Life — May 26, 1887 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oa | LEGEND OF A ROSE. T laye amonge y¢ Grasses wett, A Dead Rose, neare y¢ Tennis-Nett, Once pluck'd by lovinge Fingers, Yt dewey fresh did grace Her Haire, & fell in eerie Moonshine where Ye Ghoste of Memory lingers. “Its faded Petals, wythered, sere, Maie Zephyrs strew upon Love's bier,” Ye Passione Flower is sighing ; With dreamy Payne its sore Hearte grieves, Its Secret whyspered by y¢ Leaves, Yt Love of Grief is dying. Butt no! He stringes His Silken Bowe, & mockynge Me, flits to & fro Toe sett my Hearte,a-shiver ; With Poppies I wolde putt to sleepe Ye Wanton, & do bidd him keepe His Arrowes inne His Quiver. Harold van Santvoord. THE END OF THE SEASON. HIS is the time when the metropolitan favorite, after a wearying round of triumphs, seeks a change of scene and gets it in a bewildering succession of one-night stands; and when the wandering star from the provinces comes to New York for a metropolitan endorse- ment of the latest horror by the strangers passing through the city This is also the time when the exhausted critic turns hi: to the office-boy and goes for his well-earned recreation to the Polo Grounds, While waiting for the Giants to win a game, we can take a final glance at the theatrical situation. Mr, Wallack appropriately winds up his career of mismanagement by taking his company to the pretty little theatre across the n | search of the audiences that used to come to him, It is hard that the cat in making its exit through the kitten’s hole in the fence should find the task so easy as only to excite the pity of spectators. But the misfit is complete. that has gone to seed. It is but fair to say that the company gives an adequate representation of the play. . John Gilbert and Mme. Ponisi bring a ripe experience to their familiar parts. Miss Addison gives a possible and clever performance of the lachrymose poor relation. Miss Russell is handsome, if not forcible as the intriguing governess. Miss Robe is and over-haughty representative of the over-haughty Marguerite, and Kyrle Bellew is certainly realistic as that consistent prig, Manwe/. Yet one can but wonder when the decadence of the Wallack repu- tation was so evident at home, what motive prompted this unfortunate tickets over | The play, like the company, is vivified by a sentiment | FE: «¢ ]IM the Penman” has closed its successful career at the Madison Square and given place to Clinton Stuart, Esq.’s ‘‘ Our Society.” Mrs. Verplanck’s name does not appear as co-author this season. The lady considered that if her work on the play was sufficient to entitle her to notice on the bills, it was enough to entitle her to compensation. The fact that the management held a different opinion and settled the matter simply as indicated, is an odd commentary on Mrs. Verplanck’s share in the play. If once an author, why not always an author ? * * * HE series of Authors’ Matinees at this house concluded with | -* George Parsons Lathrop and Harry Edwards’ dramatization of Tennyson’s “Elaine.” While Mr. Lathrop, who did the literary piecing and joiner-work, was more successful than Mr. Edwards, who contributed the dramatic construction, Mr. Edwards undoubtedly had the harder task. Together they deserve credit for having brought out a better play than the Poet Laureate himself has been able to produce. “Elaine” is not yet a drama, but it will act, as those know who had the privilege of seeing Miss Annie Russell’s exquisitely charming and sympathetic rendering of /a ¢res Belle Elaine, the vigorous acting of Alessandro Salvini, and the manly work of Robert Hilliard. By the way, the Authors’ Matinees are being succeeded by a series of trial matinees. The rank outsider seeks in vain for any difference except in name. * 8 8 [AST Monday an alleged comic opera was turned on at the Star Theatre. The ‘‘ Pyramid” is its not very happy title—and the work justifies the name. The authors had an excellent foundation to | build on, but their superstructure rapidly grew thinner, and soon van- ished into air. Mr. Charles Puerner wrote the music, and wrote it in a very musicianly way. Mr. Charles Puerner and Mr. Caryl Florio “wrote the libretto, and wrote it also in a very musicianly way. The fundamental idea of the book is that of two American tourists who go to sleep near the Great Pyramid and dream, apparently, that they fall in with a temporarily resurrected dynasty of mummies. Connected story there is none, and the authors proceed not to tell it for two acts, and then stop. There are love passages, some sentimental and some comic—but as the audience knows that they can lead to nothing, it fails to be interesting. A clever libretto might have carried the workmanlike but not original or brilliant music. As it is, we fear that the ‘‘ Pyramid,” like its Egyptian prototype, will serve only as the tomb of its builder. | Nevertheless, if, as its authors claim, it is the ‘‘ First American Comic Opera,” the management appear to be speaking well within bounds when they advertise its ‘unprecedented success.” Any measure of success, however, that the opera may obtain will be due to the clever acting of Mr. David, a comedian who can make fun out of nothing, to Mr. Hilliard who sings delightfully, and to the best topical song that has been sung in New York: ** Once in a thousand years.” * * * | FOWN town somewhere, at Niblos, Lawrence Barrett has been act= | ing “ Rienzi,” and starts in this week with a nightly change of bill which will fill the large house with pleased audiences. Our native Lawrence has not suffered by comparison with the imported Wilson, who has gone home with his imitation Irving, leaving the coast clear to the only real rival of the real Irving. pretty, bright | comparison with the best trained company in the country on unfamiliar grounds. Since death by inanition was inevitable, why commit suicide ? comicbooks.com