Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-24
TEW YORK CITY, May 19.-Eleanora

has returned to the stage after an alb
sence Of nearly twenty years. At the age
of sixty-two she will tour Italy under the
management of the distinguished actor-man-
ager, Ermeto Zacconi, playing Ibsen's Lady
From the Sea-" and other roles in which she
triumphed many years ago.
If the tour is success it may be extended
to other parts of the continent, and eventual
ly perhaps, the younger generations of Amer
lea may have an opportunity to see an actress
who, all critics agree, is one of the greatest
dramatic artists who ever lived.
According to people who have seen her
recently, Duse is just as miraculOusly pre-
served for her age as her great rival, Sarah
Bernhardt who is her senior by some fifteen
years. She retains her slender figure, they
say, and fhe same wonderfully melodious
voice which once held all Europe enthralled.
Her face has remained smooth and unwrin-
killed.. Above all, she still retains the per-
sonaH magnetism which so deeply stirred her
audiences
Duse is said to be the only woman Of
whom Sarah Bernhardt was ever jealous.
Until the Italian actress suddenly appeared
at the Renaissance theater in Paris during
her continental tour in 1897, Bernhard had
been idolized as the greatest tragedienne of
all times by the French people. Then, al
most overnight, the Divine Sarah found her
lofty pinnacle of fame shared by fOrmid-
able rival "The Duse is equally as great
as our beloved Sarah,'' wrote the French
critics, 'even though Italian
This was not all they said. The French
newspapers contained columns upon columns
of fervent praise for the new genius. In
reading over what European dramatic critics
have written concerning Duse, in fact, one is
moved to deep amazement. Although by no
means beautiful woman, she seems to have
had them all hypnotized. Unlike Sarah Bern
hardt, she scorned the use of makeup even
on the stage, and her clothes were habitually
somber, if not actually dowdy. She wore
no jewelry, and perfumes of any description,
even the scent of flowers, she found intoler-
able. A plain, quiet, little woman, who sell
dom laughed and who spent most of her lei
sure hours collecting books, photographs and
scissors-innumerable pairs of scissors, which
she was always losing and leaving, about.
Yet her interviewers all found her the en-
bodiment CO charm, grace and all that was
desks, they would write unrestrained rhapso-
dies to Duse-Duse, the pOetess of tragedy,
the actress of the ages.
Even Shaw Approved
Even Bernard Shaw could find no flaws in
her art or personality. In an essay which
he wrote on the actress nearly twenty years
ago, he was, for once in his life, almost te-
diously complimentary. He contrasted Bern
hardts superficial appeal with the deep, pow
erful sense of tragedy that Duse evoked
Bernhard, in his opinion, highly skilled
technician; Duse was born tragedienne.
Bernhard appealed to the intellect, while
Duse wrung peoples hearts. The Divine Sa-
rah martialed her emotions as her intellect
and will directed whereas Duse often
overcome by her own emotion in playing
tragic part and was unable to go on. In
some instances she was known to cry her
self i'll.
1t has been said that to those who think,
life is comedy to those who feel, it is a
tragedy. This theory is nowhere more
clearly illustrated than in the lives of the
two great tragediennes. Duse and Bernhardt
Bernhardt, always coolly intellectual, shrewd
and philosophical, has greatly enjoyed life
still enjoys it at the age of seventy-seven.
Duse, on the contrary, emotional, high
strung deeply sympathetic, has been the vic
tim of misfortune and sorrow. When wom-
an wronged Sarah Bernhardt, she went al
most gaiy to her apartment and horse
whipped her. When a man cruelty wronged
Duse, she fled to a lonely retreat in the
italian hills, Inundated and heart-broken.
| And so it was throughout her early life
always sensitive, always sorrowing. Life did
not spare her even as an infant The daugh-
| ter of poor Italian players, she was made to
do her share in supporting the family at the
age of four, when she played Cosette. From
then on she was always working, playing
| first one. role and then another always trav
! cling from place to place in dirty, thrd-class