The courier., 1899-01-28
'THE PASSING SHOW
VILLA GATHER

Ihou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the
darling buds Of My
And summers lease hath all too short date!
-Shakspere's Sonnets.
Oui. c'est une Rere, une Rere ddmOur,
that Rosalind OF Julia Marlowe's.
Shakspere dreamed er, and rs "a dream
presented her. The very title suggests
that, "As You Like It," as you would
have it, il dreams came true. Leigh
Hunt, in volume OF the best dramatic
essays ever written IN English, says that
Rosalind was Shakspere's ideal mistress
and that he put into her mouth the
words he would have had his ideal mis-
tress speak, made up for himself the
sweetheart that nature was not deft
enough to make for him and gave to her
all the attributes that Anne Hathaway
and Mary Filton lacked. And as
dream Miss Marlowe plays her. scarcely
tangible and earthly enoul h to bs
thing OF flesh. For the simple satisfy
ing effect OF beauty. OF lyric loveliness. |
Know OF nothing now on the stage like
her Rosaliud. II she has not enspar ed
the very dream Of Shaksppre, then /
think, had he seen her play it, he ", uld
have forgot the dream.
have seen her now three times in the
past, and begin to think that she could
not play it badly il she tried. also
begin to distrust that legend always
whispered behind the scenes when her
name is mentioned. that Ada Dow
drilled her in all her Shsksperian parts
so thoroughly that she is absolutely
bound to the letter OF Ada Dow's teach.
ing. that her every intonation is but the
echo OF another woman's inteligepce
and that this beautiful Miss Marlowe ia
but fair mouthpiece for another wo.
mans SOUL do not believe it. Ihaye
watched her reading too closely to be
further deIuded by any such epiterul
myth. Anyway, the story is usually
told by jealous ladies whose husbands
have managed Miss Marlowe or pIsyed
with Miss sMarowe. Take Rosalin6's
first scene withsCelia and Orlando at tn.
dukes court l have yet to see her play
that twice alike. When Celia. after
Orlando goes out, crosses to her at the
sundial and asks her il all her melan
choIy is for her banished father and
Rosalind replies, mo, some OF it is for
my fathers child Last year she read
that line with droll affectation of
melancholy, this year she read it with
frank gaity. The line spoken when she
gives Orlando the token, "Sir. you have
wrestled we'll. and overthrown more than
your enemies" Last year she smoke II
timidly. with the deeper meaning in ber
eyes. This year she spoke it arcblv
merrlly, with challenging dash Of
coquetry. and either way it was eouallv
On my life, could not
choose between two moods so bewitcb.
ing and both 80 admirably in the snirit
OF the character. You see, being Rosa.
hnd' Miss Marlowe can afford to ho
rather free in her reading, that is lust
the point; she speaks, she does not read
~ Is the language Of lyric youth, the
lovely tongue OF Already, not elocution
Why' she speaks all that blank verse as
though she meant it. loved it, lived il
one Is not afraid Of it because it ia
Shakspere. There is not a line ., ~.
play into which she does not infuse Iife
and wit and youthful! charm, and sbs
aoes not infuse too much, che
'oes not overdraw the color of Rosal;nd,s