A Packed House Watches a Dying Cardinal Bring Down the Curse of Rome

When Richelieu was on his death bed he was asked if he forgave his enemies. "I never had any but those of the state," he replied. Those who saw the magnificent representation of the play of the great cardinal last night at the Olympia theater can well understand from the above the intensity of the patriotism that was within the breast of Armand Richelieu when he exclaimed with dramatic fervor: "France, I love thee."

He re-created France in the days of the weak King Louis XIII at the expense of the Protestant Huguenots whom he fought — not as a religious bigot, but as a statesman, for after he had conquered and quelled them he gave complete amnesty to those whom he had subdued. Richelieu has been called the true architect of the French monarchy and the great parent of French civilization, despite all his darker qualities. Around the great historical drama so admirably penned by Lord Bulwer cluster some startling contrasts of petty and heroic work, intense irony and humor, sallies of lively wit, fear, hatred, love, revenge and pride, while "the headsman stalks behind" those who deserved death by organizing the great conspiracy to crush the cardinal and France.

The power of the church in the days succeeding the destruction of feudalism in France was never more cleverly shown than in the play of Richelieu, and yet in one of the passages the convent is denounced by Julie de Mortimer. Perhaps the most startling climax of last night's representation was the curse scene, when the King sends Baradas for Julie and the cardinal exclaimed: "Around her form I draw the awful circle of our solemn church; step but a foot within its bounds and on thy head, yea, though thou were a king, I'd launch the curse of Rome."

Keene's climaxes throughout the historical drama were strong and terrible, full of dramatic fire and power. He is the best delineator of the heroic characters of the stage today in this country, save Booth. Lacking the splendid physique and voice of either Forrest or McCullough, he approaches both in finished detail of the technique of the stage. His portrayal of the able, haughty, proud, humorous and weak old man of two characters — who did not scruple to employ the spy, the Capuchin monk (and, Voltaire says, a mistress) to destroy feudalism, humiliate Austria, dismember Spain and build up his beloved France — was the best representation of dramatic art ever seen on the Olympia theater stage. Walter Matthews made an excellent De Mauprat, Frank Henning a good Baradas, and Alberta Gallatin was a lovely Julie. The young man who acted the part of Francois, who did not "fail," gave a very fine and vigorous representation of that character.

THE PLAY TONIGHT. Keene will appear in Shakespeare's "Richard III" and it is expected that the house will again be packed. It is a widely different character from Richelieu. He is said to have no equal in this play except Edwin Booth. There are but a few seats left for the play tonight.