and the very tradition of the stage disappearing.... Very likely the
spirit, which in painting we call pre-Raphaelism, is obtaining its
influence on the stage, and that some of the actors are turning out of
doors the traditions and formal mannerisms of the schools, and going
back to nature and truth for their inspiration.... There were very
artificial methods, no doubt, among the old actors, but there was also
a very consummate knowledge of the art, a great deal of breadth,
force and skill, and a finished training, which the new schools do
not exhibit. In aiming to be natural, some of our actors seem to have
concluded that their profession is not an art. They grow heedless
in the delivery of language, weakening or obscuring its meaning, and
missing its significance; and in some way lose that rich and mellow
colouring that characterized the bygone performers. So marked is this,
that some of the old dramatic characters are abandoned altogether,
because in the hands of the Realists they fade away into ineffective
and colourless forms. The _Sir Peter Teazles_ and _Sir Anthony
Absolutes_ of the old comedy require indispensably the resources
of the old art, and no thin, water-gruel realism, so-called, can
personate them. In avoiding the declamatory Kembletonianism of the old
school, our actors are right enough; but they cannot safely disregard
the skill which sharpens and chisels, as it were, the sentences; nor
forego the care, study, precision and stern adherence to rules of art,
that marked the old stage."

Steeped in such belief, it is small wonder that two of Bunce's plays
had characteristics in them to suit a member of the Wallack family.
And being such a lover of old English Comedy accounts for some of the
spirit of "Love in '76."

His plea, sound in its fundamental championing of the best that has
been on our stage, might well be heeded at this time (1920). It is a
strong valuation of tradition--the jade who is looked at askance by
the amateur players of the "little theatres," and too exacting for the
average player on the professional stage.

Bunce was a New Yorker, born in that city, February 8, 1828, and dying
there on May 15, 1890.

LAURA KEENE'S
NEW THEATRE,

624 BROADWAY. NEAR HOUSTON STREET.

MISS LAURA KEENE SOLE LESSEE AND DIRECTRESS
MR. THOMAS BAKER MUSICAL DIRECTOR

Change of Time. Doors open at half past Six. The performance will
commence with the Overture at a quarter