Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-13

place then IN another; scarcely a word is
spoken in the scene, but that appear
anoe of the ghost the first thing gives
you the
KEY NOTE OF THE PLAY
at once n influences your impression
Of the whole drama. The next scene is
the gay court with the gentle Ophelis
and the grief-stricken Hamlet with dis
heveIled hair and black dress, the one
dark spot in the bright assembly. He is
in what ] call a most undignihed Estate
of flop, - in lei utter abandonment of
despair that one thinks ''you poor crea-
ture, why don t you go drown yourself
instead Of trying to be the hero of a
drama The news of his father's ap-
pearance wakes him up and sends him
into a three-cornered fit of don't
know what, but / / ave no intention of
rldiculing Mounet Sully' 3 Hamlet; it is
magnifcently rendered and touchingly
tender to the last extreme. That cry of
"Mon pere!'' when he first sees the
spirit of his father rings in my head yet,
and L wonder if any words but those
French words, or any voice but that
rich, melodious voice of Sully's could
ARANS thO oSOAS VI Lax duu JO1 anu
tear which that cry expressed. In
that scene the ghost leads the way to the
top of some stone steps leading to a great
bridge at the back of the stage; he
stands in the shade while Hamlet stops
in the moonlight on the lowest platform
of the flight. b scene is most striklngly
effective, the white figure in the dark
ness and the black one in the white
light. At the end of the ghosts first
speech you think it impossible for a hu-
man face to express
MORE HoRRoR AND ANGUISH
than the pale visage of Hamlet, but he
has just begun; this is only the first de
gree of horror and anguish. and at the
end his whole body %collapses, he falls in
a heap and rolls down the rest of the
steps.
1t is very evident that Mounet Sully's
Hamlet is only playing mad, for the
mad scenes are exaggerated so as to
make a strong contrast with his solilo-
quies and the interviews with Horatio.
The hollow, imbecile laugh, the sudden
vacant look, the dropped jaw are alto
gether too real and give the impression
that the prince of Denmark must have
spent some time in studying his part in
an insane asylum. The interview with
Ophelia which has puzzled the critics, is
well interpreted by Sully, Hamlet for
gets himself when he talks with her.
then suddenly remembering his mad
part, he says those wild, incomprehensi-
bic words ending with sect thee to a
nunnery, go!" like a mailman.
Altogether 1t is a painful, narrowing
Hamlet and marvellously well sustained, |
though, as 1 said before, it is not an
English Hamlet. Only q Frenohman
could play such a Hamlet and in the
French language; in English it would
seem
RATHER RIDICULOUS.
What music this tongue is when actors
speak It'll How it melts in their mouths |
and pours forth in burning floods of
eloquence and feeling; how staccato it is
IN delicate ~raillerY and wit; it comes out
like blows of silver hammers in wrath:
how the sweet, short words roll like
pearls from the lips of these graceful
French actresses.
But TO return to Mount Sully; he has
lately been elected a chevaIier in the Le-
gion of Honor-the first actor so honored
simply as an actor. Eighteen years ago,
after his return from the war, he was
unable 10 find a situation in any theater,
although he had been playing at the
Odeon before the war. Discouraged
and desperate he resolved TO give up a
dramatic career and
RETURN TO HIS MOTHER
in the country. On tbs eve of his de-