suspended from the palms formed a wreath just above her head. Standing
up, she listened to an indifferent sonnet. After reading his verses M.
Coppée approached Mme. Sarah Bernhardt and kissed both her hands, but
she, bending down towards the poet, offered him her cheeks to kiss. M.
Mendès, M. Haraucourt, and M. André Theuriet then read their sonnets
with the same simple ceremonial, amid applause. A sonnet by M. de
Heredia, read by M. Morand, was not sufficiently audible. Finally, M.
Edmond Rostand came forward and recited the following verses in clear,
resonant tones--
En ce temps sans beauté, seule encor tu nous restes
Sachant descendre, pâle, un grand escalier clair,
Ceindre un bandeau, porter un lys, brandir un fer.
Reine de l’attitude et Princesse des gestes.
En ce temps, sans folie, ardente, tu protestes!
Tu dis des vers. Tu meurs d’amour. Ton vol se perd.
Tu tends des bras de rêve, et puis des bras de chair.
Et quand Phèdre paraît, nous sommes tous incestes.
Avide de souffrir, tu t’ajoutas des cœurs;
Nous avons vu couler--car ils coulent, tes pleurs!--
Toutes les larmes des nos âmes sur tes joues.
Mais aussi tu sais bien, Sarah, que quelquefois
Tu sens furtivement se poser, quand tu joues,
Les lèvres de Shakespeare aux bagues de tes doigts.
[Illustration: Caricature of Mme. Sarah Bernhardt by Capiello.]
Long-continued applause greeted these beautiful verses, and it was felt
that the greatest success of the occasion had fallen to M. Rostand. At
this moment Sarah’s emotion reached its height. She stood, with heaving
breast, pale as the camellias about her. Her trembling lips endeavoured
to shape themselves into a grateful smile, but the tears were gathering
in her eyes. Her hands were clasped with all her strength over her
heart as if to keep it from bursting forth. No spectacle could be finer
than this woman, whose unconquerable energy had withstood the struggles
and difficulties of a thirty-years career, standing overwhelmed and
vanquished by the power of a few lines of poetry delivered before
these fifteen hundred enthusiastic auditors. Flowers from the topmost
galleries fell on the stage, and with long-sustained cheers the
ceremony closed. Hundreds of friends, not content with applauding all
day, invaded Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s room. More hand-clasps, embraces,
and happy tears followed. M. and Mme. Maurice Bernhardt were there,
with swollen eyes but joyful faces. There was talk about imaginary
difficulties raised by the Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honour
as an excuse for not decorating the great artiste. The Cabinet, it was
said, would have to intervene, but it was generally thought that all
difficulties would be overcome before the 1st of January. Besides, how
could this decoration enhance such a demonstration as had just taken
place? I am told that M. Poincaré, who was present, was condoled with
on losing office, and replied, “If I regretted it at all I could not do
so more than I do to-day.” The letters and telegrams received during
the day were handed round. Here are a few selected from the mass--
From EMMA CALVÉ (who had arrived in New York three days before).
Chère grande artiste, my heart is with you.
* * * * *
From Mme. RÉJANE.
MY DEAR SARAH,
The whole Vaudeville company are here to express their admiration
for you. On their behalf I beg you to accept the accompanying
flowers with the assurance of my deep affection.
RÉJANE.
* * * * *
_Francavilla Mare._
From GABRIEL D’ANNUNZIO.
On this most glorious day a grateful Italy sends her wreath of
laurel to the immortal enchantress. _Ave._
GABRIEL D’ANNUNZIO.
* * * * *
_London._
From Sir HENRY IRVING.
DEAR MADAME SARAH BERNHARDT,
Your brother and sister artistes of the Lyceum theatre send you
their love and greeting. Your favourite art and all the arts do
homage to you, and we your comrades in another land in which your
genius is so highly esteemed are happy to add our tribute to the
great honour you so well deserve.
Yours as ever, with affection and admiration,
HENRY IRVING.
[Appended were the signatures of Ellen Terry and thirty-four
members of the Lyceum Company].
* * * * *
From Mr. WILSON BARRETT.
DEAR MADAME,
I send you a drawing of a silver wreath, which it will be my great
pleasure to ask you to accept. The date of the _fête_ to be given
in your honour was so uncertain that the jewellers have not had
time to finish the wreath, but I hope to be able to send it to
you in a few days. Believe me, it is a pleasure to pay this small
tribute to so great an artiste as yourself, and to one who has
raised our profession to the high standard it now occupies. Kindly
send me the names of the different parts created by you which you
would like to have engraved on the leaves of the wreath. I have the
honour to be
Your great admirer,
WILSON BARRETT.
* * * * *
A cable from CHICAGO.
Compliments of all the critics of the _Tribune_, _Times_, _Herald_,
_Inter-Ocean_, _Post_, _Journal_, and _Dispatch_.
* * * * *
Another from NEW YORK.
The American Dramatic Authors’ Club instructs me to offer its
homage to the queen and sovereign, by divine right, of the French
stage, and to congratulate the Masters of the French drama who,
thanks to Sarah Bernhardt, have secured a worldwide triumph for
fine works, and have thus set back the boundaries of art.
BRONSON HOWARD,
President of the American Dramatic Authors’ Club.
Other congratulations came from the St. James’s and Criterion theatres,
Mme. Melba, MM. Jean and Edouard de Reszké, Chartran, etc. Mme. Sarah
Bernhardt spent the evening of this unique day at her son’s house,
among her relations and intimate friends.
On the 20th April, 1898, she scored a fresh triumph in _Lysiane_. M.
Bauer wrote in the _Echo de Paris_--
Every new part in which Sarah Bernhardt appears is a new revelation
of her talent. After accustoming us to expect sublime tragedy from
her, she charms and delights us with light and delicate comedy
touches and subtle shades of coquetry. How affectionately and
joyfully the public greeted her ever-flowering genius! How well the
clapping of hands and excitement aroused by her return to the stage
showed the sympathy of Paris for her trials and sufferings!
M. Catulle Mendès, in the _Journal_, speaks of the extraordinary
versatility of her talent and its unexpectedly new manifestations. She
has always been subtle, tender, and ardent, he says, and yet in her
_rôle_ she exhibited these qualities in a different form.
[Illustration: In _La Dame aux Camélias._]
After _Lysiane_, Mme. Sarah Bernhardt gave a series of performances of
_La Dame aux Camélias_ and _La Samaritaine_. She then went to London
in June on her annual visit, playing _Phèdre_, _Adrienne Lecouvreur_,
D’Annunzio’s _Spring Morning’s Dream_. July, August, and September she
spent at Belle-Isle-en-Mer. On the 28th October, 1898, she produced
M. Mendès’ _Médée_. It was a dead failure, in spite of all the great
tragedienne’s efforts. The unsatisfactory receipts obliged her to fall
back on _La Dame aux Camélias_, of which she gave a few performances
before leaving for Italy and the south of France on a tour she had been
obliged to postpone a week before.
This brings us to the beginning of the year 1899. The Renaissance
theatre had been prospering for five years. In it, as we have seen,
Mme. Sarah Bernhardt had successively performed _Les Rois_, _La Dame
aux Camélias_, _Phèdre_, _Izeïl_, _Fédora_, _La Femme de Claude_,
_Gismonda_, _Magda_, _Amphitryon_, _L’Infidèle_, _La Princesse
Lointaine_, _Lorenzaccio_, _La Tosca_, _La Samaritaine_, _Les Mauvais
Bergers_, _La Ville Morte_, _Lysiane_, and _Médée_. The plays in which
she did not appear were _Amants_, _La Figurante_, _La Meute_, _Snobs_,
and _Affranchie_. Notwithstanding the success achieved, there was a
feeling of restriction. The field of action was too limited. In spite
of perfect prodigies of ingenuity, and the unsparing efforts of all
Mme. Bernhardt’s co-workers, great spectacular effects were impossible.
Many new plays which the great artiste would have wished to produce
could not be mounted satisfactorily at the Renaissance, and had to
be left to rival theatres. The Théâtre des Nations, vacated by the
removal of the Opéra Comique to its new quarters, tempted her, the
1900 Universal Exhibition being at hand. She applied to the Municipal
Council for the theatre, and obtained it. She opened on the 21st
January with a revival of _La Tosca_. On the 8th March she reproduced
Feuillet’s _Dalila_, and, on the 25th, Rostand’s _Samaritaine_, which
seems to have taken the place of the _Dame aux Camélias_ as general
stand-by.
Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s appearance at the Théâtre des Nations marks
the commencement of a new era in her artistic career. I have already
said that the history of the arts affords no parallel to the life of
Mme. Sarah Bernhardt, and I maintain that we can only bow with respect
before the incomparable expenditure of vital energy which she has
lavished throughout thirty years of intense and varied activity.
SARAH BERNHARDT’S ‘HAMLET’
Madame Sarah Bernhardt’s appearance in a new French adaptation of
_Hamlet_ took place on Saturday, May 20. Her enterprise was distinctly
a bold one. The series of performances would necessarily have to cease
after June 6, in consequence of the actress’ engagement to appear
in London on the 8th. The play could hardly be expected to prove a
success from the purely financial point of view. As one critic remarks,
it is impossible to make Hamlet Parisian. Moreover, the production
of M. Jean Aicard’s version of _Othello_ at the Comédie Française,
a splendidly-mounted and finely-acted play, might fairly be thought
to have taken off the edge of the public appetite for Shakespearian
revivals in Paris. These considerations, however, did not deter Mme.
Sarah Bernhardt. No one could ever accuse her of wanting the courage of
her opinions. She made up her mind that Hamlet was a part for her to
play, and she played it. She was not the first French actress to make
the attempt. Mme. Judith and Mme. Lerou had both played the Prince
of Denmark with a fair amount of success, and much curiosity was felt
as to Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s interpretation of the character. She had
already given something like a foretaste of Hamlet in Lorenzaccio,
and there are one or two weird incidents in her own career. She has
been identified as the actress whom Edmond de Goncourt shows us, in
_Faustine_, watching at a death-bed with professional curiosity, and
afterwards utilizing the experience on the stage. Be this as it may,
there is a touch of Hamlet’s melancholy philosophy about her daily
contact with her own coffin.
[Illustration:
_The Queen_, Mlle. Marcya. _Hamlet_, Mme. Sarah Bernhardt.
]
The translation of _Hamlet_ has often tempted French literary skill.
Dumas and Victor Hugo, each with the assistance of a collaborator, at
different times rendered the play in French verse. The adaptation by
MM. Samson and Cressonnois, in which Mme. Sarah Bernhardt appeared
as Ophelia, was also entirely in verse. Then M. Theodore Reinach
translated Shakespeare’s verse into verse and prose into prose. The
latest adaptation, carried out by MM. Morand and Schwob for Mme.
Sarah Bernhardt, is wholly in prose, and is perhaps the most literal
reproduction of the original ever attempted in France. It is so literal
that in many cases the English word is used in preference to what
might not be a close or satisfactory equivalent in French. Even Victor
Hugo’s version, which was accused of being more Shakespearian than
Shakespeare, did not go as far as this in the effort for exactitude. As
M. Henry Fouquier observes--
“Even in England, _Hamlet_ is never played in its entirety. MM.
Morand-Schwob have reduced the original thirty-two scenes to fifteen,
but they have shown all possible respect for Shakespeare’s masterpiece,
and of all translations made for the stage theirs retains most of
the colour of the original, which can never be followed sufficiently
closely in verse.”
Whatever may be thought of Sarah Bernhardt’s Hamlet in England, there
can be no possible doubt that it has obtained her full honour in her
own country. The Paris critics are not often in accord, but “when they
do agree their unanimity is wonderful,” and in all the opinions which
have been delivered on Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s latest creation it is
impossible to find anything but admiration. She accomplished the rare
feat of satisfying every one by her impersonation of a character second
to none in its capacity for exciting differences of opinion. There
could be no better proof that the fire of genius burns as brightly
as ever in Mme. Sarah Bernhardt. In the words of M. Edmond Rostand,
who is conspicuous among French literary men for his admiration for
Shakespeare--“She never did anything finer. She makes one understand
Hamlet, and understand him beyond the possibility of doubt.”
M. Henry Fouquier, the eminent dramatic critic of the _Figaro_, says--
“The enthusiastic reception given to Mme. Sarah Bernhardt by the public
on this occasion, a memorable one in the annals of the French stage,
was largely due to her clear conception of the character. It was so
thoroughly thought out, that Hamlet’s personality was made plain to the
public without losing any of its mysterious features. It was said of
her, with much truth, that she shed light on the darkness of Hamlet’s
mind. She displayed all his contradictory characteristics, and at the
same time showed that the contradiction was only apparent. Physically,
she was an incarnation of the Hamlet created by Delacroix. Morally
and intellectually she analyzed, synthetized, and condensed into one
harmonious whole the most complex, if not the most obscure, character
in dramatic literature. Her conception of Hamlet is that of Goethe, as
we find it expressed in _Wilhelm Meister_. No one is better qualified
to make us understand Hamlet than the creator of Faust. This character
has more than one point of resemblance with Shakespeare’s hero, and has
a ghost of his own in Mephistopheles, who urges him onward in spite of
his scruples and the weakness of his nature. Hamlet, says Goethe, ‘is
an oak planted in a valuable vase intended only for flowers. The tree
puts forth its roots and shatters the vase. Thus does a pure, noble,
and eminently moral nature, devoid of a hero’s physical energy, perish
under a burden it can neither sustain nor cast off.’”
M. Gustave Larroumet, Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts,
who succeeded the late M. Sarcey as dramatic critic of the _Temps_,
writes--
“I am not sufficiently ungrateful to consider that Mounet-Sully’s
Hamlet is completely eclipsed, as some well-meaning persons would have
us believe. Mounet-Sully showed us a man of terrible but intermittent
energy. Sarah Bernhardt gives us a youth under the influence of
over-sensitive nerves. The great artiste was never greater. Her
defects, such as they are, sink into insignificance before her
brilliant talents. Her frequently hard and abrupt diction passed almost
unperceived. She was moderate but powerful, ardent but restrained. She
threw a flood of light on a particularly obscure character. I do not
think that stage art could further go than when, in the play scene,
Hamlet holds up a torch to the livid features of his father’s murderer
and puts him to flight, howling with terror.”
M. Emile Faguet, of the _Journal des Débats_, says--
“There are so many ways of playing this puzzling part that I shall not
venture to criticize Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s rendering. She makes Hamlet
sometimes weak and sometimes violent (the latter quality being much
more manifest than the former), capricious, and a creature of nerves.
The dreamy and melancholy part of Hamlet’s temperament she leaves in
obscurity. Still, the result is acceptable. We cannot say either ‘This
is exactly as it should be,’ or, ‘This is not the thing at all.’ It
depends on one’s point of view. In any case the attempt is interesting
and the effect is incontestable. It is impossible to say that the
interpretation is indifferent. One must go further and describe it as
fascinating. It is something that must be seen. The question whether
Hamlet can be played by a woman is now set at rest. It must be admitted
that Hamlet, being, as he is, weak, violent, cunning, undecided, and
constantly on the brink of losing his wits, is a feminine mind in the
body of a young man. Hamlet’s youth cannot be seriously disputed, and
whenever we possess a great actress we can permit and even encourage
her to try her hand on Hamlet.”
M. Catulle Mendès, whose opinions, or rather his vigorous way of
expressing them, earned him a duel with M. Georges Vanor, and a
two-inch-deep puncture in the stomach, is the only critic to agree with
the actress in regard to the simplicity of the character. He says--
“Rouvière played the part like an inspired epileptic, Rossi like a
tenor, and Salvini like a philosopher. Mounet-Sully reproduced all
the best features of previous Hamlets, and added some inspiration of
his own. Now, for the first time, Hamlet stands revealed to us in his
real simplicity, as the poet created him. As to Mme. Sarah Bernhardt,
it is hard to conceive that any human creature can combine so
much instinct and innate intelligence with so much exact knowledge.
Mme. Sarah Bernhardt is something more than an accomplished actress
or an artist who plays upon the strings of our emotions. She is the
incarnation of all gifts and all acquirements. She is the union,
hitherto unhoped-for, of all inspiration and all art.”
[Illustration: Mme. Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet.]
M. Lucien Muhlfeld, in the _Echo de Paris_, says--
“Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s Hamlet is a too learned, too bookish youth,
urged to action by an impending calamity. He finds the weight of
existence too great for his frail shoulders. To hear Hamlet’s
meditations on death through Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s lips is to realize
all the vanity of life. She is the greatest of all actresses in the
great dramatic masterpiece.”
It is interesting to contrast Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s own opinions
on Hamlet with the views expressed in the foregoing criticisms. In
conversation with the writer, she scouted the idea that the Prince of
Denmark is a complex personality. “I think his character,” she said,
“a perfectly simple one. He is brought face to face with a duty, and
he determines to carry it out. All his philosophizing and temporary
hesitation does not alter the basis of his character. His resolution
swerves, but immediately returns to the channel he has marked out for
it. I know this view is quite heterodox, but I maintain it.” With a
touch of characteristic determination, Mme. Sarah Bernhardt added--“It
is just as well to have a decided opinion of one’s own, and adhere to
it.”
“Some critics have argued that Hamlet has a feminine side to his
character, displayed in his alternate excitement and depression, his
terrors and his touches of cruelty. Have you sought to develop this
feature?”
“Not at all. That there may or may not be something of the woman
about Hamlet, is a question which might give rise to a great deal of
argument, but I think his character is essentially masculine, and I
have endeavoured to represent it as such.”
Further inquiry elicited the fact that Mme. Sarah Bernhardt had studied
the play entirely from French versions, her acquaintance with English
not permitting her to grapple with the difficulties of Shakespeare’s
text. Perhaps the clearness of French literary form may have revealed
to her the hitherto unsuspected simplicity of Hamlet’s character. At
any rate, she does not accept the theory that Hamlet was insane. He
was merely suffering, she thinks, from the bitterness of a wounded
spirit; or, in other words, from that very English complaint, spleen.
He thought himself deceived by all around him, and he suspected every
one, but he was perfectly sane. Besides, a mad Hamlet would be mere
melodrama. As to his age, Mme. Sarah Bernhardt does not agree with the
theory that he was at least thirty. Twenty-five would be nearer the
mark. In the play he is still a student. His friends are his seniors,
and they refer to him as “Young Hamlet.” Polonius and the King speak
to him in the semi-indulgent terms such as would be used towards a
young man under such circumstances. The Grave-digger, it is true,
speaks of Yorick’s skull as having lain in the earth three-and-twenty
years, but that is probably one of those slips from which the greatest
authors are not free.
“Are you satisfied with the reception of the play?” I asked.
“Perfectly,” Mme. Sarah Bernhardt replied; “and if the verdict is
endorsed in London, I shall look back on Hamlet as the greatest success
of my career.”
In producing Shakespeare’s masterpiece in the theatre she now
occupies--a playhouse in the popular acceptation of the term--Mme.
Sarah Bernhardt has not only scored a personal triumph, but is
developing a work of education. She is offering the French public
something far better and higher than they can see at any other
theatre in their country; and at the same time she is carrying out an
achievement which no other actress or any actor on the French stage
could even attempt. In the words of M. Henry Fouquier--“Whilst the
public always derives some benefit from a fine play, if only the vague
conception of and desire for an intellectual existence on a higher
plane than the sordid necessities of daily life, the actors themselves
profit by an acquaintance with anything that is good and original in
foreign master-pieces, alien though they may seem to the genius of our
race. We cannot too much admire those who, like Mme. Sarah Bernhardt,
faithfully interpret the poetry of another people by the light of our
own intellectual clearness.”
G. A. R.
1899.
THE END
_Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay._
Transcriber’s Notes
Transcriber added the Table of Contents and deleted two redundant
chapter titles.
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of
inconsistent hyphenation have not been changed.