The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1878-10-27
/MUsElfEN7s.
The Plays OF the Week

lights Of a sky that Is always sad
| Her pathos Is the pathos Of race II is like
the minor chords in Chopln's music-a vague.
evanescent sorrow that does not belong TO cir
cuinstance. but to existence.
| But some OF the fires Of the boreals CLEAN
| even in the ice OF Poland And there arc
| lambent flames that shoot up in Modjeska's
art and then the crystalline nature is rudy, like
| blood.
Hers II essentially and peculiarly French
art. She has boen likened TO Piamonte, but she
has none OF the mobility Of physical expression
| that rapid continent and snuous Restiou lation
| which is characteristic OF the rhythmic Ita-
ians. and which makes their pantomime musi-
cal and unmistakable She wholly lacks the
vital impulse OF the girl Mary Anderson. sheis
| never heroic like Janauschek In her methods.
and she never entirely abandons herself to her
| impulses.
But for all this she Is immeasurably superior
to all Of them In the subtle significance Of her
acting. which. at its best. seems to disdain the
rude demonstration Of the theatre.
Tho pathos of Frou-Frou" ia the pathos Of
artificial life not of nature: 1t 10 like the odor Of
| dead immortees in a hot room. But there is
no reason why our feverish. cerebral life should
not furnish us with its plant and It's playful
| ness woven together as they are. and almost In
| separable.
| Indeed. It seems to me that II is In the detec-
ton and exposition Of the fretted minor mys-
teries OF such life as modern society offers that
Modieskas talents and her keen apprehensions
| become conspicuous.
She can play. az very few OF our actresses can
play. the woman OF the salon that strange
combination Of sensibility and artinclality Of
elegance and weakness which furnishes the
pageantry and the pathos OF the drawing room.
For she exhibits all the charms that fascinste.
and discloses all the hollowness that shocks us.
In order to illumine and magnify this kind Of
life the whole French stage 10 focusing Its i'm
aeinative beams.
The art OF the actress who successfully fur
nishes the lens OF her ability must be electric
To bring the heroic brush OF Raphael to this
work is vain. We must have the minute touch OF
Meissonnier. The day OF stage cartoons seems
to oe passing. and we are threatened with q
twilight OF arsbesoue. on which . thousand
shadowy forms. with wraithlike grace. rise out
| OF our own footsteps.
1t Is not so long since the Gothic Janauschek
was here that you can have forgotten what the
heroic school Ia like. Medea was carved with
an arm that might have had some OF Thor's
| blood In Il. The method OF this old German
romsnticism seemed to walk on thrones"
Its effects were massed effects. Its lines
were elemental lines. 1t seized upon great
deeds pompously. and the vibrations OF its
tones were large. as II they had been developed
In the field whore there were battalions. 50 II
commanded us. not with the polgnancy OF intro
spection. but with the simple sovereignty Of
nature. Br,0Ihilde Ia that gallery stood out
like one OF those deeds Of the semi barbarous
past when man had only to defy danger to be-
| come god.
The genius OF Janauschek supplied US with
telescope that drew the past to our feet and en-
lareed It.
The art OF Modjeska puts microscope to our
eyes. that We may discov r the ininitesimAl
present lying already at our feet.
But you may have remarked that when ia
nauschek strobe into the current story this an
tique breadth and massiveness oppressed US q
little. Ii was uncomiortably statuesque. We
felt that the grandeur Of tbs natural profles
was lost when We brought the mountain to our
dilettante Mohammeds. The poetry and puis-
sance OF BruIhilde were part OF the per-
spectiye Of the mythus and Lady Dedlock con-
stantly reminded US OF 4 terso set up In par
lor. and over which delcacy had flung the con-
venient drapery Of a saloon. without being able
70 hide the swelling significance OF the marble
But Brrmhilde and Frou- Frou, and ia
nauschek and Modjeska do not mark for US
the materials and the methods OF a roman
ticlsm that Is past and realism that IL every
'ob kAONihS iHOIo LuOIc
than We can see them marked in the familiar
people OF our iavorite theatres. We have the
same contrast in that fine old romantic actor
Mr.. wallack. whose plumed stories end as We
desire them to end. and whose best efforts look
at us through the dusty splendor OF a pictorial
past; and in the exact. analytical and eclectic
Mr.. Coghlan. whose best work always wears
some Of the dIsdain OF philosophic and intro
spective present for the noisy and objective
past, and whose best stories end with the pain
full inexorabeness OF real life.
However much we may long for the old ro-
manticism, l am forced 10 believe that II Is
doomed Not only are We unable 10 propagate
the Amazons and the knights who can perpet-
uate il. but we do not really care about propa-
eating them. They are little too large for the
small theatres that We build. In destroying the
perspective OF the playhouse We have uncon-
sciously subdued the players. II would seem
that the small stage is no place for great deeds
but only for sharp suffering.
1t is interesting, nevertheless to watch the
prodigious protests OF the theatre itself against
this fate. II elings to the resoundng roman
ticism OF the past with vain desperation. and
seeks by all the devices OF sovereign science 10
renew its glories " Jane Shore and Clarissa
Harlowe" and olivia" and even Henry
WILL" are the resurrections ofths scene painter
being heroic or romantic In Its spirit was only
pictorial in its trimmings
Probably the skill and multifarious ingenui-
ties Of the playhouse we're never so concen-
trated upon any work as they we're upon Jane
Shore" II color. ensemble. discipline. and
textile decoration could evoke sympathy for a
tale whose cruel circumstances usurp all the
attention and make even the character OF the
heroine subseryient " Jane Shore would have
been memorable stage triumph
But these things never did and never can re-
new in one age the spirit Of another
The effort reminds us OF those reyivals Of the
music OF the old masters. newly orchestrated.
In which the simple notO 10 fretted and lost In
the splendors of harmonic combinations.
Won Stamwt2 who has presented a bad
version OF the old play OF Messalina" at the
Broadway Theatre. during the week has been
called heroic actress. She does not evnce a
heroic spirit in her treatment Of the amatory
heroine. for she makes the voluptuousness OF
conduct far more conspicuous and important
than the passion OF the heart. Tho actress
herself is admirably qualified to portray this
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