality will persist in the late +Twentieth Century (mind you, this is deliberate prophecy but it is +about as safe as it would be to predict that Sarah Bernhardt will live +to give several hundred more performances of _La Dame aux Camélias_) +and that is style. The performance of any work demands a knowledge of +and a feeling for its style but style is about the last thing a singer +ever studies. When, however, you find a singer who understands style, +there you have an artist! + +Style is the quality which endures long after the singer has lost the +power to produce a pure tone or to contrive accurate phrasing and so +makes it possible for artists to hold their places on the stage long +after their voices have become partially defective or, indeed, have +actually departed. It is knowledge of style that accounts for the long +careers of Marcella Sembrich and Lilli Lehmann or of Yvette Guilbert +and Maggie Cline for that matter. It is knowledge of style that makes +De Wolf Hopper a great artist in his interpretation of the music of +Sullivan and the words of Gilbert. Some artists, indeed, with barely a +shred of voice, have managed to maintain their positions on the stage +for many years through a knowledge of style. I might mention Victor +Maurel, Max Heinrich (not on the opera stage, of course), Antonio +Scotti, and Maurice Renaud. + +A singer may be born with the ability to produce pure tones (I doubt +if Mme. Melba learned much about tone production from her teachers), +she may even phrase naturally, although this is more doubtful, but the +acquirement of style is a long and tedious process and one which +generally requires specialization. For style is elusive. An auditor, a +critic, will recognize it at once but very few can tell of what it +consists. Nevertheless it is fairly obvious to the casual listener +that Olive Fremstad is more at home in the music dramas of Gluck and +Wagner than she is in _Carmen_ and _Tosca_, and that Marcella Sembrich +is happier when she is singing Zerlina (as a Mozart singer she has had +no equal in the past three decades) than when she is singing _Lakmé_. +Mme. Melba sings _Lucia_ in excellent style but she probably could not +convince us that she knows how to sing a Brahms song. So far as I know +she has never tried to do so. A recent example comes to mind in Maria +Marco, the Spanish soprano, who sings music of her own country in her +own language with absolutely irresistible effect, but on one occasion +when she attempted _Vissi d'Arte_ she was transformed immediately into +a second-rate Italian singer. Even her gestures, ordinarily fully of +grace and meaning, had become conventionalized. + +If this quality of style (which after all means an understanding of +both the surface manner and underlying purpose of a composition and an +ability to transmit this understanding across the footlights) is of +such manifest importance in the field of art music it is doubly so in +the field of popular or folk-music. A foreigner had best think twice +before attempting to sing a Swedish song, a Hungarian song, or a +Polish song, popular or folk. (According to no less an authority than +Cecil J. Sharp, the peasants themselves differentiate between the two +and devote to each a _special vocal method_. Here are his words +["English Folk-Song"]: "But, it must be remembered that the vocal +method of the folk-singer is inseparable from the folk-song. It is a +cult which has grown up side by side with the folk-song, and is, no +doubt, part and parcel of the same tradition. When, for instance, an +old singing man sings a modern popular song, he will sing it in quite +another way. The tone of his voice will change and he will slur his +intervals, after the approved manner of the street-singer. Indeed, it +is usually quite possible to detect a genuine folk-song simply by +paying attention to the way in which it is sung.") Strangers as a rule +do not attempt such matters although we have before us at the present +time the very interesting case of Ratan Devi. It is a question, +however, if Ratan Devi would be so much admired if her songs or their +traditional manner of performance were more familiar to us. + +On our music hall stage there are not more than ten singers who +understand how to sing American popular songs (and these, as I have +said elsewhere at some length,[33] constitute America's best claim in +the art of music). It is very difficult to sing them well. Tone and +phrasing have nothing to do with the matter; it is all a question of +style (leaving aside for the moment the important matter of +personality which enters into an accounting for any artist's +popularity or standing). Elsie Janis, a very clever mimic, a +delightful dancer, and perhaps the most deservedly popular artist on +our music hall stage, is not a good interpreter of popular songs. She +cannot be compared in this respect with Bert Williams, Blanche Ring, +Stella Mayhew, Al Jolson, May Irwin, Ethel Levey, Nora Bayes, Fannie +Brice, or Marie Cahill. I have named nearly all the good ones. The +spirit, the very conscious liberties taken with the text (the +vaudeville singer must elaborate his own syncopations as the singer of +early opera embroidered on the score of the composer) are not matters +that just happen. They require any amount of work and experience with +audiences. None of the singers I have named is a novice. Nor will you +find novices who are able to sing Schumann and Franz _lieder_, +although they may be blessed with well-nigh perfect vocal organs. + +Still the music critics with strange persistence continue to adjudge a +singer by the old formulæ and standards: has she an equalized scale? +Has she taste in ornament? Does she overdo the use of _portamento_, +_messa di voce_, and such devices? How is her shake? etc., etc. But +how false, how ridiculous, this is! Fancy the result if new writers +and composers were criticized by the old laws (so they are, my son, +but not for long)! Creative artists always smash the old tablets of +commandments and it does not seem to me that interpretative artists +need be more unprogressive. Acting changes. Judged by the standards by +which Edwin Booth was assessed John Drew is not an actor. But we know +now that it is a different kind of acting. Acting has been flamboyant, +extravagant, and intensely emotional, something quite different from +real life. The present craze for counterfeiting the semblance of +ordinary existence on the stage will also die out for the stage is not +life and representing life on the stage (except in a conventionalized +or decorative form) is not art. Our new actors (with our new +playwrights) will develop a new and fantastic mode of expression +which will supersede the present fashion.... Rubinstein certainly did +not play the piano like Chopin. Presently a _virtuoso_ will appear who +will refuse to play the piano at all and a new instrument without a +tempered scale will be invented so that he may indulge in all the +subtleties between half-tones which are denied to the pianist. + +It's all very well to cry, "Halt!" and "Who goes there?" but you can't +stop progress any more than you can stop the passing of time. The old +technique of the singer breaks down before the new technique of the +composer and the musician with daring will go still further if the +singer will but follow. Would that some singer would have the complete +courage to lead! But do not misunderstand me. The road to Parnassus is +no shorter because it has been newly paved. Indeed I think it is +longer. Caffarelli studied six years before he made his début as "the +greatest singer in the world" but I imagine that Waslav Nijinsky +studied ten before he set foot on the stage. The new music drama, +combining as it does principles from all the arts is all-demanding of +its interpreters. The new singer must learn how to move gracefully and +awkwardly, how to make both fantastic and realistic gestures, always +unconventional gestures, because conventions stamp the imitator. She +must peer into every period, glance at every nation. Every nerve +centre must be prepared to express any adumbration of plasticity. Many +of the new operas, _Carmen_, _La Dolores_, _Salome_, _Elektra_, to +name a few, call for interpretative dancing of the first order. +_Madama Butterfly_ and _Lakmé_ demand a knowledge of national +characteristics. _Pelléas et Mélisande_ and _Ariane et Barbe-Bleue_ +require of the interpreter absolutely distinct enunciation. In +Handel's operas the phrases were repeated so many times that the +singer was excused if he proclaimed the meaning of the line once. +After that he could alter the vowels and consonants to suit his vocal +convenience. _Monna Vanna_ and _Tristan und Isolde_ exact of their +interpreters acting of the highest poetic and imaginative scope.... + +It is a question whether certain singers of our day have not solved +these problems with greater success than that for which they are given +credit.... Yvette Guilbert has announced publicly that she never had a +teacher, that she would not trust her voice to a teacher. The +enchanting Yvette practises a sound by herself until she is able to +make it; she repeats a phrase until she can deliver it without an +interrupting breath, and is there a singer on the stage more +expressive than Yvette Guilbert? She sings a little tenor, a little +baritone, and a little bass. She can succeed almost invariably in +making the effect she sets out to make. And Yvette Guilbert is the +answer to the statement often made that unorthodox methods of singing +ruin the voice. Ruin it for performances of _Linda di Chaminoux_ and +_La Sonnambula_ very possibly, but if young singers sit about saving +their voices for performances of these operas they are more than +likely to die unheard. It is a fact that good singing in the +old-fashioned sense will help nobody out in _Elektra_, _Ariane et +Barbe-Bleue_, _Pelléas et Mélisande_, or _The Nightingale_. These +works are written in new styles and they demand a new technique. Put +Mme. Melba, Mme. Destinn, Mme. Sembrich, or Mme. Galli-Curci to work +on these scores and you will simply have a sad mess. + +We have, I think, but a faint glimmering of what vocal expressiveness +may become. Such torch-bearers as Mariette Mazarin and Feodor +Chaliapine have been procaciously excoriated by the critics. Until +recently Mary Garden, who of all artists on the lyric stage, is the +most nearly in touch with the singing of the future, has been treated +as a charlatan and a fraud. W. J. Henderson once called her the "Queen +of Unsong." Well, perhaps she is, but she is certainly better able to +cope artistically with the problems of the modern music drama than +such Queens of Song as Marcella Sembrich and Adelina Patti would be. +Perhaps Unsong is the name of the new art. + +I do not think I have ever been backward in expressing my appreciation +of this artist. My essay devoted to her in "Interpreters and +Interpretations" will certainly testify eloquently as to my previous +attitude in regard to her. But it has not always been so with some of +my colleagues. Since she has been away from us they have learned +something; they have watched and listened to others and so when Mary +Garden came back to New York in _Monna Vanna_ in January, 1918, they +were ready to sing choruses of praise in her honour. They have been +encomiastic even in regard to her voice and her manner of singing. + +Even my own opinion of this artist's work has undergone a change. I +have always regarded her as one of the few great interpreters, but in +the light of recent experience I now feel assured that she is the +greatest artist on the contemporary lyric stage. It is not, I would +insist, Mary Garden that has changed so much as we ourselves. She has, +it is true, polished her interpretations until they seem incredibly +perfect, but has there ever been a time when she gave anything but +perfect impersonations of Mélisande or Thais? Has she ever been +careless before the public? I doubt it. + +The fact of the matter is that when Mary Garden first came to New York +only a few of us were ready to receive her at anywhere near her true +worth. In a field where mediocrity and brainlessness, lack of +theatrical instinct and vocal insipidity are fairly the rule her +dominant personality, her unerring search for novelty of expression, +the very completeness of her dramatic and vocal pictures, annoyed the +philistines, the professors, and the academicians. They had been +accustomed to taking their opera quietly with their after-dinner +coffee and, on the whole, they preferred it that way. + +But the main obstacle in the way of her complete success lay in the +matter of her voice, of her singing. Of the quality of any voice there +can always exist a thousand different opinions. To me the great beauty +of the middle register of Mary Garden's voice has always been +apparent. But what was not so evident at first was the absolute +fitness of this voice and her method of using it for the dramatic +style of the artist and for the artistic demands of the works in +which she appeared. Thoroughly musical, Miss Garden has often puzzled +her critical hearers by singing _Faust_ in one vocal style and _Thais_ +in another. But she was right and they were wrong. She might, indeed, +have experimented still further with a new vocal technique if she had +been given any encouragement but encouragement is seldom offered to +any innovator. As Edgar Saltus puts it, "The number of people who +regard a new idea or a fresh theory as a personal insult is curiously +large; indeed they are more frequent today than when Socrates quaffed +the hemlock." It must, therefore, be a source of ironic amusement to +her to find herself now appreciated not alone by her public, which has +always been loyal and adoring, but also by the professors themselves. + +It would do no harm to any singer to study the multitude of vocal +effects this artist achieves. I can think of nobody who could not +learn something from her. How, for example, she gives her voice the +hue and colour of a _jeune fille_ in _Pelléas et Mélisande_, for +although Mélisande had been the bride of Barbe-Bleue before Golaud +discovered her in the forest she had never learned to be anything else +than innocent and distraught, unhappy and mysterious. Her treatment of +certain important phrases in this work is so electrifying in its +effect that the heart of every auditor is pierced. Remember, for +example, her question to Pelléas at the end of the first act, +"_Pourquoi partez-vous?_" to which she imparts a kind of dreamy +intuitive longing; recall the amazement shining through her grief at +Golaud's command that she ask Pelléas to accompany her on her search +for the lost ring: "_Pelléas!--Avec Pelléas!--Mais Pelléas ne voudra +pas_..."; and do not forget the terrified cry which signals the +discovery of the hidden Golaud in the park, "_Il y a quelqu'un +derrière nous!_" + +In _Monna Vanna_ her most magnificent vocal gesture rested on the +single word _Si_ in reply to Guido's "_Tu ne reviendras pas?_" Her +performance of this work, however, offers many examples of just such +instinctive intonations. One more, I must mention, her answer to +Guido's insistent, "_Cet homme t'a-t-il prise_?"... "_J'ai dit la +vérité.... Il ne m'a pas touchée_," sung with dignity, with force, +with womanliness, and yet with growing impatience and a touch of +sadness. + +Let me quote Pitts Sanborn: "It is easy to be flippant about Miss +Garden's singing. Her faults of voice and technique are patent to a +child, though he might not name them. One who has become a man can +ponder the greatness of her singing. I do not mean exclusively in +Debussy, though we all know that as a singer of Debussy ... she has +scarce a rival. Take her _mezza voce_ and her phrasing in the second +act of _Monna Vanna_, take them and bow down before them. Ponder a +moment her singing in _Thais_. The converted Thais, about to betake +herself desertward with the insistent monk, has a solo to sing. The +solo is Massenet, simon-pure Massenet, the idol of the Paris +_midinette_. Miss Garden, with a defective voice, a defective +technique, exalts and magnifies that passage till it might be the +noblest air of Handel or of Mozart. By a sheer and unashamed reliance +on her command of style, Miss Garden works that miracle, transfigures +Massenet into something superearthly, overpowering. Will you rise up +to deny that is singing?" + +As for her acting, there can scarcely be two opinions about that! She +is one of the few possessors of that rare gift of imparting atmosphere +and mood to a characterization. Some exceptional actors and singers +accomplish this feat occasionally. Mary Garden has scarcely ever +failed to do so. The moment Mélisande is disclosed to our view, for +example, she seems to be surrounded by an aura entirely distinct from +the aura which surrounds Monna Vanna, Jean, Thais, Salome, or Sapho. +She becomes, indeed, so much a part of the character she assumes that +the spectator finds great difficulty in dissociating her from that +character, and I have found those who, having seen Mary Garden in only +one part, were quite ready to generalize about her own personality +from the impression they had received. + +One of the tests of great acting is whether or not an artist remains +in the picture when she is not singing or speaking. Mary Garden knows +how to listen on the stage. She does not need to move or speak to make +herself a part of the action and she is never guilty of such an +offence against artistry as that committed by Tamagno, who, according +to Victor Maurel, allowed a scene in _Otello_ to drop to nothing while +he prepared himself to emit a high B. + +Watching her magnificent performance of Monna Vanna it struck me that +she would make an incomparable Isolde. At the present moment I cannot +imagine Mary Garden learning Boche or singing in it even if she knew +it, but if some one will present us Wagner's (who hated the Germans as +much as Theodore Roosevelt does) music drama in French or English with +Mary Garden as Isolde, I think the public will thank me for having +suggested it. + +Or it would be even better if Schoenberg, or Stravinsky, or Leo +Ornstein, inspired by the new light the example of such a singer has +cast over our lyric stage, would write a music drama, ignoring the +technique and the conventions of the past, as Debussy did when he +wrote _Pelléas et Mélisande_ (creating opportunities which any +opera-goer of the last decade knows how gloriously Miss Garden +realized). It is thus that the new order will gradually become +established. And then the new art ... the new art of the singer.... + + _April 18, 1918._ + + + + +Au Bal Musette + + _"Auprès de ma blonde + Qu'il fait bon, fait bon, bon, bon...."_ + + Old French Song. + + + + +Au Bal Musette + + +It has often been remarked by philosophers and philistines alike that +the commonest facts of existence escape our attention until they are +impressed upon it in some unusual way. For example I knew nothing of +the sovereign powers of citronella as a mosquito dispatcher until a +plague of the insects drove me to make enquiries of a chemist. For +years I believed that knocking the necks off bottles, lacking an +opener, was the only alternative. A friend who caught me in this +predicament showed me the other use to which the handles of high-boy +drawers could be put. It was long my habit to quickly dispose of +trousers which had been disfigured by cigarette burns, but that was +before I had heard of _stoppage_, a process by which the original +weave is cleverly counterfeited. And, wishing to dance, in Paris, I +have been guilty of visits to the great dance halls and to the small +smart places where champagne is oppressively the only listed beverage. +But that was before I discovered the _bal musette_. + +One July night in Paris I had dinner with a certain lady at the +Cou-Cou, followed by cognac at the Savoyarde. I find nothing strange +in this program; it seems to me that I must have dined at the Cou-Cou +with every one I have known in Paris from time to time, a range of +acquaintanceship including Fernand, the _apache_, and the Comtesse de +J----, and cognac at the Savoyarde usually followed the dinner. This +evening at the Cou-Cou then resembled any other evening. Do you know +how to go there? You must take a taxi-cab to the foot of the hill of +Montmartre and then be drawn up in the _finiculaire_ to the top where +the church of Sacré-Coeur squats proudly, for all the world like a +mammoth Buddha (of course you may ride all the way up the mountain in +your taxi if you like). From Sacré-Coeur one turns to the left around +the board fence which, it would seem, will always hedge in this +unfinished monument of pious Catholics; still turning to the left, +through the Place du Tertre, in which one must not be stayed by the +pleasant sight of the _Montmartroises bourgeoises_ eating _petite +marmite_ in the open air, one arrives at the Place du Calvaire. The +tables of the Restaurant Cou-Cou occupy nearly the whole of this tiny +square, to which there are only two means of approach, one up the +stairs from the city below, and the other from the Place du Tertre. An +artist's house disturbs the view on the side towards Paris; opposite +is the restaurant, flanked on the right by a row of modest apartment +houses, to which one gains entrance through a high wall by means of a +small gate. Sundry visitors to these houses, some on bicycles, make +occasional interruptions in the dinner.... From over this wall, too, +comes the huge Cheshire cat (much bigger than Alice's, a beautiful +animal), which lounges about in the hope, frequently realized, that +some one will give him a chicken bone.... Conterminous to the +restaurant, on the right, is a tiny cottage, fronted by a still tinier +garden, fenced in and gated. Many of the visitors to the Cou-Cou hang +their hats and sticks on this fence and its gate. I have never seen +the occupants of the cottage in any of my numerous visits to this open +air restaurant, but once, towards eleven o'clock the crowd in the +square becoming too noisy, the upper windows were suddenly thrown up +and a pailful of water descended.... "_Per Baccho!_" quoth the +inn-keeper for, it must be known, the Restaurant Cou-Cou is Italian by +nature of its _patron_ and its cooking. + +This night, I say, had been as the others. The Cou-Cou is (and in this +respect it is not exceptional in Paris) safe to return to if you have +found it to your liking in years gone by. Perhaps some day the small +boy of the place will be grown up. He is a real _enfant terrible_. It +is his pleasure to _tutoyer_ the guests, to amuse himself by +pretending to serve them, only to bring the wrong dishes, or none at +all. If you call to him he is deaf. Any hope of _revanche_ is +abandoned in the reflection of the super-retaliations he himself +conceives. One young man who expresses himself freely on the subject +of Pietro receives a plate of hot soup down the back of his neck, +followed immediately by a "_Pardon, Monsieur_," said not without +respect. But where might Pietro's father be? He is in the kitchen +cooking and if you find your dinner coming too slowly at the hands of +the distracted maid servants, who also have to put up with Pietro, go +into the kitchen, passing under the little vine-clad porch wherein you +may discover a pair of lovers, and help yourself. And if you find some +one else's dinner more to your liking than your own take that off the +stove instead. At the Cou-Cou you pay for what you eat, not for what +you order. And the Signora, Pietro's mother? That unhappy woman +usually stands in front of the door, where she interferes with the +passage of the girls going for food. She wrings her hands and moans, +"_Mon Dieu, quel monde!_" with the idea that she is helping vastly in +the manipulation of the machinery of the place. + +And the _monde_; who goes there? It is not too _chic_, this _monde_, +and yet it is surely not _bourgeois_; if one does not recognize M. +Rodin or M. Georges Feydeau, yet there are compensations.... The girls +who come attended by bearded companions, are unusually pretty; one +sees them afterwards at the bars and _bals_ if one does not go to the +Abbaye or Pagés.... It makes a very pleasant picture, the Place du +Calvaire towards nine o'clock on a summer night when tiny lights with +pink globes are placed on the tables. The little square twinkles with +them and the couples at the tables become very gay, and sometimes +sentimental. And when the pink lights appear a small boy in blue +trousers comes along to light the street lamp. Then the urchins gather +on the wall which hedges in the garden on the fourth side of the +square and chatter, chatter, chatter, about all the things that French +boys chatter about. Naturally they have a good deal to say about the +people who are eating. + +I have described the Cou-Cou as it was this night and as it has been +all the nights during the past eight summers that I have been there. +The dinner too is always the same. It is served _à la carte_, but one +is not given much choice. There is always a _potage_, always +_spaghetti_, always chicken and a salad, always a lobster, and +_zabaglione_ if one wants it. The wine--it is called _chianti_--is +tolerable. And the _addition_ is made upon a slate with a piece of +white chalk. "_Qu'est-ce que monsieur a mangé?_" Sometimes it is very +difficult to remember, but it is necessary. Such honesty compels an +exertion. It is all added up and for the two of us on this evening, or +any other evening, it may come to nine _francs_, which is not much to +pay for a good dinner. + +Then, on this evening, and every other evening, we went on, back as we +had come, round past the other side of Sacré-Coeur, past the statue of +the Chevalier who was martyred for refusing to salute a procession +(why he refused I have never found out, although I have asked +everybody who has ever dined with me at the Cou-Cou) to the Café +Savoyarde, the broad windows of which look out over pretty much all +the Northeast of Paris, over a glittering labyrinth of lights set in +an obscure sea of darkness. It was not far from here that Louise and +Julien kept house when they were interrupted by Louise's mother, and +it was looking down over these lights that they swore those eternal +vows, ending with Louise's "_C'est une Féerie!_" and Julien's "_Non, +c'est la vie!_" One always remembers these things and feels them at +the Savoyarde as keenly as one did sometime in the remote past +watching Mary Garden and Léon Beyle from the topmost gallery of the +Opéra-Comique after an hour and a half wait in the _queue_ for one +_franc_ tickets (there were always people turned away from +performances of _Louise_ and so it was necessary to be there early; +some other operas did not demand such punctuality). There is a terrace +outside the Savoyarde, a tiny terrace, with just room for one man, who +griddles _gaufrettes_, and three or four tiny tables with chairs. At +one of these we sat that night (just as I had sat so many times +before) and sipped our cognac. + +It is difficult in an adventure to remember just when the departure +comes, when one leaves the past and strides into the future, but I +think that moment befell me in this café ... for it was the first time +I had ever seen a cat there. He was a lazy, splendid animal. In New +York he would have been an oddity, but in Paris there are many such +beasts. Tawny he was and soft to the touch and of a hugeness. He was +lying on the bar and as I stroked his coat he purred melifluously.... +I stroked his warm fur and thought how I belonged to the mystic band +(Gautier, Baudelaire, Mérimée, all knew the secrets) of those who are +acquainted with cats; it is a feeling of pride we have that +differentiates us from the dog lovers, the pride of the appreciation +of indifference or of conscious preference. And it was, I think, as I +was stroking the cat that my past was smote away from me and I was +projected into the adventure for, as I lifted the animal into my arms, +the better to feel its warmth and softness, it sprang with strength +and unsheathed claws out of my embrace, and soon was back on the bar +again, "just as if nothing had happened." There was blood on my face. +Madame, behind the bar, was apologetic but not chastening. "_Il avait +peur_," she said. "_Il n'est pas méchant._" The wound was not deep, +and as I bent to pet the cat again he again purred. I had interfered +with his habits and, as I discovered later, he had interfered with +mine. + +We decided to walk down the hill instead of riding down in the +_finiculaire_, down the stairs which form another of the pictures in +_Louise_, with the abutting houses, into the rooms of which one looks, +conscious of prying. And you see the old in these interiors, making +shoes, or preparing dinner, or the middle-aged going to bed, but the +young one never sees in the houses in the summer.... It was early and +we decided to dance; I thought of the Moulin de la Galette, which I +had visited twice before. The Moulin de la Galette waves its gaunt +arms in the air half way up the _butte_ of Montmartre; it serves its +purpose as a dance hall of the quarter. One meets the pretty little +_Montmartroises_ there and the young artists; the entrance fee is not +exorbitant and one may drink a bock. And when I have been there, +sitting at a small table facing the somewhat vivid mural decoration +which runs the length of one wall, drinking my brown _bock_, I have +remembered the story which Mary Garden once told me, how Albert Carré +to celebrate the hundredth--or was it the twenty-fifth?--performance +of _Louise_, gave a dinner there--so near to the scenes he had +conceived--to Charpentier and how, surrounded by some of the most +notable musicians and poets of France, the composer had suddenly +fallen from the table, face downwards; he had starved himself so long +to complete his masterpiece that food did not seem to nourish him. It +was the end of a brilliant dinner. He was carried away ... to the +Riviera; some said that he had lost his mind; some said that he was +dying. Mary Garden herself did not know, at the time she first sang +_Louise_ in America, what had happened to him. But a little later the +rumour that he was writing a trilogy was spread about and soon it was +a known fact that at least one other part of the trilogy had been +written, _Julien_; that lyric drama was produced and everybody knows +the story of its failure. Charpentier, the natural philosopher and the +poet of Montmartre, had said everything he had to say in _Louise_. As +for the third play, one has heard nothing about that yet. + +But on this evening the Moulin de la Galette was closed and then I +remembered that it was open on Thursday and this was Wednesday. Is it +Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday that the Moulin de la Galette is open? +I think so. By this time we were determined to dance; but where? We +had no desire to go to some stupid place, common to tourists, no such +place as the Bal Tabarin lured us; nor did the Grelot in the Place +Blanche, for we had been there a night or two before. The Elysée +Montmartre (celebrated by George Moore) would be closed. Its _patron_ +followed the schedule of days adopted for the Galette.... To chance I +turn in such dilemmas.... I consulted a small boy, who, with his +companion, had been good enough to guide us through many winding +streets to the Moulin. Certainly he knew of a _bal_. Would _monsieur_ +care to visit a _bal musette_? His companion was horrified. I caught +the phrase "_mal frequenté_." Our curiosity was aroused and we gave +the signal to advance. + +There were two grounds for my personal curiosity beyond the more +obvious ones. I seemed to remember to have read somewhere that the +ladies of the court of Louis XIV played the _musette_, which is French +for bag-pipe. It was the fashionable instrument of an epoch and the +_musettes_ played by the _grandes dames_ were elaborately decorated. +The word in time slunk into the dictionaries of musical terms as +descriptive of a drone bass. Many of Gluck's ballet airs bear the +title, _Musette_. Perhaps the bass was even performed on a +bag-pipe.... "_Mal frequenté_" in Parisian _argot_ has a variety of +significations; in this particular instance it suggested _apaches_ to +me. A _bal_, for instance, attended by _cocottes_, _mannequins_, or +_modèles_, could not be described as _mal frequenté_ unless one were +speaking to a boarding school miss, for all the public _bals_ in Paris +are so attended. No, the words spoken to me, in this connection, could +only mean _apaches_. The confusion of epochs began to invite my +interest and I wondered, in my mind's eye, how a Louis XIV _apache_ +would dress, how he would be represented at a costume ball, and a +picture of a ragged silk-betrousered person, flaunting a plaid-bellied +instrument came to mind. An imagination often leads one violently +astray. + +The two urchins were marching us through street after street, one of +them whistling that pleasing tune, _Le lendemain elle était +souriante_. Dark passage ways intervened between us and our +destination: we threaded them. The cobble stones of the underfoot were +not easy to walk on for my companion, shod in high-heels from the +Place Vendôme.... The urchins amused each other and us by capers on +the way. They could have made our speed walking on their hands, and +they accomplished at least a third of the journey this way. Of course, +I deluged them with large round five and ten _centimes_ pieces. + +We arrived at last before a door in a short street near the Gare du +Nord. Was it the Rue Jessaint? I do not know, for when, a year later, +I attempted to re-find this _bal_ it had disappeared.... We could hear +the hum of the pipes for some paces before we turned the corner into +the street, and never have pipes sounded in my ears with such a shrill +significance of being somewhere they ought not to be, never but once, +and that was when I had heard the piper who accompanies the dinner of +the Governor of the Bahamas in Nassau. Marching round the porch of the +Governor's Villa he played _The Blue Bells of Scotland_ and _God Save +the King_, but, hearing the sound from a distance through the +interstices of the cocoa-palm fronds in the hot tropical night, I +could only think of a Hindoo blowing the pipes in India, the charming +of snakes.... So, as we turned the corner into the Rue Jessaint, I +seemed to catch a faint glimpse of a scene on the lawn at +Versailles.... Louis XIV--it was the epoch of Cinderella! + +But it wasn't a bag-pipe at all. That we discovered when we entered +the room, after passing through the bar in the front. The _bal_ was +conducted in a large hall at the back of the _maison_. In the doorway +lounged an _agent de service_, always a guest at one of these +functions, I found out later. There were rows of tables, long tables, +with long wooden benches placed between them. One corner of the floor +was cleared--not so large a corner either--for dancing, and on a small +platform sat the strangest looking youth, like Peter Pan never to grow +old, like the _Monna Lisa_ a boy of a thousand years, without emotion +or expression of any sort. He was playing an accordion; the bag-pipe, +symbol of the _bal_, hung disused on the wall over his head. His +accordion, manipulated with great skill, was augmented by sleigh-bells +attached to his ankles in such a manner that a minimum of movement +produced a maximum of effect; he further added to the complexity of +sound and rhythm by striking a cymbal occasionally with one of his +feet. The music was both rhythmic and ordered, now a waltz, now a tune +in two-four time, but never faster or slower, and never ending ... +except in the middle of each dance, for a brief few seconds, while the +_patronne_ collected a _sou_ from each dancer, after which the dance +proceeded. All the time we remained never did the musician smile, +except twice, once briefly when I sent word to him by the waiter to +order a _consommation_ and once, at some length, when we departed. On +these occasions the effect was almost emotionally illuminating, so +inexpressive was the ordinary cast of his features. A strange lad; I +like to think of him always sitting there, passively, playing the +accordion and shaking his sleigh-bells. He suggested a static picture, +a thing of always, but I know it is not so, for even the next summer +he had disappeared along with the _bal_ and now he may have been shot +in the Battle of the Marne or he may have murdered his _gigolette_ and +been transported to one of the French penal colonies.... An _apache, +en musicien!_ ... black cloth around his throat, hair parted in the +middle, _velours_ trousers; a _vrai apache_ I tell you, a cool, +cunning creature, shredded with cocaine and absinthe, monotonous in +his virtuosity, playing the accordion. He had begun before we arrived +and he continued after we left. I like to think of him as always +playing, but it is not so.... + +As for the dancers, they were of various kinds and sorts. The women +had that air which gave them the stamp of a quarter; they wore loose +_blouses_, tucked in plaid skirts, or dark blue skirts, or +multi-coloured calico skirts (if you have seen the lithographs of +Steinlen you may reconstruct the picture with no difficulty) and they +danced in that peculiar fashion so much in vogue in the Northern +outskirts of Paris. The men seized them tightly and they whirled to +the inexorable music when it was a waltz, whirled and whirled, until +one thought of the Viennese and how they become as dervishes and +Japanese mice when one plays Johann Strauss. But in the dances in +two-four time their way was more our way, something between a +one-step, a mattchiche, and a tango, with strange fascinating steps of +their own devising, a folk-dance manner.... Yes, under their feet, the +dance became a real dance of the people and, when we entered into it, +our feet seemed heavy and our steps conventional, although we tried +to do what they did. (How they did laugh at us!) And the strange +youth emphasized the effect of folk-dancing by playing old _chansons +de France_ which he mingled with his repertory of _café-concert_ airs. +And there was achieved that wonderful thing (to an artist) a mixture +of _genres_--intriguing one's curiosity, awakening the most dormant +interest, and inspiring the dullest imagination. + +This was my first night at a _bal musette_ and my last in that year, +for shortly afterwards I left for Italy and in Italy one does not +dance. But the next season found me anxious to renew the adventure, to +again enjoy the pleasures of the _bal musette_. I have said I was +perhaps wrong in recalling the street as the Rue Jessaint, or perhaps +the old _maison_ had disappeared. At any rate, when I searched I could +not find the _bal_, not even the bar. So again I appealed for help, +this time to a chauffeur, who drove me to the opposite side of the +city, to the _quartier_ of the _Halles_.... And I was beginning to +think that the man had misunderstood me, or was stupid. "He will take +me to a cabaret, l'Ange Gabriel or"--and I rapidly revolved in my mind +the possibilities of this quarter where the _apaches_ come to the +surface to feel the purse of the tourist, who buys drinks as he +listens to stories of murders, some of which have been committed, for +it is true that some of the real _apaches_ go there (I know because my +friend Fernand did and it was in l'Ange Gabriel that he knocked all +the teeth down the throat of Angélique, _sa gigolette_. You may find +the life of these creatures vividly and amusingly described in that +amazing book of Charles-Henry Hirsch, "Le Tigre et Coquelicot" It is +the only book I have read about the _apaches_ of modern Paris that is +worth its pages). But the idea of l'Ange Gabriel was not amusing to me +this evening and I leaned forward to ask my chauffeur if he had it in +mind to substitute another attraction for my desired _bal musette_. +His reply was reassuring; it took the form of a gesture, the waving of +a hand towards a small lighted globe depending over the door of a +little _marchand de vin_. On this globe was painted in black letters +the single word, _bal_. We were in the narrow Rue des Gravilliers--I +was there for the first time--and the _bal_ was the Bal des +Gravilliers. + +The bar is so small, when one enters, that there is no intimation of +the really splendid aspect of the dancing room. For here there are two +rooms separated by the dancing floor, two halls filled with tables, +with long wooden benches between them. Benches also line the walls, +which are white with a grey-blue frieze; the lighting is brilliant. +The musicians play in a little balcony, and here there are two of +them, an accordionist and a guitarist. The performer on the accordion +is a _virtuoso_; he takes delight in winding florid ornament, after +the manner of some brilliant singer impersonating Rosina in _Il +Barbiere_, around the melodies he performs. As in the Rue Jessaint a +_sou_ is demanded in the middle of each dance. But there comparison +must cease, for the life here is gayer, more of a character. The types +are of the _Halles_.... There are strange exits.... + +A short woman enters; "_elle s'avance en se balançant sur ses hanches +comme une pouliche du haras de Cordoue_"; she suggests an operatic +Carmen in her swagger. She is slender, with short, dark hair, cropped +_à la_ Boutet de Monvel, and she flourishes a cigarette, the smoke +from which wreathes upward and obscures--nay makes more subtle--the +strange poignancy of her deep blue eyes. Her nose is of a snubness. It +is the _môme_ Estelle, and as she passes down the narrow aisle, +between the tables, there is a stir of excitement.... The men raise +their eyes.... Edouard, _le petit_, flicks a _louis_ carelessly +between his thumb and fore-finger, with the long dirty nails, and +then passes it back into his pocket. Do not mistake the gesture; it +is not made to entice the _môme_, nor is it a sign of affluence; it is +Edouard's means of demanding another _louis_ before the night is up, +if it be only a "_louis de dix francs_." Estelle looks at him boldly; +there is no fear in her eyes; you can see that she would face death +with Carmen's calm if the Fates cut the thread to that effect.... The +music begins and Estelle dances with Carmella, _l'Arabe_. Edouard +glowers and pulls his little grey cap down tower.... It is a waltz.... +Suddenly he is on the floor and Estelle is pressed close to his +body.... Carmella sits down. She smiles, and presently she is dancing +with Jean-Baptiste.... Estelle and Edouard are now whirling, whirling, +and all the while his dark eyes look down piercingly into her blue +eyes. The music stops. Estelle fumbles in her stocking for two _sous_. +Edouard lights a _Maryland_. + +There is a newcomer tonight. (I am talking to the _agent de service_.) +She is of a youth and she is certainly from Brittany. I see her +sitting in a corner, waiting for something, trying to know. "She will +learn," says my friend, "She will learn to pay like the others." That +is the _gros_ Pierre who regards her. He twirls his moustache and +considers, and in the end he lumbers to her and asks her to dance. +She is willing to do so, but the intensity of Pierre frightens her, +frightens and intrigues.... There is a sign on the wall that one must +not stamp one's feet, but no other prohibition.... He twists her +finger purposely as they whirl ... and whirl. She cowers. _Gros_ +Pierre is very big and strong. "_T'es bath, môme_," I hear him say, as +they pass me by.... The dance over, he towers above her for a brief +second before he swaggers out.... Estelle smiles. Her lips move and +she speaks quickly to Edouard, _le petit_.... He does not listen. Why +should he listen to his _gigolette_? She is wasting her time here +anyway. He becomes impatient.... Carmella smiles across the room in a +brief second of chance and Estelle answers the smile. Carmella holds +up three fingers (it is now 1.30). Estelle nods her head quickly. The +musicians are always playing, except in the middle of the dance when +_madame, la patronne_, gathers in the _sous_.... Only from one she +takes nothing.... He is twenty and very blonde and he is dancing with +_Madame_.... Between dances she pays his _consommations_.... Estelle +rises slowly and walks out while Carmella, _l'Arabe_, follows her with +his eyes. Edouard, _le petit_, lights a _Maryland_ and poises a +_louis_ between his thumb and fore-finger, the nails of which are +long and dirty.... The music is always playing.... The little girl +from Brittany is again alone in the corner. There is fear in her face. +She is beginning to know. She summons her courage and walks to the +door, on through.... The _agent de service_ twirls his moustache and +points after her. "She soon will know." I follow. She hesitates for a +second at the street door and then starts towards the corner.... She +reaches the corner and passes around it.... I hear a scream ... the +sound of running footsteps ... the beat of a horse's hoofs ... the +rolling of wheels on the cobble stones.... + + + _November 11, 1915._ + + + + +Music and Cooking + + _"Give me some music,--music, moody food + Of us that trade in love."_ + + Shakespeare's _Cleopatra_. + + + + +Music and Cooking + + +It is my firm belief that there is an intimate relationship between +the stomach and the ear, the saucepan and the crotchet, the mysteries +of Mrs. Rorer and the mysteries of Mme. Marchesi. It has even occurred +to me that one of the reasons our American composers are so barren in +ideas is because as a race we are not interested in cooking and +eating. Those countries in which music plays the greater part in the +national life are precisely those which are the most interested in the +culinary art. The food of Italy, the cooking, is celebrated; every +peasant in that sunny land sings, and the voices of some Italians have +reverberated around the world. The very melodies of Verdi and Rossini +are inextricably twined in our minds around memories of _ravioli_ and +_zabaglione_. _Vesti la Giubba_ is _spaghetti_. The composers of these +melodies and their interpreters alike cooked, ate, and drank with joy, +and so they composed and sang with joy too. Men with indigestion may +be able to write novels, but they cannot compose great music.... The +Germans spend more time eating than the people of any other country +(at least they did once). It is small occasion for wonder, therefore, +that they produce so many musicians. They are always eating, mammoth +plates heaped high with Bavarian cabbage, _Koenigsberger Klopps_, +_Hasenpfeffer_, noodles, sauerkraut, _Wiener Schnitzel_ ... drinking +seidels of beer. They escort sausages with them to the opera. All the +women have their skirts honeycombed with capacious pockets, in which +they carry substantial lunches to eat while Isolde is deceiving King +Mark. Why, the very principle of German music is based on a theory of +well-fed auditors. The voluptuous scores of Richard Wagner, Richard +Strauss, Max Schillings and Co. were not written for skinny, +ill-nourished wights. Even Beethoven demands flesh and bone of his +hearers. The music of Bach is directly aimed against the doctrine of +asceticism. "The German capacity for feeling emotion in music has +developed to the same extent as the capacity of the German stomach for +containing food," writes Ernest Newman, "but in neither the one case +nor the other has there been a corresponding development in refinement +of perceptions. German sentimental music is not quite as gross as +German food and German feeding, but it comes very near to it +sometimes.... 'The Germans do not taste,' said Montaigne, 'they gulp.' +As with their food, so with the emotions of their music. So long as +they get them in sufficient mass, of the traditional quality, and with +the traditional pungent seasoning, they are content to leave piquancy +and variety of effect to others."... Once in Munich in a second +storey window of the Bayerischebank I saw a small boy, about ten years +old, sitting outside on the sill, washing the panes of glass. Opposite +him on the same sill a dachshund reposed on her paws, regarding her +master affectionately. Between the two stood a half-filled toby of +foaming Löwenbrau, which, from time to time, the lad raised to his +lips, quaffing deep draughts. And when he set the pot down he whistled +the first subject of Beethoven's _Fifth Symphony_. On Sunday +afternoons, in the gardens which invariably surround the Munich +breweries, the happy mothers, who gather to listen to the band play +while they drink beer, frequently replenish the empty nursing bottles +of their offspring at the taps from which flows the deep brown +beverage.... The food of the French is highly artificial, delicately +prepared and served, and flavoured with infinite art: _vol au vent à +la reine_ and Massenet, _petits pois à l'etuvée_ and Gounod, _oeuf +Ste. Clotilde_ and César Franck, all strike the tongue and the ear +quite pleasantly. Des Esseintes and his liqueur symphony were the +inventions of a Frenchman.... Hungarian goulash and Hungarian +rhapsodies are certainly designed to be taken in conjunction.... +Russian music tastes of _kascha_ and _bortsch_ and vodka. The happy, +hearty eaters of Russia, the drunken, sodden drinkers of Russia are +reflected in the scores of _Boris Godunow_ and _Petrouchka_.... In +England we find that the great English meat pasties and puddings +appeared in the same century with the immortal Purcell.... But in +America we import our cooks ... and our music. As a race we do not +like to cook. We scarcely like to eat. We certainly do not enjoy +eating. We will never have a national music until we have national +dishes and national drinks and until we like good food. It is +significant that our national drinks at present are mixed drinks, the +ingredients of which are foreign. It is doubly significant that that +section of the country which produces chicken _à la Maryland_, corn +bread, beaten biscuit, mint juleps, and New Orleans fizzes has +furnished us with the best of such music as we can boast. Maine has +offered us no _Suwanee River_; we owe no _Swing Low, Sweet Chariot_ to +Nebraska. The best of our ragtime composers are Jews, a race which +regards eating and cooking of sufficient importance to include rules +for the preparation and disposition of food in its religious tenets. + +Most musicians and those who enjoy listening to music, like to eat +(this does not mean that people who like to eat always desire to +listen to music at the same time, but nowadays one has little choice +in the matter); what is more pregnant, most of them like to cook. We +may include even the music critics, one of whom (Henry T. Finck) has +written a book about such matters. The others eat ... and expand. +James Huneker devotes sixteen pages of "The New Cosmopolis" to the +"maw of the monster." And as H. L. Mencken has pointed out, "The +Pilsner motive runs through the book from cover to cover." Dinners are +constantly being given for the musicians and critics to meet and talk +over thirteen courses with wine. You may read Mr. Krehbiel's glowing +accounts of the dinner given to Adelina Patti (a dinner referred to in +Joseph Hergesheimer's lyric novel, "The Three Black Pennys") on the +occasion of her twenty-fifth anniversary as a singer, of the dinner to +Marcella Sembrich to mark her retirement from the opera stage, and of +a dinner to Teresa Carreño when she proposed a toast to her three +husbands.... Go to the opera house and observe the lady singers, with +their ample bosoms and their broad hips, the men with their expansive +paunches ... and use your imagination. Why is it, when a singer is +interviewed for a newspaper, that she invariably finds herself tired +of hotel food and wants an apartment of her own, where she can cook to +her stomach's content? Why are the musical journals and the Sunday +supplements of the newspapers always publishing pictures of contralti +with their sleeves rolled back to the elbows, their Poiret gowns +(cunningly and carefully exhibited nevertheless) covered with aprons, +baking bread, turning omelettes, or preparing clam broth Uncle Sam? +You, my reader, have surely seen these pictures, but it has perhaps +not occurred to you to conjure up a reason for them. + +Edgar Saltus says: "A perfect dinner should resemble a concert. As the +_morceaux_ succeed each other, so, too, should the names of the +composers." Few dinners in New York may be regarded as concerts and +still fewer restaurants may be looked upon as concert halls, except, +unfortunately, in the literal sense. However, if you can find a +restaurant where opera singers and conductors eat you may be sure it +is a good one. Huneker describes the old Lienau's, where William +Steinway, Anton Seidl, Theodore Thomas, Scharwenka, Joseffy, Lilli +Lehmann, Max Heinrich, and Victor Herbert used to gather. Follow +Alfred Hertz and you will be in excellent company in a double sense. +Then watch him consume a plateful of Viennese pastry. If you have ever +seen Emmy Destinn or Feodor Chaliapine eat you will feel that justice +has been done to a meal. I once sat with the Russian bass for twelve +hours, all of which time he was eating or drinking. He began with six +plates of steaming onion soup (cooked with cheese and toast). The old +New Year's eve festivities at the Gadski-Tauschers' resembled the +storied banquets of the middle ages.... Boars' heads, meat pies, +_salade macédoine_, _coeur de palmier_, _hollandaise_ were washed down +with magnums and quarts of Irroy brut, 1900, Pol Roger, Chambertin, +graceful Bohemian crystal goblets of Liebfraumilch and Johannisberger +Schloss-Auslese. Mary Garden once sent a jewelled gift to the _chef_ +at the Ritz-Carlton in return for a superb fish sauce which he had +contrived for her. H. E. Krehbiel says that Brignoli "probably ate as +no tenor ever ate before or since--ravenously as a Prussian dragoon +after a fast." _Pêche Melba_ has become a stable article on many menus +in many cities in many lands. Agnes G. Murphy, in her biography of +Mme. Melba, says that one day the singer, Joachim, and a party of +friends stopped at a peasant's cottage near Bergamo, where they were +regaled with such delicious macaroni that Melba persuaded her friends +to return another day and wait while the peasant taught her the exact +method of preparing the dish. In at least one New York restaurant +_oeuf Toscanini_ is to be found on the bill. I have heard Olive +Fremstad complain of the cooking in this hotel in Paris, or that hotel +in New York, or the other hotel in Munich, and when she found herself +in an apartment of her own she immediately set about to cook a few +special dishes for herself. + +Two musicians I know not only keep restaurants in New York, but +actually prepare the dinners themselves. One of them is at the same +time a singer in the Metropolitan Opera Company. Have you seen Bernard +Bégué standing before his cook stove preparing food for his patrons? +His huge form, clad in white, viewed through the open doorway +connecting the dining room with the kitchen, almost conceals the great +stove, but occasionally you can catch sight of the pots and pans, the +_casseroles_ of _pot-au-feu_, the roasting chicken, the filets of +sole, all the ingredients of a dinner, _cuisine bourgeoise_ ... and +after dining, you can hear Bégué sing the Uncle-priest in _Madama +Butterfly_ at the Opera House. + +Or have you seen Giacomo (and have not Meyerbeer and Puccini been +bearers of this name?) Pogliani turning from the _spaghetti_ theme +chromatically to that of the _risotto_, the most succulent and +appetizing _risotto_ to be tasted this side of Bonvecchiati's in +Venice ... or the _polenta_ with _funghi_.... But, best of all, the +roasts, and were it not that the Prince Troubetskoy is a vegetarian +you would fancy that he came to Pogliani's for these viands. And it +must not be forgotten that this supreme cook is--or was--a bassoon +player of the first rank, that he is a graduate of the Milan +Conservatory. The bassoon is a difficult instrument. It is sometimes +called the "comedian of the orchestra," but there are few who can play +it at all, still fewer who can play it well. Bassoonists are highly +paid and they are in demand. Walter Damrosch used to say that when he +was engaging a bassoon player he would ask him to play a passage from +the bassoon part in _Scheherazade_. If he could play that, he could +play anything else written for his instrument. Pogliani gave up the +bassoon for the fork, spoon, and saucepan. Like Prospero he buried his +magic wand and in Viafora's cartoon the instrument lies idle in the +cobwebs. + +Charles Santley's "Reminiscences" and "Student and Singer" are full of +references to food: "ox-hearts, stuffed with onions," "a joint of +meat, well cooked, with a bright brown crust which prevented the +juices escaping," "a splendid shoulder of mutton, a picture to behold, +and a _peas pudding_," and "whaffles" are a few of the dishes referred +to with enthusiasm. In America a newspaper gravely informed its +readers that "Santley says squash pie is the best thing to sing on he +knows!" Santley was a true pantophagist, but he was worsted in his +first encounter with the American oyster: "I had often heard of the +celebrated American oyster, which half a dozen people had tried to +swallow without success, and was anxious to learn if the story were +founded on fact. Cummings conducted me to a cellar in Broadway, where, +upon his order, a waiter produced two plates, on which were half a +dozen objects, about the size and shape of the sole of an ordinary +lady's shoe, on each of which lay what appeared to me to be a very +bilious tongue, accompanied by smaller plates containing shredded +white cabbage raw. I did not admire the look of the repast, but I +never discard food on account of looks. I took up an oyster and tried +to get it into my mouth, but it was of no use; I tried to ram it in +with the butt-end of the fork, but all to no purpose, and I had to +drop it, and, to the great indignation of the waiter, paid and left +the oysters for him to dispose of as he might like best. I presume +those oysters are eaten, but I cannot imagine by whom; I have rarely +seen a mouth capable of the necessary expansion. I soon found out that +there were plenty of delicious oysters in the States within the +compass of ordinary jaws." + +J. H. Mapleson says in his "Memoirs" that at the Opera at Lodi, where +he made his début as a tenor, refreshments of all kinds were served to +the audience between the acts and every box was furnished with a +little kitchen for cooking macaroni and baking or frying pastry. The +wine of the country was drunk freely, not out of glasses, but "in +classical fashion--from bowls." Mapleson also tells us that Del Puente +was a "very tolerable cook." On one trying occasion he prepared +macaroni for his impressario. Michael Kelly declares that the sight of +Signor St. Giorgio entering a fruit shop to eat peaches, nectarines, +and a pineapple, was really what stimulated him to study for a career +on the stage. "While my mouth watered, I asked myself why, if I +assiduously studied music, I should not be able to earn money enough +to lounge about in fruit-shops, and eat peaches and pineapples as +well as Signor St. Giorgio...." + +Lillian Russell is a good cook. I can recommend her recipe for the +preparation of mushrooms: "Put a lump of butter in a chafing dish (or +a saucepan) and a slice of Spanish onion and the mushrooms minus the +stems; let them simmer until they are all deliciously tender and the +juice has run from them--about twenty minutes should be enough--then +add a cupful of cream and let this boil. As a last touch squeeze in +the juice of a lemon." When Luisa Tetrazzini was going mad with a +flute in our vicinity she varied the monotony of her life by sending +pages of her favourite recipes to the Sunday yellow press. +Unfortunately, I neglected to make a collection of this series. A +passion for cooking caused the death of Naldi, a buffo singer of the +early Nineteenth Century. Michael Kelly tells the story: "His ill +stars took him to Paris, where, one day, just before dinner, at his +friend Garcia's house, in the year 1821, he was showing the method of +cooking by steam, with a portable apparatus for that purpose; +unfortunately, in consequence of some derangement of the machinery, an +explosion took place, by which he was instantaneously killed." Almost +everybody knows some story or other about a _virtuoso_, trapped into +dining and asked to perform after dinner by his host. Kelly relates +one of the first: "Fischer, the great oboe player, whose minuet was +then all the rage ... being very much pressed by a nobleman to sup +with him after the opera, declined the invitation, saying that he was +usually much fatigued, and made it a rule never to go out after the +evening's performance. The noble lord would, however, take no denial, +and assured Fischer that he did not ask him professionally, but merely +for the gratification of his society and conversation. Thus urged and +encouraged, he went; he had not, however, been many minutes in the +house of the consistent nobleman, before his lordship approached him, +and said, 'I hope, Mr. Fischer, you have brought your oboe in your +pocket.'--'No, my Lord,' said Fischer, 'my oboe never sups.' He turned +on his heel, and instantly left the house, and no persuasion could +ever induce him to return to it." You perhaps have heard rumours that +Giuseppe Campanari prefers _spaghetti_ to Mozart, especially when he +cooks it himself. When this baritone was a member of the Metropolitan +Opera Company his paraphernalia for preparing his favourite food went +everywhere with him on tour. Heinrich Conried (or was it Maurice +Grau?) once tried to take advantage of this weakness, according to a +story often related by the late Algernon St. John Brenon. Campanari +was to appear as Kothner in _Die Meistersinger_, a character with no +singing to do after the first act, although he appears in the +procession in the third act. The singer told his impressario that he +saw no reason why he should remain to the end and explained that he +would leave his costume for a chorus man to don to represent him in +the final episode. "What would the Master say?" demanded Conried, +wringing his hands. "Would he approve of such a proceeding? No. That +would not be truth! That would not be art!" Campanari was obdurate. +The Herr Direktor became reflective. He was silent for a moment and +then he continued: "If you will stay for the last act you will find in +your room a little supper, a bottle of wine, and a box of cigars, +which you may consume while you are waiting." In sooth when Campanari +entered his dressing room after the first act of Wagner's comic opera +he found that his director had kept his word.... The baritone ate the +supper, drank the wine, put the cigars in his pocket ... and went +home! + +If some singers are good cooks it does not follow that all good cooks +are singers. Benjamin Lumley, in his "Reminiscences of the Opera," +tells the sad story of the Countess of Cannazaro's cook, which should +serve as a lesson to housemaids who are desirous of becoming moving +picture stars. "This worthy man, excellent no doubt as a _chef_, took +it into his head that he was a vocalist of the highest order, and that +he only wanted opportunity to earn musical distinction. His strange +fancy came to the knowledge of Rubini, and it was arranged that a +performance should take place in the morning, in which the cook's +talent should be fairly tested. Certainly every chance was afforded +him. Not only was he encouraged by Rubini and Lablache (whose gravity +on the occasion was wonderful), but by a few others, Costa included, +as instrumentalists. The failure was miserable, ridiculous, as +everybody expected." Frederick Crowest describes a certain Count +Castel de Maria who had a spit that played tunes, "and so regulated +and indicated the condition of whatever was hung upon it to roast. By +a singular mechanical contrivance this wonderful spit would strike up +an appropriate tune whenever a joint had hung sufficiently long on its +particular roast. Thus, _Oh! the roast beef of Old England_, when a +sirloin had turned and hung its appointed time. At another air, a leg +of mutton, _à l'Anglaise_ would be found excellent; while some other +tune would indicate that a fowl _à la Flamande_ was cooked to a nicety +and needed removal from the fowl roast." + +To Crowest, too, I am indebted for a list of beverages and eatables +which certain singers held in superstitious awe as capable of +refreshing their voices. Formes swore by a pot of good porter and +Wachtel is said to have trusted to the yolk of an egg beaten up with +sugar to make sure of his high Cs. The Swedish tenor, Labatt, declared +that two salted cucumbers gave the voice the true metallic ring. +Walter drank cold black coffee during a performance; Southeim took +snuff and cold lemonade; Steger, beer; Niemann, champagne, slightly +warmed, (Huneker once saw Niemann drinking cocktails from a beer +glass; he sang Siegmund at the opera the next night); Tichatschek, +mulled claret; Rübgam drank mead; Nachbaur ate bonbons; Arabanek +believed in Gampoldskirchner wine. Mlle. Brann-Brini took beer and +_cafe au lait_, but she also firmly believed in champagne and would +never dare venture the great duet in the fourth act of _Les Huguenots_ +without a bottle of Moët Crémant Rose. Giardini being asked his +opinion of Banti, previous to her arrival in England, said: "She is +the first singer in Italy and drinks a bottle of wine every day." +Malibran believed in the efficacy of porter. She made her last +appearances in opera in Balfe's _Maid of Artois_ during the fall of +1836 in London. On the first night she was in anything but good +physical condition and the author of "Musical Recollections of the +Last Half-Century" tells how she pulled herself through: "She +remembered that an immense trial awaited her in the finale of the +third act; and finding her strength giving way, she sent for Mr. Balfe +and Mr. Bunn, and told them that unless they did as they were bid, +after all the previous success, the end might result in failure; but +she said, 'Manage to let me have a pot of porter somehow or other +before I have to sing, and I will get you an encore which will bring +down the house.' How to manage this was difficult; for the scene was +so set that it seemed scarcely possible to hand her up 'the pewter' +without its being witnessed by the audience. After much consultation, +Malibran having been assured that her wish should be fulfilled, it was +arranged that the pot of porter should be handed up to her through a +trap in the stage at the moment when Jules had thrown himself on her +body, supposing that life had fled; and Mr. Templeton was drilled into +the manner in which he should so manage to conceal the necessary +arrangement, that the audience would never suspect what was going on. +At the right moment a friendly hand put the foaming pewter through the +stage, to be swallowed at a draught, and success was won!... Malibran, +however, had not overestimated her own strength. She knew that it +wanted but this fillip to carry her through. She had resolved to have +an encore, and she had it, in such a fashion as made the roof of 'Old +Drury' ring as it had never rung before. On the repetition of the +opera and afterwards, a different arrangement of the stage was made, +and a property calabash containing a pot of porter was used; but +although the same result was constantly won, Malibran always said it +was not half so 'nice,' nor did her anything like the good it would +have done if she could only have had it out of the pewter." Clara +Louise Kellogg in her very lively "Memoirs" publishes a similar tale +of another singer: "It was told of Grisi that when she was growing old +and severe exertion told on her she always, after her fall as Lucrezia +Borgia, drank a glass of beer sent up to her through the floor, lying +with her back half turned to the audience." Miss Kellogg complains of +the breaths of the tenors she sang with: "Stigelli usually exhaled an +aroma of lager beer; while the good Mazzoleni invariably ate from one +to two pounds of cheese the day he was to sing. He said it +strengthened his voice. Many of them affected garlic." It is +necessary, of course, that a singer should know what foods agree with +him. He must keep himself in excellent physical condition: small +wonder that many artists are superstitious in this regard. + +Charles Santley, who was so fond of eating and drinking himself, +offers some excellent advice on the subject in "Student and Singer": +"How the voice is produced or where, except that it is through the +passage of the throat, is unimportant; it is reasonable to say that +the passage must be kept clear, otherwise the sound proceeding from it +will not be clear. I have known many instances of singers undergoing +very disagreeable operations on their throats for chronic diseases of +various descriptions; now, my observation and experience assure me +that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the root of the evil is +chronic inattention to food and raiment. It is a common thing to hear +a singer say, 'I never touch such-and-such food on the days I sing.' +My dear young friend, unless you are an absolute idiot, you would not +partake of anything on the days you sing which might disagree with +you, or over-tax your digestive powers; it is on the days you do not +sing you ought more particularly to exercise your judgment and +self-denial. I do not offer the pinched-up pilgarlic who dines off a +wizened apple and a crust of bread as a model for imitation; at the +same time, I warn you seriously against following the example of the +gobbling glutton who swallows every dish that tempts his palate." + +Rossini, after he had composed _Guillaume Tell_, retired. He was +thirty-seven, a man in perfect health, and he lived thirty-nine years +longer, to the age of seventy-six, yet he never wrote another opera, +hardly indeed did he dip his pen in ink at all. These facts have +seriously disconcerted his biographers, who are at a loss to assign +reasons for his actions. W. F. Apthorp gives us an ingenious +explanation in "The Opera Past and Present." He says that after _Tell_ +Rossini's pride would not allow him to return to his earlier Italian +manner, while the hard work needed to produce more _Tells_ was more +than his laziness could stomach.... Perhaps, but it must be remembered +that Rossini did not retire to his library or his music room, but to +his kitchen. The simple explanation is that he preferred cooking to +composing, a fact easy to believe (I myself vastly prefer cooking to +writing). He could cook _risotto_ better than any one else he knew. He +was dubbed a "hippopotamus in trousers," and for six years before he +died he could not see his toes, he was so fat. Sir Arthur Sullivan +relates an anecdote which shows that Rossini was conscious of his +grossness. Once in Paris Sullivan introduced Chorley to Rossini, when +the Italian said, "_Je vois, avec plaisir, que monsieur n'a pas de +ventre_." Chorley indeed was noticeably slender. Rossini could write +more easily, so his biographers tell us, when he was under the +influence of champagne or some light wine. His provision merchant once +begged him for an autographed portrait. The composer gave it to him +with the inscription, "To my stomach's best friend." The tradesman +used this souvenir as an advertisement and largely increased his +business thereby, as such a testimonial from such an acknowledged +epicure had a very definite value. J. B. Weckerlin asserts that when +Rossini dined at the Rothschild's he first went to the kitchen to pay +his respects to the _chef_, to look over the menu, and even to discuss +the various dishes, after which he ascended to the drawing room to +greet the family of the rich banker. Mme. Alboni told Weckerlin that +Rossini had dedicated a piece of music to the Rothschild's _chef_. + +Anfossi, we are informed, could compose only when he was surrounded by +smoking fowls and Bologna sausages; their fumes seemed to inflame his +imagination, to feed his muse; his brain was stimulated first through +his nose and then through his stomach. When Gluck wrote music he +betook himself to the open fields, accompanied by at least two bottles +of champagne. Salieri told Michael Kelly that a comic opera of Gluck's +being performed at the Elector Palatine's theatre, at Schwetzingen, +his Electoral Highness was struck with the music, and inquired who had +composed it; on being informed that he was an honest German who loved +_old wine_, his Highness immediately ordered him a tun of Hock. +Beethoven, on the contrary, seems to have fed on his thoughts +occasionally, although there is evidence that he was not only a good +eater but also a good cook (the mothers of both Beethoven and Schubert +were cooks in domestic service). There is a story related of him that +about the time he was composing the _Sixth Symphony_ he walked into a +Viennese restaurant and ordered dinner. While it was being prepared, +he became involved in thought, and when the waiter returned to serve +him, he said: "Thank you, I have dined!" laid the price of the dinner +on the table, and took his departure. Grétry, too, lost his appetite +when he was composing. There are numerous references to eating and +drinking in Mendelssohn's letters. His particular preferences, +according to Sir George Grove, were for rice milk and cherry pie. +Dussek was a famous eater, and it is said that his ruling passion +eventually killed him. His patron, the Prince of Benevento, paid the +composer eight hundred napoleons a year, with a free table for three +persons, at which, as a matter of fact, one person usually presided. A +musical historian tells us that in the summer of 1797 he was dining +with three friends at the Ship Tavern in Greenwich, when the waiter +came and laid a cloth for one person at the next table, placing +thereon a dish of boiled eels, one of fried flounders, a bowled fowl, +a dish of veal cutlets, and a couple of tarts. Then Dussek entered and +made away with the lot, leaving but the bones! In W. T. Parke's +"Musical Memoirs" justice is done to the appetite of one C. F. +Baumgarten, for many years leader of the band and composer at Covent +Garden Theatre. Once at supper after the play he and a friend ate a +full-grown hare between them. He would never condescend to drink out +of anything but a quart pot. On one occasion, at the request of his +friends, Baumgarten was weighed before and after dinner. There was +eight pounds difference! William Shield, the composer who wrote many +operas for Covent Garden Theatre, beginning aptly enough with one +called _The Flitch of Bacon_, was something of an eater. Parke tells +how at a dinner one evening there was a brace of partridges. The +hostess handed Shield one of these to carve and absent-mindedly he set +to and finished it, while the other guests were forced to make shift +with the other partridge. Handel was a great eater. He was called the +"Saxon Giant," as a tribute to his genius, but the phrase might have +had a satirical reference to his enormous bulk. Intending to dine one +day at a certain tavern, he ordered beforehand a dinner for three. At +the hour appointed he sat down to the table and expressed astonishment +that the dinner was not brought up. The waiter explained that he would +begin serving when the company arrived. "Den pring up de tinner +brestissimo," replied Handel, "I am de gombany." Lulli never forsook +the _casserole_. Paganini was as good a cook as he was a violinist. +Parke tells a story of Weichsell, not too celebrated a musician, but +the father of Mrs. Billington and Charles Weichsell, the violinist: +"He would occasionally supersede the labours of his cook, and pass a +whole day in preparing his favourite dish, rump-steaks, for the +stewing pan; and after the delicious viand had been placed on the +dinner-table, together with early green peas of high price, if it +happened that the sauce was not to his liking he has been known to +throw rump-steaks, and green peas, and all, out of the window, whilst +his wife and children thought themselves fortunate in not being thrown +after them." + +Is there a cooking theme in _Siegfried_ to describe Mime's brewing? +Lavignac and others, who have listed the _Ring motive_, have neglected +to catalogue it, but it is mentioned by Old Fogy. Practically a whole +act is taken up in _Louise_ with the preparation for and consumption +of a dinner. Scarpia eats in _Tosca_ and the heroine kills him with a +table knife. There is much talk of food in _Hänsel und Gretel_ and +there is a supper in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_. There are drinking +songs in _Don Giovanni_, _Lucrezia Borgia_, _Hamlet_, _La Traviata_, +_Giroflé-Girofla_.... The reference to whiskey and soda in _Madama +Butterfly_ is celebrated. J. E. Cox, the author of "Musical +Recollections," describes Herr Pischek in the supper scene of _Don +Giovanni_ as "out-heroding Herod by swallowing glass after glass of +champagne like a sot, and gnawing the drumstick of a fowl, which he +held across his mouth with his fingers, just as any of his own +middle-class countrymen may be seen any day of the week all the year +round at the _mit-tag_ or _abend-essen_ feeding at one of their +largely frequented _tables-d'hôte_." Eating or drinking on the stage +is always fraught with danger, as Charles Santley once discovered +during Papageno's supper scene in _The Magic Flute_: "The supper which +Tamino commands for the hungry Papageno consisted of pasteboard +imitations of good things, but the cup contained real wine, a small +draught of which I found refreshing on a hot night in July, amid the +dust and heat of the stage. On the occasion in question I was putting +the cup to lips, when I heard somebody call to me from the wings; I +felt very angry at the interruption, and was just about to swallow the +wine when I heard an anxious call not to drink. Suspecting something +was wrong, I pretended to drink, and deposited the cup on the table. +Immediately after the scene I made inquiries about the reason for the +caution I received, and was informed that as each night the +carpenters, who had no right to it, finished what remained of the wine +before the property men, whose perquisite it was, could lay hold of +the cup, the latter, to give their despoilers a lesson, had mingled +castor-oil with my drink!" + +A young husband of my acquaintance once bemoaned to me the fact that +his wife seemed destined to become a great singer. "She is such a +remarkable cook!" he explained to account for his despondency. I +reassured him: "She will cook with renewed energy when she begins to +sing _Sieglinde_ and _Tosca_.... She will practise _Vissi d'Arte_ over +the gumbo soup and _Du herstes Wunder_! while the Frankfurters are +sizzling. Her trills, her chromatic scales, and her _messa di voce_ +will come right in the kitchen; she will equalize her scale and learn +to breathe correctly bending over the oven. It is even likely that she +will improve her knowledge of _portamento_ while she is washing +dishes. When she can prepare a succulent roast suckling pig she will +be able to sing _Ocean, thou mighty monster_! and she will understand +_Abscheulicher_ when she understands the mysteries of old-fashioned +strawberry shortcake. If you hear her shrieking _Suicidio_! invoking +Agamemnon, or appealing to the _Casta Diva_ among the kettles and pots +be not alarmed.... For the love you bear of good food, man, do not +discourage your wife's ambition. The more she loves to sing, the +better she will cook!" + + _July 17, 1917._ + + + + +An Interrupted Conversation + + _"We can never depend upon any right adjustment of emotion to + circumstance."_ + + Max Beerbohm. + + + + +An Interrupted Conversation + + +Ordinarily one does not learn things about oneself from Edmund Gosse, +but my discovery that I am a Pyrrhonist is due to that literary man. A +Pyrrhonist, says Mr. Gosse, is "one who doubts whether it is worth +while to struggle against the trend of things. The man who continues +to cross the road leisurely, although the cyclists' bells are ringing, +is a Pyrrhonist--and in a very special sense, for the ancient +philosopher who gives his name to the class made himself conspicuous +by refusing to get out of the way of careering chariots." Now the most +unfamiliar friend I have ever walked with knows my extreme impassivity +at the corners of streets, remembers the careless attitude with which +I saunter from kerb to kerb, whether it be across the Grand Boulevard, +Piccadilly, or Fifth Avenue. Only once has this nonchalant defiance of +traffic caused me to come to even temporary grief; that was on the +last night of the year 1913, when, in crossing Broadway, I became +entangled, God knows how, in the wheels of a swiftly passing vehicle, +and found myself, top hat and all, in the most ignominious position +before I was well aware of what had really happened. Then a policeman +stooped over me, book and pencil in hand, and another held the +chauffeur of the victorious taxi-cab at bay some yards further up the +street. But I was not hurt and I waved them all away with a +magnanimous gesture.... It is owing to this habit of mine that I often +make interesting _rencontres_ in the middle of streets. It accounts, +in fact, for my running, quite absent-mindedly, plump into Dickinson +Sitgreaves, who is more American than his name sounds, one August day +in Paris. + +It was one of those charming days which make August perhaps the most +delightful month to spend in Paris, although the facts are not known +to tourists. Many a sly French pair, however, bored with Trouville, or +the season at Aix, take advantage of the allurements of a Paris August +to return surreptitiously to the boulevards. On this particular day +almost all the seduction of an October day was in the air, a splendid +dull warm-cool crispness, which filtered down through the faded +chestnut leaves from the sunlight, and left pale splotches of purple +and orange on the _trottoirs_ ... a really marvellous day, which I was +spending in that most excellent occupation in Paris of gazing into +shops and, passing cafés, staring into the faces of those who sat on +the _terrasses_.... But this is an occupation for one alone; so, when +I met Sitgreaves, we joined a _terrasse_ ourselves. We were near the +Napolitain and there he and I sat down and began to talk as only we +two can talk together after long separation. He explained in the +beginning how I had interrupted him.... There was a _fille_, some +little Polish beauty who had captivated his senses a day or so before, +brought to him quite by accident in an hotel where the _patron_ +furnished his clients with such pleasure as the town and his address +book afforded.... I knew the _patron_ myself, a fluent, amusing sort +of person, who had been a _cuirassier_ and who resembled Mayol ... a +_café-concert_ proprietor of an hotel.... It was his boast that he had +never disappointed a client and it is certain that he would promise +anything. Some have said that his stock in trade was one pretty girl, +who assumed costumes, ages, hair, and accents, to please whatever +demand was made upon her, but this I do not believe. There must have +been at least two of them. The Grand Duchess Anastasia, it was +rumoured, had dined with Marcel at one time, in his little hotel, and +certainly one king had been seen to go there, and one member of the +English royal family, but Marcel remained simple and obliging. + +"When will you look up the little _Polonaise_?" I asked, as we sipped +_Amer Picon_ and stared with fresh interest at each new boot and ankle +that passed. Paris in August is like another place in May. + +"Why don't you come along?" queried Sitgreaves in reply, "and we could +go at once.... Oh, I know that you are in no mood for pleasure. You +see the point is that I shall have to wait. Marcel will have to send +for the _fille_. It is a bore to wait in a room with red curtains and +a picture of _Amour et Psyche_ on the walls.... What have you been +doing?" He paid the _consommation_ and started to leave without +waiting for a reply, because he knew of my complaisance. I rose with +him and we walked down the boulevard. + +"What is there to do in Paris in August but to enjoy oneself?" I +asked. "I have made friends with an _apache_ and his _gigolette_. We +eat bread and cheese and drink bad wine on the fortifications.... In +the afternoon I walk. Sometimes I go to the Luxembourg gardens to hear +the band bray sad music, or to watch the little boys play _diavolo_, +or sail their tiny boats about the fountain pond; sometimes I walk +quite silently up the Avenue Gabriel, with its _triste_ line of trees, +and dream that I am a Grand Duke; in the evening there are again the +_terrasses_ of the cafés, dinner in Montmartre at the Clou, or the +Cou-Cou, a _revue_ at La Cigale, but it is all governed, my day and my +night, by what happens and by whom I meet.... Have you seen Jacques +Blanche's portrait of Nijinsky?" + +"I think it is Picasso that interests me now," Sitgreaves was saying. +"He puts wood and pieces of paper into his composition; architecture, +that's what it is.... I don't go to Blanche's any more. It's too +delightfully perfect, the atmosphere there.... The books are by all +the famous writers, and they are all dedicated to Blanche; the +pictures are all of the great men of today, and they are all painted +by Blanche; the music is played by the best musicians.... Do you know, +I think Blanche is the one man who has made a successful profession of +being an amateur--unless one excepts Robert de la Condamine.... You +can scarcely call a man who does so much a dilettante. Yes, I think he +is an amateur in the best sense." + +"I met the Countess of Jena there the other day," I responded. "She +had scarcely left the room before three people volunteered, _sans +rancune_, to tell her story. She is a devout Catholic, and her husband +contrived in some way to substitute a spy for the priest in the +confessional. He acquired an infinite amount of information, but it +didn't do him any good. She is so witty that every one invites her +everywhere in spite of her reputation, and he is left to dine alone at +the Meurice. Dull men simply are not tolerated in Paris. + +"It was at Blanche's last year that I met George Moore," I continued. +"You know I have just seen him in London. He is at work on _The +Apostle_, making a novel of it, to be called 'The Brook Kerith.'... +For a time he thought of finishing it up as a play because a novel +meant a visit to Palestine and that was distasteful to him, but it +finally became a novel. He went to Palestine and stayed six weeks, +just long enough to find a monastery and to study the lay of the +country. For he says, truly enough, that one cannot imagine +landscapes; one does not know whether there is a high or low horizon. +There may be a brook which all the characters must cross. It is +necessary to see these things. Besides he had to find a monastery.... +He told me of his thrill when he discovered an order of monks living +on a narrow ledge of cliff, with 500 feet sheer rise and descent above +and below it ... and when he had found this his work was done and he +returned to England to write the book, a reaction, for he told me that +he was getting tired of being personal in literature. The book will +exhibit a conflict between two types: Christ, the disappointed mystic, +and Paul; Christ, who sees that there is no good to be served in +saving the world by his death, and Paul, full of hope, idealism, and +illusions. It is the drama of the conflict between the nature which is +affected by externals and that which is not, he told me." + +"It's a subject for Anatole France," said Sitgreaves. "Moore, in my +opinion, is not a novelist. His great achievements are his memoirs. I +was interested in 'Evelyn Innes' and 'Esther Waters,' but something +was lacking. There is nothing lacking in the three volumes of 'Hail +and Farewell.' They grow in interest. Moore has found his _métier_." + +"But he insists," I explained, before the door of the little hotel, +"that 'Hail and Farewell' is a novel. He is infuriated when some one +suggests that it is a book after the manner of, say, 'The +Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill.'..." + +We entered and walked up the little staircase. + +"Do you mean that the incidents are untrue?" + +We were at the door of the _concierge_ and there stood Marcel, his +apron spread neatly over his ample paunch. It was early in the +afternoon and the room beyond him, sometimes filled with possibilities +for customers, was empty. + +"_Ah, monsieur est revenu!_" he exclaimed in his piping voice. "_C'est +pour la petite Polonaise sans doute que monsieur revient?_" + +"_Oui_," answered Sitgreaves, "_faut-il attendre longtemps?_" + +"_Mais non, monsieur, un petit moment. Elle habite en face. Je vais +envoyer le garçon la chercher tout de suite. Et pour monsieur, votre +ami?_" + +"_Je ne desire rien_," I replied. + +Marcel bowed humbly.... "_Comme monsieur voudra._" Then a doubt +assailed him. "_Peut-être que la petite Polonaise vous suffira à tous +les deux?_" + +"_Jamais de la vie!_" I shouted, "_Flûte, Mercure, allez! Je suis +puceau!_" + +Marcel was equal to this. "_Et ta soeur?_" he demanded as he +disappeared down the staircase. + +He had put us meanwhile in the very chamber with the red curtains and +the picture of Cupid and Psyche that Sitgreaves had described. Perhaps +all the rooms were similarly decorated. I lounged on the bed while +Sitgreaves sat on a chair and smoked.... + +I answered his last question, "No, they are true, but there is +selection and form." + +"While other memoirs have neither selection nor form and usually are +not altogether accurate in the bargain...." + +"Especially Madame Melba's...." + +"Especially," agreed Sitgreaves delightedly, "Madame Melba's." + +"Moore is really right," I went on. "He says that some people insist +that Balzac was greater than Turgeniev, because the Frenchman took his +characters from imagination, the Russian his from life. You will +remember, however, that Edgar Saltus says, 'The manufacture of fiction +from facts was begun by Balzac.' Moore's point is that all great +writers write from observation. There is no other way. A character may +have more or less resemblance to the original; it may be derived and +bear a different name; still there must have been something.... In a +letter which Moore once wrote me stands the phrase, 'Memory is the +mother of the Muses.' 'Hail and Farewell' is just as much a work of +imagination, according to Moore, as 'A Nest of Noblemen' or 'Les +Illusions Perdues.'" + +"Of course," admitted Sitgreaves. "No writer but what has suffered +from the recognition of his characters. Dickens got into trouble. +Oscar Wilde is said to have done himself in 'Dorian Gray,' and +Meredith's models for 'The Tragic Comedians' and 'Diana of the +Crossways' are well known." + +"All Moore has done is to call his characters by their real names and +he has reported their conversations as he remembered them, but, mind +you, he has not put into the book all their conversations, or even all +the people he knew at that period. Arthur Symons, for instance, a +great friend of Moore's at that time, is scarcely mentioned, and with +reason: he has no part in the form of the book; its plot is not +concerned with him. + +"All artists create only in the image of the things they have seen, +reduced to terms of art through their imagination. The paintings of +Mina Loy seem to the beholder the strange creations of a vagrant +fancy. I remember one picture of hers in which an Indian girl stands +poised before an oriental palace, the most fantastic of palaces, it +would seem. But the artist explained to me that it was simply the +façade of Hagenbeck's menagerie in Hamburg, seen with an imaginative +eye. The girl was a model.... One day on the beach at the Lido she saw +a young man in a bathing suit lying stretched on the sand with his +head in the lap of a beautiful woman. Other women surrounded the two. +The group immediately suggested a composition to her. She went home +and painted. She took the young man's bathing suit off and gave him +wings; the women she dressed in lovely floating robes, and she called +the picture, _l'Amour Dorloté par les Belles Dames_. + +"And once I asked Frank Harris to explain to me the origin of his +vivid story, 'Montes the Matador.' 'It's too simple,' he said, 'the +model for Montes was a little Mexican greaser whom I met in Kansas. He +was one of many in charge of cattle shipped up from Mexico and down +from the States. All the white cattle men, the gringos, held him in +great contempt. But,' continued Harris, speaking deliberately with his +beautifully modulated voice, and his eyes twinkling with the memory of +the thing, 'I soon found that the greaser's contempt for the gringos +was immeasureably greater than their's for him. "Bah," he would say, +"they know nothing." And it was so. He could go into a cattle car on a +pitch dark night and make the bulls stand up, a feat that none of the +white men would have attempted. I asked him how he did this and he +told me the answer in three words, "I know them." He could go into a +herd of cattle just let loose together and pick out their leader +immediately, pick him out before the cattle themselves had! There was +the origin of "Montes the Matador." He was named, of course, after +the famous _torero_ described by Gautier in his "Voyage en Espagne." +When I was in Madrid sometime later I went to a number of bull-fights +before I put the story together.' 'But,' I asked Harris, 'Is it +possible for an _espada_ to stand in the bull ring with his back to +the bull, during a charge, as you have made him do frequently in the +story?' 'Of course not,' he answered me at once, smiling his frankly +malevolent smile, 'Of course not. That part was put in to show how +much the public will stand for in a work of fiction. I believe one of +the _espadas_ tried it some time after the book appeared and was +immediately killed.' + +"Fiction, history, poetry, criticism, at their best, are all the same +thing. When they inflame the imagination and stir the pulse they are +identical: all creative work. It does not matter what a man writes +about. It matters how he writes it. Subject is nothing. Should we +regard Velasquez as less important than Murillo because the former +painted portraits of contemporaries, whom in his fashion he +criticized, while the Spanish Bouguereau disguised his models as the +Virgin? Walter Pater's description of the _Monna Lisa_ would live if +the picture disappeared. Indeed it has created a factitious interest +in da Vinci's masterwork. Even more might be said for Huysmans's +description of Moreau's _Salomé_, which actually puts the figures in +the picture in motion! The critic, the historian at their best are +creative artists as the writers of fiction are creative artists. +Should we regard, for example, 'Imperial Purple' less a work of +creative art than 'The Rise of Silas Lapham'?" + +"I am getting your meaning more and more," said Sitgreaves. "And it +occurs to me that perhaps I have been unjust in rating Moore low as a +novelist. Perhaps I should have said that he is more successful in +those books which depend more on his memory and less on his +imaginative instinct. He cannot, after all, have known Jesus and +Paul...." + +"You are quite wrong," I said. "At least from his point of view. He +says that he knows Paul better than he has ever known any one else. He +even finds hair on Paul's chest. He can describe Paul, I believe, to +the last mole. He knows his favourite colours, and whether he prefers +artichokes to alligator pears. As for Christ, everybody professes to +know Christ these days. Since the world has become distinctly +un-Christian it has become comparatively easy to discuss Christ. He +is regarded as an historical character, and a much more simple one +than Napoleon. I have heard anarchists in bar-rooms talk about him by +the hour, sometimes very graphically and always with a certain amount +of wit. No, it is all the same.... Moore, now that he has been to +Palestine and read the gospels, feels as well acquainted with Christ +and Paul as he does with Edward Martyn and Yeats and Lady Gregory." + +"I must fall back on the personal then," said Sitgreaves, now really +at bay, "and say that I am less moved and interested when Moore is +describing Evelyn Innes, than when he tells of his affair with Doris +at Orelay." + +"I am glad that you mentioned 'Evelyn Innes' again," I said, "because +it is in this very book that he is said to have painted so many of his +friends. Ulick Dean is undoubtedly Yeats. It has been suggested that +Arnold Dolmetsch posed for the portrait of Evelyn's father. +Dolmetsch's testimony on this point goes farther. He says that he +dictated certain passages in the book...." + +"What is it, then? What is the difference? There is some difference, +of that I am sure...." + +"The difference is--" I began when the door opened and Marcel entered, +the most amazingly comprehensive smile on his countenance. +"_Mademoiselle vous attend_," he said, and he looked the question. +"Shall I bring her in here?" + +Sitgreaves answered it immediately, "_Je viens_." And then to me, +"Wait," as he vanished through the doorway.... I walked to the window, +drew aside the red curtains, and looked out into the fountain-splashed +court below.... + + * * * * * + +"What is the difference?" + +"I suppose it is that you prefer the new Moore to the old Moore, the +author of the later and better written books to the author of the +earlier ones. 'Evelyn Innes' was many times rewritten. Moore has said +that he could never get it to suit him, but he has also said, +recently, that he would never rewrite another book (a resolution he +has not kept). 'Memoirs of My Dead Life' and 'Hail and Farewell' do +not need rewriting. They are written to stand. 'The Brook Kerith,' +perhaps, you will find equally to your taste. It will be the newest +Moore...." + +"You have explained to me," said Sitgreaves, "the difference: it is +one of development. Now that I think of it I don't believe that +Anatole France could write 'The Brook Kerith.'... It would be too +symbolical, too cynical, in his hands. Moore will perhaps make it +more human, by knowing the characters. I wonder," he continued +musingly, as we left the room, and descended the stairs, "if he told +you whether that hair on Paul's chest was red or black...." + + _February 1, 1915._ + + + + +The Authoritative Work on +American Music + + + + +The Authoritative Work on American Music + + +H. L. Mencken pointed out to me recently, in his most earnest and +persuasive manner, that it was my duty to write a book about the +American composers, exposing their futile pretensions and describing +their flaccid _opera_, stave by stave. It was in vain that I urged +that this would be but a sleeveless errand, arguing that I could not +fight men of straw, that these our composers had no real standing in +the concert halls, and that pushing them over would be an easy +exercise for a child of ten. On the contrary, he retorted, they +belonged to the academies; certain people believed that they were +important; it was necessary to dislodge this belief. I suggested, with +a not too heavily assumed humility, that I had already done something +of the sort in an essay entitled "The Great American Composer." "A +good beginning," asserted Col. Mencken, "but not long enough. I won't +be satisfied with anything less than a book." "But if I wrote a book +about Professors Parker, Chadwick, Hadley, and the others I could find +nothing different to say about them; they are all alike. Neither +their lives nor their music offer opportunities for variations." "An +excellent idea!" cried Major Mencken, enthusiastically, "Write one +chapter and then repeat it verbatim throughout the book, changing only +the name of the principal character. Then clap on a preface, +explaining your reason for this procedure." My last protest was the +feeblest of all: "I can't spend a year or a month or a week poring +over the scores of these fellows; I can't go to concerts to hear their +music. I might as well go to work in a coal mine." "I'll do it for +you!" triumphantly checkmated General Mencken. "I'll read the scores +and you shall write the book!" And so he left me, as on a similar +occasion the fiend, having exhibited his prospectus, vanished from the +eyes of our Lord. And I returned to my home sorely troubled, finding +that the words of the man were running about in my head like so many +little Japanese waltzing mice. + +And, after much cogitation, I went to such and such a book case and +took down a certain volume written by Louis Charles Elson (a very +large red tome) and another by Rupert Hughes, to see if their words of +praise for our weak musical brothers would stir me to action. I found +that they did not. My heart action remained normal; no film covered +my eyes; foam did not issue from my mouth. Indeed I read, quite +calmly, in Mr. Hughes's "American Composers" that A. J. Goodrich is +"recognized among scholars abroad as one of the leading spirits of our +time"; that "(Henry Holden) Huss has ransacked the piano and pillaged +almost every imaginable fabric of high colour.... The result is +gorgeous and purple"; that "The thing we are all waiting for is that +American grand opera, _The Woman of Marblehead_ (by Louis Adolphe +Coerne). It is predicted that it will not receive the marble heart"; +that "I know of no modern composer who has come nearer to relighting +the fires that burn in the old gavottes and fugues and preludes (than +Arthur Foote). His two gavottes are to me away the best since Bach"; +that "the song (_Israfel_ by Edgar Stillman-Kelley) is in my fervent +belief, a masterwork of absolute genius, one of the very greatest +lyrics in the world's music"; and in "The History of American Music" +by Louis C. Elson that "Music has made even more rapid strides than +literature among us," and that "he (George W. Chadwick) has reconciled +the symmetrical (sonata) form with modern passion." But it was in the +fourth volume of "The Art of Music," published by the National Society +of Music, that I found the supreme examples of this kind of writing. +The volume was edited by Arthur Farwell and W. Dermot Darby. Therein I +read with a sort of awed astonishment that one of the songs of +Frederick Ayres "reveals a poignancy of imagination and a perception +and apprehension of beauty seldom attained by any composer." I learned +that T. Carl Whitmer has a "spiritual kinship" with Arthur Shepherd, +Hans Pfitzner, and Vincent d'Indy. His music is "psychologically +subtle and spiritually rarefied: in colour it corresponds to the +violet end of the spectrum." I turned the pages until I came to the +name of Miss Gena Branscombe: "Inexhaustible buoyancy, a superlative +emotional wealth, and wholly singular gift of musical intuition are +the qualities which have shaped the composer's musical personality +(without much effort of the imagination we might say that they are the +qualities that shaped Beethoven's musical personality).... Her +impatient melodies leap and dash with youthful life, while her +accompaniments abound in harmonic hairbreadth escapes." Before he +became acquainted with the later French idiom Harvey W. Loomis +"spontaneously breathed forth the quality of spirit which we now +recognize in a Debussy or a Ravel." + +Curiously enough, however, these statements did not annoy me. I found +no desire arising in me to deny them and doubtless, though mayhap with +a guilty conscience, I should have ditched the undertaking, consigned +it to that heap of undone duties, where already lie notes on a +comparison of Andalusian mules with the mules of Liane de Pougy, a few +scribbled memoranda for a treatise on the love habits of the mole, and +a half-finished biography of the talented gentleman who signed his +works, "Nick Carter," if my by this time quite roving eye had not +alighted, entirely fortuitously, on one of the forgotten glories of my +library, a slender volume entitled "Popular American Composers." + +I recalled how I had bought this book. Happening into a modest +second-hand bookshop on lower Third Avenue, maintained chiefly for the +laudable purpose of redistributing paper novels of the Seaside and +kindred libraries, of which, alas, we hear very little nowadays, I +asked the proprietor if by chance he possessed any literature relating +to the art of music. By way of answer, he retired to the very back of +his little room, searched for a space in a litter on the floor, and +then returned with a pile of nine volumes or so in his arms. The +titles, such as "Great Violinists," "Harmony in Thirteen Lessons," +and "How to Sing," did not intrigue me, but in idly turning the pages +of this "Popular American Composers" I came across a half-tone +reproduction of a photograph of Paul Dresser, the only less celebrated +brother of Theodore Dreiser, with a short biography of the composer of +_On the Banks of the Wabash_. As Sir George Grove in his excellent +dictionary neglected to mention this portentous name in American Art +and Letters (although he devoted sixty-seven pages, printed in double +columns, to Mendelssohn) I saw the advantage of adding the little book +to my collection. The bookseller, when questioned, offered to +relinquish the volume for a total of fifteen cents, and I carried it +away with me. Once I had become more thoroughly acquainted with its +pages I realized that I would willingly have paid fifteen dollars for +it. + +This book, indeed, cannot fail to delight General Mencken. There is no +reference in its pages to Edgar Stillman-Kelley, Miss Gena Branscombe, +Louis Adolphe Coerne, Henry Holden Huss, T. Carl Whitmer, Arthur +Farwell, Arthur Foote, or A. J. Goodrich. In fact, if we overlook +brief notices of John Philip Sousa, Harry von Tilzer, Paul Dresser, +Charles K. Harris, and Hattie Starr (whom you will immediately recall +as the composer of _Little Alabama Coon_), the author, Frank L. +Boyden, has not hesitated to go to the roots of his subject, pushing +aside the college professors and their dictums, and has turned his +attention to figures in the art life of America, from whom, Mencken +himself, I feel sure, would not take a single paragraph of praise, so +richly is it deserved. I am unfamiliar with the causes contributing to +this book's comparative obscurity; perhaps, indeed, they are similar +to those responsible for the early failure of "Sister Carrie." May not +we even suspect that the odium cast by the Doubledays on the author of +that romance might have been actively transferred in some degree to a +work which contained a biographical notice and a picture of his +brother? At any rate, "Popular American Composers," published in 1902, +fell into undeserved oblivion and so I make no apology for inviting my +readers to peruse its pages with me. + +Opening the book, then, at random, I discover on page 96 a biography +of Lottie A. Kellow (her photograph graces the reverse of this page). +In a few well-chosen words (almost indeed in "gipsy phrases") Mr. +Boyden gives us the salient details of her career. Mrs. Kellow is a +resident of Cresco, Iowa, a church singer of note, and the possessor +of a contralto voice of great volume. As a composer she has to her +credit "marches, cakewalks, schottisches, and other styles of +instrumental music." We are given a picture of Mrs. Kellow at work: +"Mrs. Kellow's best efforts are made in the evening, and in darkness, +save the light of the moonbeams on the keys of her piano." We are also +told that "she is happy in her inspirations and a sincere lover of +music. All of her compositions show a decided talent and possess +musical elements which are only to be found in the works of an artist. +Mrs. Kellow's musical friends are confident of her success as a +composer and predict for her a brilliant future." + +Let us turn to the somewhat more extensive biography of W. T. Mullin +on Page 4 (his photograph faces this page). Almost in the first line +the author rewards our attention: "To him may be applied the simplest +and grandest eulogy Shakespeare ever pronounced: 'He was a man.'" We +are also informed that he was born of a cultured family, that his +inherited nobility of character has been carefully fostered by a +thorough education, and told that one finds in him the unusual +combination of genius wedded to sound common sense and practical +business capacity. His family moved to Colorado, Texas, while he was +still a lad and here his musical talent began to display itself. "The +inventive faculties of the small boy, and the innate harmony of the +musician, combined to improvise a crude instrument which emitted the +notes of the scale. Successful at drawing forth a concord of sweet +sounds, he continued to experiment upon everything which would emit +musical vibrations. (Even the pigs, I take it, did not escape.) He +consequently discovered the laws of vibrating chords before he had +mastered the intricacies of the multiplication table. Yet strange as +it may seem, his musical education was neglected. A four months' +course in piano instruction was interrupted and then resumed for two +months more. Upon this meagre foundation rested his subsequent +phenomenal progress." I pause to point out to the astonished and +breathless reader that even Mozart and Schubert, infant prodigies that +they were, received more training than this. + +I continue to quote: "At the age of thirteen he joined The Colorado +(Texas) Cornet Band as a charter member. The youngest member of the +band, he soon outstripped his comrades by virtue of his superior +natural ability. His position was that of second tenor. Wearying of +the monotony of playing, he determined to venture on solo work. The +boy felt the impetus of restless power and the following incident +illustrates his remarkable originality. Taking the piano score of a +favourite melody he transposed it within the compass of the second +tenor. This feat evoked admiring applause because of his extreme youth +and untrained abilities. The band-master remarked that elderly and +experienced heads could hardly have accomplished this. + +"From boyhood to manhood he has remained with the Colorado (Texas) +band as one of its most efficient members, composing in his leisure +moments, marches, ragtimes, waltzes, song and dance schottisches, etc. +Of his many meritorious compositions only one has so far been given to +the public:--_The West Texas Fair March_, composed for and dedicated +to the management of the West Texas Fair and Round-up. This +institution holds its annual meetings at Abilene, Texas. There the +march was played for the first time at their October, 1899, meet with +great success, and again at their September, 1900, meet by the +Stockman band of Colorado, Texas, which has furnished music for the +West Texas Fair during their 1899 and 1900 meetings. Mr. Mullin's +position in the Stockman band is that of euphonium soloist. He is a +proficient performer upon all band instruments from cornet to tuba, +including slide trombone, his favourites being the baritone and the +trombone. + +"He plays many stringed instruments, as well as the piano and organ. +He is the proud possessor of a genuine Stradivarius violin--a family +heirloom--which he naturally prizes beyond the intrinsic value. The +feat of playing on several instruments at once presents no difficulty +to him. + +"This briefly sketches Mr. Mullin's life, character and ability as a +musician. His accompanying photograph reveals his superb physique. +Personally he possesses charming, agreeable manners and Chesterfieldan +courteousness, which vastly contributes to his popularity. Sincere +devotion to his art has been rewarded by that elevating nobility of +soul, which alone can penetrate the blue expanse of space and revel in +the music of the spheres." + +What more is there to say? I can only assure the reader that Mullin +stands unique among all musicians, creative and interpretative, in +being able to play the organ, many stringed instruments, and all the +instruments in a brass band (several of them simultaneously; it would +be interesting to know which and how) after studying the piano for six +months. I sincerely hope that the mistake he made in withholding all +his compositions, save one, from the public, has been rectified. + +Helen Kelsey Fox, like so many of our talented men and women, has a +European strain in her blood. She is a lineal descendant on her +mother's side of a French nobleman and a German princess. Nevertheless +she continues to reside in Vermilion, Ohio. She is of a "decided +poetic nature and lives in an atmosphere of her own. She dwells in a +world of thought peopled by the creations of an active and lyric +mentality." She is so imbued with the poetic spark that, as she +expresses it, she "speaks in rhyme half the time." + +John Z. Macdonald, strictly speaking, is not an American composer. He +was born in Scotland and came to America in 1881 at the age of 21, but +as he is one of the very few composers since Nero to enter public +political life he well deserves a place in this collection. In 1890 he +was elected city clerk of Brazil, Indiana, a position which he held +for seven years. In 1898 he was elected treasurer of Clay County, +Indiana. This county is democratic "by between five and six hundred" +but Mr. Macdonald was elected on the republican ticket by a majority +of 133. He was the only republican elected. Among the best known of +Mr. Macdonald's compositions is his famous "expansion" song, in which +he predicted the fate of Aguinaldo. He has autograph letters, praising +this song, from the late President McKinley, Col. Roosevelt, General +Harrison, Admiral Schley, John Philip Sousa and other "eminent +gentlemen." + +Edward Dyer, born in Washington, was the son of a marble cutter who +"helped to erect the U. S. Treasury, Patent Office, and Capitol.... In +the majority of his compositions there is a tinge of sadness which +appeals to his auditors.... Mr. Dyer never descends to coarseness or +vulgarity in his productions; he writes pure, clean words, something +that can be sung in the home, school and on the stage to refined +respectable people." + +We learn much of the study years of Mrs. Lucy L. Taggart: "From +earliest childhood she received valuable musical instruction from her +father (Mr. Longsdon) who, coming from England in 1835, purchased the +first piano that came to Chicago, an elegant hand-carved instrument +that is still treasured in the old home." Later "she studied under +Prof. C. E. Brown, of Owego, N. Y., Prof. Heimburger, of San Francisco +and Herr Chas. Goffrie. Mrs. Taggart was also for five years a pupil +of Senor Arevalo, the famous guitar soloist of Los Angeles.... Mrs. +Taggart has in preparation (1902) _Methought He Touched the Strings_, +an idyl for piano in memory of the late Senor M. S. Arevalo." + +David Weidley, born in Philadelphia, is the composer of the following +songs, _Old Spooney Spooppalay_, _Jennie Ree_, _Autumn Leaves_, +_Hannah Glue_, and _Uncle Reuben and Aunt Lucinda_. "He has done much +to create and elevate a taste for music in the community where he +resides and where he is known as 'Dave.' Even the little children call +him 'Dave' as freely and innocently as those who have known him for +years, and there can be no greater compliment for any man than that he +is known and loved by the children. Mr. Weidley is by profession a +sheet metal worker. He is a P. G. of the I. O. O. F., and a P. C. in +the Knights of Pythias. He is not identified with any church, but +loves and serves his fellow-men." + +In the biography of Delmer G. Palmer we are assured that "Versatility +is a trait with which musical composers are not excessively burdened. +There are few performers who can include _The Moonlight Sonata_ and +Schubert's _Serenade_ with selections from _The Merry-go-round_, and +do justice to the expression of each, much less would such +adaptability be looked for among composers. As most rules have +exceptions, in this there is one who stands in a class occupied by no +one else, Mr. Delmer G. Palmer, the 'Green Mountain Composer,' who at +present resides in Kansas City. + +"As recently as 1899 Mr. Palmer wrote a song in the popular 'ragtime,' +_My Sweetheart is a Midnight Coon_ and almost in the same breath also +wrote the heavy sacred solo, _Christ in Gethsemane_. The first is of +the usual light order characteristic of this class of music. The +latter is as far removed to the contrary as is comedy from tragedy. +The 'coon' song entered the bubbling effervescing cauldron of what is +termed 'ragtime' music among the multitudinous others, and soon was +seen peeping through at the surface among the lightest and most +catchy.... The sacred solo found its level among the heavier in its +class, and if the term may be here applied, it was also a hit." + +S. Duncan Baker, born August 25, 1855, still lives (1902) in the old +family residence at Natchez, Miss. "In this house is located the den +where he has spent many hours with his collection of banjos and +pictures and in writing for and playing on the instrument which he +adopted as a favourite during its dark days (about 1871)." We are told +that he composed an "artistic banjo solo," entitled, _Memories of +Farland_. "Had this production or its companion piece, _Thoughts of +the Cadenza_, been written by an old master for some other instrument +and later have been adapted by a modern composer to the banjo, either +or both of them would have been pronounced classic, barring some +slight defects in form." + +I cannot stop to quote from the delightful accounts offered us of the +lives and works of Albert Matson, George D. Tufts, D. O. Loy, Lavinia +Pascoe Oblad, and forty or fifty other American singers, but it seems +to me that I have done enough, Mencken, to prove to you that the great +book on American music has been written. Without one single mention of +the names of Horatio Parker, George W. Chadwick, Frederick Converse, +or Henry Hadley, by a transference of the emphasis to the place where +it belongs, the author of this undying book has answered your prayer. + + _December 11, 1917._ + + + + +Old Days and New + + + + +Old Days and New + + +Some toothless old sentimentalist or other periodically sets up a +melancholy howl for "the good old days of comic opera," whatever or +whenever they were. Perhaps none of us, once past forty, is guiltless +in this respect. Nothing, not even the smell of an apple-blossom from +the old homestead, the sight of a daguerreotype of a miss one kissed +at the age of ten, or a taste of a piece of the kind of pie that +"mother used to make" so arouses the sensibility of a man of middle +age as the memory of some musical show which he saw in his budding +manhood. That is why revivals of these venerable institutions are +frequently projected and, some of them, very successfully +accomplished. When a manager revives an old drama he must appeal to +the interest of his audience; it may not be the identical interest +which held the original spectators of the piece spell-bound, but, none +the less, it must be an interest. When a manager revives an old +musical comedy he appeals directly to sentiment. + +Of course, the exact date of the good old days is a variable quantity. +I have known a vain regretter to turn no further back than to the +nights of _The Merry Widow_, _The Waltz Dream_, _The Chocolate +Soldier_, _The Girl in the Train_, and _The Dollar Princess_, in other +words to the Viennese renaissance; another, in using the phrase, is +subconsciously conjuring up pictures of _La Belle Hélène_, _Orphée aux +Enfers_, or _La Fille de Madame Angot_, good fodder for memory to feed +on here; a third will instinctively revert to the Johann Strauss +operetta period, the era of _The Queen's Lace Handkerchief_ and _Die +Fledermaus_; a fourth cries, "Give us Gilbert and Sullivan!" A fifth, +when his ideas are chased to their lair, will rhapsodize endlessly +over the charms of the London Gaiety when _The Geisha_, _The Country +Girl_, and _The Circus Girl_ were in favour; a sixth, it seems, finds +his pleasure in Americana, _Robin Hood_, _Wang_, _The Babes in +Toyland_, and _El Capitan_; a seventh becomes maudlin to the most +utter degree when you mention _Les Cloches de Corneville_, or _La +Mascotte_, products of a decadent stage in the history of French +opéra-bouffe. Not long ago I heard a man speak of the cadet operas in +Boston (did a man named Barnet write them?) as the last of the great +musical pieces; and every one of you who reads this essay will have a +brother, or a son, or a friend who went to see _Sybil_ forty-three +times and _The Girl from Utah_ seventy-six. Twenty years from now, as +he sits before the open fire, the mere mention of _They Wouldn't +Believe Me_ will cause the tears to course down his cheeks as he pats +the pate of his infant son or daughter and weepingly describes the +never-to-be-forgotten fascination of Julia Sanderson, the (in the then +days) unattainable agility of Donald Brian. + +In no other form of theatrical entertainment is the appeal to softness +so direct. The man who attends a performance of a musical farce goes +in a good mood, usually with a couple of friends, or possibly with +_the_ girl. If he has dined well and his digestion is in working order +and he is young enough, the spell of the lights and the music is +irresistible to his receptive and impressionable nature. There are +those young men, of course, who are constant attendants because of the +altogether too wonderful hair of the third girl from the right in the +front row. Others succumb to the dental perfection of the prima donna +or to the shapely legs of the soubrette. All of us, I am almost proud +to admit, at some time or other, are subject to the contagion. I well +remember the year in which I considered myself as a possible suitor +for the hand of Della Fox. Photographs and posters of this deity +adorned my walls. I was an assiduous collector of newspaper clippings +referring to her profoundly interesting activities, although my +sophistication had not reached the stage where I might appeal to +Romeike for assistance. The mere mention of Miss Fox's name was +sufficient cause to make me blush profusely. Eventually my father was +forced to take steps in the matter when I began, in a valiant effort +to summon up the spirit of the lady's presence, to disturb the early +morning air with vocal assaults on _She Was a Daisy_, which, you will +surely remember, was the musical gem of _The Little Trooper_. Here are +the words of the refrain: + + "She was a daisy, daisy, daisy! + Driving me crazy, crazy, crazy! + Helen of Troy and Venus were to her cross-eyed crones! + She was dimpled and rosy, rosy, rosy! + Sweet as a posy, posy, posy! + How I doted upon her, my Ann Jane Jones!" + +You will admit, I think, at first glance, the superior literary +quality of these lines; you will perceive at once to what immeasurably +higher class of art they belong than the lyrics that librettists forge +for us today. + +Wall Street broker, poet, green grocer, soldier, banker, lawyer, +whatever you are, confess the facts to yourself: you were once as I. +You have suffered the same feelings that I suffered. Perhaps with you +it was not Della Fox.... Who then? Did saucy Marie Jansen awaken your +admiration? Was pert Lulu Glaser the object of your secret but +persistent attention? How many times did you go to see Marie Tempest +in _The Fencing Master_, or Alice Nielsen in _The Serenade_? Was +Virginia Earle in _The Circus Girl_ the idol of your youth or was it +Mabel Barrison in _The Babes in Toyland_? Theresa Vaughn in _1492_, +May Yohe in _The Lady Slavey_, Hilda Hollins in _The Magic Kiss_, or +Nancy McIntosh in _His Excellency_? Madge Lessing in _Jack and the +Beanstalk_, Edna May in _The Belle of New York_, Phyllis Rankin in +_The Rounders_, or Gertrude Quinlan in _King Dodo_? + +What do you whistle in your bathtub when you are in a reminiscent +mood? Is it _The Typical Tune of Zanzibar_, or _Baby, Baby, Dance My +Darling Baby_, or _Starlight, Starbright_, or _Tell Me, Pretty +Maiden_, or _A Simple Little String_, or _J'aime les Militaires_ (if +you whistle this, ten to one your next door neighbour thinks you have +been to an orchestra concert and heard Beethoven's _Seventh +Symphony_), or _Sister Mary Jane's Top Note_, or _A Wandering +Minstrel I_, or _See How It Sparkles_, or the _Lullaby_ from +_Erminie_, which Pauline Hall used to sing as if she herself were +asleep, and which Emma Abbott interpolated in _The Mikado_, or _A +Pretty Girl, A Summer Night_, or the _Policeman's Chorus_ from _The +Pirates of Penzance_, or _The Soldiers in the Park_, or _My Angeline_, +or the _Letter Song_ from _The Chocolate Soldier_, or _I'm Little +Buttercup_, or the _Gobble Song_ from _The Mascot_, or the _Anna Song_ +from _Nanon_, or the march from _Fatinitza_, or _I'm All the Way from +Gay Paree_, or _Love Comes Like a Summer Sigh_, or _In the North Sea +Lived a Whale_, or _Jusqu'là_, or _The Harmless Little Girlie With the +Downcast Eyes_, or _They All Follow Me_, or _The Amorous Goldfish_, or +_Don't Be Cross_, or _Slumber On, My Little Gypsy Sweetheart_, or +_Good-bye Flo_, or _La Légende de la Mère Angot_, or _My Alamo Love_? + +There is a very subtle and fragrant charm about these old +recollections which the sight or sound of a score, a view of an old +photograph of Lillian Russell or Judic, or a dip in the _Théâtre +Complet_ of Meilhac and Halévy will reawaken. But it is only at a +revival of one of our old favourites that we can really bathe in +sentimentality, drink in draughts of joy from the past, allow memory +full away. You whose hair is turning white will be in Row A, Seat No. +1 for the first performance of a revival of _Robin Hood_. You will not +hear Edwin Hoff in his original rôle; Jessie Bartlett Davis is dead +and, alas, Henry Clay Barnabee is no longer on the boards, but the +newcomers, possibly, are respectable substitutes and the airs and +lines remain. You can walk about in the lobby and say proudly that you +attended the _first_ performance of the opera ever so long ago when +operettas had tune and reason. "Yes sir, there were plots in those +days, and composers, and the singers could _act_. Times have certainly +changed, sir. Come to the corner and have a Manhattan.... There were +no cocktails in those days.... There is no singer like Mrs. Davis +today!" + +Well the poor souls who cannot feel tenderly about a past they have +not yet experienced have their recompenses. For one thing I am certain +that the revivals of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas to which De +Wolf Hopper devoted his best talents were better, in many respects, +than the original London productions; just as I am equally certain +that the representations of _Aida_ at the Metropolitan Opera House are +way ahead of the original performance of that work given at Cairo +before the Khedive of Egypt. + +Then there is the musical revue, a form which we have borrowed from +the French, but which we have vastly improved upon and into which we +have poured some of our most national feeling and expression. The +interpretation of these frivolities is a new art. Gaby Deslys may be +only half a loaf compared to Marie Jansen, but I am sure that Elsie +Janis is more than three-quarters. Frank Tinney and Al Jolson can, in +their humble way, efface memories of Digby Bell and Dan Daly. Adele +Rowland and Marie Dressler have their points (and curves). Irving +Berlin, Louis A. Hirsch, and Jerome Kern are not to be sniffed at. +Neither is P. G. Wodehouse. Harry B. Smith we have always with us: he +is the Sarah Bernhardt of librettists. + +Joseph Urban has wrought a revolution in stage settings for this form +of entertainment. Louis Sherwin has offered us convincing evidence to +support his theory that the new staging in America is coming to us by +way of the revue and not through the serious drama. Melville Ellis, +Lady Duff-Gordon, and Paul Poiret have done their bit for the dresses. +In fact, my dear young man--who are reading this article--you will +feel just as tenderly in twenty years about the _Follies of 1917_ as +your father does now about _Wang_. Only, and this is a very big ONLY, +the _Follies of 1917_, depending as it does entirely on topical +subjects and dimpled knees, cannot be revived. Fervid and enlivening +as its immediate impression may be it cannot be lasting. You can never +recapture the thrills of this summer by sitting in Row A, Seat No. 1 +at any 1937 _reprise_. There can never be anything of the sort. The +revue, like the firefly, is for a night only. We take it in with the +daily papers ... and the next season, already old-fashioned, it goes +forth to show Grinnell and Davenport how Mlle. Manhattan deported +herself the year before. + +So if the youth of these days chooses to be sentimental in the years +to come over the good old days of Urban scenery and Olive Thomas, the +Balloon Girls of the Midnight Frolic and the chorus of the Winter +Garden, he will be obliged to give way to the mood at home in front of +the fire, see the pictures in the smoke, and hear the tunes in the +dropping of the coals. Which is perhaps as it should be. For in 1937 +the youth of that epoch can sit in Row A, Seat No. 1 himself and not +be ousted from his place by a sentimental gentleman of middle age who +longs to hear _Poor Butterfly_ again. + + _April 25, 1917._ + + + + +Two Young American Playwrights + + _"Gautier had a theory to the effect that to be a member of + the Academy was simply and solely a matter of + predestination. 'There is no need to do anything,' he would + say, 'and so far as the writing of books is concerned that + is entirely useless. A man is born an Academician as he is + born a bishop or a cook. He can abuse the Academy in a dozen + pamphlets if it amuses him, and be elected all the same; but + if he is not predestined, three hundred volumes and ten + masterpieces, recognized as such by the genuflections of an + adoring universe, will not aid him to open its doors.' + Evidently Balzac was not predestined but then neither was + Molière, and there must have been some consolation for him + in that."_ + + Edgar Saltus. + + + + +Two Young American Playwrights + + +In the newspaper reports relating to the death of Auguste Rodin I read +with some astonishment that if the venerable sculptor, who lacked +three years of being eighty when he died, had lived two weeks longer +he would have been admitted to the French Academy! In other words, the +greatest stone-poet since Michael Angelo, internationally famous and +powerful, the most striking artist figure, indeed, of the last half +century, was to be permitted, in the extremity of old age, to inscribe +his name on a scroll, which bore the signatures of many inoffensive +nobodies. I could not have been more amused if the newspapers, in +publishing the obituary notices of John Jacob Astor, had announced +that if the millionaire had not perished in the sinking of the +_Titanic_, his chances of being invited to join the Elks were good; or +if "Variety" or some other tradespaper of the music halls, had +proclaimed, just before Sarah Bernhardt's début at the Palace Theatre, +that if her appearances there were successful she might expect an +invitation to membership in the White Rats.... These hypothetical +instances would seem ridiculous ... but they are not. The Rodin case +puts a by no means seldom-recurring phenomenon in the centre of the +stage under a calcium light. The ironclad dreadnaughts of the academic +world, the reactionary artists, the dry-as-dust lecturers are +constantly ignoring the most vital, the most real, the most important +artists while they sing polyphonic, antiphonal, Palestrinian motets in +praise of men who have learned to imitate comfortably and efficiently +the work of their predecessors. + + * * * * * + +If there are other contemporary French sculptors than Rodin their +names elude me at the moment; yet I have no doubt that some ten or +fifteen of these hackmen have their names emblazoned in the books of +all the so-called "honour" societies in Paris. It is a comfort, on the +whole, to realize that America is not the only country in which such +things happen. As a matter of fact, they happen nowhere more often +than in France. + +If some one should ask you suddenly for a list of the important +playwrights of France today, what names would you let roll off your +tongue, primed by the best punditic and docile French critics? Henry +Bataille, Paul Hervieu, and Henry Bernstein. Possibly Rostand. Don't +deny this; you know it is true, unless it happens you have been doing +some thinking for yourself. For even in the works of Remy de Gourmont +(to be sure this very clairvoyant mind did not often occupy itself +with dramatic literature) you will find little or nothing relating to +Octave Mirbeau and Georges Feydeau. True, Mirbeau did not do his best +work in the theatre. That stinging, cynical attack on the courts of +Justice (?) of France (nay, the world!), "Le Jardin de Supplice" is +not a play and it is probably Mirbeau's masterpiece and the best piece +of critical fiction written in France (or anywhere else) in the last +fifty years. However Mirbeau shook the pillars of society even in the +playhouse. _Le Foyer_ was hissed repeatedly at the Théâtre Français. +Night after night the proceedings ended in the ejection and arrest of +forty or fifty spectators. Even to a mere outsider, an idle bystander +of the boulevards, this complete exposure of the social, moral, and +political hypocricies of a nation seemed exceptionally brutal. _Le +Foyer_ and "Le Jardin" could only have been written by a man +passionately devoted to the human ideal ("each as she may," as +Gertrude Stein so beautifully puts it). _Les Affaires sont les +Affaires_ is pure theatre, perhaps, but it might be considered the +best play produced in France between Becque's _La Parisienne_ and +Brieux's _Les Hannetons_. + +It is not surprising, on the whole, to find the critical tribe turning +for relief from this somewhat unpleasant display of Gallic closet +skeletons to the discreet exhibition of a few carefully chosen bones +in the plays of Bernstein and Bataille, direct descendants of Scribe, +Sardou, _et Cie_, but I may be permitted to indulge in a slight +snicker of polite amazement when I discover these gentlemen applying +their fingers to their noses in no very pretty-meaning gesture, +directed at a grandson of Molière. For such is Georges Feydeau. His +method is not that of the Seventeenth Century master, nor yet that of +Mirbeau; nevertheless, aside from these two figures, Beaumarchais, +Marivaux, Becque, Brieux at his best, and Maurice Donnay occasionally, +there has not been a single writer in the history of the French +theatre so inevitably _au courant_ with human nature. His form is +frankly farcical and his plays are so funny, so enjoyable merely as +_good shows_ that it seems a pity to raise an obelisk in the +playwright's honour, and yet the fact remains that he understands the +political, social, domestic, amorous, even cloacal conditions of the +French better than any of his contemporaries, always excepting the +aforementioned Mirbeau. In _On Purge Bébé_ he has written saucy +variations on a theme which Rabelais, Boccaccio, George Moore, and +Molière in collaboration would have found difficult to handle. It is +as successful an experiment in bravado and bravura as Mr. Henry +James's "The Turn of the Screw." And he has accomplished this feat +with nimbleness, variety, authority, even (granting the subject) +delicacy. Seeing it for the first time you will be so submerged in +gales of uncontrollable laughter that you will perhaps not recognize +at once how every line reveals character, how every situation springs +from the foibles of human nature. Indeed in this one-act farce +Feydeau, with about as much trouble as Zeus took in transforming his +godship into the semblance of a swan, has given you a well-rounded +picture of middle-class life in France with its external and internal +implications.... And how he understands the buoyant French _grue_, +unselfconscious and undismayed in any situation. I sometimes think +that _Occupe-toi d'Amélie_ is the most satisfactory play I have ever +seen; it is certainly the most delightful. I do not think you can see +it in Paris again. The Nouveautés, where it was presented for over a +year, has been torn down; an English translation would be an insult +to Feydeau; nor will you find essays about it in the yellow volumes in +which the French critics tenderly embalm their _feuilletons_; nor do I +think Arthur Symons or George Moore, those indefatigable diggers in +Parisian graveyards, have discovered it for their English readers. +Reading the play is to miss half its pleasure; so you must take my +word in the matter unless you have been lucky enough to see it +yourself, in which case ten to one you will agree with me that one +such play is worth a kettleful of boiled-over drama like _Le Voleur_, +_Le Secret_, _Samson_, _La Vierge Folle_, _et cetera_, _et cetera_. In +the pieces I have mentioned Feydeau, in representation, had the +priceless assistance of a great comic artist, Armande Cassive. If we +are to take Mr. Symons's assurance in regard to de Pachmann that he is +the world's greatest pianist because he does one thing more perfectly +than any one else, by a train of similar reasoning we might +confidently assert that Mlle. Cassive is the world's greatest actress. + +When you ask a Frenchman to explain why he does not like Mirbeau (and +you will find that Frenchmen invariably do not like him) he will shrug +his shoulders and begin to tell you that Mirbeau was not good to his +mother, or that he drank to excess, or that he did not wear a red, +white, and blue coat on the Fourteenth of July, or that he did not +stand for the French spirit as exemplified in the eating of snails on +Christmas. In other words, he will immediately place himself in a +position in which you may be excused for regarding him as a person +whose opinion is worth nothing, whereas his ratiocinatory powers on +subjects with which he is more in sympathy may be excellent. I know +why he does not like Mirbeau. Mirbeau is the reason. In his life he +was not accustomed to making compromises nor was he accustomed to +making friends (which comes after all to the same thing). He did what +he pleased, said what he pleased, wrote what he pleased. His armorial +bearings might have been a cat upsetting a cream jug with the motto, +"_Je m'en fous_." The author of "Le Jardin de Supplice" would not be +in high favour anywhere; nevertheless I would willingly relinquish any +claims I might have to future popularity for the privilege of having +been permitted to sign this book. + +Feydeau is distinctly another story; his plays are more successful +than any others given in Paris. They are so amusing that even while he +is pointing the finger at your own particular method of living you are +laughing so hard that you haven't time to see the application.... So +the French critics have set him down as another popular figure, only a +nobody born to entertain the boulevards, just as the American critics +regard the performances of Irving Berlin with a steely supercilious +impervious eye. The Viennese scorned Mozart because he entertained +them. "A gay population," wrote the late John F. Runciman, "always a +heartless master, holds none in such contempt as the servants who +provide it with amusement." + +The same condition has prevailed in England until recently. A few +seasons ago you might have found the critics pouring out their glad +songs about Arthur Wing Pinero and Henry Arthur Jones. Bernard Shaw +has, in a measure, restored the balance to the British theatre. He is +not only a brilliant playwright; he is a brilliant critic as well. +Foreseeing the fate of the under man in such a struggle he became his +own literary huckster and by outcriticizing the other critics he +easily established himself as the first English (or Irish) playwright. +When he thus rose to the top, by dint of his own exertions, he had +strength enough to carry along with him a number of other important +authors. As a consequence we may regard the Pinero incident closed and +in ten years his theatre will be considered as old-fashioned and as +inadept as that of Robertson or Bulwer-Lytton. + +Having no Shaw in America, no man who can write brilliant prefaces and +essays about his own plays until the man in the street is obliged +perforce to regard them as literature, we find ourselves in the +condition of benighted France. Dulness is mistaken for literary +flavour; the injection of a little learning, of a little poetry +(so-called) into a theatrical hackpiece, is the signal for a good deal +of enthusiasm on the part of the journalists (there are two brilliant +exceptions). Which of our playwrights are taken seriously by the +pundits? Augustus Thomas and Percy MacKaye: Thomas the dean, and +MacKaye the poet laureate. I have no intention of wrenching the laurel +wreathes from these august brows. Let them remain. Each of these +gentlemen has a long and honourable career in the theatre behind him, +from which he should be allowed to reap what financial and honourary +rewards he may be able. But I would not add one leaf to these +wreathes, nor one crotchet to the songs of praise which vibrate around +them. I turn aside from their plays in the theatre and in the library +as I turn aside from the fictions of Pierre de Coulevain and Arnold +Bennett. + +I love to fashion wreathes of my own and if two young men will now +step forward to the lecturer's bench I will take delight in crowning +them with my own hands. Will the young man at the back of the hall +please page Avery Hopwood and Philip Moeller?... No response! They +seem to have retreated modestly into the night. Nevertheless they +shall not escape me! + +I speak of Mr. Hopwood first because he has been writing for our +theatre for a longer period than has Mr. Moeller, and because his +position, such as it is, is assured. Like Feydeau in France he has a +large popular following; he has probably made more money in a few +years than Mr. Thomas has made during his whole lifetime and the +managers are always after him to furnish them with more plays with +which to fill their theatres. For his plays do fill the theatres. +_Fair and Warmer_, _Nobody's Widow_, _Clothes_, and _Seven Days_, +would be included in any list of the successful pieces produced in New +York within the past ten years. Two of these pieces would be near the +very top of such a list. An utterly absurd allotment of actors is +sufficient to explain the failures of _Sadie Love_ and _Our Little +Wife_ and it might be well if some one should attempt a revival of one +of his three serious plays, _This Woman and This Man_, in which +Carlotta Nillson appeared for a brief space. + +This author, mainly through the beneficent offices of a gift of +supernal charm, contrives to do in English very much what Feydeau does +in French. It is his contention that you can smite the Puritans, even +in the American theatre, squarely on the cheek, provided you are +sagacious in your choice of weapon. In _Fair and Warmer_ he provokes +the most boisterous and at the same time the most innocent laughter +with a scene which might have been made insupportably vulgar. A +perfectly respectable young married woman gets very drunk with the +equally respectable husband of one of her friends. The scene is the +mainstay, the _raison d'être_, of the play, and it furnishes the +material for the better part of one act; yet young and old, rich and +poor, philistine and superman alike, delight in it. To make such a +situation irresistible and universal in its appeal is, it seems to me, +undoubtedly the work of genius. What might, indeed should, have been +disgusting, was not only in intention but in performance very funny. +Let those who do not appreciate the virtuosity of this undertaking +attempt to write as successful a scene in a similar vein. Even if they +are able to do so, and I do not for a moment believe that there is +another dramatic author in America who can, they will be the first to +grant the difficulty of the achievement. With an apparently +inexhaustible fund of fantasy and wit Mr. Hopwood passes his wand over +certain phases of so-called smart life, almost always with the +happiest results. With a complete realization of the independence of +his medium he often ignores the realistic conventions and the +traditional technique of the stage, but his touch is so light and +joyous, his wit so free from pose, that he rarely fails to establish +his effect. His pen has seldom faltered. Occasionally, however, the +heavy hand of an uncomprehending stage director or of an aggressive +actor has played havoc with the delicate texture of his fabric. There +is no need here for the use of hammer or trowel; if an actress must +seek aid in implements, let her rather rely on a soft brush, a lacy +handkerchief, or a sparkling spangled fan. + +Philip Moeller has achieved distinction in another field, that of +elegant burlesque, of sublimated caricature. His stage men and women +are as adroitly distorted (the better to expose their comic +possibilities) as the drawings of Max Beerbohm. Beginning with the +Bible and the Odyssey (_Helena's Husband_ and _Sisters of Susannah_ +for the Washington Square Players) he has at length, by way of +Shakespeare and Bacon (_The Roadhouse in Arden_) arrived at the +Romantic Period in French literature and in _Madame Sand_, his first +three-act play, he has established himself at once as a dangerous +rival of the authors of _Cæsar and Cleopatra_ and _The Importance of +Being Earnest_, both plays in the same _genre_ as Mr. Moeller's latest +contribution to the stage. The author has thrown a very high light on +the sentimental adventures of the writing lady of the early Nineteenth +Century, has indeed advised us and convinced us that they were +somewhat ridiculous. So they must have appeared even to her +contemporaries, however seriously George took herself, her romances, +her passions, her petty tragedies. A less adult, a less seriously +trained mind might have fallen into the error of making a sentimental +play out of George's affairs with Alfred de Musset, Dr. Pagello, and +Chopin (Mr. Moeller contents himself with these three passions, +selected from the somewhat more extensive list offered to us by +history). Such an author would doubtless have written _Great +Catherine_ in the style of _Disraeli_ and _Androcles and the Lion_ +after the manner of _Ben Hur_! Whether love itself is always a comic +subject, as Bernard Shaw would have us believe, is a matter for +dispute, but there can be no alternative opinion about the loves of +George Sand. A rehearsal of them offers only laughter to any one but a +sentimental school girl. + +The piece is conceived on a true literary level; it abounds in wit, in +fantasy, in delightful situations, but there is nothing precious about +its progress. Mr. Moeller has carefully avoided the traps expressly +laid for writers of such plays. For example, the enjoyment of _Madame +Sand_ is in no way dependent upon a knowledge of the books of that +authoress, De Musset, and Heine, nor yet upon an acquaintance with the +music of Liszt and Chopin. Such matters are pleasantly and lightly +referred to when they seem pertinent, but no insistence is laid upon +them. Occasionally our author has appropriated some phrase originally +spoken or written by one of the real characters, but for that he can +scarcely be blamed. Indeed, when one takes into consideration the +wealth of such material which lay in books waiting for him, it is +surprising that he did not take more advantage of it. In the main he +has relied on his own cleverness to delight our ears for two hours +with brilliant conversation. + +There is, it should be noted, in conclusion, nothing essentially +American about either of these young authors. Both Mr. Hopwood and +Mr. Moeller might have written for the foreign stage. Several of Mr. +Hopwood's pieces, indeed, have already been transported to foreign +climes and there seems every reason for belief that Mr. Moeller's +comedy will meet a similarly happy fate. + + _November 29, 1917._ + + + + +De Senectute Cantorum + + _"All'età di settanta + Non si ama, nè si canta."_ + + Italian proverb. + + + + +De Senectute Cantorum + + +"I am not sure," writes Arthur Symons in his admirable essay on Sarah +Bernhardt, "that the best moment to study an artist is not the moment +of what is called decadence. The first energy of inspiration is gone; +what remains is the method, the mechanism, and it is that which alone +one can study, as one can study the mechanism of the body, not the +principle of life itself. What is done mechanically, after the heat of +the blood has cooled, and the divine accidents have ceased to happen, +is precisely all that was consciously skilful in the performance of an +art. To see all this mechanism left bare, as the form of a skeleton is +left bare when age thins the flesh upon it is to learn more easily all +that is to be learnt of structure, the art which not art but nature +has hitherto concealed with its merciful covering." + +Mr. Symons, of course, had an actress in mind, but his argument can be +applied to singers as well, although it is safest to remember that +much of the true beauty of the human voice inevitably departs with the +youth of its owner. Still style in singing is not noticeably affected +by age and an artist who possesses or who has acquired this quality +very often can afford to make lewd gestures at Father Time. If good +singing depended upon a full and sensuous tone, such artists as +Ronconi, Victor Maurel, Max Heinrich, Ludwig Wüllner, and Maurice +Renaud would never have had any careers at all. It is obvious that any +true estimate of their contribution to the lyric stage would put the +chief emphasis on style, and this is usually the explanation for +extended success on the opera or concert stage, although occasionally +an extraordinary and exceptional singer may continue to give pleasure +to her auditors, despite the fact that she has left middle age behind +her, by the mere lovely quality of the tone she produces. + +In the history of opera there may be found the names of many singers +who have maintained their popularity and, indeed, a good deal of their +art, long past fifty, and there is recorded at least one instance in +which a singer, after a long absence from the theatre, returned to the +scene of her earlier triumphs with her powers unimpaired, even +augmented. I refer, of course, to Henrietta Sontag, born in 1805, who +retired from the stage of the King's Theatre in London in 1830 in her +twenty-fifth year and who returned twenty years later in 1849. She +had, in the meantime, become the Countess Rossi, but although she had +abandoned the stage her reappearance proved that she had not remained +idle during her period of retirement. For she was one of those artists +in whom early "inspiration" counted for little and "method" for much. +She was, indeed, a mistress of style. She came back to the public in +_Linda di Chaminoux_ and H. F. Chorley ("Thirty Years' Musical +Recollections") tells us that "all went wondrously well. No magic +could restore to her voice an upper note or two which Time had taken; +but the skill, grace, and precision with which she turned to account +every atom of power she still possessed,--the incomparable steadiness +with which she wrought out her composer's intentions--she carried +through the part, from first to last, without the slightest failure, +or sign of weariness--seemed a triumph. She was greeted--as she +deserved to be--as a beloved old friend come home again in the late +sunnier days. + +"But it was not at the moment of Madame Sontag's reappearance that we +could advert to all the difficulty which added to the honour of its +success.--She came back under musical conditions entirely changed +since she left the stage--to an orchestra far stronger than that which +had supported her voice when it was younger; and to a new world of +operas.--Into this she ventured with an intrepid industry not to be +overpraised--with every new part enhancing the respect of every real +lover of music.--During the short period of these new performances at +Her Majesty's Theatre, which was not equivalent to two complete Opera +seasons, not merely did Madame Sontag go through the range of her old +characters--Susanna, Rosina, Desdemona, Donna Anna, and the like--but +she presented herself in seven or eight operas which had not existed +when she left the stage--Bellini's _Sonnambula_, Donizetti's _Linda_, +_La Figlia del Reggimento_, _Don Pasquale_; _Le Tre Nozze_, of Signor +Alary, _La Tempesta_, by M. Halévy--the last two works involving what +the French call 'creation,' otherwise the production of a part never +before represented.--In one of the favourite characters of her +predecessor, the elder artist beat the younger one hollow.--This was +as Maria, in Donizetti's _La Figlia_, which Mdlle. Lind may be said to +have brought to England, and considered as her special property.... +With myself, the real value of Madame Sontag grew, night after +night--as her variety, her conscientious steadiness, and her adroit +use of diminished powers were thus mercilessly tested. In one respect, +compared with every one who had been in my time, she was alone, in +right, perhaps of the studies of her early days--as a singer of +Mozart's music." + +It was after these last London seasons that Mme. Sontag undertook an +American tour. She died in Mexico. + +The great Mme. Pasta's ill-advised return to the stage in 1850 (when +she made two belated appearances in London) is matter for sadder +comment. Chorley, indeed, is at his best when he writes of it, his pen +dipped in tears, for none had admired this artist in her prime more +passionately than he. Here was a particularly good opportunity to +study the bare skeleton of interpretative art; the result is one of +the most striking passages in all literature: + +"Her voice, which at its best, had required ceaseless watching and +practice, had been long ago given up by her. Its state of utter ruin +on the night in question passes description.--She had been neglected +by those who, at least, should have presented her person to the best +advantage admitted by Time.--Her queenly robes (she was to sing some +scenes from _Anna Bolena_) in nowise suited or disguised her figure. +Her hair-dresser had done some tremendous thing or other with her +head--or rather had left everything undone. A more painful and +disastrous spectacle could hardly be looked on.--There were artists +present, who had then, for the first time, to derive some impression +of a renowned artist--perhaps, with the natural feeling that her +reputation had been exaggerated.--Among these was Rachel--whose bitter +ridicule of the entire sad show made itself heard throughout the whole +theatre, and drew attention to the place where she sat--one might even +say, sarcastically enjoying the scene. Among the audience, however, +was another gifted woman, who might far more legitimately have been +shocked at the utter wreck of every musical means of expression in the +singer--who might have been more naturally forgiven, if some humour of +self-glorification had made her severely just--not worse--to an old +_prima donna_;--I mean Madame Viardot.--Then, and not till then, she +was hearing Madame Pasta.--But Truth will always answer to the appeal +of Truth. Dismal as was the spectacle--broken, hoarse, and destroyed +as was the voice--the great style of the singer spoke to the great +singer. The first scene was Ann Boleyn's duet with Jane Seymour. The +old spirit was heard and seen in Madame Pasta's _Sorgi!_ and the +gesture with which she signed to her penitent rival to rise. Later, +she attempted the final mad scene of the opera--that most complicated +and brilliant among the mad scenes on the modern musical stage--with +its two _cantabile_ movements, its snatches of recitative, and its +_bravura_ of despair, which may be appealed to as an example of vocal +display, till then unparagoned, when turned to the account of frenzy, +not frivolity--perhaps as such commissioned by the superb creative +artist.--By that time, tired, unprepared, in ruin as she was, she had +rallied a little. When--on Ann Boleyn's hearing the coronation music +of her rival, the heroine searches for her own crown on her +brow--Madame Pasta turned in the direction of the festive sounds, the +old irresistible charm broke out;--nay, even in the final song, with +its _roulades_, and its scales of shakes, ascending by a semi-tone, +the consummate vocalist and tragedian, able to combine form with +meaning--the moment of the situation, with such personal and musical +display as form an integral part of operatic art--was indicated: at +least to the apprehension of a younger artist.--'You are right!' was +Madame Viardot's quick and heartfelt response (her eyes were full of +tears) to a friend beside her--'You are right! It is like the +_Cenacolo_ of Da Vinci at Milan--a wreck of a picture, but the +picture is the greatest picture in the world!'" + +The great Mme. Viardot herself, whose intractable voice and noble +stage presence inevitably remind one of Mme. Pasta, took no chances +with fate. The friend of Alfred de Musset, the model for George Sand's +"Consuelo," the "creator" of Fidès in _Le Prophète_, and the singer +who, in the revival of _Orphée_ at the Théâtre Lyrique in 1859, +resuscitated Gluck's popularity in Paris, retired from the opera stage +in 1863 at the age of 43, shortly after she had appeared in _Alceste!_ +(She sang in concert occasionally until 1870 or later.) Thereafter she +divided her time principally between Baden and Paris and became the +great friend of Turgeniev. His very delightful letters to her have +been published. Idleness was abhorrent to this fine woman and in her +middle and old age she gave lessons, while singers, composers, and +conductors alike came to her for help and advice. She died in 1910 at +the age of 89. Her less celebrated brother, Manuel Garcia (less +celebrated as a singer; as a teacher he is given the credit for having +restored Jenny Lind's voice. Among his other pupils Mathilde Marchesi +and Marie Tempest may be mentioned), had died in 1906 at the age of +101. Her sister, Mme. Malibran, died very young, in the early +Nineteenth Century, before, in fact, Mme. Viardot had made her début. + +Few singers have had the wisdom to follow Mme. Viardot's excellent +example. The great Jenny Lind, long after her voice had lost its +quality, continued to sing in oratorio and concert. So did Adelina +Patti. Muriel Starr once told me of a parrot she encountered in +Australia. The poor bird had arrived at the noble age of 117 and was +entirely bereft of feathers. Flapping his stumpy wings he cried +incessantly, "I'll fly, by God, I'll fly!" So, many singers, having +lost their voices, continue to croak, "I'll sing, by God, I'll sing!" +The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, himself a man of considerable years when +he published his highly diverting "Musical Reminiscences," gives us +some extraordinary pictures of senility on the stage at the close of +the Eighteenth Century. There was, for example, the case of Cecilia +Davis, the first Englishwoman to sustain the part of prima donna and +in that situation was second only to Gabrielli, whom she even rivalled +in neatness of execution. Mount Edgcumbe found Miss Davies in +Florence, unengaged and poor. A concert was arranged at which she +appeared with her sister. Later she returned to England ... too old to +secure an engagement. "This unfortunate woman is now (in 1834) living +in London, in the extreme of old age, disease, and poverty," writes +the Earl. He also speaks of a Signora Galli, of large and masculine +figure and contralto voice, who frequently filled the part of second +man at the Opera. She had been a principal singer in Handel's +oratorios when conducted by himself. She afterwards fell into extreme +poverty, and at the age of about seventy (!!!!), was induced to come +forward to sing again at the oratorios. "I had the curiosity to go, +and heard her sing _He was despised and rejected of men_ in _The +Messiah_. Of course her voice was cracked and trembling, but it was +easy to see her school was good; and it was a pleasure to observe the +kindness with which she was received and listened to; and to mark the +animation and delight with which she seemed to hear again the music in +which she had formerly been a distinguished performer. The poor old +woman had been in the habit of coming to me annually for a trifling +present; and she told me on that occasion that nothing but the +severest distress should have compelled her so to expose herself, +which after all, did not answer to its end, as she was not paid +according to her agreement. She died shortly after." In 1783 the Earl +heard a singer named Allegranti in Dresden, then at the height of her +powers. Later she returned to England and reappeared in Cimarosa's +_Matrimonio Segreto_. "Never was there a more pitiable attempt: she +had scarcely a thread of voice remaining, nor the power to sing a note +in tune: her figure and acting were equally altered for the worse, and +after a few nights she was obliged to retire and quit the stage +altogether." The celebrated Madame Mara, after a long sojourn in +Russia, suddenly returned to England and was announced for a benefit +performance at the King's Theatre after everybody had forgotten her +existence. "She must have been at least seventy; but it was said that +her voice had miraculously returned, and was as good as ever. But when +she displayed those wonderfully revived powers, they proved, as might +have been expected, lamentably deficient, and the tones she produced +were compared to those of a _penny trumpet_. Curiosity was so little +excited that the concert was ill attended ... and Madame Mara was +heard no more. I was not so lucky (or so unlucky) as to hear these her +last notes, as it was early in the winter, and I was not in town. She +returned to Russia, and was a great sufferer by the burning of Moscow. +After that she lived at Mitlau, or some other town near the Baltic, +where she died at a great age, not many years ago." + +Here is Michael Kelly's account of the same event: "With all her great +skill and knowledge of the world, Madame Mara was induced, by the +advice of some of her mistaken friends, to give a public concert at +the King's Theatre, in her seventy-second year, when, in the course of +nature her powers had failed her. It was truly grievous to see such +transcendent talents as she once possessed, so sunk--so fallen. I used +every effort in my power to prevent her committing herself, but in +vain. Among other arguments to draw her from her purpose, I told her +what happened to Monbelli, one of the first tenors of his day, who +lost all his well-earned reputation and fame, by rashly performing the +part of a lover, at the Pergola Theatre, at Florence, in his +seventieth year, having totally lost his voice. On the stage, he was +hissed; and the following lines, lampooning his attempt, were chalked +on his house-door, as well as upon the walls of the city:-- + + _'All' età di settanta + Non si ama, nè si canta.'"_ + +W. T. Parke, forty years principal oboe player at Covent Garden +Theatre, is kinder to Madame Mara in his "Musical Memoirs," but it +must be taken into account that he is kinder to every one else, too. +There is little of the acrimonious or the fault-finding note in his +pages. This is his version of the affair: "That extraordinary singer +of former days, Madame Mara, who had passed the last eighteen years in +Russia, and who had lately arrived in England, gave a concert at the +King's Theatre on the 6th of March (1820), which highly excited the +curiosity of the musical public. On that occasion she sang some of her +best airs; and though her powers were greatly inferior to what they +were in her zenith, yet the same pure taste pervaded her performance. +Whether vanity or interest stimulated Mara at her time of life to that +undertaking, it would be difficult to determine; but whichsoever had +the ascendency, her reign was short; for by singing one night +afterwards at the vocal concert, the veil which had obscured her +judgment was removed, and she retired to enjoy in private life those +comforts which her rare talent had procured for her." + +Parke also speaks of a Mrs. Pinto, "the once celebrated Miss Brent, +the original Mandane in Arne's _Artaxerxes_," who appeared in 1785 at +the age of nearly seventy in Milton's _Mask of Comus_ at a benefit for +a Mr. Hull, "the respectable stage-manager of Covent Garden Theatre." +She was to sing the song of Sweet Echo and as Parke was to play the +responses to her voice on the oboe he repaired to her house for +rehearsal. "Although nearly seventy years old, her voice possessed the +remains of those qualities for which it had been so much +celebrated,--power, flexibility, and sweetness. On the night _Comus_ +was performed she sung with an unexpected degree of excellence, and +was loudly applauded. This old lady, as a singer, gave me the idea of +a fine piece of ruins, which though considerably dilapidated, still +displayed some of its original beauties." + +The celebrated Faustina, whose quarrel with Cuzzoni is as famous in +the history of music as the war between Gluck and Piccinni, was less +daring. Dr. Burney visited her when she was seventy-two years old and +asked her to sing. "Alas, I cannot," she replied, "I have lost all my +faculties." + +La Camargo, the favourite dancer of Paris in the early Eighteenth +Century, the inventor, indeed of the short ballet skirt, and the +possessor of many lovers, retired from the stage in 1751 with a large +fortune, besides a pension of fifteen hundred francs. Thenceforth she +led a secluded life. She was an assiduous visitor to the poor of her +parish and she kept a dozen dogs and an angora cat which she +overwhelmed with affection. In that quaint book, "The Powder Puff," by +Franz Blei, you may find a most charming description of a call paid to +the lady in 1768 in her little old house in the Rue St. Thomas du +Louvre, by Duclos, Grimm, and Helvetius, who had come in bantering +mood to ask her whom, in her past life, she had loved best. Her reply +touched these men, who took their leave. "Helvetius told Camargo's +story to his wife; Grimm made a note of it for his Court Journal; and +as for Duclos, it suggested some moral reflections to him, for when, +two years later, Mlle. Marianne Camargo was carried to her grave, he +remarked: 'It is quite fitting to give her a white pall like a +virgin.'" + +Sophie Arnould, one of the most celebrated actresses and singers of +the Eighteenth Century, died in poverty at the age of 63 and there is +no record of her burial place. She had been the friend of Voltaire, +Rousseau, d'Alembert, Diderot, Helvetius, and the Baron d'Holbach. She +had "created" Gluck's _Iphigénie en Aulide_ and the composer had said +of her, "If it had not been for the voice and elocution of Mlle. +Arnould, my _Iphigénie_ would never have been performed in France." In +her youth she had interested not only Marie Antoinette but also the +King, and she had been the object of Mme. de Pompadour's suspicion +and Mme. du Barry's rage. Garrick declared her a better actress than +Clairon. She was as famous for her wit as for her singing and acting. +When Mme. Laguerre appeared drunk in _Iphigénie en Tauride_ she +exclaimed, "Why this is _Iphigénie en Champagne_!" Indeed, she made so +many remarks worthy of preservation that shortly after her death in +1802, a book called "Arnoldiana," devoted to her epigrams, was +issued.... Nevertheless, this lady was hissed at the age of 36, when, +after a short absence from the stage she reappeared as Iphigénie in +1776. She was neither old nor ugly and if her voice may have lost +something her nineteen years of stage life in Paris might have weighed +against that. On one occasion, according to La Harpe, when she had the +line to sing, "You long for me to be gone," the audience applauded +vociferously. To protect Sophie, Marie Antoinette sat in a box on +several nights and stemmed the storm of disapproval, but in the end +even the presence of the queen herself was insufficient to quell the +hissing. One sad story completes the picture. In 1785, when her +financial troubles were beginning, her two sons, who bore her no love, +called for money. She had none to give them. "There are two horses +left in the stable," she said. "Take those." They rode away on the +horses. + +Latin audiences are notoriously unfaithful to their stage favourites. +In "The Innocents Abroad" Mark Twain tells us of the bad manners of an +Italian audience. The singer he mentions is Erminia Frezzolini, born +at Orvieto in 1818. She sang both in England and America. Chorley said +of her: "She was an elegant, tall woman, born with a lovely voice, and +bred with great vocal skill (of a certain order); but she was the +first who arrived of the 'young Italians'--of those who fancy that +driving the voice to its extremities can stand in the stead of +passion. But she was, nevertheless, a real singer, and her art stood +her in stead for some years after nature broke down. When she had left +her scarce a note of her rich and real soprano voice to scream with, +Madame Frezzolini was still charming." She died in Paris, November 5, +1884. Now for Mark Twain: + +"I said I knew nothing against the upper classes from personal +observation. I must recall it. I had forgotten. What I saw their +bravest and their fairest do last night, the lowest multitude that +could be scraped out of the purlieus of Christendom would blush to do, +I think. They assembled by hundreds, and even thousands, in the great +Theatre of San Carlo to do--what? Why simply to make fun of an old +woman--to deride, to hiss, to jeer at an actress they once worshipped, +but whose beauty is faded now, and whose voice has lost its former +richness. Everybody spoke of the rare sport there was to be. They said +the theatre would be crammed because Frezzolini was going to sing. It +was said she could not sing well now, but then the people liked to see +her, anyhow. And so we went. And every time the woman sang they hissed +and laughed--the whole magnificent house--and as soon as she left the +stage they called her on again with applause. Once or twice she was +encored five and six times in succession, and received with hisses +when she appeared, and discharged with hisses and laughter when she +had finished--then instantly encored and insulted again! And how the +high-born knaves enjoyed it! White-kidded gentlemen and ladies laughed +till the tears came, and clapped their hands in very ecstasy when that +unhappy old woman would come meekly out for the sixth time, with +uncomplaining patience, to meet a storm of hisses! It was the +cruellest exhibition--the most wanton, the most unfeeling. The singer +would have conquered an audience of American rowdies by her brave, +unflinching tranquillity (for she answered encore after encore, and +smiled and bowed pleasantly, and sang the best she possibly could, and +went bowing off, through all the jeers and hisses, without ever losing +countenance or temper); and surely in any other land than Italy her +sex and her helplessness must have been an ample protection for +her--she could have needed no other. Think what a multitude of small +souls were crowded into that theatre last night!" + +English audiences, on the other hand, are notoriously friendly to +their old favourites. When Dr. Hanslick, the Viennese critic, visited +England and heard Sims Reeves singing before crowded houses as he had +been doing for forty or fifty years, he remarked, "It is not easy to +win the favour of the English public; to lose it is quite impossible." + +Mme. Grisi made her last appearance in London in 1866 at the theatre +she had left twenty years previously, Her Majesty's. The opera was +_Lucrezia Borgia_. At the end of the first act she miscalculated the +depth of the apron and the descending curtain left her outside on her +knees. She had stiffness in her joints and was unable to rise without +assistance.... This situation must have been very embarassing to a +singer who previously had been an idol of the public. In the +passionate duet with the tenor she made an unsuccessful attempt to +reach the A natural. Notwithstanding the fact that she was well +received and that she got through with the greater part of the opera +with credit, her impressario, J. H. Mapleson, relates in his "Memoirs" +that after the final curtain had fallen she rushed to tell him that it +was all over and that she would never appear again. In "Student and +Singer" Charles Santley writes of the occasion: "I had been singing at +the Crystal Palace concert in the afternoon, and after dining there I +went up to the theatre to see a little of the performance. I felt very +sorry for Grisi that she had been induced to appear again; it was a +sad sight for any one who had known her in her prime, and even long +past it." + +However, even English audiences can be cold. John E. Cox, in his +"Musical Recollections," recalls an earlier occasion when Grisi sang +at the Crystal Palace without much success (July 31, 1861): "On +retiring from the orchestra, after a peculiarly cold reception--as +unkind as it was inconsiderate, seeing what the career of this +remarkable woman had been--there was not a single person at the foot +of the orchestra to receive or to accompany her to her retiring room! +I could imagine what her feelings at that moment must have been--she +who had in former years been accustomed to be thronged, wherever she +appeared, and to be the recipient of adulation--often as exaggerated +as it was fulsome--but who was now literally deserted. With +Grisi--although I had been once or twice introduced to her--I never +had any personal acquaintance. I could not, however, resist the +impulse of preceding her, without obtruding myself on her notice, and +opening the door of the retiring room for her, which was situated at +some considerable distance from the orchestra. Her look as I did this, +and she passed out of sight, is amongst the most painful of my +'Recollections.'" + +German audiences are usually kind to their favourites. In America we +adopt neither the attitude of the English and Germans, nor yet that of +the Italians and French. We simply stay away from the theatre. Mark +Twain has put it succinctly, "When a singer has lost his voice and a +jumper his legs, those parties fail to draw." + +Benjamin Lumley in his "Reminiscences of the Opera," quoting an +anonymous friend, relates a touching story regarding Catalani, who was +born in 1779 and who retired from the stage in 1831. When Jenny Lind +visited Paris in the spring of 1849 she learned to her astonishment +that Catalani was in the French capital. The old singer, who resided +habitually in Florence, had come to Paris with her daughter who, as +the widow of a Frenchman, was obliged to go through certain legal +forms before taking possession of her share of her husband's property. +Through a friend of both ladies it was arranged that the two should +meet at a dinner at the home of the Marquis of Normansby, the English +ambassador to the Tuscan court, but the Swedish singer could not +restrain her impatience and before that event she set out one forenoon +for Mme. Catalani's apartment in the Rue de la Paix and sent in her +name by a servant. The old singer hastened out to greet her +distinguished visitor with obvious delight. She had known nothing of +Mlle. Lind's presence in Paris and had feared that such a chance would +never befall her, much as she had longed to see the celebrated singer +who had excited the English public in a way which recalled her own +past triumphs and who rivalled her in her purity and her charity. They +talked together for an hour.... At the dinner the Marchioness of +Normansby considerately refrained from asking Jenny Lind to sing, +because no one is allowed to refuse such an invitation made by a +representative of royalty. Catalani, however, had no such scruples. +She went up to the Nightingale and begged her to sing, adding, +"_C'est la vieille Catalini qui desire vous entendre chanter, avant de +mourir!_" This appeal was irresistible. Jenny Lind sat down to the +piano and sang _Non credea mirarti_ and one or two other airs, +including _Ah! non giunge_. Catalani is described as sitting on an +ottoman in the centre of the room, rocking her body to and fro with +delight and sympathy, murmuring, "_Ah la bella cosa che la musica, +quando si fà di quella maniera!_" and again "_Ah! la carissima! quanto +bellissima!_" A dinner at Catalani's apartment followed, but a few +days later it became known that the old singer was ill, an illness +which proved fatal. She had, however, heard the Swedish Nightingale +sing "_avant de mourir_." + +William Gardiner visited Madame Catalani in 1846. "I was surprised at +the vigour of Madame Catalani," he says, "and how little she has +altered since I saw her in Derby in 1828. I paid her a compliment on +her good looks. 'Ah,' said she, 'I'm sixty-six!' She has lost none of +that commanding expression which gave her such dignity on the stage. +She is without a wrinkle, and appears to be no more than forty. Her +breadth of chest is still remarkable: it is this which endowed her +with the finest voice that ever sang. Her speaking voice and dramatic +air are still charming, and not in the least impaired." + +Is Christine Nilsson still alive? I think so. She was born August 20, +1843. In Clara Louise Kellogg's very entertaining, but not always +trustworthy, "Memoirs" there is an interesting reference to this +singer in her later career. Dates, unfortunately, are not furnished. +"I was present," declares Mme. Kellogg, "on the night ... when she +practically murdered the high register of her voice. She had five +upper notes the quality of which was unlike any other I ever heard and +that possessed a peculiar charm. The tragedy happened during a +performance of _The Magic Flute_ in London.... Nilsson was the Queen +of the Night, one of her most successful early rôles. The second aria +in _The Magic Flute_ is more famous and less difficult than the first +aria, and also, more effective. Nilsson knew well the ineffectiveness +of the ending of the first aria in the two weakest notes of a +soprano's voice, A natural and B flat. I never could understand why a +master like Mozart should have chosen to use them as he did. There is +no climax to the song. One has to climb up hard and fast and then stop +short in the middle. It is an appalling thing to do and that night +Nilsson took those two notes at the last in _chest tones_. 'Great +heavens!' I gasped, 'what is she doing? What is the woman thinking +of!' Of course I knew she was doing it to get volume and vibration and +to give that trying climax some character. But to say that it was a +fatal attempt is to put it mildly. She absolutely killed a certain +quality in her voice there and then and she _never recovered it_. Even +that night she had to cut out the second great aria. Her beautiful +high notes were gone forever." As I have said, the date of this +incident, which, so far as I know, is not recorded elsewhere, is not +mentioned, but Christine Nilsson sang in New York in the early +Eighties and continued to sing until 1891, the year of her final +appearance in London. + +Adelina Patti, born the same year as Nilsson but six months before +(February 10, 1843; according to some records, which by no means go +undisputed, a quartet of famous singers came into the world this year. +The other two were Ilma de Murska and Pauline Lucca) made many +farewell tours of this country ... one too many in 1903-4, when she +displayed the _beaux restes_ of her voice. She is living at present in +retirement at Craig-y-Nos in Wales. Her greatest rival, Etelka +Gerster, too, is alive, I believe. + +Lilli Lehmann, one of the oldest of the living great singers, was +born May 13, 1848. She was a member of the famous casts which +introduced many of the Wagner works to New York. Her last appearances +in opera here were made, I think, in the late Nineties, but she has +sung here since in concert and in Germany she has frequently assisted +at the performances of the Mozart festivals at Salzburg and has even +sung in _Norma_ and _Götterdämmerung_ within recent years! Her head is +now crowned with white hair and her noble appearance and magnificent +style in singing have doubtless stood her in good stead at these +belated performances, which probably were disappointing, judged as +vocal exhibitions. + +Lillian Nordica had a long career. She was born May 12, 1859, and made +her operatic début in Brescia in _La Traviata_ in 1879. She continued +to sing up to the time of her death in Batavia, Java, May 10, 1914. +Indeed she was then undertaking a concert tour of the world at the age +of 55! But the artist, who in the Nineties had held the Metropolitan +Opera House stage with honour in the great dramatic rôles, had very +little to offer in her last years. Never a great musician, defects in +style began to make themselves evident as her vocal powers decreased. +Her season at the Manhattan Opera House in 1907-8 was quickly and +unpleasantly terminated. A subsequent single appearance as Isolde at +the Metropolitan in the winter of 1909-10 was even less successful. +The voice had lost its resonance, the singer her appeal. Her +magnificent courage and indomitable ambition urged her on to the end. + +Two singers whose voices have been miraculously preserved, who have +indeed suffered little from the ravages of time, are Marcella Sembrich +and Nellie Melba. Both of these singers, however, have consistently +refrained from misusing their voices (if one may except the one +occasion on which Mme. Melba attempted to sing Brünnhilde in +_Siegfried_ with disastrous results). Mme. Melba (according to Grove's +Dictionary, which, like all other books devoted to the subject of +music, is frequently inaccurate) was born in Australia, May 19, 1859. +Therefore she was 28 years old when she made her début in Brussels as +Gilda on October 12, 1887. She has used her voice carefully and well +and still sings in concert and opera at the age of 59. With the +advance of age, indeed, her voice began to take on colour. When she +sang here in opera at the Manhattan Opera House in 1906-7 she was in +her best vocal estate. Her voice, originally rather pale, had become +mellow and rich, although it is possible it had lost some of its old +remarkable agility. When last I listened to her in concert, a few +years ago at the Hippodrome, it seemed to me that I had never before +heard so beautiful a voice, and yet Mme. Melba sang in the first +performance of opera I ever attended (Chicago Auditorium; _Faust_, +February 22, 1899). + +According to H. T. Finck, Caruso once said, "When you hear that an +artist is going to retire, don't you believe it, for as long as he +keeps his voice he will sing. You may depend upon that." Sometimes, +indeed, longer. Mme. Melba made a belated and unfortunate attempt to +sing Marguerite in _Faust_ with the Chicago Opera Company, Monday +evening, February 4, 1918, at the Lexington Theatre, New York. She +sang with some art and style; her tone was still pure and her +wonderful enunciation still remained a feature of her performance but +scarcely a shadow of the beautiful voice I can remember so well was +left. As if to atone for vocal deficiencies the singer made histrionic +efforts such as she had never deemed necessary during the height of +her career. Her meeting with Faust in the Kermesse scene was +accomplished with modesty that almost became fright. She nearly danced +the jewel song and embraced the tenor with passion in the love duet. +In the church scene, overcome with terror at the sight of +Méphistophélès, she flung her prayer book across the stage.... Her +appearance was almost shocking and the first lines of the part of +Marguerite, "_Non monsieur, je ne suis demoiselle, ni belle_" had a +merciless application. However, the audience received her with +kindness, more with a certain sort of enthusiasm. She reappeared again +in the same opera on Thursday evening, February 14, 1918, but on this +occasion I did not hear her. + +Marcella Sembrich was born February 15, 1858. She made her début in +Athens in _I Puritani_, June 8, 1877, and she made her New York début +in _Lucia_ October 24, 1883, at the beginning of the first season of +the Metropolitan Opera House. After a long absence she returned to New +York in 1898 as Rosina in _Il Barbiere_. After that year she sang +pretty steadily at the Metropolitan until February 6, 1909, when, at +the age of 51 (or lacking nine days of it), she bid farewell to the +New York opera stage in acts from several of her favourite operas. She +subsequently sang in a few performances of opera in Europe and was +heard in song recital in America. When she left the opera house she +had no rival in vocal artistry; and she had so satisfactorily solved +the problems of style in singing certain kinds of songs that she also +surveyed the field of song recital from a mountain top.... But such a +singer as Mme. Sembrich, who made her appeal through the expression of +the milder emotions, who never, indeed, attempted to touch dramatic +depths, even style, in the end, will not assist. Magnificent Lilli +Lehmann might make a certain effect in _Götterdämmerung_ so long as +she had a leg to stand on or a note to croak, but an adequate delivery +of _Der Nussbaum_ or _Wie Melodien_ demands a vocal control which a +singer past middle age is not always sure of possessing.... After a +long retirement, Mme. Sembrich gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, +November 21, 1915. The house was crowded and the applause at the +beginning must almost have unnerved the singer, who walked slowly +towards the front of the platform as the storm burst and then bowed +her head again and again. Her program on this occasion was not one of +her best. She had not chosen familiar songs in which to return to her +public. This may in a measure account for her lack of success in +always calling forth steady tones. However, on the whole, her voice +sounded amazingly fresh. Her high notes especially rang true and +resonant as ever. Her middle voice showed wear. Her style remained +impeccable, unrivalled.... She announced, following this concert, a +series of four recitals in a small hall and actually appeared at one +of them. This time I did not hear her, but I am told that her voice +refused to respond to her wishes. Nor was the hall filled. The +remaining concerts were abandoned. "Mme. Sembrich has never been a +failure and she is too old to begin now!" she is reported to have said +to a friend. + +Emma Calvé's date of birth is recorded as 1864 in some of the musical +dictionaries. This would make her 53 years old. Her singing of the +_Marseillaise_ a year ago at the Allies Bazaar at the Grand Central +Palace proved to me that her retirement from the Opera was premature. +Her performances at the Manhattan Opera House in 1906-7 were +memorable, vocally superb. Her Carmen was out of drawing dramatically, +but her Anita and her Santuzza remained triumphs of stage craft. + +Emma Eames, born August 13, 1867, is three years younger than Mme. +Calvé. She made her début as Juliette, March 13, 1889. She retired +from the opera stage in 1907-8, although she has sung since then a few +times in concert. Her last appearances at the Opera were made in +dramatic rôles, Donna Anna, Leonora (in _Trovatore_), and Tosca, in +contradistinction to the lyric parts in which she gained her early +fame. That she was entirely successful in compassing the breach cannot +be said in all justice. Yet there was a certain distinction in her +manner, a certain acid quality in her voice, that gave force to these +characterizations. Certainly, however, no one would ever have compared +her Donna Anna favourably with her Countess in _Figaro_. Her +performance of _Or sai chi l'onore_ was deficient in breadth of style +and her lack of breath control at this period gave uncertainty to her +execution. + +Life teaches us, through experience, that no rule is infallible, but +insofar as I am able to give a meaning to these rambling biographical +notes, collected, I may as well admit, more to interest my reader than +to prove anything, it is the meaning, sounded with a high note of +truth, by Arthur Symons, in the paragraph quoted at the beginning of +this essay. Style is a rare quality in a singer. With it in his +possession an artist may dare much for a long time. Without it he +exists as long as those qualities which are perfectly natural to him +exist. A voice fades, but a manner of applying that voice (even when +there is practically no voice to apply) to an artistic problem has an +indefinite term of life. + +Yvette Guilbert once told me that crossing the Atlantic with Duse on +one occasion she had asked the Italian actress if she were going to +include _La Dame aux Camélias_ in her American repertory. "I am too +old to play Marguerite ..." was the sad response. "She was right," +said Guilbert, in relating the incident, "she was too old; she was +born too old ... in spirit. Now when I am sixty-three I shall begin to +impersonate children. I grow younger every year!" + + _September 12, 1917._ + + + + +Impressions in the Theatre + + + + +I + +The Land of Joy + + _"Dancing is something more than an amusement in Spain. It + is part of that solemn ritual which enters into the whole + life of the people. It expresses their very spirit."_ + + Havelock Ellis. + + +An idle observer of theatrical conditions might derive a certain +ironic pleasure from remarking the contradiction implied in the +professed admiration of the constables of the playhouse for the +unconventional and their almost passionate adoration for the +conventional. We constantly hear it said that the public cries for +novelty, and just as constantly we see the same kind of acting, the +same gestures, the same Julian Mitchellisms and George Marionisms and +Ned Wayburnisms repeated in and out of season, summer and winter. +Indeed, certain conventions (which bore us even now) are so deeply +rooted in the soil of our theatre that I see no hope of their being +eradicated before the year 1999, at which date other conventions will +have supplanted them and will likewise have become tiresome. + +In this respect our theatre does not differ materially from the +theatres of other countries except in one particular. In Europe the +juxtaposition of nations makes an interchange of conventions possible, +which brings about slow change or rapid revolution. Paris, for +example, has received visits from the Russian Ballet which almost +assumed the proportions of Tartar invasions. London, too, has been +invaded by the Russians and by the Irish. The Irish playwrights, +indeed, are continually pounding away at British middle-class +complacency. Germany, in turn, has been invaded by England (we regret +that this sentence has only an artistic and figurative significance), +and we find Max Reinhardt well on his way toward giving a complete +cycle of the plays of Shakespeare; a few years ago we might have +observed Deutschland groveling hysterically before Oscar Wilde's +_Salome_, a play which, at least without its musical dress, has not, I +believe, even yet been performed publicly in London. In Italy, of +course, there are no artistic invasions (nobody cares to pay for them) +and even the conventions of the Italian theatre themselves, such as +the _Commedia del' Arte_, are quite dead; so the country remains as +dormant, artistically speaking, as a rag rug, until an enthusiast like +Marinetti arises to take it between his teeth and shake it back into +rags again. + +Very often whisperings of art life in the foreign theatre (such as +accounts of Stanislavski's accomplishments in Moscow) cross the +Atlantic. Very often the husks of the realities (as was the case with +the Russian Ballet) are imported. But whispers and husks have about as +much influence as the "New York Times" in a mayoralty campaign, and as +a result we find the American theatre as little aware of world +activities in the drama as a deaf mute living on a pole in the desert +of Sahara would be. Indeed any intrepid foreign investigator who +wishes to study the American drama, American acting, and American +stage decoration will find them in almost as virgin a condition as +they were in the time of Lincoln. + +A few rude assaults have been made on this smug eupepsy. I might +mention the coming of Paul Orleneff, who left Alla Nazimova with us to +be eventually swallowed up in the conventional American theatre. Four +or five years ago a company of Negro players at the Lafayette Theatre +gave a performance of a musical revue that boomed like the big bell in +the Kremlin at Moscow. Nobody could be deaf to the sounds. Florenz +Ziegfeld took over as many of the tunes and gestures as he could buy +for his _Follies_ of that season, but he neglected to import the one +essential quality of the entertainment, its style, for the +exploitation of which Negro players were indispensable. For the past +two months Mimi Aguglia, one of the greatest actresses of the world, +has been performing in a succession of classic and modern plays (a +repertory comprising dramas by Shakespeare, d'Annunzio, and Giacosa) +at the Garibaldi Theatre, on East Fourth Street, before very large and +very enthusiastic audiences, but uptown culture and managerial acumen +will not awaken to the importance of this gesture until they read +about it in some book published in 1950.... + +All of which is merely by way of prelude to what I feel must be +something in the nature of lyric outburst and verbal explosion. A few +nights ago a Spanish company, unheralded, unsung, indeed almost +unwelcomed by such reviewers as had to trudge to the out-of-the-way +Park Theatre, came to New York, in a musical revue entitled _The Land +of Joy_. The score was written by Joaquín Valverde, _fils_, whose +music is not unknown to us, and the company included La Argentina, a +Spanish dancer who had given matinees here in a past season without +arousing more than mild enthusiasm. The theatrical impressarii, the +song publishers, and the Broadway rabble stayed away on the first +night. It was all very well, they might have reasoned, to read about +the goings on in Spain, but they would never do in America. Spanish +dancers had been imported in the past without awakening undue +excitement. Did not the great Carmencita herself visit America twenty +or more years ago? These impressarii had ignored the existence of a +great psychological (or more properly physiological) truth: you cannot +mix Burgundy and Beer! One Spanish dancer surrounded by Americans is +just as much lost as the great Nijinsky himself was in an English +music hall, where he made a complete and dismal failure. And so they +would have been very much astonished (had they been present) on the +opening night to have witnessed all the scenes of uncontrollable +enthusiasm--just as they are described by Havelock Ellis, Richard +Ford, and Chabrier--repeated. The audience, indeed, became hysterical, +and broke into wild cries of _Ole! Ole!_ Hats were thrown on the +stage. The audience became as abandoned as the players, became a part +of the action. + +You will find all this described in "The Soul of Spain," in +"Gatherings from Spain," in Chabrier's letters, and it had all been +transplanted to New York almost without a whisper of preparation, +which is fortunate, for if it had been expected, doubtless we would +have found the way to spoil it. Fancy the average New York first-night +audience, stiff and unbending, sceptical and sardonic, welcoming this +exhibition! Havelock Ellis gives an ingenious explanation for the fact +that Spanish dancing has seldom if ever successfully crossed the +border of the Iberian peninsula: "The finest Spanish dancing is at +once killed or degraded by the presence of an indifferent or +unsympathetic public, and that is probably why it cannot be +transplanted, but remains local." Fortunately the Spaniards in the +first-night audience gave the cue, unlocked the lips and loosened the +hands of us cold Americans. For my part, I was soon yelling _Ole!_ +louder than anybody else. + +The dancer, Doloretes, is indeed extraordinary. The gipsy fascination, +the abandoned, perverse bewitchery of this female devil of the dance +is not to be described by mouth, typewriter, or quilled pen. Heine +would have put her at the head of his dancing temptresses in his +ballet of _Méphistophéla_ (found by Lumley too indecent for +representation at Her Majesty's Theatre, for which it was written; in +spite of which the scenario was published in the respectable "Revue de +Deux Mondes"). In this ballet a series of dancing celebrities are +exhibited by the female Méphistophélès for the entertainment of her +victim. After Salome had twisted her flanks and exploited the prowess +of her abdominal muscles to perfunctory applause, Doloretes would have +heated the blood, not only of Faust, but of the ladies and gentlemen +in the orchestra stalls, with the clicking of her heels, the clacking +of her castanets, now held high over head, now held low behind her +back, the flashing of her ivory teeth, the shrill screaming, electric +magenta of her smile, the wile of her wriggle, the passion of her +performance. And close beside her the sinuous Mazantinita would flaunt +a garish tambourine and wave a shrieking fan. All inanimate objects, +shawls, mantillas, combs, and cymbals, become inflamed with life, once +they are pressed into the service of these señoritas, languorous and +forbidding, indifferent and sensuous. Against these rude gipsies the +refined grace and Goyaesque elegance of La Argentina stand forth in +high relief, La Argentina, in whose hands the castanets become as +potent an instrument for our pleasure as the violin does in the +fingers of Jascha Heifetz. Bilbao, too, with his thundering heels and +his tauromachian gestures, bewilders our highly magnetized senses. +When, in the dance, he pursues, without catching, the elusive +Doloretes, it would seem that the limit of dynamic effects in the +theatre had been reached. + +Here are singers! The limpid and lovely soprano of the comparatively +placid Maria Marco, who introduces figurations into the brilliant +music she sings at every turn. One indecent (there is no other word +for it) chromatic oriental phrase is so strange that none of us can +ever recall it or forget it! And the frantically nervous Luisita +Puchol, whose eyelids spring open like the cover of a Jack-in-the-box, +and whose hands flutter like saucy butterflies, sings suggestive +popular ditties just a shade better than any one else I know of. + +But _The Land of Joy_ does not rely on one or two principals for its +effect. The organization as a whole is as full of fire and purpose as +the original Russian Ballet; the costumes themselves, in their +blazing, heated colours, constitute the ingredients of an orgy; the +music, now sentimental (the adaptability of Valverde, who has lived in +Paris, is little short of amazing; there is a vocal waltz in the style +of Arditi that Mme. Patti might have introduced into the lesson scene +of _Il Barbiere_; there is another song in the style of George M. +Cohan--these by way of contrast to the Iberian music), now pulsing +with rhythmic life, is the best Spanish music we have yet heard in +this country. The whole entertainment, music, colours, costumes, +songs, dances, and all, is as nicely arranged in its crescendos and +decrescendos, its prestos and adagios as a Mozart finale. The close of +the first act, in which the ladies sweep the stage with long ruffled +trains, suggestive of all the Manet pictures you have ever seen, would +seem to be unapproachable, but the most striking costumes and the +wildest dancing are reserved for the very last scene of all. There +these bewildering señoritas come forth in the splendourous envelope of +embroidered Manila shawls, and such shawls! Prehistoric African roses +of unbelievable measure decorate a texture of turquoise, from which +depends nearly a yard of silken fringe. In others mingle royal purple +and buff, orange and white, black and the kaleidoscope! The revue, a +sublimated form of zarzuela, is calculated, indeed, to hold you in a +dangerous state of nervous excitement during the entire evening, to +keep you awake for the rest of the night, and to entice you to the +theatre the next night and the next. It is as intoxicating as vodka, +as insidious as cocaine, and it is likely to become a habit, like +these stimulants. I have found, indeed, that it appeals to all classes +of taste, from that of a telephone operator, whose usual artistic +debauch is the latest antipyretic novel of Robert W. Chambers, to that +of the frequenter of the concert halls. + +I cannot resist further cataloguing; details shake their fists at my +memory; for instance, the intricate rhythms of Valverde's elaborately +syncopated music (not at all like ragtime syncopation), the thrilling +orchestration (I remember one dance which is accompanied by drum taps +and oboe, nothing else!), the utter absence of tangos (which are +Argentine), and habaneras (which are Cuban), most of the music being +written in two-four and three-four time, and the interesting use of +folk-tunes; the casual and very suggestive indifference of the +dancers, while they are not dancing, seemingly models for a dozen +Zuloaga paintings, the apparently inexhaustible skill and variety of +these dancers in action, winding ornaments around the melodies with +their feet and bodies and arms and heads and castanets as coloratura +sopranos do with their voices. Sometimes castanets are not used; +cymbals supplant them, or tambourines, or even fingers. Once, by some +esoteric witchcraft, the dancers seemed to tap upon their arms. The +effect was so stupendous and terrifying that I could not project +myself into that aloof state of mind necessary for a calm dissection +of its technique. + +What we have been thinking of all these years in accepting the +imitation and ignoring the actuality I don't know; it has all been +down in black and white. What Richard Ford saw and wrote down in 1846 +I am seeing and writing down in 1917. How these devilish Spaniards +have been able to keep it up all this time I can't imagine. Here we +have our paradox. Spain has changed so little that Ford's book is +still the best to be procured on the subject (you may spend many a +delightful half-hour with the charming irony of its pages for +company). Spanish dancing is apparently what it was a hundred years +ago; no wind from the north has disturbed it. Stranger still, it +depends for its effect on the acquirement of a brilliant technique. +Merely to play the castanets requires a severe tutelage. And yet it is +all as spontaneous, as fresh, as unstudied, as vehement in its appeal, +even to Spaniards, as it was in the beginning. Let us hope that Spain +will have no artistic reawakening. + +Aristotle and Havelock Ellis and Louis Sherwin have taught us that the +theatre should be an outlet for suppressed desires. So, indeed, the +ideal theatre should. As a matter of fact, in most playhouses (I will +generously refrain from naming the one I visited yesterday) I am +continually suppressing a desire to strangle somebody or other, but +after a visit to the Spaniards I walk out into Columbus Circle +completely purged of pity and fear, love, hate, and all the rest. It +is an experience. + + _November 3, 1917._ + + + + +II + +A Note on Mimi Aguglia + + _"Art has to do only with the creation of beauty, whether it + be in words, or sounds, or colour, or outline, or rhythmical + movement; and the man who writes music is no more truly an + artist than the man who plays that music, the poet who + composes rhythms in words no more truly an artist than the + dancer who composes rhythms with the body, and the one is no + more to be preferred to the other, than the painter is to be + preferred to the sculptor, or the musician to the poet, in + those forms of art which we have agreed to recognize as of + equal value."_ + + Arthur Symons. + + +The only George Jean, "witty, wise, and cruel," and the "amaranthine" +Louis Sherwin, who understands better than anybody else how to plunge +the rapier into the vulnerable spot and twist it in the wound, making +the victim writhe, have been having some fun with the art of acting +lately, or to be exact, with the art of actors. Now actor-baiting is +no new game; as a winter sport it is as popular as making jokes about +mothers-in-law, decrying the art of Bouguereau or Howard Chandler +Christy, or discussing the methods of Mr. Belasco. Ever so long ago +(and George Henry Lewes preceded him) George Moore wrote an article +called "Mummer Worship," holding the players up to ridicule, but +George really adores the theatre and even acting, goes to the +playhouse constantly, and writes a bad play himself every few years. +None of these has achieved success on the stage. The list includes +_Martin Luther_, written with a collaborator, _The Strike at +Arlingford_, _The Bending of the Bough_ (Moore's version of a play by +Edwin Martyn), a dramatization of "Esther Waters," _Elizabeth Cooper_, +and the fragment, _The Apostle_, on which "The Brook Kerith," was +based. Now he is at work turning the novel back into another play.... +When the Sunday editor of a newspaper is at his wit's end he +invariably sends a competent reporter to collect data for a symposium +on one of two topics, Is the author or the player more important? or +Does the stage director make the actor? The amount of amusement this +reporter can derive in gathering indignant replies from mountebanks +and scribblers is only limited by his own sense of humour. Even the +late Sir Henry Irving felt compelled on more than one occasion to +defend his "noble calling." + +The actor, when he slaps back, usually overlooks the point at issue, +but sometimes he has something to say over which we may well ponder. +Witness, for example, the following passage, quoted from that justly +celebrated compendium of personal opinions and broad-shaft wit called +"Nat Goodwin's Book": "The average author and manager of today are +prone to advertise themselves as conspicuously as the play (as if the +public cared a snap who wrote the play or who 'presents'). I doubt if +five per cent of the public know who wrote 'The Second Mrs. +Tanqueray,' 'In Mizzoura,' or 'Richelieu,' but they know their stage +favourites. I wonder how many mantels are adorned with pictures of the +successful dramatist and those who 'present' and how many there are on +which appear Maude Adams, Dave Warfield, Billie Burke, John Drew, +Bernhardt, Duse, and hundreds of other distinguished players." + +It is principally urged against the claims of acting as an art that a +young person without previous experience or training can make an +immediate (and sometimes lasting) effect upon the stage, whereas in +the preparation for any other art (even the interpretative arts) years +of training are necessary. This premise is full of holes; nevertheless +George Moore, and Messrs. Nathan and Sherwin all cling to it. It is +true that almost any young girl, moderately gifted with charm or +comeliness, may make an instantaneous impression on our stage, +especially in the namby-pamby rôles which our playwrights usually give +her to play. But she is soon found out. She may still attract +audiences (as George Barr McCutcheon and Alma Tadema still attract +audiences) but the discerning part of the public will take no joy in +seeing her. Charles Frohman said (and he ought to know) that the +average life of a female star on the American stage was ten years; in +other words, her career continued as long as her youth and physical +charms remained potent. + +We have easily accounted for the unimportant actors, the rank and +file, but what about those who immediately claim positions which they +hold in spite of their lack of previous training? These are rarer. At +the moment, indeed, I cannot think of any. For while genius often +manifests itself early in a career, the great actors, as a rule, have +struggled for many years to learn the rudiments of their art before +they have given indisputable proof of their greatness, or before they +have been recognized. "Real acting," according to Percy Fitzgerald, +"is a science, to be studied and mastered, as other sciences are +studied and mastered, by long years of training." They may not have +had the strenuous Conservatoire and Théâtre Français training of Sarah +Bernhardt. As a matter of fact, indeed, the actor may far better learn +to handle his tools by manipulating them before an audience, than by +practicing with them for too long a time in the closet. The technique +of violin playing can best be acquired before the _virtuoso_ appears +in public, although no amount of training in itself will make a great +violinist, but the basic elements of acting, grace, diction, etc., can +just as well be acquired behind the footlights and so many great +actors have acquired them, as many of the greatest have ignored them. +There can be no hard and fast rules laid down for this sort of thing. +Can we thank nine months with Mme. Marchesi for the instantaneous +success and subsequent brilliant career of Mme. Melba? Against this +training offset the years and years of road playing and the more years +of study at home in retirement to account for the career of Mrs. +Fiske. The Australian soprano was born with a naturally-placed and +flexible voice. Her shake is said to have been perfection when she was +a child; her scale was even; her intonation impeccable. She had very +little to learn except the rôles in the operas she was to sing and her +future was very clearly marked from the night she made her début as +Gilda in _Rigolettò_. Mme. Patti was equally gifted. Mme. Pasta and +Mme. Fremstad, on the other hand, toiled very slowly towards fame. The +former singer was an absolute failure when she first appeared in +London and it took several years of hard work to make her the greatest +lyric artist of her day. The great Jenny Lind retired from the stage +completely defeated, only to return as the most popular singer of her +time. Mischa Elman has told me he never practices; Leo Ornstein, on +the other hand, spends hours every day at the piano. Mozart sprang, +full-armed with genius, into the world. He began composing at the age +of four. No training was necessary for him, but Beethoven and Wagner +developed slowly. In the field of writers there are even more happy +examples. Hundreds of boys have spent years in theme and literature +courses in college preparing in vain for a future which was never to +be theirs, while other youths with no educations have taken to writing +as a cat takes to cat-nip. Should we assume that the annual output of +Professor Baker's class at Harvard produces better playwrights than +Molière or Shakespeare, neither of whom enjoyed Professor Baker's +lectures, nor, I think I am safe in conjecturing, anything like them? + +What, after all, constitutes training? For a creative or +interpretative genius mere existence seems to be sufficient. Joseph +Conrad, Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov, and Patrick MacGill all were sailors +for many years before they began to write. We owe "Youth" and the +first section of _Scheherazade_ to this accident. MacGill also had the +privilege of digging potatoes; he writes about it in "The Rat-pit." +Mrs. Patrick Campbell learned enough about how to move about and how +to speak in the country houses she frequented before she began her +professional career to enable her immediately to take a position of +importance on the stage. It does not seem necessary, indeed, that the +training for any career should be prescribed or systematic. Some men +get their training one way and some another. A school of acting may be +of the greatest benefit to A, while B will not profit by it. Some +actors are ruined by stock companies; others are improved by them. The +geniuses in this interpretative art as in all the other interpretative +and creative arts, seem to rise above obstructions, and to make +themselves felt, whatever difficulties are put in their way. + +Some great actors, like some great musicians and authors, create out +of their fulness. They cannot explain; they do not need to study; +they create by instinct. Others, like Beethoven and Olive Fremstad, +work and rework their material in the closet until it approaches +perfection, when they expose it. To say that there are bad actors +following in the footsteps of both these types of geniuses is to be +axiomatic and trite. It would be a foregone conclusion. Just as there +are musicians who write as easily as Mozart but who have nothing to +say, so there are other musicians who write and rewrite, work and +rework, study and restudy, and yet what they finally offer the public +has not the quality or the force or the inspiration of a common +gutter-ballad. + +It has also been urged in print that as naturalness is the goal of the +actor he should never have to strive for it. The names of Frank +Reicher and John Drew are often mentioned as those of men who "play +themselves" on the stage. A most difficult thing to do! Also an +unfortunate choice of names. Each of these artists has undergone a +long and arduous apprenticeship in order to achieve the natural method +which has given him eminence in his career. Indeed, of all the +qualities of the actor this is the least easy to acquire. + +Actors are often condemned because they are not versatile. Versatility +is undoubtedly an admirable quality in an actor, valuable, especially +to his manager, but hardly an essential one. An artist is not +required to do more than one thing well. Vladimir de Pachmann +specializes in Chopin playing, but Arthur Symons once wrote that "he +is the greatest living pianist, because he can play certain things +better than any other pianist can play anything." Should we not allot +similar approval to the actor or actress who makes a fine effect in +one part or in one kind of part? I should not call Ellen Terry a +versatile actress, but I should call her a great artist. Marie Tempest +is not versatile, unless she should be so designated for having made +equal successes on the lyric and dramatic stages, but she is one of +the most satisfying artists at present appearing before our public. +Mallarmé was not versatile; Cézanne was not versatile; nor was Thomas +Love Peacock. Mascagni, assuredly, is not versatile. The da Vincis and +Wagners are rare figures in the history of creative art just as the +Nijinskys and Rachels are rare in the history of interpretative art. + +Someone may say that the great actor dies while the play goes +thundering on through the ages on the stage and in everyman's library. +This very point, indeed, is made by Mr. Lewes. But this, alas, is the +reverse of the truth. We have competent and immensely absorbing +records of the lives and art of David Garrick, Mrs. Siddons, Ristori, +Clairon, Rachel, Charlotte Cushman, Edwin Booth, and other prominent +players, while most of the plays in which they appeared are not only +no longer actable, but also no longer readable. The brothers de +Goncourt, for example, wrote an account of Clairon which is a book of +the first interest, while I defy any one to get through two pages of +most of the fustian she was compelled to act! The reason for this is +very easily formulated. Great acting is human and universal. It is +eternal in its appeal and its memory is easily kept alive while +playwrighting is largely a matter of fashion, and appeals to the mob +of men and women who never read and who are more interested in police +news than they are in poetry. George Broadhurst or Henry Bernstein or +Arthur Wing Pinero, or others like them, have always been the popular +playwrights; a few names like Sophocles, Terence, Molière, +Shakespeare, and Ibsen come rolling down to us, but they are precious +and few. + +A great actor, indeed, can put life into perfectly wooden material. In +the case of Sarah Bernhardt, who was the creator, the actress or +Sardou? In the case of Henry Irving, who was the creator, the actor or +the authors of _The Bells_ and _Faust_ (not, in this instance, +Goethe)? Is Langdon Mitchell's version of "Vanity Fair" sufficiently +a work of art to exist without the co-operation of Mrs. Fiske? When +Duse electrified her audiences in such plays as _The Second Mrs. +Tanqueray_ and _Fedora_, were the dramatists responsible for the +effect? Arthur Symons says of her in the latter play, "A great +actress, who is also a great intelligence, is seen accepting it, for +its purpose, with contempt, as a thing to exercise her technical skill +upon." One reads of Mrs. Siddone that she could move a roomful of +people to tears merely by repeating the word "hippopotamus" with +varying stress. Should we thank the behemoth for this miracle? + +Any one who understands, great acting knows that it is illumination. +There are those who are born to throw light on the creations of the +poets, just as there are others born to be poets. These interpreters +give a new life to the works of the masters, Æschylus, Congreve, +Tchekhov. When, as more frequently happens, they are called upon to +play mediocre parts it is with their own personal force, their +atmospheric aura that they create something more than the author +himself ever intended or dreamed of. How could Joseph Jefferson play +_Rip Van Winkle_ for thirty years (or longer) with scenery in tatters +and a company of mummers which Corse Payton would have scorned? Was +it because of the greatness of the play? If that were true, why is not +some one else performing this drama today to large audiences? Has any +one read the Joseph Jefferson acting version of _Rip Van Winkle_? Who +wrote it? Don't you think it rather extraordinary that a play which +apparently has given so much pleasure, and in which Jefferson was +hailed as a great actor by every contemporary critic of note, as is in +itself so little known? It is not extraordinary. It was Jefferson's +performance of the title rôle which gave vitality to the play. + +Of course, there are few actors who have this power, few great actors. +What else could you expect? A critic might prove that playwriting was +not an art on the majority of the evidence. Almost all the music +composed in America could be piled up to prove that music was not an +art. Should we say that there is no art of painting because the +Germans have no great painters? + +At present, however, it is quite possible for any one in New York with +car or taxi-cab fare to see one of the greatest of living actresses. +She is not playing on Broadway. This actress has never been to +dramatic school; she has not had the advantages of Alla Nazimova, who +has worked with at least one fine stage director. She was simply born +a genius, that is all; she has perfected her art by appearing in a +great variety of parts, the method of Edwin Booth. Most of these parts +happen to be in masterpieces of the drama. She is not unaccustomed to +playing _Zaza_ one evening and d'Annunzio's _Francesca da Rimini_ the +next. Her repertory further includes _La Dame aux Camélias_, _Hamlet_, +_Romeo and Juliet_, _La Figlia di Iorio_, Giuseppe Giacosa's _Come le +Foglie_, Sicilian folk-plays, and plays by Arturo Giovannitti. When I +first saw Mimi Aguglia she was little more than a crude force, a great +struggling light, that sometimes illuminated, nay often blinded, but +which shone in unequal flashes. Experience has made of her an actress +who is almost unfailing in her effect. If you asked her about the +technique of her art she would probably smile (as Mozart and Schubert +might have done before her); if you asked her about her method she +would not understand you ... but she understands the art of acting. + +Watch her, for instance, in the second act of _Zaza_, in the scene in +which the music hall singer discovers that her lover has a wife and +child. No heroics, no shrieks, no conventional posturings and +shruggings and sobbing ... something far worse she exposes to us, a +nameless terror. She stands with her back against a table, nonchalant +and smilingly defiant, unwilling to return to the music hall with her +former partner, but pleasantly jocular in her refusal. Stung into +anger, he hurls his last bomb. Zaza is smoking. As she listens to the +cruel words the corner of her mouth twitches, the cigarette almost +falls. That is all. There is a moment's silence unbroken save by the +heartbeats of her spectators. Even the babies which mothers bring in +abundance to the Italian theatre are quiet. With that esoteric +magnetism with which great artists are possessed she holds the +audience captive by this simple gesture. I could continue to point out +other astounding details in this impersonation, but not one of them, +perhaps, would illustrate Aguglia's art as does this one. If no +training is necessary to produce effects of this kind, I would +pronounce acting the most holy of the arts, for then, surely, it is a +direct gift from God. + + _September 5, 1917._ + + + + +III + +The New Isadora + + _"We shift and bedeck and bedrape us, + Thou art noble and nude and antique;"_ + + Swinburne's "Dolores." + + +I have a fine memory of a chance description flung off by some one at +a dinner in Paris; a picture of the youthful Isadora Duncan in her +studio in New York developing her ideals through sheer will and +preserving the contour of her feet by wearing carpet slippers. The +latter detail stuck in my memory. It may or may not be true, but it +could have been, _should_ have been true. The incipient dancer keeping +her feet pure for her coming marriage with her art is a subject for +philosophic dissertation or for poetry. There are many poets who would +have seized on this idea for an ode or even a sonnet, had it occurred +to them. Oscar Wilde would have liked this excuse for a poem ... even +Robert Browning, who would have woven many moral strophes from this +text.... It would have furnished Mr. George Moore with material for +another story for the volume called "Celibates." Walter Pater might +have dived into some very beautiful, but very conscious, prose with +this theme as a spring-board. Huysmans would have found this +suggestion sufficient inspiration for a romance the length of +"Clarissa Harlowe." You will remember that the author of "En Route" +meditated writing a novel about a man who left his house to go to his +office. Perceiving that his shoes have not been polished he stops at a +boot-black's and during the operation he reviews his affairs. The +problem was to make 300 pages of this!... Lombroso would have added +the detail to his long catalogue in "The Man of Genius" as another +proof of the insanity of artists. Georges Feydeau would have found +therein enough matter for a three-act farce and d'Annunzio for a +poetic drama which he might have dedicated to "Isadora of the +beautiful feet." Sermons might be preached from the text and many +painters would touch the subject with reverence. Manet might have +painted Isadora with one of the carpet slippers half depending from a +bare, rosy-white foot. + +There are many fables concerning the beginning of Isadora's career. +One has it that the original dance in bare feet was an accident.... +Isadora was laving her feet in an upper chamber when her hostess +begged her to dance for her other guests. Just as she was she +descended and met with such approval that thenceforth her feet +remained bare. This is a pretty tale, but it has not the fine ring of +truth of the story of the carpet slippers. There had been bare-foot +dancers before Isadora; there had been, I venture to say, discinct +"Greek dancers." Isadora's contribution to her art is spiritual; it is +her feeling for the idea of the dance which isolates her from her +contemporaries. Many have overlooked this essential fact in attempting +to account for her obvious importance. Her imitators (and has any +other interpretative artist ever had so many?) have purloined her +costumes, her gestures, her steps; they have put the music of +Beethoven and Schubert to new uses as she had done before them; they +have unbound their hair and freed their feet; but the essence of her +art, the _spirit_, they have left in her keeping; they could not well +do otherwise. + +Inspired perhaps by Greek phrases, by the superb collection of Greek +vases in the old Pinakotheck in Munich, Isadora cast the knowledge she +had gleaned of the dancer's training from her. At least she forced it +to be subservient to her new wishes. She flung aside her memory of the +entrechat and the pirouette, the studied technique of the ballet; but +in so doing she unveiled her own soul. She called her art the +renaissance of the Greek ideal but there was something modern about +it, pagan though it might be in quality. Always it was pure and +sexless ... always abstract emotion has guided her interpretations. + +In the beginning she danced to the piano music of Chopin and Schubert. +Eleven years ago I saw her in Munich in a program of Schubert +_impromptus_ and Chopin _preludes_ and _mazurkas_. A year or two later +she was dancing in Paris to the accompaniment of the Colonne +Orchestra, a good deal of the music of Gluck's _Orfeo_ and the very +lovely dances from _Iphigénie en Aulide_. In these she remained +faithful to her original ideal, the beauty of abstract movement, the +rhythm of exquisite gesture. This was not sense echoing sound but +rather a very delightful confusion of her own mood with that of the +music. + +So a new grace, a new freedom were added to the dance; in her later +representations she has added a third quality, strength. Too, her +immediate interpretations often suggest concrete images.... A +passionate patriotism for one of her adopted countries is at the root +of her fiery miming of the _Marseillaise_, a patriotism apparently as +deep-rooted, certainly as inflaming, as that which inspired Rachel in +her recitation of this hymn during the Paris revolution of 1848. In +times of civil or international conflagration the dancer, the actress +often play important rôles in world politics. Malvina Cavalazzi, the +Italian _ballerina_ who appeared at the Academy of Music during the +Eighties and who married Charles Mapleson, son of the impressario, +once told me of a part she had played in the making of United Italy. +During the Austrian invasion the Italian flag was _verboten_. One +night, however, during a representation of opera in a town the name of +which I have forgotten, Mme. Cavalazzi wore a costume of green and +white, while her male companion wore red, so that in the _pas de deux_ +which concluded the ballet they formed automatically a semblance of +the Italian banner. The audience was raised to a hysterical pitch of +enthusiasm and rushed from the theatre in a violent mood, which +resulted in an immediate encounter with the Austrians and their +eventual expulsion from the city. + +Isadora's pantomimic interpretation of the _Marseillaise_, given in +New York before the United States had entered the world war, aroused +as vehement and excited an expression of enthusiasm as it would be +possible for an artist to awaken in our theatre today. The audiences +stood up and scarcely restrained their impatience to cheer. At the +previous performances in Paris, I am told, the effect approached the +incredible.... In a robe the colour of blood she stands enfolded; she +sees the enemy advance; she feels the enemy as it grasps her by the +throat; she kisses her flag; she tastes blood; she is all but crushed +under the weight of the attack; and then she rises, triumphant, with +the terrible cry, _Aux armes, citoyens!_ Part of her effect is gained +by gesture, part by the massing of her body, but the greater part by +facial expression. In the anguished appeal she does not make a sound, +beyond that made by the orchestra, but the hideous din of a hundred +raucous voices seems to ring in our ears. We see Félicien Rops's +_Vengeance_ come to life; we see the _sans-culottes_ following the +carts of the aristocrats on the way to execution ... and finally we +see the superb calm, the majestic flowing strength of the Victory of +Samothrace.... At times, legs, arms, a leg or an arm, the throat, or +the exposed breast assume an importance above that of the rest of the +mass, suggesting the unfinished sculpture of Michael Angelo, an +aposiopesis which, of course, served as Rodin's inspiration. + +In the _Marche Slav_ of Tschaikovsky Isadora symbolizes her conception +of the Russian moujik rising from slavery to freedom. With her hands +bound behind her back, groping, stumbling, head-bowed, knees bent, she +struggles forward, clad only in a short red garment that barely covers +her thighs. With furtive glances of extreme despair she peers above +and ahead. When the strains of _God Save the Czar_ are first heard in +the orchestra she falls to her knees and you see the peasant +shuddering under the blows of the knout. The picture is a tragic one, +cumulative in its horrific details. Finally comes the moment of +release and here Isadora makes one of her great effects. She does not +spread her arms apart with a wide gesture. She brings them forward +slowly and we observe with horror that they have practically forgotten +how to move at all! They are crushed, these hands, crushed and +bleeding after their long serfdom; they are not hands at all but +claws, broken, twisted piteous claws! The expression of frightened, +almost uncomprehending, joy with which Isadora concludes the march is +another stroke of her vivid imaginative genius. + +In her third number inspired by the Great War, the _Marche Lorraine_ +of Louis Ganne, in which is incorporated the celebrated _Chanson +Lorraine_, Isadora with her pupils, symbolizes the gaiety of the +martial spirit. It is the spirit of the cavalry riding gaily with +banners waving in the wind; the infantry marching to an inspired +tune. There is nothing of the horror of war or revolution in this +picture ... only the brilliancy and dash of war ... the power and the +glory! + +Of late years Isadora has danced (in the conventional meaning of the +word) less and less. Since her performance at Carnegie Hall several +years ago of the _Liebestod_ from _Tristan_, which Walter Damrosch +hailed as an extremely interesting experiment, she has attempted to +express something more than the joy of melody and rhythm. Indeed on at +least three occasions she has danced a Requiem at the Metropolitan +Opera House.... If the new art at its best is not dancing, neither is +it wholly allied to the art of pantomime. It would seem, indeed, that +Isadora is attempting to express something of the spirit of sculpture, +perhaps what Vachell Lindsay describes as "moving sculpture." Her +medium, of necessity, is still rhythmic gesture, but its development +seems almost dream-like. More than the dance this new art partakes of +the fluid and unending quality of music. Like any other new art it is +not to be understood at first and I confess in the beginning it said +nothing to me but eventually I began to take pleasure in watching it. +Now Isadora's poetic and imaginative interpretation of the symphonic +interlude from César Franck's _Redemption_ is full of beauty and +meaning to me and during the whole course of its performance the +interpreter scarcely rises from her knees. The neck, the throat, the +shoulders, the head and arms are her means of expression. I thought of +Barbey d'Aurevilly's phrase, "_Elle avait l'air de monter vers Dieu +les mains toutes pleines de bonnes oeuvres._" + + * * * * * + +Isadora's teaching has had its results but her influence has been +wider in other directions. Fokine thanks her for the new Russian +Ballet. She did indeed free the Russians from the conventions of the +classic ballet and but for her it is doubtful if we should have seen +_Scheherazade_ and _Cléopâtre_. _Daphnis et Chloe_, _Narcisse_, and +_L'Aprèsmidi d'un Faune_ bear her direct stamp. This then, aside from +her own appearances, has been her great work. Of her celebrated school +of dancing I cannot speak with so much enthusiasm. The defect in her +method of teaching is her insistence (consciously or unconsciously) on +herself as a model. The seven remaining girls of her school dance +delightfully. They are, in addition, young and beautiful, but they are +miniature Isadoras. They add nothing to her style; they make the same +gestures; they take the same steps; they have almost, if not quite, +acquired a semblance of her spirit. They vibrate with intention; they +have force; but constantly they suggest just what they are ... +imitations. When they dance alone they often make a very charming but +scarcely overpowering effect. When they dance with Isadora they are +but a moving row of shadow shapes of Isadora that come and go. Her own +presence suffices to make the effect they all make together.... I have +been told that when Isadora watches her girls dance she often weeps, +for then and then only she can behold herself. One of the griefs of an +actor or a dancer is that he can never see himself. This oversight of +nature Isadora has to some extent overcome. + +Those who like to see pretty dancing, pretty girls, pretty things in +general will not find much pleasure in contemplating the art of +Isadora. She is not pretty; her dancing is not pretty. She has been +cast in nobler mould and it is her pleasure to climb higher mountains. +Her gesture is titanic; her mood generally one of imperious grandeur. +She has grown larger with the years--and by this I mean something more +than the physical meaning of the word, for she is indeed heroic in +build. But this is the secret of her power and force. There is no +suggestion of flabbiness about her and so she can impart to us the +soul of the struggling moujik, the spirit of a nation, the figure on +the prow of a Greek bark.... And when she interprets the +_Marseillaise_ she seems indeed to feel the mighty moment. + + _July 14, 1917._ + + + + +IV + +Margaret Anglin Produces +_As You Like It_ + + +Of all the comedies of Shakespeare _As You Like It_ is the one which +has attracted to itself the most attention from actresses. No feminine +star but what at one time or another has a desire to play Rosalind. +Bernard Shaw says, "Who ever failed or could fail as Rosalind?" and I +am inclined to think him right, though opinions differ. It would seem, +however, that Rosalind is to the dramatic stage what Mimi in _La +Bohème_ is to the lyric, a rôle in which a maximum of effect can be +gotten with a minimum of effort. + +Opinions differ however. Stung to fury by Mrs. Kendal's playing of the +part, George Moore says somewhere, "Mrs. Kendal nurses children all +day and strives to play Rosalind at night. What infatuation, what +ridiculous endeavour! To realize the beautiful woodland passion and +the idea of the transformation a woman must have sinned, for only +through sin may we learn the charm of innocence. To play Rosalind a +woman must have had more than one lover, and if she has been made to +wait in the rain and has been beaten she will have done a great deal +to qualify herself for the part." Still another critic considers the +rôle a difficult one. He says: "With the exception of Lady Macbeth no +woman in Shakespeare is so much in controversy as Rosalind. The +character is thought to be almost unattainable. An ideal that is lofty +but at the same time vague seems to possess the Shakespeare scholar, +accompanied by the profound conviction that it never can be fulfilled. +Only a few actresses have obtained recognition as Rosalind, chief +among them being Mrs. Pritchard, Peg Woffington, Mrs. Dancer, Dora +Jordan, Louisa Nesbitt, Helen Faucit, Ellen Tree, Adelaide Neilson, +Mrs. Scott-Siddons and Miss Mary Anderson." + +Of those who have recently played Rosalind perhaps Mary Anderson, Ada +Rehan, Henrietta Crosman and Julia Marlowe will remain longest in the +memory, although Marie Wainwright, Mary Shaw, Mrs. Langtry and Julia +Neilson are among a long list of those who have tried the part. Miss +Rehan appeared in the rôle when Augustin Daly revived the comedy at +Daly's Theatre, December 17, 1889. We are told that an effort was made +in this production to emphasize the buoyant gaiety of the piece. The +scenery displayed the woods embellished in a springtime green, and +the acting did away as much as possible with any of the underlying +melancholy which flows through the comedy. + +William Winter frankly asserts--perhaps not unwittingly giving a +staggering blow to the art of acting in so doing--that the reason +Rosalind is not more often embodied "in a competent and enthralling +manner is that her enchanting quality is something that cannot be +assumed--it must be possessed; it must exist in the fibre of the +individual, and its expression will then be spontaneous. Art can +accomplish much, but it cannot supply the inherent captivation that +constitutes the puissance of Rosalind. Miss Rehan possesses that +quality, and the method of her art was the fluent method of natural +grace." + +Fie and a fig for Mr. Moore's theory about being beaten and standing +in the rain, implies Mr. Winter! + +To Mr. Winter I am also indebted for a description of Mary Anderson in +_As You Like It_: "Miss Anderson, superbly handsome as Rosalind, +indicated that beneath her pretty swagger, nimble satire and silver +playfulness Rosalind is as earnest of Juliet--though different in +temperament and mind--as fond as Viola and as constant as Imogen." + +Miss Marlowe's Rosalind, somewhat along the same lines as Miss +Anderson's, and Miss Crosman's, a hoydenish, tomboy sort of creature, +first cousin to Mistress Nell and the young lady of _The Amazons_, +should be familiar to theatregoers of the last two decades. + +Last Monday evening Margaret Anglin exposed her version of the comedy. +As might have been expected, it has met with some unfavourable +criticism. Preconceived notions of Rosalind are as prevalent as +preconceived notions of Hamlet. And yet if _As You Like It_ had been +produced Monday night as a "new fantastic comedy," just as _Prunella_ +was, for instance, I am inclined to think that everybody who dissented +would have been at Miss Anglin's charming heels. + +The scenery has been given undue prominence both by the management and +by the writers for the newspapers. Its most interesting feature is the +arrangement by which it is speedily changed about. There were no long +waits caused by the settings of scenes during the acts. To say, +however, that it has anything to do with the art of Gordon Craig is to +speak nonsense. The scenes are painted in much the same manner as that +to which we are accustomed and inured. There is a certain haze over +the trees, caused partially by the tints and partially by the +lighting, which produces a rather charming effect, but the outlines of +the trees are quite definite; no impressionism here. + +The acting is quite a different matter. _As You Like It_ is one of the +most modern in spirit of the Shakespeare plays. This air of modernity +is still further emphasized by the fact that the play, for the most +part, is written in prose. I feel certain that Bernard Shaw derived +part of his inspiration for _Man and Superman_ from _As You Like It_. +Only in Shakespeare's play Ann Whitefield (Rosalind) pursues Octavius +(Orlando) instead of Jack Tanner. I am inclined to believe that Shaw's +psychology in this instance is the more sound. It seems incredible +that a girl so witty, so beautiful, and so intelligent as Rosalind +should waste so much time on that sentimental, uncomprehending +creature known as Orlando. Every line of Orlando should have sounded +the knell of his fate in her ears. However, it must be remembered that +Orlando was young and good-looking, and that, at least in the play, +men of the right stamp seemed to be scarce. Of course, it is out of +Touchstone that Shaw has evolved his Jack Tanner. + +Whether Miss Anglin had this idea in mind or not when she produced the +comedy I have no means of ascertaining. It is not essential to my +point. At least she has emphasized it, and she has done the most +intelligent stage directing that I have observed in the performance of +a Shakespeare play for many a long season. There is consistency in the +acting. Rosalind, Jaques, Touchstone, Celia, Oliver, the dukes, +Charles, Sylvius, the whole lot, in fact, are natural in method and +manner. There is no striving for the fantastic. Let that part of the +comedy take care of itself, undoubtedly suggested Miss Anglin. + +Jaques, finely portrayed by Fuller Mellish, delivers that arrant bit +of nonsense "The Seven Ages of Man" in such a manner as a man might +tell a rather serious story in a drawing room. "The Seven Ages of +Man," of course, is just as much of an aria as _La Donna e Mobile_. It +always awakens applause, but this time the applause was deserved. Mr. +Mellish emphasized the cynical side of the rôle. He smiled in and out +of season, and his most "melancholy" remarks were delivered in such a +manner as to indicate that they were not too deeply felt. Jaques was a +little bored with the forest and his companions, but he would have +been quite in his element at Mme. Récamier's. Such was the impression +that Fuller Mellish gave. Bravo, Mr. Mellish, for an impression! + +Similarly the Touchstone of Sidney Greenstreet. We are accustomed to +more physically attractive Touchstones, fools with finer bodies, and +yet this keen-minded, stout person spoke his lines with such pertness +and spontaneity that they rarely failed of their proper effect. As for +Orlando, it seemed to me that Pedro de Cordoba was a little too +rhetorical at times to fit in with the spirit of the performance, but +Orlando at times does not fit into the play. For instance, when he +utters those incredible lines: + + "If ever you have looked on better days, + If ever been where bells have knolled to church, + If ever sat at any good man's feast, + If ever from your eyelids wiped a tear...." + +I do not know whether Miss Anglin is a disciple of George Moore or +William Winter in her acting of Rosalind. How she acquired her charm +is not for us to seek into. It is only for us to credit her with +having it in great plenty. A charming natural manner which made the +masquerading lady seem more than a fantasy. Her warning to Phebe, + +"Sell when you can; you are not for all markets," + +was delicious in its effect. I remember no Rosalind who wooed her +Orlando so delightfully. For Rosalind, as Woman the Pursuer, driven +forward by the Life Force, is convincingly Miss Anglin's conception--a +conception which fits the comedy admirably. + +As to the objections which have been raised to Miss Anglin's +assumption of the masculine garments without any attempt at +counterfeiting masculinity, I would ask my reader, if she be a woman, +what she would do if she found it necessary to wear men's clothes. If +she were not an actress she would undoubtedly behave much as she did +in women's, suppressing unnecessary and telltale gestures as much as +possible, but not trying to imitate mannish gestures which would +immediately stamp her an impostor. There is no internal evidence in +Shakespeare's play to prove that Rosalind was an actress. She might +have appeared in private theatricals at the palace, but even that is +doubtful. Consequently when she donned men's clothes it became evident +to her that many men are effeminate in gesture and those that are do +not ordinarily affect mannish movements. Her most obvious concealment +was to be natural--quite herself. This, I think, is one of the most +interesting and well-thought-out points of Miss Anglin's +interpretation. + + _March 20, 1914._ + + + + +The Modern Composers at a Glance + + + + +The Modern Composers at a Glance + +An Impertinent Catalogue + + +IGOR STRAVINSKY: Paul Revere rides in Russia. + +CYRIL SCOTT: A young man playing Debussy in a Maidenhead villa. + +BALILLA PRATELLA: Pretty noises in funny places. + +ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK: His master's voice. + +LEO ORNSTEIN: A small boy upsetting a push-cart. + +GIACOMO PUCCINI: Pinocchio in a passion. + +ERIK SATIE: A mandarin with a toy pistol firing into a wedding cake. + +PAUL DUKAS: A giant eating bonbons. + +RICCARDO ZANDONAI: Brocade dipped in garlic. + +ERICH KORNGOLD: The white hope. + +ARNOLD SCHOENBERG: Six times six is thirty-six--and six is ninety-two! + +MAURICE RAVEL: Tomorrow ... and tomorrow ... and tomorrow.... + +CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Chantecler crows _pianissimo_ in whole tones. + +RICHARD STRAUSS: An ostrich _not_ hiding his head. + +SIR EDWARD ELGAR: The footman leaves his accordion in the bishop's +carriage. + +ITALO MONTEMEZZI: Three Kings--but no aces. + +PERCY ALDRIDGE GRAINGER: An effete Australian chewing tobacco. + + _August 8, 1917_. + + * * * * * + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: One evidence of this is that his works are eagerly sought +after and treated tenderly by the second-hand book-sellers. Some of +them command fancy prices.] + +[Footnote 2: For an account of Péladan see my essay on Erik Satie in +"Interpreters and Interpretations."] + +[Footnote 3: You will find an account of Balzac's interesting theory +regarding names and letters, which may well have had a direct +influence on Edgar Saltus, in Saltus's "Balzac," p. 29 _et seq._ For a +precisely contrary theory turn to "The Naming of Streets" in Max +Beerbohm's "Yet Again."] + +[Footnote 4: "Wit and Wisdom from Edgar Saltus" by G. F. Monkshood and +George Gamble, and "The Cynic's Posy," a collection of epigrams, the +majority of which are taken from Saltus, may be brought forward in +evidence.] + +[Footnote 5: Certain books by Edgar Saltus have been announced from +time to time but have never appeared; these include: "Annochiatura," +"Immortal Greece," "Our Lady of Beauty," "Cimmeria," "Daughters of +Dream," "Scaffolds and Altars," "Prince Charming," and "The Crimson +Curtain."] + +[Footnote 6: Houghton, Mifflin and Co,; 1884. Reprinted 1887 and +1890.] + +[Footnote 7: Houghton, Mifflin and Co.; 1885. Reprinted by the Belford +Co.] + +[Footnote 8: George J. Coombes; 1886. Reprinted by Brentano's.] + +[Footnote 9: Scribner and Welford; 1887. Revised edition, Belford, +Clarke and Co.; 1889.] + +[Footnote 10: Brentano's; 1887.] + +[Footnote 11: Benjamin and Bell; 1887.] + +[Footnote 12: Belford Co.; 1888.] + +[Footnote 13: Belford, Clarke and Co.; 1888.] + +[Footnote 14: Belford Co.; 1889.] + +[Footnote 15: Belford Co.; 1889.] + +[Footnote 16: Belford, Clarke and Co.; 1889.] + +[Footnote 17: Belford Co.; 1890.] + +[Footnote 18: Belford Co.; 1891.] + +[Footnote 19: Belford Co.; 1891. Reprinted by Mitchell Kennerley; +1906.] + +[Footnote 20: P. F. Collier; 1892; "Written especially for 'Once a +Week Library.'"] + +[Footnote 21: Morrill, Higgins and Co;. 1893. Reprinted by Mitchell +Kennerley; 1906.] + +[Footnote 22: F. Tennyson Neely; 1893.] + +[Footnote 23: Tudor Press: 1894.] + +[Footnote 24: The Transatlantic Publishing Co.; 1895.] + +[Footnote 25: Ainslee; 1903.] + +[Footnote 26: A. Wessels Co.; 1905.] + +[Footnote 27: Mitchell Kennerley; 1906.] + +[Footnote 28: J. B. Lippincott Co.; 1906.] + +[Footnote 29: Mitchell Kennerley; 1907.] + +[Footnote 30: Mitchell Kennerley; 1907.] + +[Footnote 31: Mitchell Kennerley; 1909.] + +[Footnote 32: Pulitzer Publishing Co.; 1912.] + +[Footnote 33: In an essay entitled "The Great American Composer" in my +book, "Interpreters and Interpretations."] + + * * * * * + + + + +Index + + +Abbott, Emma, 220 + +Academy of Arts and Letters, 80, 225, 227 + +Acting, 111, 113, 119, 120, 272, 283, 293 _et seq._ + +Adam, Villiers de l'Isle, 48, 49 + +Adams, Maude, 295 + +Adams, Oscar Fay, 38 + +Æschylus, 103, 303 + +Agrippina, 69 + +Aguglia, Mimi, 284, 304, _et seq._ + +Ainslee's Magazine, 75 + +Alary, Signor, 248 + +Alboni, Marietta, 169 + +Alchemy, 76 + +Allegranti, Maddalena, 254, 255 + +Alma Tadema, 296 + +Alvary, Max, 99 + +Anderson, Mary, 319, 320 + +Anfossi, Pasquale, 169 + +Anglin, Margaret, 321 _et seq._ + +d'Annunzio, G., 284, 305 + +Apaches, 126, 135, 138, 140, 141 _et seq._, 182 + +Apthorp, W. F., 99, 168 + +Arabanek, 164 + +Archilei, 94 + +Arditi, Luigi, 288 + +Argentina, La, 284, 287 + +Argus, The, 54 + +Aristotle, 291 + +Arne, 257 + +Arnould, Sophie, 82, 96, 259 _et seq._ + +Astor, J. J., 227 + +Atilla, 79 + +Audran, 216 + +Augustus, 69, 70 + +d'Aurevilly, Barbey, 43, 63, 66, 87, 315 + +Ayres, Frederick, 200 + + +Bach, 24, 28, 150, 199 + +Badarzewska, Thécla, 23 + +Baedeker, 58 + +Bag-pipe, 135, 136, 137 + +Bahamas, 136 + +Baker, J. Duncan, 211 + +Baker, Prof., 298 + +Bakst, Leon, 16 + +Bal des Gravilliers, 141 _et seq._ + +Balfe, Michael William, 27, 165 + +Bal musette, 125, 134 _et seq._ + +Balzac, 43, 50, 55, 56, 57, 63, 76, 86, 187, 225 + +Banti, Brigitta, 93, 164 + +Bara, Theda, 80 + +Barnabee, Henry Clay, 221 + +Barnet, R. A., 216 + +Barrison, Mabel, 219 + +Barry, Mme. du, 260 + +Bassoonists, 157 + +Bataille, Henry, 228, 230, 232 + +Bates, Katherine Lee, 38 + +Battistini, 102 + +Baudelaire, Charles, 43, 52, 131 + +Baumgarten, C. F., 171 + +Bayes, Nora, 110 + +Beardsley, Aubrey, 45 + +Becque, Henry, 230 + +Beerbohm, Max, 45, 50, 177, 238 + +Beethoven, 24, 27, 28, 32, 98, 150, 151, 170, 175, 200, 219, 298, 300 + +Bégué, Bernard, 156 + +Belasco, David, 294 + +Bel canto, 97, 101, 105 + +Belford's Magazine, 37 + +Bell, Digby, 222 + +Bellini, Vincenzo, 24, 25, 77, 79, 97, 100, 101, 114, 175, 248, 267, + 270, 273 + +Bel-Marduk, 82 + +Bergström, Hjalmar, 90 + +Berlin, Irving, 25, 222, 234 + +Berlioz, Hector, 27, 104 + +Bernacchi, Antonio, 99 + +Bernhardt, Sarah, 106, 222, 227, 245, 295, 297, 302 + +Bernstein, Henry, 228, 230, 232, 302 + +Bible, The, 67 + +Bichara, 15 + +Bilbao, 287 + +Billington, Mrs., 172 + +Bizet, Georges, 108, 113, 275 + +Blanche, Jacques, 183, 184 + +Blei, Franz, 69, 78, 259 + +Böcklin, Arnold, 89 + +Bonci, Alessandro, 102 + +Booth, Edwin, 111, 302, 305 + +Bouguereau, 61, 293 + +Bourget, Paul, 76 + +Boyden, Frank L., 203 + +Boynton, Henry Walcott, 38 + +Brahma, 82 + +Brahms, 25, 274 + +Brann-Brini, Mlle., 164 + +Branscombe, Gena, 200, 202 + +Brenon, Algernon St. John, 162 + +Bretón, Tomás, 113 + +Brian, Donald, 217 + +Brice, Fannie, 110 + +Brieux, 230 + +Brignoli, Pasquale, 155 + +Broadhurst, George, 302 + +Bromley, Eliza, 74 + +Brothers of the Book, 85 + +Browning, Robert, 307 + +Bunn, Alfred, 165 + +Burke, Billie, 295 + +Burney, Dr., 258 + +Butler, Samuel, 21 + +Byzance, 80 + + +Cabanel, 61 + +Cæsar, Julius, 69 + +Caffarelli, 95, 96, 112 + +Cahill, Marie, 110 + +Cairns, William B., 38 + +Caligula, 51, 69, 79 + +Calvé, Emma, 106, 275 + +Camargo, 258, 259 + +Campanari, Giuseppe, 161, 162 + +Campbell, Mrs. Patrick, 299 + +Caracalla, 79 + +Carestini, Giovanni, 95, 96 + +Carmencita, 285 + +Carnegie Hall, 25 + +Carré, Albert, 133 + +Carreño, Teresa, 153 + +Caruso, Enrico, 272 + +Cassive, Armande, 232 + +Catalani, Angelica, 93, 265 _et seq._ + +Cato, 69 + +Cats, 59, 69, 77, 102, 127, 131, 132, 233, 258, 259, 298 + +Cavalazzi, Malvina, 310 + +Cesare Borgia, 79 + +Cézanne, 301 + +Chabrier, Emmanuel, 285 + +Chadwick, George W., 197, 199, 212 + +Chambers, Robert W., 290 + +Chaliapine, Feodor, 114, 155 + +Charpentier, Gustave, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 173 + +Cherubini, 98 + +Cherubino's question, 54 + +Chinese plays, 103 + +Chopin, 23, 26, 55, 112, 239, 240, 301, 310 + +Chorley, Henry Fothergill, 98, 169, 247, 249, 261 + +Christ, 58, 67, 185, 191, 192 + +Christianity, 57, 68, 82, 83 + +Christy, Howard Chandler, 293 + +Churchill, Lady Randolph, 185 + +Cimarosa, Domenico, 255 + +Cinderella, 137 + +Cicisbeism, 82 + +Clairon, 96, 260, 302 + +Classical music, 23 + +Claudius, 69 + +Cleopatra, 82 + +Cline, Maggie, 107 + +Coerne, L. A., 199, 202 + +Cohan, George M., 288 + +Colles, Ramsay, 39 + +Colonne Orchestra, 310 + +Coloratura singing, 103, 104 + +Columbia University, 43 + +Comstock, Anthony, 59 + +Condamine, Robert de la, 183 + +Congreve, 303 + +Conrad, Joseph, 299 + +Conried, Henrich, 161, 162 + +Converse, Frederick, 212 + +Cooking, 26, 50, 78, 129, 130, 149 _et seq._ + +Cordoba, Pedro de, 324 + +Corneille, 104 + +Costa, Michael, 163 + +Cou-Cou Restaurant, 125 _et seq._, 183 + +Courts of Love, 65, 82 + +Cox, J. E., 165, 173, 264 + +Cox, Kenyon, 62 + +Craig, Gordon, 321 + +Critics, 24, 26, 30, 33, 34, 96, 97, 99, 100, 105, 111, 115, 228, 234 + +Crosman, Henrietta, 319, 321 + +Crowest, Frederick, 163, 164 + +Current Literature, 39 + +Cushman, Charlotte, 302 + +Cuzzoni, Francesca, 95, 258 + + +Daly, Augustin, 319 + +Daly, Dan, 222 + +Damrosch, Walter, 157, 314 + +Dancing, 112, 113, 137 _et seq._, 281 _et seq._, 307 _et seq._ + +Dante, 76 + +Darby, W. D., 200 + +Davis, Cecilia, 253 + +Davis, Jessie Bartlett, 221 + +Davis, Owen, 93 + +Debussy, Claude, 30, 33, 96, 113, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 200, 315, 329 + +Decoration, Interior, 11 _et seq._ + +Delacroix, 19 + +Delibes, Léo, 108, 113 + +Deslys, Gaby, 222 + +Destinn, Emmy, 114, 155 + +Devi, Ratan, 109 + +Dickens, Charles, 187 + +Dolmetsch, Arnold, 192 + +Doloretes, 286, 287, 288 + +Donizetti, Gaetano, 61, 79, 88, 97, 101, 108, 113, 114, 166, 173, 247, + 248, 249, 250, 251, 263 + +Doubleday, 203 + +Dreiser, Theodore, 202, 203 + +Dresser, Paul, 202, 203 + +Dressler, Marie, 222 + +Drew, John, 111, 295, 300 + +Duclos, 259 + +Duff-Gordon, Lady, 222 + +Dukas, Paul, 104, 113, 114, 329 + +Dumas, Alexandre, _fils_, 106, 205 + +Duncan, Isadora, 307 _et seq._ + +Duse, Eleanora, 277, 295, 303 + +Dussek, Johann Ludwig, 171 + +Dyer, Edward, 209 + + + +Eames, Emma, 275 + +Earle, Virginia, 219 + +Ehrhard, Auguste, 55 + +Elgar, Sir Edward, 329 + +Elizabethan plays, 51, 103 + +Ellis, Havelock, 281, 285, 286, 291 + +Ellis, Melville, 222 + +Elman, Mischa, 298 + +Elson, L. C., 198, 199 + +Elssler, Fanny, 55 + +Eltinge, Julian, 96 + +Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 43 + +Euripides, 103 + +Evertson, Admiral Kornelis, 42 + + + +Fall, Leo, 216 + +Fame, 42 + +Farinelli, 95 + +Farwell, Arthur, 200, 202 + +Faustina, 95, 96, 258 + +Fawcett, Edgar, 66 + +Février, Henry, 113, 115, 118, 119, 120 + +Feydeau, Georges, 129, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 236, 237, 308 + +Finck, H. T., 24, 25, 30, 32, 58, 95, 99, 153, 272 + +Fischer, Johann Christian, 161 + +Fiske, Mrs., 297, 303 + +Fitzgerald, Percy, 296 + +Flaubert, Gustave, 66, 76, 87 + +Folk-song, 30, 33, 100, 106, 109, 152 + +Follies, The, 16, 222, 223 + +Foote, Arthur, 199, 202 + +Ford, Richard, 285, 291 + +Formes, Karl, 164 + +Forum, The, 87 + +Foster, Stephen, 29, 33, 152 + +Fox, Della, 217, 218, 219 + +Fox, Helen Kelsey, 208 + +Fragonard, 18 + +France, Anatole, 68, 185, 193 + +Franck, César, 151, 315 + +Franz, Robert, 23, 26, 93, 111 + +Fremstad, Olive, 108, 156, 298, 300 + +Freud, 50 + +Frezzolini, Erminia, 261 _et seq._ + +Frohman, Charles, 85, 296 + + +Gadski, Johanna, 155 + +Galli, Signora, 254 + +Galli-Curci, Amelita, 101, 102, 104, 114 + +Gamble, George, 39, 54 + +Ganne, Louis, 313 + +Garcia, Manuel, 160 + +Garcia, Manuel, _fils_, 252 + +Garden, Mary, 84, 114 _et seq._, 131, 133, 155 + +Gardiner, William, 267 + +Garrick, David, 96, 260, 302 + +Gautier, Théophile, 46, 58, 87, 131, 190, 225 + +German music, 150 + +Gerome, 61 + +Gerster, Etelka, 269 + +Giacosa, 284, 305 + +Giardini, Felice de, 164 + +Gibbons, Grinling, 19 + +Gilbert, W. S., 107, 216, 221 + +Giovannitti, Arturo, 305 + +Gipsy, 100, 286 + +Gizziello, 95 + +Glaser, Lulu, 219 + +Gluck, 29, 30, 96, 108, 135, 170, 232, 258, 259, 260, 310 + +Goncourt, Brothers de, 302 + +Goodrich, A. J., 199, 202 + +Goodwin, Nat, 295 + +Gosse, Edmund, 179 + +Gounod, 117, 151, 272, 273 + +Gourmont, Remy de, 48, 229 + +Goya, 59, 287 + +Grainger, Percy, 30, 330 + +Grau, Maurice, 161 + +Greek Plays, 103 + +Greenstreet, Sidney, 324 + +Greenwich Village, 16 + +Gregory, Lady, 192 + +Grétry, 170 + +Grieg, Edvard, 93 + +Grimm, 259 + +Grisi, Giulia, 166, 263 _et seq._ + +Grove, Sir George, 171, 202, 271 + +Guilbert, Yvette, 107, 113, 114, 277 + + +Hadley, Henry, 197, 212 + +Hadrian, 69 + +Hale, Philip, 33 + +Halévy, Jacques, 248 + +Hall, Pauline, 219 + +Handel, George Frederick, 25, 95, 97, 102, 113, 119, 172, 254 + +Hanslick, Eduard, 102, 263 + +Harris, Charles K., 202 + +Harris, Frank, 55, 189, 190 + +Hartmann, Eduard von, 43, 56, 60 + +Hawthorne vases, 18 + +Hay, Reverend John Stuart, 72 + +Haydn, 28 + +Heidelberg, 43 + +Heifetz, Jascha, 287 + +Heine, Heinrich, 82, 240, 286, 287 + +Heinrich, Max, 107, 155, 246 + +Helen of Troy, 82 + +Heliogabolus, 68, 69, 72 + +Héloïse, 82 + +Helvetius, 259 + +Henderson, W. J., 33, 115 + +Herbert, Victor, 155, 216 + +Hergesheimer, Joseph, 44, 153 + +Herodotus, 86 + +Hertz, Alfred, 155 + +Hervieu, Paul, 228 + +Heyse, Paul, 67 + +Hichens, Robert, 75, 81 + +Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 38 + +Hirsch, Charles-Henry, 141 + +Hirsch, Louis A., 222 + +Hoff, Edwin, 221 + +Hollins, Mabel, 219 + +Homer, 76, 86 + +Hopper, De Wolf, 107, 221 + +Hopwood, Avery, 101, 236 _et seq._ + +Horace, 76 + +Howells, W. D., 74, 191 + +Hubbard, Elbert, 39, 48 + +Hughes, Rupert, 198, 199 + +Hugo, Victor, 52, 55, 76, 87, 105 + +Humperdinck, Engelbert, 24, 29, 173, 329 + +Huneker, James, 33, 38, 55, 153, 154, 164, 173 + +Huss, Henry Holden, 199, 202 + +Huysmans, J. K., 43, 53, 70, 76, 80, 87, 151, 191, 308 + + +Ibsen, 302 + +Incest, 60, 74, 84 + +d'Indy, Vincent, 200 + +Irving, Sir Henry, 294, 302 + +Irwin, May, 110 + +Ivan the Terrible, 79 + + +Jackson, Holbrook, 44, 63 + +James, Henry, 59, 68, 231 + +Janis, Elsie, 110, 222 + +Jansen, Marie, 219, 222 + +Jefferson, Joseph, 303, 304 + +Jehovah, 82 + +Jensen, Adolph, 24 + +Jew, 58, 71, 152 + +Joachim, Joseph, 156 + +Jolson, Al, 110, 222 + +Jones, Henry Arthur, 234 + +Joseffy, Rafael, 155 + +Judic, 220 + +Jupiter, 82 + + +Kaiser, The, 79 + +Kapila, 57 + +Keane, Doris, 13 + +Kellogg, Clara Louise, 166, 268, 269 + +Kellow, Lottie A., 203, 204 + +Kelly, Michael, 159, 160, 161, 170, 256 + +Kendal, Mrs., 318 + +Kenton, Edna, 41, 53 + +Ker, Ann, 74 + +Kern, Jerome, 23, 222 + +Korngold, Erich, 329 + +Koven, Reginald de, 216, 221 + +Krehbiel, H. E., 100, 153, 155 + +Krishna, 83 + + +Labatt, 104 + +Lablache, Luigi, 163 + +Laforgue, Jules, 43 + +Laguerre, Mme., 260 + +La Harpe, 260 + +Lalo, Pierre, 33 + +Lampridius, 70, 72 + +Lavignac, Albert, 173 + +Lecocq, Charles, 173, 216 + +Lehar, Franz, 216 + +Lehmann, Lilli, 100, 107, 155, 269, 270, 274 + +Leoncavallo, Ruggiero, 32, 149 + +Lesbian, 75 + +Lessing, Madge, 219 + +Levey, Ethel, 110 + +Lewes, George Henry, 294, 301 + +Lienau's, 154 + +Lind, Jenny, 248, 253, 265 _et seq._, 298 + +Lindsay, Vachell, 314 + +Lippincott's Magazine, 63 + +Lisle, Leconte de, 57, 76 + +Liszt, 25, 32, 240 + +Lombard, Jean, 69 + +Lombroso, 308 + +Loomis, Harvey W., 200 + +Louis XIV, 135, 137 + +Louis XV, 12 + +Love, 81, 82 + +Loy, Mina, 188 + +Lucca, Pauline, 269 + +Lulli, 172 + +Lumley, Benjamin, 162, 285, 286 + + +MacDowell, Edward, 25 + +Macdonald, John Z., 208 + +MacGill, Patrick, 299 + +MacKaye, Percy, 235 + +McCutcheon, George Barr, 296 + +McIntosh, Nancy, 219 + +Macy, John, 38 + +Maeterlinck, Maurice, 117 + +Mahler, Gustav, 28 + +Male sopranos, 94 + +Malibran, Maria, 164, 165, 166, 253 + +Mallarmé, Stéphane, 43, 301 + +Manet, 61, 289, 308 + +Mapleson, J. H., 159, 284 + +Mara, Gertrude Elisabeth, 255 _et seq._ + +Marchesi, Mathilde, 102, 149, 252, 297 + +Marco, Maria, 108, 288 + +Marie Antoinette, 259, 260 + +Marinetti, 282 + +Mario, 102 + +Marion, George, 28 + +Marlowe, Julia, 319, 321 + +Marnold, Jean, 32 + +Marseillaise, 310 _et seq._ + +Martyn, Edward, 192, 294 + +Mary Magdalen, 66, 67, 68 + +Mascagni, Pietro, 28, 275, 301 + +Massenet, 27, 28, 116, 117, 119, 120, 151, 275 + +Matisse, 19 + +Maurel, Victor, 107, 120, 246 + +May, Edna, 219 + +Mayhew, Stella, 110 + +Mazantinita, 287 + +Mazarin, Mariette, 114 + +Mazzoleni, 166 + +Melba, Nellie, 102, 104, 107, 108, 114, 155, 156, 187, 271 _et seq._, + 297 + +Mellish, Fuller, 323 + +Melody, 29, 93 + +Mencken, H. L., 59, 65, 153, 197, 198, 202, 203, 212 + +Mendelssohn, 23, 24, 26, 171, 202 + +Mendès, Catulle, 43 + +Meredith, George, 187 + +Mérimée, Prosper, 58, 87, 131, 142 + +Meyerbeer, Giacomo, 28, 29, 102, 157, 164, 252 + +Michael Angelo, 227, 312 + +Michelet, 76 + +Milton, 257 + +Mirbeau, Octave, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233 + +Mitchell, Julian, 281 + +Mitchell, Langdon, 303 + +Modern Orchestra, 98 + +Modulation, 30 + +Moeller, Philip, 26, 236, 238 _et seq._ + +Molière, 225, 230, 231, 298, 302 + +Monbelli, 256 + +Monkshood, G. F., 39, 54 + +Montaigne, 150 + +Montemezzi, Italo, 24, 330 + +Montes, 189 + +Monteverde, 102 + +Montmartre, 126 _et seq._ + +Monvel, Boutet de, 142 + +Moore, George, 67, 134, 184 _et seq._, 231, 232, 294, 295, 307, 318, + 320, 324 + +Moors, The, 65 + +Moreau, Gustave, 44, 61, 89, 191 + +"Morrill, Higgins, and Co.," 71 + +Moulin de la Galette, 133, 134 + +Mount Edgcumbe, Earl of, 93, 94, 253, 254, 255 + +Moussorgsky, 23, 152 + +Mozart, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 54, 88, 97, 101, 108, 119, 161, 173, + 174, 205, 234, 248, 268, 269, 270, 275, 276, 289, 298, 300, 305 + +Mullin, W. T., 204 _et seq._ + +Murillo, 190 + +Murphy, Agnes G., 155 + +Murska, Ilma de, 269 + +Musset, Alfred de, 239, 240, 252 + +Musette, 135 + + +Nachbaur, Franz, 164 + +Names, Theory of, 49, 50, 56, 76 + +Napoleon, 79, 192 + +Naldi, Giuseppe, 160 + +Nathan, George Jean, 283, 295 + +Nazimova, Alla, 283, 305 + +Negro Players, 283 + +Newman, Ernest, 32, 150 + +Niemann, Albert, 164 + +Nero, 69, 71, 72 + +Nerval, Gérard de, 31 + +New York Times, The, 233 + +Nicolai, Carl, 173 + +Nicolini, 95 + +Nielsen, Alice, 219 + +Nijinsky, Waslav, 112, 183, 285, 301 + +Nillson, Carlotta, 237 + +Nilsson, Christine, 268, 269 + +Nordica, Lillian, 270 + + +Offenbach, 216, 219 + +Opéra-Comique, Paris, 131 + +Orleneff, Paul, 283, 305 + +Ornstein, Leo, 30, 104, 121, 298, 329 + +Oysters, American, 158 + + +Pacchierotti, 93, 94, 95 + +Pachmann, Vladimir de, 301 + +Paganini, 172 + +Palmer, Delmar G., 210, 211 + +Pan, Peter, 137 + +Parke, W. T., 171, 172, 256, 257, 258 + +Parker, Horatio W., 23, 197, 212 + +Pasta, Giuditta, 97, 249 _et seq._ + +Pater, Walter, 70, 72, 137, 190, 307 + +Pattee, Fred Lewis, 38 + +Patti, Adelina, 101, 102, 104, 115, 153, 253, 269, 288, 298 + +Payton, Corse, 304 + +Peacock, Thomas Love, 301 + +Péladan, Josephin, 43 + +Persian miniatures, 19 + +Pessimism, 56, 60, 61, 65 + +Petrarch, 76 + +Pfitzner, Hans, 200 + +Perfumes, 79 + +Phelps, William Lyon, 38 + +Phémé, 86 + +Philip II, 79 + +Philistine, The, 39 + +Philosophy of Edgar Saltus, 54, 56 + +Picasso, Pablo, 19, 183 + +Piccinni, Niccola, 24, 258 + +Pinero, Arthur Wing, 234, 295, 302, 303, 321 + +Pinto, Mrs., 257 + +Pischek, Johann, 173 + +Pistocchi, Francesco, 99 + +Plagiarism, 79 + +Poe, Edgar Allan, 44, 87 + +Pogliani, Giacomo, 157 + +Poiret, Paul, 154, 222 + +Poisons, 51, 52, 59, 64, 76 + +Pollard, Percival, 48 + +Pompadour, Mme. de, 260 + +Ponchielli, Amilcare, 175 + +Popular music, 23 + +Porpora, 95, 96, 99 + +Pougy, Liane de, 201 + +Pratella, Balilla, 329 + +Puccini, Giacomo, 24, 26, 29, 100, 103, 108, 113, 157, 173, 175, 318, + 329 + +Puchol, Luisita, 288 + +Puente, del, 159 + +Purcell, Henry, 152 + +Puritanism, 65 + +Pyrrhonist, 179 + + +Quincy, de, 31 + +Quinlan, Gertrude, 219 + + +Rabusson, 63 + +Rachel, 250, 301, 302, 310 + +Radcliffe, Mrs., 74 + +Raff, Joseph Joachim, 23 + +Ragtime, 110, 152, 290 + +Rankin, Phyllis, 219 + +Ravel, Maurice, 200, 315, 329 + +Realism in fiction, 56, 77, 88 + +Realistic acting, 105, 111 + +Reeves, Sims, 263 + +Reger, Max, 27, 29 + +Rehan, Ada, 319, 320 + +Reicher, Frank, 300 + +Reinhardt, Max, 282 + +Renan, 76 + +Renaud, Maurice, 107, 246 + +Repplier, Agnes, 9, 38, 69 + +Reszke, Jean de, 100 + +Retz, Gille de, 80 + +Rimbaud, Arthur, 43 + +Rimsky-Korsakov, 157, 299, 315 + +Ring, Blanche, 110 + +Ristori, 302 + +Rives, Mme. Amélie, 48 + +Rodin, Auguste, 129, 227, 228, 312 + +Rome, 70, 71 + +Ronalds, Lorillard, 69 + +Ronconi, Giorgio, 97, 98, 246 + +Ronsard, 76 + +Roosevelt, Theodore, 120, 209 + +Rops, Félicien, 312 + +Rorer, Mrs., 149 + +Rossini, Gioacchino, 25, 26, 28, 31, 33, 61, 97, 101, 102, 103, 142, + 149, 168, 169, 248, 273, 288 + +Rostand, 228 + +Rowland, Adele, 222 + +Rübgam, 164 + +Rubini, Giovanni Battista, 163 + +Rubinstein, Anton, 24, 112 + +Runciman, J. F., 32, 234 + +Russell, Lillian, 160, 220 + +Russian Ballet, 282, 288, 315 + +Rutherford, John S., 63 + + +Sacré-Coeur, Church of, 126, 130 + +Sagan, Princesse de, 84 + +St. Giorgio, Signor, 159, 160 + +St. Paul's School, 42 + +Salieri, Antonio, 170 + +Salome, 66, 67, 86, 287 + +Saltus, Edgar, 37 _et seq._, 117, 154, 187, 191, 225 + +Saltus, Francis, 42 + +Sanborn, Pitts, 118 + +Sand, George, 26, 239, 240, 252 + +Sanderson, Julia, 217 + +Santley, Charles, 158, 167, 174, 264 + +Sappho, 76, 82 + +Sardou, 302, 303 + +Satan, 58, 78, 286, 287 + +Satie, Erik, 30, 329 + +Saturday Review, The, 18 + +Savoyarde, restaurant, 125, 126, 130, 131 + +Scharwenka, Xaver, 155 + +Scheherazade, 82 + +Schillings, Max, 150 + +Schoenberg, Arnold, 30, 32, 121, 329 + +Schopenhauer, 43, 56 + +Schroeder, Edwin Albert, 71 + +Schroeder-Devrient, Wilhelmine, 99 + +Schubert, 24, 27, 28, 33, 170, 205, 305, 310 + +Schumann, 111, 274 + +Scott, Cyril, 29, 329 + +Scotti, Antonio, 107 + +Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ, 70 + +Seidl, Anton, 155 + +Sembrich, Marcella, 104, 107, 108, 114, 115, 153, 271, 273 _et seq._ + +Senesino, 95 + +Shakespeare, 73, 76, 98, 147, 284, 298, 302, 305, 318 _et seq._ + +Sharp, Cecil J., 30, 109 + +Shaw, George Bernard, 42, 234, 235, 239, 318, 322 + +Shepherd, Arthur, 200 + +Sherwin, Louis, 222, 291, 293, 295 + +Shield, William, 171, 172 + +Siddons, Mrs., 18, 302, 303 + +Simonds, W. E., 38 + +Singing, 93 _et seq._ + +Smith, Harry B., 222 + +Snob, 50 + +Socrates, 117 + +Solomon, 19, 80, 82 + +Sonata form, 33 + +Sontag, Henrietta, 246 _et seq._ + +Sophocles, 103, 302 + +Sorbonne, 43 + +Sousa, John Philip, 202, 209, 216 + +Southeim, 164 + +Spain, 19, 59, 62, 94, 100, 106, 142, 189, 190, 281 _et seq._ + +Spiritualism, 43 + +Spohr, Louis, 24 + +Stanislavski, 283 + +Stanton, Theodore, 38 + +Starr, Hattie, 202 + +Starr, Muriel, 253 + +Steger, 164 + +Stein, Gertrude, 19, 79, 229 + +Steinlen, 139 + +Steinway, William, 154 + +Stevenson, R. L., 58, 74 + +Stigelli, 166 + +Stillman-Kelley, Edgar, 199, 202 + +Straus, Oskar, 216 + +Strauss, Johann, 25, 139, 216 + +Strauss, Richard, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 100, 104, 113, 114, 120, 175, 330 + +Stravinsky, Igor, 32, 100, 104, 114, 121, 152, 329 + +Stuck, Franz von, 89 + +Style in Singing, 98, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 116, 117, 118, 119, + 245, 246, 249, 250, 251, 270, 273, 274, 276 + +Style in Writing, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 53, 55, 56 + +Suetonius, 70, 72 + +Sullivan, Sir Arthur, 107, 169, 216, 220, 221 + +Swinburne, 76, 307 + +Symonds, J. A., 72 + +Symons, Arthur, 188, 232, 245, 293, 301, 303 + +Synge, J. M., 103 + + +Tacitus, 72 + +Taggart, Lucy L., 209 + +Tamagno, Francesco, 120 + +Tasso, 62 + +Taste, 11 _et seq._ + +Tchekhov, 303 + +Tempest, Marie, 219, 252, 301 + +Temps, Le, 18 + +Terence, 302 + +Terry, Ellen, 301 + +Tetrazzini, Luisa, 102, 160 + +Thèbes, Mme. de, 79 + +Thomas, Ambroise, 173 + +Thomas, Augustus, 235, 236, 295 + +Thomas, Olive, 223 + +Thomas, Theodore, 155 + +Tiberius, 69 + +Tichatschek, Joseph Aloys, 164 + +Tilzer, Harry von, 202 + +Tinney, Frank, 222 + +Tissot, 67 + +Toscanini, Arturo, 156 + +Tradition, 24, 97, 281 + +Troubetskoy, Prince, 157 + +Tschaikovsky, 59, 312 + +Turgeniev, 187, 252 + +Twain, Mark, 261, 265 + + +Urban, Joseph, 222, 223 + + +Vagaries of genius, 55 + +Vallière, Louise, de la, 13 + +Valverde, Joaquín, 284 _et seq._ + +Vaughn, Theresa, 219 + +Verelst, Myndart, 56, 58 + +Veiller, Bayard, 68 + +Velasquez, 16, 190 + +Verdi, Giuseppe, 120, 149, 173, 221, 270, 275, 298, 323 + +Verlaine, Paul, 43 + +Veronese, 16 + +Versatility in acting, 300 + +Vespasian, 69 + +Viafora, 157 + +Viardot, Pauline, 98, 250, 251, 252, 253 + +Victory of Samothrace, The, 17, 312 + +Vinci, Leonardo da, 190, 191, 301 + + +Wachtel, Theodor, 164 + +Wagner, Richard, 23, 29, 32, 93, 96, 99, 100, 102, 104, 108, 113, 120, + 150, 162, 173, 175, 270, 271, 274, 298, 301, 314 + +Walter, Eugene, 68 + +Walter, Gustav, 164 + +Warfield, David, 295 + +Wayburn, Ned, 281 + +Weber, 27, 31, 98, 175 + +Webster, 51 + +Weckerlin, J. B., 169 + +Weichsell, Carl, 172 + +Weichsell, Charles, 172 + +Weidley, David, 210 + +Wendell, Barrett, 38 + +Westminster Magazine, 39 + +Whitmer, T. Carl, 200, 202 + +Wilde, Oscar, 20, 43, 48, 55, 63, 64, 66, 70, 85, 86, 87, 187, 239, + 282, 307 + +Winter, William, 320, 324 + +Wodehouse, P. G., 222 + +Women, Saltus's opinion of, 73 + +Wüllner, Ludwig, 246 + + +Yeats, W. B., 192 + +Yohe, May, 219 + + +Zandonai, Riccardo, 329 + +Zeus, 82 + +Ziegfeld, Florenz, 283 + +Zuloaga, 290 + + * * * * * + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES + + +Variations in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been +retained from the original book except for the following changes: + +Table of Contents: Added listings for FOOTNOTES and INDEX. + +Page 32: Used oe for the oe ligature in "oeuvre bâtarde". + +Page 189: Changed "their's" to "theirs". + +Page 227: Added "Young" to the chapter title, "Two Young American +Playwrights," to match the Table of Contents and section title. + +Page 259: Changed "Eightenth Century" to "Eighteenth Century". + +Page 303: "Mrs. Siddone" might be a typo for "Mrs. Siddons". Retained. + +Page 320: Capitalized "It" in "As You Like It" for consistency. + +Page 331: (Index) Changed "Aeschylus" to "Æschylus" to match text. + +Page 332: (Index) The reference for Bergström, Hjalmar, 90 was not found +anywhere in the original book, and page 90 was a blank page. + +Page 332: (Index) Changed page ref. 122 to 222 for Bernhardt, Sarah. + +Page 332: (Index) Changed "Caesar, Julius," to "Cæsar, Julius," to +match text. + +Page 338: (Index) Changed page ref. 176 to 76 for Michelet. + +Page 339: (Index) Changed "Péladin, Josephin" to "Péladan, Josephin" +to match text. + +Page 341: (Index) Changed "Scriptores Historiae Augustae" to +"Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ" to match text. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Merry-Go-Round, by Carl Van Vechten + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MERRY-GO-ROUND *** + +***** This file should be named 26320-8.txt or 26320-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/3/2/26320/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Diane Monico, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced +from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print +project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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