The Washington times., 1905-07-02
Actress in Fiction.
An Altogether Different
Creature From the Real
Woman Authors Have
Strangely Conjured Up I'm
possible Personalities.

.
Since George Eliot Disguised Carlyle
b. making her journeyman carpenter
in Adam Bede' put in the panels of
bis door after the frame was finished,
pictures of calIings and professions In
fiction have seldom given complete
satisfaction. The arts suffer especial
~ in this way. The fact is, says a
writer in the Chicago Record-Herald,
the most elevated art is principally COM
posed of hard work and devotion to 1t
as beloved trade: and the greatest
artists have no histories. The late Will
son Barrett did once. indeed. endeavor
To throw glamour over his career as an
actor by statement that at a date
several years previous to a certain
speech from the stage he had stood
outside the "sixpenny gallery" of the
Princess Theater and had vowed to act
Eamlet in that house some day or
other.
But. as a rule, the career OF the
artist is chiefly composed Of uncon-
ecious. Industrious perseverance sand he
never looks back upon it as romantic
or fit for publication in the form of fic-
ton. Most of our professional readers
must have enjoyed a quiet smile now
and then at the depictions of their say
1ngs and doings as reported in contem-
porary novels. Even SO clever q writer
as John Oliver Hobbies has not shrunk
from attempting the impossible, and in
"A Study in Temptations" has given an
extraordinary picture of leading Lon
don actress. She is delightful person
age. though mot a bit like" any
actress we ever heard Of In figure she
a. II L. g
have not ..jut" enough to please every
one She Is staying down In the coun-
try with one Lady Hyde Eassett and,
strange to say. she is secretly married
to a royal academician named Wrath.
She reads Hegel, and. indeed, every
thing and she is "the new Lady Mac
BETH
This is how she talks: you must
know" she says to young man named
Mauden. who starts an Intellectual
Irritation with her, ignorant of her being
married, that I came out to gather
honeysuckle this afternoon, because ]
wanted to see whether I would be hap
pier If 1 sere more like the primitive
woman. / have been SO bored; Ionged
TO be at home reading Hardy, or ST.
Augustine, or Hegel's Occasionally we
get glimpses of her profession. 1.-The
polite world it is stated. docs its best
to make her think that her readings are
the result of laborious thought ''She
found it hurniliating to reflect that she
had SO very little to do with her own
ability" ''She had served her dreary
apprenticeship with the rest" This Is
all we are told, except that '-she had
great talents"
Not to put it too finely. Mrs. Wrath is
a oh ,fr,cr rfv IT.
goose She analyses and philosophers
remarkably. ..Ho.,,r she inquiries of the
young man who Is making love to her
should one begin If one wished to rebel
against existing low standards of NOR
atty? Eventually she arranges tc
run away with Mauden: ard this is the
letter she write to her husband before
leaving on an expedition which turns out
q complete fasco: II have discovered 2
new meaning in life and duty
SubJectivity is fatal to art; all great ar
ts objective. And love Is SUFFICIENTLY If
Its lowest phase. / use these phiio
Eophical terms because they are con
venient. and because they are sufficient
~ comprehensive to cover all subtle
and perhaps NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. A.
we have indicated, she does not reall,
run away with the young man: blu
catches cold. has a serious illness. con
fesses all to the academician. and is for
given
What we remark in all This Is the ex
traordiDary absence OF IS. .op." Asso
citation with painters, sculptors an,
every class OF artists has convinced us O
an infaliible rule-any of item that ar
worth their salt"-taat lave ''grea
talents" and have gone through tn
mill lxx~r,r III
erty. The only real recipe for success
IS to have ones mind always concerne
in ones especial business. and, thong
actors and actresses have too muc
sense and tact to talk shop in gen
eral IN society they invariably tai
about their art and think about 1t whe
at ease. as Sophia is represented as be
ing at Lady Hyde-Bas sets. Such q
extraordinary absence Of Interest in he
profession. combined with an equal
remarkabie concentration of her min
on her psychological condition. we neye
heard of as existing in any actress
What is Sophia doing down In tn
country? Presumably she is resting
But when leading actress rests frol
acting she does not rest from thinkin
about her profession. And we woul
lay heavy wager that If gramopht
mic record were taken of a firtatio
Sophia Jenyns in "A Study in Tempta
TONS" there would be great de;
more discussion of her successes an
failures in the past, q great many MOI
hopes and fears expressed. and mol
of her plans for greater achievements !
the future than there would be all,
sions to Hegel, ST. Augustine. or "ti
existing low standards of morality"
After all, however innocent one ma
be naturally. one cannot serve an al
premiership OF dreary druesery' in
profession without acquiring SON
amount of knowledge OF men and thing
some general gumption." 1t may I
that there are penetralia of dramatic 3.
ciety OF which we have no cognizanc'
realms in which leading tragedienns
stay down in the country married
royal academicians ION the quiet" tai
about objectivity and sub5ectivity. rea
Hegel and ST. Augustine, and anaIy;
their sweet souls When Tnackeray DIRE
his Fotheringays and was reproache
with caricature. he was able to poll
10 a contemporary actress who justjfis
the portrait In ''Pendennis." And so pc
haps John Oliver Hobbies Sophia ma
exist I'm real life. or one thing howeve
we feel certain. She fas not gre,
talents. and cannot hold tie position -.
gested by the phrase the new Lad
Macbeth" 1t Ii SuIy amateurs who oil
serve themselves so deliberately. Artis
have their hands full observing 9th
people.