The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-16
AN ACTRESSREADS
BOOKS CARRIED BY MISS MARLOwE
On HER JOURNEYS.
History, Poetry, Fiction, Bibles, Pray
er Books, Dictionaries and George
AIDES Book of Fables.


OF a single season the amounts tor excess
baggage which Julia Marlowe does, it is
pretty nearly a certainty that she will not
carry 200 or 600 books around the country
for the sake OF producing an effect. There
fore a glimpse at the volumes which are
unpacked by Miss Marlowe's maids every
time she settles her apartments for a week
or a months engagement, is bound to af-
ford an interesting side light on her char
acter and taste.
The books which are Miss Marlowe's con-
slant companions en- tour would make
rather remarkable reading even for a per-
son of leisure and literary occupations.
They are the more so when one remembers
that they are the choice of a busy actress.
Commenting on this point, Miss Marlowe
said:
Il don't want to appear as a precieuse,
nor do 1 like 10 be considered so classical
as that collection would indicate, but dur
ing the season 1 have so little time to my
self that If / read anything worth while
it must be solid reading exclusively"
In the case of a woman who has contrib
uted so much TO the Interpretation of po-
etic drama, one naturally looks first TO dis
cover her likings in the domain of poetry.
On the first shelf is everything of Robert
Browning's, a poet for whom Miss Mar
lowe has an especial admiration. How
great an earnest she gave of this feeling is
indicated by the fact that she is one of
they very few players who have ever dared
TO give Browning's dramatic poetry ex-
preston on the stage, her production of
his play, "Colombe's Birthday" being one
of the really notable events in stage history
OF the past half dozen years. Next to
Browning stands a portly volume of Walt
Whitman In a limited edition and bearing a
greeting from Whitman TO Miss Marlowe
in his W hand. Near by are the COM
plete works of Whitman's bitterest critic,
Charles Algernon Swinburne, and next to
that impassioned writer is a complete edi-
ton of the gentle Keats
Somebody asked Miss Marlowe how she
could possibly get along without a COM
plete edition of Shakespeare with her.
What 1 love best in him is safely treas
ured up in my memory and heart" an
swered Miss Marlowe. "Romeo and
Juliet 'Cymbeline,' Twelfth Night AS
You Like It, and Much Ado About Moth
ing,' all my ~favorite passages in them are
at my instant command, and l really don't
need the printed page before me-
Nevertheless, in the way of Shakespeare
liz RAACS ~1dll Ont IdIIltS WIFI & OH leI
travels a beautifully engrossed little Shak-
speare birthday book, lone in parchment,
Warmers volume, 1.-The People for Whom
shakespeare Wrote" and Swinpurne's "a
study of Shakespeare"
History and criticism of the drama and a
great many plays make UP a goodly pro-
portion OF this moving library. Among such
volumes are Stephen Phillips's 'PaoIa and
Francesca" George Meredith's Essay on
Comedy" Schlegel's History of Dramatic
Art and Literature" Henry Irving's -Four
Lectures on the Drama" Sir Charles Bells
Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as
Connected with the Fine Arts"
OLD CUSTOMS STUDIED.
In connection with her production OF
When Knighthood Was in Flower" and
to indicate what care Miss Marlowe exer-
cises in studying out the history and litera-
tEre of plays she presents. one should men
tion the presence of those stupendous folio
volumes of Friedrich H%ottenroth's '"Trach-
ten der Volker Alter und Neuer Zeit," a
work which reflects very accurately popu-
lar manners, customs and costumes of an
cient and modern times. Miss Marlowe has
10 dig the facts it contains out of the orig
iEal German, and she has made many re-
productions in water color OF its magnifi-
cent colored costume plates. Bearing on the
same line of study are the ponderous VOL
$3.50 0H4 IN
the Middle Ages and Halls The Royal
PrincesSes OF England A quaint volume
which has aided Miss Marlowe greatly in
her study of the life and times of Mary
Tudor bears the imprint '.16S6,- and is
called THE Illustrious Lovers" 1t relates
The adventures of Charles Brandon and
Mary Tudor and was found by MIR. Major
in an old London book store on the shelves
of which the proprietor thought il had been
resting untouched for a hundred and fifty
years. Mr.. Major presented it to Miss Mar
lowe and IL is among her most cherished
possessions.
With a quick jump one gets away from
the field OF drama and romance, for the
very next volume is the monumental work
OF that oxford scholar, Alfred Edersheim,
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah a
subject on which Miss Marlowe has read
deeply.
On the shelf devoted to books on aesthet-
les and moral philosophy We find Spencer's
Data OF Ethics'-a rare first edition-and
John Stuart Mill on Liberty and the Sub
lection of Women" A treasured volume.
which is almost a daily textbook with Miss
Marlowe. is Bosanquet's History of Aes-
thetics.'' Near it are Allison's Principles
of Taste and a liberal representation from
the writings of Matthew Arnold among
them Culture and Anarchy" Friendships
Garland" both series of his Essays and
Criticisms" and his "Discourses in Amer
lea" There are several volumes of Walter
Pater-that Englishman who was a Greek,
born twenty-five centuries too late TO be
really ~happy-notably his Appropriations"
his Essay on Style" his STUDY of the
Renaissance" and his Miscellaneous Stud
ies.' Two volumes of the Essays of
Montaigne" have a prominent place, for
Miss Marlowe shares enthusiastically in
Thackeray's contention that the essays OF
the old Frenchman are the best kind of
book in the world to read oneself to sleep
with.
Turning to works in lighter vein one dis
covers a rare and quaint work by Grace
and Philip Wharton, entitled, The Queens
of Society,"" The delicate prose of Sir Rich
ard Jeffries is generously represented, for
one comes upon four or five dainty little
l5-mo's, in lowered covers, containing his
Hours of Spring" wild Flowers, 1.-THE
Pageant of Summer The Story of Ny
Heart" and MY Autobiography" a very
scarce little volume. Another work that
Miss Marlowe prizes especially for its style
Is Charles Kingsley's THE Heroes, or
Greek Fairy Tales"
In the way of straightaway fiction there
is John Browns "Marjory Fleming" Gill
bert Parker's Seats of the Mighty" Booth
Tarkington's Monsieur Beaucaire.' OF
course, there was a much-read copy of
when Knighthood Was in Flower" and il
by Mr.. Major on his story. There is a copy
OF Charles Frederick Goss's 1.-The Redemp-
ton of David Corson." On the fly leaf the
| author has written this line from the three
hundred and forty-first page of his story:
There is light enough; IL Is eyes we need.
This is the novel which DIR. Hills, the
Brooklyn divine, raved over by telegraph,
wiring to the author this sentence: with
-. - Hnn ~ II hnw-A -.r-t H.