The New York herald., 1922-08-13

that the revelations brought by the
| Theatre Lfbre are of fundamental
Importance for great many men of
| his generation; he is offering me
therefore a short act in prose which
he would be glad to have us present"
This little act was La Chance de
Francaise," staged in December of
the same year and marking so new
and successful turn in the authors
production that it was taken up in
the following year by the Gymnase
and finally. in 1891, by the Comedie
Francaise itself.
Adapting Foreign Plays to Paris.
For one who, like Antoine, sought
what was new, an obvious source
of material was, of course, the the
ater of other lands. 1t was he who
first introduced 10 Partisan audi
ences the works of Tolstoy, Ibsen,
Turgueniev, Bjornson, Hauptmann
and Strindberg. Nor was this merely
the act of an enterprising producer
seeking to attract an audience by
the introduction of a novelty. An
tome had the conscience of an ar
tist: to be sure of that, we need but
know the care he took to secure an
| adequate performance of Ghosts"
Having received a first translation,
he considered this play as being un-
like anything lin our theater: study
of heredity. the third act of which has
the somber grandeur of Greek trag-
edy." Suspecting, however, that the
| translation was inadequate he had
| another, a literal translation. made.
Nor did he finally give the play un-
| til he had procured a version which
was the work of a translator, Dar-
zens, approved by Ibsen himself. An
| tones account of the reception of
this play on May %. 1890, is such
that it will be read with pleasure by
| all those who are interested in Ibsen
and his work. cit should be re-
| membered that Antoine himself
U.J
I'VE played Ghosts last night. 1t
produced, I believe, a deep effect on
certain persons; as for the majority
of the audience, an initial surprise
was followed by boredom. During
the last scenes, however, the specta-
tors were sincerely moved. / can speak
| of this only by hearsay: for as far as
l am concerned, l felt what I had
| never felt before, an almost complete
loss of my personality; from the be-
ginning of the second act on, re-
member nothing, neither the public
nor the effect of the performance
| and when the curtain had fallen /
found myself shivering, nerveless,
and incapable of pulling myself to-
gether for quite time
Such a man as Antoine-so intelli-
gent, so artistic and so enterprising
| in his attempts to further the inter-
ests of the stage-could but attract
the attention of prominent literary
men of his day. Thus it happens that
at every turn in the Souvenirs" we
come upon well known figures seen
| from angles unfamiliar to us-Catuile
Mendes, for instance, the enthusiast
| tic and constant friend of Antoine,
and Emile Zola who, far from bear
| ing legitimate grudge, urged An
tome to devote a whole evening 10
the works of those five young authors
| who had directed against Zola and
nerly and most unfilial manifesto.
Daudet i'm his relations with Antoine
acter as we know it. He takes an
interest in the Theatre Libre; he has
| Antoine to dinrer; with the utmost
tact he helps him out of financial diff
| ficulties at crucial moment; and
I one night when returning from re-
hearsal "limping a little, and leaning
on my arm as we come down the
passage of the Elysee- des- Beaux-
| Arts, Daudet stops at turn, before
| house with a gate in front of il;
and he says to me: Antoine. / am
seeing ghosts in your street tonight:
there is the house where l came to
know the wretch out of whom made
| 'Sapho. Other prominent figures