Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-29
STAGE DEATHS.
The Development Which They Have
Undergone i'm Recent Years.


Undergone i'm Recent Years.
From the London Globe.
Attention has recently been called. through
the medium of law case to the important
subject of stage deaths. We have had cele-
brated expirers in court. the evidence of ex-
perts on rival methods of dying, opposing coun-
sci dropping into jokes and playing up to one
another in e friendly manner as amiably a
couple Of topical duettists am glad to see
so much notice given to what is a pet subject of
mine. have followed the play now for many
years, and it has always been my ambition TO be
in at the death;' and this not merely for
the sake of the sensation, but from sound
dramatic conviction. We say in common life
that good beginning makes a good ending,
but it is otherwise on the stage; there the end
ing is everything, and the beginning next to
nothing This is true both physically and
morally. Give me good death scene to wind
up with, and L, as an experienced playgoer, am
perfectly satisfied, and feel that l have not
wasted my paper" in vain; and on the other
hand give me virtue triumphant just before
the fall of the curtain, and do not care what
scoundrels and light characters have passed
the evening in company with.
DEVELOPMENT OF STAGE DEATHS.
The stage death has undergone considerable
development of late years, which shows that
the British drama is still full of sap. The high
toned actor of the past used to be content with
folding his martial cloak around him and dying
with ease and dignity; while the commoner
sort OF actor came down with one full flop"
and all was over. In no case were there more
than two or three gasps INDUCED in, and not a
gurgle was to be heard. The actress, also when
she had to expire, expired. But things are very
different now. The death scene is a drama by
no
the mlkado observes showing his keen sense of
art. 1t is true We have not got o.the ..some-
thing with boiling oil in it" but that may come
| in good time. Modern British stage death owes
good deal to the great Salvini. When that
accomplished actor brought Othello round
these provinces. the death he made of him was
revelation to professionals public and dead
heads alike. l well remember that death, from
start to finish. There was fine thrust of the
dagger, which you were prepared to swear went
all the way in, and then Othelio fell en- nldsse
on the stage, but he not yet dead as a
common actor would have been. There were
allegro WRITINGS of the instrument round and
round, which sent successive thrills down your
spine; and each white was accompanied by
Orte commissions of the gentleman's person.
After that short pause, for all concerned to
take breath, and then dd cdpo r'diLenta,ado. l
have no notion how long this went on by the
dial, but it seemed about an hour and half by
my sensations and when We got to the grand
climax and the final quiescence. was both
hungry and thirsty.
sARAH's EXAMPLE
What Signor Salvini did for English actors
Madame Bernhard did for the actresses. She
opened up to them new possibilities and rev.
Citations in the art of expiring. which they
have done their best to profit by. l always
go to see Sarah when she comes. for the sake
of her lovely deaths l take my nephew with
me, as 1 do not understand French, and he
to m no hoo hal
several courses of lessons, besides spending a
fortnight in Paris. l think Frou Frou is her
favorite death with me. The history of
this lady. being very affecting, prepares the
mind well for the catastrophe. My nephew
does not seem quite clear as to what takes
place at the beginning, but anyhow l can
make this out; that early in the play she
meets with a man who seems to make her i'll
every time they look at each other, and she
goes on meeting him and getting worse and
worse all through the piece. At one time
fear consumption for her, at another think it
must be scarlet fever that is coming on, then l
hesitate between chronic rheumatism and
paralysis and afterward am sure it is slow poi
son. Finally, she crowns the edlfice of the
most lingering death ever saw by diving out
right This is by far the most complete death
| on the stage, because it begins almost as soon
as the curtain goes up, and keeps on climaxing
all through. Sarah's other deaths, though, are
by no means small beer. There is a very fine
death in that play where there is an Armand,
who my nephew tells me was her brother and
where there is big scene between her and her
father when he finds she has been secretly
writing a novel, and commands her either to
give up the manuscript or leave the house for
ever. And 1 do not despise the other one,
where she smells the flowers, and turns all sorts
of colors one after the other, from the peony
to the primrose. But still give me Frou Frou
for my moAey-I should say my order.
Sarah has now several earnest disciples in this
country. They are decidedly clever, though
| cannot say of any one of them that she is fit to
die by the side of Sarah. Nevertheless. they
are improving by close study and observation
Of nature. The legal case to which have re-
ferred proves the amount of care they now
take. In the olden times, when characters died
on the stage by poison, the symptoms were al
ways the same in all cases, whatever the poison
taken; but the ladies have changed al that
Now the action of one poison is sublimely differ
entiated from that of another, and the deaths
do not shock the medical eve; and they
incidentally offer the audience truth
| worthy samples of different modes of exit
from this vale of tears. From these exhibit
tons the public may gather that the passing
in of your checks by chloral is peaceful sleep,
with a look Of ineffable beauty ON the face.
when the lines go straight; that of prussic acid
| death induces a call on the faithless one and
| three stretches of the legs; that with strych-
nine you try to fit your body into all the arti-
cles OF furniture III the room, including the
| fireplace; and that with arsenic you double
yourself up like letter, and put yourself in
the waste paper basket for an envelope This
is art, this is. Nowadays no leading lady is
without her special death scene," which must
be Inherent from every other lady's death
scene; indeed, the death scene is growing to
be the ruling featuae, that the author has
only to say, when he is about to write a lady's
/ Law IL L. L. n. -