THE DIVINE SARAH

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6487, 6 April 1908, Page 6

THE DIVINE SARAH

MME. BERNHARDT’S MEMOIRS. To judge 1 from Hie title of one of the most naively amusing pieces of autobiography, ever written (Rays the "Morning Leader”) Hme. Bernhardt takes both hei acting and hor painting very serionsIr. regarding them almost or incompatible arts. The reader of hor memoirs will also take them Rorionslv. but will •come to the conclusion that “Mv Double Life” is really single—the manifestation of one very extraordinary character. "For artless and charming egotism the reminiscences could not be taken: a rival, for instance.

was plump, with a wide face and magnificent black eyes; her nose was rather canaille, her 1 mouth heavy, and there was a very ordinary look about her generally. I was fair, slight and frail-looking, like a reed, wuth a long, pale face, blue eyes, a rather sad mouth, and a general look of distinction. This hasty vision consoled mo for my failure. We can quite believe both the "general look” and the feeling of consolation. The whole world in which Mme. Bernhardt moves is ctherial. emotional, spiritual. At one theatre all the women were lovely —"very, very pretty." At another—the Comedie Francaise—a great actress, a fat, helpless lump,” jostled and hurt Mine. Bernhardt's little sister: whereupon, "Ton miserable creature!” I called out to the fat woman, and as she turned round to reply I slapped her m the face. She proceeded to faint. That was the first of many quarrels at the Comedie. In a pique, Mme. Bernhardt took herself hurriedly ° s , l ° Spain: but when she came back later there wore other misunderstandings, culminating in a lawsuit, so that there is probably something to other side. Indeed, wo are told that, “I have not the gentle obstinacy peculiar to my mother”; passion holla up in a moment, and this failing "causes me to suffer.

THE LADDER OP FAME. Her career has been a series o£ triumphs. She did not want to bo on octrees Sho wanted to bo a nnn, .oia. rtc-r father had left her some money, to come to her on marriage, she announced that sho would “marry tho lon Diou.” A family council decided 011 tl l6 stage, and she was taken, an an experiment to see ‘■Britannicns’ ; it moved her instantly to tears, and her sobs were oventnally eo loud that sho had to beiemoved. Thereafter she became a pupil at the Consercvntoire, where she learnt and formed opinions on, how to walk. Women who are too tall take long strides, those who stoop walk like the Eastern women; stout women walk like ducks, short-logged ones .‘S’** ”2 small women skip along, and tho gawky . ones walk like cranes. Nothing can be

changed. Her own tall, slim figure is continually mentioned. At . tho Conservatoire she won a second prize for comedy, but got no honour in tragedy. She went thence lo the Comedie, and after the quarrel mentioned above, to the Porte St. Martin whence she was translated to the Odeon. Hero she made great success in Hugo’s "Huy Dias,” and was invited back to the'Comedie again; as the Odeon managers would not agree to her terms, sho went, and speedily took loading puts in great plays, finally carrying Pane away with "Phcdre" and "Dona Sol ’in "Ilernani.” Soon afterwards she visited England, quarrelled again with the Comedie authorities, and began a series of foreign tours, with the last of which, in America, the volume ends. "ANOTHER FREAK."

One of her managers characterised a balloon ascent as “another of her freaks,” The book is full of them, -in England, for instance, she acquired some pels at Cross’s: I stopped in front of the elephants. I simply adore them, and X should have liked to have a dwarf elephant. That has always been one of my dreams, and perhaps some day I shall bo able to realise it. Cross had not any, tnuugn, to 1 nought a cheetah. . . . . 1 also bought a dog-wolf. . . . . He was terrifying to look at. Mr Cross made me a present of sis chameleons. Sho proceeded to let them all loose in her London garden, where three dogs, "my parrot bizibouzou and my monkc-y Darwin” already were. Sho adds frankly "Mv servants were not so pleased as I ’was ” Tho world at large interested her almost as much. She hated American journalists and Customs officers, but found the Chicago pig-machines a dreadful and magnificent sight. tier coflin, in which - i frequently installed myself to study my parts, was another well-known idiosyncrasy. When the stage tired her for the moment, she turned to painting or sculpture, and won honourable mention at the Salon. She saw the horrors of tho Franco-Prustnan war, and managed an ambulance of her own, being o-ice nearly blown to pieces by a shell. She ordered Victor Hugo about in regard to the place of rehearsal, talked with Gladstone (disapproving strongly of capital punishment), befriended and admired the anarchist Variant. charm**! Edison into friendliness, and, in an ecstasy of stage fright, acted c-q dosperatelv on her first appearance in London that her display was a huge tnumph. There seems to be no end to her versatility.

HOMAGE. Hugo, to her great delight- hi* fa’r r ‘ made anv expression, of opinion fr oll hint an’ honour —was enchanted with her acting. Alter the first performance of "liuy Bias," in January, lou*, before I could speak, he was down on his knees, and raising my two hands to KU lips, he murmured., "Thank you. Thank 1" . . . Not danng to fling myjdf in Victor Hugo's arms, I fell into Girardin's, the sure friend of my first etepS, and I buret into tears. After "Horaaoi,". Hugo's tribute was no less striking; Madame, —You have been great and

charming; you have moved me —mo, the old combatant—and at cno moment, while the public whom you had enchanted cheered you, 1 wept. This tear which you caused me to shed is your®, and I place myself at your feet. VICTOR HUGO. With this letter came a small bo*, containing a lino chain bracelet, from ’ which hung one diamond drop. I lost this bracelet at the house of the rich nabob, Alfred Sassoon. He wanted to give me another, but I refused. Ho could not give me back tho tear of Victor Hugo. Not even her jov. at her welcome in Eng--1 and, in which Mr Forbes Robertson and Oscar Wilde participated, could exceed her happiness at that moment of triumph. THE GREATEST ACTRESS. She is outspoken about her fellowartists. Coqucliu is “an admirable comedian, but not an artist.” Hejnnois both. Duse “is more a comedian than »n artist; sho has never by hor art made a single personage stand out identified by her name.” For Mbs Patrick Campbell she has a warm admiration. Hut tho real interest of this book is not in the events described, nor in the criti-i cisms of persons and things, but in tbo unconscious self-revelation of tho author. It is sublimely egotistical, but never conceit oil. In reading it, we sown to got right into the mind, into tho endlessly varied artistic genius, of the world’o greatest living actress.