A CONTRAST .OF MANNERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2425, 5 September 1900, Page 63

A CONTRAST .OF MANNERS.

< " She Stoops to Conquer " was present**' within two or three years of " The Rivals." with the difference in the position of the playwrights that Goldsmith was at his apogee, while Sheridan was a young-man Avhc had only just eloped with the beautiful iMiss' Linley. •' Goldsmith belonged to the country and Sheridan to the town, if we may make a .rough generalisation. - My object 10-day is to contrast' the " manners" of their time and the plays 'in which they en-, shrined them with- the plays" and .the modes, of the later nineteenth ,'centuryr ""The twentieth is coming on ap*ace^ ':ahd"'the big' changes that have "been predietdd are already upon ii 3, and I doubt _ (as "tlie Scotch say) that manners' will Have " niucli scope for some years to come.- , ." Dr Johnson wrote. -,of .Goldsmith after liis death, "Let not his- frailties be remem-. b'eredj'he was a very -great man." If we consider that he was the writer of the best didactic poem, the best genre novel, and the bast comedy that was produced by the circle of the great lexicographer, this estimate is not too high. I sometimes think that uiere was some jealousy of this superior power in the chaff that was always the portion of little Goldy." He could not have written as he did and been entirely ridiculous in conversation. All his work shows tlie keenest observation, and many passages therein are said to be autobiographical. In talking with the sage of 'Pump-court, the controversial victory often rested with Goldy, as some pages of Boswell show.'

In going back to those "times we have to tLink of the united populations of the three kingdoms as not being more - than six or seven millions. There was elbow room then, and agriculture, if- it had begun to decay, still kept the country a rural instead of a manufacturing- one. The seriousness of a journey from London 'to the provinces is shown in " She Stoops to, Conqeur," though Miss Hardcastle, like Lydia Languish, had some of the manner of -the' town. -The 1 young -lady's season in London was to her wKat [the 1 grand toiuf was' to the "young- gentleman. .-In the s de-t lightfuily ' racy ' "" Evelina," the naughtiei* side of the town is immortalised, for Miss Buxney, like most, people who make a hit with a first book, was* not hampered by tradition. Both Goldsmith and Sheridan have something academic in the perfect suavity of their style. The young lady of the period, as they depict her, was a dear. • Not quite as-inno-

cent as they thought, if " Evelina " is to b& trusted, but a good, pure girl, and delightfully witty. I am bound to believe '"her Healthy, though she did not ride a bicycle, because she was brought up to Understand housekeeping. I myself have Jtthe Honour of knoAving a modern damsel |who once went to the grocer to order suet : Wd you may judge therefrom Avhether she jcoiild make pudding or a pasty. Madame Sarah Grand has lately informed us jlhat England's peril is bad cooking. I Relieve her, and say likeAvise that for a Vouhg girl to roll up her sleeves and bare jher pretty arms to make pastry, for her Jto run up and downstairs on household aflairs intent, for her to have the care of storing lavender-scented linen in a roomy armoire, for her to make the house gay .with the flowers of the garden or the fields —all these tasks are distinctly hygienic. JDancing is just as healthy an exercise as dumbbells, in fact as healthy an exercise as Sandow's No. 17, " gradually rise on the ■toes and. return to the ground with the heels " ; while to bend doAvn and pick cow-slips-is just as good as that fiendish sitting down* on air and rising hurriedly, Avhich makes the knee joints of the gouty crack. « In those days ' look exercise in the w.ay_ of work, Avhich is the only real Avay of -doing, it.' To gad about under penalty of- a" remonstrating liver is to lose half the epjoymeiit of life. They could dance then, because there were assembly rooms where the Avell-to-do had their good time, and village greens where the rustics-had their diversion, plentifully punctuated Avith the small beer that is" only brewed now in pome of the Roman Catholic monasteries in the Avest of this island. 1 am not going to pitch into modern times ; it is a pity that men and women should now 'be turned out with the uniformity and in the quantity t the threepenny magazines — or are they threepence halfpenny? It is our number AvLich is so unfortunate, and for that the only cure is organisation. We haA^e that in the material Avay now, and if Aye were properly educated, and Aye used Avhat Aye haVe in "the Avay of parks, museums, and theatres, Aye should be eminently happy. ' Thus only shall \ve attain some individuality. Manners are not opposed to individuality, for man is an imitative animal, and if our leaders Aver-e serious people I imagine society would soon folloAv suit. We haA r e gone through a peiiod during which people have thought it right to forget that they are human beings. If I . were writing of what is coming I would bring the breezy heartiness the younger generation in testimony to rebuke the prigs and decadents of past years, but I have to consider also that they have given the dramatist admirable subject-matter. " The School for Scandal"' is an indictment of smart .society, and a pretty severe one. I c.xpect .that Avhat is called smart society will always exist,, for it must be more than the product of special circumstances ; y^es, it must be the result of temperament. My only complaint is when Aye are told tliat this is to be the onb/~kind of drama. For, you see, there are incidents of life Avhen men stand by the yawning -precipices of Tragedy, and some echo of the cries of dying men must come in to break our lotus dreams. In fact, there are times when audiences ask for sterner stuff, and are not satisfied either Avith idyll or satire. If it is remembered that the. heroic Byron came out of the Napoleonic struggle, it Avill be admitted that the public supports the art that expresses the time-spirit. lam willing to predict that the comedy of manners Avill not have a long- hearing in England, noAv that Aye are getting in troubled waters. It is worth while trying to define the difference between the comedy of 1780 and that of 1890.

11. The note of health and of the open xir comes out strongly in the older work. Goldsmith even places one scene out of doors on a cold, foggy night. In "The Rivals" street, parlour, and country alternate. This takes us far- from the fugginess (Mr Pinero 'made the Avord classical in the "Benefit of the Doubt") of our drama. All the open-air scenes in the present revivals at the - Haymarket have .been especially beautiful, and in keeping with the spirit of the time.

' This brings me to the idea of costume, and' at the Haymarket, if I mi&take not, authentic dresses of the period 'were worn as far as possible. . Our conversation always goes with our costume, and the rich diction of the time was very well in keeping with the clothes society wore. Strange that when the roads Avere not paved, mortals wore such" fine feathers ! In some ways the dress of modern women is very beautiful, and Avith the "parisianisme" of the frock have come Frenchy manners too. But I am getting too slowly, to my point, which is that modern life a.s Avell as modern art insists too much on detail. In our drawing rooms there is to much bric-a-brac, too much "virtu," too much subdivision of Avail space Avith small canvases. Keep your masses large, I say, for all this insistence on small things becomes • a weariness to the flesh. In the drama too this only will bring salvation. In our most popular play of recent years see lioav •much is made of the ribbon hung out on the dooi knob as a signal, on the extra gla?s (which the Duchess had presumably used with her toothbrush) being used to \:>u't champagne in. Look at the three classical comedies I am talking about, and you Avill no more find these details than you would .Ind small work in a Hoppner or a Reynolds.

Or take a case of reckless waste of dramatic material. I have lately been revisiting that charming comedy the "Man <jj? Forty," and like everybody else have Ifleen delighted with the brilliant scone in which" the jealous woman upbraids LeeFanshawe for marrying. The fault of 'Mr Filth's play is that he has put too >*nuch into it ; in this theme of the jealous woman he luid an cntir'e play ready to his "hand. No doubt richness of imagination it better than pove^-y- but if^ Mr Frith had kept to a few clear but' 'f-trongly-marked motives, he would have done his 'keen observation of character gi cater justioa. ,

111. Herein lies all that these classical works can teach us. Many writers to-day have greater subtlety than either Goldsmith or iSheridan, and no doubt our lives are more complex than those they depicted. But the rules of art cannot change, and it is in selection of essentials that Aye shall Avrite plays more Avorthy of that artistic ancestry. So perfect are these old comedies that one almost holds" one's breath sometimes at iheir finish and delicacy. But it is not finicking finish or niggling that make them what they are, but the calm spirit of create delight ".hat was their origin.

I think men haA'e to be happy to produce good art. Often in the pauses of a modern play I seem to see the playwright looking up from his manuscript, enraptured Avith his OAvn skill. But to Avrite Avell ought to be a second nature, and tho.se men Avho have studied in a good school — that of craftsmanship and sincerity — cannot but find creation easy and delightful. — H. N. M., in Sunday Sun.