for Sweden-Prime-Minister Seddon's New Programme-The Nationalization of the Railways The Attempt of the Special-Pleaders for the Criminal Rich to Distort the President's Speech BOOK-STUDIES,.. BOOKS OF THE DAY,. NOTES AND COMMENTS,. Page 523 623 Portrait of Stuyvesant Fish,. facing 337 Ahead, Full Speed!" by Charles H. Grant,.. 483 "Will the Anchor Hold?" by Charles H. Grant, 485 487 488 Cartoons by Ray D. Handy, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175. Cartoons by J. Sidney Craiger, .292,293, 294. Cartoons, Current, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 307, 309, 316, 317. 417, 418 419, 422, 520, 521, Cartoons by W. A. Rogers, 374, 375, 376, 377, 378. VOL. 35 They master us and force us into the arena, Where, like gladiators, we must fight for them."— HEINE. The Arena JANUARY, 1906 No. 194 RICHARD MANSFIELD. BY KENYON WEST. SCHILLER said that for actors pos of CHILLER said that for actors pos- gard of theatrical traditions. He calls no man master. He is mentally so strong that he has taken his own course, independent of praise or blame. fame comes only to the creator, not to the mere interpreter. The ordinary actor is indeed but the interpreter of other men's ideas; but in the work of a dramatic artist like Richard Mansfield there is so much creative genius, so much of the illuminative quality, the distinction, the imagination, of the creative interpreter, that, after the inevitable fate of humanity overtakes him and his mortal part is dust, his memorial will be something besides a tradition of greatness, fading gradually into oblivion: —his name will live, his creations will be part of dramatic history, kept in vivid and grateful memory. Richard Mansfield is not only the most important figure on our stage to-day, but he is one of the most interesting men of our time. His work as an actor is full of intellectual power and dignity, but it is all infused with the subtile and alluring influence of his peculiar temperament. Many actors have the mysterious quality which we call magnetism. Mansfield has it in full measure, but his magnetism is unlike that which influences us in others. In this, as in everything else, he is thoroughly unique. His method and his style are his own. Not the least of his virtues is his disre It is a great gain to go to the theater and find a method of interpretation different from what has been expected. It is a gain to have one's mind stimulated, one's imagination fired, and to have new aspects of life and of art presented in an original as well as brilliant manner. Mansfield makes his audiences think as well as observe and enjoy. The occasional opposition he has aroused is a tribute to his power rather than a proof of defeat. And the inequalities sometimes observed in his work are due to his temperament. Such a man would be, of course, a man of varied mood; and this variation of mood might vary his interpretation of a certain character. Who that has seen his marvelous impersonation of Richard III. has ever seen him play it twice alike in every minute detail? Ten years ago there was in "Richard III.," from the weird, ghosthaunted sleep to the battle and deathscene, a cumulation of impressive acting which had seldom been paralleled upon our stage. The struggles of the valiant, despairing king were fierce and terrible. His yielding to the dread Conqueror was slow and desperate. He grew weaker A RARE PORTRAIT OF MR. MANSFIELD, and weaker, but his indomitable spirit upheld him. Finally he fell, but only to rise once more and make a convulsive effort to lunge with his sword at an enemy unseen by his dimming sight but everpresent to his tortured conscience. The clutching of the tree behind him for support was remarkably vivid. Last spring when Mansfield presented "Richard III." after the interval of so many years, several important changes were noticeable. The development of Gloster's character from youth to manhood, from the impish, mirthless glee of the murderer of Henry to the sardonic, somber gloom of the solitary king on his uncertain throne was made intensely human, without a trace of inartistic sensational appeal. In the tent-scene, followed by the hysterical recognition of Catesby, the actor touched an altitude of tragic power which was sublime. The deathscene was quite different from what it had been ten years before. The struggle was quickly over. The spiritual conflict with the dread Conqueror had taken place before Richard fell on Bosworth Field. The meeting with Richmond was but the physical consummation of his doom. No! Richard Mansfield has no cutand-dried method. He will never get into a rut. There will always be something novel and interesting in his impersonations; for, like Keats and other great men, he has the faculty of growth. Mansfield's temperament and genius can only be partially explained by reference to his nationality and ancestry. The son of Captain Mansfield of the British army and of the famous Russian singer, Madame Rudersdorf, he was born in Berlin a little over forty-five years ago. Mr. Mansfield has not taken the trouble to correct the prevailing impression that his birthplace was Heligoland, but he himself is the authority for the statement that it was Berlin. In many striking qualities of his character and in the German atmosphere which he infuses into several of the most successful plays with which his fame is identified we can trace the Teutonic influences of his early days. From his mother he must have inherited many of his vocal and artistic gifts, and the circumstances and environment of his youth strengthened and developed them. Her career as an honored "Gast" at many of the most brilliant courts of Europe was illustrious, and the boy had unusual opportunities for culture and to see life in some of its most varied and interesting phases. The foundations of his scholarship were laid at one of England's most famous schools, but he devoted himself to several things besides books, and when the |