San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-02-13

|
Mrs. Stuart looked up and smiled agree
| ment.
Eyes, that scene lives with one II every
| thing else in the play is poor, she is worth
| seeing for that alone, Remember iti'
The little warning was in season, for the
poor White Lady had but too many after OPP
| portunities Of blurring the impression she
| had made In the great situation ut the end
| of the second act, in which the countess has
! to give, i'll the presence OF the court, a sum
mary of the supposed story OF the White
Lady, her passion at once of love and hatred
charges it with force and meaning, which,
for the first time, rUuSes the suspicious Of the
! prince rs to the reality OF the supposed up
partition In the two or three fine and
| dramatic speeches which the situation in
| vOlvcd, the actress showed the same absence
| of knowledge and resources as before, the
| same pOwerleSsneSs to create personality
| the sarle lack of all those quicker and more
| delicate of perceptions which we include
| under the general term "refinement," and
which, in the practice of any art, are the out
| come of long and complex processes of educa-
| ton. There, indeed, was the bald, plain fact
| the whole explanation of her failure as an
| artist lay in her lack both OF the lower and
| of the higher kinds of education. IL was
| evident that her technical training had been
% the toughest In all technical respects
indeed, her acting bad self taught, pro
| vincial air, which showed you that she had
| natural cievernesS, but that her models had
been of the poorest type. And in all other
| respects, when it came to Interpretation or
creation, she was spoiled by her entire want
Of that Inheritance from the past which is
| the foundation of all good work in the pres
l'CJ un hn IF ha
tw" kinds Of knowledge; she must have
| either tho knowledge which comes from
| fin. training in Itself tho outcome of a long
| traditicu--Jr she mast have the knowledge
| which comes from mere living, from the
| cumulations of personal thought and expert
ence. Miss BrethertOn had neither She
| had extraordinary beauty and charm, and
certainly, as Kendall admitted, some original
| quickness. He was not inclined TO go so far
as to call it power But this quickDess,
which would have been promising in debu-
tantc less richly endowed on the physical
| side, seemed to him to have no future in her.
at will be checked" he said to himself, "by
| her beauty and all that flows from it. She
must come TO depend more and more on the
| physical charm, and on that only. The
whole pressure of her success is md will he
| that way
Miss Brethertons inadequacv, indeed, be
came more and more visible as the play was
gradually and finely worked up to its climax
in the last act. In tho final scene OF all, the
prince, who, by a series of accidents, has dis
covered the Countess Hilda's plans, lies in
wait for her in III" "rmory, where he has
reason to know she iucalls to try the effect of
third and last appariton upon tho princess.
| She 10, SuflIrDlV fronts hpP. md
dragging her forward, unveils before himself
and the princess the death like features of
| his old love. Recovering from the shock of
| detection, tie countess pours out upon them
both fury of jealous passion, sinking by
| degrees into Il pathetic, trance like invoca-
| ton of the past, under the spell OF which the
| princes anger meltS away, and the little
| princess terror and excitement change into
eager pity. Then, when she sees him almost
| reconquered, and her rival weeping beside
| her, she takes the poison vial from her breast,
| drinks it, and dies in the arms Of the man
| for whose sake she has sacrificed beauty,
| character and life itself.
A great actress could hardly have wished
| for better opportunity The scene was so
| obviously beyond Miss Bretberton's resources
| that even the enthusiastic house, Kendall
| tancied, cooled down during the progress Of
| it There were signs of restlesSneSs there
was even little talking in some Of the back
rows, and at no time during the scene was
| there any of that breathleSs absorption in
| what was passing on the stage which the
dramatic material itself amply deserved
Il don't think this will IaSt very long, " said
| Kendall in Wallace'S ear. There is something
tragic in popularity like this; it rests on
| something uaSOund, and one feels that dis
aster is not far of The whole thing i'm,
presses me most painfully. She has some
capacity, of course if only the conditions
had been different-if she had been born
| within hundred miles of the Paris conserva-
toire, if her youth had been passed in a So
ciety of more intellectual weight but as it
is, this very applause is ominous, for the
beauty must 90 sooner or later, and there is
| nothing else"
You remember Desiorets in this same thea
| tire last year in 'Adrienne LecouvreurF" SAID
Wallace. What a gulf between the right
thing and the wrongl But come, we must do
our duty and he drew Kendall forward to
| wards the front of the box, aud they saw the
whole house on its feet, clapping and shout
ing, and the curtain just being drawn back
to let tho White Lady and the Prince appear
before it. She was very pale, but the storm
of applause which greeted her seemed to re-
vive her, and she swept her smiling glance
round the theatre, until at last it rested with
| q special CLEAN Of recognition on the party
in the box, especially on Forbes, who was
| Outdoing himself in enthusiasm. She was
called forward again and again, until at last
the house was content, and the general exit
| began.