The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-31
Italian Actor in Shakespearean Roles
BY FRANKLIN EYLEs.

90 oBOhtll III Aldly has DCCAA AACeAO III
New York from the mouth of Ermete
Novelli. He has let US see. too, the
motions that he makes in depictions of
King Lear and Shylock. Critical opin-
ions disagree over his performances,
and l don't have to give mine, but
can more interestingly describe some
Of the famed actors oddities of mo-
ton. He emphasizes the insanity of
Lear more persistently than the regal
rage, the tempestuous passages being
broken up with displays of an old
mans weakness, his eyes suddenly
rowing, or staring vacantly. After his
curse, instead of sustaining his stormy
rath to the fall of the curtain, he
collapses, and is borne away by at
tendants. In his later madness, he
plucks imaginary bits of fiuff-or bugs.
If that is what they are meant to be,
from his interlocutors, exactly in the
manner JUNE McCree dope fiends in
vaUdeville-the stunt that ends almost
surely with the line, Now you've got
doing it," At the close of the scene
with the mad Edgar, he makes you
understand that he believes his staff,
with bouquet of straw at the top, is
horse. He puts it between his legs
the straw trailing broOm-like, and
rides off with all the dignity of a king
on a prancing steed at a, great review.
x X
Shylock he plays as a malignant old
devil. so pleased with his trap set for
the Christian that he is constantly
Chuckling over it. 1t would be unfair
to say that he does not make more
H. -. -
leering Spitefulness, this grim eXulta-
ton in his impending triumph, domi-
mates the Characterization. His most
eccentric innovations are these: When
news of AntOnios misfortunes comes to
him, he gloats with roaring glee, not
the sinister, Internal satisfaction of
ITving's ShyIock, but an openly ex-
pressed half childish, half barbaric ex-
ultatiOn. He clasps mis- hands as might
joyously excited lad, or maniac, or
idiot. Finally, as a climax he dances
for joy, literally dances; and then.
when Tubal brings to him accounts
of his truant daughters waste of his
money In her honeymoon with a Christ
ian, he filings himself on the ground
and rolls over and over in agonies of
impotent fury. In the trial scene he
affects no humility, but is lordly in
manner with his confident exultation.
He approaches even tie doge with only
the most empty show of reverence.
The idea is, evidently, to suggest such
a fulfllment of his greatest desire as
to make him regardless of everyone
and everything else For the mot upon
your sole. but on your SOLE lines he
sits on the steps of dias upon which,
standing behind an elaborate desk,
Portia sands; and he crosses his legs
under him, tailor-wise. Here he re-
moves slipper to whet his knife, hold
ing the sole i'm one hand and the knife
in the other, and glowering upon the
company as he homes the blade.
This dais is in the center of the stage
and throughout almost the whole act
Portia goes through a wealth of pan
tomime, tending to suggest that she
is constructing her case on the spot,
instead of having gone over it with
Bellario as definitely stated in the text.
But Signora Giannini turns over books
and papers continually, and with grow
ing excitement deliberately conveying
the idea, to those who watch her
throughout, that she came to the court
without an idea of a way to save An
tonic, and unexpectedly falls upon it
there. When Shylock is beaten by it,
he is not crushed. as heretofore, but
waves his fists i'm hateful defiance, and
Kisses Christians as he strides out.
AS Louis XI, Novelli seems to me at
his best, not so much that he is better
than in Shakespeare, but that his elab-
crate methods are more consonant with
melOdrama than with the subtler de-
mands of Shakespeare, whether in
comedy or tragedy. His Louis seems
to me about equal in value, and very
similar in effect, to Mansfield's Ivan
the Terrible. The oddly to note is in
his death scene, marvellous study in
thrilling realism, which misses the
subtle significance of Irving's steady
ing of the crown ,On his shaky head,
Novelli, when the Dauphin reaches to
relieve him of the weight, snatches the
crown from his hand, and clings furi-
Ously to 1t, almost snarling, at the
boy. The predominant impression
horribly. He has the hiccoughs
of approaching dissolution, and uses
his mobile face to express physical
pain. He struggles to live, and does
not suggest the mental conflict of the
Irving impersonation. His breathing
becomes terribly difficult. and during
almost a third of the, scene. his gasp
ing and wheeling are almost the most
remarkable study in disease I have
seen on the stage. His death rattle at
the end is appalling; yet it detracts
more important impression that the
passing of Louis gave memorably in
the Irving performance.
X x X
Circus is forced upon New York's atten-
ton this week in two ways and in two
places. The character for the principal
comedian in The Grand Mogul" is a cir
Gus sideshow fakir, and the latest devel-
Opment in the circus itself is here with
the label of Barnum and Bailey on it, Let
me first tell you about the entertainment
that is a play. To be hypercritical about
'The Grand Mogul." and get through at
once with fault-finding, let me ask why,
and oh. why, and then again wherefore,
didn't Klaw and Erlanger demand from
Frank Pixley a new theme for the libret-
to since they, the producers, are the 1 am
or the we-are, in the theatrical business?
Pixley is. as 1 think, one of the better
libretto writers. His jokes are grammat-
ical his verses for the songs are fluent
in rhymed cOnceits, and his humor would
stand the test of newspaper print. Nor
is that a careless suggestion of a stand
are by which to measure the mirth of stage
entertainments. Sit down with today's
Herald in your lap, and a memory of
the last funny theatrical show I'm your
mind. and size up the new merriment in
one against that of the other. / think
you will be convinced that, with all the
mass of different things. you have got