The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-02-12
!ore beautlful than any Of US Is penmItted

! that the authors have given vs. nothing Dut
| the plain fucts of two very humble and
realistic souls Well and good but what
/ Is it, them that brings forth those nightly
I tributaries To the brine that puddle5 the
! floor Of the playhouseY 1t can only be that
/ the pathos In the lives Of these dreary cock
neys sets us all swimming in the salt river
Of our own defeated aspirations.
This character of Amanda il by no means
/ new to literature Miss Wlldnshas shown
| it In one Of her stories, The scene is in a
/ New England poorhouse. All but one
OF the women there embellish the barren
present with reoountng memories Of their
afiiuence Of former days-tales Of the az
lection Of husbands and parents, Of the
glories Of their own Kitchens and their own
| tables. one Of them has long been silent
| In these recitals But at last she unbosoms
; herself of tales that throw all the rest into
/ the shade Little by little one gathers that
! they are all "A matter of whole cloth. She
was In fact, like Amanda. born in the poor
house and like her had never tasted any Of
| the common lot of happiness. And 80
she dreamed and lied.
Hauptmanns Hdnneie is a more gloriiied
Amanda She Is IA child who has been
: driven 10 hulClue ny lnc bEuldlIlS VI Il bt'P-
father The play shows her on her death
bed in the squalor Of the poorhouse. and
the drdmdtis persona are mingling OF the
other inmates there and the persons of a
religious vision conjured up by the fever
in which she is dying Here there Is moth
ing. writes william Archer. but an er-
quisite study in child psychology. - We
see through and through her poor shallow
little soul q" -" She is pious. She believes
that the Lord Jesus will put her prosecutors
70 shame and will receive her into heaven
teeming with all the delights denied her on
earth" As Amanda il a universal type OF
pathetically human love sublimed so Han
neie Is the type of the pathetically human
rellgion-each with the amiahle folbles,
the petty weaknesses that somehow i'm
measurably broaden and deepen the human
appeal. In America we are not yet ready
for Hannele" Mr.. Charles Henry Meltzer
tried the experiment years ago. and en-
countered the wrath Of the unco' pious
But It is a far greater. tenderer more poeti-
cally divining presentation Of the Amanda
type than this OF Messrs. Fem and Bryce.
Miss Maude Adams plays the one part 40
well as 10 make It infinitely to be regretted
| ttlht sne IL not 10 plhl lAo oNuci' iiSi
make-up is absolute and uncompromising,
with its club Of tight drawn hair and its
dowdy. scant gown; and her face and car
riage-peaked, wistful. timorous-is a
triumph OF mimetic art II is somewhat
the fashion. nowadays, TO sniff at Miss
! Adams as an artist Hers is the fate OF all
who are very popular superior people
! snub Some color is given 20 demurrance,
! no doubt by her sidesteps as Juliet and her
threat TO play Rosdhrd She has neither
the beauty OF plastique nor the poetry OF
/ ina ginaton for either part. Even a. the
pretty sister of jose she reduced the verye
and the passion OF Spain Ia cheap, false.
| impossible Spain, to be sure), 10 the vivaoity
OF New Jersey suburb, But the fact re-
mains that in the portrayal of quaint and
sprighty character, virginia. charm and
| pathos, she is the rarest most authentic
and most poignant OF artists Even those
of us who pretend we understand the table
Of logarithms do i'll to forget that it is
the multiplication table which regulates
the most momentous affairs Of this great
world
Mr.. Arthur Byron's Horace GreensUih Is
almost equally able and convincing The
dull honesty, the rough swagger OF the
coster buck could not have been better
denoted. And the final moment of tender,
| II dim and clumsy comprehension, was
very convincingly realized
! Mr. Willard has had plenty 10 think about
Of late. with the fat failure OF Lucky Dur
! ham" and the comparative triumph Of The
Brighter Side" Whether he rightly valued
the better play, do not know; but. accord
] ba q
well aware as any one of the cheapness
and emptiness OF the play with which he
chose to open his American season. He
had refused it in manuscript 1t Is said.
and finally bought it only because II proved
successful with the benighted provincial
public of Liverpool. Rumor has 1t also
that Sir Henry Irving agreed with him in
his final estimate of the commercial value
Of the piece. Both managers must have
dreamed that the Grass glorihcation OF
an American millionaire would blind our
public To the shallowness Of the drama
1t is not an engaging figure that either
Of these good actors cuts in the matter
Washington Irving somewhere gently
satlrz a7 a turtle fed alderman Of London
who sinacked his lips over a charity broth
and exclaimed Excellent soup for poor
! reoplel- The turtle fed purVeyor OF dfa
matte broth is now revealed in a similarly
superior attitude-with the additional de
spite that he is. if not hoist by his owr
petard. at least immersed in his own soup.
How little Mr. Wizards public deserved
his slightly supercilous patronage war
evident last Monday Alfred Capus is
not the man TO please the intellectual paupei
and particularly in LA Chatelaine, which
Mr. Willard calls The Brighter Side.
For the situations of conventional dram,
he does not particularly care, though h'
is a good craftsman. He knows nothinl
Of the heart interest vain idol to a tru
god which managers are accustomed 4
regard az indispensable His instincts ar
, those Of conscious refinement and eclecti
culture Witty and gay-even cynica
at times. az Partisan man Of the worl'
is permitted to behe is always sane an
cheerful with that rare and very Call
talent for making the mean Of life. whc
> most of VIZ make so gray, a true Ovidiai
gold.
( And how did the audieuce take him
2 the audience that had hoodooed Luck,