New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-02-09

tendants and dancers, but moving drama there
is none
The exposition of frenzied vanity and megalo-
mania goes on for eight additional scenes. In
his private apartments Nero talks airiy of ex-
ling his mother to Britain, when his advisers
propose a death warrant, and 1t becomes neces-
sary TO bring Poppea's destinations TO bear
upon him. The enchantress is discovered at hor
toilet with her maids. and she has an exciting
scene with her husband Ohio, before the EN-
peror is fired with her amorous glances and con-
WINGED that his mother must be murdered-not
by any commonplace dose of poison, but by
some grand stage effect worthy OF a unique
artist In the villa at Baise a banquet under
leaden ceiling. which will crush her with it's
weight, is discussed as an ingenious bit of
mechanism but as a stage manager Nero pre-
Fers to send her out in galley that can he
scuttled. These incidents have the effect of
comic relief In the pages Of Suetonius and De
Quincy when the old lady escapes by SWIM
ming ashore like a duck. For this substi
tuted a vision of a white robed figure and the
musical cadence. 1.-The falling from her
hair" Undismayed by failure. the Emperor or
ders assassins TO ride her down, and enters Rome
in triumph in his golden chariot behind three
white horses while the holiday crowd acclaims
him artist and conqueror. In the next scene
Poppea dies. after listening with dull ears TO
Acte's tidings of the future life preached by
Christian converts. and finally there is display
Of megalomania gone quite mad-Nero in de-
spair because the worlds greatest artist cannot
finish an ode and then breaking out into rapt-
ures over the burning of Rome as a glorious
blaze of color by which his crimes are purged
and the vengeance of his murdered mother is
appeased. 1t is magnificent stage spectacle
with which to send the dazed audience home, If
real drama has been hating for three long
hours.
Mr. Tree has seized with a firm grip the dom
mating idea OF the play and never swerves from
it Repellng sympathy from the outset, he I'M
personates the theatrical amateur, "empurpled
in a lone omnipotence." for whom aesthetic pose
is the only thing in the world. and What an
artist perishes in mer' measures a catastrophe
greater than the destruction of Rome. rest
less. self-conscious monster this Nero is con-
stantly playing with his auditors and himself.
craving hattery for every gesture and bit of by
play, staggering with gratifled vanity when
Tigellinus calls him an actor, planning a muir
der as a stroke of original genius needing TO be
cleverly staged, impatient over thunder peal
that interrupts the flow of his verse, and exult-
ing over the burning of Rome an appropriate
stage setting for his chant in memory of his
dead mother If II be a subtle, intellectual per-
Torrance, which chills rather than warns the
lipss for substituting for genuine tragedy, which
excites pity the dissection OF vile, dishonored,
inhuman character. which can be watched only
with coIdness and indifference. Nor Mrs.
Tree be blamed If Agrippina in her outbursts OF
passionate anger and flaming scorn be unreal
and outside the range of sympathy; nor Miss
Constance Collier be disnayed, if the character
Of Poppea be without dramatic interest and the
spectators content themselves with a superficial
judgment that classical draperies make her look
statuesque and are exceedingly becoming.
Nero" at His Majestys Theatre is not so
much q play with dramatic purpose 1t is
varied and splendid entertainment illustrative
of imperial Rome in the crisis of decadence, and
II is produced with unrivalled resources OF
stage art and with sensuous Oriental music,
composed by Mr.. Coleridge Taylor. not
sure but that the music is more dramatic than
the play itself-especially the bacchanalian
entr'acte, the pompous professional march and
the weird fire motives. I. N F.