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Miss Bretherton

Miss Bretherton image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
October
Year
1891
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

ADTHOR OF "BOBEItT ELSMEKE." [CONTINÜED.J i vaa oue oï tta must raeritorious passages m the rather heavy Germuu play trom which the "White Lady" had beeu adüpted. H as intended to show the fjimur il' and passiooato eharacter of the countcss. and I I bat vein of extravagancp and danng ín her whieh was the esplanati'):! of the suluequent acts. In tho original t)je dialogue had ,-i cvrtain Gcrmaii furcoand ihtensity, which lost nothing of its occasional beaviuess in tho mouth of Hawes, the large boued, sivaggeriug personage who played tlL prince. An aetrets with sufficient forco of fteliug, auil aa artistio sense subtlo enough to suggest to her the necessary rnodulation, could hare made a great mark in it. But the flrst words almost revealed Isabel Bretherton's limitations, and before two minutes wero over Kendal was consciou3 of a completo collapse of that sympathetic relation between him and the actress which the first scène had produced. In another sentence or two the spell had been irrevocably broken, and ha seemed to himself to have passed from a state of sensitiveness to all that was exquisita and rare in her to a state of mero irritable consciousness oí her defects. It was evident to him that in a sceno of great capabilities sha never once rosa beyond the tricks of an elementary elocution; that her violence had a touch of commonnes3 in it which was almost vulgarity, and tbat even her attitudes had lost half their charm. For, iu the effort - the conscious and labored effort of acting - her movements, which had exereised such an enchantment over him ia the first scène, had beeome mere strides and rushe3; never, indeed, without grace, but often without dignity, and at all times lackins in that consistency, that unity of pian whieh u the soul of art. The sense of chili and disillusion was eztremely disagreeable to him, and by the time the scène was half way througb. he had almost ceased to watch her. Edward Wallace, who had seen her some two or tbree times iu the part, was perfectly conscious of the change, and had been looking out for it. "Uot ïnuch to be said of her, I am airaid, when she comes to business,'' ha said to Kendal in a whisper, as tho two lcaned against the door of tho. bos. "Where did she get those tiresome tricks sha has, that seesaw intonation she puts on when sbo wants to bo pathetic, and that absurd restlessness which spoils everything? It's a terrible pity. Sometimes I thiuk 1 catch a gleam of some original power at the bottoni, but there is such a lack of inteüigence - in the artist sense. It Is a striking instance of how rnuch and how little can be done without education." "It is curiously bad, certainly," said Kendal, while tho actress' denunciations of her lover were Btül ringing through the theatre. "But louk ut tha house! What folly it Í3 ever to expect a great dramatic art in England. We havo uo seuso Cor the rudiment of the thmg. Tne Frencb would uo more tolérate such ac.ing as this because of the beauty of tbs ;:c:res than they would judgo a jiicturo by H.s frame. However, if men like Forbes leave taeir judgrae:it behiud them, it's no wonder if commqner mortala follow Buit." "There!" said Wallace, with a sigh of relief as the curtain feil ou the first act, "thafs done with. 'I'sere are two or three things in the secoud act that are beautifuL Iu her first appearance as tho White Lady she is as wonderful as ever, but tho third aot is a nuisance" "No whisperin.j taare," said Forbes, looking round upon thcm. "Oh, I know what you'reafter, EJiiard, perfectly. I hear it all with one ear." "That," said Wallace, inoving up to him, "is physically impossibíe. Don't be so pugnacious. We leavo you the front of the box, and when we appear iu your territory our mouths are closed. But in our own domain we claim the right of free men." "Poor girll" said Forbes, with a sigh. "How she maneges to tamo London as she does is a marvel to me. If sho wcro a shade less perfect and wonderful than she is she would have been torn to pioces by you critics long ago. You have done your best as it is, only the public won't listen to you. Oh, don't suppose I don't see all that you see. The critical poison's in my veins just as it is in yours, but I hold it in check- it shan't master me. I wïll have my pleasure in spite of it, and whon I come across anything in life that makes me feel I will protect my feelings from it with all my might." "We are dumb," said Kendal, witb a smile; "otherwise I would pedantically ask you to consider what are tho feelings to Which the dramatic art properly and legitimately appeals." "On, hang your dramatic art!" said Forbes, firing up; "can't you take thiugs simplyandstraightforwardly? She is there - she is doing her best for you - there isn't a movement or a look which isn't as glorious as that of a Diana come to earth, and you won't let it charm you and conquer you, because she isn't into the bargain as confoundedly clever as you are yourselves! Well, it's your loss, not hers." "My dear Mr. Forbes," said Mrs. Stuart, ' trith her little judicial peace making air, "we shail go away contented. You will have had your sensation, they will have had i their sense of superioi ity, and as for me, I ! shall get the best of it all round. For, while you are here, I see Miss Bretherton with your eyes, and yet, as Edward will get hold of me on the ay home, I shan't go to bed without baviiig erperienced all tho joys of criticism! Oh! but now, bush, and listen to this music. It is ouo of the best things in the evening, and we shall have the White Lady directly." As she spoLa the orchestra, which was a good one, umi perhaps the most satisfactory feature in the performance, broke into some v weird Mendi:lssohnian music, and when the note of plaiutiveness aud tnyatery had been well established, the curtaiii roso upon the great armory of the castle, a dim d.stiuguishable light shmiug uion its fretied roof and masses of taaitly gleaming steeL The sceuo wuich followed, in which tho Countess Hüda, disguised as tho traditional phautom of tho üobeuzoherns, wuosoappearauce bodes misfortuin' and death to thoso who beuoid it, tnrows herseif across the path of hem val in t na üupe of driving her and those interested in her by sheer foi-co of terror from tho castle and from Berlín, had been poetically conceived, and it furmshed Miss Brether on with an admiralile opportunity. Asthe Whito Lady.güdingbetween ; rows of armed and spectral figures on either hand, and starJiug the prineMi and hercompamon by lier sudden ap;jarition in a gleam of moonlight across the Hoor, she was once more the representativo of all that is most j poetical and romantic in pbysical beauty. Hay, more than this; as she flung her white ' arms above her head, or pointed to the I shrinking and fainting figure of her rival while she uttered her wailing traditional I prophecy of woe, her whole personality ; seemed to be invested with a dramatio force of which there had been no trace in the long and violent scène with the prince, It was dnough süe was .'blo of es ig berself In action and movetnent, while ia all the urts of speech Bhe "as a mero cmde novice. At any iate, tbci'e could bo no doubt tb:it in t'nis ono scène she realizerl the utmost limits of the author'a ideal, nml when sbe (aded into the darkuess bcj'ond this nioor.light in whlch slie bad first appeared, tbe house, whicb had been breatblessly silent during tbe progresa of tho apparition, burst iuto a roar of ap]ausef in wbicb WallacO and Kendal heartily joined. "Exquisite!" said Kendal in Mrs. Stuart's ear, as he stood behind her chair. "Sho was romance itself! lier acting should always bo a kind of glorified and poetical pantomine ; she would be inimitable so.". Mrs. Stuart looked up and smiled agreement, "Yes, that scène livcs with one. If everything elsa in the play is poor, she is worth seeing for that alone. Remember it!'1 The little warniag wa3 in season, for tbo poor White Lady had but too many after opportunities of blurring the impression she had made. In the great situation at the end of the secoad act, in which the countess has to gire, in the presence of the court, a summary of tho supposed story of the White Lady, her passion at once of lovo and hatred charges it with a forcé and meaning, whicb, for the first time, rouses the suspicions of the princo as to the reality of the supposed apparition. In tho two or three fine aud dramatic speeches which the situation involved, the actress showeij the samo absence of knowledga and resources as before, the samo powerlessness to créate a personality, the same lack of all those quicker and more delicate of perceptions wnich we includa under the geuerai term "refinemeut," and which, in the practico of any art, are the outcome af long and complex proee,sses of education. There, indeed, was the bald, plain fact - the whole explanation of her failure as an artist lay in her lack both of the Iower and of the higher kinds of education. It was evident that her technical training had been of the roughest. In all technical respects, indeed, her acting had a self taught, provincial air, wjiich showed you that she had natural cleverness, but that her models had been of the poorest type. And in all other respects, when it came to interpretation or creation, sho was spoiled by her entire want of that iuheritance from the past which is the foundation of all good work in the present. For an actress must have one of the two kinds of knowledge; sha raust have either the knowledge which comes from a fine training - in itself the outcome of a long tradition- or she must hare the kjowledge which comes from E:se living, fiom the aocumulations of personal thought and experience. Mis3 Bretherton had neither. She had extraordiuary beauty and charm, aud cértainly, as Kendal admitted, some original quickness. He was not inclined to go so far as to cali it "power." But tbis quickness, which would have been promising in a debutante less riehly endowed on the physical side, seemed to him to have no future in her. "It will be checked," he said to himself, "by her beauty and all that flows from it. She must come te depend more and more on the physical charm, and on that only. The whole pressure of her Euceess is and will be that way." Miss Bretherton's inadequacy, indeed, became more and more visible as the play was gradually and finely worked up to its climax in the last act. ín the final scène of all, the prince, who, by a series of aeeidents, has discovered the Countess Hilda's plans, lies in wait for her in the aimory, where he has reason to know she means to try the effect of a third and last apparition upon the princess. She appears; he suddenly confronts her; and, dragging her forward, unveils before himsef and the princess the death liks features of his old love. Recovering from the shock of detectioo , the countess pours out upon them both a fury of jealous passion, sinking by degrees into a pathetic, trance like invocation of the past, under the spell of which the prince's anger melts away, and the little princess' terror and excitement change into eager pity. Then, when she sees him almost reconquered, and her rival weeping beside her, sho takes the poison vial from her breast, drinks it, and dies in the arms of the man for whose sake she has sacrificed beauty, character and life itself. A great actress could hardly have wished for a better opportunity. The scène was so obviously beyond Miss Bretherton's resoui-ces that even the enthusiastio house, Kei:dal fancied, cooled down during the progres of it There were signs of restlessness, there was even a little taiking in some of the back ! rows, and at no timo during the scène waa there any of that breathless absorption in what was passing on the stage which the dramatic material itself amply deserved. "I don't tbink this will lastvery long,"said Eendal in Wallace's ear. "There is something tragic in a popularity like this; it rests on something unsound, and one feels that disaster is not far off. The whole thing iinpresses me most painfuily. She bas somo capacity, of course; if only the conditions had been different- if sne had been bom within a hundred miles of the Paris conservatoire, if her youth had been passed in a society of more intellectual weight- but, as it is, this very applause is ominous, for tho beauty raust go sooner or later, and there is nothing else." "You remember Desforets in this same theatre last year in 'Adrienne Lecouvreuri' " said Wallace. "What a gulf between the rigbt thing and the wrong I But come, wellust do ourduty;" and hedrew Kendal forward towards the front of the box, and they saw the whole house on its feet, clapping and shouting, and the curtain just bêing drawn back to let the White Lady and the Prinea appeai ; before it. She was very pale. but tho storm ! of applause which greeted her seemed to revive her, and she swept her smiling glance round the theatre, untü at last it rested with a special gleam of recognition on the party in the box, espeeially on Forbes, who was outdoing himself in enthusiasm. She was called forward again and again, until at last the house was content, and the general exit began. The instant after her w.hjte dresshad appeared" fioin tlie stage a ittle page boy kioeked at the door of tho box witu a message that "JJiss Bretherton begs tbat Mrs. Stuart and her friends will como and sce her." Out they all trooped alonganarrow passage and up a short staircaso, until a rough temporary door was thrown open, and they f ound themsel ves in the wings, the great stage, on which the scenery was being hastily Bhifted, lying to their right. Tho lights were being put out; onlyafewgas jets were left burning round a pillar, besido which stood Isabel Bretherton, her long phantom dress lying in white folds about her, her unele and etint and her manager standing near. Every detail of the picture- tho spot of brilliant light bounded on all sides by dim, far reaching vistas of shadow, the figures hurrying across the back of the stage, the moving ghost-lil;e vrorkmen all around, and in tho midst that white hooded, lacguid figure - revived in Kendal's menaory whenever in after daj's his thoughts went wandering back to the first moment of real contact between his own peraonality and that of Isabel Bretherton. CHAPTEB IV. A few daya after the performauce of the "White Lady," Kendal, in tho course of h s weekly letter to his sister, sent her a fairly detailed account of the evening, including the interview with her after the play, which had left two or three very marked impressions upon him. "I wish," he wrote, "I could only couvey to you a sense of her personal charm such as migbt balance the impression of her artistic defects, which I supposo this account of mine cannot but leavo on you. When I carne away that night after our conversation with her I had entirely iorgotten her failure as an actress, and it is only later, since I havo thought over tho evening in detail, that I have turned to my first staudpoint of wonder at the easy toleration of the English public. When you are actually with her, talking to her, looking at her, Forbes' attitude is the only possible and reasonable one. What does art, or cultivatlon, or training matter? I found myself saying, as I walked home, in echo of him- so long as nature will only condescend once in a hundred years to produce for us a creature so perfect, so fioely fashioned to all beautiful uses! Let other people go through the toil to acquire; their aim is truth ; but here is beauty in its quintessence, and what is beauty but three part3 of truth? Beauty is harmony with the universal order, a revelation of laws and perfections of which, in our common groping through a dull morid, we find In general nothing to remind us. And, if so, what folly to ask of a human creature that it should be more than beautiful 1 It is a raessenger f rom the gods, and we treat it as if it were any common traveler along the highway of ljfe, and cross-examine it for its credeutials instead of raising our altar and sacrificing to it with grateful hearts. "That was my latest impression of Friday night. But, naturally, by Saturday moruing I had returned to the rational point of view. The mind's morning climate is removed by many degrees from that of the evening; and the critical revolt which the whole spcctadle of the 'White Lady' had originally roused in me revived in all its force. I began, indeed, to feel as if I and humanity, with its long, laborious tradition, wero oa one side, holding our owu agaiust a young and arrogant ajrgressor - namely, beauty, in the person of Miss Bretherton. How many men and women, I thought, havo labored and struggled and died in the effort to reach a higher and higher perfoction in one single art, and are they to be outdone, eclipsed iu a moment, by somethiug which is a mere freak of nature; something which, like the lilies of the field, has neither toiled nor spun, and yet claims the special inheritance and reward of those who have? It seemed to me as though my feeling in her presence of the night before, ns if the sudden overthrow of the critical resistance in me, had been a kind of treachery to the human cause. Beauty has power enough, I found myself reflecting with some fierceness - let us withhold from her a sway and a prerogative which are not rightly hers; let us defend against her that store of human sympathy whicu is the proper reward, not of her facüe and bearen born perfections, but of labor and intelligence of all that is complex and teuacious in the workings of the human spirit. "And then, as my mood cooled still further, I began to recall many an evening at the Francaise witb you, and one part af ter another, one actor after another, recurred to me, till, as I realized afresh whai dramatic intelligence and dramatic training; really are, I feil into an angry contempt for out lavish English enthusiasms. Poorgirl! it ia not her fault if she believes herself to be a great actress. Brought up under misleading conditions, and without any but tho most elementary cducation, how is she to know what the real thing means? She ünds herself the rage within a lew weeks of her appearance in the greatest city in the world. Naturally Bhe paj"s no heed to her criücs - why would she? "And she is indeed a most perplexing mixture. Do what I will, I caunot harmoniza all my different impressions of her. Let ma begin again. YVTiy is it that her acting is so poor? I never saw a more dramatic personality! Everything that shesaysor does is said or done with a wrath, a forcé, a vivacity that makes her smallest gesture and her lightest tone impress themselves upon you. I feit this very strongly two or three tiraea after the play on Friday night- in her talk with Forbes, for instance, whom she has altogether in her toils, and whom she plays with as though he were the gray headed : Merlin and she an innocent Vivien weaving harmless speüs about him. And then, from thismocking war of words and looks, this gay camaraderie, in which thero was not a scrap of coquetry or self consciousness, she would pass into a sudden oo ' urst of anger as to the Impertineuce of Engliaj rich people, the impertinence of rich millionaires who have tried once or twice to 'order' her for iheir evening parties as they would order their ices; pr tho impertinence of the young 'swell about tosvn' who thinks she has nolhing to do behind the scènes but receive bis visits and provide him with entertainment. And, as the quick, impetuous words camo rushing out, you feit that here for once was a woman speaking her real mind to you, and that with a flashing eye aad curving lip, an inborn grace and energy which made every word memorable. If she would but look like that or speak like that on the stage I But there, of course, is the rub. The whole difflculty of art consista in losing your own personality, so to speak, and fiuding it again transformed, and it is a difficuty which Miss Brethertou has nover even understood. "Af ter the impressiou of spontaneity and natural forcé, I think what struck me most tras the physical effect London has already exercised upon her In six weeks. She looks ■uperbly sound and healthy; she is tall and fully developed, and her color, for all its delicacy, is pure and glowing. But, after all, she was born in a languid, tropical climate, and it is the nervous stram, the rush, the incessant occupation of London which seern to be telling upon her. She gave me two or three times a painful irapression of fatigue on Friday- fatigue and something like depression. After twenty minutes' talk sha threw herself back against the iron pillar behind her, her White Lady's hood framing a face so na2ê.%nd drooping that we all gotup togo, réeiiuV.i.Tt IC . ■ - 1 Keep Her upaimuiii Itrï. Ötuart asked hor about her Sumiays, and whether she ever got out of tovrn. 'Oh,' she said, witn a sigh and a look at her uncle, who was stauding near, 'I think Sunday istho hardest day of all. It is our "at home" day, and such crowds come - just to look at me, 1 suppose, for I cannot talk to a quarter oL thein.' Whereupon -Mr. Worrall said in bis bland commercial way that society had its bardons as well as its pleasures, and that his dear nieco could hardly escape her social duties af ter the flafctering manner in which London had welcomed her. Miss Bretherton nnswered, with a sort of languid rebellion, that her social duties would soon be the death of her. But evidently she is very docila at home, and they do what they like with her. It seems to me that the uncle and aunt are a good deal shrewder thau the London public; it is borne in upon me by various indications that they know exaetly what their niece's popularity depends on, and that it very possibly may not be a lu:ig livcd one. Accordingly they have determined on two things: first, that she shall make as mueh money for the famil v as can by any means be made, and, secondly, that she shall find her way into London soci ety and secure if possible a great parti bef oro the enthusiasm for her has had time to chili. Ono hears various stories of the uncle, all iu this sense; I cannot say how truo they are. 'However, tho upshot of tho supper party was tïiat next day Wallace, Forbes and I met at Mrs. Stuart's house and formed a Sunday league for the protection of Miss Bretherton f rom her f amily ; iu other words, we mean to secure that she has occasional rest and country air on Sunday- her only freo day. Mrs. Stuart has already wrung out of Mrs. Worrall, by a little judicious scariag, permission to carry her off for two Sundays - one this mooth and one next- and Miss Bretherton's romantic side, which is curiously strongQiu her, has been touehed by the suggestion that the Eecond Sunday shall be spent at Oxford. "Probably for the flrst Sunday - a week henee - we shall go to öurrey. You remember Hugh Farnham's property near Leith Hill ! I kuo w all the farms about there f rom old shooting days, and thera is óne on the edge of some great commons which would bo perfection on a May Sunday. I will writo you a full account of our day. Tho only rulo laid down by the league is that things aro to be so pianaged that Miss Bretherton is to have no possible excuse for fatigue so long as she is in the hands of the society. "My book goes on fairly well. I have been making a long study of DeMusset, with tho result that tho poems seem to me far finer than I had remembered, and the 'Confessions d'un Enfant du Siècle' a miserable performance. Kow was it it impressed me so much when 1 read it first? His poems have reminded me of you at every step. Do you remember how you used to read them aloud to our mother and me af ter dinner, whilethe father had his sleep before going down to the house!" Ten days later Kendal speut a long Monday evening in writing the following letter to his lister: "Our yesterday's expeditiou was, I think, a great suecess. Mrs. Stuart was happy, becauso she had for once induced Stuart to put away hi3 papers and allow himself a holiday ; it was Miss Bretherton's first sight of the genuine English country, and she was like a child among the gorse and tho hawthorns, while Wallace and I amused our manly selves extremely weil in befriending tho most beautiful wonian iu the British isles, in drawing her out and watching her strong naive impressions of things. Stuart, I think, was not quite happy. It is hardly to be expected of a lawyer in the crisis of his fortunes that he should enjoy ten hours' divorce from his brief s; but ho did his best to reach the commor levVil, and his vrife, who is devoted to hún, and might as well not be married at all, from the point of view of marital companionship, evidently thought him perfection. The day more than conflrraed my liking for Mrs, Stuart; there are certain littlo follies about her; she is too apt to regard every dist in - guished dinner party she and Stuart attend as an event of enormous and universal est, and beyond London society her sympatbits hard!y reach, except in that vague ch&rltable fornl which is rather pity and toleration tban sympathy. But she is kindly, ffomanly, soft: she has do small jealousies ind none of that petty self eonsciousness which makes so many women wearisome to the great majority of plain men, who have no wish to take their social eierciscs too much au serieux. "I was curious to see what sort of a relationship she and Jliss Bretherton had developed toward each other. Mrs. Stuart is nothingif not cultivated; her light individuality floats easily on the stream of London tuought, now with this current, now with that, but always in movement, Bever left behind. She has the usual literary and artistio topics at her fingers' end, and so she knows evgrybody. Whenever the mere abstract sides of a subject begin to bore her, she can fall back upou an endles3 store of gossip as ürely, as brightly colored, and, on the whole, as harmless as she herseli is. Miss Bretherton had tiíl a week or two ago but two subjects- Jamaica and the stage- the latter taken in a somewhat narrow sense. Now she has added to her store of knowledge a great number of first impressions of London notorieties, which naturally throw her mind and Mrs. Stuart's moro frequently into contact with each other. But I se6 that, af ter all, Mrs. Stuart had no need of any bridges of this kind to bring her on to common ground with Isabel Bretherton. Her strong womanliness and the learen of warm hearted youth still stirring in her would be quite enough of themselves, and besides, there is a critical delight in the girl's beauty and the little personal pride and excitement sho undonbtedly feels at having, in so creditable and natural a manner, secured a hold on the most interesting person of the season. It is curiou3 to see her forgetting her own specialties and negleeting to make her own points that she may bring her coiupanion forward and set her in the best light. Miss Bretherton takes her homage very prettily ; it is natural to her to be made much of, and she does not refuse it, but she in her turn evideutly admires enormously her friend's social capabilities and cloverness, and she is impulsively eager to make sume return for Mrs. Stuart's kindness- an eagerness whieh shows itself ín the greatest conplaisance toward all tue Stuarts' friends, and in a constant watchfulness for anything whioh will please and üatter them. "However, here I ain as usual wastmg time ia analysis instead of describing to you our Sunday. It was one of thoso heavenly days with which May startles us out of our winter pessimism ; sky and earth seemed to be alike clothed in a young iridescent beauty. "We found a carriage wa.ting for us at the station, and we drove along a great main road until a sudden turn landed us in a green track traversing a land of endlesscommons, as wild and as f orsakeu of human kind as though it were a región in some virgin continent. Ou either hand the gorse was thick and golden ; great oaks, splendid in tha first dazzling sharpness of their spring green, threw vast staadows over tha fresh moist grass beneath, and over the lambs sleeping beside their fleecy mothers, while the hawthorns rose into the sky in masses of rose fcinted snow, each tree a shining miracle of white set in the onvirouing blue. "Then came the farm houso- old, red brick, red tüed, casemented- everythlng that the $stLetjc soul desires- the farmer and bis ' wlfa idSBflg out Tor us, a:tl a frteas&r.t, homely meal ready n tlie painr, with ita l laat century woodwork. "Forbes was greatly in nis element at lunch. I never knew him moro racy ; he gave us biographies, mostly imaginary, illustrated by sketches, made in the intervals of eating, of the sitters whose portraití he has coadescended to take this year. They range from a bishop and a royalty down to a little girl picked up in tha London streets, and hia presentation of the characfceristic attitudes of eách - those attitudes which, according to Mm, betray the 'inner aoal' of the bishop or the foundlin-- was admirable. Then he feil upon the acodemy- tbat respected body oí which I sujiposc he will soon be tbe president - and tore it limb from limb. With what face I shall ever sit at the samo table with him at the aeadeniy diimers of the futuro - supposÍ1H fortune ever eialts me again as Süe did this year to tbat auguat ineal- { hardly know. Muíais' Caces, fettie's knights or Calderou's beautie-s- all fared the same. You could not say it was ill natured; it was simply the bare truth of things put in tho whimsical manner which is natural to Forbes. f TO BK CONTTNÜED. 1

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Ann Arbor Register