The sun., 1902-12-14

Epilepsy is, a. + lgar Saltus wittily say-
'the only diseas" that ever founded a rellg-
ion" and this holds good from the visionary
Buddha to yesterdays newly hatChed
healer Of woes, physical and spiritual II il
masked or Intermittent epilepsy hgsterid
muscui1ris or its ryschic equivalent, that
often accounts for the creative powers Of
genius and the vagaries of our own Edgar
Allan Poe Even that sanest man Of
genius, Goethe. confessed To Tckermann
that in the moments Of his creative energy
there was something "incommensurable."
something witho t himself that played
upon the keyboard Of his captive spirit.
IA" quoted S)crates and his Do non as an
illustration of his own case.
l. il then TO be- wondered at after Witness
lag Mr.. Mansfield's Brutls that we recog-
niAed in his impersonation many traits Of
an intellect unhnged? The noblest Roman
Of them all il n"tf er a swashbuckler nor
Yet frozen symbol Of classicism. He has
affections. He has passions. He lives and
moves; but the sickly aura Of the mono
maniac envelcps his personality He
stabs Cesar for an idea; the idea Of liberty.
He is the first Anarch--for, as Shaw neatly
points out, Shakespeare created this type Of
the Groniin nearly two centuries before il
stllk"d ominously across tn" map Of Europe
On the stage this subimat.d patriotism is
magnificent; Ne We must not lose sight Of
its beginnings; and Shakespeare takes care
that we do not. From the first seeds Il
revolt sewn by the shallow, ambitious Cas-
sius, TO the dagger thrust in the Capitol the
mental operations Of Brutus are exposed
in masterly manner. To carry within
him the germs of unacy man need not
rave, need not rend passion To rags Tho
mania Of melancholy, the madness of one
who hears interior voices telling him to FREQ
his country, aro not Expressed violently
Such as ara thus afflicted are reserved eau
tious, move as in hypnotic slumbcr, and
after the tragic act retire to their gloomy
dreams, satisfied. spent. Brutus practi-
cally confoSses that his hour has struck
that life henccforward is blank interim
II Mr.. Mansfield did not model his per-
formance on this hypothcsis-and he openly
declares that he did not--then betwoen the
intention of his own preconceived idea
/ and its execution hiatus has occurred
He told Mr J. |. c. Clarke in recent inter-
vio'v that his notion was the classic one
ct ceter1 II does not thus appear before the
:outIgnts, and this again demo nat rat es that
an artist Is not always his own best critic
Mr. Mansfield declares that a criticism
| is after all, only one mans opinion; to
| which might he retorted that an actors
| Interpretation is, in the last analysis, only
| one mans conception Of role All this is
| wildly misleading. Criticism il ever per-
sonal; il does not pretend to voice popular
| opinion heaven help II if it did! And il
need not agree with contemporary criticism
| to return it's value. The lest OF criticism
| il subjective, is impressionistic. II is
, never final; there never was and never will
, bc an ultimate tribunal of criticism in this
| heeting world Of change, where everything
| from ethics to politics and what a chasm
| divides them'-is relative. where the one
| thing permanent Is impcrmanency. We
may put forth our view Of the Mansfeldian
Brutus Of course, he will not agree with us.
for to feS artists is given the divine
privilege Of seeing their performance OBJ
jectivey. And so the merry war begun
irons before Aristotle will continue tin
Gabriel blows his final trump and then the
Henderson Of that remote rerod will shake
of his corements and cry aloud the last
criticism by the last man-"Thou hast