The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-10

| he dedantly refuses 20 answer, the papers
! found upon him are dead, and the father
| learns from one Of them that the prisoner
Is his son. Then follows The most dramatic
passage Of the play The father. after i'm
| prisoning the mother has enrapped the
| son. Without disclosing their relationship,
! he alternately coaXes and implores the boy
| to tell him where Clarisse is to be found,
| and when Olivier turns from ham In loath-
| ing and disgust Eouespierre, as tie only
! means Of aTertiug suspicion, orders MN
| with stimulated ferocity to be removed 10
prison. Sir Henry Irving IS at his best an
this emotional scene, and is strongly sup
| ported by Mr.. Kyrle Below
THE fourth act opens with scene be-
| tween Robespierre and Clarisse, In which
! he confesses 10 her thai, while ne mas
| been enabled to secure her release, ne can
| not, without exciting suspicion, restore
| their son 10 liberty. While they are re-
| preaching themselves the news comes that
| the boy has been ordered to the Conciei-
| gerie, and may alrg ady have been condemn
| cd to death; and then, in solemn dread ana
| butter anguish, they peep out Of the wan
| dow 10 see if he be in one OF the many
| tuinbrils numbering along the street. Wheh
| Olivier is not seen among The condemned
| who are Knocked at and cNecrated by the
mob, Robespierre searches for HIM in the
Conciergeries. Might comes on as he is wait
| ing for the jailcr's report, and vision
Of the victims of the guillOtlne passes be-
| fore his eyes The barred recesscs behind
ana above him are gradually filled with
the spectral figure of Marie Antoinette
Mime. Roland, Charlotte Corday, Camille
Desmoulins Danton and many more. Their
faces are shining in the moonlight as awe
struck Robespicrrc falls on the pavement
aud VOWS thai he win abolish the gull
lotine They vanish IN the gloom as he lies
PROSTATE, and when he seeks to rise, back
they come with menacing gestures, more
and more of them, until the prison is like
a theater crowded with spectres IL IS
weird and beautiful scene, appealing pow
erfulIy to the imagination. u is brought
to an end when the jailer, having failed
in The search for Olivier. returns 10 ma
the conscience stricken Robespierre on the
floor. helpless and desparing Sir Henry
Irving is very great throughout thls scene
The fifth act opens with a grim scene
in the room of the committee OIL puplS
safety, where Robespierre's enemies are
conspiring to compass his overthrow ana
where Olivier, after vowing to take ven
geance upon the tyrant, is released,
contrast leads to nothing. The agonlZed
father who has rescued the mother ana
has been searching for the son IN the
haunted prison, is now exposed to the Jury
of his enemies in the convention, ana
among them stand Olivier, with the pistol
IN MS mana WIN which TIC ID W AeArNN 49,
life OF the dictator. NJ. Sardou with his
dramatic instinct, must surely have plan
ned the death of Robespierre by the hand
of Olivier, who did not know that the ty-
rant was his father. That is the ineVlta-
BILE sequel to the contrast between the
fathers search in the tumbrils and in the
dungeons for the son whom he would save,
and the SON s. frenzied quest for the father
whom he would slay. Dramatic unity re-
uuires 4his CHASTITY end. Otherwise it was
hardly worth while to invent the cary
intrigue and to improvise an ilegitimate
son for Robespierre, who had faults
enough to answer for. Apparently, NJ.
Sardou has been diverted from his pur-
pose The son does not kill the father.
Robespierre, hunted down by his enemies
in the convention, kills himself aud dies
in the arms of Clarisse, while Olivier
stands by with the pistol which he has nor
fired Sir Henry Irving a year ago found
Peter the Great" with its conflict be-
tween father and son, too strong meat for
a London audience. Possibly he has dis
suaded NJ. Sardou from carrying the &C.
ton of the play 10 its logical catastrophe.
am convinced that the great dramatist
would have devised different ending for
Paris audience.
4 MarveIOusIy Realistic Picture.
The play ends, however with a stage
picture of marvellous realism. The hall Of
the convention is crowded with a mob OF
deputies bent upon eilencing and over
throwing the Dictator It is a revel of tu-
mutt, evil passion and frenzy, One mem
Der after another ascends the tribune to
denounce him acknowledgements IS as fe-
rocious as a beast of prey; Tallien with
theatrical gesture incites the mob 10 lib
crate itself from servile bondage and all
the enemies of RObespierre band together
10 compass his ruin. Silenced where he
sits upon the benches among his few
friends, he struggles again and again to
reach the tribune and is flung aside. Al
last with his coat half torn from his back,
he Chambers into the tribune, but his
broken utterances are lost In the tumult,
of which the undertone is THE blood of
| Danton chokes him. Fighting like a stag
at bav with a pack of wolves gnaSh'ng
| at him with their teeth, Robespierre falls
The convention orders his arrest with
frenzled hatred and he dies by his own
hand craving the forgiveness of the
! son who is breathing out vengeance
against him. The deputies sing the battle
song Of the republic ana the curtain falls
! upon the best enacted scene of mob vio-
lence ever witnessed in London.
The obvious criticism upon NJ. Sardou's
| work is that the group 'of three figures in
the foreground, on which the light is con-
| centpated for three acts, Is finally over
whemed by the deepening shadows of the
| BACKGROUND. The dramatic motive
swerves and stops short after its logical
| direction has been clearly indicated. The
| mob takes up the work of father, mother
| and son, and the curtain falls upon the
| lurid background of the revolution, with
| its tumultuous violence and passion. The
| literary motive remains and it dominates
| a complex but symmetrical study at what
| the painters would describe as9 artistic
| composition.
Rohespierres character is revealed with
unerring realism in his foibles, his senti-
mental weaknesses, his petty vanities and
| his softer traits, as well as in his in
| flexible resolution, his merciless fanatcism
and his irrspressible ambition; and this
| fantastic figure, with the coXcombs love
of finery, the monomanacs dream of an
| ideal commonwealth of virtue and the ty-
rants lust of power and insensbility to
suffering. is set against the stormy back
! ground of the revolution and made to SYM
bolize its Vagaries of judgment and evil