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INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE DRAMA.
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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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When Goethe was the manager of the Court Theatre at Weimar , he conducted matters upon a principal rather different from that of Mr . Bunn . Some reasons could be given why it was very natural that the former should act so differently from the London purveyor , and in fact , from all the class of managers of whom that individual may be considered as the
representative . The dramatic authors looked up to Goethe with admiration and respect , because he himself was one of the greatest authors of his time in nearly every department of literature ; the musical composers looked up to him with respect , as to one thoroughly conversant with the subject , and possessing the
highest taste and judgment ; the painters entertained respect for his opinion , for he was known to be an artist , both in theory and practice . Possessing , in a high degree , the best qualities of the philosopher , the poet , and the painter , it naturally followed that trie actors should feel and know that , in Goethe
their talents would find a just appreciation , and that they should inwardly acknowledge the moral right by which he held supreme authority in the theatre , simply because they were conscious of his being the most worthy . Under his auspices genius was fostered ; fine tragedies , comedies , and operas , were produced ; fine actors and composers came forward . The theatre flourished—not only in intellectual wealth , but in every other sense—and , perhaps , in no country at any period of time , were dramatic exhibitions so continuously addressed to the higher orders of feelinsr , imagination , and
taste . The best result was found in a successful appeal to the public mind and sensation , and in a most elevating influence , to which Germany owes much of its subsequent literature and character . This successful appeal may be made , and this elevating influence exercised , so long as the elements of human nature remain unchanged . Passion and imagination may require some variation in the forms of their food , but the substance must remain the same , or their existence be destroyed . True dramatic power can only cease to produce its effect where humanity ceases to feel . The exercise and effect of-such power may not be confined to the theatre ; but it must always produce its natural efffcfct in a theatre when appropriately repreeepted . Progress of refinement , theories of philosophy , changes ir > taste , and caprices of fashion , must all succumb Deforc the
No . U 4 .
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Indestructibility Of The Drama.
INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE DRAMA .
Untitled Article
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1836, page 329, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2658/page/1/
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