The herald., 1896-02-18
AT THE NORMAL SCHOOL
Distinguished Actor, Frederick Warde
Makes Au Address
Seven Feminine Types Of Shakespesre's
Dramas Drawn to Life-A Tribute
to the "Old" Woman

The pupils OF the normal SCHOOL ana
few visitors had the honor yesterday af-
ternoon of hearing from the distinguished
actor, Frederick Warde, an address. whose
undercurrent was a deep, constant and
beautiful tribute of his own admiration and
reverence and love for the old.fashioned
womanly woman.
The subject of the address was s'Shakes-
peare's Women,'' of whom seven were
taken as types, and sketched with that
gentle and exquisite handling that made
them appear in the light in which they were
created by the dramatist, who, in his truth
fulness to nature immortalzea these very
women of his plays.
Mr.. War6e took Portia, Ophelia, Juliet,
Desdemona, Rosalind, Lady Anne and
Lady Macbeth from their places in various
dramas, cutting from them all surround
ings except those that served to bring out
their several characters, and making them
distinct figures, wove about each one a
graphic story, simply told, that at times
ran into dramatic impersonation, SO easily
and naturally done that it was some times
difficult to tell where quotations began and
| where they ended.
Portia was made perhaps the most at.
tractive OF the group. I'm this character y
said Mr.. Warde, 'the dramatist shows his
skill in giving to great, noble-minded
| lady exquisite touches of sweetness and
womanliness. as when she says to Bassanio
| i am yours, and must share half your sor.
rows besides a daringness in her devotion
| to her husband which maks her ready to
brave anything for his sake.
| ''Shakespeare shows his knowledge of
, human nature when Portia, in her disguise
as Judge, appeals to Shylock to be merci.
| full. a man would have rushed in and
said: Here. this is all mistake; you
| can't take the bond. etc.; case dismissed.
| Portia, woman like, feels her way. She
next tries to reach the Jews cupidity, and
| finding all in vain, with true feminine re-
| venge makes the poor man 60 down ON his
| knees, and heaps upon him all the misfor-
and as he refused he had to take the conse.
| quences.
! "Portia's wit. her gayety and her love of
! teasing were shown in the scene of the
| ring, as well as the art that centered in one
| woman, all those changes from intensity
| tie everyday tricks of lovely woman that
had the power to touch our hearts and our
| sympathies."
| Mr.. Warde had the gift of holding the
closest interest of the 500 pupils before
him. AS he hunlorously exposed the at.
made so true and lif Like, lie was inter-
| rupted with frequent bursts of nlerriment
In the next character, Ophelia, he en-
tered SO earnestly and deeply into her
character of extreme delicacy, innocence,
pnri'y and exquisite daintness, and the
wild extremity of despair that ended in in
sanity, that the attention was intense, and
when he entered dramatically into he
scene describing OpheIia holding her
wreath of flowers over tho water and the
tribute Queen Gertrude pays at the grave,
the interest of every one was SO wrapt in
I I'll a1.-A -
not until the speaker had finished that any
one was conscious OF the silence.
Desdemona was beautifully portrayed as
| the simple child who grew into woman's
estate with her love. Her answer and her
appeal to her father after Ler elopement
with Othello were given, and the ingen-
| uousness, frankness, innocence Of her
character, and perfect trust and devotion
to D O'hello to the end, were pathetcally de-
| scribed.
| Mr.. Warde next dwelt on Juliet and Ju-
| lets love for Romeo. In her, he believed,
was the purest, noblest type of woman
| possible; that in her confession of love for
Romeo, which was all love and given with
out reservation, was the most perfect en-
ample of trust, confidence and devotion in
all literature. Her horror of taking the
drug, and the courage with which she
finally takes it in the hope that she will be
| united with Romeo were dramatically and
| intensely shown.
| In all the characters named MIR. Warde
| dwelt on their perfect womanliness, show.
| ing all the rare touches of sweetness and
| goodness that had been the desire of the
| dramatist.
| In Rosalind he showed how feminine a
real woman is, even when she tries to i'm
personate man. Rosalnd in male dis
guise, ana how she betrays her sex at
every turn. were very humorously
sketched. Mr.. Warde was quite sure he
knew what would have happened il q
| mouse had happened in her path.
| Lady Macbeth and Lady Anne as char
acters. he said, that had been criticised as
mistaken or unnatural types of woman
kind, and a dramatist's unfaithful portrai.
| ture, were, nevertheless, lie argued true
| types. That Lady Anne was the natural
delineation OF a woman reared in secluson
, with no knowledge of the world, and of
vain and fickle disposition, and Lady Mac.
| beth was an example again of a woman s
| devotion who was willing to forego her
womanliness, her motherliness, and unsex
herself IN scheme to obtain a kingdom
| for her husband. The unselfishness and
devotion were sublime. There was no
| thought for herself.
| The trend of the speaker, which was
throughout all appreciation of the beauties
of a true woman's character, shone out at
the end in a beautiful little speech in which
he vowed that he had no sympathy with the
idea of the new woman, nor yet, her an
tithesis, the old, but that in every fibre of
his heart he clung 10 the old fashioned
| woman. He pictured her from a little
child through many sweet and womanly
phases of her life to the dear, old, white
haired grandmother in her old arm chair.
Happy is the man, he said, who can re-
member in his earliest days that his moth
er's face was his little world and with
whom the greatest gift of God and the in
centive to every hope of his life has been
woman.
After the address the pupils of the
school rendered Mr.. Warde two beautiful
floral tribu es that expressed but q very
meagre compliment of the great pleasure
that had been received.
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