The Autobiography of a Play.

After apologizing for his inexperience in public speaking, Mr. Bronson Howard entered upon a very interesting lecture, holding the attention of the large audience in Sanders for an hour and a half last evening. He declared his inability to tell what Dramatic Art was, but he would endeavor to show how the dramatist was obliged to obey its laws in the construction of a play. To illustrate this he gave the "Autobiography of a Play." an account of the original plot of the "Banker's Daughter," and a description of the later alterations, and showed how these alterations were brought about by the irresistible workings of the Art of Dramatic Construction.

These laws as they impressed themselves upon the play, were mainly those of the human sympathies and prejudices; and in order to be successful, the dramatist must study their effects, even though he cannot analyse their elements.

In the first place, a play must be satisfactory to the audience. It must appeal generally to the audience as a whole, and not with especial force to a portion of it. To effect this, the author must deal with sentiments common to the generality of human beings; but in addition must have in view a clearly defined artistic result. In the "machinery" of the action, there must be nothing which shall be meaningless or contrary to the current of sympathies aroused by the play as a whole. The events must be managed in such a way as not to jar even upon the social traditions of the audience. Care must be taken to have the misfortunes happen to those characters which do not appeal as above to the spectators, or which are lightly sketched in the dialogue.

A play must have a moral, a reason for its existence. This moral must be an impressive one and suited like everything else to the taste of the public to which it appeals. Again, the characters must conform to nationality of the audience. All the characters of a play for Englishmen must be English in everything but name. To disregard these elementary laws is to insure short life to a play. The public will endure the work of impositors to a limited extent, but it rarely goes beyond the bounds of toleration.

In conclusion, the speaker said that more than anything else the dramatic writer must be sincere; that sincerity should especially be the watch-word of young authors, for no element in an audience is more important or harder to move than that of sincerity. Mr. Howard spoke in a moderate tone of voice with no attempts at elocutionary effects, but his contrasts of pathos and humor were carefully chosen, and were greatly enjoyed by his hearers.