"L'AIGLON."
In a note given away with the programme Mr. LOUIS N. PARKER, describes
_L'Aiglon_ as "the Hamlet of the nineteenth century." Certainly they had
in common the habits of introspection, and indecision; but the egoism
of _Hamlet_ was at least tempered by a knowledge of the world; he was a
student; he had travelled and seen men and things outside the bounds of
Elsinore; and he was capable of throwing off some quotable generalities
out of his stock of philosophy. On the other hand the _Eaglet_, mewed in
his Austrian cage, knew nothing of life at large, and had small chance
of learning anything beyond the bowdlerised history which his tutors and
warders thought good to have him stuffed with.
Somehow he had contrived surreptitiously to pick up the dates and
leading facts of his father's campaigns (making a speciality of the
Battle of Wagram), but the vague ambitions which they inspired only
helped his little mind to prey upon itself. It was not "the times" (as
with _Hamlet_) but his own nose that he found to be "out of joint."
The appeal of _Hamlet_ is to the intelligence; that of _L'Aiglon_, so
obviously pathetic in his own eyes, is rather to the heart. Indeed the
intelligence of the audience is here often in trouble; for a
certain acquaintance with history is required and both actors and
stage-management offer little aid to the average ignorance. While
the more obvious and melodramatic situations--such as the death of
_L'Aiglon_ or the business of the sentry--are treated at great leisure,
it is assumed that all historical allusions, however necessary to an
understanding of the situation, will be as tedious to the audience as to
the players, and they are rushed through--as in the mirror scene---at a
pace that baffles our halting pursuit.
If any male character lends itself to interpretation by a woman, it
is such a character as _L'Aiglon_, who, for all his spasms of martial
ardour, was half feminine. And to this side of him, and not this side
alone, Miss MARIE LÖHR did justice in a performance of which her high
spirit had not underrated the difficulties. But it is a long and exigent
part, and there were times in the play when her physical strength was
overtaxed. It would have taken the voice of a strongish _basso_ to drown
the roar of a whole battlefield of ghostly warriors, with a military
band thrown in.
I am not sure that Miss LÖHR quite realised for us the _Duke of
Reichstadt's_ personality. I should not care to have the task myself,
for a good many complicated elements were mixed in his nature. As Mr.
Louis PARKER reminds you, a French father supplied him with ambition
and love of action, an Austrian grandfather with hesitancy, and Spanish
ancestors with fatalism, a very trying combination for even the original
_Eaglet_ to handle--a mere boy who had never so much as heard of
President WILSON'S League of Nation's. So it was excusable if Miss LÖHR
failed to make us completely realise a personality which was almost
certainly too much for the comprehension of its actual owner.
But she was always ah intriguing figure. Perhaps, indeed--for the
apparel does not always proclaim the man, and the _Eaglet_ was no
_Hamlet_ in the matter of his clothes--her rather striking costumes were
a source of too much distraction.
[Illustration: THE LITTLE EAGLE TRIES TO FLY.