The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-18

King Robert is robustly carnal, fiendishly
cruel and awfully blasphemous at the out
set. He defies God and challenges Him to
a competitive test of power. Thereupon a
statue OF an archangel steps out alive from
a niche in church and pronounces doom
of torturing degradation. For that purpose
miracle is wrought. The proud prince
is transformed from comeliness of person
and richness of raiment 70 the exact coun-
terpart of his hunchbacked and ugly-faced
court jester, and in that semblance his as
sertions of royalty are received with kicks.
cuffs and still harsher tokens Of contumely
This change from a man as presentable as
Jekyll TO one as hideous as Hyde is wrought
with the best of mechanical stagecraft.
storm of wind. thunder and lightning begins
when the archangel comes TO life, and 1t
rises to tremendous fury. i have never seen
a closer imitation OF nature in CONFUSION
While the elements rage with binding and
deafening phenomena the prince falls to the
ground in terror, and when the storm ceases
we see that he has become counterpart
of the malformed and horrifying jester,
who has fed from his wrath into the forest.
The matinee girls won't dote Sothern
during his metamorphosis, which lasts till
the end OF the play, when he expatiates his
crimes by trying to die at the stake in the
place of the beloved maiden and is restored
to his former personality and the throne.
But we who take account of his acting will
admire it,. even when it is measured by
Edwin Booths well-remembered art in 1.-The
FOOLS Revenge" This severe test is easy
to apply, because the testers feint of jolity
TO cover the escape of girl from a royal
debauchee is essentially the same in both
dramas.
Necessarily Mr.. Mccarthy has added
much to the legend which Longfellow
| rhymed to provide enough material for a
full-length drama. The playwright has
gone to the stage for suggestions. The
trick Of the DIR. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde
change in the dim view of the audience the
frenzed antics of the jester in THE
FOOLS Revenge" and the splendidly-couched
siren, as in Cleopatra are but three
among many unoriginal inspirations that
| include the Turing away of the heroine
with lutte. as in THE Pied Piper of Ham,
lin." and things in Nero" Quo Vadis
and many another play of the early Chris
tan age. But the assembly of these ideas
is dextrous. and the writing is good litera-
let gossip extraneously. Mccarthy was
once and awhile the husband of Cecilia
LOTUS. who impersonated the heroine in
his IF I Were King, and is now again
with Southern in 1.-The Proud Prince"
They were divorced years ago. yet he is
said to have written his latest heroine to
suit her limit of ability. 1t is this fitted
to-measure role which enables Cissy, as
she called herself in vaudeville. to be de-
lightfully satisfactory for the first time as
| a dramatic actress. In the variety shows
she may never have received $1,000 week.
| as was asserted, but don't doubt she was
| paid half that salary, as mimics of her
| skill are scarce. Professionally ambitious
| was Cissy, however, and stubbornly per-
| sistent though changefully erratic in some
| other respects. and she took an engagement
with Southern at no more, probably, than
| $780, which even her present success in the
| legitimate portrayal of a character will
| hardly raise to $780, She is being rewarded
| with admiration, so white. gentle and loving
does she make the Christian maiden. When
she declares that the only men she has
| ever are her father, the deformed
| jester and some monks. you are ready to
| believe that she is telling the truth about
| Cissy well as Perpetua.
Mr.. Mansfield padded his own theatrical
| craft from the time when it was no more
| than a canoe with prince Karl until it
was bSilt up to a big and proud
| Shakspearean ship. He is as bold as
| Sothern, or holder In spite of the fact
| that "Old Heidelberg failed here fatty last
| winter in an English adaptation, which
presumably put it into shape most favor
| able to New York success. he has taken up
the seemingly ruined German drama by
| William Meyer-Foster and risked his an
nual Broadway engagement on a literal
translation of ii. 1t was by first believing
| in himself that he led the public to believe
| in him as a dramatic artist. Often he had
| disappointed expectation; indeed, he always
does in Shakspearean roles; but he never
| fails in the delineation of living and NOV
| ing human beings whose motives and acts
are of to-day. The principal person in
| the play he is now using is petty German
| prince, born to a throne and restrictivey
| reared to occupy it becomingly, unhap-
Ply prisoner of state. and knowing naught