The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-10
Copyright 1897, John Barr)

Whenever you go to Italy on a tourist trip don't forget to put a
 handy volume of Shakespeare in your travelling bag; for every where in that historic and romai1- tic land you will be meeting re-
 minders of Shakespeare-twelve of whose great dramas are located in Italy.
 whether Shakespeare ever visit cd Italy in person, there seems to be no proof one way or the other though the likelihood Is that he did; but that he was perfectly familiar with the language, liter ature and geography of the coun- try, there is no question.
 He certainly paid the daughters of Italy the highest possible trib- ute by portraying such fine young women as Portia, Desdemona and Miranda, and endowing them with all the charms of wit and beauty, plus sterling character; for Shake speare, with his clear vision, saw the good as well as evil in the world, believed that there are men and women who are uncorrupted and incorruptible, and delighted in employing his genius in their portraiture,-in the same spirit that prompted Michael Angelo, Raphael and Titan to use their splendid art and genius to exalt and beautlfy virtue and heavenly compassion and sacrifice.
 Fifty years ago everybody in America and Europe knew the Shakespeare plays by heart, and we were constantly seeing them performed by some of the great est actors who ever lived; the American tragedians Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett and John McCullough; the great Italian tragedian, TommaSo Salvini; and the unique English tragedian, Henry Irving; supported by such brilliant actresses aS-Mary An- derson, the American; Ellen Terry of England; Helena Modjeska Of Poland; and Adelaide Ristori of Italy.
 It was a great privilege and edu- cation to hear the lines of Shakespeare spoken by these arr tistS, and we sometimes had the good fortune to see and hear sev- eral of them in the same cast-as Booth and Salvini together in Othello; or Booth and Henry 1rV- ing reversing the parts of Othello and 1ago with Ellen Terry playing Desdemona; or Booth playing Macbeth to Ristori's Lady Mac- beth; or Booth playing Shylock to Modjeska's or Mary Anderson's PCrtia. And there were neVer-to- ke.forgotten occasions of all-star casts like Hamlet with Booth in the title role, Lawrence Barrett the Ghost; Frank Mayo-the King Joseph Jefferson and w. J, Florence as lst and 2nd Grave G'Sgers', and Helena Modjeska as Gphelia.'
 So when Comstock, Brandon, Henry and I were in Venice ex- aCtly fifty-one years ago this month we looked up the scenes associated with 'Othello' and The Merchant of Venice and discussed them with our good friends the proprietor and concierge of our hotel, who told us that the Vene- tianS were enthusiastic theater- goers and that the Shakespeare plays were very popular there.
 Our gondoliers took us to see the beautiful old palace on the Grand Canal known as the Desdemona House, where Othello did the counting that he so eloquently de- scribed in his defence before the Duke and the Senators-including her father, Brabantio; and we strolled about the Rialto where Bassanio and Antonio-The Mer- chant of Venice-met Shylock,
 The theaters were closed while we were there, but we wished that we might have sat with a Venetian audience to see those Shakespeare plays with Salvini and Ristori in the leading roles, though we had seen Salvini's Othello when he was on an American tour only a few months before.
 Our Venetian friends were much pleased when we told them that, and We all agreed that Salvinfs scenes of rage and passion in Othello were the most terrific we had ever seen in a theater, No actor could go through the strain of such a performance many nights in succession, and as re- member Salvini would play 1t only once or twice week.
 Edwin Booth was great Othel- 10, too-and an equally great Iago,