Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-04-21
From the New York Times.
FIVE CAMTLLES.
BY GRACE GREENWOOD.

1t is twenty-five years since the re-
markable drama entitled LA Dame aux
Camellias," by the young Dumas, was
put upon the stage in Paris. It had a
most extraordinary success-was played
under the simulated cough Of Madame
Doche, the original camellia lady, be-
came real, and threatened to end III
consumption, and even until Fechter,
the original Armand. grew mortally
weary of making love. | saw the play
during the latter part OF the first sea-
son. The house was packed with &
marvelously enthusiastic, sympathlc
audience. The universal crying and
signing over the pathetic scenes and
the grand chorus of nose blowing were
effects to be wonderingly noted and
long remembered by us g outside bar
barians.' Yet some who came to
laugh, remained to weep. Our box held
seven or eight English and American
tourists, all knowing, OF fancylng they
knew, q good deal of the world ID gener-
al, if not of the French in particular, yet
it contained not one dry eye when the
curtain fell on that most p1teous death
scene.
Charles fletcher, the first Armand
Duval,'' is the only one I have ever seen
who thoroughly filed the difficult role
of the unheroic hero, and fairly divided
the honors of the evening with the he,
roine It was, believe, the first great
success. There was, as L remember,
nothing especially remarkable III the
young actor at first sight, except an
utter lack of the melodramatic style.
In dress, gesture and speech he was
simple, even to LONELINESS. He stood
about with his hands in his pockets,
looked sober, and little Disguised, as
though out of place, though not Ill at
ease, in the noisy, voracious company
gathered in the gay apartment OF Mar
guerite Gautier (Camille), the lady OF
his secret love.
In the earlier scenes he was singular
ly quiet, thus enabling himself to bring
to bear on the critical and stormy situa-
tions of the play an amount of reserved
power, of intense, concerning passion,
absolutely electrifying. Nine. Doche
I still consider by far the best represen-
UdUlN0 OIL ILL pOSSA
BILE character, the Dame aux Camellias
I have ever seen; not because she was
Just, but beca1se she was French; not
because she was pre-eminently clever,
but because she was Partisan. 1t is no
reflection on the genius of her successors
to say that they have none OF them been
able to play the willful, passionate, but
cunning, INSCRIPTIONS, though gener-
Gus queen of the denaj-naoaade as did
Doche. It would take a worse woman
to play it as well in English before an
English audience. And yet she was not
absolutely coarse. She was simply, [
fancy, true to the artistic requirements
of the author, who doubtless copied
scenes and characters from real life, If
such a state of existence can be called
life. I remember still wherein her
acting differed from that of her success
sors. Her first appearance on the stage
was burst of brightness and joyance.
At the table and in the dance she was the
queen of the revels, and not until she
loved was she for a moment sad
or pensive. This heightened the effect
of melancholy which later Ia the play
marked her for it's own" Her malady
showed itself in a slight but FREQUENT
cough, and occasional little shiverlngs.
She had no painful paroxysms OF bron-
chitis; she swooned but once, and was
temperate in her tears. Still, though
comparatively subdued and restrained,
there were wonderful power and pathos
IN her performance. Gradually she
wrought up her audience to point OF
passionate abandon to grief and indig-
nation, and, very quiet herself after her
tumultuous line of pleasure and sorrow,
she died amid tempest of tears and
sobs.
The first English version of this play
saw was the very much pruned and