New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-06
Gives Her Last Recital of
Season at Maxine Elliott
Theatre.
NO MERE ARTIST:
IS FRANCE HERSELF
Gives Lie TO Persons Who Say
That Art Cannot Suryiv,
Democracy.
BY GRENyILLE VERNON.

lvette Guiibcrt gave her last recital
o. the season yesterday afternoon at
the Maxine Elliot. Theatre. Il is dif-
fcult to write OF Mme Cdilbert's ap-
pcaranccs with any degree Of restraint
indeed, 10 is impossible. She has come
10 us like. some Miraculous avatar
from her own miraculous France. Those
who have watched the French soldiers
march into battle have felt the strength
and wonder of the Gallo race. but we
in America have not that fortune to
know the French soldier. and through
MIN France. Yet through this wonderful
French woman we can listen to the heart
of that race; can hear iis sistole and
.diastolc beating through an the cen
turtles and in all its thousand forms.
Nine. Guilbcrt is not a mere woman;
above all, she is not mere artist she
is France herself.
So when we speak OF her. lot IA for
once abandon the iar-on and the cant
OF art let US speah 20 life. of death,
Of glory. Of love, of misery and SUI
fering. Of AN the ten thousand colors
which thread the warp and woot Of
the shifting pattern we call the world.
For Nine. Guilbert neither imperson-
ates, nor cmbelliShes, nor recalls What
she does. or rather what she Is, IS
something different. If il be n chan
son Of the Noyen Age, suddenly we see
before us Nicolette or We hear the
! winding of Bolands horn; If 1T be a
! verse Of Bichepin, we have all the
horror Of ala Glu," and when she
sings "T'en Souvens-tu.' it is a Mimi
and a Musotte more poignant than ever
Murger dreamed.
As France to-day has smashed the
sheer as 20 the inefiic.eucy Of dcmoc-
racy. and especially of Latin democ-
racy, so has this daughter of France
given the lie TO those who hold that
with democracy dies art. Nine. Gull
bert. once q shopcirl at the Printemps,
a child Of the people born and bred.
is to-day one Of the few supreme
artists of the world. SO much for the
theory Of the artistocrats of art.
But Nine. Guiibert has gone far be-
yond mere art, and has become the liv-
ing evocation Of her race. Transcending
the barriers OF class, she IS, When HeI
spirit calls, as truly a grande dame Of
the Court Of Versailles as she can be
q Norman peasant girl or a grisettc Of
MOntmartre.
She is par excellence the interpreter
Of the Coincide Humane, whether in
the age OF simple faith, Of cynical ar
tifciaiity. or Of humble labor. The
poets who dreamed always Of France
as a glorious woman dreamed we'll
they dreamed of Nvette Guilbert.
Only a few could hear her farewell
yesterday. Let her own words speak
10 those who did not hear her then, but
Who will surely hear her when she re
turns TO Us again:
"My own part is that Of the ancient
troubadoUr or minstrel. who wandered
from one land 70 another, instilling into
other nations the love and respect for
his own By celebrating in song its
manifold beauties it is IN the songs
Of France that the entire national his
tory IS TO be found the history Of her
soil. her heroisms, her brain her heart
the apotheosis. in short, Of race
that exhibits q reserve Of serene and
courteous strength; who can crown life
with roses or bow TO death with equal
erase"