The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-15

III lnlS letter! Is IL Tor writer Oh pos
tive facts rather than fond fancies to
assume that Ermete NoveIli, actually
acting in tragedy of Nero before a
lonesomely meagre audience in a big
Broadway theatre, is a more readable
subject than Harry Cooper clowning
in jig and joke farce before a hilar-
ious crowd up Harlem way? For look
here at this, and say whether an old
Italian play of the Roman despot would
be likely TO present anything so origi-
nal. Take into account the predatory
fact that Cooper is the German dia-
lect comedian of a touring burlesque
company. The show is a travesty of
army and navy life. both contemptu-
Gus and contemptible | was about to
quit it after seeing a heavyweight
woman i'm a trouserless uniform lead
forth file of chorus girls in similarly
light marching outfit, and when they
were Joined by the inevitable Israelite.
lTishman. Yankee and German carica-
lures; for how could anything unique
come out of that assemblage? | had
slipped into my overcoat, and was
reaching for my hat, when my retreat
was arrested by the entrance of "a sec
ond and heavier weight woman: and
the upper as well as the lower proper
tons of this one were skin tight in their
encasement. The first had sung in a
gruff cOntralto, that harmonized with
her size, but the second had baby
ish treble that seemed like a tin whis-
tie blown by naval cruiser.
So | settled back in my chair, trans
fixed by this burlesque company's out
fit of two formidable frontispieces. and
pretty soon a third doomed into view.
By fixing imaginary angles and at
estimated her to be six feet long, four
feet wide, and to weigh 300 pounds; but
on the stages eleva ton above the spec
tator she looked the sculptOr's heroic
size of eight feet in height, and the
Barnum fat woman of 500 pounds in
weight. Her outlines were obscured
by the costume of the lady i'm 1.-THE
Grand Duchess" and she broke out in
the sabre song of that old opera with
a note which. if blown by the steam
calliope of a circus parade, would deaf
en- whole village The audience re-
spOnded with a roar of laughter: then
there was applause by those who felt
that she might not be meant for a joke:
and from that time TO the evenings
end there was a division of opinion,
giving rise to frequently tumultuous
disa greement whether she ought to be
ridiculed or admired.
All that is preliminary TO an account
of the most deliberately illustrated joke
that I ever heard-Or saw-on the stage.
Harry Cooper's German had an enor-
nous frontal rotundity, and on COM
pairing his false fat with the reality
of the Grand Duchess, he is moved to
wonder He asks about her size and
weight but she disdains to give those
particulars.
''Will you tell me your age?" he asks.
q have seen sixteen summers" she
replies.
That knocks him over. He falls on
his round front, which responds with
the elasticity of a huge rubber ball,
and he bounces again and again, with
a final rebound that lands him on his
feet
what were you trying to do?" the
woman asks.
4 was trying" the man responds,
Ito add to your sixteen summers few
falls and springs"
Did 1 lead you to expect nothing I'M
usual at all from Ermete Novelli in
PietrO Cossa's 'NerO?" Then / misled
you. The first performance of that
play in America revealed something
more than a classic Italian tragedy ''Of
words and not of deeds" for, if it
was like a garden full Of weeds still
it had room for a growth of astonish-
ing Whiskers. They were red whiskers,
and they ran from one of NerO's ears
down under his chin and up to his 9TH
er ear, like the b'goshes of a Yankee
or the donegals of an Irishman. No
velli has a face of rugged features, and
when thus encircled by hair, it looked
much like an Italian shoveler's.
Next morning 1 went to the Museum
of Art to look at a Roman coin stamp
ed with Claudio Caesar Neros head in
profile, and there, sure enough. was his
torical authority for NOvellis makeup,
whiskers included. Nevertheless. the
sight of an uncouth man, in whose
hands a shovel would be looked for
rather than Sceptre, and who guZ-
zled, quarreled and fought in a low
down gToggery, was a shock to those
whose stage Nero had been the beauti-
fully prohigate, gorgeously degenerate
tyrant in many plays of early Chris
tainty and paganism in Rome. With
no ability to follow the Italian diction
closely through it's metrical stretches
of lOquacity, it would be silly of me
to dispute the literary worth of Cos
sa's composition. All I mean to assert,
and without questioning its truth, is
that Nero is here a completely degrad-
ed hummer, no matter how much he
may talk of aspirations in music, sculp
ture, poetry, painting and the drama.
Nor is it true to say that this Nero
has no deeds along with his words. He
snatches a handful of hair from the
head of a tavern keeper. whacks wo-
man who resists him, has a fighting
spell of wine drinking, maltreats his
slave girls, robs a citizen of his wealth
and gets possession of a patrician maid
en- through the murder of her father;
but none of his evil deeds is so SNOWY
as to celebrate the dissertation of
Christian virgin with feast or to cast
martyrs into the arena with lions,
light festival with human torches. or
fiddle while Rome burned. He takes
his silent Tyre and wanders away. to
die miserably in a hut Bear in mind,
though, that Novelli is a great actor
and wonderfully versatile
Not often is there fun in the failure
of a play. 1.-THE Lancers" is a ludi-
crous exception. II did it," says Henry
Miller, under whose direction it was
prepared. Being in possession of the
sta &c OF which Augustin DAILY prac-
ticed the dramatic art. bethought me
of The Passing Regiment one of his
successes. and l remember it as about
the funniest polite farce ] ever saw.
There's a chance to exploit Lawrence
n,nrSav as an English swell army Of