mend it.... Usually it is
the rude manliness, the uncouth virtues, the awkward and childlike
submissiveness of that tamed Bull of Bashan [Ingomar] that absorbs the
attention of a theatrical audience. On Saturday evening the center of
interest was, of course, transferred to Parthenia. To the interpretation
of this character Miss Anderson brings natural gifts of rare excellence,
gifts of face and form and action, which suffice almost themselves to play
the part; and the warmth of the applause which greeted her as she first
tripped upon the stage expressed the admiration no less than the welcome
of the house. Her severely simple robes of virgin white, worn with classic
grace, revealed a figure as lissome and perfect of contour as a draped
Venus of Thorwaldsen, her face seen under her mass of dark brown hair,
negligently bound with a ribbon, was too _mignonne_, perhaps, to be
classic, but looked pretty and girlish. A performance so graced could not
fail to be pleasing. And yet it was impossible not to feel, as the play
progressed, that to the fine embodiment of the romantic heroine, art was
in some degree wanting. The beautiful Parthenia, like a soulless statue,
pleased the eye, but left the heart untouched. It became evident that
faults of training or, perhaps, of temperament, were to be set off against
the actress' unquestionable merits. The elegant artificiality of the
American school, a tendency to pose and be self-conscious, to smirk even,
if the word may be permitted, especially when advancing to the footlights
to receive a full measure of applause, were fatal to such sentiment as
even so stilted a play could be made to yield. It was but too evident that
Parthenia was at all times more concerned with the fall of her drapery
than with the effect of her speeches, and that gesture, action,
intonation--everything which constitutes a living individuality were in
her case not so much the outcome of the feeling proper to the character,
as the manifestation of diligent painstaking art which had not yet learnt
to conceal itself. The gleam of the smallest spark of genius would have
been a welcome relief to the monotony of talent.... It must not be
forgotten, however, that a highly artificial play like 'Ingomar' is by no
means a favorable medium for the display of an actress' powers, though it
may fairly indicate their nature. Before a definite rank can be assigned
to her among English actresses, Miss Anderson must be seen in some