The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-03
New Workers Flock to Hear Favoriites.
By FRANKLIN FYLEs.


newly imperilled. suspects that Valle-
mont survives and puts Jeanne 10 the
test of a compulsory marriage with
Crisenoy. She eXhausts all excuses for
delay and is brought 30 the point OF
choice between bigamy With her lover
and the betrayal of her guardian 10 the
gu lOtine. She decides on the course
which blends love and duty. The ty-
rant orders a midnight ceremony, from
which the elated bridegroom and the
distracted bride are conducted cere-
moniously to the marital bedchamber.
How the ardor Of Crisonoy gets no
response from Jeanne-hoW her eluSion
of caress and kiss for a while seems 10
him charmingly shy and coy-vhow she
tells him, as her idea Of good behavior
in a husband, that Tallement used TO
kiss her but twice daily and on the
forehead, on parting at night and meet
ing in the morning; how he loses pa
thence and makes a passionate assault,
those and other particulars Of the cpl
sode are given frankly; and Miss Har-
ned is ever a sensuOuS sight; yet Moth
ing gross is done and indelicacy doesn't
become indeceney. For instance, when
the bride in decollette sees her hus-
bands DESTROYS gaze fixed upon her she
naively covers her shoulders with a
scarf. OF course Jeanne Is driven 10
confess the reason for her strange be-
havior. and thencefOrward the play
proceeds TO her delivery 10 the second
husband through the death OF the first.
The thesis of "The Labyrinth" is the
disagreement between state and church
on the question of divorce. In most
plays by Frenchmen cases are made
out on which judges may legally de-
stroy marriages, but Hervieu, while
doing the same thing also Illus
trates approYingly the priests scrip
wives should be put asunder
by nothing but death. He has
written his dramatic argument in such
4 literary fashion that the play was
put into the Theatre Franchise five
years ago and was the immediate cause
for his election to the Academy.
The heroine, Marianne. divorces Max
Porges because he is disloyaI TO her
and he weds the woman with whom he
has sinned. Marianne becomes the
wife of George Breuil. retaining her
little boy, but permitting him TO visit
his father The two households are in
existence when the play begins and
quiet hour is spent in the exposition
and discussion of the affair. Activity
sets in when Marianne goes to the
house of the Porges to nurse her child,
which is stricken with diptheTia. There
the latent love between her and POrges
breaks out and she dishonors BreuiL
In remorse and despair she flies from
both husbands to her mother and con-
fesses her crime. Porges and Breuil
quarrel. fight. fall over a pTecipice and
are killed. leaving their widow with
her boy clasp6d in her arms. But for
the divorce, you see. she might have
regained happiness by remaining with
one husband virtuously, instead OF re-
turning to him from another husband
disastrously. That is Hervieu's moral
The passage of theatrical power in
The Labyrinth" the one on which
Olga Nethersole depends to excite peo-
pie, is the passionate encounter of Mrs
Breuil and Mrs. Porges. Technically
it is fiawless and in that respect supe-
rior TO the usual French stage present.
alton of such a scene; yet it makes an
exhibition of sensual passion not less
realistic, though less gross, than the
one which Miss Nethersole utilized no.
toriously in "Sappho." 1t Is night and
Marianne, tagged by attendance upon
her sick child in the house of her di-
VOTced husband, lies down to rest in
the very room that was her first bridal
chamber. Sad and tender memories
arc aroused as she undTesses. turns the
lamp low and begins to doze. She is
awakened by a rap at the door OF the
adjoining ROOM where POrges is watch
ing over their boy She lets her former
husband i'll, thinking he comes to tell
her that the little one is worse: but his
desire is TO talk about themselves. Mu-
tual explanations convince them that
they need never have separated; that
neither is happy in their present we'd
lock: that quite as much as ever they
love each other; and then the man ar
CUES that in the sight of God they are
still husband and wife. His influence
is hypnotic. Marianne is dazed if not
/ convinced. / cannot in politeness de-
/ scribe the shift of feeling in Marianne
/ from mental agitation to animal pas
sion. nor the visible phenomena of it as
made startling by the actress. Even
though THE Labyrinth" comes from
the House of MolieTe. it is such a re-
minder of Miss Nethersole in "Sappho7
that there may again be remuneration
without prohibition, which would be
I regarded by her. guess, as a second
/ stroke Of good luck.