He valued
at their worth the romantic extravagances of the Wallack family;
he applauded the sound judgment, and deplored the hard manner of
Davenport; he viewed calmly what he regarded to be an overestimation
of Edwin Booth--one of the first criticisms of an avowedly negative
character I have seen aimed directly at this actor. In other words,
Bunce fought hard against the encroachment of the new times upon the
acting of his early theatre days. The epitome of his old-time attitude
is to be found in _Appleton's Journal_ for April 3, 1869. His better
mood was to be met with in his discussion of the players of Ellen
Tree's type. Here are his words of censure against the new order:
"If we old files are to be believed, the art of acting is dying out,
and the very tradition of the stage disappearing.... Very likely the
spirit, which in painting we call pre-Raphaelism, is obtaining its
influence on the stage, and that some of the actors are turning out of
doors the traditions and formal mannerisms of the schools, and going
back to nature and truth for their inspiration.... There were very
artificial methods, no doubt, among the old actors, but there was also
a very consummate knowledge of the art, a great deal of breadth,
force and skill, and a finished training, which the new schools do
not exhibit. In aiming to be natural, some of our actors seem to have
concluded that their profession is not an art.
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