St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-08-22
MIRRORED BY AN ARTIST.

Mr.. Willard in His Great Creation,
The Middleman," Bills at the
Grand.
Combining the tragic story of Bernard
Palissy, the unfortunate French potter,
with the conventional love episode of
every day life, and laying the scene in
modern England, Henry Arthur Jones
has produced play possessing intense
dramatic interest. In the hands of
company of mediocre ability The Mid
dleman" could scarcely fail to retain
close attention.
But. fortunately for both dramatist
and actor, it has fallen into the hands of
E. S. Willard, supported by Miss Marie
Burroughs, and they opened their
weeks engagement with it last night at
the Metropolitan opera house. Speak
ing without positive knowledge, one
could readily venture the assertion that
THE Middleman" is. with MIR. Willard,
the favorite play in his entire repertory.
Certainly the character of Cyrus Blenk-
arm is peculiarly suited to the strongly
individualiZed lines of the actor. In is
in parts beyond the middle age, like
Prof. GoodwilIe in "The Professors
Love Story" that Mr.. Willard, both in
England and America, has won such
eminent distinction. Truly original IN
his conception of such characters, he
plays them with grace that wins, and
with that confident ease which assures
the audience that the part is in the
hands of thorough master. To crit
icise Mr.. Willard in lines that are, as
one can readily say, truly his own.
would only elicit that awkward ques-
ton, who could do them better?
True, American audiences have seen
Mr.. Willard but in three of four plays,
but they are plays new to US, as is his
style of acting new, and pleasantly new,
to American audiences. We cannot
say such or such an one is better as
AyreS Bienkarn, or Prof. Goodwille, or
Judah Llewellyn, as we might compare
the different conceptions of Hamlet,
Richard Ill. or Richelieu. There is
nobody in our country to measure up
with Mr.. Willard, for no one has yet ad-
vanced into his peculiar lines. And it
would fare i'll with an imitator.
"The Middleman" carries what NAV
be termed all open plot. In advance
the audience reads the denouement, but
interest is not sustained merely by the
plot. Compared to the dramatic
strength of the situations, the plot is
weak. Beside the powerful reading of
lines by Mr.. Willard aud Miss Bor-
roughs it is weaker still. We all know
that justice will eventually be done the
betrayed daughter of Cyrus Blenkaru
from the fail of the curtain Oh the first
act. We know, too, that any other
fate than the one which befals
Joseph Chandler, of the Tatlow porce-
lain works, would be a sad lapse from
poetic justice. Everybody knows that
Jesse Pegg will marry Nancy Blenkarn,
and everybody is glad of it. Together
these two, by II. F. Tylor and Miss
Mamie Craddock, respectively, supply
the bright comedy bits which, like the
fires of Cyrus Blenkarn's furnaces,
light up the pathetic story. Perhaps
the finest piece of work done by MIR.
Willard is in the second act, where he
demands strength from heaven to melt
of my revenge" In the third
act where he discovers the secret of
twenty years search. and triumphs
over the craven, cowardly Chandler, an
apprecative audience demanded three
curtain calls. The character of Blen-
karin is one of transitions. ReIis an old
man. and has ever been gentle, easy
going man, impracticable, but kind
The wrong done his daughter converts
him into one of iron will, and. apparent
ly, Implacable of purpose. Still. he re-
Tents, and at times softens with the
natural tenderness ever flowing through
his heart. it is ia the portrayal of these
transitions that Mr.. Willard proves
himself the master of his art, and fitted