Life — September 15, 1898 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

ey Tho other characters are not remarkable, but aro adequately rendered ty the members of Mr. Sothern’s company. Mr. Unitt bas provided the piece with some exquisite cighteenth-century settings. Tho author has become a dramatist, and all NOT ALWAYS. “OTIS LOVE THAT MAKES TILE WORLD GO ROUN Lady Ursula’s Legs. R. ANTHONY P HOPE has made adiscovery. Tho great fact which be exploits in “ The Adventure of Lady Ursula” at the Lyceum Theatre was already known to a few of us elect, but none of us has dared voico it quite so openly as has Mr. Hope in his latest play. He has found out that romen’s legs are not disgraceful. This is flying directly in tho faco of tho sentiment prevalent in Boston, Massachusetts, at As- bury Park, New Jersey, and which was made of judicial record y a certain Spanish Queen who ordered tho instant garroting of a courtier who presented her with a dozen pairs of silk stock- ings, thereby implying that shoe had limbs on which to piace them, When * The Black Crook” was first pro- sented in New York, it will be rea bered, this topic created a tremendous discussion in press and pulpit, but since then the stago bas frankly admitted that women have logs. They are strongly in evidence in bal- lot and farce: dy, They are indicated in tho productions of Shakespeare's plays and in some more modern dramas, but it was left for Mr. Hope to make them part of plot and an essential of dialogue, The free discussion of Lady Ursula’s legs in this play and the common use of the bicycle may be taken to have dealt the death: blow to a delusion based on Puritanism and tho now departed Spanish supremacy, Miss Harned, who plays Lady Urswa, is not half so frank about the noble lady's legs as Mr. Hope ix, She conceals in high boots whut be reveals in very open conver= sation, but nevertheless she makes the ebaracter very charming, and, as it was in- tended to be, the leading one in the piece. She has faults of delivery which should be corrected, but she is beautiful as a woman, intelligent as an actress, and as boy and girl realizes very completely the author's ideal. Her advance in her art during tho past few years has, unfortunately, not been equaled by Mr. Sothern. As Sir George Syl- vester ho impersonates a character which fits bim very well, but the personal brusque- ness und indifference which bave given bim fame in other parts rather mar this one, Noticeably is this true in the little passage of repartee between him and Lady Ursula in the secondact. Theauthor has intended to give her the better of the encounter, but Mr. Sothern jerks out his questions in a mechanical way which destroys the idea of conversation and makes us hear very dis- tinctly tho clank of the literary cogwheels, of Mr. Hope's later books seem written with a viow to thuir subsequent dnunatization, The second act, and the third, containing the duel scene, are in the very highest form of comedy writing. The fourth, which is anti- climax, and is introduced evidently for the sole purpose of restoring to the beroino her charms in feminine attire, might well be omitted and replaced by the lengthening of the third, All in all, “The Adventure of Lady Ursula” is a charming entertainment, and neitber in fact nor words do her lower ex- tromities intrude themselves to the point where they would bring the faintest blush to the cheek of a Lycoum matinée girl as she was before the days of “The Tree of Knowledge.” . . * ERE'S a-hoping that the American type of theatrical manager may soon die out, There aro a few scholarly gentie- men in tho business, but they could be listed on ono’ thumb-nail, The majority of the American managers extant gained their educations at the head of negro min- strel parades or in clubbing too adven- turous small boys from under circus tents. For such men to have an ought-to-be artis- tic profession in their keeping leads natu- rally to the supremacy of institutions like the present Theatrical Trust, . . . sean of the Theatrical Trust, Lrrz © is informed that the refined specu- lators who make up that body have up their sleeves criminal indictments and libel suits for anyone who dares write disrespectfully of them or their productions, Lire will continue, as heretofore, to print the truth, Metcalfe. Financial Item. HORT: I say, Long, lend me ten dollars until the fifteenth, will you? Loxa: Sorry, old man, but I've got some heavy bills to mect on the six- teenth, A LENOX PaKMER.