The New York Times from New York, New York • Page 40

0 THT3 NTCW YORK TBIES SUNDAY. KOVEMBEIl a 1904. SIPEAEIE'S "MTCl A NEW' VIEW i i urn i ii. mil i IB T7 'V 1 "A ISS MARLOWE'S acting of the scene between Beatrice and Benedick after Claudlo has denounced Hero at the altar, ably seconded ai It was by that of Mr. Sot hern, made it th moat stirring and lnTpreaslve moment of the but there was one point in it which seemed open to ion.

Beatrice's avowal, 1 love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest." Miss Marlowe uttered as in a moment of passionate abandon, deep, frank, and gracious, as if thinking only of her love for Benedick. Then Benedick exclaimed. "Come, bid me do anything- for you!" and, instantly recalling the insult to her kinswoman, she burst into a cry fr revenge, Kill Claudlo! The surprise in the lightning change of front was theatrically effective. But what was its underlying reason, its exact psychology? Or was there any such reason? None appeared on the surface, and the glosses of the commentators are as contradictory as the two juxtaposed emotions of the actress. Every man his own commentator! A study of the passage has led to conclusions which have-not before been definitely expressed, and which, right or wrong, have convinced me that the same is one of the most profound and dra-matlo revelations of the human heart BktltamuM Tt tia tnAojul thrown the play into an entirely now light.

I. Mrs. Jameson sentimentalized Beatrice, assuming that her hard flouting of love and her metallic wit were only the armor that protected an all too sweet and loving disposition, and she was accordingly shocked at the "Kill Claudlo!" She Interpreted it as of all things a jest, and. swinging; to the other extreme from her original hypothesis, denounced it as harsh and unwomanly. Beatrice's sub-seauent Oh.

God that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market place! she Jound Inexplicably revolting. The poet Campbell shared this opinion, denouncing Beatrice as an odious woman." Assuredly, if we postulate that. Beatrice was at heart a creature of maidenly Victorian muslin and baby-blue, the flaming of revengeful passion is sufficiently shocking. But if, abandoning the sentimental hypothesis, we take Beatrice at her face value, as a sophisticated woman' of the world whose heart, however true, lies dormant beneath a mask of wit that has become habitual the character rights Itself Christopher' North, in reviewing Mrs. Jameson's Interpretation, very Justly flouts the idea that Beatrice was jesting, and ably and eloquently vindicating her passionate indignation at the wrong done to Hero.

But he does not explain the scene in question, with its lightning shifU from love to vindictive rage. For the, only reasoned explanation we are. indebted to Fletcher, who assumes that Beatrice's anger is simulateda calculated artifice to test the depth and sincerity of Benedick's love. Benedick is hereby called upon at once to choose between his friendship and his love for Beatrice's Intellect no less than GUSTAV TV'B name of Gustav Mahler Is known on this side of the water chiefly as one of tUa bioat distinguished of the younger school of German conductors, as the present head of the Imperial Opera in Vienna. There be rules with an iron hand, bending prima donnas and first tenors to his will as though they were mere orchestral players; and there he bas obtained some of the most remarkable results in performances' which be has directed Of recent years has com to bo seriously reckoned with as a composer, and some of his symphonies have made a striking Impression where they have been performed He is acclaimed in some quarters as the coming man.

the one who is destined to work for the preservation of the oldsr traditions against the movement that is all for "programme" music, for symphonic pictures of persons, things. Scenes, chapters of human life, and systems of philosophy. He has written five sym Miss Marlowe Conccptioiv of the Charter of Beatrice---The General Rendering of Corisummaie Truth atiid Vigor- of Beiedick her heart dictates to her that this, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, Fletcher no doubt refers here "to the manner In which Beatrice first heard of Benedick's love, Is the proper test of his affections, and she therefore proceeds unflinchingly to apply Hereupon Furness comments: Fletcher's-Interpretation of these words which are so generally misunderstood as sin outburst of vtndlctlvenesa cannot be too strongly commended. Bo far from a display of Intense passion the words are more powerful if said almost quietly, with a piercing, unflinching gaxe into Benedick's eyes." One must confess to a doubt here also. For all Beatrice's Intelligent, perhaps excessive, self-mastery, there Is something out of character In her using the moment of her dearest friend's shame and ruin as a calmly calculated test of Benedick's love for herself.

She Is demanding the death of Claudlo, whom she knows to nave been, at the worst, only a too credulous believer of ill report, and to compass it she Is risking the life of the man for whom she has just declared true love. If. she did this as coolly, as thoroughly in the mood, of calculation for her own ends, as Fletcher and Furness would have us believe, would it not argue her as odious as Mrs. Jameson and Campbell declared her? Only passion, noble and disinterested, could excuse a woman's cry for blood, a woman's hunger to eat Claudlo's heart in the market place. Now, as for Miss Marlowe's reading of the scene, if the rage of Beatrice is sln- WILLIAM KEMP, THE ORIGINAL DANCE.

From an cere and she left us no doubt that she thought it so how are we to account for the moment of utter abandon to love which immediately preceded it? Frankly, I think we cannot account for it at all; it seem the one weak spot in a general rendering of consummate truth and vigor. We are obliged to seek for a 'conception of the scene which merges the' two passions of love and revenge into a consistent psychologic whole. II. A clue is afforded by Lady Martin, who, the days when she was Helen Faucit, played Beatrice with much approval. Beatrice's courage and tenderness in the matter of the insult to Hero have roused the chivalry of Benedick's nature.

So deeply la he moved that I believe that even if he had not previously been influenced by what he had heard of Beatrice's love, he would from that time have been her devoted lover and servant. this sentence Furness says "It deserves to be printed' in italics." One element, however, it omits. The two react on each other In MAHLER. phonies; the second Is famous for the enor mous accumulation of apparatus it requires for Its performance, including a chcrun, solo voices, the organ, a' principal and a distant orchestra, and for its almost endless length. He has also written choruses and songs.

None of his works have ever been performed In this country. At the first concert of the New York Symphony Orchestra, to-day, however, Mr. Walter Danircsch is to bring out Mahler's Fourth Symphony; it is a work that Is likely to arouse great interest among musia lovers, not only because of the singular reputation of its composer, but also because of its own qualities. There are curious contradictions In Mahler's style as a composer, lie la intimately familiar with all the modern resources of musical expression, with the refinements of orchestral technique aa well a with the most daring of modern harmonle combinations and the manipulation of thematic ma Tke Original Dogberry of ihe Play. an Intense dramatic struggle of wills, Benedlck'a, offer of sympathy and aid arousing Beatrice to a sense of her own deep love for him.

Add this, and the remark deserves to 6e printed as the rubric ucder which the entire, scene in fact, the whole play is to be conceived. Miss Marlowe's rendering gives the passage a discordant duality of emotion aa' foreign to life as it is to sincere dramatic (as opposed to theatric) effect. Let us follow Lady Martin and conceive the mood throughout, the dominant emotion, to be "tenderness" for and "courage" In her behalf-that Is to say, let us sink the moment of mutual confession of love into a subordinate' relation and then see w-hat the scene becomes. When the others have left the church Benedick turns to Beatrice and you wept all this while?" She answers, "Tea, and I will weep a while longer." Miss Marlowe delivered this with an admirable denotement of abandonment to grief quite in harmony with Lady Martin's remark. Then Benedick expresses his manly sympathy admirably denoted by Mr.

Sothern ending with the half-humorous and wholly sincere declaration, "I do love nothing In the world so well an you. Is not that strange?" The declaration calls to the surface, for the moment her own love: It were as possible for me to say I love nothing in the world so well as you." Instinctively mistrusting Benedick's seriousness, however, she vibrates for a moment between her new passion and her old fear of love. believe me DOGBERRY, DANCINQ A MORRIS Old Wood Cut, And yet lie not. I confess nothing nor I deny nothing." In the next phrase the dominant emotion of the scene asserts Itself. "I am sorry for my cousin." Then-Benedick swears his love by his sword.

At the word jsword her courage and tendetness for Hero leap into the clear ascendant and all the' more so since, if Benedick Is her true lover. Hero's quarrel, which before rested with the aged and impotent Leonato and Antonio, falls into the hands of a young man and a soldier. The thought of his aiding her In her woman's need brings again to the surface Beatrice's, real tenderness for him, and in a moment of exquisite feeling, which is yet not a moment of utter abandonment, she confesses and "protests" her lovq. There is a German commentator who Inserts stage directions here calling for an exchange of kisses, and Miss Marlowe and Mr. Sothern have followed him with the fatal results we have noted to the unity of the scene.

Benedick. If -you will, in his Joy, becomes the abandoned lover, and cries at random, Come, HIS PERSONALITY tenaj. wun this goes an unmistakable predilection for the naive, the folk-tune, the simplicity and sometimes the bareness of the archaic. This is in evidence in the much-discussed Second Symphony; and It is still more so in the fourth, to be played today, which is much more modest In Its dimensions and in its style and content. Thus, for one thing, it has no part for trombones, though Its scoring is extremely Ingenious and goes into numberless subtleties of orchestral technique and unusual Instrumental effects.

The last movement Is wholly given up to a soprano solo to the words of that old Bavarian rolk-song, Der Him-mel hangt voll Gelgen "The heavens hang full of fiddles con ta hied the collection entitled Des Knaben Wunderhorn." For that collection, by the way. Mahler has shown a special fondness, and has written a large number of songs to 'verses derived from lt The naive and amusing little poem referred to tells of the joys of heaven, of Its calm and quiet, and of the angello life there enjoyed; of the dancing and singing that go on before the eyes of SL Peter; St. John leads ths lamb to slaughter; St, Luke slaughters the ox; wine cost a penny, the angel bake the bread. Good vegetables and fruit are to be had for the asking; game run through the streets. On fast days St.

Peter, with bis net, catches fish and St. Martha cooks. The music I far finer than any on earth, and 11.000 virgins dance, as St. Ursula smiles, and' Bt Cscllia and her companions are th Court musicians. Ther I a tune to which this Ingenuous plec of mediaeval Imagining Is tradition-ally sung, but Mahler ha mad no -use Of It to this symphony.

Tet it seems clear that th whole work la. in a certain way, an expression of the Urn and place and atmosphere to which the verses take us back, although It la not la accordance with Um composer' principles to set that forth a th raison d'etre of this symphony. Th first movement marked in German merry, deliberate." and then right leisurely ---has for tt first theme a smoothly flowing; graceful, and Ingratiating melody that might Mosart'a. It Is that given in the quotation marked No. L' Th second theme doe not depart far from th mood thus established, and Is even tid do anything for thee." But mat word recalls her from her half-yielding to her love, and she bids him, in a burst of passion, "Kill Claudlo! Benedick' sympathy with Hero has, however, been throughout the secondary emotion, and he already suspects that his friend has been more sinned against than sinning.

Two of them have the very bent of honor; And if their wisdoms be misled in this. The practice of It lives in John the Bastard. He accordingly urges a not unreasonable caution. Beatrice will have none of this, and, her rage mounting higher and MISS MARLOWE higher against the barrier of his prudence, she exclaims, Oh, God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart out in the market place! Two passions Beatrice has, a latent, half-realized love for Benedick, and a dominant rebellion at the flagrant traducing of Hero. But I cannot find one suggestion of calm calculation.

Miss Marlowe's over-emphasis of Beatrice's love betrays her at the close of the scene into a second moment of demonstration for Benedick. She kisses him frankly and passionately. In a recent interview she argued engagingly for this on the ground that she had abandoned the old stage perversion of the scene which makes her not only kiss Benedick but cry again, Kill Claudlo! Kill him dead! "and vmany more such Ineptitudes. Something demonstrative she feels necessary for theatric climax. Like the players In Hamlet." she has reformed the old abuses but Indifferently'.

Shakespeare has left no doubt as to the conduct of the close. Benedick says. I will kiss your hand, and so leave you. This manly restraint Is in accord not only with Beatrice's dominant passion, but with his own mood of pain at the necessity of killing his dearest friend. Would not Hamlet abjure Miss Marlowe to reform the kissing altogether III.

The objection to the supposition that simpler and more direct in its expression, having. In fact, all th character and the general Reeling and outline of a German folk-tune. It is also, curiously enough, reminiscent of a theme occurring In Beethoven's Italian scena, "Ah Perfldo." though the connection between that and a German folk-tune is not close. Mahler's tun Is given In No. H.

Mahler development of these themes, to which he-has Joined further brief bits of similar naive melody, la extremely ingenious, and is full of contrapuntal devices, employing the themes- in fragment in which the different voices of th orchestra are treated with the utmost Independence. The. effect to of gayety, often of bolster-ousneas. In the second movement. In leisurely time." the character of folk musia is kept up, though in quite a different mood, rather on of 'drastic almost harsh humor.

Here Mahler has used a quite novel Instrumental effect. There la a part for a solo violin, tuned a tone higher than the normal violin, intended to gain a certain shrillness and penetrating quality; and to this Instrument la allotted an angular and uncouth melody, which It la directed to play wi ela Fidel "like an old German flddla. fhm nrimitiva nnilMaMM a va mv I lin. It seem as if th composer, through hi use of strange and uncomfortable Intervals, wished In this to giv th Impression of some village fiddler monotonously sawing out of tune. See No.

m. Relief comes In th shape of a sweet and flowing melody with a charming lilt, decorated with little trills. This later takes on a form foreshadowing the theme to which. In th last movement, the solo soprano sings the vers of the poem, beginning Angelic voices rejoice th senses." Th comparison of the two appear In No. IV.l The third movement, marked quietly." to a set of variation on a broad and simple them given out by th viola to th accompaniment of th 'cellos and double basses.

The variation abound In and unusual effects and surprises a well aa in learned and adroit contrapuntal de vice. A reminiscence of the Moxartdsb theme of the first movement is introduced. One Weak Spot in a. Mr. SotKern's Acting Beatrice Is a calmly calculating lover has even stronger substantiation in the necessities of the play aa a whole, and here.

I confess, a study of the scene in question has revealed a beauty in Much Ado" which I had not divined. "It has generally been assumed, and not without reason, that Shakespeare conceived of both the brilliant bachelors as being led into love merely by the vanity of thinking one's self hopelessly loved. The vanity of their worldly wit and wisdom is conquered only by this greater vanity, the armor of their self-sufficiency pierced AS BEATRICE. only by a barb which has been tipped by a superior art. There is irony In this, and perhaps a touch of cynicism, for as has aptly been said, the pity which is akin to love is a very poor relation.

If we are right in assuming that Beatrice is dominated by a mood of not unrlght- two characters becomes vastly ennobled, I a tut iuq sup position that at heart both are generous and loyaL The mask of their raillery at the world has been worn so long that It has become all but a part of them. The comedy intrigue gives us a glimpse behind It, but It takes the fire of white-hot passion to strip their true countenances bare. Some ten years ago Miss Marlowe confessed in private conversation that she had an aversion to the character of Beatrice not dissimilar, as it appeared, from that of Mrs. Jameson; and her interlocutor shared it. Now she smiles at what she calls the sentimentality of her inexperienced girlhood, and her Interlocutor begs permission to smile at a similar error.

Beatrice Is as far aa the poles removed from the perfect, wholehearted lngenuosity of Juliet the'atmos-phere of lyric abandonment and poetic Illusion In which, at least In her earlier scenes, she lives and This later heroine la a woman of the world. Her AND HIS The basis of the variations to given In No. V. In the last movement the soprano solo voice sings the delights of heaven In a long, free melody. drawn in broad lines, and following no regular formulas as to symmetry of structure, though certain of its melodic traits recur more than once.

It general style to shown by the first measures, quoted In No. VI. The orchestra has much more to do than to- furnish an accompaniment to th voice In tills movement. Its part to free and independent, sometime like an improvisation. Ther are touches of description, though scarcely mor than touches, when the bleating of the lamb and the bellowing of the ox led forth to slaughter are suggested respectively In th oboe and the contrabasses.

For Mahler to no friend of th modern realistic conception of programme music aa it appears in the most extreme form In Strauss's later Works. lie bas characterised his own idea of a programme as diametrically opposed to that of Strauss; bis music come' to a pro era mm a to th ultimate Ideal explanation of Its meaning in language; with Strauss th programme is aa a task set to be accomplished." He "When I conceive a great musical picture I always arrive at the point where I must employ th word a the bearer of my musical idea. My experience with the last movement of my second symphony was such Vhat I actually ransacked th literature of th world, up to the Bible, to find the expository word. He has high appreciation of Strauss, bis contemporary, one of those who generously called attention to his compositions when they wer little known and little regarded. Nobody should attribute to me th Idea of considering myself his rival, as unfortunately ha often happened.

-he write. Quit apart from the-fact that if Straus' success bad npt opened a path for me, with my works, would now be looked upon as a sort of monster. I consider it on of my greatest, joys that with, my colleague, nave found such a comrade la fighting and Even after he had demonstrated hi tal THE heart is true as steel, to be sure, but it Is edged for the duel of the sexes by a penetrating intellect, and pointed by an experienced wit. What to Allow youth seemed hardness Is only the dry disillusionment of life, the hard polish of society. Meredith has said that Shake-peare's comedies are romantic comedies, denying him Moliere' gift of -the 'pure comedy.

But if there were ever two characters created In the spirit of Alceste and Celimene they are Benedick and Beatrice. j. In all but one particular 'they are as real in the world of to-day as they ever were. We have ceased to value highly the verbal wit of which the Klixabethans made so much. Even epigram and paradox are passing fashions, What ihe people of our drawing rooms and clubs most pride themselves on is what they call "ther saving grace of humor," the gift which enables one to laugh at the clash of actuality upon our ideals, even when it makes one most absurd and But such a sense, of humor, even more than the wit of the Elizabethans, becomes in the end an exterior that cabins, cribs, and combines the Ingenuous workings of the heart, the loftier courage in facing life and death.

If there were a Shakespeare among us he might with entire success write of two young people whose mask of self-derlslve humor is fiH Htr the noor relation of love and then snatched bare by the first 1 moment of generous passion. XV. The reconsideration of M4ss Marlowe's Beatrice; while it has clarified the one objection to it, has likewise settled the first conviction of Its surpassing truth and Mr. Sothern still seems at fault in giving spontaneity to the delicately balanced and rapidly shifting contrasts of Benedick, to show at times the intention rather than the effect. Tet on the whole his performance seems far more able and convincing than at first.

The passage in which he delivers the challenge to Claudio is a masterpiece of mingled and yet mastered emotions the firmness of port which he owed to Beatrice scarcely veiling the tender regret at confronting his friend in an affair of life and death. It has been years since we have had an interpretation of the play as true and able and refined as that now on view at the Gossip of ike i Original Dogberry. Precious little do we know of the personalities "of Shakespeare's actors, but in the case of the original Dogberry a few traits have survived. In the folio his speeches are assigned to Kemp," which can be no other than the famous clown William Kemp, who stands fifth in the list of the Principal! Actors. A NEW SYMPHONY ent Mahler arrived at recognition and success slowly.

When Mr. Walter. Damrosch was in Europe, In 1805, seeking opera singers for his company, he beard a performance of Die Meisteratnger at the Hamburg Opera, conducted by Mahler. 'Th orchestra was of very ordinary material, but' the genius and force and temperament of the conductor resulted in a performance so fin that Mr. Damrosch on his hotel sat down and penned Herr Mahkif a not expressing his pleasure.

Early th next morning came a reply by special messenger, in which Herr Mahler conveyed his appreciation of the visitor's praise, adding that it wa th first Um in hi Uf that be had ever got a word of recognition from a colleague Tet Mahler wa at that time thirty-five year old, and had been conductor at Ham. burg for four year. He bad previously occupied the same position at Pesth, where he had Infused a new life into- the opera, and before-that at Lelpslc, where he was v. 1 VL ot i jUt VatttJQt MINUET. similar accident has recorded the fact that Kemp also played Peter la Rome and Juliet.

Kemp's greatest claim to popular fame was his feat of dancing a Morrii Dance from London to Norwich in nin day. He wrote an account of this, from the frontispiece of which the accompanying illustration Is takenj Tfae account Is full of vanity and self -com. placehcyV and gives us a pretty clear idea of the Individuality of the actor who, beyond reasonable doubt; played the fool in most of the plays of Bhait. speare's best period. It is more likely that such characters as Dogberry and Bully Bottom are conceived, witi aU their -vulgar arrogance and abtmri self-complacency, as peculiarly flttlnr to Kemp's temperament.

If Shakespeare represented Hamlet as "fat and scant of breath because "Burbage taking on jie would have little hesitancy in tailor-made parts for Jils fdoL: There is ashfewd suspicion. In fact, that; Shakespeare only caricaUred Kemp in the parts he wrote for him, but administered a pointed' rebuff to him in-the lines of "Hamlet. It was the custom jr)f the clowns, as Brome informs us, before 4b stage was purged from barbarisms, to 'extemporize their own merriment Shakespeare'a clowns were often important factors in his plots and general scheme of character. Dogberry, for example, with his pompous vanity, being the deus machina who solves ths plot. gag such a part was an artistic offense.

One readily conceives that Shakespeare had many a tussle with his popular low comedian to make him keep within artistic measure. It was no doubt with the Intention of wringing' Kemp's wither that Hamlet was mad to say "And let those that play the clowns speak no more than is set down for them. For there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some question of the play be then to be considered. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses It." The words would not be wasted on modem interpreter of Shakespeare's clowns. JOHN CORBIX.

I v' EN PASSANT. THI3 truly great should by right possess the cuticle of the rhinoceros: for there are always swarms of gnats about te sting i On the contrary however, in order to truly great, they must be sensitive to pla pricks as a new-born babe, A man so often takes roses to the wrong A wife does not necessarily lose her fondness for roses because she is a wife. second in authority to Arthur Nlktoch. In 1883 he wa second conductor at CasseU and In 1885 worked with Angela Neumann In Prague, He studied philosophy at ths Vienna University and wa a pupil at the Conservatory of Bruckner and Epstola. He reached the highest point in his career In 1897, -when he succeeded Wlibelm Jahn as conductor of the Imperial Opera at Vienna, and, for a time, waa Han Rlchter successor at th head of th Vienna Philharmonic.

Her hi fame has blossomed and bourgeoned, and her Ik has mad himself felt a th autocratle and iron-handed conductor with whose will even th loftiest personage cannot Interfere, as lofty personal connected with Btat-subvntlond opera often try to do. As a nan and as a con doctor, though feared and In aom quarters hated, Mahler to a strangely attractive personality. His achievement In composition are such that It to Um his music was introduced to the attention of America muslo lovers. I RICHARD ALDRICH. S-Tt 1.