El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-11-26
ELEANOR pUsE ON THE DRAMA.
Her Vivid Criticisms on Art and Lit
erature.-Says We Should Return
to the Greek Plays in Open Air
Wagner.

The passionate Duse in an interview
published in the Contemporary Review
says:
To save the theatre. the theatre must
he DESTROYED the actors and actresses
must all die of the plague They
poison the air. they make air impossi-
BILE. IL is not drama that they play.
but pieces for the theatre. We should
return to the Greeks. play in the open
air: the drama dies of stalls and boxes
and evening dress. and people who
come to digest their dinner. Since
Shakespeare and the Greeks there has
been no great dramatist. and these
gathered up in themselves the whole
of their contemporaries. When we say
Shakespeare we mean all the Eliza
bethan drama. Isben? Isben is ike
this room where wea re sitting. with
all the tables and chairs. Do / care
whether you have 90 or % links on
vour chain? Hedda Gabler. Nor and
the rest-it is not that I want! I want
Rome and Coliseum. the Acropolis.
Athens: 7 want beauty. and the flame
of fire. Maeterlinck? I adore Maeter-
IincF. Maeterlinck is a flower. But
he only gives me figures in mist Yes
as YOU say children and spirits
7 have tried. I have failed. / am
condemned to play Sardou and Pinero-
Some day another woman will come
Young beautiful. a being all OF fre
and fame. and will do what / have
dreamed: yes I am sure Of 1t. 1t will
come: but / am tired. at my age. L
cannot begin over agin- All. my dear
friend Ito Dolmtsch) how happy you
are here Where are those boards up
there? You have had them for IL
years. yOu say. and they are ripeninS
to be made into instruments: they are
only boards now. one day they Will
sing. MY head is full of old boards
like that
Rosetti is like a perverse young man
who has been nicely brought up: he
does not give himself up to it. he Is
only half himself. Look at Watts
portraint: the fine mad eyes. and then
the weak and heavy chin The eyes
desire some feverish thing. but the
mouth and chin hesitate in pursuit All
Rossett is in that story of the manu-
script buried in his wife's coffni. He
cold do it. he could repent of it: but
he should have gone and taken 1t back
himself: he sent his friends. Rossetti 4
Italian verse. how can 1 give you an
idea of il? Suppose a blind man. and
one puts before him a bouquet of flow
ers and he smells it and says: This
is jasmine. and this is rose. bue ne
says it like one who does not know
flowers.
At Athens. in the museum. there is
the mask of a tragic actress: the pas
sion of sorrow seen for a moment on
the face of a woman on the stage. Is
engraved into it, like a seal. In Rome
quite lately. they have found bronze
head. which has laid under water for
centuries: the features are almost ef-
faced but II Is beautiful. as IL yelled.
the water has passed over IL like a
caress-
O have known Wagner in Venice. /
have been in Baieruth. and / saw in
Wagner what I feel in his music.
touch of something a little conscious
in his supremacy. Wagner said to him
self: 81 will do what | want to do
will force the world to accept me: and
he succeeded. but not in making us for
get his intention. The music. after all.
never quite abandons itself. Is never
quite without self conscience: 1T Is
tremendous sensuality. not he I'M
consciousness of passion When Beet
hoyen writes music he forgets both
himself and the world. is conscious on
" of joy or sorrow. or the mood that
has taken him for its voice
Do you remember what Flaubert-
that little priest. said of Shakespeare
IF had met Shakespeare on the stairs
7 should have tainted" The people
would like to- have met are Shakes |
peare and Valesuuez-
Could I live without the stage? You
should not have said that / have |
passed three years without acting
aet because I would rather do other |
things If I had my will l would live |
in ship on the sea. and never come |
nearer to humanity than that