The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-12
Boston Conquered by Gaul.

when 1t does break out, Is usually o source of
Joy and enlightenment to the outer world.
From time to time Harvard University
evokes such outbursts by theatrical repre-
sentations Of curious plays in strange
tongues, but 1t has seldom reused Boston
to the pitch Of enthusiastic admiration ex-
cited by the production, last week, of Prof.
DE SUMIcHRAsT's spectacular Old Testa-
ment pageant "Athalie," in the Sanders
Theatre Of the Memorial Hall. Audience,
actors, play, and language alike COM in
for universal and erudite praise from the
Boston critics, praise which in the case Of
the Boston Herald bursts through the
bounds Of the English language and can
find expression only in French, free and
untrammelled by accents or the convention
alities Of grammatical rules.
The conglomeration of fashion and intel.
lect that assembled to witness the novel
spectacle was unusual even for Boston. AS
the Boston Evening Transcript, with its
customary caution, says:
at were indeed most dlmcult to gather q moro bril-.
liant audience than that which filled to overnowing
Sanders Theatre Monday evening. Tout. Boston
and '~ToutCambridge' also. were there in numbers.
and these numbers were OF the kind that would have
reJoiced RAcISE's heart probably more than the Court
OF versailles, as a whole, In l7O2."
The Boston Herald in it's Gallo exube-
rance Is less restrained:
"Le Theatre de Sanders ma jamais w de sa vie une
aussi somptueuse afiuence de voitures particulieres
que d hier au soir. De magninques chevau1 p!arent
ct s. ebrouent sur la place etroite devant In porte
banal construct par DIES architectes peu inventifs. A
rinterieur. on SO pousse. on SO bouscale, on s'asseoir
sur des fauteuils a deux dollars, on Sc lorgner. Pub
lie very select CONNIE a I'm concert sy mphoniQue de
Music Hall.
"~Vraiment, II fut q un spectacle dc l'espece la plu1
rare. Ia plus precicuse, lie plus artistique. lie plus
brilliant. meme la plus francaise-dans ces parages au
moins-que nous fumes convies hier, ct. tout compte
fait. j'acccpte la solree CONNIE une veritable pre-
mierc de tout ce gun y a de l'intellective, de chic
ct de CONNIE Il faut.
LA sale etait de plus belle; hommes de Tenseigne-
ment universitaire ct hommes d'etat, philologues ct
PHILOSOPHERS. %critiques. pretres ct pasteurs. des LIDS,
des d. DIS, des NJ. DIS. des Phi. DIS. des Sc. DIS. des
Mus. DIS. toutes sortes do personnes titre, ct des
jolies femmes partout. Mais IL y await de beau
monde"
Though d%iscarding on this occasion its
wonted trolley cars and venal hacks for O
sumptuous affluence of private vehicles
with prancing and snorting steeds. the very
select public. it is noticeable, did not omit
the Bostonese symphonic football rush for
the %"fauteuils a deux dollars"
Rare and precious indeed was the specta-
Gle offered to it. For the first time the
young women of Radcliffe College, hither-
to jealousy guarded from profane eyes and
even uncatalogued, were to be exhibited to
the public gaze attired in costumes made
expressly for the occasion in Paris. For
the first time, too. in the history of Har-
ward University, one of her professors was
to appear as a Thespian on a public stage.
The expenditure on scenery, decorations
and costumes, all made especially in Paris,
was known to be on that lavish scale which
the Harvard Faculty encourages in the his
trionic ventures of its departments of in
struction, as a needful relaxation in the
struggle it is obliged to carry on c~ontinu-
ously against undergraduate extravaganza
in the management of athletics and of pri-
vate theatricals. The play as presented,
moreover. was acknowledged to be in all
essential particulars the product of the
thought and energy Of Harvard's Prof.
DE S~UMIcHRAsT. He had annotated and
translated the text he alone had seen in
1t opportunities for spectacular display of
which RACINE and the Coincide FRANCHISE
never dreamed he it was who designed
and ordered the costumes, and adorned the
CdoU Will JIG ldiE Ildlucub VI ttduCllue,
with the Boston amateurs, with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, with the Boston Ce,
ella, and with Mr.. B. j. LANG. AS the
Boston Herald states only too concisely:
I'M. lie Prof. DE SUMcHRAsr. qui etait dams cette rep.
resentation 10 metteur en- scene. le regiSseur. 10 trans
, METRE des traditions franchises. lie translator. ct Ia
grande Jeune premier. q Joue 10 pretre."
The words used were, it is true, those OF
the French writer, but they were modified
for Boston use, as we gather from the Bos
ton Elening transcripts praise of one
performer, "who spoke out her lines with
1, a quaint American accent which was not
at all unpleasing to French ears"
Tout Boston and Tout Cambridge were
not disappointed. A pageant more gor
geous than any Hasty Pudding or Cercle
Francois ballet was unfolded before them.
We can only describe one scene: Prof. DE-
3 ~SUMICHRAsT, arrayed in ga very copy of the
8 costume prescribed by the Book of Levitt
Gus, even to the bells and pomegranates
: OF his robe," wearing a Levitical beard
beautifully reproduced in the Boston Eren
Q ing Record, and completely identified
t with the character of the high priest o.
JEHOVAH, stood revealed on the temple
e steps, uplifting his arms like MOSES
while around and in front of hin
circled the young women of Radcliffe
5 "strikingly beautiful, all in their floating
gauzy wells, loose hair. and flowing draper
ries of lilac and violet. pale yellow, cobal
z blue, salmon pink, sea green, and white
n now swinging wreaths of roses, now wav
Ing green palm branches" in alteration
"Dieu!' they cried, as they raised thei
5 arms to the left, and "Cleux!' as the,
waved them to the right, with an accurac
q creditable to their months of training. Tn
fact that the employment of the Bostol
Cecilia to sing the choruses limited tn
n vocal expression of the young ladies' feel
s ings to these two forcible words, lent a
y unexpected feryor to their utterance.
a Prof. DE SUMIcHRAsT showed himself t
10 be a consummate actor; his style is de
e a..ILal ..a-..LaaAl LL..4.Ia.l liz nLnaa