The times., 1899-06-02

bear anything; alone she is only a terri
iled child. The thought that only so can
she escape the fate which she breads more
than death is all that could induce her to
drink the poison. Maude Adams Juliet is
the slender. frail little woman who shrinks
from imaginary terrcrs. but walks calmly
up to real pain and peril. if she have the
support of love in the ordeal. The thought
that she does not know what is coming
the uncertainty, the unusualness of II all
frightens her as it does a child. This
scene is possibly less powerful in its effect
than its predecessor. II is the portrayal of
an overwrought girl, made hysterical
by nervous apprehension of fate
worse than death; and If anything OF the
scrt happened nowadays it would assured
ly be called Mysteries.
The idea of the character on the whole
is that which might be evolved by a woman
rather than man. and that Is one thing
which makes it so unconventional. OF
course, the actresses who have played this
role in the past nave had their own ideas
OF it. and embodied these in their acting;
hut they were hampered more or less by
stage traditions which came down from
the time when boys played women's parts.
This is one cause of the misconception OF
the role by some people who think they
know all about human nature They argue
that with the experience of love Juliet be-
came woman. and they are right, so far
as one side of her nature is concerned.
Under certain conditions an impulsive.
deep-natured, womanly young girl can
love with all the strength of mature
woman, and so far as that side of her ma
ture goes, she is a woman. She learns,
as if by magic, to read the thoughts and
feelings of her lover, and she some times
seems to have sort of inspired wisdom in
human
being is utterly possessed by an overmas-
tering passion. the results are often sur
prising. But 1t does not necessarily follow
that love and marriage make this until
tored maiden a fully developed worldly
wise woman. 1t does not even follow that
she will show her love in just the same
way that she would if she were ten years
older. She will be at once more reserved
and more ardent than her older sister. 1t
will be quite possible for her. when the
mighty power of love first wakens her
soul, to confess herself to her lover under
cover of darkness, with a frankness which
is the result not OF passion, but CT utter in
nocence; and afterward, when sne has
come to a more perfect realization OF what
love ts-of its tragedy as well as its Joy. of
the crown of thorns as well as the roses
she may be mute from very awe and mex
perience. She does not know how to ex-
press her emotions; the pretty, playful
sayings of earlier scenes seem trivial; love
at its crisis is reduced to the simplest
forms of speech, and there is no drama to
see. little play of expression or OF action.
only two souls at white heat. That is tie
parting scene.
In a woman of the particular tempera-
ment which Miss Adams has presented as
that Of Juliet, any overriding of emotion
at such a time would be the most unnat-
ural thing possible. OF course there are
tropical creatures who express their love
and their grief as inevitably and as nat
urally as a bird sings; but that is not
the conception of this actress. And when
it is remembered that Juliet was not a
peasant, not an unschooled. unrestrained
child of the people, but the daughter of
noble house, in which such a love as hers
would be considered deadly sin, certain
ly a lowering of her own dignity, it seems
natural to suppose that the love which
sprang from her 'only hate would be
slightly different from that OF the gypsy
girl who loves at sight, with no tra-
ditions to restrain her and no memories
of a childhood of careful instruction in
the way she should CO. 1t is true that
when the time of new talk" comes, man
kind and womankind revert to the pure
Joy and sorrow of living as naturally as
if conventions never had existed; but it is
also true that the expression of their emo
tions is somewhat influenced, as rule,
by their past lives. Maude Adams ap-
parently believes the young daughter OF
the Capulets to have been one of those
wayward, impulsive, gentle. and gay
young creatures who. while they generally
have their own way. are in the main do
Gle and easy to be entreated until the
power OF great emotion comes and
sweeps them away from all their previous
ideas. She shows us a maiden who, with
a shy refinement of thought, has hardly
dreamed OF love till 1t came and who must
forge on the instant words and phrases
to express the feeling which clamors for
utterance How should such being know
by instinct that when a wife is parting
from her husband she must behave thus
and so? Her mother probably never, in
her sight, gave a more ardent welcome TO
her husband than decorous kiss and
moderate embrace. and, besides, her
mother never did such an unwise thing
as TO marry a man in secret and meet
him in secret. and brave nameless perils
to be reunited TO him. The grief of this
half-bewildered child in the first great cri-
sis of her happy, sheltered life. when she,
who has always been guarded and cared
for, stands absolutely alone in the world,
has a pathos which is its most striking
characteristic Apparently acting on this
theory, Miss Adams makes the parting
pathetic above all things: there is no
striving for effect, there is only the touch
ing helplessness and bravery of the girl,
the half-hopeless passion of the boy.
1t might possibly be said of this new
rendering of one of the most famous and
difficult roles in the history of the drama.
that in it the character of Juliet is trans
ferrcd from the individual to the univer-
col
roine is that Of a passionate, impulsive,
unconventional and rather daring girl,
who falls in love at first sight because it
is her nature TO do so, and willfully per-
sists in following the laws of her own
nature at whatever cost to herself. But
this new Interpretation makes her rather
the usual girl. If she had not met Romeo
one can imagine the Juliet portrayed by
Maude Adams, quietly yielding to the fate
marked out for her, waking perhaps with
bitter sorrow to the disillusions of life.
but developing into patient. gentle little
saint or a quite ordinary woman. But she
has met Romeo and loved him, and is
hurried on by fate stronger than her
self into path which crosses all con-
ventions and calls for desperate eXpe-
dients There are hundreds of girls of
pure instincts and loving hearts in this
and every country, who would act
very much as she did under the circum-
stances. Miss Adams Juliet is the usual
GIRL the circumstances are extraordinary.
and bring out unsuspected strength, he
roism and pathos in her character. That
is ALL
1t is hardly worth while to raise the
question whether this conception OF the
character is Italian or not. Shakespeare
belongs to the world. He created types.
not of particular nationalities, but of hu
man nature. Maude Adams is net Itllian