New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-11-18
MARY ANDERSON'S SUCCESS.
REVIEW OF HER PERFORMANCES


at Palmcrs Theatre The house has been crowded
every time Miss Anderson has appeared and the sue
Of the production has been great every respect
1t is purposed to change the bill every Saturday night
In order To obtain for the actress and her associates
that stful refreshment which is found IN diversity
labor; but the shakespearean comedy win be con-
tnucd as the chief feature of Miss Andersons
during the next five weeks
This revival Of "A Winters Tale" is achieve
ncn In dramatic art that lover of the drama can
omit to view and consider without injustice to him
self The piece is one Of the most delicate and ex-
quisite creations Of poetcal genius IT has bat rarely
been presented upon tho stage and 1t never. in our
time, has been acted so well a. It is acted now.
"a Winters Talen was written In the
fun maturity Of Shakcspeares marvellous
powers, and, indeed many Shakespeare
scholars believe II TO be the last work that fell from
his hand Human life, as II is depicted in A Win
ters TaleS shows itself like what 1t always to
be in the eyes of patient, tolerant magnanimous
perience-the eyes " that have kept watch DER mans
mortslity"for 1t is a OF inexpcable contrasts
and vicissitudes, seemingly the chaos OF caprice and
chance, yet always, In fact benefceny overred and
guided to good ends. Human beings shown in 1t
as full of weaknesses; often the puppets Of laws
that they do not understand and of universal propen
sites and impulses into which they never pause TO
inquire almost always objects Of bengnant pity
The woful tangle OF human existence is here viewed
with halfcheerful halfsa tolerance, yet with the
hope and belief that all will right at last The
mood of the comedy is pensive but radically sweet
The poet is like the forest In Emerson's subtle vision
Of the inherent gladness of nature:
Sober q fund OF JOY,
The woods at heart are glad
In doubling the characters Of Hermione and Perdita,
Miss Anderson took bold and original course and
this proceeding has been entirely justified by the
suit One Of the attributes OF genius is the faculty
Of seeing opportunity, and A Winters Tale con-
tans the only opportunity of this kind that occurs
in all the works of Shakespeare. The dramatic en-
vronnent, the dramatic necessities OF Hermione and
Perdita vastly unlike, for example,
those Of Lady Macbeth-one of the hard
est Of all parts to play well, because exhibited
intermttently, at long intervals, yet steadily con-
strained by the necessity of cumulative excitement
The representative Of Lady Macbeth must be identi
fed with that character, whether on the stage or
Of from the beginning Of 1t TO the end Hefmione,
on the contrary is rest. from the moment when
she faints upon receiving Information OF the death
OF her son. A lapse OF sixteen years is assumed,
and then standing forth a statue, she per
sonfes majestic virtue and victorious fortitude
When she dcscends from the pedestal she silently
embraces Leontes, speaks few pious, maternal and
tranquil lines there precisely Of them in
the original but Miss Anderson has added two from
"Ans wen'), and embraces Perdlta, whom she has
not seen since the girls earliest infancy This is
their only meeting, and little is sacrificed by the
use Of substitute for the daughter in this scene
Perdits's brief apostrophe 10 the statue has to be
cut but 1t is not missed in the represen atiOn The
dramatic opportunity, however, is not one that could
readily be utilized. No other actress of our time is
endowed equally with Miss Anderson, with that
exceptional diversity Of temperament and those
peculiar splendors Of physique which are essential
for embodying both these characters, each so lovely
In a different way and each distinctly unlike the
other. Miss Anderson could not only see the OPP
portunity but could improve IT; so that even those
vrho her he of imne
Notwithstanding that she has played Juliet, Gaatea,
and Meg Merrilies and played them all welD are
compelled to concede that she sets Hermione and
Perdita in perfect contrast
To say Of Miss Anderson as Hermione that she
embodes tho literal ideal of Shakespeare is TO
make statement that carries with IL the necessity
OF defining that ideal One Of the most revercnt
and most acute commentators upon Shakespeare Mrs.
Jameson justly describes the character of lermione
as exhibiting dignity without pride, love with
passion, and tenderness without weakness" This
is exactly true. Hermione not easily won, and
the best thing known about Ieontes Is that at last
she came to love him and that her love for him
survived his cruel wicked Ill treatment, chsstened
him, reinsated him, and ultimately blessed him.
Hermone suffers the utmost affection that good
woman can suffer. Her little dies, heartbfoken,
upon the news Of his mothers alleged disgrace Her
infant daughter is torn from her breast and cast
forth to perish. Her husband becomes her enemy
and prosecutor Her honor a woman is grossly
assaled and vlifed. She is subjected TO the bitter
indgnity of public trial II is no wonder that
al last her brain reels and she falls if stricken
dead The apparent anomaly IS her survival for
sixteen years, lonely secluson and her emeIgenee
after that as anything but forlorn shadow Of her
former self The poet Shelley has somewhere recorded
the truth that all great emotions either kill them
selves or Kill those who feel them 1t is Just here,
however, that the exceptional temperament Of Her
mone supplies explanatory and much-needed quail
fcation. Her emotions are never of passionate
kind Her mind predominaes. Her life is in the
affections and therefore II is one Of thought She sees
very clearly all the facts of her experience and con
dton, and she knows exactly how those facts look
I'm the eyes of others. She is one OF those persons
who possess keen and just prescience of events,
who can look far into the future and discern those
resultant consequences Of the present, which, under
the operation of memorable moral law, must In
evitably ensUe. She is ncarnafe nobility, ana OUT |
Of that sphere of greatness flows her superby
royal demeanor. This is the ideal that Miss Anderson
In If Hermone the actress must not only lberae
her moral and spiritual nature INTO chaTa racer
She is deeply sympathetic; bgt she must |
largely exert her imagination. In Perdita she need
not Al, There happens an insantaneous e and
complete eorrespondence between the part ana the
shakes peare has left no donbt about his meaning In
her THE snd 10 an Ser
uperiority her suDcrlative charm While her own |
behavior and language as lortn ner
nobility of soul One of the subtcst side lights |
brown upon this character is in the description OF the
manner In which Perdta heard the story of her mothers
ieath-when effectiveness wounded her till from |
,ne sign of dolor 10 another. She did bleed tears.s
And of the fibre Of her mind there is perhaps
finer indication than may be felt IN her comment On |
I'D Camlo's worldly view of prosperity a vital |
essential to the permanence OF love:
81 think anctlon may subdue the cheek,
take in the mind"
The actress shows that she understands this char
acter I'm every fibre of its being and In the finest shade
Of its meaning and she embodies II with all the auent
vitality of her splendid health and her buoyant tenn
presenting a creature who is radiant with
goodness and happiness most exquisite In natural re-
inement. piQuant with aichness, soft and innocent
and tender IN c0ndng artlessneSs and while gleeful
and triumphant I'm her beautiful youth, Yet gently
touched with ntuitive plying of the thorny
and aspects OF this troubled world The giving of
the flowers completely bewiches her audience, and