New-York tribune., 1903-01-23
LONDON NOTES.
Gossip about Plays, 4mtho,-s, 4ctors
and Pictures.

are foreign dramas. Sir Henry Irving viii pro
duce Sardou's Dante" at Drury Lane Mr.. Tree
VIII present Tolstoy's Resurrection His
Majesty's, Miss Terry is credited with pref
erence for Ibseh's Vikings" in a series of per-
formances at West End theatre, Sir Charles
wyndham is considering the adaptability Of NJ.
Alfred Capus's Ia Chatelaine' to London audi
ences, and MIR. George Alexander has Forster's
Ait Heidelberg" in his writing desk. The lead
ing actors and managers seem to be looking
abroad for dramatic work, and Mr. Barrie. With
two plays drawing crowded houses-''The Ad-
Inirable Crichton'' and Quality Street'-is the
chief representative Of British authorship, Mr..
Pinero remaining silent. Mr.. Henry Arthur Jones
having failed to please audiences in Chance the
IDOL and Mr.. Esmond's My Lady Virtue
having been withdrawn after moderate run.
The balance has been heavily the British
Anglo-Arnerican side during the last twelve
months Mr.. Phnlips's Ulysses" and "Paolo and
Francesca Mice and Men, Mr. Justin Huntly
McCarthy's IF I Were King the Lyceum
Sherlock Holmes" and Mr.. Barrie's two plays
being among the conspicuous dramatic successes
in London. The foreign playwrights TO be
preferred this year, unless the unexpected hap
pens and the Poet Laureate achieves prom
inent success IN ''F1odden Field" which has
been written for a West End theatre
The Poet Laureate has a perverse talent for
saying the wrong thing at inopportune mo-
1nent about Dante. Not long ago he intervened
al the close Of a brilliant paper by Mr.. Craigie
Oh Botticeln and Dante. and made the COM
Inonplace comment that what rendered Dante
eternelly interesting was the love affair. He
has now forestalled the production Of N. Sar-
dou's Dante" by Sir Henry Irving at Drury
Lane with q deIogatory notice, in which disap-
proval and condemnation expressed before
the play has been enacted a single line Of
the text has been published. His protest, more
ever. appeared on the day when the acceptance
OF his own drama in blank verse an
1louuced. and exposed him to the reproach Of
attacking fellow dramatist. The Poet Laure-
ate cannot be expected rival Lord Tennyson
in lyrical qualities. but since he is a court
functionary. he ought not to be guilty of bad
form and breaches of literary decorum and
good taste. He would bitterly resent structures
by any dramatist. French or English, upon
'Flodden Field in advance Of its production,
and N. Sardou and NJ. Moreau who are the
joint authors of Dante" have Just cause for
complaint
The play which Sir Henry Irving is TO pro-
duce at Drlry Lane is te include two love af-
fairs directly or Indirectly based upon Dantes
writings One motive is the terrible punish
rnent Of Madonna Pia. the suspected wife ef
Telle della Pietra. who imprisoned her in q
castle until she died in silence and solitude from
the pestflential breath Of the marshes of Ra-
OF Beatrices lover and girlsh friend. After
Beatrice's death Dante fell in love with her in
innate friend, and was loved in return 1t
promises to be q sombre but poetic drama, with
splendid spectacular effects. Rayenna and the
old Papal palace at Avignon are to be portrayed
with picturesque realism and there will be a
vivid representation Of he'll as Dante himself
imagined il and as DoTe Illustrated it with
weird power. Contradictory statements are
4 AebTvaIrS
ance in this play but hope that it is that
she viii ultimately consent to enact the two
small parts which the dramatists have provided
for actresses. The partnership between Sir
Henry Irving and Miss Terry having been dis
solved for mutual benefit, Miss Ashwen is per
haps the best substitute to be found the
English stage for that accomplished actress
She has emotional power and charm Of per
sonality. and has ambition for great work on
the stage.
At The private view OF the Winter Exhibition
cf the Royal Academy the first two rooms de-
voted to masterpieces Of English landscape
painting were the chief attraction l asked two
of the best known landscape painters Of the
Academy which the best work on the walls.
II was not easy choice, for there were Con-
stables, Turner'S. Gainsboroughs, Cromes. Cot
mans, -Boningtons, Nasmyths, wilson's and De
Wints IN close companionsIip and rivalling one
another in glory. In each instance there was
en- immediate response: Wilson's Lake Scene"
one Of the AcadeGnicians added that there was
only one picture in either room which was good
enough TO hang beside it. This Peter de
Wint's landscape, owned by Miss II. H Tatlock,
with outlook along wooded hill upon
corndeId, with reapers. and a distant view Of
. broad plain pierced by river. Richard Will
sons picture owned by Mr.. J. Arthur Levy,
was an Italian landscape, with a gray ruin on
one side and three figures path in the
foreground. and view across lake Of a wide
plain and distant hills The siivery sheen Of |
1he lake in the centre reflected the glory Of
light which filled air and sky to the Outermost
hills This picture was a revelation Of the art
q flooding q canvas with light; and as much
could be said of Peter de Wint's landscape
The two Academicians had selected the master
pieces. although TWO of Constabe's lock pictures
and "Harlech." one Of the best of the early
Tuners. were on the walls, and the judgment
Of the most accomplished and painstaking art
critics was in accord with theirs.
Richard Wilson died in 1872, when Turner
the London hairdressers son. boy Of /
seven. and Constable was a lad of six, jumping
over the stiles and scampering down the country
lanes Of East Berghot in Suffolk. clergy
mans son. he disclosed early in life signs Of
talent as a portrait painter and, going to Italy,
was inspired by the luminous skies and began to
paint classical landscapes. His genius for COM
position and his sense of color and atmosphere
were fully recognized by French and ltallan ar
lists who were striving TO rival the poetic mas
terpieces Of Claude Lorraine and acknowledged
that he could succeed where they themselves
failed: but when he returned TO England In
I755 in the maturity of his powers, it was to