The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-13
From the Springfield Republican.

rIoHl the SprlnSfleld Republican.
 HHE most famous dramatist left in
 NY the world since the death of Ib-
 sen passed away with the death in Paris yesterday of victorien Sardou. He was 70 years old; he had been fa- nous man and 8 force in the drama for nearly half century. In that time he had produced 2S plays, most of them suc- cessful, some of them of worldwide ce- lebrity. Honors had been showered upon him. At AS he had taken his place among the 40 immortals. The poverty of his early life had been exchanged for prince ly wealth, the traditional poets garret for magnificent chateau. Nor did he live to see his reputation dimmed. Some of his early plays are still favorites and but last year at 75 he saw his last play produced in the Paris theatre where it is still played to crowded houses. At 73 after silence of 10 years he came for ward to the surprise of the world with a new play and since then has shown an industry which may be compared with the late work of Verdi. With the great Italian opera composer, indeed his career offers a sort of parallel with Ibsen for his Wagner. But the parallel does not hold
 far; Sardou did not like Verdi evolve in old age new style. inspired from alien sources though he showed to the end un-
 diminished powers.
 Probably of all continental playwrights of his time Sardou was best known and . exerted the strongest influence in Amer ica. He came into celebrity at time
 when the American drama was at a low ebb and when the standard British roper tory, from Sheridan to Robertson, was be-
 ginning to weary. To use, steal or adapt French plays was the first thought of an i. American manager for generation after the war. Other playwrights were much levied upon also but Sardou, by his great vogue, by his unfailing fertility, by the cleverness of his plots and their fitness for translation, was easily first. The neat workmanship and the theatrical cleverness
 of his plays delighted audiences a little weary of "virginius' and 'Ingomar." "A
 Scrap of Paper was fascinating on the
 level of a detective story; when the close
 association of Sardou with Sarah Bern
 hardt began the public came to look to him for plays of strong emotional effect like Fedora" and La Tosca." And while in more recent years the birth of new
 school of American drama and the pop
 ularity of British playwrights like Pi-
 nero Barrie and Bernard Shaw has great ly reduced Sardou's importance in this {, country, he must be given a large place in any history of the American stage I It is on the technical side that his l achievement was greatest and his in 1 fluence most notable. Though others did l their share in the evolution of the well
 made play, an evolution essentially
 French, he was it's foremost exponent as i Poe was of the well-made short story. In 1 the management of plot and the conduct | of intrigue Sardou was a master of the
 first rank. His plays were wonderful pieces of mechanism moving on intricat& 1 and well-oiled wheels. His instinct wd1 l intensely theatric but he had literary git| also. His plays read well. They ref
 the assumption of the ordinary Amer1 playwright that a good acting play
 not be made to cut a decent figirI I paper. A genius he was not, but l talent has rarely been equaled. Hig3 ! for effectiveness were unerring a | skill was long held to be unsurp1
 | Ibsen, three years the elder, but
 l ing more slowly, learned in his
 l fastness the Parisian trick from
 l and being a genius proceeded l the model. Even in technic IT.
 l surpassed the great French nl
 l Yet it was Sordou and his
 plays that made 1bsens evolf : ble. Sardou was not propli s-