Show II I 4 King Lear The audience the actors the theme 1 J and the music were all in cordial harmony l i har-mony last night Bread shelter and clothing are not all of lifethe best is its t love and its fear its temptations and the H 1 mastery of manhood We shut out the material world and enter the ideal when we sit before Lear and Cordelia For Lear depicts human life as it is dominated domi-nated by thoughtlessness reproved by i folly made the nursery of sorrow by men and women without honor and the noblest perishing the most miserably 11 The great King Lear maintains a noble I ascendency among men till he seeks t to shuffle off the responsibilities of life l and die to duty before his time Surrounded Sur-rounded by generals and ministers who might have taken off his shoulders largely the burdens of government he should I I have kept his place and employed only I the keen eye of the master No man has I a right to retire from the worlds work sow so-w long as the world needs him if he have I breath within his body and steady brain i 1 within his head The abandonment of rl duty is the foundation of Lears misfor I i tunes Time nor age discharges man from his placeonly death which is the I transfer from mortal to immortal life I Fair Cordelia stands for those who die with all their music in them Wedded to truth yet in modesty failing to claim their rank among the godlike weak IJ E in expression yet strong in action slow to promise yet swift to perform holding f love too high and sacred to repeat hi 1 J honied words before the thoughtless I i I 1 throng and loving still beyond all words II I So these two misunderstanding and wounded in heart part to follow the ways I i I of pain or mental suffering Having rejected j re-jected an honest heart Lear leans first I i 1 i on one and then on the other of his treacherous daughters Outrage follows insult till his gray head finds no shelter w from the pitiless storm but the trees t SHERIDANS picture of the madness of Lear is all that the histrionic art demands and all that the most rigid critic can exact If it fails at all it is because the Shakspcrean thought is untrue un-true to nature Misery does not make j I j mad nor does sorrow kill Men live and bear their burdensneither the darkness j of slumbering intellect nor the peace of the 1 I grave comes to their relief They go among men and carry their load the pangs of hunger drive them to labor and though all that falsehood and betrayal can do be fully done to heap suffering upon up-on them yet they must off to the worlds I workshop and strive fora foothold among their fellows If only men and women I i could die when the burden grows too I V I I I heavy heaven would have added millions j mil-lions to its singing hosts and earth would be so thinned out that half its houses 11 1 I would be tenantless j Can a weak old fellow be forgiven for j dropping a tear at Cordelias feet Can his imaginings be altogether at fault z when he thinks that the mimic Cordelia j i is but a shadow of the real LOUISE DAVENPORT DAVEN-PORT Can a woman show herself altogether alto-gether lovely in the impersonation of another an-other and yet herself be unlovely We I think not and so when the gentle visage of the one shall flash across the memory I the name of the other shall stand with it I as of one who alike true to art and true to nature must also be true to all who I stand in her gracious presence |