Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/28

16 and North America, and only for six weeks in each year appears at the theatre in Warsaw, is generally known by her first husband's name, as Mme. Modrzejewska. The Poles are justly proud of her; she is one of the wonders of the nation. When in 1879 a national greeting was to be given to Kraszewski on his fiftieth anniversary as an author, Helena Modrzejewska was asked to come to Cracow and take part in the play at the festival in honour of the prolific author. Her appearance, like her art, is of the grand style. She has a brilliant beauty, is now (1888) over forty years old, but her figure is still slender and elegant without meagreness, and her face, with its regular features, large dark eyes, pure strong lines of the mouth, and the Asiatic grace of her smile can never lose its beauty. I have seen her in "Dalila," by Feuillet, in Sardou's "Odette," and in "L'Étincelle," and I have never in my life seen better art than hers, when as Odette during a visit to her daughter she has to suppress the maternal feelings which overpower her. One of Mme. Modrzejewska's best roles is Nora in Ibsen's "Doll's House"; I had a great wish to see her in it, and she was almost equally eager to play it for a countryman of the author; but we did not count on the despotism of the director of the theatre, who withdrew his consent at the last moment, from pure spite.

Mme. Modrzejewska prefers to play Shakespere, and her English répertoire consists almost wholly of Shakesperian rôles. She is indebted to her present husband, an extremely artistic man of the world, Karol Chlapowski, for her taste for English poetry, as well as for her higher development as an artist generally. Naturally enough, she felt the need of a broader sphere for her talents than that offered by the Polish language. But there is great danger that the life of travel as a star, which she has led of late years, will compel her to restrict her art to its coarser effects.

While the stage, as I have just said, is still Polish, the Polish language is absolutely forbidden in the University. All lectures, no matter whether they are delivered by men of Russian or Polish birth, must be in Russian. Not even the history of Polish literature may be taught in the language