ELEONORA DUSE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 28, 2 August 1923, Page 11

ELEONORA DUSE

THE WORLD'S GREATEST

ACTRESS.

Eleonora Duse—the Duse—the greatest actress in the world, has triumphed in every European capital, in London, the Srincipal cities of the United States, _ anada, and South America,. Her-name ji know a wheveve? theati'es exist, and even where they do not exist, writes Jeanne Bordeux in the "Daily Mail." To compare Eleonora Duse with other ifamous actresses of her day would be to belittle her in the eyes of those who have been privileged to see and know her. As Venice cannot be compared with any other city, though others may be as beautiful, so Eleonora Duse stands apart from other greatness. In her art she is unique, for she is a great woman, not only a great actress. In private life she U exquisitely simple, charming, and cultured. Talking, she looks directly into your eyes, seeming to search for something beyond the spoken word. She is of a rare intelligence, optimistic, philosophic. In her intense, penetrating brown eyes there is still the fire of youth and in her occasional smile a sweetness and a strange fascinating sense of pardon, as though the suffering that life may have caused her had long since been forgiven.

To say that she is at her best in any one play would be difficult, for in each play she is far beyond all expectations. In "Spettri" ("Ghosts"), by Ibsen, she is of a superb vitality that carries all before her; in "La Donna del Mare" ("The Lady from the Sea") she is again superb. But in "Cosi Sia" ("The Vow"), a prose poem in three acts by Gallaratti-Scotti, showing the depth of sacrifico of which mother-lovo is capable, she is of a simple humility which in its very simplicity is regal, majestic! Her voice—l can find in my vocabulary no word rich enough to express the exquisite beauty of it, for in talking to her one h;is the impression of listening to ths softest music: and certainly no man or woman who hears her will ever be able to forget the divine- actress, and something of her personality will inevitably be carried away from the theatre— something that will always live with those privileged, to be of her audience.