THE STAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9564, 21 October 1892, Page 4

THE STAGE

TO THE EDITOR. I Sir, —" St. Michael" knows in his heart that "Ethics" is right: the stage is rotten to the core, and_ eternal damnation awaits all who belong to it or who say a word in its favour. There is a sultry time in store for the U eommitteemen who are "running" Mr Bentley's benefit, unless before it is too late they are "choked off" the dreadful business for the sake of their souls. Think of it, then, 0 deluded citizens! The prospect of being everlastingly grilled for such a sin makes you careful, doesn't it ? The very name of the stage is as foul as the Caversham digester iv the nostrils of a Good man (with a big G). " Ethics "is right. There is more iniquity in the miserable heart of one poor player than in those of half a dozen cadaverous-faced, canting humbugs, who roll their eyes to heaven at the mention of a play, and go to church without missiug a Sunday. Ah me ! I sigh for the terrible destruction breathed in the alluring words of blind zealots, who fain would see the stage honoured above the lying and dissembling spirit that opposes it. Listen to this and weep: "Where is every feeling more roused in favour of virtue than at a good play ? Where is goodness so feelingly, so enthusiastically learnt? What so solemn as to see the excellent passions of the human heart called forth by a great actor animated by a great poet ? To hear SiddoDS repeat what Shakespeare wrote! To behold the child and his mother, the noble and the poor artisan, the monarch and his subjects, all ages and all ranks convulsed with one common passion, wrung with one common anguish, and,1 with loud sobs and cries, doing involuntary homage to the God that made their hearts! What wretched infatuation to interdict such amusements as these! What a blessing that mankind can be allured from sensual gratification, and find relaxation and pleasure in such pursuits !" So said the Rev. Sydney Smith, but it was lies!—every word of it! " Ethics "is right: Carlyle spoke the real truth about the stage in those blood-curdling words of his, that must be like hot lead in the ears of the leprous and abandoned actor. Dear old Thomas Carlyle, with his enlarged liver and old-fashioned prejudices; with his perennial supply of the jaundice, which made him view the most beautiful and wholesome purpose through eyes as cold and lustreless as those of' a dead eel in a, tropical sun. Yes, the stage is rank corruption, and a " Golden Remedy No. 1" is sadly needed to kill the taste for this pleasure, which is taking such a slice out of the morals of the people. Prom the meanest " super," who earns a miserable shilling or two to keep life in his starvingfamily, to the "star," who, like the poet, "beautifies nature," and out of his success does many a charitable act. they are wicked and abandoned: they are children of the devil. Those who have adorned the stage, and who, in our blindness, we thought were among the purest and noblest of God's creatures, are corrupt and doomed because of their existence in the very atmosphere of the theatre. When the great vault beneath is opened, seething and hissing like a brewer's boiler, and the poor lost wretches are writhing in the molten mustard prepared by Old Scratch, among them wiil be dear old lwge - hearted and humane Stuart Blackie, who dared to see Irving in the accursed drama, and openly thanked God that his life was the sweeter for it. ifes, thus it will be ; while "Ethics " will be sitting on the rcoon, with a crown on his head and a golden zither in his hand, gracefully sweeping the harmonious strings, and dropping his sympathetic tears to cool the suffering mass far beneath him. Go, Walter Bentley! Go hence! Reflect in solitude on the evils of your profession, and be persuaded to turn from the narrow track that leads to the soul's destruction. Your heart is pretty far gone as it is, but there is yet a sound part left; so "throw away the worser part of it, and live the purer with the other half." Join the noble army of sanctimonious shams and take to preaching on the evils of the world, while you practise your own in private. Do this, and then come back to take " Ethics' " arm up the golden ladder. That done, / may be permitted to kiss his robe before losing him like a lovely vision.—l am, &c, Dunedin, October 20. Gratiano.