Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-06-19
BETWEEN OURSELVES.

is SO ranKtV ln0ecent, anu Ill tafo ettaaGono Va
the play so suggestive of infamy, without
mnch. if any, extenuating cause.
Some actresses do give the part certain
feyerish impetus and interest, like Bernhardt
and Modjeska, but it would argue degree OF
personal understanding with, as well as OF
the character, which we would rather not add
to our impressions Of other women on the
stage essaying the same role.
They cannot do Camille justice, and they fail
because they are reluctant to wholly grasp
the central idea necessary TO a gratifying per-
sonation, and that ideS is depravity for its.
own sake, or for mercenary reasons, which is
q deeper plunge in shamelessness.
The drama we know is full of bad characters
just as society, and the best of it at that, is
full of sinners-but there is sin, and there are
sinners of construction akin to virtue when
compared with this tawdry sentimental con-
ception of Dumas. The plot of all the ''emo-
tional' plays popular in this day involves some
sin or crime to whet public interest, and keep
expectation always tOsthe edge of the forbid
den, only to balk it with rebound towards
justice, towardsreparation, towards retribu-
ton and the rest.
IT'S Frou-Frou's jealousy, and Lady Isabel
Carlyle's, which spurs on to the sorry reprisal
of misconduct TITS Medea's too in the ancient
classic business as well as in the modernized
tintense" school. Here is motive enough to
start a rousing row with morals when the
down, to get even with fate in the usual irrele-
want way of these nervines.
Now, in the dramatized version
of Camille you are ushered right into the very
business of sin without any preliminaries of
incentive thereto. Eating, drinking, dancing
and dressing with some moneyed protector
solvent enough to meet the bills-these are the
| scenes you contemplate, and out of this me-
phetic brooding of all the vices, you are ex-
pected to admire a reformation through
"loye" narrowed down to one man, who is
poor enough to let his frail partner support
him while he is doing her the favor of cheer
full completely in the benevolent scheme.
Love is an elastic term. It finds q different
definition, and different acceptation with
nearly every nature. IT'S skin deep with some
"a trifing experience whose details are almost
matter of jest. It takes on the attributes of
every organization. 1t is coarse or fine, light
as thistle. down. or deep as the sources of life,
just as the character makes it, and
shapes it. Think your love means the same
to yonder hod-carrier that it does to Robert
Browning ?-or that the love of Mary Mag
dalen has any counterpart, because it is as the
last crush of the grapes, in its heartbroken-
ness of remorse, devotion and supernal affec-
ton? But how often you will hear this su-
preme testimony to the quality of her tribute
by the Searcher of hearts, blasphemously
quoted for the benefit of the Candles, who
are antipodal in every exquisite characteristic
to this sanity penltent.
Moreover, her very name is lowered, not
withstanding its shining uplifting. in its rise
to designate "Homes' and Refugees by
fixing the repute of their inmates, rather than
| for any enduring recognition of Magdalen's
boundless sorrow for her sins, and her devo-
ton to the Master.
So, by q curious antithesis, her good name
suffers now even by those who imagine,
and perhaps set out with
| the idea !, of honorihg it
by calling casual haven of luke-warm, may
be disaffected prostitutes, after this name bla-
zoned with commentator and commemOra-
| ton never youehsafed to any other transgres-
sOr.
| Well, then, this designation of 'love" is
| very elastic, and can be made to stretch out
far enough to include Camille and her saliva
ton through the peculiar interposition given
of "love'' by M. Dumas.
1t seems like smartly practical joke,-this
extraordinary dramatic setting of what some
one very appropriately calls the dog loves If
we care for realism in the representation of
this play, we are seldom gratified, because
very few actresses, only three in twenty five
years, have been able to give it with the
abandon of the genuine courtesan.
The other night there in the Opera house,
we knew twas poorly done, but like children
we sat amusued, agitated, perhaps fearful
over the most exaggerated absurdity.
There was prudence, coarse and clamorous,
made up like a gross English fshwoman,
whose garb was caricatufe of all magma
tive license as 10 the latitude of Partisan
milliner's toilette.
Coarse, base, and mercenary she might be,
and of voracity like the Vanity dragons,
but in all French probability her native .fmesse
would impel her to be well dressed and polite,
if nothing more. And, instead, what did that
fat woman give us? A vulgar travesty, which
native coarseness would seek to magnify
into frst-class attraction-second only to the
Coryphee of the piece, who has seldom the
professional effrontery to give her personation
the libidinous dash necessary to famous
Identification with the character. A curious
and involuntary Withholding of the for
hidden element of success "a tacit
assertion of womanly reserve in the very tone
and shading of the distinctive marks of the
courtesan in some Of the pronounced scenes of
Camille generally decide against the preten-
sions of few meritorious actresses who will
occasionally put Camille in their repertoire,
contrary to their own intuitive revolt.
No one in this generation can thrill the spi-
nal marrow as Matilda Heron did in this OBJ
jectionable role.
What Bernhardt is we barely get by hearsay,
but if advertising rumor is anywhere between
the poles of credulity, we can only fancy she
ought to play it better than any one else, be-
cause of facilities and experiences which no
other actress, save perhaps Rachel, has had
the hardihood to rehearse as practically and
publish so extensively as aids to her business.
Without claiming for the erratic and deep