The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-04-12

not unknown 10 the text books. Yet some
body has got 10 conserve the classic roper
toire.' Aye, as long a. the ace shall last
that repertoire must be kept alive; say
what we will, think what we will, deeper
than speech or thought In US Is an instinct
which demands 1t. And just now we are
offering up Mr.. Mantell on the altar Of our
instinct.
We ought to be grateful. Probably We
are. Mr.. Mantell has a fine voice and a
big presence and a grasp on the traditional
requirements and means Of expression Of
the classic repertoire He Is doing his
task admirably. But there is a drama Of
to-day and Of tomorrow that interests us.
A leader must know Of that drama too,
must interpret and shape II for US.
So we come TO Z. II. Sothern, who last
Wednesday night fingered In New York
TO produce Don QuiXote" at great exc
pense when he might have been playing
"Dundreary' on the road to $40, 900 a week.
Indeed, his last week Of "Dundreary' In
Boston brought him S2O,0OO.) One Of those
neat little critical bromides Ia. 'Mr. Sothern
Is essentially a comedian" Mr.. Sothern is
essentially a conscientious and painstaking
and ambitious artist. In the days Of "Zenda'
and AN Enemy Of the King when a thou
sand girlish hearts beat high at every
matinee and sweet young things averred
that they could die listening to Sothern say
'Darlingl' 1t was perhaps fortunate for him
that he was a comedian. He escaped a
tragedy. He weathered the perils Of picture
book romance and rode out upon the great.
deep sea Of Hamlet Then came the en-
gagement with Miss Marlowe, which bet
tered his elocution, as an engagement with
Miss Marlowe must do for any player. and
widened the field for his achievement and
ambition.
Since then Mr.. Sothern has shown no sign
Of pausing and his acting has steadily
deepened in truth and power. His Hdmlet
has mellowed, grown sweeter, graver, more
thoughtful and more elastic in its lighter
moods. There are touches Of poetry In
his Villon that we're not there FIVE years
ago. And in his newer parts, even when
the plays have failed, he has disclosed new
powers as an actor.
As Rodion he was called on 10 suggest
a mental struggle, a tortured mind in COM
bat with an iron will. And he suggested
II surely, wildly, and without the sense
Of effort that has sometimes been apparent
in his acting. And he turned from the
comic absurdities Of Dundreory TO do this
thing. As Don QIirots he had a more
difficult task, that Of making plausible and
appealing in the flesh one Of the greatest
figures in literature, a figure already
created in the imagination Of his audience
and set In a place apart. To perform this
task required imagination Of him and a
fine understanding Of Cervantes's knight.
and ~eloquence and technique.
He struck the right note at onoe with
his makeup, the lean, pathetic, middle
aged figure, the wild, bright, vision haunted
eyes, the hollow cheeks-at once grotesque
and sad. And through all the comic alb
surdities Of the part and the farcical episodes
Of the play ne neverfo for one instant offended
the lover Of Cervantes's Sorrowful knight.
because his Don never for one instant lost
his pathetic dignity, his chivalrous bearing
born Of q beautiful and chivalrous soul.
There are times in life when you laugh at
Cervantes's book; there are other times
when you weep. At moments OF Mr..
Sothern's performance you know both
moods-when he accepts the Dukes ironio
invitation with a sweet courtesy Mallory
might have envied, when he sits detected
in his cage, "a captured eagle the scofiers
cry, but how much more like a captured
eagle than they guess!
There Is hardly a passage in all literature.
unless 1t be the parting Of Launcelot and
Guenever in Mallory, TO equal for pure
pathos the overthrow Of Don Quixote by
the Knight Of the Silver Moon. 1Dulcinea
is the fairest woman in the world, and the
u~nhappiest knight on earth; but it is not
meet that my weakness should disown this
truth. Strike with your lance, Sir Knight
For some strange reason, in the play IL
was not the Knight Of the Silver Moon who
vanquished the Don. His shield bore red
like a package Of surgeons plaster.
And il was inevitable that the pathos he
less poignant. Yet Mr.. Sothern's cry:
aDulcinea is the fairest woman in the world"
rose family above the stage hubbub with a
stab Of eloquence, and the essential mean
ing. the tragedy and poetry Of the over
throw we're borne home TO every heart,
though everything till then had been but
farce to many in the audience. The ca
pacity to achieve an effect like that belongs
only to the few. 1t stamps its possessor
40 a leader,
Mr.. Sothern's repertoire this season has
included Hamlet, a ShakespeaHan classic;
Lord Dundreary,' a specimen Of early
mid Victorian drama and q monument
10 his father; III | We're King a modern
romantic play; The Fool Hath Said" q
psychological drama, and Don QuiXote,'
an attempt by an American playwright
10 give stage life to a great figure Of world
literature. He has staged all these plays
sufficiently sumptuously and with
intelligent feeling for their different at
nospheres aud demands. To present them
he has had to train and maintain a
.arge company. at considerable expense,
That Mr.. Sothern's acting Is without faults
that il realizes 10 the full his own or his
%,ritics' ideal, nobody will maintain. He
still tends always 10 drag his tempo. He
,tnl falls into his old tricks now and then
recurring overemphasis, producing an
and monotonous effect, He still
acks sometimes what seems almost a
vitality to master a climax or
a speech up to the point Of emotional
discharge. You have that INDISPENSABLE
feeling inside Of you as you listen Of some
hing rising, rising, rising, and never quite
getting there-an uncomfortable feeling
n zInnaI