2287 FROM THE BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY COLLECTED BY BENNO LOEWY 1854-1919 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY 10 '4r ^'"'^^ J>i- JUN 71949 Cornell University Library PN 2287.C32 Mrs. Leslie Carter In David Belasco's Du 3 1924 027 230 659 The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027230659 ^IRS. LESLIE CARTER IN DAVID BELASCO'S DU BARRY >i*."-,<.^ClK.H ACT I. Jeanettk Vaubkknier, Mrs, Leslie Carter IN David Belasco's Du Barry IVilh poiirails of Mrs. Carter by JOHN CECIL CLAY Togcl/icr wilh portrait of DAVID BELASCO iiiid numerous engravings ofpholograplis and skclclies in black and white ^ NEW YORK Frederick A. Stokes Company publishers :2j Copyright, 1902, By Frederick A. Stokes Company ^ Published in September^ 1902 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Jeanette Vaubernier . . Frontispiece PAGE. Reproduction of the Original Sign of the Milliner's Shop . . . .10 David Belasco . . . .11 Milliner's Doll . . . .13 Objects seen in the Milliner's Shop . -15 Corset of the Period . . . .19 Hurdy-gurdy Player . . . .21 Sedan Chair . . . . • -3 Orange-woman . . . .26 Screen and Dressing-Table actually owned and used by Du Barry . . .29 Copy of Affiche actually used in the shop of Labille . . . • y- Comtesse Du Barry . . . -33 A Corner of Du Barry's Bedchamber in the Palace at Versailles . . 37 Spinnet of the I^eriod . . . 39 Veritable Night Table actually used by Du Barry at Versailles . . 41 The Du Barry Coffee Cup Comtesse Du Barry . Veritable Louis XV Table A Corner of the Property Room Body Guard of the King The Punch Bowl Zamore .... Du Barry Slippers 45 47 49 5' 53 55 57 59 MRS. LESLIE CARTER IN DAVID BELASCO'S DU BARRY "Can she hope to equal Zaza?" was the question that came naturally enough to the lips of thousands of play-goers in all parts of the country, when it was an- nounced that Mrs. Leslie Carter was to appear in a play founded on the life of the famous Mme. Du Barry, one of the most notable figures in the brilliant and profligate court of Louis XV. " Will it be possible to make a really interesting play out of the material offered by her life?" was another question of almost equal interest, and one whose solution was a matter of serious doubt. A great many attempts have been made to place the favorites of royalty on the stage in interesting, dramatic form, and very few of these attempts have been lO MRS. LESLIE CARTER really successful. Not only has it been found difficult to make the life story of such a woman genuinely dramatic, with* out straying too far away from history. ^.^I^^St,*- '^^LA^^. m^. Reproduction of the Original Suin of the Milliner's Shot. but it has seemed wellnigh impossible to present stage pictures of life in royal palaces that could compare in any A\'ay P^^dMj-ct^i^i-^ - IN DU BARRY 13 with the popular idea as to what life of that sort really was. Shakespeare, who well knew how to make kings and princes tractable stage puppets, has said some- thing about the " divinity that doth hedge a king," and even in this republican coun- try, a dramatist must treat the sovereign of his creation with due respect and ceremony and give him gorgeous sur- roundings, if he does not want him to be laughed at. Small wonder, then, that play -goers shook their heads doubtfully when they heard that Mrs. Carter proposed to appear in a role designed to give her even greater scope than " Z&za.," and in a play which should give the public a vivid picture of the most gorgeous, extrava- gant and dissolute court that Europe has ever known. But long before these questions were asked by play-goers David Belasco had Milliner's Doll 14 MRS. LESLIE CARTER found fitting answers for them. No sooner was tlie success of " Zaza " assured, than he set himself to the task of preparing for the star, whose artistic greatness was now acknowledged by every one, a play which should present her to the public in a greater, more interesting, more important part than any that she had been seen in before. Both he and Mrs. Carter had long since decided on Mme. Du Barry as the best historic 7-dle available and now that the work incidental to the presenta- tion of " Zaza " was over, they began in earnest on their preparations for the next play. They ransacked French and En- glish literature for matter relating to the famous Frenchwoman and her royal lover. They studied with the utmost care the social and political conditions which existed in France during the period which preceded and paved the way for the French Revolution ; and they made a close study of the furniture, dresses, ornaments, fans, and wigs which were used in court at that time. In the summer of 1900, at the close of OUJKC-Ib btE\ IN IHE MlLLl\i.] i bHJl. INDUEARRY 17 their sensationally successful London sea- son of " Zaza," they went to Paris and Versailles, where they visited the scene of every known episode in Jeanette Du Barry's career. They spent days in Paris and Versailles and took photographs of the rooms in which the mistress of the French king actually lived and gave aud- ience to the proudest nobles and the greatest statesmen, soldiers, and poets in the kingdom. Here and there in the shops of Paris, they picked up bits of old furniture, embroideries and ornaments of the period which they were studying. They even went so far as to secure various articles which had actually belonged to Mme. Du Barry. From different sources they procured detailed descriptions of everything pertaining to her private life and that of the King, so that the various things that were made to order were, generally speaking, exact copies of those which had been in actual use. The difficulty in presenting a series of stage pictures of the extravagant luxury which characterized the court — and which. la MRS. LESLIE CARTER with its suggestion of the squahd misery, hunger, and discontent that culminates in the Reign of Terror, is the keynote of the drama — maybe imagined when we remem- ber that Mme. Du Barry's expenditures amounted to millions of dollars a year. It was in the year 1768 that she first acquired her hold on the King. Those who believe in omens, may find food for thought in the fact that within a few weeks of the day on which she was for- mally presented at court, there came into this world in the little town of Ajaccio in Corsica, a man who was destined to oc- cupy by force of arms and genius the very throne on whose steps she ma)' be said to have had her place. For five years Du Barry ruled the King and was an ac- knowledged power in affairs of state. Her reign ended only with the death of the King. During her five years of power, she squandered millions of francs and that too at a time when the purchasing capacity of the franc was far greater than it is to-da)-. Up to the moment of her intimacy with IN DU BARRY 19 the King, she had been a milliner's girl, and later, for a brief period, the frequenter of a well-known gaming house in Paris, and it is not likely that she had ever spent as much as ten thousand francs in a single year of her early life. Now, no sooner was she firmly es- tablished in the royal favor than she began to surround herself with a retinue appropriate to her state. She had a steward, a first valet de chambre, a high - priced hairdresser, two perfumers, three or four of the best known dressmakers in France, a maitre d'hotel, a butler, a chaplain, a head coach- man, a small and gorgeously attired African, and no end of postillions, out- riders, runners, footmen, chair-carriers, valets of the wardrobe, waiting maids and no less than fifty ordinary valets. Many of these retainers, who had profited by her loose-handed generosity, were pitiless Corset of the Period. LESLIE CARTER witnesses against her in the trial which condemned her to death. She spent enormous sums in the enter- tainments which she devised for the King, and which, in many instances, took the form of outdoor fetes. In one of these, all the guests disguised themscKes as gardeners, the King himself wearing a white jacket and digging around the rose trees, while Du Barry, with her hair decked with natural flowers, looked on \\\ laughing approval. At other times she sought to amuse her lover and the court with performances given by comedians, singers, and dancers, the very cream of the Paris theatres ; and it is a matter of record that once, after a beautiful ballet, the King rewarded the famous dancer, La Guimard, with a life pension of sev- eral hundred dollars. It was a life of this sort that Mr. Bel- asco undertook to place upon the stage in such a manner that it would be possi- ble for his auditors to imagine that they saw before them the reah Jeanette Du Barry and the real King of France, set- IN DU BARRY 21 ting the pace of -reckless living, extrava- gance, and corruption that eventually brought-upon their unhappy country, the terrors of the Rev- olution. The first New York performance was an- nounced for Wednes- day evening, Decem- ber 25th; for, — although the pkiy by that time had had eight weeks of rehear- sal, which is double the lengtli of time usually given produc- tions of this soi't, and , two weeks of public performances in Washington and Bal- timore, — it was consid- ered necessary to sacrifice two niglits to scenic-rehearsals, thus throwing the first performance on Christmas night, which, m the better grades of fociety in New '^ HuRDY-GUKDY PlaVEK. 22 MRS. LESLIE CARTER York, is generally kept as a domestic holiday and devoted to family dinners, etc. Nevertheless, so vivid was the rec- ollection of Mrs. Carter's exciting prem- iere in " Zaza," two years before, and so great the interest in her new persona- tion, that the seats for this performance were bought up almost as soon as they were offered, and the curtain rose in the presence of an audience of extraordinary distinction, even for a fashionable Broad- way house, and one that filled the theatre to its uttermost capacity. It is safe to say that no one who was present on that memorable night, will ever forget the moment when the au- dience that had doubted and questioned at eight o'clock, only to lose itself in the absorbing interest of the drama that was unfolded to them, rose at last with shouts of enthusiasm and waving of handker- chiefs, while tears streamed from women's eyes, and bouquets, torn from breasts that throbbed with emotion, fell at the feet of the great artist who had again conquered cold, critical, sneering New York. There INDUEARRY 25 is one picture, too, which will long re- main in the n:iemory. It is that of the actress herself, at the moment when the curtain, falling on the fourth act, hid her from view as she stood, her hands before her face, her whole form shaken with sobs, completely unnerved by the storm and passion and suffering of the mimic scene through which she had just passed. Great as had been the triumph of her first New York performance of " Zaza," two years before, this one was greater still, even as Mr. Belasco's "Du Barry," is a far greater play than " Zaza." " Zaza " was remarkable, not only as an entertaining picture of contempora- neous life, morals, and manners in France, but also because of Mrs. Carter's extra- ordinary performance of the title part, in which she ran the whole gamut of human emotion, from light-hearted comedy to the bitterest anguish that a woman can feel. In " Du Barry " she does all this and a great deal more besides, and in " Du Barry " there is a theme deep- enough and strong enough, and of suffi- 26 MRS. LESLIE CARTER cient vital interest to keep the drama that is founded on it before the public for many years to come. For, after all, it is the theme alone w h i c h can give to a play that im- mortal life for which all dramatists are striving, and i n iNIr. B e 1 a s c o ' s ■' Du Barry " w e have a theme al- most as great as that which has brought Shakes- peare's play of "Julius Oranue-woman. CjEsar" down to the threshold of the new century with its power to charm, thrill, and interest absolutely unimpaired by its three hun- INDUBARRY 27 dred years of life. In " Du Barry," the theme is the French Revolution which was, with the exception of the American War of Independence, the most important movement in modern history. No matter how much we may have read and thouglit about that period in the history of France, when the peasants, oppressed be- yond all endurance by the taxes imposed for the support of a luxurious and profli- gate court, were beginning to cry for bread, and when the King and his follow- ers were making possible the bloody, but reformatory work of the guillotine that came in later years, — no matter what we may have gained from books about this time, Mr. Belasco's play of "Du Barry" makes it seem more real, and gives us a new understanding of the subject. " After us the deluge," exclaimed Louis XV in a reckless moment of his career of profligacy, and we can under- stand it better than ever before, when we see the mimic King standing on the terrace at Versailles where a gorgeous fete has been prepared in his honor, 28 MRS. LESLIE CARTER while from without come the sound of angry mutterings from the peasants who are paying for it aJL "Am I no longer King of France?" cries the mimic Louis as he bids his guard drive the rabble from the palace gates in order that their cries can no longer disturb him and his mistress in their revels. But we who loolc upon the scene, realize now, if we never did before, why it was that not all the power at the King's command could stifle the cries of the oppressed, or drive away from that palace gates the men and women who were destined, within a few short j^ears, to tear down with bloody hands the ancient and corrupt monarchical structure and drag to the block those painted and periwigged heads that we see here crowding about their King. The spectacle of this pampered favorite of royalty, bolstered up in her luxurious bedchamber surrouiided by every sort of luxury and receiving the flatteries of ministers of state, generals, the prelates. h i ii'J&JJ^ '-^MK'Mi^m/^ SCREE-N AND DliFrSSrMG-TABLH ACTUALLY OIVNED AND USED DY Du Barry. IX DU BARRY 31 of the church and even the ill-fated princess who was afterwards Queen Marie Antoinette, who come to do her reverence, is in itself a theme worthy of the serious consideration of any one who ever thinks at all. The last act of all — the conclusion of the whole matter, to quote from the Psalmist — shows us this woman, who but yesterday basked in the sunshine of royal favor, on her way to the guillotine, her beautiful hair cropped close in deference to the knife, her whole attitude one of abject, awful terror. It is something never to be forgotten, this last scene, with the red-robed exe- cutioner standing beside her, grim and stolid ; the black-robed priest holding aloft his crucifix ; and the woman herself crouching with blanched face in the cart, while the " cart-swallows " dance about the wheels, and the mob howls pitilessly for her blood. All this is history. Every scene is stamped with the immistakable and ia delible hall mark of truth and accuracy It is history, but not a mere catalogue of 32 MRS. LESLIE CARTER facts and happenings, such as any com- monplace hack can dig out of an encyclo- pedia. It is history indeed, but it is history touched with the magic wand of a poetic im- agination. Through it all there runs, like a vein of virgin gold in a lead of quartz a love stor}', pure, wo- manly, and redeeming, and as sweet and fragrant as the bunch of violets w li i c h the dramatist has chosen as its fitting symbol. It is this love story, — which has its beginning in the early part of the play, rises to splendid tragic heights in the great scene AL.Vl'OU.ETTE. jg1^"I| est arrive de tre -'belles j^e^rj d'lrALit: Av S- l,ABILLE, /■eid fa ptace Del ^).icloi'ieA. lous ce qui conceriie les ^djuftemens de djnies Copy of Affiche actuallv used in the Shop of Labille. A^ :, H '' ''' m W Hb^\ , J :_mP/yr^ jk # '' ' ■ ' ^■'' ^^^^^1 Wm '''"' ,/ /■'■'* 1 ^^^^HV; ■hi B'. ACT IV. COMTESSE DU BaRKV I N D U B A R R \' 35 with the King, and abides with her to the veiy end, — that, more than all else beside, has rendered Jeanette Du Barry a sympathetic character ; that has con- verted the life story of a famous woman into a drama of deep significance and vital, human interest. It is impossible to do even meagre justice in these few pages to the con- summate skill with which Mr. Belasco has constructed what may be termed, in all truth, an ideal historical drama ; one which gives a picture of life at the court of Louis XV, which is not only truthful, but intensely interesting as well. It is no easy matter to transplant a woman from the Versailles of the ancien rdgime to the Broadway of to-daj^ ; to bring her down through a century and a half of time and present her, in the exact environment that was hers in life, as a living, breathing loving woman, one who has the power to sway an audience of modern New York play-goers, even as her great prototype swayed the court of her royal lover. Yet this is precisely what David Belasco 36 MRS. LESLIE CARTER has done, and lie has done his work so thoroughly well that those who have seen the performance more than once — and there are many of those already — are beginning to realize that the play which holds their attention from the rise to the fall of the curtain, and brings them back to the theatre again and again for a fuller comprehension of its subtleties, is not merely a cunningly contrived vehicle for the display of the actress's versatile art, but a drama which is bound to take a permanent place on the English-speak- ing stage. Certainly no play has ever been given in this country with such fidelity to historical truth as this one ; and in order to understand the extent to which Mr. Belasco's taste for accuracy in detail has been carried, we have only to glance at a few of the properties, furniture, and cos- tumes used in the different scenes of the play. In the first act, we have a picture of the shop in which Du Barrj' began her career as a milliner's girl. This was kept WHni "Sftamf^ A COKNER OF Do BaKKy's BEDCHA.MbHK IN THE PaLACE AT VEKSAILI-IiS. IN DU BARRY 39 by a Mtne. Labille, doing business in the name of her husband, and, according to the most trustworthy accounts, was SPINNET OF THE PERIOD. situated in tlie rue St. Honore. This scene has been made, as far as was possi- ble, in exact imitation of the shop of one liundred and fifty years ago. The seats and counters are made from models of 40 MRS. LESLIE CARTER those used at that time and the goods displayed are those actually mentioned in the circular sent out by the original Mme. Labille to her customers. The gilt cabinets used for the display of certain articles are old pieces that were actually in use in the middle of the eighteenth century ; and the canes, bonnets, and other similar articles are precise reproduc- tions from the fashions of that da}-. In the course of this act, a sedan chair stops outside the door of the shop in such a way that it can be seen by the audience. This chair is different from others in that its top opens so as to allow for the elabo- rate coiffures of Louis XV's reign. It is an exact copy of one that belonged to the Polish princess, Marie Leczinska, wife of Louis XV, and is worthy of a place in any collection, as a model of the sedan chair of its period. The best example of studied detail in this act, however, is found in the charac- ter of Vaubernier, the father of Du Barry, who enters with the cry ; " J'ai pierre noire pour noircire pantoufles et souliers," -fcx^ ( 1fl«K-^ /- Veuitablk Night Taule actually UbhD bv Du Barrv AT Versailles. INDUBARRY 43 signifying, " I have blackstone with wliich to blacken slippers and shoes." Black- stone was black lead mixed with oil, which gave to the shoes the dead black color which is as characteristic of the period as the dead finish of the Louis XV gilding shown in the furniture. An excellent example of the basket that this black- stone was carried in, with the quaint little pots and the swab sold with it go to com- plete Vaubernier's make-up. This detail alone, when compared with the costumes of the little boot-cleaners, who appear in the last act, plainly shows the difference in time between the beginning and the end of the play. The most striking characteristic of Act II, to one who observes with the eye of an artist, is the fact that the color scheme is one of a peculiar shade of red. More than one person experienced in such matters has wondered at the daring of the manager in giving such a setting to a woman with such extraordinary red hair as that of Mrs. Carter. Others have commented on the fact that the red is 44 MRS. LESLIE CARTER not like other shades of the same color, and a few men and women of fine artistic perceptions, have noticed that under a high light the actress's hair blends in ex- quisite harmony with the red of the walls and curtains. Those whose interest has been excited by this scene may be glad to know that this peculiar shade of red was made specially for this production, in France, after every upholstery store in New York had been ransacked for it in vain. The walls, curtains, and upholstery are all done in a rich brocade of this color, and of this no less than one hundred and seventeen yards is used. The spinnet in this scene is an exact copy of one used at the time. It was during Louis XV's time that the Chinese pavilion had its existence in Paris, and, to a certain extent, influenced current taste in household decorations. A suggestion of this is seen in certain vases and ornaments used in this scene. The gilt clock on the wall is, of course, French, and was carefully made from one of that period. The gilding on the IN DU EARRV 45 furniture is not bright and glittering, but has the dead finish cliaracteristic of the time. Some observers have noticed that in the third act Mrs. Carter wears but one shoe buckle. That is because she has Thi; Du liAKuv Cui 1 i,ii Cup. found it impossible to procure a suitable mate for the one which she does wear, and which is fashioned of silver set with diamonds and rubies and surmounted with a royal crown. It was formerly the property of Mme. Du Barry, and was actually worn by her on just such occa- sions as the one which constitutes this 46 MRS. LESLIE CARTER act. The cup and saucer used by Mrs. Carter in this scene are of solid gold, and were also the property of the famous Frenchwoman, as was the table that stands beside the bed. Connoisseurs in Louis X.V furniture have had their attention attracted by the table which stands at the foot of the bed and which has not its counterpart in this country. It was actually made and used during the reign of Louis XV and has a top of solid onyx of great beauty and rarity. But the crowning achievement in the setting of this act is the bed itself, which is in every detail an exact copy of the one in which the real Du Barry sat when she held her famous levee in her apartment in Versailles. It is hung with curtains of a peculiar green color which Madame Du Barry is known to have affected, and which are fashioned from stuff woven and dyed in Lyons especially for this production. Above the bed are three dozen superb ostrich plumes nearlj? five feet in length. The linen sheets and pillow cases were ^ I ^rs;"' ' W ,. V, *^C