The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-10
From the August Theatre Magazine.
WY HEN Modjeska ventured to set
A/ "A Dolls House" before an
XY American audience. the Nor

w American audience, the Nor
wegian was still a mere fantastic cloud
upon the horizon-a shape half real
and half imaginary, of new and I'M
palpable species. Scandinavia had long
known him as an irritating poet, and
Germany was beginning to be aware
of him as an inconoclast, but among
the English speaking peoples he was
announced, and that was all. Edmund
Gosse, the literary explorer, was his
sponsor Mr.. Gosse had been sponsor,
too for the sestina and the chant-royal.
which may explain, perhaps, the apathy
with which the greatest of his discov-
cries was received.
But Nine. Modjeska was cosmopoli-
tan and lacked entirely that insular
folies which sees a foe in every for
eigner She knew Shakespeare and she
knew Moliere, just as she knew Scribe,
Angler and Tom Robertson. To her the
stage was a world, and all language
but dialects of the universal emotional
tongue. Ibsen swan into her ken al
most automatically and as a matter
of course. At her behest "A Dolls
played Nora at the Imperial theatre.
in Warsaw. And like Mr.. Archer after
her, she felt the surge of revolution in
the searching phrases of that last, por-
tentous scene. Before all else / am
human being"-here was the boundary
mark between the old drama and the
new. Nora stood for heterodoxy, for
evolution, for indivdualism, for the flu
ture; and so 1t seemed not unreason-
able to hope that the Americans who
were heterodox and all else startling,
and thought in terms of the future,
would sense her vitality and reality.
There ensued a diligent and some
what discouraging search for trans
lator. Twice before this the play had
been done into the English vulgate.
but doubt if Nine. Modjeska was ac-
quainted with these TRANSACTIONS. Even
had she known them, she could not
have used them, for one was the re-
ductio ad absurdum of the immortal
Weber (of whom more anon) and the
other was the scarcely less grotesque
version of Miss Henrietta Frances
| Lord, whereby Ibsen was turned into
an eloquent special pleader for wo-
mans rights At all events. the Polish
trag edienne looked elsewhere.
| There was a CLEAN OF hope when
volunteer "by the name of Miss DIP
appeared in London, but the transla
ton of this fair scribe was such poor
work." Nine. Modjeska once told me,
that could not use It," The given
name and further qualities and station
of Miss Dill. are lost to. the chronicles
Then came M. Charles Bozenta-Chlap-
owski to the rescue M. Bozenta was
Nine. Modjeska's husband and a man
of uncommon gifts. He made a trans
lation of the piece from Polish into
English; Nine. Modjeska's secretary. a
Danish girl named Louisa Everson,
compared 1t to the original Dano- Nor
wegian; and Maurice Barrymore, then
leading man of the Modjeska company,
looked to its idioms. The result was
a single performance at Macauleys
theatre, Louisville, on friday evening,
| December Z, 18S3-six years before
either London or New York saw the
play.
Here was pioneering with ven
| gednCe"Dut ALSO WIFI d ItbeTNdtlOn,
for Nine. Modjeska made Nora turn
back at the brink. According to con-
temporary reviewer, there was some
indefinite talk about religion" and the
rebellious wife, standing sachel in hand
at the door, suffered herself to. be for
given and held back. But inasmuch as
Ibsen himself, as we shall see had done
the same thing four years before (ai-
belt he had repented of it soon after
ward). 1t Is not we'll to Judge Nine.
Modjeska harshly for her sacrilege. She
believed In Ibsen and she was valiant
enough to support her faith with dol
flars.
The theatregoers of Louisville how
ever, showed no enthusiasm. The night
before they had seen Modjeska as Rosa :
lind and the night after they were TO
shed willing tears over her Marguerite