Richards to appear upon the stage in the uniform of the Life Guards. The general public has picked up, either at school, or from coins and popular prints, quite enough antiquarian knowledge to understand and appreciate, when it sees them on the stage, a great number of costumes which it sees nowhere else. All I mean is, that whensoever and wheresoever the antiquary is still dormant in the brain of the public,

book printed in Roman type. I seem to be reading a translation. Between the eye and the brain their is a momentary interruption of correspondence, and seeing and feeling are no longer synonymous. Men's pleasurable sensations are, as it were, suspended imperceptibly in the mind by the finest and frailest threads of association. It were a sin to sever one of these delicate filaments unnecessarily. I apprehend, therefore, that whenever a familiar and custom-the actor, if he rightly understands his art, will ary costume can be worn upon the stage, without offending the susceptible majesty of our erndition, it is the best and fittest of all for the actor's purpose. The less our attention is diverted from him to the dress of him the better. Now, for us moderns, the coat à la Française has, from long use and wont, acquired all the character of a second skin. It is a coat with a physiognomy. There is significance in its slightest wrinkle, and every crease and fold of it has human expression. We can understand, indeed, but we can hardly feel, hardly translate into immediate sensations of our own, those gestures which are clothed in unfamiliar garb. I see a man in a scuffle. He struggles; and his hat falls off his head. I know at once how that happens, and why. But if the man, instead of a hat, wears a helmet, and I see the helmet fall from his head, what am I to think of it? How can I tell what is the precise degree of stability which a helmet ought to retain when it is set on a man's head? I have never worn one on my own. Not being immediately able to realize the exact significance of the action I am locking at, I might misinterpret it, and attribute the fall of the helmet to the awkwardness of the ac

tor. In that case the action would at once become ridiculous.

be the last person to awaken him. The poor little episodical satisfaction which is afforded me by the supposed historic accuracy of some unfamiliar stage costume does not compensate the loss of what, in all such cases, it takes away from the general effect of the play. All the spectators experience this loss, although not all of them can detect the cause of it. But here it is that we need the tact of an intelligent actor. His intuitive knowledge of the strength and weakness of the eyes that watch him is above all rules and prescriptions. Now, as regards the historic Hamlet, London happens to be precisely in the case I have supposed. The antiquary is still asleep in the brain of the public. Who can wish that the greatest English actor should deprive this great English public of its naïreté? Not I, at least; and, for my own part, I think that Mr. Garrick has wisely foregone the small personal satisfaction of a few commonplace eulogiums on his antiquarian accuracy, in order to achieve and hold fast the conquest of a thousand hearts."

Here, I think, we have the explanation of many failures of effect in works of art.

From The Spectator.

THE DOVER CHRISTIANS AND PUNCH.

"There is a scene of Hamlet which I described in a former letter. In that scene Garrick speaks with his back to the audience. The effect of his utterance depends chiefly on that of his attitude. You can't see his countenance; His Worship the Mayor of Dover and you can only see his coat. But the coat is fa- the Young Men's Christian Association of miliar to us, and experience has enabled us to that place have expelled Punch from their attach, instinctively, particular meanings to reading-room by a narrow majority, - fifparticular changes in the appearance of it. At the moment I am speaking there was a diagonal teen serious-minded persons of that Assocrease across the back of his coat from the shoul- ciation, headed by the Mayor, having voted der to the hip, which unmistakably indicated against Punch, and thirteen in its favour. the effort made by its wearer to repress some It is something to find an association of strong emotion. When I saw that crease in his "professed" Christians in which the majorcoat I saw almost as much of the inner workings ity in favour of pompous solemnity is only of the man's mind as the face of him could have two-fifteenths; and it is particularly enshown me had it been visible. Suppose, now, couraging to find that the defence of Punch that Hamlet's inky coat' had been cut ac- was founded on the very valid, though, cording to antiquarian prescription. perhaps, somewhat aggressive argument should I have seen in the crease of it? Nothing urged by one of its advocates. His Worintelligible. An actor who has a good figure ship had affirmed that "whatever does not (and every tragic actor ought to have a good tend to promote the growth of the kingcostume which strikingly differs from the dress dom of Christ in the minds and hearts of in which our eye is helped by habit to distin- the members of the Association is, in a cerguish, to a straw's breadth, the too much and too little. Let me explain. I am not asking Julius Cæsar and the English Henries and

What

figure) cannot but lose effect, by acting in a

tain degree, inimical to their real propriety and benefit," to which a supporter of our light-minded contemporary replied by ask

can suggest of the sins of her own domestic, one of which she inconsequently finds in the fact that her Susan, though allowed to go to chapel three times every Sunday since she lived with her, "doesn't cook a bit better than she did the first day.” This appears to have been regarded as an

ing whether, when his Worship follows the mace to church, "human vanity or the growth of the kingdom of Christ was the uppermost feeling." The question was regarded as simply impertinent, and was ignored, but it really went very near the heart of the matter. The reason seriousminded people resent jokes is at bottom irreligious joke by the majority of the very much the same as the reason why the Dover Christians; they were pleased Essex boor, - by no means a serious-apparently to consider it a sort of flippancy minded person, -resented it, when he said he could not abide Punch, for it was "always a jeerin' and a fleerin'." What this worthy objected to was not the secular character of Punch, but its tendency to excite in his own mind a vague, but painful sense that even his own self-importance might possibly be founded in nothingness, which would mean pretty much the same thing as the shaking of the foundations of the earth. There is an uncomfortable sense of instability produced in the hearts of persons who believe devoutly in themselves by the flying shafts of satire. When they see so many things made fun of, they never know what may not happen to themselves; nay, the mere fact that persons like themselves are laughed at suggests that unless that satire can be formally condemned, as the fruit of frivolity and iniquity, they can hardly stand firm again on their own feet. Now, the question put by the aggressive young Dover Christian went straight to this point. Was the procession to church behind the mace calculated to accelerate the Mayor's growth in the kingdom of Christ, the feeling that, after he had done all that it was his duty to do, his Worship was still an "unprofitable servant," or was it, on the contrary, calculated to inspire those grandiose feelings in his breast by which the soul is inflated into a sort of moral dropsy? If the latter, then this thoroughly serious and even ostentatious religious ceremony was clearly far more dangerous to the health of his Worship's soul than that raillery which, whether edifying or not, clearly rather tends to reduce man's sense of his own importance than to increase it; indeed Punch might even be defended as, in some sense, an antidote to the poison of a pompous ceremonial. For instance, the last straw in the balance of the Dover Young Men's Christian Association, which seems to have turned the scale Some good people, however, probably definitively against Punch, was a little believe that all joking is evil, not because drawing in the number of March the 4th, it gives them a sense of the danger in in which a very dolorous and confused- which they stand of a wound to their own looking old lady is lamenting to a younger self-importance, but because it engenders friend, while paying a morning call, the a light and trivial turn of mind in the general derelictions of servants, and look- joker, and either predisposes him against ing industriously for any aggravations she serious subjects, or worse still, disposes

against the practice of public worship, in-
stead of a laugh at the irrelevant ingenuity
of a Mrs. Nicklebyish old lady in finding
artificial aggravations of her domestic sins.
But if this very innocent joke were to
have had a religious drift forced upon it
at all, clearly that drift ought to have been
regarded as being on the religious and not
on the irreligious side. If the old lady's
speech indicated anything but the ingenuity
of a confused mind in finding aggravations
for her favourite grievance, it had a by no
means bad drift, and was directed to show
that Susan's triple attendance at chapel
ought really to have made a more diligent
servant, and therefore probably a better
cook, of her. If the preacher had put it
in solemn, didactic form, and had said,
"You must not imagine that by coming
here three times a day you have discharged
your duty to God, unless you go home
prepared to make better shopkeepers and
better shopmen, better masters and better
servants through the whole week than you
were before," the Dover Christians would
have thought the observation most proper,
would have instantly forgotten it, and
taken credit to themselves for their triple
attendance at chapel all the same.
the supposed joke at the ill-success of a
triple attendance at chapel in making ser-
vants do their work any better, brought
really home how very little use mere chap-
el-going, - faith without works,
even to themselves, and that gave them
probably an irritating sense of insecurity,
a feeling that they might have been struck
at through "Susan," and perhaps even hit
as well as struck at. Surely, if they were,
it might have done his Worship himself
rather good than harm; and have acted as
antidote to the dangerously inflating influ-
ence of that solemn procession to church
behind the mace.

But

was

him to see an ephemeral and ludicrous side | ninety-nine per cent. of them are fixed on even to serious subjects. There is no money-getting, it may be a pure gain to joking, they say, in the Bible; and a man him to have flashes of feeling which show who keeps all his reserve of force for him the wonderful paradoxes of his life. the subjects treated in the Bible, will Now, as in point of fact, the vast majority of not often be in a joking humour. That those Englishmen who are one-mood-at-avery much depends, we should say, on the time men, are taken up with somewhat sort of person you are speaking of. Un- grovelling moods, it can hardly be doubted doubtedly, the old Jewish literature had that they would gain and not lose by flashvery little humour in it. Few Oriental es of humour which brought suddenly into literatures ever have had. There is a cer- their breasts the contradictions between tain grim sarcasm and irony in many of their faith and their life, even though the Jewish prophets, but not a trace of during that minute portion of the Sunday humour. The truth is, that humour is the in which they may devote exclusive atcharacteristic only of people who habitu- tention to their faith, this humourous ally keep their hold on conflicting and turn should sometimes divert their mind widely divergent moods of feeling at the into realizing somewhat vividly the inconsame time; not of people who are incap-gruous incidents of their daily life. As a able of experiencing more than one mood rule, the faculty of humour will hardly of feeling at the same moment. No doubt, allow a man to be a mere sordid creathe former kind of people, - the one-ture of earth, though it may sometimes mood-at-a-time people, are in some stand in his way when he is yearning sense likely to be the most "earnest." after higher things. You must take its "Play" of feeling implies, of course, a loss and gain together; and for ninety partial loss of intensity. Opposite moods out of every hundred Englishmen at least, of mind cannot touch each other, cannot its gain, even its directly spiritual gain, be intersecting moods without a certain would be far greater than its loss. It dissipation of force. When Sidney Smith, may indeed suggest to a man odd notions while under the very nose of the omnibus- in church or chapel at times. When he is horse which had knocked him down, found required to sing, his mind glancing off from the thought of eternity, to the probable thought of hundreds of aspiring clergymen on hearing of his demise, namely, "there is a vacancy," he may feel irresistibly impelled to repreit is obvious that he was not concentrat- sent to himself counsel's opinion on the ing his thoughts on the spiritual condition" abstract of title" to messuages and other of his own soul or on the prospect before him, as a pattern saint or penitent would have done. You cannot both divide your mind between two moods and concentrate it on one. But then the question occurs as to what moods those who disdain the levity of the humourist will probably concentrate their soul upon. When his Worship the Mayor of Dover follows the mace to church, will his soul be concentrated on the dignity of his position or on his failure to live up to his own highest standard? If on the latter, then, perhaps, he may be excused for not wishing his train of feelings abruptly broken in upon; but if on the former, what more wholesome for him than to realize the ludicrous littleness of municipal pomp, even though that glimpse of reality be gained by a recollection of poor Susan's sins as lamented by her mistress in Punch? If ninety-nine per cent. of a tradesman's aspirations are fixed on the wealth of spiritual life he misses, it may be a loss to him to have poor earthy feelings jostling the higher ones; but if

954

"Would I could read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,"

hereditaments in the other world, and the "fines" and "recoveries" counsel might recommend the intending purchaser to require proof of from the vendor, with a vividness not calculated to improve the depth of his religious emotions. But then the very same tendency will compel him, when he is reading the clauses of a settlement, to smile at the elaborate preparation made by men for their ephemeral successors, and realize how little all their covenants and trusts can do to secure even to a single soul the spiritual stay it needs. Humour may at times dissipate the intensity of the saintly life; it certainly disturbs the mischievous intensity of the worldly life; and on the whole, we are disposed to believe that if we could weigh his worship the Mayor of Dover and his fourteen spiritual janissaries in any true spiritual balance against fifteen of the best contributors to Punch, the latter would be likely to have very much the best of the competition.

66

him to see an ephemeral and ludicrous side | ninety-nine per cent. of them are fixed on even to serious subjects. There is no money-getting, it may be a pure gain to joking, they say, in the Bible; and a man him to have flashes of feeling which show who keeps all his reserve of force for him the wonderful paradoxes of his life. the subjects treated in the Bible, will Now, as in point of fact, the vast majority of not often be in a joking humour. That those Englishmen who are one-mood-at-avery much depends, we should say, on the time men, are taken up with somewhat sort of person you are speaking of. Un- grovelling moods, it can hardly be doubted doubtedly, the old Jewish literature had that they would gain and not lose by flashvery little humour in it. Few Oriental es of humour which brought suddenly into literatures ever have had. There is a cer- their breasts the contradictions between tain grim sarcasm and irony in many of their faith and their life, even though the Jewish prophets, but not a trace of during that minute portion of the Sunday humour. The truth is, that humour is the in which they may devote exclusive atcharacteristic only of people who habitu- tention to their faith, this humourous ally keep their hold on conflicting and turn should sometimes divert their mind widely divergent moods of feeling at the into realizing somewhat vividly the inconsame time; not of people who are incap- gruous incidents of their daily life. As a able of experiencing more than one mood rule, the faculty of humour will hardly of feeling at the same moment. No doubt, allow a man to be a mere sordid creathe former kind of people, - the one-ture of earth, though it may sometimes mood-at-a-time people, -are in some stand in his way when he is yearning sense likely to be the most "earnest." after higher things. You must take its Play" of feeling implies, of course, a loss and gain together; and for ninety partial loss of intensity. Opposite moods out of every hundred Englishmen at least, of mind cannot touch each other, cannot its gain, even its directly spiritual gain, be intersecting moods without a certain - would be far greater than its loss. It dissipation of force. When Sidney Smith, may indeed suggest to a man odd notions while under the very nose of the omnibus-in church or chapel at times. When he is horse which had knocked him down, found required to sing, his mind glancing off from the thought of eternity, to the probable thought of hundreds of aspiring clergymen on hearing of his demise, namely, "there is a vacancy," he may feel irresistibly impelled to repreit is obvious that he was not concentrat-sent to himself counsel's opinion on the ing his thoughts on the spiritual condition" abstract of title" to messuages and other of his own soul or on the prospect before hereditaments in the other world, and the him, as a pattern saint or penitent would have done. You cannot both divide your mind between two moods and concentrate it on one. But then the question occurs as to what moods those who disdain the levity of the humourist will probably concentrate their soul upon. When his Worship the Mayor of Dover follows the mace to church, will his soul be concentrated on the dignity of his position or on his failure to live up to his own highest standard? If on the latter, then, perhaps, he may be excused for not wishing his train of feelings abruptly broken in upon; but if on the former, what more wholesome for him than to realize the ludicrous littleness of municipal pomp, even though that glimpse of reality be gained by a recollection of poor Susan's sins as lamented by her mistress in Punch? If ninety-nine per cent. of a tradesman's aspirations are fixed on the wealth of spiritual life he misses, it may be a loss to him to have poor earthy feelings jostling the higher ones; but if

954

"Would I could read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,"

"fines" and "recoveries" counsel might recommend the intending purchaser to require proof of from the vendor, with a vividness not calculated to improve the depth of his religious emotions. But then the very same tendency will compel him, when he is reading the clauses of a settlement, to smile at the elaborate preparation made by men for their ephemeral successors, and realize how little all their covenants and trusts can do to secure even to a single soul the spiritual stay it needs. Humour may at times dissipate the intensity of the saintly life; it certainly disturbs the mischievous intensity of the worldly life; and on the whole, we are disposed to believe that if we could weigh his worship the Mayor of Dover and his fourteen spiritual janissaries in any true spiritual balance against fifteen of the best contributors to Punch, the latter would be likely to have very much the best of the competition.