New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-16
THE DRAMA.
NINE. BERNEARDT AT THE LYRIC.
Fedora"

Sardous 'Fedora,"-in which Nine Bernhardt
for whom the play written. has several times
before the New-York audience, impersonated tne
heroine-a story of intrigue is told with adlliaD!7
skill and with cumulative dramatic erect Inns
play was given last night and it will be repeateo
next Saturday afternoon Nine Bernhardt as
Fedora, appears at her best; for the Russian Spy
is woman of formidable character, resolute rnihu
inveterate will and fierce temper, and her employ
ment In the drama is that of revenge. These conu-
tons consort well with the style of this actress
Fedora must lure into fatal trap man WHOM
she would destroy and then must suddenly discover
that he is the man in the world whom sile
loves In this posture of circumstances there Is
room for turnultuous transitions of feeling-the
agony of arighted love and the delirum of horroie
apprehension. These tumults arouse in Mime. bern
hardt leopardlike excitement that hberates her
fine powers of expeditions action and voiuoie
speech. and makes her being of amazing Vltallts'
The person and tho artist never entirely as
tnot from each other. The contention thaI inc
personality OF the individual should never allect
judgment of the achievement Of the artist is part
Of the critical of the day: and 1t Is onlE
nonsense It is true that work of art should De
considered only such: but the arust,-Whether
in acting, literature, painting or sculptuTe'-"Alo
thinks to create artistic fabric without reveal
ing the quality OF the soul, or without displaying
the moral and spiritual aspects of the nina Is
ignorant of the laws alike of nature and art DION
Boucicault IS an actor afforded an apt example
of the talent to make outward show OF charac-
ter and OF emotion, without inspiring a decisive
Of reality; the being that he was radi-
cal1y insincere. The individuality might be delIb-
erately ignored In the examination of a specihc
artistic endeavor; but the individuality is always
behind the art, and analysis will always reveal It.
The acting of Sarah Bernhard conspicuously Illus
trates this truth. This may explain why the emil
nent French actress has chosen to identify herself
with characters typifying abnormal ideals OF won
anhood but 1t is not why her displays OF
such ideals should be admired and hailed as q
benefaction by those persons who think. and who
recognize their intellectual responsibility to the
public for what they say
Just as the condition of the body and mind acts
on the health and the appearance of the person, so
does the quality Of the essential being AFFECT the
work of art. This reason of the greatness
OF Henry irving actor. He was not only
man of superb intellect; he great and noble
soul. His marvellous aptitude for dramatic ex-
preston had been developed by years OF patient
study thought and labor. but behind his gifts, his
experience and his skill, there very lovely
temperament. Whatever he did, whether he por-
trayed the nobility, purity and tenderness or
Iesurques or of Dr.. Primrose, the villany of Rob-
ert Macaire the craft of King Louis, the remorse
of Matthias, the Internal majesty Of Mephistoph-
eles the essential effect of his acting an In
spiration OF the highest ideals in art and lie
Yet neither he nor his acting ever preached
Though ali that he did on the stage conveyed the
most salutary admonitions, the influence was I'M
parted in the indirect manner of suggestion by
which the stage should always accomplish edu-
cationel and moral effect Henry Irving's Prim-
rose or Beckett Jeffersons Rip Ellen Terry's Mar
garet, Ada Rehan's Rosalind, Edward Terry's
Phenyl. Wizards Benkarn, or Mansheld's Brutus
Is worth all the foreign expositions of hereditary
disease or other obIiquity-whether vouchsafed by
Ihsen. Maeterlnck, Sudermann. Shaw, or Pinero,-
that ever polluted stage. w. ".