The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-05-21
"ROMEO AND JULIET" PLAYED
WITH RARE SKILL AND FINISH

The ambitious and well-known theat-
rical firm OF Liebler & Co. presented at
the National Theater last night a cast
of extraordinary strength in Shake
speare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet"
preportioned completeness. in the per-
fiction of quiet and expressive real life
harmony. and in the poetical elevation
resulting from all these qualities, the
performance took station with the SUI
preme dramatic events of the year. 1t
is pleasing, therefore, to record that the
occasion assembled one OF the most
of the season, and that it evoked from
such a body every expression OF ap-
prevail and delight
Il custom has grown recently of or
ganizing az the close of the more formal
theatrical engagements cast of super
lative quality for the presentation of
some especially meritorious work. To
such enterprise American playgoers owe
fine enactments of Browning's In Bal
cohy," Sheridan's The Rivals" and
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet" and
OF this short chain the current engage
ment of this excellent company is an
other link. In six weeks the actors are
transported over all the East, their stay
even in the larger cities is limited to
single evening or an afternoon and
evening, and in the brief period for
which they have come together they are
thus enabled to present with advantage
one of the greatest dramatic compost
lions of all time for the edifcation AMI
pleasure OF the widest possible circle Of
their patrons.
A Play Well Chosen.
In this instance the choice of play
has been most feficitous. 1t carries the
mind back to the crowded Italian world
of the sixteenth century, world of
great princes, great captains, great
poets, great artists. splendid power and
culture; an era of brave colors and
fine ceremonies; a day of men who lived
for the full play Of their forces and
faculties, who used life. not to suppress
or curtail its expression, but to evoke,
lures; a community which was yet mold
ed and uplifted by Christening ideals.
The text is redolent with the fancy of
the worlds greatest poet CAno Their great
lover of beauty has said of it: "All that
is most intoxicating in the odors Il
a Southern spring; all that is languish-
ing in the song of the nightingale, or
voluptuous in the first opening OF the
rose, alike breath forth" It's condi-
lions. character. and events abound in
interest, portent and movement. The
play is. in brief. the superlative love
story of all hearts and all tongues.
So, wien ii is remembered that this
romance has suffered singularly from
neglect, its selection for splendid in
yestiture and adequate Interpretation
seems particularly fine. 1t lay a full
century unacted. from the day of Shake
speare's youth TO the restoration of
Charles II. 1t was then presented in an
ill-fitting and fimsy classical garb as
the love story of Caius Marius. son
OF Colly Cibber, whose qualities as a
man of literature were more moderate
even than those OF his father, purged IL
part way in 1744- The great actor Gar
rick still further redeemed it four years
later, but left it filed with interpola-
tions which-if written with a spirit not
unworthy of Shakespeare" as his ad-
nlirers have saId-left II still a torn and
mich spotted fabric 1t has remained
for a modern age TO restore it. and. by
singular misfortune, since being thus re-
stored by Mr. Booth and Mr.. Irving, il
has been much neglected.
Told in Many Tongues.
The prosperity of this story has lain
ia the ears which heard it, Juliet has
been likened 20 the Anthia Of Xenophon
to Hero, and 10 Thisbe. She has even
been traced back 10 ancient Persia But
the basis of Shakespeare drama lies in
he writing Of Luigi da Porto OF Vicenza.
who published in Venice a hundred
years before Shakespeare wrote. "A
Metrical Romance Entitled Romeus and
Juliet; Containing a Rare Example of
TRUE Constance with the Subtitle Coun-
sels and Practices of an Old Fryer and
Their III Event" Even then 1t prob
ally reached the Englishman through a
translation in French by Pietro Boistau,
called The Histories Tragiques," and