THE
PETERITE. DECEMBER, 1885 .
No . 56.
THEATRICALS. T this time it may not be inopportune to lay before the readers of the Peterite a short discussion on the good or bad which Theatricals effect in a school . It might be supposed that no question could ever be raised as to the benefits Theatricals confer, but many objections have been made to Theatrical representations, even in a school, and even when plays such as Shakespeare's have been acted . Some have said the "stage " has a harmful tendency—school Theatricals encourage the taste for acting and the " stage," therefore, they too are harmful and we cannot countenance them . This launches us at once upon the much vexed question of the influence of the public theatres, whether it is for good or for evil . The ideal object of the " stage " is to amuse and at the same time instruct . No doubt the plays acted in many Theatres are coarse, and some even blasphemous, but ought we, because a part is baneful, to condemn the whole ; some, nay many, books of fiction are just as coarse and blasphemous, and yet nobody would ;say that no books of fiction ought to be read because some are bad . It is the associations of the theatre, not the theatre itself, that have brought it in some cases into disrepute . Another objection that has been offered is, that the effect on the actors (especially when at a school) is far from being for good ; that to bring boys prominently before large audiences is calculated to increase their idea of their own importance—in a word to make them conceited . This is much open to question, but could not the same be said of the recitations, glees, speeches, etc ., with which at so many schools the friends and parents are annually tortured? The last objection which we shall deal with is, that when there are so many other forms of entertainment which none disapprove of, why adopt one which, though it may please the majority, is displeasing to many ? To this it may be replied that if we
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