UNIVERSITY COURIER.
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find to do must be done with all our might or not attempted. Then let us go to our next task with earnestness, and as we work in the field of action chosen for us by Providence, may all our deeds be accurate, careful deeds, and our character such that they will be well done, and ourselves be faithful servants. Thus our nearest duty will prove our greatest blessing; and, as the reward of faithfulness in a few things, we shall enter, here, into the fulness of earthly joy; and hereafter, into the perfect manhood.
THE THEATER.
Contest Essay by Miss Cara E. Fellows, of Oread Society.
A mighty force for good when changed in its direction becomes most potent for evil. The locomotive winding through fertile valleys and around mountains, carrying its freight of human souls, annihilating space, is indeed the embodiment of physical force directed to a noble purpose. But when the terrible collision comes and hundreds of lives are blotted out we look with horror upon the forces thus misapplied.
The noblest qualities of man, when perverted, are the vilest. The works of the poet and the musician, all admirable in themselves, have been made to serve the basest purposes. A notable example of this fact may be found in the theater, now looked upon as a noble institution leading to the highest intellectual and moral culture, again loaded with opprobrium as the embodiment of all that is vicious, it forms a worthy subject for our consideration.
In ancient Greece, the home of intellect and beauty, where strength of arm was second to strength of mind, and where superiority depended not upon the number of followers one could lead into the field, but upon sagacity and wisdom joined to a noble activity, poetry flourished in its purest, grandest expression. One school arose, was developed, and passed away only to give place to another more beautiful and comprehensive, until Greek literature reached its culminating point in the Attic drama. The theater was a powerful agent in promoting general culture. Attendance was enjoined as a sacred duty. No production could be brought before the public until judges appointed by the state, had examined it and had pronounced it worthy. The representations were of the loftiest subjects. The Athenians felt when witnessing them that they were beholding the persons of the gods and heroes of their race. What did the stage accomplish for Athens? The Greek tragedy brought before a vast audience the great features of their civil and religious history—the majestic Apollo in his temple at Delphi, the goddess Athene in the act of founding the Areopagus, the profane king paying the terrible penalty for his sacrilige—all in a grandly, simple form, harmonized by choral music and dance. The picture had an ideal beauty, and for the Greeks a deep reality. They seemed to be viewing the origin of those sacred rites so dear to every loyal heart. The influence of the Attic drama could not be other than religious and moral. Eschylus, Sophocles and Euripides so taught ethics and religion that the stage in the Athenian democracy must be compared to the pulpit in modern times. It was never frivolous nor debasing. Beneath the shadow of the Parthenon, and of Minerva herself, the free people sat down, as Eschylus say: "Under the wings of the gods." Athens, torn and shattered by civil wars and domestic dissensions, has passed away. Her magnificent columns and massive walls are in ruins. Her former glory is insulted, and her sanctuaries are profaned by the presence of the barbarous Turk. But her drama remains. Many grand productions have been lost, but those that time has spared are priceless reliques both for their exquisite beauty and for the knowledge they give us of the genius of the Greek mind.
Rome presents a far different picture. Seeds of decay had taken root in the empire before literature had reached any considerable development. The Roman drama had very little influence upon the manners and morals of the people. It was wholly of foreign origin. An exotic, subsisting on the patronage of a few great men. The common life and interests of her citizens inclined them very little toward intellectual pleasure. Triumph after triumph produced in them a taste for gorgeous exhibitions, ill-satisfied by the poetry and action of the stage. The bloody sports of the gladiatorial games created in them a craving for fiercest excitements. To meet with approval from audiences good taste was sacrificed to strange and meaningless delineations. Brilliant shows were adapted to please the eye and not the mind nor the heart. But even here we find the theater simply following public taste, not guiding nor directing.
When we turn to the study of our own literature we find every shade of opinion in regard to the merits of the drama. In the age of Elizabeth, dramatic art reached a high degree of cultivation. It represents the life of that period with all its virtues and all its vices. But we should not apply the present standard of morals to the stage of Shakespeare. We should rather compare his drama with the morals of that epoch. High and low life were permeated with vice. Though we find immoralities in Shakespeare, they are not clothed in fascinating garb. On the contrary, the virtuous seem more attractive in contrast with the vicious. The one he rewards, the other meets with swift retribution. The plays of Shakespeare must have been a positive aid promoting morality, for they were far in advance of contemporary society. It is so surprising that a popular writer at such a time should have left productions as pure as those of Shakespeare. His influence can hardly be overestimated. If the writings of those who received their inspiration from him, were removed from our literature, it would suffer irreparable loss. He wrote almost exclusively for the stage. Even if the theater had not existed, such a genius would have found expression in some form. But his greatest talent must have been lost. To be just, we should give to the stage the credit of drawing out his prolific powers and of giving to the world works of immortal genius.
We can scarcely imagine a mind that is not widened and cultivated by a study of the great dramas, the richest fruits of the world's brightest and brilliantest men. It is the reality of things present to the imagination that makes these writings so exquisite, so bold, and yet so true. A great dramatic poet, actuated by a strong and noble purpose may make the soul of his verse become the soul of the people. He should therefore work with all diligence to attain the utmost perfection that he may elevate and ennoble his audience.
Easily and pleasantly we may learn the history of a people with their peculiar forms of worship, their customs. and their modes of life by studying their drama. If then, so much may be gained by merely reading these