Life, 1891-11-19 · page 16 of 24
Life — November 19, 1891 — page 16: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Life* magazine critiques actress Sarah Bernhardt's performance in a play about Joan of Arc. The review dismisses both the production (calling it "uninteresting" despite fine writing) and Bernhardt's acting style (excessive shouting). The satire's real bite is its closing moral: the piece suggests women should stay home rather than involve themselves in "war and politics"—a barbed commentary on female ambition and public participation. Below, a diagram illustrates a practical joke about theater lines: a man (Jones) stands in the wrong queue at the ticket office, moving progressively further back. The humor lies in imagining the profanity he'll unleash when discovering his mistake—playing on working-class speech. A separate section mocks Wagner's dominance in German cultural preferences, expressing relief that lighter Italian opera might finally offer respite from his heavy compositions. The bottom cartoon shows women gossiping about a death, written in exaggerated dialect humor typical of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
JOAN OF ARC. M ADAME SARA BERNHARDT is so innately artistic that whatever she well done, but in“ Joanne d’Are " the odds are heavily against her. The piece itself is well written, stately, picturesque and uninteresting. The divine Sara does a deal of shouting, and it is a dull subject that demands such heroic treatment, The unintentional moral of the play is that self-respecting girls had better remain at home and leave the dirty work of war and politics to the men. IFE is looking forward with honest pleasure to Italian opera. For years our German brethren have rubbed the other thing into us pretty thoroughly, and those brazen brutes who have had the effrontery to prefer lighter wares to those of Wagner have suffered a weary martyrdom that seems almost a sufficient atonement for their crime. The new experience will be a relief to those frivolous spirits who prefer melody to science, and think a dinner should not consist wholly of beef and pork. € A. Represents a ticket office. BB. “ line of people waiting to purchase tickets. the point where Jones stood at 9 A. M. the point where Jones stood at 10 A. M. the point where Jones stood at tt A.M. How long will it take the Recording Angel to note the language used by Jones when he reaches A and finds he has been standing in the wrong line ? “WHAT DID SHE DIE OF 2?” OF YO ACCOUNT WITHOUT A VICE.— “SHE OVERLOADED HER STUMMICK WITH TURKEY AN MINCE PIE ON THANKSGIVIN' The carpenter. “OH, WHAT A LOVERLY DEATH—HOW I ENVY'S HER CORPSE!” comicbooks.com