n objectionable person.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Thinks it can be done.]

In the interests of playwriters and play-actors, I wish to see the
playgoer--our dramatic lawgiver--be educated; and I think this might be
done by means of a "Royal Dramatic Academy." Our Royal Academy of Art
has been the means of bringing into existence an artistic public, which,
if small, is at all events growing and enthusiastic; and a man can paint
a picture with the certainty that some, at all events, of the people who
come to look at it will be capable of comprehending his meaning. Without
our Royal Academy of Music it is probable that _Ta-ra-boom-de-ay_ would
represent the high-water mark of our national taste. With the advent of
a "Royal Dramatic Academy" (the "Royal" printed fairly large) people
would begin to grasp the idea that acting was an art. A public would
grow up able to appreciate a play as a play, and not merely as a
digester or a pick-me-up; playwriting would not be the lottery it is;
and the actor, no longer a mere public pet, would receive more dignified
recognition as an artist. In France, in Germany, in Austria, in Holland,
there are dramatic schools, and acting is regarded as an art. In
England, keeping a theatre is supposed to be on all fours with keeping a
shop. I should be sorry to add to the dustheap of rubbishy talk about
Art, but thought and emotion, though it is legitimate to live by them,
are not on all fours with other merchandise. An artist has a right to
sell what he may possess of them, but he has no right to adulterate them
to suit the taste of his customers. Something is needed to come between
the drama and the entertainment-seeking public--something that shall, on
the one hand, foster a purer taste, and, on the other, support and
encourage a higher aim. I think a Dramatic Academy might accomplish
this. If not, I know of nothing that would.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Idler Magazine, Volume III, June
1893, by Various

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