Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-13
LIVELY COMEDY
FINELY PLAYED
REAL OPENING OF MAS0N'S
THEATRICAL SEASON
Shakespeare's MasterfuI Lines and
MirthfuI Characters Take on New
Meanings In the Clever Hands
Of Delightful Thespians
nv WILLIAM HAMILTON CLINE


either--when Shakespeare, on any
stage. spelled ruin" to players and
proprietors alike. But now, In this lat
ter day of reformed orthography, we
must write Shakespeare as the Key
note of the Thespian's prosperity.
There was reason for its former
status: there is better reason for Its
present. After the old generation of
great Shakespeareans died-men such
as Booth, Barrett and Keane-came the
lean years, when none measured up to
the stature of the master. In that
time were the mediocre players, who
offered wretched depictions of the
grandest characters in drama; who
made tawdry productions, meager and
incorrect in environment and invest
iture-really travesties on the art. Ana
as few cared to see their ideals shat
tered and trampled in the dust, they
stayed away, and the box ofhceS sur
fered-as rightly they should.
But now has arisen new line of
Shakespearean interpreters-a sturdy,
scholarly and artistic line, full worthy
to depict these great creations. Soth-
ern and Marlowe, Robert Mantell,
Crestan Clarke, and, best of all, Louis
James, have restored to an hungry peo-
pie their treasures of the stage, worthi-
ly, artistically, sumptuously, and, eager
once more to behold in the life the
immortals-Romeo, Macbeth, Richard,
Caesar, Calibran. Puck and Falstaff-
the people flock to the Muses. temples
and crowd their aisles to glory in the
greatness of their heritage and the
ability of the latter-day actors VINO so
worthily impersonate them.
Los Angeles for the first time in
many months, was invited last night to
witness what was promised to be one
of the most superb Shakespearean re-
vivals OF the age-"The Merry Wives
of windsor" played by superb COM
pany headed by Louis James. Lavish
pledges were made for this offering;
much rhetoric and hyperbole were
enunciated in declaring its glories and
worth. Los Angeles, skeptical-and
rightly, considering its recent expert
ences-went. And saw. And was con-
quered.
Eager to Approve
And today Los Angeles is eager to
voice it's approval, it's delight, it's en-
thusiasm. and one of the most perfect
presentations of a Shakespearean--o
any other sort of-masterpiece ever be-
held within it's confines, admirably
Aplayed, by company whose merits,
skill, understanding and appreciation
are beyond cavil.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor" is
one of the masters most delightful
albeit most salacious, dramas. AS
originally written, it would scandalize
any modern audience. Yet it contains
so much real mirth, wit and comedy,
and abounds with such notable charac-
terizations, that the public is always
eager to behold it. Very wisely Mr..
James, thorough artist that he is, has
eliminated the most Objectionable SEN
tences and has modified the most
shocking scenes, without at all harm
Inn nj q a m
it fit for the more refined playgoers of
today.
He has further taken the liberty of
inserting the speech, what is honor?"
from "Henry w." and to add the tag"
from "All's Well That Ends Well"
which may. to some, be bit icono-
elastic; but which, after all, are allow
able, even scholars say. Be this as it
may, he has certainly given us a
Merry Wives" that is comparatively
clean, retaining all its essential ele-
ments, and rounded out to a compile
tion that is happy in the extreme. And
that is far better than mutilating the
great dramatist's tragedies, as so many
players do.
Perhaps, had Shakespeare had more
than fourteen days in which to write
the comedy, he would have made these
changes himself.
All Are Here
Also, Mr.. James has retained all of
the wondrous men and women which
the comedy originally introduced, and
whom every lover of the bard knows
so well. Falstaff, Shallow, Bardolph,
Pistol, Mistress Ford, Mistress Quick
ley, Mistress Page-all are here. 1t is
like meeting a galaxy of old friends to
see them, and their every appearance
is wholly delight.
Of aOItrca Mr. TaY,1ac hf1,caIf ft1nar
sonates the immortal Si3 John Falstaff.
Nay; he is Sir John. From the mo-
ment he stepped forth last night in
the glory of his scarlet doublet, vain,
deceitful rollicking and rotund, we
knew that we had met the great
roysterer face to face. OF all the COM
edy parts in the bards great category,
this is the best-if we'll portrayed. And
James is Falstaff.
Time was-to be reminiscent again
when this James was a tragedian-and
a good one, too Macbeth, Virginius,
Hamlet, Richard-all has he done, and
splendidly. Ergo, in crossing the hair
line that separates the humorous from
the sublime, James takes with him full
knowledge of their infinite nearness,
one to the other. Perhaps that is why
l note, In his Falstaff, that tinge of the
mock-heroic, that CLINT of the tragic
comic, that makes it so supremely fun
ny Wnen he is stimulating earneStnesS
and so almost stirring when he is maxi
ing mirth. / conceive that to him
Falstaff is not an intentional buffoon,
a vain strut, an egotistical ass. No:
he is ponderous old chap who laughs
because he cannot help It, but who
hath portentiously fine opinion OF
himself withal. and dignity that he
tries In vain to maintain. One sympa-
thizes with this doughty fiesh-moun-
tain, not because he is worthy of SYM
pathy, but because he knows he ought
TO be but cannot.
Pity with Laughter
And in the end, when he brings down
upon his sodden head the consequences
he so richly deserves. one really feels
sorry even as one goes into gales of
laughter; even as one admits that the
punishment is his due merit and re-
ward lie is a very human Falstaff, Is
Mr.. James, and very fascinating one.
IL is not too much TO opine that he is
also so perfect an one that his imper-
sOnation Is destined to live among those
classic creations of the past, left en-
shrined In our memories by a long line
Of now dead players, even down to the
days OF the elder Hackett, Owens and
Ben De Bar, whose Sir Johns are