The herald., 1898-10-16

Deen puDllSueu III ucI AdNOiiCC IhdtnStCio .
and with the expression Of face considered
by her to be appropriate to each. Some
of these journalistic reproductions Of pho
tographic art are worse than others, but in
them all may be read the dominant power
Of intensity. From which and from the
notices aforesaid 1t may reasonably be ex-
pected that when Miss O'Neill opens at the
Burbank on the oath instant the event will
be honored with large attendance. The
actress repertory is extensive when the
variety Of characters she assumes is taken
into account. From Nancy Sykes to Par
thenia Is as broad jump as 1t is from
The Jewess to Elizabeth Queen Of Eng
land, and all Of these she plays. Miss
O'Neil is an Oakland girl and has had but
four years stage experience. She Is there
fore not vet old enough to attempt Juliet
or Rosalind, but these may come in time
The Burbank managers are to be congrat-
ulated on securing an attraction that has
so much apparent merit.
The New York Criterion, which Is lead
ing authority in dramatic matters, has the
following to say of the late Fanny Day.
enport's acting and of her business career:
Fanny Davenport's stage career was
checkered by few failures. She was good
actress within lines limited by her per-
sonality. which was large. mild and easy
going, without any subtlety, intelligent
without being intellectual. The marvel Of
her stage life was that for years she profit
ably enacted line of parts for which she
was wholly unfit under any decent canon
of criticism. Her appearance as Cleopat-
ra, Gismonda and SO on was painfully
poor. That she made a fortune in them Is
not much credit to the public taste. In
all of them she was the plump, affable wom-
an who never tries to rise out Of the run
of common life. Her tinsel sat on her as
If she was Just trying 1t on.
G. A. DoBINsoN.
Shakespeare Not Lost
In the Atlantic Professor Mark II. Lid
dell suggests: II would not say that we
have already lost Shakespeare, or that we
shall lose Shakespeare within the space Of
generation. What I would say is that
we can lose Shakespeare, and more easily,
too, than we think. We English-speaking
people have already been advised to aban-
don Chaucer--in journal, 1t is true, whose
advice Is not usually worth the taking;
but such straws show the way the current
sets. Perhaps it will be some time before
any one will boldly tell us to give up Shake
speare and thus show that Shakespeare Is
already practically given up. But If 1t Is
true that we have lost Chaucer as popular
literature, that we have lost Spencer as
popular literature, that we are losing Mil
ton as popular literature, how shall we ul-
timately escape losing Shakespeare"
The foregoing might possibly pass cur
rent as a theory were 1t not that even a
theory is supposed to be a mental scheme
based on principles verif1able by relative
facts observed-or, as some one has defined
a theory, "a rational explanation that
agrees with all the facts and disagrees
with none" Professor Liddelrs sugges-
ton is merely speculation Of a very loose
sort.
What is there in Chaucer In his best pub
lished form that can be called popular
literature?". And what though Spencer and
Milton have passed or are passing out of
the ken of all save scholars and students?
All this has nothing whatsoever to do with
Shakespeare, for reasons so plain that 1t is
not necessary to dwell upon them.
Shakespeare has seen the birth and death
of schools, and 1t is commonplace to say
fancies in literature and drama. While
Chaucer. Spenser, Milton and Shake
speare's contemporary dramatists and po-
cts are now studied simply as elements in
the development of English language, po-
etry and drama necessary to be known,
Shakespeare Is perused by an ever-increas-
ing public with constant pleasure and won
der. He is at once the solace and the in
spiration of scholar and student. and those
Of new generations who are neither schol-
arly nor studious enjoy and appreciate him
on the stage The fact that company
playing a Shakespearean repertoire in an
outlying theater in this city last week
appeared before a succession Of crowded
houses but proves what any person with
intelligence to observe may know at all
times-that Shakespeare can no more be
"lost" than the sun can be lost. His ap-
peal is universal. and neither time nor mode
can change or affect It. because he gives
play to every passion. mood and emotion.
and humanity finds all its types prefgured
in his pages.-Dramatic Mirror.