Evening star., 1901-05-18


these musical comedies have been phenom-
email and the profits enormous, and today
Days Theater in London is undoubtedly
the most popular one in that great city,
made so by the production of these musical
pieces, and, with few exceptions, they have
all repeated their European success in this
country.
The decadence of comic opera can be ac-
counted for, first, by absence of Hbrettlsts
and composers, as the recent works that
have been turned out are not to be COM
pared with such operas as The Beggar
Student THE Black HuSsar, The
Chimes of Normandy" 'The Mikado,' and
numerous others of the earlier successes.
Mr.. Savage recently tried scheme where
he catered to the clientele of the Metropoii-
tan Opera House with a repertoire OF these
standard operas, and although he presented
them in splendid style. the public would
have none of it. and it failed, they wanting
the novelties which are combined in the
musical comedies of today.
George Edwardes, who is practically In
control of these musical comedies in Lon
don, has an option on the works of the
principal English writer's, and his idea and
scheme for these pieces certainty is a noVei
one. They are generally written by hNe
or six different people For instance, he
has one man retained for the book, Two
or three for the main part of the score, an
other for the popular music, and IN TINS
way he gets a popular blending of the work
of all of these people. Such thing as
failure of one of these musical pieces with
him is almost an unknown thing, as after
producing a piece and finding some OF 1t
does not meet with popular approval, ne
Immediately throws that part away, keep
ing only what pleaseS his audiences ana
putting in new stuff at once. This is un-
doubtedly a very happy idea and one that
could be worked out with great success In
this country, We're it not for the fact that
there seems to exist quite little Jealousy
between composers. and it would be very
hard proposition to get three or Tour OF
our composers who would work In har-
mony. as do these English writers, who put
these pieces together
'eWhen I was a young man." said J. c.
Duff the other day. II went to the stock
market and by the advice of experienced
broker made several very profitable deals,
so that my balance at my bankers was
considerably on the right side of the ledger.
1 was so elated with my success that L
went to Augustin Daily, who was my
brother-in-law and tried to persuade him
to give up his theatrical business and go
into Wall street. I told him he was vast
ing his time and energy in worrying over
theatrical ventures when he might make a
competence on the street in a brief space
of time. L pointed out my own success, and
begged him to drop the whole dramatic
business and go into stockbroking. 1t was
at one of the periods when he had met with
a reverse and was trying to pull himself to-
gether. and 1 pleaded with him very hard,
speaking of the fickleneSs of the public
and all that l couldn't make any impress
sion on him, however, and the only thing
he said was: Jim. Id better stick to my
last like the shoemaker. / know this busi-
in the end 1 went out west to develop
some mining properties, and in less than
year was wiped out. think 1t was for
tunate thing that this happened to me
hnr / mo for antrnf
lesson that l never forgot. 1 have never
tempted the stock market since. [ went
into the theatrical business, and believe L
have learned 1t thoroughly. L have had
many suggestions from managers whom l
know as to tips upon stocks which were
liable to increase in value, and during the
recent excitement I was urged to take "a
flyer but L have religiously kept away
from the ticker and contented myself with
the legitimate results of my theatrical in
VeStm mentS.'
-E
OF the shylocks Of history the first known
was Thomas Dogget, who was the come
dian of a troupe of players, and who first
appeared in 'The Merchant of Venice"
with the title changed to the Jew of Ven
ice" in 1901. THE Jew of Venice was but
a mangled version of Shakespeare's great
work, but 1t held the stage for more than
a generation. Thomas Dogget is not re-
membered so much for his Shylock, but for
a generous bequest in his will which left
provisions for a race on the River Thames
every year on the 1st of August, open to
the watermen of London. This race is held
even now on the date mentioned and the
winner is given an orange-colored livery
with a badge representing liberty. The
color of the livery and the date celebrate
the accession of george to the throne, and
indicates the strong political proclivities of
the whig actor. The next Shylock was
Charles Macklin, who had won his great
est praise as a comedian but determined to
play Shylock in serious way. The date
of his first appearance in the part was Feb
ruary "A, 1741, and the theater the Drury
Lane of London. He made an immediate
and pronounced success. On January 10,
1888, when Macklin was eighty-nine years
of age, he appeared as Shylock, and with
the old-tine spirit went through the first
act but began to stumble and become con-
fused in the second. He managed to strug-
gle through the play. Macklin lived to be
ninety y-seven years old Thirteen years
after Macklin drew the proper Shylock
came Sheridan, whose associate was Peg
Wellington Portia. Then follows a long
line of minor players, coming up to John
kemble, who played the part opposite to
the Portia Of his sister, Miss E. Kemble
Shylock was probably played first in this
country by Malone, September g. 1852, at
Williamsburg. Va, who was also the first
Lear of the American stage HaIlam
played the part later in Philadelphia, his
rival being John Henry who had the honor
of being the object of admiration of no
less a person than George Washington.
Another Shylock Of the early days was Mr.
Chalmers. who, with Cooper, FenneI, Hip
worth and Giles Leonard Barrett. kept
Shylock on the stage until the days of
Kean and Booth. In 1903 George Frederick
Cooke played the part, and with signal sue
cess. He was an eccentric genius, who was
often in his cups, and whne in that condi-
ton did many odd things. In 1914 we come
to the first of the great latter-day Shylocks
Edmund kean. He made a most trenen-
dous triumph. Then we come to Macready
who, strangely enough. recorded in his
diary that he was another failure in the
part. Later he acknowledged to himself
that he did very fairly. but it Is evident
that he was never satisfied with his own
impersonation. Passing over Samuel Phelps.
we come to Charles Kean, whose Shylock
seemed to have great impress on the
English-speaking stage Edwin Booth
played it with success and chose it for his
first appearance in London. His father
Junius Brutus Booth. played ShyIock in
1851, and James w. Wallack essayed Shv-
lock seven years later. 1t Is interesting to
note that the Bassanio of that production
was Lester Wallack. Edwin Forrest was
but an Indifferent Shylock. SO we are told.
and perhaps these who have also played
the na ri who should be meutiondA xrara n