The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-09-19
SALvINI.
Ills Second Appearance ms Othello at the
Academy of Music Inst Examine.

kt1S second appearance ms OthellO at the
Academy of Music Last Evening.
At the Academy OF Music Sgnor Salvini acted
Othello for the second time last evening, and re-
ceived, at the end of every act after the third,
such ovation as is never enjoyed by any but the
most supreme artists.
Many Otheos have been presented in New York
during the last quarter of century, and he whose
histriOnc memory reviews so long space will recOl-
lect Kean, and Brooke and Davenport and Barry
Sullivan. and Macready, and the elder Booth, and
Forrest, not to mention the present Booth, whom
large proportion of Americans seem to regard as
the ideal actor, and upon whom they lavish an en-.
thusiasm as aecting from its loyalty as 1t is JUS
tilted by the unquestionable service he has rem
dered to dramatic art. Not one of these actors
has failed to produce admirable effects in
his reading OF the part, and several
lowered to height which not even
the grandeur Of Salvini's conception can dwarf
But perhaps the ideals which to-day are most gen.
orally adduced as standards are those OF Edwin
Forrest and Edwin Booth-ideals so opposed to
each other and affording such violent contrasts to
Salvini's that the mind naturally falls to work at
analyzing their varances.
But without INDUCING in this work let us briefly
inspect the character OF Othello. He Is self.de-
pendent, self-ruled, and, to certain extent, self
trained man, with profound passion well controlled
and not merely thiny glazed with the smoothness
Of cOnventionalism. He Is martialy proud, and
informs Iago he will not trust for his justiA-
cation before the seiRniory to the services he has
done them. He Is socially proud, and
boasts OF having fetched his life and being from
men OF royal siege. He Is so welded to war that
his love for Desdemona is the only motive that in
duces him to put up with any crcumspection or
confinement He relies for justice upon his parts,
his title and his perfect soul-his sodiery genius,
his social station and his personal integrity. This
Is one OF the several points wherein he displays
that selfconsciousness in which the barbarian and
mi-barbarian are deficient. He pays the years
well-bred man, and evinces his self.rule
in the temperatures with which he repels Braban-
That he calls himself rude in speech is no proof
that he actually Is so. 1t sounds more like the
graceful depreciation OF man who has seen the
world. He betrays great tact in sending for Des-
demOna so that any denunciation which may be
made OF him may come from her own lips. His
confidence in lagos honesty is seen in the
assurance with which he puts Desdemona in his
keeping for safe conduct to Cyprus. SO far
ates at parting from him, he dismsses it on the
instant and jOyfully stakes his life upon BESIDE
mona's faith. The anectionateness of his DISPOSE.
ton Is limited at IN hts reference to the love he
has found among the people of Cyprus. His con-
seriousness OF the restraint in which he holds his
passions Is Illustrated, alter the wounding OF Mon
tano by Cassie, in the exclamation
Now. by heaven,
NV blood begins safer guides %
And passion, having my best judgment collied,
Assays to lead the way.
excoriatng rebuke which he gives to Cassie, and
which is in itself the immediate passing into action
of the declaration that
Though he had twnned with me, both at birth,
Shall lose me.
He is duped by Iago because he believes In lagos
honesty; and he believes in lagos honesty because
Iago enjoys that dark advantage always welded
by villain over generous man OF whom he Is the
Intellectual peer. He has noble contempt OF
leading jealous lite, with fresh suspicious for
every change OF the moon. One weil-grounded
suspicion is enough Tor him. Doubt passes imme-
dately into resolve and resolve into action. 1t Is
with the revelation OF these points that the first
part OF the play Is concerned, and all the rest OF
the tragedy Is occupied with their rapid and vivid
development.
Salvini interprets these characteristics we hove
now twice seen. 1t Is doing no Injustice to the
other ARTISTS whom we nave mentioned and to the
in this role towers above them all He gives the
character consistency which we have never
seen 1t retain In any other hands. He has been
called an emotional and not an intellectual actor:
but we know neither what that distinction in this
instance means nor why 1t should be made Unless
his characterization Is an unprecedented example
of temperamental dovetailing lin which case the
actors personal temperament and disposition must
be the prototype OF the dramatists conception),
it must have been laborousy thought out and
built up from beginning to end. We have
impulse in acting TO know how impossible 1t is for
o self-consstent piece OF Characterization to be
accidental
correspondence between the temperament of the
actor and the temperament OF the role that constr
tute the one-part players, who simply exhibit
themselves and their weaknesses vices and yr.
tues, romanticaly exaggerated and picturesquely
environed. But since s we have no reason to
Othell0 In private life, we conclude that
his genus Is genetic and creative, and that In con-
siructipg an Othello Tor representation upon the
with purpose as clearly understood by himself az
some OF the profoundest modern criticisms lead us
to believe Shakespeare did, employing the utmost
re0nements OF art where his contemporaries saw
only the rude flashes Oh Wa yN genius, and ar
which they discovered merely bizarre heterO-
genelty cumsily linked together
IL is in the third act In our opinion that Salvini
makes his grandest displays II IS mere that some
visible. 1t Ia here, by many exquisite touches,
that he contrives TO sustain the soundness and
generosity which give so fine and tender an edge
TO OthellO's more rugged traits. The
nothing so lar as this tragedy Is concerned.
Is Salvni in grander contrast TO all previous inter-
prefers OF the character with whom New York
audiences are familiar, than IN the oDstinacy with
which his Othello repels doubt. Nay, 1t Is not
until lago has repeatedly Piled ms nstlgations that
he can be SAID to ''repel" doubt, since the doubt
does not seem even to come. He has no sus-
picon to fight against since he entertains
brief answers he returns TO lago are made
in that kindly, quiet tone a man III ms
position might toward one In MS service, whose
righteousness Is ignored because o the honesty and
fidelity which prompt IL. THIS Appropriateness
might have wearied and dis1eartened less re-
entess hater than Iago The storm gathers so
slowly that one scarcely perceives the clouds adj
herring thread by thread and strata by strata. This
slugglshness to jealousy In Savini's hands is not
| the overwecning confidence W cuckod'