The times., 1899-02-19
FRIENDS OF LAST WEEK.

Those who saw Julia Arthur in "a Lady
of Quality" last year and who saw her
again during the week just gone must have
found considerable interest in comparing
the work OF Edwin Arden with that of W.
S. Hart, his successor, in the role of Sir
John Oxon. The two men were SO very
different in their manners and their meth
DDS that both excited comment, even while
consideration on one ground was imprac-
ticable. Mr.. Arden's Sir John was
smooth, insinuating knave. whose Iago-like
hypocrisy and whose possession OF the
traits most esteemed by women first in
itiated him into the favor of Clorinda Will
dairs kinsmen and then into the affections
of that termagent herself, even while they
provoked the essential disgust and dislike
in the minds of understanding audiences.
On the other hand. Mr.. Hart undertook
to draw the part strongly with lines as
broad and heavy as those adopted for the
portraiture Of villains in melodrama. 1t is
necessary that Sir John shall be repulsive
in order that the spectators may condone
Mistress Wildairs' offence in killing him.
but Miss Arthur's present leading man
provoked the detestation of those to whom
he was playing without taking sufficient
care to seemingly cloak his vices from
those with whom he was playing. Still
the Sir John of Mr.. Hart was strong and
forcefuI. If not especially impressive for
its intellectually. Some Of the perform
er's minor bits were done in masterful
manner his death scene bringing out a
display of technical knowledge rare in this
day and age. Several portions of the dia-
logue between himself and his star were
well delivered and the whole impersona-
ton had dominant traits of consistence
and legibility So, while Mr.. Hart cannot
be said TO have made the scholarly and ar
tistic scoundrel shown here by his prede-
| cessor, he was still very adequate and al
most completely satisfactory.
1t was r. C. Carton who once remarked
that an excellent test of an actors ability
was in that seldom well-done affair, a
drunken scene. There is another critic
rion of the sort used almost as frequently
| "a criterion that tells plainly how much
regard the player has for naturalness in
! his or her work-the business involved in
| writing a letter. Most stage folk seem ex-
| pert stenographers when they begin using
| their pencils. and most stage fox are.
| therefore, ridiculous in that work. 1t has
| been claimed that if the man or woman
| doing the bit takes reasonable time for
accomplishing his or her purpose audi
| ences grow weary and express their impa-
| tience.
| Still it is a notable fact that artists like
| Madame Rejane, Sarah Bernhardt, and
| Mrs Fiske have consumed as much as
| three minutes in seeming to prepare epis-
| ties of importance But even Mrs. Fiske
! was not sufficiently careful of detail to
| hold the paper on which she was writing
| in the second act of Tess of the ID Crber-
yilles," and this same fault was notable
| last week when, in similar scene from
I .,rT-I,, bat
| Jennie A. Eustace. laid her stationery on
a smooth surface and then proceeded to
| use her pen with one hand while pettlng
| Isabel Irving with the other. Such trliling
| lapses hardly seem to need correction, but
| lust such things contribute to the making
| of a perfect performance, and so many
generations of entertainers have gone BE-
| yond bounds in letter writing that II
| seems time to call halt AS much at
| tention should be paid to these things as
to greater ones, and Miss Eustace is too
| capable woman not to realize the truth
| OF this statement.
| Isabel Irving, by the way, has improved
| greatly within year or two, ana could
| hardly have been recognized last week as
| the charming but ineffective little woman
| of "One Summers Day" Miss lrvings int-
| personation of Lady Jessica was artistic in
| a large degree anu Tcdiiy aS tie'ei q oit VI
| work of the sort as one could wish TO see.
The actress still speaks in shrill faiset-
| TO and has not ceased to give the impress
| sion that her every motion and word is the
| result of long study. Nor Is she convincing
| as yet her method being still amateurish
and somewhat stilted. But Miss Irving is
intelligent and conscientious-whichm means
| that a great deal may be expected of her
in the very near future. And so delight
full and refreshing is she by nature that
even the least appreciative of her watchers
will be glad to find her achieving success
She is the most girlish of our leading wo-
men and grlishness brings with it a pleas
ing brightness that cannot be assumed ant
is harder to acquire than the art Of acting
well.