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sion; in fact, it is to be doubted that they ever thought of it seriously. It is not hard, indeed, to give certain more or less sophistical, yet more or less satisfactory, justifications of a good anachronism. Hudson, in a note on that passage in Shakespeare's “Antony and Cleopatra," where the serpent of the Nile challenges her maid to a game of billiards, makes this interesting plea: “An anachronism,' say the critics. Billiards were not known to the ancients.' But how do they know this? Late researches have shown that many things were in use in Old Egypt, which, afterward lost, have been reinvented in modern times. But Shakespeare did not know this?' Doubtless, not; but then he knew that by using a term familiar to his audience, he should lead their thoughts to what has always followed in the train of luxury and refinement. Suppose he had been so learned, and withal such a slave to his learning as to use some term to signify a game which the English people had never heard before. Which were the greater anachronism?"

Ben Jonson was scholar enough to be careful of his chronology when he wanted to be. But in the local allusions in two of his most careful plays he makes anachronistic slips, referring in "Catiline" to the shifting of a scene, because Inigo Jones, later his dear enemy, had recently made use of movable scenery; and in "Sejanus," glancing at the then notorious inaccuracy of pocketwatches. In "The Poetaster," for all the delicacy with which he has veiled contemporary satire under the personality of Rome, he puts in references to the bass-viol, almost as popular then as the pipe, and to Goose Fair and the Bear Garden. So Marlowe puts into his Scythian Play, "Tamburlaine," these lines:

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The Drama

and the Environment

and manners. These scenes occur in tragedy and romantic drama as well as in comedy. Every Hamlet has his Osric. It is as if one should, in a serious drama of to-day, devote much dialogue to puffed sleeves, tight corsets, theatre hats, bloomers, dickies, colored linen, and what not. The gallant of that day, those “spacious times of great Elizabeth," seems to have devoted half his life to thought upon his lovelocks, his combs, his case of pick-tooths (the public use of which is still preserved, like many other early English things, in America), his jingling spurs, his ribands, the starching and cut of his beard (you remember Touchstone's use of the cut of a man's beard for his delicious discourse on the technic of quarrelling).

The importation of tobacco was one of the wonders of their nine days, and its picturesque strangeness could not fail to excite the attention of the impressionable Elizabethan dramatists. One reads in Ben Jonson of "the tobacco face," as who should say a bicycle face. They drank" tobacco in those days, and they “droned" it, and when they inhaled it they called it “the whiffle ;" and there were three kinds of tobacco, cane, and leaf, and pudding. One could read in these plays the whole Elizabethan art of tobacco-smoking. And small wonder that the drama should reek of the weed when the gallants of the day sat on the stage and puffed their insolent smoke in the faces of the actors.

The slang of the day was of vital interest to the dramatists then; there is "your citymannerly word, forsooth;" and everyone knows the plays upon the word "protest." The quacks and criminals whom one might call the slang of history, occur constantly: among many quotables, the famous Amazon, Marie Ambree, and Nomentack, the Indian chief brought from America.

The commonest and most local amusements are given the same interest in the play that they must have had to the towns-people; the famous bear-garden, the “Paris garden,” appears everywhere. One even learns the names of two favorite bears," Ned Whiting" and "George Stone." Then there were other curiosities, Lipsius's automatic fly, that could wend its way around the table (convivas circumvolitavit). There was the bull with five legs and the great hog, and the dogs that danced the morrice, and the elephant, and the ape; Holden's camel, and Captain Pod's pup

pet-show, the "motions," and Bank's bay horse, Marocco, who had a book written about him and has been immortalized by the greatest writers of his time.

One can easily think what our contemporary dramatists would have to allude to in reviving the spirit that mentioned these things in serious playwriting. The police reports, the journals, in fact, all the sources of life as it is lived, would have to be called upon. The playwright would, indeed, be compelled to watch the Zeitgeist for himself. Such a study must surely result in a fresh, spontane ous literature that would be as fascinating to the reader of the future as all these infinitesimal details of life in Elizabeth's time are now. The sharp distinction made now between journalism and literature has worked much harm to both. Journalism can do itself great harm by forsaking interest in style and correctness; but literature will do itself more harm by affecting a contempt for what Walter Pater calls "the beauty of the transitory." We are living in a great age. The enormous democratizing of the opportunities for success

has enlarged it as well as the increase of territory. The development of science has given us a new world. Surely the writer that is not interested in expressing some of its feelings and is blind to the charm of things that interest the people, is not going to be rated very high among the people of a later generation. If the writer of to-day does not approve of what his contemporaries are interested in, he should be at least enough interested in these things to satirize them.

The local allusion is by no means an unknown thing nowadays. An appreciation of this charm for the people has made the fortune of a number of our farceurs in our comic operas, with their topical songs and local hits, in burlesques innumerable, in annual reviews, and in the music-halls. But the complaint of this screed is that all important work, instead of being credited for the virtue of local and ephemeral interest, is chiefly blamed for that thing. And yet only pedants quite miss the greatest preachment of all the classics; which is to be mightily interested in one's own environment.

THE FIELD OF ART

THE ACADEMY IN ROME AND THE TRAVELLING SCHOLARSHIPS OPEN TO AMERICAN ARTISTS

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CONSTITUTION for the American Academy in Rome was formally adopted at a meeting held in May, 1897, of the representatives of the American School of Architecture in Rome, of the committee in charge of the Lazarus Scholarship for the study of Mural Painting, and of that in charge of the Rinehart Scholarship for Sculptors. The preliminary steps for the establishment of the Academy were taken in December, 1894. At a joint meeting of the Archæological Institute and other learned societies held in Philadelphia in response to an invitation to the students of mural decoration, of sculpture, of archæology and of epigraphy, to co-operate with the School of Architecture in Rome, a committee consisting of Professor W. G. Hale, of Chicago University, Professor Frothingham, of Princeton, and Professor Minton Warren, of the Johns Hopkins University, was appointed to confer with the Architectural School in Rome and to report to the council of the Archæological Institute before the meeting in May whatever they might find it practicable and desirable to accomplish. On October 11th of the following year a conference was held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York, of gentlemen representing the School of Architecture in Rome, the National Sculpture Society, the Society of Mural Painters, and also the School of Classical Studies in Rome and in Athens," in order to see whether it were not advisable to organize an American Academy in Rome which should embrace them all." A committee was accordingly appointed, consisting of Mr. John LaFarge, President of the Society of Mural Painters, Augustus St. Gaudens, Charles F. McKim, and Professor Warren,

Chairman of the School of Classical Studies in Rome, with Professor William R. Ware as Chairman, to draw up a plan for such an Academy," and if it were found to meet with general acceptance, to submit it to the committees in charge of the School of Classical Studies and the School of Architecture for their approval." This Academy, it was hoped, would be for this country what the Villa Medici has been for France since the days of Louis Quatorze. The American School of Architecture in Rome had been established in the upper story of the Palazzo Torlonia in the previous November, and in this same month of October, 1895, had opened in the Villa dell' Aurora upon the Pincian Hill. The Archæological Institute of America had established in Rome, under the care of an independent managing committee, the School of Classical Studies, like that which it had for fifteen years maintained in Athens, and endowed it with two fellowships. It was at first arranged that this school should share the Casino dell' Aurora with the School of Architecture, paying a proportional share of the rent, but this arrangement was not maintained. To the Departments of Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture which have been established in the American Academy, it is hoped that there will be soon added a scholarship for the study of music.

The Villa dell' Aurora, "once part of the famous Villa Ludovisi, is situated upon the Pincian Hill, not far from the Villa Medici. It rises from a terrace of about the area of Gramercy Park (or about 80,000 square feet), elevated some twenty feet above the surrounding streets, and planted with trees, in the midst of a garden, after designs by Le Notre. No abode better adapted to harbor an artistic fraternity could well be imagined than this Villa, which enjoys the seclusion so essential to profitable study, and yet is in

the midst of a city containing masterpieces of all the arts, and filled with classic traditions and associations. The interior of the Casino contains decorations by well-known artists of the later Renaissance, among which is the Aurora' of Guercino." The American School of Architecture holds a three years' lease of the Villa, with option of purchase at expiration, which lease runs a year after the date when the school expires by its own limitations, in October, 1897, but it is confidently expected that the Academy will be firmly enough established before that time to take the lease, and to renew it at its expiration. The full academy term is fixed to be three years, so that the practice which has obtained, both among the architects and the artists, of entering themselves for terms of shorter duration will be necessarily discontinued. It is pleasant to record that the new American Prix-deRomes have been cordially welcomed in the Eternal City by their French confrères at the Villa Medici, as, indeed, has happened to some of the more distinguished American artists who have gone to Italy fresh from their studies in Paris, even though they bore no official honors. In spite of the furious assaults that have been made upon the whole academical training of the official École that leads up to the Villa Medici, this official return to the fountain head of antique and Renaissance Art maintains its dignity as an indispensable course in the curriculum of modern Art, and "it is believed," says the circular of the American Academy," that this generation in America can leave no greater legacy to the next than the founding of an institution of such character and of such aims as will assure the foundations of a sound national taste.”

Of the travelling scholarships for painters, the Chanler and the Lazarus scholarships, the former was established in Boston and New York, in 1890-91, by Mr. John Armstrong Chanler from private subscriptions; the first competition for the Lazarus prize was held in New York City in November, 1896. The sculptors' scholarship was endowed under the will of the late William H. Rinehart, the sculptor; and two beneficiaries are now enrolled on the list of the Academy.

It was Mr. Chanler's hope to found travelling art scholarships in various cities of the country, but the public opinion was not sufficiently awakened to the importance of this foreign training and travel as a post-graduate course. The Chanler "Paris Prizes," in Boston and

New York, are subject to the same general conditions. The winner is furnished with $900 a year, for his support while studying drawing, painting, and decoration in Paris for five years. If, however, after two years' work in Paris the student should wish to work elsewhere, he may do so if his jury at home consider him sufficiently advanced. The prize is only open to those "who really need its financial aid, to carry on their art studies abroad. The holder of the Paris Prize will be expected to pursue some studies in the History of Art in connection with his main work." The competition is open to any man or woman over twenty-one years of age, resident, respectively, in the States of Massachusetts or New York, even if temporarily abroad, or who has studied Art in either of these States for the school year preceding the examination. No competitor shall have received a medal or honorable mention in any foreign art exhibition or salon. "Before receiving any money, the candidate is required to agree to send home, at the end of each year, specimens of his or her work, signed by the master under whom he or she has worked. If the work falls below the standard required by the jury, the jury shall, after assuring themselves that it is not merely a temporary fluctuation in the student's work, warn him or her that, unless the work reaches the required standard during the following year, the money will then be withdrawn and a new election held." The winner of the Boston prize was required, at the end of his five years, to return to that city and teach gratuitously, twice a week for two years, a class to be selected by the jury; but if his "inability to sustain himself by the sale of his pictures " becomes too evident, the jury may permit him to take pay students. The New York beneficiary is required to agree to send home a copy made during his fifth year of some foreign masterpiece, to be selected by himself with the approval of the jury, which copy is to be the property of the Paris Prize. In both cities, if no candidate up to the standard of the jury appears, none will be accepted, and the fund will be allowed to accumulate until someone worthy be discovered. MM. J. L. Gérôme, Puvis de Chavannes, and other distinguished artists, have agreed to supervise the work of these students, and the first-named will report annually to the jury in New York.

The make-up of the juries is similar in the two cities, being composed of the presidents

be extended to a maximum of five at the discretion of the jury of appointment and the commission of control in Paris of several distinguished French artists. The competition was open to any native of Pennsylvania or to any resident of a year's standing, between twenty-one and thirty-two; an envoi of some rather important work was required each year, such works to become the property of the Art Club, and the regulation as to the beneficiary's teaching in Philadelphia, at the expiration of his term, was similar to that in Boston. The jury of appointment was constituted much as in the other cities, consisted of thirteen members, the honorable Presidents of the Pennsylvania Academy, of the Drexel Institute, of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, of the Art Club, and nine artists, six of whom were members of the Art Club. The winner was George Bladen Fox; but at the expiration of three years the scholarship was discontinued.

of various museums and artistic societies a year for a term of two years, which might and institutions, and of a certain number of selected artists. In Boston it consists of the Presidents of the Museum of Fine Arts, of the St. Botolph Club, the Boston Art Club, the Boston Art Students' Association, the Professor of the History of Art in Harvard University, and two artists chosen by the St. Botolph Club, two chosen by the Boston Art Club, two by the Art Students' Association, and two by the President of the Museum. In New York these gentlemen are represented by the Presidents of the National Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Students' League, and three artists chosen respectively by the National Academy and the Society of American Artists, and one chosen by the Paris Prize. Candidates must submit specimens of their work to the jury in New York-two drawings from life of a fulllength nude figure-and from these selections will be made for the final competition, which is to be a drawing from the nude, painting a head from life, and a composition in color. This work is done under the supervision of the jury. The successful candidate is to leave for Paris as soon thereafter as possible.

The winner of the Boston Prize in 1891 was Mr. John Briggs Potter, who returned last summer, and who devoted himself while abroad rather to the drawing of character heads in a manner suggestive of Holbein, The winner of the first New York Chanler Prize was Bryson Burroughs, who has recently returned to this country; and of the second, in November, 1896, Lawton Parker.

As will be seen from the terms of the com

petition, an intelligent effort has been made in each of these cases to keep the holder of the prize, while abroad, under some form of constant supervision by the committee at home, and, notwithstanding the general good showing made by these prize-winners, the general conviction of the necessity of still more systematically directing their foreign studies has had much to do with the founding of the Academy. In Philadelphia this is felt so strongly that it is believed that it would be exceedingly difficult to establish there an other foreign Art scholarship on any other terms. The Art Club in that city founded a Paris Prize in 1892, on conditions very similar to those of the Chanler Prizes in New York and Boston, the holder to receive $900

Since the establishment of the Chanler Prizes, some six years ago, there has been growing on this side of the water, in the bosoms of some of those most interested in the decorative arts, domestic, ecclesiastic, and industrial, a mistrust of the latest tendencies of Parisian Art that would have been thought heretical ten years ago. With the exception of two or three or four unassailable towers of strength, like the great Monsieur de Chavannes, these doubters see a steady decadence in modern French art, from the decorations of the Hôtel de Ville to the illustrated maga zines. Among the architects, this mistrust also prevails to some extent, though there are still to be found faithful élèves of the great Parisian École who have not been able to reconcile themselves to an academy in Rome. The decorative painters, or many of them at least, therefore heard with satisfaction last year, that the committee in charge of the scholarship fund, founded in the name of the late Jacob H. Lazarus, portrait painter, for the study of mural painting, the first of the kind it is believed, had expressed the desire that the beneficiary of this Fund become a member of the Roman Academy. "It is very important," said the circular of this scholarship, "that the mural painter should not only acquaint himself with pictorial compositions and their decorative details, but that he should study decorative 'ensembles.' In other words, both the expressional picture

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