New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-11-26
BERNHARDTs NEW PLAY.
A CLEVER STAGE MANAGER-TIIE "KIyGLY
CLASS--A DRAMA OF SOCIALISM.
Paris November

bringing out of NJ Jules Lematres drama, THE
Kings" "The Kngly Class u.es Rois at
La Renaissance Theatre. Sarah Bernhardt Is on
capital furnished. and it Is said. In no stinted
measure, by Messrs. Grau & Abbey. managers
Of that theatre and plays leading, but not the
leading part in the drama Before going into. the
subject Of ''The Kingly Glass" l think wen 70
mention that she Is on the high road to distinction
as stage manager for NJ. Grau attends to every
thing else. She has the keenness Of perception OF
not only what the public likes but what 1t may
be easily brought to like In the way OF hgn
thought and feeling, taking on dramatic form.
Her knowledge Of the requirements OF the stage
Is based the widest experience Of any living
actress, not excepting Adelaide Ristori. She mas
also an instructive sense Of what Is picturesque.
graceful pleasing; knows how to sacrifice sprat
to catch q salmon and was Weakened up In the
United States to see how fetching theatres may DO
made by commodous seats, good lighting. good
ventilation and the agreeable decoration OF the
proscenum. Under her management the pit
seats and salles d'orchestre at the Renaissance
have been remodeed The broom OF reform has
been applied in another direction. Those women
in white lace caps, trimmed with pink ribbons.
who in French playhouses open doors and worry
paygoers in order to exact tips, to confde over
coats and wraps them, and to accept footstools,
for which 50 centmes apiece Is expected, are In
Sarah Bernhardts theatre forbidden to hold out
their hands for gratutes. But they are ordered
to receive wraps Of old. The management pays
them instead OF being paid by them for the right
to beg tips sturdiy. 1t loses nothing by this
change. higher price being asked for the best
boxes and balcony and pit seats.
The year In which II. Jules Lemattre's play
opens is the unborn one Of 1890. Is this to show
that he is not looking back on events that have
actually happened. but is looking forward? Let US
take date artifice for wrapping up facts.
faces and figures. The royal family Of England
has ceased to exist such revolution
having been quietly accomplished In Lon
don and a British republic proclaimed. but after
the disruption Of the British Empire. This event 10
due to the clrelessness OF King George, who had
not head for public affairs. 1.-The Ksngly Class
IL a drama with a key like the novels OF the late
Lord Beaconsfeld. But it often happens that the
key does not fit, one character that we recognize
merging, in the vanishing picture OF magic
lantern, Into another which cannot the less dis
| tinctly identify Thus the late Emperor Wilhelm
and the late Dom Pedro are in this curious man.
ner fused into in the parsonage Of Christian
XVI, King of Alfane, and save the Car, the
only despotic monarch in Europe" He has for
heir-apparent the philosophical, philanthropica.
pensve and gentle Prince Hermann hater OF the
fctions of royalty Of the fasities Of courts and
courtiers. and of the frivoes Of the best so
cety. Hermann nolUishes pity for the class born
to and reap but not to enjoy the harvest.
which, on being garnered. is for the drones who
have in it old vested right.
He has been in Paris converted to Socialism by
but curious cosmopolitan breeding; her mother.
having to escape from the teGium OF her own COM
pany, led wandering life, and lived less at home
than hotels in the different health and pleasure
resorts and capitals of Europe This rolling-stone
life was continued until pecunary resources were
dried up when she had to be content with gar.
ret in the Questionable Paris district of BATH
gnolles. Frida's mother there finds solace In
reading sensational French novels, and Frida at
tends scientific and other lectures where she has
many other young Russian adies-Nihilists. OK
course-to keep her company. When child she
had been taken at her passionate request to see
In Siberia her grandfather Prince Kariskine Tread
Krapotkine) whom she yearned to embrace he
was a gentle sensitive being who would not hurt
a fly, and was driven by his impressionable nerves
and compassionate heart into becoming Socialist
in theory The theories were the reason Of his
| Punishment TO penal settlement. He was sixty
| when Frida saw him there. but might pass for
being eighty. His eyes were as those or dead
man, his beard yellowish white like an old beggar.
mans He had grown garrulous about his hard
ships and wore under his brownish-gray suit
iron trangles his legs attached to each other by
rings and then BY chains to a jonted iron waist
band with loop and paddock. by which he could
be fastened to a wall. frida. having inherited the
nerves and heart Of her grandfather. became
Nhilist directly she embraced him In his JAIL
Her long phase of hotel life followed this Incident
In her days OF poverty she fell in with Audotia
Latameff (read Louise Michel in Paris. Audotia
was an Anarchist for the same reasons that had
made Frlla Nhilist and was the kindest soul
that ever lived. She presented Frida to another
good SOUL a Duchess read dUzes), who got pupils
for the young Courland girl 1t was at the house OF
the Duchess that Hermann met Frida. He was
struck with the contrast Of her soul-beauty,
her decacy and refinement with the holiness OK
her doctrines and her detestation or line worldly
society. a platonic friendship sprung up between
them. and Frida engaged as reader to the
| tha hair ronf
to the crown of Afanie A charming young ac-
tress Marcelle Valdey, personates Frida. and with
exquisite and winning grace
Sarah Bernhardt's role is important and pivotal.
but less interesting than that OF Frda. Nine.
Bernhard appears In "The Kingly Class" the
Princess Wihemine. wife Of Hermann. This royal
lady is made up OF two vanishing pictures. One
IS OF the late Empress Augusta when she was
young and the other of the Empress Elizabeth.
The part gives the actress right 10 launch OUT
into the srmptuary magnifcence for which she
has nothing less than passionately strong taste
The ideas Of Wilhe,mne in regard to this royal
function and the duties arising from II are narrow
and old ia shiored No royal lady ever attacheb
more importance to etiquette She can be good 10
the DOOR, but fraterna, and her charity. It
genuine is cold. All this Is repugnant to Hermann.
in whom Is amalgamated the late Emperor Fred
erick and the late Crown Prince of Austria The
one child of this royal pair. Prince Wilhelm. Is Q
puny boy of s.x delicate, dreamy. precocious. The
father would like him to be brought up in o
ma tural healthy way. TO box young paymates and
h.. thumped by them But the mother insists upon
his being fashioned according to the strictest
rules of etiquette. and being treated as a little
idol The etQuette-oving old governess and
other members of Wilhelm household find this
easy enough But Hermann can never lend HIM
self TO such folly
The villain of the play is Prince Otto. Hermanns
brother and compound Of the Due Orleans and
the late Archduke John. who went to sea some
years ago and lost in doubling Cape Horn.
Otto TO get Wilhelm out OF his way and rise
step higher, encourages Wilhelmine to persevere in
her system OF education. He is gross rake, like
the late Prince WIniam of Orange. and a gambler
like the Prince of Wales. The actor personatng
him knew the Archduke John. and raises him from
the dead. Another character. Baron Issachar, is
supposed to be combination OF Baron Hirsch and
Arthur Meyer. Of the "Gaulois'; while Helborn. Q
Dad hos ~ xt.a.t,