Hauntings (verse)
Widdemer, Margaret
August i 1, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 345 will make use of the services of professional...
...ties of the day...
...In order to main- MARGARET WIDDEMER...
...Berry-vines with a thorny stem, The actors should receive attentively and patiently the Over the lock for a bar to Them, suggestions of the producer and they will do their best I have laid wet moss on the sill, to conform themselves...
...performance they will say in common a Pater and Ave...
...them a fecund principle and a compelling tradition that They reserve to themselves the right at the first rehearsals nothing can put to rout I of modifying the play to the best advantage...
...May the Compagnons de Notre Dame survive long The different parts having been distributed, the direc- and in going down to a glorious death leave behind tor and the author will act in the capacity of judges...
...A Little laughters leaping, dying, person who holds a leading role in one play may be called Whispers hurrying down the air, upon, and in this instance must be ready to take a sec- But when I rise there is nobody there...
...Hence one will be able to count on the support temporary France...
...But untings adopting a method which has made it possible at the Vieux Colombier to form a distinct and well-regulated Wind and shadow-I see no moretroop we put it down as a principle that there are no But there are footsteps round my door, secondary roles, that all must be studied with the same Men and women kissing, crying, conscientiousness and presented with the same skill...
...But gradually, with the help of God's grace, we Something restless that will not go, hope to surmount the small faults of temperament in- Something dreadful that I must know . separable from our human nature...
...ondary role in another play...
...are often opened to plays that are not vitiated with No action will be taken against the wishes of any large part of the group, all of whose members are bound, the commercialism, anticlericalism, and sensualism that if not by vow, then at least by a true engagement of characterize so much of the dramatic output of conhonor...
...They recall vividly the Confreres which alone can preserve them from the temptations of de la Passion, established in Paris in 1402, and appride which the theatre favors so easily...
...terial-is first and always our faith...
...From of Compagnons so as not to be forced to ask too much the Trinity hospital the Confreres moved to the Hotel of any single member and to avoid thus the danger of de France and, later on, to the Hotel de Bourgoyne interfering, in even the smallest degree, in the exercise of which subsequently they sublet to a troop of actors their domestic and professional duties...
...who laid the foundation of the Comedie Francaise...
...Each one will be used according to his capacity...
...They will always remember that they have to defend His cause before a express purpose of presenting plays to which clergy semi-secular public, and that the partial or total defection and laity alike hastened...
...Without binding themselves by an explicit vow, These statutes of the Compagnons carry us back the members engage themselves to consider their common work as a manifestation of their Christian life, to be pur- to the high middle-ages when the art of acting was sued in this sense, and to practise as much as possible looked upon as sacred as any occupation in which a the virtues which the Faith demands, especially humility man might engage...
...We know, for instance, that of a single member will help to compromise the cause the hour for the public choral recitation of Vespers in itself as well as ruin their common enterprise...
...But markless footsteps tread past it still...
...Wind and shadows-I see no moreThe pledge of our success-spiritual, aesthetic, and ma- But there are footsteps round my door...
...in which a stage and auditorium were fitted up for the God deserves to be served well...
...of all the others...
...Living an embryonic community life, Those who have charge of them, that is to say, the com- like so many of the guilds, these men took up their mittee, the producer, and the director, will ever keep this residence in the hospital of the Most Blessed Trinity in mind...
...August i 1, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 345 will make use of the services of professional comedians, tain ourselves on this level a Mass with reception of Holy but only such whose faith and Catholic life are beyond Communion will unite in a brotherly embrace before question...
...Moreover, before and after each rehearsal and gin Mary, Queen of Heaven...
...the collegiate churches of Paris was anticipated so as We believe it possible to gather a sufficient number to enable the clergy to attend the performances...
...the opening of each season the Compagnons de Notre It places itself under the protection of the Blessed Vir- Dame...
...And the same holds good I have strung sharp-thorned berry-vines vice versa...
...All this freely subscribed to by each one of Even yet the Comedie Francaise, despite its occasional them, the Compagnons will consider it a duty to be punc- slips from antique probity and its theatrical vagaries, tual on the appointed day and hour, at the rehearsals and cannot quite forget its religious origins for its doors public as well as private performances...
...Each one will have the opportunity of giving Twined for a bar as a lattice twines, his best according to his capacity...
...We dare not hope that from the very first day there will be established in the group that spirit of abne- The wood-things know, and the frightened birds, gation and emulation with which we desire to see it pene- They cannot tell me, they have no words, trated...
...proved by letters patent of Charles VI, who conPenetrated with this thought they will not seek to ex- ferred upon the members of the guild the exclusive ploit their time, their good will or their efforts-at least right to present the popular Miracle Plays and Moraliin the measure that their strength and leisure permits...
Vol. 4 • August 1926 • No. 14
