The times., 1899-12-26
AT THE THEATRES.
Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry in
s'RubesDiePre.D

Augustin i5obesperre. +. D. Davis
ieHJamin Vaughan. ......--.-..W W. Lugi
i.ebas .......-... james :. Hear
tout0n. Charles Lock-
n. Just r. Tanworti
T Old Dipiuy. Clifford Row,
Simon Dupiay. .........................J Archie
Maurice Dupay. .... F. Have
bliiaud Narennes.. Charles Garry
=, ''''-'.''.'' I'll Garstii
Fallen. Laurence Irving
Foucl}c ....-.-.. ....,. Charles Dodsworil
ne BTug lle..-...- Charles Nan'
1;qI1S LesuaH .........'..,-.---,.'....L BemoTt
Elder iegUay. ........... Mr. FritI
latle lheTe5f Beatrice lsV5F
MadaIae de Narbonne- Maud Milton
Her Little Girl Observation-Disclosures. TaryiI
And Many Others.
with the sharp. ominous report OF
pistol came sudden cessation to the
dreadful pandemonium of half an hour
Men. who, at the right of the stage, haG
been struggling and shouting for recogni-
tion were silent; men. who, at the left
Of the stage, had been joined in a frenzfed
attempt to drown all other voices. were
still Directly in the centre a circling
sWirling clamoreus. gesticuiating mob dis
solved and revealed a group of three-a
( suicide and two women who loved him
This terrific climax to the violent turmoil
that had preceded it rendered nearly need
less the lowering OF the final curtain. The
master Of Dlaywrights had hidden in the
last sentences of his great stOry-Of
RobespierTe' these Iooked-for words
The End. The brilliant throng in at
tendance had listened to the brief ac-
knc T!edgmeut which Sir Henry Irving had
nado in token Of apprecia> on for its APP
/ piauSe, and at this elimination il passed
through th doors OF the National-im-
dressed, thoughtful even mystffed
I In the privacy OF his dressing room the
4. actor may have considered and. consider
ing, have understood that the heartiness
and warmth of the greeting rendered had
constituted the most genuine tribute of
admiration yet paid him in this country.
/ Save only for that first night in London,
when stalls and pit and gallery went wild
| with enthusiasm, his production of the
Sardou drama Rad evoked no reception
/ more spontaneous or sincere. The COM
mendation bestowed had not been the re-
/ suit Of ignorance or Of ineXperience for
/ Sir Henry's marvellous presentation is but
/ the apex OF a monument built to mechani-
cal and literary skill by Richard Mans
Held and by others equally capable It
I had rot risen from sympathy. The sue
cess Of 'Robespierre" has released its
/ sponsor from the difficulties that beset
and threatened to overwhelm him year
ago. Those who witnessed the perform
/ ance had been the most intelligent and
! still the most fashionable OF the Nation s
! Capital. They had cheered because they
had appreciated, and for no less credtable
reason.
How thoroughly interpreted and inter-
prefer deserve this praise must be learned
by the audiences that Will see Sir Henry
irving during his week here. In Robes
I pierre" these gatherings will find and ex-
anime what probably is the strongest pro
f. duct Of a man who has prevented the
/ French from regrettiug that Shakespeare
/ was an Englishman. The play is a marvel
Gus handiw0rk; the conception Of a Won
derfully pregnant mind the embodiment
Of craft and genius. Taking into account
/ the necessities of his purchaser and the
limitations Of his material Victorien Sar-
/ dc has contrived TO construct a truly
effective example Of cunning and power.
Robespierre' has all the compIeXity. mag
ntude, unity, atmosphere, and character
that lend to such efforts immortality. II
/ touches upon every one of the emotions
( and, in that touching, calls forth the sharp
/ est pangs OF horror, sympathy pity, dread
/ anger, love. and passion. "RC5espierre -
/ briefly is q meJaphoric fabric woven OF
supreme skill and deep-rooted comprehen-
( sion Of humanity. These qualities have
/ formed the web and woof of the cloth;
/ they have given it each of the attributes
( essential to the ultimate retention Of an
output OF it's kind
/ This understanding of Sardous is re-
I sponsible for an interesting and debatable
! liberty which he author has taken in his
| handling, partially, Of the events and,
mainly. of the parsonage which he has
borrowed from history. The Robespierre
/ presented by the draTuatist is not the
/ RObespierre of fact. and the life of the
/ lootlight Robespierre is not the life Of the
/ ATraS advocate pictured by Carlyle Mira
/ beau. Bailly, Tarbell, and CONTEMPORARIES
who have slietehed the cast and scenes OF
/ that hideous tragi-cOmedy which now is
/ called the French Revolution. The result
ant dispute can bear only on the need for
such distortion; there is no doubt that the
/ end more than justiies the means. Schiller
| and Shakespeare and even the satirical
Sheridan were neither too scrupulous nor
/ too literal for precisely similar remodeliug.
! The Elizabeth of the first writer and the
/ GIoster Of the second are most obvious eyi-
/ dences behind this assertion. Granted
/ then that the monstrously inhuman and
! ianatically adamantine individual who rose
! from the ranks of the Jacobins TO fall back
/ again into the seethiug political sea Of 1Tg4
! was an impossible object with which to
/ win, at least, the cOmmiseratiou and
| through such a sentiment. the attention of
/ audiences, Sardou has lost all reason for
! explanation and is right in permitting him
! self to be judged by what he has produced
/ But the difference between the two
/ RObeSpierres. nevertheless, is worthy OF
( longer study than can be prompted in this
! space. One finds IL difficult to realize that
1 both are the same. That greatest of word
/ prodigals. Thomas Carlyle exhausted the
/ resources of his well-nigh boundless vo-
1 cabulary IN exhibiting to pOsterity an ego
| tistic. narrow. cOwardly hypocritical in
! effeCtual weakling whom accident placed in
position of power, from which his rule
! was that Of tyranny and couscienceIess cru
/ city. That greenish- -coIOred (verdatre) in
divldual with endless ambitions and
I small understanding SO Carlyle pointed
him out-"grew in favor with official per
sons. who could foresee an excellent man OF
business, happily quite free from genius %
Ana this portrait, taken before the fall OF
the Bastile and the succeeding events is
endorsed not only by Mrabeau and Du-
mont and the clear-headed Arthur Young
but by Bouille. who, in his Memories sur
la Revolution Francaise," alluded to the
Would-be dictator in terms so strenuous
| and comprehensive that the summary must
stand vividly in the brain of its reader
ever after. This was the Robespierre who
mounted almost to absolute omnipoteuce
( became flend incarnate-a vain-glorious
/ shallow, dangerous aspirant-the most ap-
! parent demagogue Of time that bore such
other complete uemagogueS as Barere st.
Just, and Coutcn. There can be no mis-
taking the ''incorruptble"-t Robes
pierre Of history
Sardou's creation, which is by far TIE
dominant and aII-absOrbing feature of hi
play, proves quite a separate being When
"Robespierre" was done in New York the
facetious and rather irrelevant Alan Dale
mentioned Sir Henry Irvlng's characterize
tion as "a pleasant old gentleman, n
unlike the Vicar of Wakefield" OF course
e1n Ainnnr,t- a cnr,, ,,t,n.ri-,r, r.. t-,.,..11