The record-union., 1896-03-14
Missouri River. Edwin Foy has been
engaged for the principal character.


why critics should disagree. In our
own community it has often been re-
| marked that there is a disagreement,
and the unjust intimation has been
thrown out that it is not always sim
cere. Note what happens in New York
among the great dailies. Here you are;
you pay your money and you take your
choice. When Mrs. Cora Potter and
Kyrle Bellew were here, Mrs. Potter
was not placed on a lofty niche as a
Shakespearean actress. Her abilities,
so far as they went, were honestly con-
ceded. But here is an extract from the
New York Herald" vf the 4th inst.
1t fairly takes the breath away. Hear
the man:
Never since the days of Adelaide
Nelson have we had a Juliet who, in
gracious winsomeness of personality,
came so near to the ideal that we feel
| to have been in Shakespeare's mind.
In all the gentler scenes that preceded
the fifth act Mrs. Potter was the inn
paSsioned maiden, mastered by first
great love, seductive through the very
| girlish Inconsistencies of her seductive
powers, and through the unwilling alb
sence of the allurements of a maturer
womanhood
Yet here and there, when she was
called upon for energy rather than
sweetness, one trembled lest she might
/ fail One doubted if she could quite
stand the tension of the scenes that
were yet to come. 1t was a relief, there
fore, to find that she abrogated the
possibilities of a more powerful effect
and thus avoided possible perils by
playing the most strenuous scenes with
q wise reticence and reserve, with calm
melancholy, rather than with passion
that might have torn itself to tatters."
Whew! Now let us turn to the New
York Times of the same day. We
make extracts, the review being too
long to reproduce:
Think of a Juliet who does not ex-
claim, 'Gallop apace, you fiery-footed
steeds,' or any line of the Verona mai
den's splendid apostrophe to the stars;
who does not breathe out to the loving,
black-brow'd Night:
Give me my Romeo; and when he shall
die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so
fine
That all the world shall be in love with
night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Think of Juliet who never hears from
her nurses lips of TypaIt's death and
Romeo's banishment; who does not cry
out, % serpent heart, hid with flower
ing face; who omits altogether that
great 'crux' of the tragic power of all
stage Juliets, %, bid me leap, rather
than marry Paris and does the fa-
omus potion scene all in a monotone,
with a musical accompaniment for
much Of it,
If any one who reads his Shake
speare intelligently or knows the stage
or has memories of some famous his
trionic Juliet can bring his mind to such
condition that he can imagine these
things we have mentioned then he will
have a fair idea of the sins of omission
of Mrs. Potters Juliet
There is no hint of real passion-the
passion of love-in Mrs. Potter's Juliet
It has distinction of presence, and
scorn, obedience, melancholy and de-
spair are all graphically expressed 1t
is always agreeable to the eye-if the
eye is not set in the head of sensitive
student of Shakespeare.
THE play has been cut to suit her
weakness to a preposterous extent, but
the potion scene could not be well omit
ted. This has often been done better by
girl 'elocutionists' at Chickering Hail.
Old Mrs. w. G. Jones, who has played
the Nurse countless times, probably
never played it before to Juliet so ex-
traordinary and defiant of all the ira
ditions''
And now hear the "Tribune's" sage
voice his opinion: "Mr. Bellew and
Mrs. Potter are completely out of place
in tragedy, but in the absence of tragic
actors, their endeavors to be serious
may be contemplated at least with res
ignation. Mrs. Potter's presentment of
Verona's flower may obtain serious at
tention from persons who are interested
in feathers. Frivolity, self conscious
ness, weakness and affectation are not
the attributes of Juliet, nor have they
ever been considered to be the attri-
butes that constitute an actor of Shake
spearean tragedy"
Nine. Ambrose Thomas has been in
formed by the Governor of Metz that
the municipality of that city will place
tablet on the house where her hus-
band was born and bust of him in the
theater
Joseph Mayer, the "Christus'' Of the
Oberammergau play, has not lost his
leg, 1T appears, after all, but hopes to
recover from his recent accident and re-
sumo his part at the next performance.
Alexander Salvinis repertory for next
season will include Hamlet" Romeo
and Juliet" and ''The Outlaw" A spe-
cial company of well-known legitimate
actors and actresses will be engaged for
him.
John and James Russell, portrayers
of Irish servant girls at Proctor's Pleas
ure Palace, New York. get off this:
Did you give the gold fish fresh
water to-day?" asks John.
I did not" replies James; "sure.
they haven't drank what I gave them
yesterday"
In "The Goddess Of Truth" at Abb
bey's Theater, New York, the Sculptor
remarks to the King:
Your majesty does not lie''
Easy lies the head that wears
crown replies the King Here is an
other joke on the joys of matrimony.
It is from 'The Goddess of TRUTH also.
The King complains of poverty:
Before you married me you said you
We're well off - cries out the Queen.
Il was, but I didn't know it," responds
the King.
James w. Harkins, Jr, and Edwin
Barbour, the dramatists, have sailed for
Havana, Cuba They go with instruc-
tions from William A. Brady to write
play of Cuban life, and they expect to