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Show i ! SALVINI'S GLADIATOR. j Synopsis -of ue 'Argument, of -the I tPJa iu.'iclt tUe Great Apior? ?V?e!lr4T'lirNAehtllI I Salvini's version of "The Gladiator" is widely different from that of the late McCullough's, and in several important respects would scarcely be recognized as the same play. To appreciate the ier-forraancehorpughlynder- the circumstances circum-stances Jot , Salvini, speaicing his entire lines in Italian, one 'should bo familiar with the plot,; or else muchHhat is of essential es-sential interest is lost; notwithstanding that the great actor succeeds as perfectly : as it is ossible in portraying every feature and fact in his magnificent acting. ; ;Some' fifteen i'ears : prior ..to the scene upon which ' the curtain rises in the first act; the Empress, Faustina, the wife of ine 'ltoman ..rnperor,. hndmg herself childless, '-and i desiring to become a mother, applies to the Oracle for advice. She is told that her onlv hope is to obtain ob-tain one by the Cesarian method. With this in view she selects the wife of Nero, the Gladiator, who is about to give birth j to a child, ad herself performs the oper-j oper-j ation, in doing' which' she inflicts ' acci-I acci-I dentally a wound on the infant's shoulder. The Gladiator, who had intruded on the scene, had been chained to a pillar, and .was thereby made . to witness the operation oper-ation which he was helpless to oppose. He afterwards sets fire to the roval palace and escapes with his infant to Egypt, where again the child becomes separated from her father and remains lost to him for long years afterwards. . ) it . i ( The play opens where the child, now a young lady, is brought back to Rome and sold, into slavery, at the beginning of the Christian era. She is purchased by Flavian, a young Roman nobleman, who subsequently, becomes so enamored of her tliat he gives her her liberty, with the purpose of wedding her. Faustina. ! f who T- has since; become "'a" .widow, is desperately, infatuated with . Flavina, and importunes him for marriage Seeing ! that Flavina is more interested in Neo j damia, the Gladiator's daughter, than in herself, she watches for an opportunity to meet the girl in the garden, when "she nrges her to leave. Rome and shows her a former loye letter from Flavina, which, although written long before, is made to appear as having been just written. Neo-damia, Neo-damia, although fired with jealousy, refuses re-fuses to leave, i and . Nerowho was' a silent witness , to , vtheX garden scene is appointed by the Empress to kill the girl, instead of doing which, impressed im-pressed by tlie maiden's beauty and her helplessness, he assists her to escape. She afterwards becomes a Christian and is condemned to death, and Nero is again appointed her executioner. When he discovers that it is Naodamia he endeavors ... to c , persuade her to renounce, her " religion , which she; re-fuses re-fuses to do." He then appeals to the spectators, who give him the choice of killing her or throwing her to the hons. He decides to kill her, and when in the act of uncovering iier necK discovers the mark which he had seen Faustina make on the infant and he realizes it is - his own I 'chld. t He again iippfeals , for her life Tto ; be spared.,, and offers himself instead. When he finds no ' hopes, ' hb defies the crowd to take her, but immediately, after hits upon the idea of the girl-life being linked with that of the Empress' child by decree of the' Oracle, and makes known the fact. The Empress, stunned by the intelligence, consents to spare s her one r.more; day, and.ehe is taken toher cejl. In , I the night the Gladiator, who was aware of I Faustina's treacherous effort' to have Neodanna murdered that night, breaks througJi the walls and enters just aa the I girl is being killed. At the same moment that Neodamia falls the Empress' son in keeping with the Oracle's decree, Irishes Ir-ishes at the gates of the temple bv the sword of Ffaviani-i-- I lir if YiiJ fi |