The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-05-27
Touring Europe h 1886
John Writer of Reminiscent Stories Recalls Visit Pilgrimage Historic Spots of Eternal City Ad mred Magni6cence of St. Peters Cathedral Vatican's
 Marvellous Art Collection

morning in Rome, which was sun- day, October 3rd, 1886, was spent at St. Peter's--where we attended an impressive service, and then had our first view of the wonderful art treasures of the Vatican.
 The Rome that we saw back in 1886 presented very different appearance from the Rome of to- day. As we saw 1t then, the "Eter- nal City" was In the process of digging-out and restoration. For instance, the immortal Forum" where Cicero had orated, and Caesar had been slain--was only partly excavated, and we saw fa- nous statues and historic arches and columns tumbled about In wild confusion.
 l recall that the Forum" had such Q fascination for US that we paid 1t at least q short visit every day we were In Rome, and on the occasion of our reading Shake- speare's Julius Caesar" we spent Q couple of hours there.
 In our reading of the mighty lines of Shakespeare's play of "Julius Caesar" on the very scene of the tragedy twenty centuries ago, we had another advantage that of knowing the play by heart, and of having seen 1t performed by the greatest actors of modern times.
 All through the decade Of the 1Ss0's everybody in Europe and America knew their Shakespeare, and had seen the best perform ances ever given.
 Among the most celebrated Eur opean Shakespeare actors of that period, was the great Italian trag- edian-"Sanvini", whom the Bos- tonians and I had seen on his tour of America in the spring of 1886. We saw him in the character of "Othello". Salyini was q powerful man, but he threw such intensity in the part that his physician would not let him play 1t oftener than twice Q week. It was terrible but 1t was magnificent. His wrath at the villainy of "Iago' was sorne- thing never to forget.
 Other great European Shake- speare actors who toured America then, were "Sir Henry Irving of England. and his talented leading lady, "Ellen Terry. From Russia came "Januseck," and from Poland came that noble lady and rare genius, Countess Helen Helena Modjecka", who bought an estate In California, and became citi- zen of the United States.
 And while the best European dramatic talent of Europe came to give their interpretations of Shakespeare, America welcomed the visitors and exchanged the compliment by sending Edwin Booth" and Mary Anderson" to Europe to carry Americas tribute to the imperishable genius of shakespeare.
 Tn our reading of Shakespeare's play of Julius Caesar, Walter Eaton had recited from memory the great speech of Marc Anthony, and he had spoken the lines so admirably that our "guest-guide" applauded him and asked, MT. Eaton, how many times have you seen this play presented, and by what great actors?"
 Many times" he replied, "and by such famous American actors as Edwin Booth, Edwin Forrest, John Mccullough and Lawrence Barrett"
 recall that upon our guest guides" further questioning Wal ter Eaton, he said that in his opin- ion, Edwin Booth was "the noblest Roman" of them all, Lawrence Barrett was unrivalled in the part of "Cassius," and that Frederick Warde, whom he had in mind in his own recitation,-made splen- did impersonation of Marc An- thony.
 Our "guest-guide". the German college professor. who had become our valued friend, showed great in- terest in our having read so many Shakespeare plays in our tour through Italy. He said that he had not realized before how many of Shakespeare's finest works had been Italian themes, and how wide a variety they represented. Come to count them lip we find a full dozen, he said, and all are master pieces.
 certainly" said our guest gtilde", shakespeare has paid Italy the highest possible compll- ] ment by using Italian subjects