Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-29

the view Of confounding her. Her replies
are wonderful. At one time Joan is of a
sublime naivete, at others ironical, and even
playful. Her GOODNESS threw them into
confusion, which the Unforeseen logic Of the
poor woman reduced to taoit avowal Of
their powerlessness Yes, should have
liked that scene, and, in my mind, had, so
to speak, prepared it.
Asked If she had any settled ideas Of the
part from physical point Of view, and as
regards costumes, Bernhardt replied: Most
decidedly; know by documents that Joan
was thin and slender; there was nothing of
the peasant girl about her, much less like
. the robust Marguerite imagined by Goethe,
and whom AIRY Scheffer painted as an ema-
ciated person. l have aimed at an archaic
restitution. The Joan of my Imagination is
church window saintinspired, and acting IN
der the impulse ofan exherent will of science.
In the nimbus of her mysticism, there is
suggestion, q case of hypnotism-thIs is my
humble opinion that I give you-which can
and ought TO have certain effect on the
stage il it be rendered sincerely, especially
in these present times when science deigns
to put her foot into the domain of things
that are miraculous"
Bernhardt believes in the miraculous.
The time of her first trip to America, the
third night after her arrival in New York,
she had dream, and when she awoke out of
it sne called TO her dame de companion,
Nine. Guersrd, who was sleeping in the same
room: MY dear friend, am undergoing a
terrible torment; have just seen my poor
son bitten by mad dogs. 1t is dreadful; tell
me am under some hallucination, and that
it is not real" The following morning she
sent csblegram toaParis, to Maurice, who
teoI. L. L.,
beaten off; the bite I received in the arm is
not dangerous"
AN ENTHUSIASTIC AUDIENCE
III mistake not, Schiller's ''Joan of Arc"
was originally produced BY the Saxe-Men-
ingen Company, and that too, after three
years of patient study, and it was called:
"Die Jungfrau Won Orleans" Baroness
Heilbuth. the morgsnatie wife of the Duke
George Won Saxe-Meningen, directed the
rehearsal of the actresses, and the Dukes
youngest son, pupil of the Munich school,
painted Joan's standard. At Strasburg,
few years back, when SchilIer's work was
played there, the theater was crammed, and
and the scenes where the French put to
fight the English, were loudly cheered.
One scene aroused the public Before the
arrival of the Maid of Orleans at the palace
of Charles VII. the tumult of the victorious
troops was heard extending over the town,
mingled with the frantic hurrahs of the
raving crowd, and the flourish of trumpets
combined with the resounding din from the
great bell Of the clock tower. Then the
heroine came on the stage, followed by
soldiers and holding her standard in her
hand; it was at this moment when q mad en-
thusiasm seized the audience. Her entrance
was like the appearance of ''la patrie."
One OF the scenes in Jules Barbier's
"Joan of Arc" represents, so it appears,
the Vieux-Marche Square in Rouen, which
has been celebrated ever since the torture of
the ''Grande Paysanne." The tower where
her prison stood has long since entirely dis
appeared; that which exists, and which wSs
purchased by national subscription was
the larger tower Of the dungeon. 1t was
there where on Wednesday, May g. 14S1,
Joan replied to her Judges, in spite of their
threats of torture by the horrible instruments
that they showed to her: "Were you to
tear me limb from limb, I should not
speak otherwise" Itwas also in that tower
where, by her presence of mind, she abashed
the e1eeutioners who dared not infict on
her ''the question" as they had announced
they would; and, finally, it was from that
square that she started for the stake.
Archeologists have discovered that the
exact site where she was burned is at pres
ent covered by block of houses that sepa-
rate the Vieux- Marche from the Place Saint
Eloi. One of these houses is the Theater
Francais of Rouen, and the stage covers the
very spot where stood the faggot pile.
HENRY HAYNIE.