A Brief View of the English Drama From the Earliest Period to the Present Time
A Brief View of the English Drama From the Earliest Period to the Present Time
F G Frederick Guest Tomlins
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From this time we find the smaller theatres advanced from singing and dancing and feats of agility to recitative, and so on to burletta, vaudeville, farce, melodrame. At this point the law stopped them ; they were ad- vancing towards an intellectual amusement, and they must be stayed, as that had already been sold to patent retailers. That the taste of the multitude would have been elevated to the enjoyment of the 102 THE REFORM OF THE THEATRE. higher and better drama, can no more be disputed t...han that it has risen by the free dissemination of the noblest works of literature to a due appreciation of them. Had Shakspere been as freely acted as printed, audiences would have fully appreciated him and his class on the stage as on the table. Such was, however, not the case ; and we have now ac- cumulated a mass of theatrical literature almost frightful to contemplate for its meanness and its absurdity, its debasing influence and revolting vul- garity. There are some extraordinary exceptions to this sweeping denunciation; but could anyone undergo the punishment of perusing the whole of the minor drama from the time of passing this act to the present time, he would confess it to be just in the main.
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