Olympic Theatre.

Of course the St. Louis people were quite
ready for Samson, and our present floating pop-
ulation were equally eager to see a sturdy bib-
lical character step down from the pedestal of
sacred history upon the boards of the modern
stage. He did it gracefully last night at the
Olympic, and doing it he stirred up fresh inter-
est in the sacred story itself. Perhaps there
were those in the theatre who expected to see
Samson make mince-meat of a lion, and wield
the histrionic jaw-bone. They were disappoint-
ed, but they saw something far better and more
attractive. They saw a sublime and very
effective drama most admirably performed.
They saw one of our own actors—heretofore
highly esteemed—make a noble advance in his
profession, and give his name to a powerful per-
formance, which will make it heard hereafter.
Doubtless some of the Olympic audience saw the
great Salvini play Samson, but that was in Ital-
ian, and the performance was little more than
pantomime set to gibberish.1 Last night they
saw an English Samson, and they absorbed the
whole story in presence of the embodiment.
Words throw a great light upon acting, and
these words by Mr. Howells are perfectly at-
tuned to the spirit of the old story. They are
strong Saxon words, used in the right
places upon a fine theme, and the
result is poetry. The Italian play has been
translated into dramatic blank verse, which
bends and sways grandly with the storm of the
action, and sings like the wind through stately
cedars. We commend this English version of
the Italian play as classical, lofty and essen-
tially dramatic. We don’t think a word could
be struck or changed to better it. So much for
the literary character of the drama.

Many of our [citizeds ] imagine they have seen
Mr. Charles Pope act, but however well he may
have done heretofore he never acted so well as
he did last night. He seemed almost to put his
old self away as something for which he had no
further use, and build himself up anew in a sin-
gle night. His brain and body were filled with
Samson and he gave us the outlines of a new and
magnificent stage picture, which is
worthy of his most earnest labor
to finish. It is not yet perfect,
it could not be at a first performance in any
hands, but the drawing is grand and true; and
Mr. Pope, as an artist, possesses the means to
its perfection. It requires only shading and
toning. The colors are all there, warm with
light and life and soul.

Mr. Pope, by his commanding figure and mus-
cular movement, filled the idea of Samson to
begin with, and, if we may say
so, looked the part. It was
the poetry of muscle that children have in their
mind’s eye when reading of the giants of the
old days. It was the artistic Samson of the play
too, as well as of the Bible. His story of the
lion-slaying in the first act was really a magnifi-
cent piece of pantomime and speech-description
and aroused the house. His defiance of the
Philistines in the second act rose to grandeur,
and he was called before the
curtain by the storm in the
auditorium. That stamped the play as a great
success beyond a doubt. The feat of carrying
off old Manoah was handsomely done. The
love-making of Samson and Delilah in the third
act was a little crude. It lacked fervor
and spontaneity. It showed care and study, but
there was too much effort apparent and it
lacked ease. There was not enough
detail to give it the glow of passion.
Mr. Pope was also called out at the end of this
act, which, in some measure, destroyed the
illusion of his sleep from the effects of wine at
Delilah’s hands. Samson’s awakening in the
fourth act and his curse of Delilah, were among
the finest points of the play; and Delilah’s woe
over the captivity and terrible doom of Samson
was powerfully done. Miss Lillie2 sur-
passed herself in this scene and got
an enthusiastic call. The last act and fall of
the temple of Dagon worked well both in act-
ing and machinery. Samson’s feeling of his
returning strength, and his exemplification of
it by breaking his chains was capital, and made
an electric point which told on the sympathies
of the audience. His language and business
before pulling down the pillars were a little
tardy. This fault was, however, quite slight.

Mr. Pope was called out at the end of the
play and made a brief and very appropriate ac-
knowledgment of thanks on account of the
author and for himself, and a call at the end of
a play, it must be borne in mind, is very unu-
sual here. There is no kind of doubt that
“Samson” made a deep impression upon all
and was a great surprise to many. It was ad-
mirably put on the stage and extremely
well played throughout. Every one of the actors
was perfect in the words and there was no hitch
or delay, except in the preparation of the last
set, which is unavoidable. The scenery and
furniture and costumes were all that they could
be in beauty and completeness, and added their
due measure to the general success of the per-
formance. “Samson” will be repeated to-night.