SHAKESPEARE'S JULIET

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 18

SHAKESPEARE'S JULIET

THE CHAEM OF SIMPLICITY.

What is the fascination with which Shakespeare endowed his Juliet- which make it the most coveted role in dramatic literature? asks a writer in the "New York World." Of all the young and lovely ladies of the classics none is more beloved than Juliet, both by actresses who play the role and by their audiences. The centuries that have dimmed the light of other classical figures have robbed Juliet of none of her lustre. Miss Jane Cowl, the Juliet of •the production of "Romeo and Juliet" made by the Selwyns and Aloph Klauber at Henry Miller's theatre, finds that the beauty of the character of Juliet lies in her simplicity. 'Romeo and Juliet' has an undying appeal," says Miss Cowl, "because it is a truly great love story. The role of Juliet will always attract the actress because it is a lyric expression of the highest love. Juliet's passion for Borneo is pure and innocent, unmarred by doubts or thoughts of worldly consideration. She is the embodiment of all that is best, truest, and most beautiful in girlhood. She represents something that all women have, at some time or other; looked to as an ideal; something that all men have, at some moment, in their lives, worshipped. "There is a trace of Juliet in all women, even in the most practical, the coolest, and most sophisticated. I suppose, too, that all men can remember a time when they were Romeo. As we go through life most of us lose those spiritual qualities that make' us'great lovers—the innocence and the forgetfulness of self. But it is good to have a flaming ideal placed before us, and few oE us grow so coJd that we can remain unmoved by the ardour of 'Romeo mid Juliet.' "