. Life and art of Richard Mansfield : with selections from his letters. is knowledge, entirelydispelled. His professional identification with grimcharacters would have been sufficient, in itself, tovitalize such an error. A few of the parts that heplayed are sweet and winning, but most of them,and those especially in which he was most effective,contain more of repulsion than of allurement, and itwas in the exposition of wicked power more thanin the exercise of pacific charm that he found hisadvantage and gained his renown. Thoughtful examination of Mansfields profes-sional career at once impel
. Life and art of Richard Mansfield : with selections from his letters. is knowledge, entirelydispelled. His professional identification with grimcharacters would have been sufficient, in itself, tovitalize such an error. A few of the parts that heplayed are sweet and winning, but most of them,and those especially in which he was most effective,contain more of repulsion than of allurement, and itwas in the exposition of wicked power more thanin the exercise of pacific charm that he found hisadvantage and gained his renown. Thoughtful examination of Mansfields profes-sional career at once impels inquiry as to the placein dramatic art that should be allotted to thingsthat are gruesome or terrible, and opens the old, per-plexing controversy as to artistic use of uglinessand beauty. In the vast, incomprehensible schemeof creation evil appears to be as necessary as goodis. If there were not the one there could not bethe other. Life is a struggle between good andevil, and it is through the victory of good overevil that everything great and glorious is RICHARD MANSFIELD IX 1885 From a Rare Photograph in the Collection ofEvert Jansen Wendell, Esq. GOOD AND EVIL 57 In what proportion those antagonistic elementsought to be mingled and contrasted, in a work ofart, dramatic or otherwise, judgment often finds itdifficult to determine. There are, however, cases inwhich instant decision becomes readily and hideous things exist, that oughtnever to be included or considered in a play forpublic presentation. When Cornwall plucks out theeyes of Gloster and casts them on the ground,exclaiming Out, vile jelly! the reader of KingLear is repelled with a sickening consciousness ofdisgusting atrocity: the spectator of such a proceed-ing, seeming to be literal, would be convulsed, notwith terror but with loathing. There must be alimit somewhere. Unmitigated horror or mon-strosity is absolutely barren of valuable result. Oneof the best examples of the wrong use o
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