Punch (90.1886)

Mat 15, 1886.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 237

play-books used to have it, "being supposed to be ou the stage
facing the audience," and the performance is the text illustrated—
and here I may say if it were illustrated with a few more " cuts,"
such an operation, in any new edition, would be of considerable
benefit to the tragedy.

If, then, it was the intention of the authors to represent an aban-
doned female character, worse than Theodora and viler than Dattdet's

Sapho, to dress up,
in the garb of classic
Greece, B.C. 404, the
kind of shameful
story that formed a
part of the hideous
revelations which the
Pall Mall Gazette,
last year, deemed
necessary to publish
for_ the benefit of
society at large and
to hasten forward the
amendment of the
criminal law,—then
they could not have
gone a better way to
work than in con-
•ecian Sta- structing the plot of
.'tor, of the Clito, and represent-
or Speech, delivered a uZ^InlrT^s f?fe ^
Irene, "The Maid of Athens," who is just home characters oi the m-
from school and the back-board exercise. famous Helle, the
,. . , . , . wolfish, unsatiated
sensualist u-laucias, and his iamblike, innocent victim, the "Maid of
Athens," under seventeen at all events.

If the authors intended Clito, the celebrated sculptor, to be a
weak, self-conceited, impressionable, prosy individual, so ignorant
2 j u-W0 arolm(i nlm> so careless about the models which should
feed his art, that he has not made himself acquainted with the form
and features of an openly notorious character like the courtesan
Helle, who lives in a palace and reigns as a Princess in Athens,—if
the authors meant their Clito to he a self-deceiver, who, when most
in earnest, is unable to distinguish between real love and animal
passion, until the creature he has worshipped no longer dissembles
her love but kicks him down-stairs, having previously given him
"what for" in the best classic Billingsgate,—if they meant this,
then "Barottdy" are to be congratulated on the performance of
Mr. Wilson Bareett as Clito, for the existence of a more contemptible
creature than he makes him appear can scarcely be imagined even
by himself and his partner. And this is a compliment to the actor's
art, for the better Mr. Barrett's performance, the worse it is for the
character he represents. So also for Miss Eastlake. I have never
seen her more powerful than
when, in the fourth Act, she
spurns Clito; perfectly agree-
ing with her ia her opinion
of Clito, I was so struck
by the amazing energy of her
vividly realistic performance,
that I applauded her most
heartily. This was a tribute
to her art, for, if "Babtjhty"
intended their Helle to be a
coarse, utterly heartless,
fiendish "Wanton, without pne
solitary redeeming quality,
then they must be sincerely
gratefuL to the actress, who,
whatever may be her private
opinion of the part, has sur-
rendered her judgment to 1 'J*. ,' ' ''A'
theirs, and has thoroughly em- Hcl% to Theodora. "What! you think
bodied the authors' conception f^^tfl^^' do ^? J,ah!
of this detestable character. 1 d make two of ?™ any day! »

"What Theodora did, as far as Andreas is concerned, she did for
love; what Helle does to Clito, she does for hate. The two plays
are very close in their resemblance, except the motive. The plot of
Theodora is strong; this of Clito, without comparing it with Theo-
dora, is weak.

The character of Glaucias, as well played by Mr. "Wellabd as I
suppose it could be by anyone, is idiotic in action and brutal in idea.
Xenocles, professor of sculpting, is an old fool, who rates Clito soundly
for his conduct, and then speaks of him as " a great man fallen,"
after he has passed a week in riotous living in Helle's palace, at,
as far as he knows, HellPs expense, after he has betrayed his
friends, and after he has handed over Xenocles' daughter—his own
foster-sister—to the tender care of the woman whose atrocious
character the minute before has been laid bare to him! "Why, for

this helpless, cringing, mean-spirited cur there cannot be one atom
of pity, still less of respect.

As to the dialogue—whether blank verse or not—it may be good
for " Bakttndy," but it is decidedly not up to what, away from
blank verse, I recoUect of Grundy.
The repartees are of the schoolboyish
tu quoque order—which is Latin, not
Greek,—and among the poetic similes
are some good old friends, though I
doubt whether, in "the cat and canary"
) one, the " Baettn'dy " are correct in
S^si-"] supposing that the Greeks knew much
' Q>! about canaries.

But—pace the authors—it does occur
to me, that if Sarah Bernhabdt had
[f aSi played Helle, and had insisted on giving
01 her own interpretation of their mean-
g»l ing, and if an audience had seen the
tf1 diaphanous and lithesome Saeah wind-
ing herself round Clito, purring to him,
wheedling him, posing to him in care-
The Monster Glaucias. " Fe less artistic fashion, and giving us brief
fi fo fum! Where is the Maid " asides " full of the deadliest purpose,
of Athens! Where is that joh WOuld not we—we men, at least—have
morgan a croguer ? I must sympathised with Clito, while owning
eat ner • that such a woman, apparently so feeble,

so frail, and so fond, would have made a fool of any one of us, if we
had once the misfortune to fall into the clutches of such a dangerous
syren ? Could anyone be more of the gutter than Saeah, when Theo-
dora, disguised, goes to see her old friend the sorceress r Could any-
one be more fiendish than Saeah, when she hears Marcellus's
confession, and stabs him ere he can utter her lover's name ? And
could anything be sweeter, more
loving and coaxing than her
manner when she was toying
with Andreas ? And as Fedora
in the closing scene—not Theo-
dora—could any remorse be more
thrilling than hers, in that last
death-struggle with the lover, of
whose life she has been the curse.

There is a fifth Act of Clito,
intended to give Miss Eastlake
the sort of chance that Saeah

fenerally has in similar plays;
ut though she does all she can
to make it terrible, the motive
is wanting, and all interest in
the play is over. Better for the
pair of them had they both ended
their lives with the other prin-
cipals in the melee at the end of Xenocles the Sculptor, and respected
Act IV., when Xenocles enters President of the Royal Athenian Acade-
bearing, like Virginius, the my-B.C.404,repeatsthestrikinKincident
dead body of Irene in his arms, ^ the history of V irginius B.C. 449,
and incites the populace to Shendano Knowleso auctore dramaUco.
vengeance. I hope the day is not far distant when Mr. Baeeett will
give us a good wholesome melodrama, with George Barrett as the
Comic Butler or sympathetic Costermonger, and Mr. Willard as the
Gentlemanly Villain, the Claude Dural— not the Restaurateur who
gave his name to cheap dinners, but Bulwer's Highwayman—of the
" so-called Nineteenth Century." Unless they are prepared to assent
to the proposition that "the Happiness which rewards Virtue may be
inferred from the representation of Vice and its consequent misery,"
I could not conscientiously recommend the Maiden Aunt from
Clapham and "the young person" to select Clito for their evening's
recreation. Tours- Steele Nibbs.

I/ucus a non Lucendo.

Loyal ? Nay, Ulster, you, for very shame
Should cede your long monopoly of that name,
Loyal to whom—to what! To power, to pelf,
To place, to privilege, in a word, to self.
They who assume, absorb, control, enjoy all,
Must find it vastly pleasant to be " loyal."

Oil and "Water.—"We shall return to the " Pick of the Pictures "
on our Second Visit to the Academy, and intend giving our usual
Grosvenor Gems. Also, Mr. Punch has another artistic treat in
store for everybody. But we will not anticipate.

Dueing the Exhibition, the fountains will, of course, be supplied
with Eau de Cologneries.