The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-09-02

WTcuCu IL away AZ III cAPAoLOn
past. Do you remember her first meetin
with Armand, and her disposition to chai
him? She thought, naturally, that b
aspired to be in her life what many other
had been. His gravity first amused, thel
interested. She half laughed at him. Blu
when he turned to leave her. that magnets
cry, Armand 7" touched our hearts, ant
we heard the keynote OF the sorrow ant
tragedy to come. True love was q puzzhn
enigma to her. Beginning by. fightin
against it, she finally abandoned herself t.
it's sweetness. A mourniul tenderness pei
vaded it which impaired it's WI sadnes
to the spectators.
HER VI
Her fourth and fifth acts are her strong
est, because in these the peculiar powe
which is prominently hers finds full scope
There are bits of business sprinkled through
out, though, which are as effective as the:
are new. In the third act, for instance
when she first attempts to write the not
to Armand, telling him that she is abou
to seek Varville's protection, she lose
courage, and with a wild cry of "My God,
cannot!' she madly filings the pen from her
and drops her head on the table in a pas
sion of misery. Presently she rises. tug
herself together with q supreme emo
walks deliberately to where the pen Is lynn
on the floor, picks it up, and determlnedi.
faces her task again. In the fourth act
where Armand overwhelms her with a Vol
ley of abuse and imprecations, as sh'
works up with the scene she convulsively
| catches at the sweeping train OF. her dress
| holding it before her face shield-hke In 8
desperate effort to hut out the torrent
Again. as she staggers up the stage at the
end of this same act, she raises her arms
defensively as if to ward off
words which are rained upon her IKE Dio"s'
Her final act is most deliberately and real
i~stically wrought out. Her staggering from
her couch to the window, to see II spring
had come, her spasmOdic clutchlng at tne
chairs for support al she passes them, n
her moan of agony when she discovers In
the mirror her loss of beauty, are all SO
graphic, that they raise the audience to a
pitch of feverish and painful interest. Her
death is the finishing touch to a pow erfuly
conceived and marvelously executed pic
ture of realism. Harrowingto somelt may
be, but no one can deny its poN er.
HELENA MODJEsKA.
Now we come to Modjeska, she of the high
head Magyar face-a woman to be singled
out in any a~ssemblage for her impressive
bearing and air of extreme refinement. She
was not the Camille of the novel, mol the
Camille of the drama; she was essentially
the Camille of Modjeska. She gave us an
dainty, refined Partisan grand
dame, without the slightest suspicion OF
the lorette in her face or actions. You
would never imagine this woman toying
like with lover after lover. You
could never dream Of attributing to her the
black, hideous dream which Camille has
The prime trouble with Modjeska
that she idealized the character too
strongly, and in idealizing got away from
it. But she was wonderfulfor all that, and
by her bright intelligence brought forth new
in the role which we had not pre-
discovered. Her finesse is admira-
No less admirable is her keen sense OF
The artistic. She understands the secrets
Of her art 80 thoroughly that she makes
every fold of her dress tell. There is no
towards realism. She is an extrem-
ist only in her efforts to idealize. She is in
charming and interesting, never
by any possibility offending even the most
squeamish. And it is We ry easy to offend
in camille. How daintily she pushes that
dress, as she points to it and remarks archly
to Armand, II am expensive, too?" "a
fashionable woman's boots and slippers
are an expensive item.) Her meeting with
Armand in the third act is to me the gem OF
her performance. The miserable pretense
Of being happy, while her soul is tortured
agony, was rarely excellent, and her
hysterical laughter as tears coursed down
her cheeks was something not to be forgot
ten by those who heard it, 1t aptly illus
trated a smiling face which covered break
ing heart.
HER SHORTCOMINGS.
In the ending OF the fourth act, the test
scene, she was found wanting. Finesse
would not do here. and she certainly lacked
power. Her death was 10th touching and
without being in the remotest
degree realistic. Do you recall how, as she
sharp twitch, throwing by the action a
mass of black hair over her pale face, thus
additional pallor, by force of con-
trast, to her emaciated countenance?
Though her characterization is clever, it
moves the audience. They don't
go with her as they do with Morris. Almost
the only sensation she reused in me, vas
one OF admiration for her ability in simu-
lating emotions which woke no responsive
chord in her. Even in the affecting scene of
the third act, where in a whirlwind OF wild
entreaty she casts herself at the feet OF
Armand's father, although she thrilled me
for an instant, she did not win one
throb of pity. Modjeska will tell you
CduOlUly GudU Sit UOcS uOG lkc Gic IOlc,
that it is well-nigh %repulsive to her, and
wants it. Therefore, it is a necessity in her
repertoire.
SARAH B~ERNHARDT.
Did you see la Bernhardt, that cratic
creature who crossed the ocean to set this
Western world ablaze with her genius? And
did you think she was a genius? She could
claim brilliancy, extraordinary ~cleverness,
exquisite elocution, and a perfect mastery
of stage technique, but she lacked the di-
vine spark. l have heard critics say that
in the first act of Camille she betrayed
in the supper scene. Well, sup
pose she did! 1t was to have been expected,
and to me it was the most natural thing in
the world. There are several valid reasons
to account for it. In the first place a wo-
like Marguerite Gautier, in spite of the
silent hours which sometimes encom-
passed her, would in a scene like that referred
to, abandon herself to the influences ofthose
by whom she was surrounded. Again, Ar
change in her life which marked it's closing
Besides, we must remember that
used the original version of
g~uiltless of cutting, and in that
version Dumas has given his heroine some
pretty riSque lines to speak. Bernhardt's
badinage was charming, and her longer
were models ofsuperb Evolutionary
without impressing you al being at
all studied. You may recollect hat it was
a simple recitation of La F%ontaine's ex-
fable, Les Deux Pigeons, which
gained her admission as a pupil at the Paris
COnservatoire. Her great charm is fidelity
to nature. A striving for effect never OBJ
trudes itself. She is a perfect mistress of
the art of repose, and | cannot remember
anything in her entire performance which
struck me more forcibly than a little "bit"
this TACT. It was her entrance
md greeting of Armand in the fourth act.
Anything more telling in it's way would be
to conceive. For one instant, as
faced the man, her pose and the mar
vellous expression of her c~ountenance were
strongly impressive.
Her Interpretation of affection, in the
passages, appeared somewhat
to American eyes, but l hardly
think it was overdrawn. Her methods and
those of Modjeska are similar, and a dozen
she wildly recalls the Polish actress.
The latter, though, cannot be accused of
modelling her Characterization on the
French woman's, for. if / mistake not,
first appeared in Camille some
time subsequent to Modjeska's initial pre-
sentation of the drama in America. Ad-
mirers of Clara Morris were disappointed
Bernhardt's p%ortraiture. They had an
ticipated too much realism. For myself |