Nature and Art, April 1, 1867.] 
THE DRAMA. AUDIENCES AND PERFORMANCES. 
103 
frequenters, and these, each in his degree, are 
critics, and discriminate after their fashion very 
precisely on the performances. They lead and, 
indeed, generally make the demonstrations on the 
part of the audience. But even of these many are 
only occasional visitors, and therefore are perfectly 
passive. The young butcher and Matilda Mary 
Anne at the play have other thoughts in their 
heads than the precise amount of intelligence Mr. 
Phelps displays, or than even tlie exact amount of 
vivacity shown by the Harlequin and Columbine. 
Still, the majority of London play-goers have a 
standard of excellence, and expect a fulfilment of 
it, and if the English drama has any patrons who at 
all affect its performances, it is this class, which is, 
however, subdivided into many departments. The 
chief divisions are the youths of the lower class, 
who frequent the galleries, and the young men of 
the upper class, who frequent the stalls and the pits, 
according to the capacities of their pockets. The 
boxes are more frequented by families ; and mater- 
familias is anything but critical on fine-art matters, 
so that her children are pleased. As it is only by 
analyzing audiences that we can come to the 
rationale of stage performances, we have indulged 
in this dissertation. There is of course a great 
action and reaction in the matter of public 
amusements. The manager is anxious to attract, 
and the audiences expect to be pleased. In ful- 
filling these efforts, many mistakes are made, and 
theatrical management becomes a very tentative 
occupation. Certainly many pieces have achieved 
extraordinary runs that no one anticipated. It 
was a mere experiment that brought Mr. Sothern 
before a London audience ; and we well recollect 
that, in the theatre he was to appear at, great 
doubts were expressed as to his success. That he 
would be endured was doubtful, yet the town, 
including those presiding young men of the pits 
and galleries, so took to him that he performed the 
same character every night for a year. When the 
“ Colleen Bawn ” came out, there was nothing in it 
to show it would become the most popular piece of 
the time ; and even now it is difficult to say Avhy it 
was so. Taste, however, in matters of amusement, 
“vires acquirit eunclo and this vis is commonly 
called fashion. What many admire, all wish to see. 
Theatrical people, whom many suppose to be the 
most reckless of mortals, are, on the contrary, the 
most cautious and careful in professional matters. 
A successful modern manager is the most pains- 
taking of men ; actors the most punctual. Neither 
military nor commercial men are more exact in 
their business matters. Nothing will induce a 
manager to voluntarily run the risk of the failure of 
a piece ; nor will any actor of repute take a part he 
thinks likely to be damned. Neither of them has 
any very strong perceptive powers as to the capacity 
of an untried drama ; nor of an entirely original 
part. They are almost wholly guided by facts. 
A successful French melodrame will be played at 
every theatre in London, and become a model for all 
dramas until some other piece of a totally different 
kind unexpectedly arises, when there is another 
flooding of the managerial mind. The “ Ticket-of- 
Leave Man ” succeeds ; and there is no end of 
burglarious plays. “ Lady Audley’s Secret ” is 
dramatized, and all the authoress’s novels are put 
on the stage. An old comedy which has a literary 
but no theatrical repute, revived in mere despair, 
attracts, and all the most celebrated of a like 
kind are produced. In the theatre, all is tentative 
that is original ; but the staple of the stage is a 
manufacturing to pattern. 
To manufacture is the genius of this age ; and 
he who does not manufacture may become famous, 
but he never will become rich. The premium of 
millions is given to successful manufacture ; but no 
man without multiplying talent can be a million- 
naire by his own efforts. The tenor singer may earn 
large sums, but the spinner of popular melodies 
will make infinitely more. The dramatists ai'e 
beginning to learn this ; and therefore their entire 
aim is to be popular. They no longer conduct 
themselves as literary men, but avow they are 
manufacturers. Mr. Boucicault is the least literary 
and the most successful of stage-play manufacturers; 
and he not only knows how to manufacture, but he 
has a complete commercial knowledge in the 
vending of his wares. He gets every penny out of 
them. It must be owned, his scientific knowledge 
of the construction of dramatic wares is very exact 
and ingenious. He has carefully studied what 
tells on the stage ; he is very diligent in collecting- 
interesting material ; he is most unscrupulous as 
regards taste in using it. It is not that he writes 
dramas that exemplify human nature, or reflect 
human events, or even human probabilities ; but 
that he knows how to excite the mind of his 
audience, and put them in a state that the grossest 
impossibilities will be received for facts. He is at 
present the first of stage manufacturers. Many 
others emulate him ; but they have not his finish. 
“ Arrah na Pogue ” was finished so completely that 
it seemed to have something of the creation of 
literature in it ; but it had not. Mr. Tom Taylor 
has more of literary power ; and he has not yet 
quite come to studying nothing but stage effect. 
His characters say, as well as do, something. Yet 
in this author the artisan manipulation is becoming 
far more apparent than the art work. His last 
production at the Haymarket, “ A Lesson for 
Life,” is extremely mechanical, although the first 
two acts are manipulated with great skill. The 
last act is absolutely coarse work : probably the 
chief actor has set his clumsy hand to it to make 
the relief higher ; but, in so doing, he has become 
fulsome and exaggerated. The manufacturing- 
system is strongly shown at the Lyceum Theatre ; 
although it is rather in the accessories than the 
drama that the handicraft is exercised. Here the 
stage business is faultless. The scenery in “ liouge 
et Noir” is all of the best kind of manufacture. 
Ditto the costumes. Ditto the upholstery. Ditto 
the realities of all kinds. Ditto the acting. Conse- 
quently it is impossible to find fault ; but it is equally 
impossible to be interested. Like the domesticated 
game sold in the markets, it is fresh, it is plump, it 
