Omaha daily bee., 1907-01-20
I |
|sES|

down her work in the apparent
full possession OF her faculties,
Ips4g{l3I and with her great power as an
AAkkHtAA1 actress undiminished In her
passing the stage loses one Of its greatest
minds She is one Of the few women who
have achieved real greatness on the stage
Tor her genius was that OF mankind and
not Of a nation. 1t was possible for her 10
be leader in her native Poland and also
20 be leader in America something that
is hard to reconcile, when racial habits Of
Thought and characteristics Of personality
are considered. The warmth OF the Pole
with his impulsveness and consequent i'm
petuoslty. find little counterpart In the more
natter-of- fact and deliberate American.
We appreciate without being demonstra-
tive, and are calculating rather than mer-
cural But true genius knows no racial
limitations, and so 1t was that Helena
Modjeska was able to conquer not only that
people to whom she is allied by birth and
breeding, but also that new people TO whom
she came a stranger and to whom she
could only speak IN the language Of art.
She came with the confident courage Of one
who has full faith in himself. and with
the message OF her art she appealed TO the
soul Of Americans and was welcomed. For
thirty years she has been an established
she abdicates In her retirement she will
have the satisfaction OF knowing that with
her are the good wishes of thousands who
have admired and applauded her when she
chose 70 personify some Of the roles she
has frightened by her intellect and per-
sonality.
Nine. Modjeska is almost the last Of
those great tragediennes who brought the
American stage to its highest pitch dur
" ing the sos. For some reason, unaccounta-
Die but potent the taste of the public has
undergone a change, and with II the vogue
OF acting. Tragedy is no longer fashion
able and the women who might have sue
ceeded 20 the crowns of Modjeska, Rhea,
Davenport Janauschek, are spending their
time giving life to Fitch or Pinero
heroines. because II pays better. Either
Of the women who gave life to a Shakes
pearean woman could have trihed with
a Fitch female and gotten away from the
theater with lot OF labor saved, but with
out making a name that will be associated
K always with serious undertakings. Modjeska
lacks in some particulars all the elements
of greatness. Her genius was not or
flexible or plant sort that adapted itself
20 ali conditions with ready facility. She
was capable, probably, of feeling all moods.
but she did not have the capacity for ex-
pressing them all. Some of the roles she
essayed were beyond her. Happily for
her, these we're the lesser of the parts she
played. Not that she was so stepped in
the serious business of life that she had
no time for the lighter and more graceful
things, but that she lacked in some way
the faculty of making others feel them
as she did This is not true of her work
in the heavier roles. As Lady Macbeth,
Mary Stuart or Cleopatra she was un-
rivaled In these she found ample scope
. for the illuminative thought of her great
mind, and in them she has won such fame
as makes one forget that she ever played
4 Rosalind.
The deeper emotions and weightier at
, fairs OF life appealed most TO Modjeska.
She could not bring her mind fully to bear
1 on the girlish difficulties Of Rosalind. nor
could she trihe with the lesser griefs of a
! Juliet But the big, important matters of
q Cleopatra gave her occupation. She was
4 as ardent a mistress as ever lover could de-
sire, but she was queen at the same time,
4 one who could command an army or direct
. the affairs of a nation. In Macbeth" she
/ Is first of all a loving and devoted wife,
| ambitious for her husbands advancement
.
man who had set his feet on a road that
. led to power That she shared in his crime!
was but incidental. for she shared, ftoo
in his conquest OF power and also tn,
punishment that overlook them. 1t wal
not so much ambition as love for Iner hus
band and that set the Lady Macbeth Mod
teska gives us on her way to ruin. SIN,
sought his advancement rather than he
own, and sinned that he might shine will
the greater luster Thi6 was why he
Temorse was so terrible, and why the show
she makes of It soJ Affecting. Such oharac
teysl as this appealed to the art OF thi
great Polish genius and she illuminate
them with a fire that makes them fairly
Riow in their intensity. While her capacity
might not have been all Comprehensive II
its scope she had sufficient grasp of tn
requirements of a great part to proven
Il ever falling very low, while some phas
Of II she elevated to a genuine climax. II
Lady Macbeth she reached this in tn
sleep-wAlking scene. In Cleopatra II wa
the death scene that most impressed. He
other great characters are similarly II
Illustrated in some one portion, while non
of them descend to low level. Versatll
she scarcely was, but for the deeper an
more momentous passions she showed a
apt understanding and an appreciativ
grasp that is the real mark of a genius
She will be missed from the stage.
Some excuse there is for the regrettabl
condition that has come over the life of tn
stage In America. Much has been sal
about the eommercialization' Of the thea