Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1919 — Bernhardt and Rostand. [ARTICLE]

Bernhardt and Rostand.

Mine. Bernhardt’s admiration for Edmond Rostand was due in part at least to natural human gratitude. When once a guest of the great actress at Belle Isle, her lonely island home near Quiberon, the distinguished dramatist had rescued her from drowning. But apart from this she always swore by him. I have heard her in terms that seemed extravagant about his genius. He was to her the beginning and end of that form of the drama In which she had excelled as an interpreter. She loved him as a reaction visible against realism, as a protest against Ibsen and a renewer of the flamboyant in art. Yet who can doubt that when Rostand is forgotten men will know Ibsen? The romantic episode at Belle Isle merely strengthened Mme. Bernhardt’s profound and touching faith in this of Hugo.—Exchange.