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[Illustration: STEELE MACKAYE]
(1844-1894)
When one realizes the sociological purpose behind Steele Mackaye's"Paul Kauvar; or, Anarchy," it is interesting to note how inefficientthe old form of drama was to carry anything more than the formalromantic fervour. Compared with John Galsworthy's treatment in"Strife" and "Justice," it makes one glad that realism came and washedaway all the obscuring claptrap of that period. Daly, Boucicault, andtheir generation were held firmly in its grip; they could not getaway from it, and they were justified in their loyalty to it by theinsistent claim "The Two Orphans" and "The Lady of Lyons" had uponthe public. All the more credit, therefore, that Bronson Howard, DavidBelasco, and James A. Herne escaped it; had the latter completelyfreed himself of melodrama, his plays would be better known to-day,better capable of revival, because of the true greatness of theirsimple realistic patches.
But where Mackaye vitalized the old style was in the vigour of histreatment. He loved the large scene, the mob movement; and he workedwith a big brush. As Nym Crinkle, the popular New York Worlddramatic critic of the day, wrote: "Whatever else he may be, [he] isnot a 'lisping hawthorne bud'! He doesn't embroider such napkins asthe 'Abbé Constantin', and he can't arrange such waxworks as 'Elaine'.He can't stereoscope an emotion, but he can incarnate it if you givehim people enough."
Mackaye's mind was large, resourceful, daring—both in the opinionsit upheld, and the practical theatrical innovations it introducedinto the theatre, like the double stage for the little MadisonSquare playhouse, in New York, which was the precursor of such modernparaphernalia as came later with the foreign revolving stages.He always stood on the threshold of modernism, advocating thoseprinciples which were to fructify in the decades to follow him. Suchpioneer spirit was evident in his ardent advocacy of Delsarte methodsof acting; his own work as an actor was coloured and influenced by themaster whose pupil he became in the early years of his career. Whenone recalls the methods of Wallack, and his shy approach towardanything which was "natural," it seems very advanced to hear Mackayeechoing the Delsarte philosophy. This advocacy was nowhere betterdemonstrated than when, at a breakfast given him at the New YorkLotos Club, he talked on the rationale of art for two hours, and heldspell-bound the attention of Longfellow, Bryant, Louis Agassiz, JamesJ. Fields, E.P. Whipple, Edwin Booth and others. He once said:
A man to be a true actor must not only possess the power to portray vividly the emotions which in any given situation would be natural to himself, but he must study the character of the man whom he impersonates, and then act as that man would act in a like situation.
Mackaye's devotion to Delsarte was manifest in the many practicalways he aided his teacher; he was rewarded by being left most of hismaster's manuscripts. This passionate interest in the technique ofacting not only enriched his own work, but, in 1872, prompted him toopen a Delsarte house (the St. James Theatre), and later interestedhim in a school of acting. Mackaye studied at the École des Beaux Artsand the Conservatoire, in Paris, having as an instructor at thelatter institution M. Regnier. On his way back to America, Tom Taylor