The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-30

'NNN'
room. So there are long, long periods
when I write nothing, When do write
it is usually in the evenings.
49,. . During the last year of the three
years." he continued, as we returned to
the drawing room, lin which the man
uscript of my play Les Romanesques
slept in the cardboard boxes of the
French Theater, / began to work on my
play La Prncesse Lointaine. While |
was so engaged, heard that Les Ro-
manesques was to be put on rehearsal,
at which the author has to read his
piece to the cast Having been told
again and more emphatically than ever
that the play was a bad one, ! worked
day and night on the manuscript, and
what / did then | think improved the
piece. | read it to the actors, 1t was
an enormous success. Mile. Reichem-
berg, who played the part of SylVette,
was especially delighted. Indeed. from
first to last, her confidence in the sue
cess of the piece as money producer
never WaVered, which shows, / think,
once more that women have a particu
lar instinct for business superior to
men. For the men at the Coincide
lIlOuSlll lIltl lllc plCIC w ttS plCNppllSNt'
and one of the actors who was chosen to
play leading part had refused his part,
and had sent a comrade to take his
place.
Encouraged by the success of Les
Romanesques, | finished La Princesse
Lointaine.' Indeed on the morrow of
that wonderful first night at the Fran
eaise, | read the first act to Sarah Bern
hardt. / remember that she was just
about to start on one of her tours, and
that as l read my play she was sitting
on a huge trunk in the midst of wild
disorder. 1t was played the following
April, and was a wonderful success on
the first night. I firmly believed 1t
would be a success. But the critics
were not favorable. I had been classed
since Les Romanesques' as a comic au-
thor ticketed as such-for in France ev-
cry man is classed and ticketed. and is
not allowed to play more parts than
one-and it had been expected that La
Princesse Lointaine' would be also in a
velne of humor When the critics found
that it was a poem, mystical to some
extent, they expressed isappointment.
AT that time the press could influence
the public as to my work. I feel very
sure that it could not do SO now. The
public also was disappointed. II was
surprised that the play was not mer-
~ one. Sarcey had written Of me as
modern Regnard, and Regnard critics
and public wished me to remain
throughout the whole Of my career.
The failure Of La Princesse Lointaine'
discouraged me. l felt that | was
doomed to be comic. or not to be recog-
nized at all as a playwright. / revolted
against this tyranny, andsI said to my
self L must set to work to get the
right not to be comic when 1t does not
suit me to be so SO l determined to
write a religious play, and that is how
La Sama.itatne' came to be written.
The press felt, after a while, that it
had been too seyeres and repented to-
ward me and when that fete was or
ganlzed at tie Renaissance in honor of
Sarah Bernardo the high honor was
done me that was chosen among the
FIVE poets who rectted verses in her
p aisa IN the stage.
FANCIED HIMSELF HATED.
The great success OF that sonnet
save me fresh heart For before that
had plunged IN the most sombre melan-
choly. | fancie. myself hated by all
men, the butt Of cry tongue and for
five long months had never left my
room a victim to sheer folie de la per-
secution | wanted nothing only to be
left alone to- my imagined disgrace, to
hear no sounds, to see no faces. Such
fits come upon ms now and again. SO
strong was this madness of mine-in
thinking that everybody despised me
that it was with fear and trembling
that | stepped upon the stage to recite
my sonnet in praise of Sarah. ! was so
astonished to see that nobcdy Kissed me,
that | was not pointed at! ] was more
astonished and delighted than | can we'll
express at the enthusiastic reception
which was awarded to my verse This
cured me of my melancholy, and to give
me stIl more heart came my success
with my verses on behalf of Greece,
which were published i'm the Echo de
Paris After they appeared I became
the hero of the Greek colony here, and
was fe.ed and nattered in way suffi-
eieut to restore all the sclf-conidence
which | had lost. The girls of Athens
sent me a letter, which was signed by
every one of them, and in the letter was
Il violet picked in Athens. You can
hardly believe how pretty it was.
"Then came the success of "La Sal
maritaine. l only allowed it to be
played during Holy week, and though
the prices Of the seats were raised. it
earned, relatively speaking, more mon
ey than even Cyrano' does But what
afforded me the most delight in its sue
cess was that ] had shown the public
and the critics, and had convinced my
self that ! was not forced always to
write comedies
"All this time l had been carrying Cy-
rano de Bergerac in my head. Ever
since | was at school, both as a pupil at
Stanislas college, here in Paris, and
during my three years in my native
town Of Marseilles, where / finished my
career as a schoolboy, / had felt that
there Wag q play to be written on the
life Of Cyrano de Bcrgerac, duellist,
warrior and author. Even before Les
Romanesques' was written had the in
tention of writing a play about him.
But I had no action for the piece. |
thought of him always, and | read all
that has been written about him-Bib-
liophile Jacobs book upon him, No
dier's eulogy, and, of course, every line
of his own works. | filled my head
with historical notes concerning him.