The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-05
IRVING In SARDOU'S DANTE. !"
THE TNDRAMATIC MESS THAT
INTERESTS LONDON.
A MudGiled Story with a Kaleidoscope
Variety OF Stage Pictures Henry's
old Mannerisns stu COnspicuOUs--A
Bright New Play for william Gillette
Z -Svlcccss OG sS'The Light That Fahled.O


old Mannerisms stu COnspicuOlls--A
Bright New Play for william Gillette
I Success Of 1.-THE Light That Failed"
II does not tax the imagination greatly
10 conjure up vision of victorien Sardou
at Marty summoning to him the devoted
Moreau and saying: "Voyons, mon cher!
Henri Irving, the Englishman. you know
the man who bought my Robespierre'
All how glad am Paris has not yet seen it
wishes a new play, long one In it he
must have part that will exhibit him at
all points; he must be Matthias and Bene-
dick, Hamlet and Macbeth, a Beckett and
DON Quirots, Mephistopheles and, and
Robespierre. Every trick Of feature, ges-
ture, intonation must we put into this new
play. which will sum up as in magic mirror
the complete professional career of Henri
He is no longer young, no longer spry, and
he would make money--enHn, mon cher
Moreau, what have we in our desk?'
Then the faithful collaboration searches.
Sardou has been a busy man, much may
he expected in the way of sketches, frag-
ments, hints, suggestions, memoranda.
Perhaps a play on the theme of Cromwell
bah! that egotistic Victor Hugo did some
thing OF the kind, didn't he? Anyhow, an
ecclesiastic ia wanted Would I.uther--3
No. Sir Henri is not stout enough
Pascal, Chaucer, Richard Mansfield, George
Washington-the Delaware episode would
be immense Buddha, Mahomet, Bouanger.
Bismarck. even Disraeli, or say Swift?
Dante! cries Morean trinmphantly. The
profile. the fatal profile! Here is a pattern
that will fit Irving like paper on the theatre
wall So the fires are lighted, the machinery
whizzes and in due course of time Sir Henri
gets his play, an extraordinary connection,
ranging in form from the Eddas to Christ
mas pantomime. dante" might be called
a bad historical melodrama. though it is
much more than that.
Knowing his public, also knowing that
Paris would flout and scout such an amor
phous, undramatic mess, Sardou issued
a pronunc,dmento that his was not the his
torical Dante, nor yet theatrical Dante;
but -the moral Dante AS press agents
catch word, -the moral Dante" ia good,
very good. The phrase baited for the
English market has been eagerly swallowed
Drury Lane is nightly thronged. Special
matinees are given, and country curates,
in company with maiden aunts, may be seen
at every performance. The play is
pulpit theme. Articles appear in reviews
and Constant Reader" writes to editors
on debatable points. No wonderl Never
on sea and land has such a muddled
story been enacted before the footlights.
1t has good points, however. You can go
in early. go in late, leave at the beginning
OF an act or vanish at the end. and you will
know as much as the man who CLUES him
self in his stall four weary hours. There
is food in Sardou's Dante" for every
manner Of mental appetite-except for
the unfortunate who bankers after logic,
relevancy, proportion and characterize
ton. There are tableaux for the feeble
minded, who, like the poor, are with us
always in the theatre; there are vague
passages executed in semi-darkness, vague
phrases murmured and mumbled--for Sir
Henry is on the stage nearly all the time
near stained glass windows, with swords
and muff1ed oaths, hell fire and hate lurking
In the gloom: for the mystically disposed
there are pictures and Irvingesque poses,
very effective, in which the great Florentine
exile gazes simply at his daughter, or else
stares at the moon, and there is Just enough
of history mingled in the Yeast TO make
the heavy theatrical dough swell-it never
really rises.
ASH grasped at clue after clue only TO see
II evaporate, I felt like the traveller in
South America who crosses precipi-
tous ravine on a rope bridge. Some
times he gets over and sometimes the rope
parts and he clings to any saving strand.
A dozen times you feel this sagging of the
solid earth and wonder how deep will be
the drop. When the curtains close there
Is a sigh of relief all over the house. At
least 30 much is over.
There are, nevertheless, some psycho-
logical episodes of genuine beauty: the
first meeting of Dante with PiG del Tolomei,
by whom the austere poet had an ilegitimate
daughter Some naive persons have been
shocked at Sardous exhumation of this
scandal in the life Of a good man; but Dante
Is so far away from us that We hear of mis-
tress and the daughter with the same in
difference we read Of Cain and Abel. 1t
must be acknowledged that this interview
early in the prologue is Of a certain charm.
The poet ia passion steeped He gazes
longingly into Pid's eyes-for so venerable
an appearing mamie grasps her and speaks
of their daughter, of Comma, now years
old and hower-like, who has never seen her
father, does not even know that Dante
Ia that father. Irving's acting at this
juncture is exquisite in it's tenderness.
"Oh, tell me tell me-tel me-. he begs
Of Pa when she mentions Gemmn's name
Beatrice is spoken of as one speaks Of Gods
saints. Beatrice dwels too near God
not to be merciful," whispers the poet
And again "what shall befall me in the days
Of spring, since in this time Of frost love 30
consumes me?" This is the best line in the
play, for it ia a quotation from the real
Dante.
Sardou, determined to fit the English
actor with the cloth he demanded, shows
us, in a series Of disconnected tahleauX.
Dante as patriot. as lover, as father. as
warrior, as poet, as rescuer Of beauty in
distress, as scorner Of pOpes, as arraigner
of crimes, spiritual and temporal. "a fore
runner of John Martin Luther. Indeed
were one disposed at all to ribaldry the
title of the play might suggest itself in this
form: "Dante's Profile; or First Aid to the
Injured"
In a scene instinct with pictorial beauty