Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-26
FREEHAND NOTES.
LAWRENCE BARRRrr's PRESENTATION OF
HIS NEW PLAY, "YoRICKs LOVE-"
Mr.. Barrett's Favor with the San Fran.
cisco Play goers-The Plot and Read.
ing Of the Present Play.
SAN Francisco, May %. 1889

as uclOnSiuR W tneLn III q OoA soln seuse. |
He was for so long time the attraction
at the California when it was the leading |
theater of the city. Fair damsels gushed |
about him, and it was possible then to call
him little Barrett )" he could make the
coxcomb hero of "Rosedale seem adora-
BILE. He has returned to us periodically
since then, and always with increased art
aud prestige. He, if ever actor did, Illus
trated William Winters proposition in the
last North american, that the stage is a
laborious profession. His magnificent head
looks positively pushed out over the brows
and at the back with hard study. Phrenol-
ogisss allow the possibility of such develop
ment. His .deep.set eyes have large,
steady, intellectual fire in them. His walk
and air are of serious, ambitious man,
with the highest ideals of his art always
before him, and throughout his record he
has never derogated from them. He comes
to us this time with 60 Yorick's Love-" or
ga New Play" as it was called at first.
1t is said to be a translation from the
Spanish by the novelist Howels.
1T IS sHAKEsPEARE's YoRICK,
Not court jester, as one might fancy
from the lines in "Hamlet, but a comic
actor at Shakespeare's theater, the Globe.
Every one speaks of the fact that the
women's parts in Shakespeare's time were
spoken by men, and yet that Mistress
Alice, Yorick's wife and love, is repre-.
sented in this play as leading lady at the
Globe. The story might easily be brought
down to modern times, for the motives are
of all time. and nothing be lest but Bar.
rett's exquisite brown plush and satin
Elizsbethan dress. The play is very short
and very sombre, but intensely moving.
Yorick, man of forty five years, has mar
ried a young wife. His ward Edmund,
whom he has always treated like son,
promptly falls in love with Madame
Yorick, and his love is returned. They
have confessed their love to each other
when the curtain rises all the motives
are supplied for action, as is said to be the
right condition for the opening of a
tragedy. The passion is next made to
appear inevitable by a story Alice tells of
caring for Edmund before her marriage,
but he, discovering his guardians affec-
tions to be set upon the same person as his
own, is constrained by duty and gratitude
to withdraw without declaring himself,
while Alice's dying mother, benefited by
Yorick, gives her daughters hand to the
mature actor, with the disastrous results
that might be looked for, since Edmund
continues to see Alice daily. 1t is due as
much to the playwright as to Barrett's
manly, heart-breaking Interpretation, that
ones pity for the
POOR STRUGGLING YOUNG LOVERS
Has little dash of contempt in it as soon
as one sees the Titanic despair of Yorick.
A man who could suffer SO exquisitely
could love nobly, perhaps too loftily and
spiritually for woman like Alice to IN.
derstand it is the same exasperating stu
alton as when Esther in Bleak House
turns from the love of Mr.. Jarnuyce and
gives herself to Allan Wood court-huinan
nature, perhaps, but it's foolish, unrea-
sonable side. All ones sympathy is with
Yorick he is noble man who deserves
happy. peaceful, honest home, and the lit.
tie whipper- snapper lover should betake
himself elsewhere and be miserable, and
get over it with prayer and fasting and
hard work. As for Mistress Alice, poor
girl, one always pities woman in such
position, if she has any remorse for her
stray feelings, partly because she is weak
and partly because she has not the remedy
of flight that is open to tempted man.
The character is excellently played by
Miss Marie Wainwright. She seems just
he vic opo0Einpo1 iporrass.hla
ture whom absence of adversely would
leave a happy, petted creature, shielded
and beloved by Yorick, and ignorant of
the worlds ways and woes, but the first
test would utterly destroy. In the first
act Yorick is studying his first tragic part,
that of jealous husband, and is so fred
with enthusiasm that he
BUSHES TOWARD HIS WIFE
And arraigns her as false in the words of
the play. She, conscious that she deserves
such reproaches, for moment imagines
her love for Edmund discovered and cries
for mercy. All present are duly indignant
at Yorick and surprised at Alices emo
ton, when the maid enters, saying that the
cook needs his mistress instruction. Alice
slowly regains her self command, and play
| fully represents herself to her husbands
guests as being at the call of the tenth
muse, who wears white apron and bears
wooden spoon for emblem. There is no
affectation in the way she assumes this vi
vacity it is not overdone at all, and is
very pretty and artistic bit. Alice and her
maid, Dorothy played by Miss Plunkett
are the only women in the cast, and even
Abo,, loo H. 1,,k ba e., ol
on the stage Of the Globe Theater, London,
when Yorick kills Edmund, for as she
swoons or dies an attendant promptly car
ries her behind the scenes and she appears
no more. There are illusions to Othello all
through the play, and it IS with a parting
remark on the manner of the Moor's death
that Yorick finally stabs himself, and then
says "Alas, poor Yorick % So much
Shakespeare is confusing one would rather
find the parallels oneself afterwards, for
the impression each act makes is very
strong. There is only one comic scene, at
the beginning of the first act, where the
old servant, Gregory, would read Yorick's
part in the new play to the maid, Dorothy,
if he could remember the trick of holding
the book. Funny Dorothy clearly consid.
ers it part of comedy to stand with her
trinity -slppered feet tar apart and
WALKED sTIFF-LEGGED LIKE SMALL KID.
Barretts costume in the last act, that of
the jealous husband in the play, is very
singular and handsome silver. gray
plush gown slashed to show terracotta.
colored tights, the gown being sleeveless
and short on the shoulder to show pulled
sleeves of the same color. Louis James,
who wears his Elizsbethan dress like man
in an engraving, but plays strange tricks
with his fine blue eyes, had the part Of
Woodford, the manager Of the Globe The
alter, and poses as the man who is going to
save Edmund and Alice from their wicked
love for each other, and they fall at his
feet and say, "Save US !" with French
emotional ardor which jars little on the
severe grimness of the play, but he is a sim
gularly inefficient savior, and seems to be
satisfying his own morbid curiosity about
the progress of the love affair, when he ex.