Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-10-30

"A f2$N1,M Il (which springs nat
CcH8WN" ~ urally in the actor
MINM14N" toward the most
- EN intensely human
IL VI OfShakspeares ere
Is ations" In play.
ing Richard he undertook duty
which the stage had long owed to
Shakspeare's reputation--the restora-
tion Of the play in the form so long
displayed by Colley Cibber. The Ly-
ceum version had no single line which
was not in the originals; and Shaks.
peare's Richard Mr. Irving describes
as "a Plantagenet with the i'm
perious pride of his race, a subtle in
tellect, a hooking, not trumpeting
duplicity, superb daring which
need no roar and stamp" and ~,
youthful audacity very different from
the pOndcr0us airs of the heavy vii.
lain" 1agO is "a simple soldier and
no politician" but he 'reproduces all
the traits of the mediaval Italian
adventurer delineated by MacauIey"
in his description Of the Italian
statesman Of Machiavelli's time. He
Is "a young man about eight and
twenty, not embittered by disap-
pOintmentS but instinct in all his
manhood with the duplicity which
belongs TO his temperament and his
generations" ''he also has a slight
dash of the bull-fghter." or Lear
ne doubts whether complete en-
bodiment is within any actors re-
sources, and says:
For myself the part has two singular as
sociauons. 1t broke down my physical
strength after sixty consecutive nights. and
when / resumed the part after brief rest,
was forced reluctantly to the conclusion
that there is one character in Shakespeare
which can not be played six times u week
with impunity. On the first night had
curious experience. As stood at the
wings. before Lear makes his entrance, 1
had sudden idea which Tevolutiontzed the
impersOnatiOn and launched me into an ex-
pertinent uninterrupted at rehearsal tried
to combine the weakness OF senility with
the tempest OF passion, and the growing con-
xlction before the play had proceeded far
anat THIS was perfectly impossible task. is
night. Lear can not be played except with
the plentitude Of tho actors physical
powers. and the idea of representing ex-
treme old age is futile
AS to Lear's sanity, Mr.. Irving
holds that the decay of his intellect
has begun before the play opens and
that 'the actor has to represent the
struggles OF an enfeebled mind with
violent self-will-a mind eventually
reduced to the pathetic helplessness
OF a ruin in which some of the orig
inal grandeur can still be traced.
This is, without doubt, the most
difficult undertaking in the whole
range Of the drama.
Lawrence Barrett's Tribute to Women.
AS an Offset to the crimes aud fol-
lies OF the RestOratiOn-the bad fruits
OF seed sOwn in Puritan restraint
came the advent Of women upon the
arena Of the theater. Her influence
had, before, been felt only in the do.
nestle relation, or upon some dan
ge:ous Inherited eminence, too giddy |
Tor the frmer nerves Of man. The |
theater opened to her an arena where |
all the qualities pre.eminently hers
sensibility, imagination, the magic
sway Of beauty-led to their highest
usefulness
Her coming purified the literature
OF a corrupt era, wrested from usurp-
Ing hands the sceptre of her birth
right; gave new color and beauty
to the Jheater, elevating stage and
audience alike; adorned it with an
line of lovely heroines,
ushered in by the charming Mrs Bet
terton, and continuing in our day,
With undimmed lustre in the genius
and the lives of her lovely and gifted
fulfilling the COM
pact made by Shakespeare with DOS
terity, that Imogen, Rosalind, Ophe-
liza. Cordelia and Beatrice should meet
worthy representatives in the far of
day OF woman's emancipation.
The theater, where woman needs
no manly mask to gain impartial SUI.
frage-whose rewards regard no sex:
the theater where public approval
up to merits height-this
stage which she has made her own.
from whence her influence colors the
lives of her sisters wheresoever they
toll. upon this anniversary, sends to
all women a fraternal greeting.
LAWRENCE BARRETT.