THE LYCEUM

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6612, 17 May 1928, Page 3

THE LYCEUM

JOHN BARRYMORE IN “THE BELOVED ROGUE.”

Many old customs have changed since the 15th century but getting a prison pardon from royalty still remains pretty much the same. Francois Villon was released from his cell by a pardon from the King in 1461. But just last year at West. Point, Queen Marie of Ronmania with a wave of her hand pardoned all cadets charted for punishment of minor offences, and on last New Year’s Day, King Alfonso, visiting a Madrid prison, granted a general amnesty (o all prisoners there. In the role of that “sad, bad, glad, mad poet” in his newest film “The Beloved Rogue,” at the Lyceum tonight, John Barrymore enacts the famous incident in the Alcung Prison on October 1, 1461, when young King Louis XL made a state entry. To celebrate that event tho gaols were thrown open and among other prisoners released was the heart and jail-breaker, Francois Villon. Ha/ that not happened, the world might have been the poorer for want of Villon’s great poem “Le Grand Testament” written upon his release from the dungeon. There as recorded in that poem, his eyes had been bandaged by thick walls and ho “had been beaten like dirty linen on a washboard.” A diet of bread crusts had made his teeth like those of a rake, and it included nothing else but water. The water particularly rankled. Villon had learned to hate it ever since the day he was arrested for stealing from a priest and questioned by tho police under one of the crulest tortures in a day of unrestrained cruelties. The torment consisted in making the poet swallow large quantities of cold water. We may take it that Villon made a full confession, for he was found guilt}' aud sentenced to Alcung prison. There in his dungeon he composed numberless ballads, one famous one depicting tho poet and his accomplices as they will appear after death. Wit and humor combine to make Villon a great character as well as an immortal poet. Even on his death bed he was bound to have his joke. Ho bequeathed his large spectacles lo a hospital for Hie blind so (hat the chief (hero might better see 1o bury the righteous from the sinners.