The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-18

! woman, who was ready to talk, but wait
ing for me TO give the cue. knew, too.
| what / wished her to talk about. i could
| not ask her what she thought of Jenny
| son. for / was sure that If ] did she would
| laugh at me. as would have been proper.
| But it was Of Tennyson that particularly
| wished her TO speak. Alter delay of a
| few seconds that seemed long minutes to
| me | managed to recall the story / had
| Tennyson had been persuaded TO let Mr..
| Daily have his play. THE Foresters" This
| story was that Mr.. Daily was very keen to
| get the play, but that the poet always re-
| fused. At length the venerable man came
! under the bewtehIng wies of Miss Rehan.
and was as Merlin in the tolls of lovely
| Vivian
''No. there is no truth in that story"
| Miss Rehan responded. Lord Tennyson
| wrote the play for Henry Irving and Ellen
! Terry. Mr.. Irving did not see his way
| clear to putting 1t on the stage and regret
fully sent II back. Then 1t was sent To
| Mary Anderson. and she thought of bring
| ing IL out. but about that time she took it
| into her head TO get married, and again
| the play was in Lord Tennyson's hands.
! When We were in England summer before
| last Halam Tennysou told Mr.. Daily that
| his father wished US TO take the play. and
We did. Then we acted II, as you know,
and Lord Tennyson was delighted at its
| success. Had he lived and his health con-
| tinued he would, no doubt, have written
another play for u.s."
Thus were we launched into talk about
Tennyson, and a silly story, the work of
some silly Imagination. contradicted at the
same time.
when we saw Lord Tennyson this sum-
mer," Miss Rehan continued, there was
great change from the summer before.
Then he took me ous for a walk in the
i. 4 - IL
when We got back to the house L was COM
pletely tired out, while ne seemed as fresh
as when he first started. He was strong
and sturdy then and seemed good for many
years. But last summer when We saw him
he was very much broken; 1t was really
painful to see him, and even his magnih-
cent voice, so resonant and musical before,
had quaver in 1t now. Oh, the change
was pitiful."
Miss Rehan's allusion to Tennyson's
voice recalled to me what Carlyle had said
of it in letter to Emerson: His voice is
musical metaliic-fit for loud laughter and
piercing wall and all that may be between"
l asked If this were so.
YES" she said, that's it exactly. Is
it not so, governor" turning to Mr.. Daily,
who sat by listening to the conversation.
Mr.. Daily nodded his head in assent and
Miss Rehan continued: when we first
saw Lord Tennyson We had Just come
with the pope. His voice is wonderfully
sweet and musical, and when Lord Tenny-
son spoke We at once recalled the voice of
the holy pontiff. Their voices were very
much alike and both were wonderfully
sweet"
The idea that got abroad that Tennyson
was ungracious and inhospitable because
he insisted. that the merely curious should
not invade his privacy has been pretty
we'll disproven since his death by the testi-
mony of those who went 20 him with
proper credentials. Miss Rehan found
him most approachable and extremely
| hospitable, and at table after dinner very
| genial and fall of anecdote. | told Miss
| Rehan of the scene that Mrs. Annie
| Thackeray Richie describes of Tennyson
| at Henry lrvings Lyceum theater. Mrs.
| Richie says: 81 once heard Tennyson
| son, indeed, than to Hamlet himself, for
| after the curtain fell the whole play
seemed to flow from off the stage into the
| box where we had been sitting, and could
scarcely tell at last where reality began
| and Shakespeare ended. The play was
over and we ourselves seemed a part of it
| still; here were the players, and our own
prince poet, in that familiar simple voice
we all knew, explaining the art, going
| straight to the point in his own downright
fashion, criticising with delicate appreci-
| alton, by the simple force of truth and
| conviction carrying all before him. ''Tou
| are good actor lost" one of these, the
real actor. said to him. l quoted this to
| Miss Rehan. and asked whether she
agreed with Mr.. Irving that the great poet
was a good actor lostP This interrogation
made Miss Rehan hesitate for a moment
as though she were balancing the question
| in her mind, and then she replied:
| II fancy that man of Tennvson' 9
genius could have been anything he chose ::
| he chose to be poet. and was the creates t
| of his time; had he chosen to be an actor
| he would also have been n great actor
Why not2 He had the presence, the
| physique the sympathetic intelligence.
| and then that marvellous voice"
| There were several things said of Tenny-
son by Miss Rehan evidently not intended
| for publication, and these, of course, | do
not set down. Such was also the case
with what she said of Sardou and several
other of the notable European authors
and pIaywrights. For the great French
dramatist, who was most polite and at
tentive to the DAILY players. entertaining
them nj his summer home, she expressed
much admiration, and tor him she EVIL
IDENTITY had a great liking.
asked if she had any objections to tell
ing me her plans for the future. Here she
tarned TO Mr.. DAILY and asked her ''gov-
| ernor" to reply to my query. Mr.. DAILY
said that he had decided that hereafter
he and his company would spend
about six months in America and
the other six months in Europe. To
the managers explanation of his plans
Miss Rehan smiled an assent which ap-
peared to indicate that her governors"
plans for the future were also her own
and therefore we may not expect in any
near tomorrow that the leading lady of
Days company will follow Mrs. John
Drew's example and secede and set up bus
mess for herself.
| This conversation took place while the
first act of Dollars and Sense was being
| finished and before the curtain rose on the
second act. Then ! went into the front of
the house and witnessed the marvellous
performance of a young woman who had
played Rosaiind. Katharine and Maid
Marian, who has had an audience with
the pope and walked over the Surry fields
In intimate conversation with England 3
Poet Laureate, kick up her heels As a hoy
denish ingenue and sing the nursery clas-
| sic. 81 We come to see Miss Jenny
| Olones." Her repertoire Is certainly
large and her versatility unbounded
| JoHN GILMER SIZED.