Without an effort he
endears to us the defects of his hero's Quixotic qualities, and makes
his very deformity contribute to the triumph of his heroic _panache_.
Even such of the poet's prolixities as survive a very careful pruning
of the text are made to seem essential to the self-expression of
character.
Mr. LORAINE is happy in his book, for the clever rendering made by
Miss GLADYS THOMAS and Miss MARY GUILLEMARD reproduces both the spirit
and the letter of the poem. And from his cast he gets all the support
that he needs. True, he needs very little. He fills the stage, and
the other characters--notably the colourless _Christian de
Neuvillette_--are little more than his foils. Miss STELLA CAMPBELL, as
_Roxane_, failed, at times, to convey a sense of overwhelming passion
either for the body of _Christian_ or the soul which she imagined it
to contain; but she was always a gracious figure and her voice was
gentle. Perhaps Mr. LORAINE owed most to his scenic artists, Messrs.
DULAC and JOHN BULL, who gave of their best. There was attraction too
in the very names of Arras and Bapaume, as well as in the thought of
the part that our _Cyrano_ of to-day has played against a ruder
foe than the Spaniard.
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