Download File

A DRAMATIC CRITIC
matic critic must always be, even in
Paris, London, and New York, a rara
avis. The man whose equipment includes
a good working familiarity with the clas-
sic and modern languages; an intimate
acquaintance with all English literature,
and with all that is most important in
other literatures; a long experience with
the theatre; a high and varied skill in
writing; honesty of purpose and complete
emancipation from mean personal preju-
dice; and, finally, the faculty, inborn, and,
though highly susceptible of cultivation,
never to be acquired, of detecting false
touches in acting as the perfect ear detects
false tones in music, — even the late bril-
liant, accomplished, and unimpeachable
Sarcey did not fill the area of that defini-
tion. Yet if such an Admirable Crichton
existed, he would not be effective on the
staff of a newspaper which in any way
or at any point, for commercial or any
reasons, cabined, cribbed, or confined him;
[ 22 ]