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A DRAMATIC CRITIC but a tawny barbarian, exuberant with the quahties conventionally assigned to the race. His gloating over Desdemona ill became the lines which displayed the depth and chastity of the hero's love, and in the fierce savagery of his jealous rage, during the last half of the play, the imagi- native grace and beauty of many passages were smothered and lost. In the murder of Desdemona, done with realistic hor- rors, and in Othello's suicide, effected, not with indicated dagger, but with a crooked scimiter and hideous particulars of gasp, choke, and gurgle, I perceived that both the letter and the spirit of Shakespeare were defied and defeated for sensational purposes. But thirty years ago criticism of this sort fell, as now perhaps it falls, upon few ears that would hear; one of my friends said that such carping was like girding at Niagara. Salvini's Othello was undoubt- edly stupendous and monumental. Leav- [ H6 ]
TOMMASO SALVINI ing Shakespeare and Anglo-Saxon scruple out of account, it was great; considered by itself, it was homogeneous and self-con- sistent, — " one entire and perfect chryso- lite," or, with a suitable variation of the Moor's own phrase, one huge ardent car- buncle. In witnessing the Italian dramas which Salvini produced, the spectators did not need to be troubled with Shakespearean doubts and qualms. His Samson, which he played on his opening night in this city, seemed to me a supreme histrionic expression of the emotional-picturesque. The play, which was in verse, freely dram- atized the Biblical story of the Lion of Dan, had considerable merit, and was quite redeemed from commonplace by the char- acter of its hero. In Samson's mighty personality two individualities were fused: the giant, the man of blood, the slave of passion, was also the son of promise, the just judge, and, above all, the appointed C 147 J
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TOMMASO SALVINI<br />
ing Shakespeare and Anglo-Saxon scruple<br />
out of account, it was great; considered<br />
by itself, it was homogeneous and self-con-<br />
sistent, — " one entire and perfect chryso-<br />
lite," or, with a suitable variation of the<br />
Moor's own phrase, one huge ardent car-<br />
buncle.<br />
In witnessing the Italian dramas which<br />
Salvini produced, the spectators did not<br />
need to be troubled with Shakespearean<br />
doubts and qualms. His Samson, which<br />
he played on his opening night in this<br />
city, seemed to me a supreme histrionic<br />
expression of the emotional-picturesque.<br />
The play, which was in verse, freely dram-<br />
atized the Biblical story of the Lion of<br />
Dan, had considerable merit, and was quite<br />
redeemed from commonplace by the char-<br />
acter of its hero. In Samson's mighty<br />
personality two individualities were fused:<br />
the giant, the man of blood, the slave of<br />
passion, was also the son of promise, the<br />
just judge, and, above all, the appointed<br />
C 147 J
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