_Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life._
Having made such an enormous success with "Peter Pan," Miss Adams now turned to her third boy"s part. It was that of "Chicot, the Jester,"
John Raphael"s adaptation of Miguel Zamaceis"s play "The Jesters." This was a very delightful sort of Prince Charming play, fragile and artistic. The opposite part was played by Consuelo Bailey. It was a great triumph for Miss Adams, but not a very great financial success.
Now came the first of her open-air performances. During the season of "The Jesters" she appeared at Yale and Harvard as _Viola_ in "Twelfth Night." She gave a charming and graceful performance of the role.
But Maude Adams could not linger long from the lure that was Barrie"s.
After what amounted to the failure of "The Jesters" she turned to her fourth Barrie play, which proved to be a triumph.
For over a year Barrie had been at work on a play for her. It came forth in his whimsical satire, "What Every Woman Knows." Afterward, in speaking of this play, he said that he had written it because "there was a Maude Adams in the world." Then he added, "I could see her dancing through every page of my ma.n.u.script."
Indeed, "What Every Woman Knows" was really written around Miss Adams.
It was a dramatization of the roguish humor and exquisite womanliness that are her peculiar gifts.
As _Maggie Wylie_ she created a character that was a worthy colleague of _Lady Babbie_. Here she had opportunity for her wide range of gifts. The role opposite her, that of _John Shand_, the poor Scotch boy who literally stole knowledge, was extraordinarily interesting. As most people may recall, the play involves the marriage between _Maggie_ and _John_, according to an agreement entered into between the girl"s brothers and the boy. The brothers agree to educate him, and in return he weds the sister. _Maggie_ becomes _John"s_ inspiration, although he refuses to realize or admit it. He is absolutely without humor. He thinks he can do without her, only to find when it is almost too late that she has been the very prop of his success.
At the end of this play _Maggie_ finally makes her husband laugh when she tells him:
_I tell you what every woman knows: that Eve wasn"t made from the rib of Adam, but from his funny-bone._
This speech had a wide vogue and was quoted everywhere.
Curiously enough, in "What Every Woman Knows" Miss Adams has a speech in which she unconsciously defines the one peculiar and elusive gift which gives her such rare distinction. In the play she is supposed to be the girl "who has no charm." In reality she is all charm. But in discussing this quality with her brothers she makes this statement:
_Charm is the bloom upon a woman. If you have it you don"t have to have anything else. If you haven"t it, all else won"t do you any good._
"What Every Woman Knows" was an enormous success, in which Richard Bennett, who played _John Shand_, shared honors with the star. Miss Adams"s achievement in this play emphasized the rare affinity between her and Barrie"s delightful art. They formed a unique and lovable combination, irresistible in its appeal to the public. Commenting on this, Barrie himself has said:
_Miss Adams knows my characters and understands them. She really needs no directions. I love to write for her and see her in my work._
Nor could there be any more delightful comment on Miss Adams"s appreciation of all that Barrie has meant to her than to quote a remark she made not so very long ago when she said:
_Wherever I act, I always feel that there is one unseen spectator, James M. Barrie._
Maude Adams was now in what most people, both in and out of the theatrical profession, would think the very zenith of her career. She was the best beloved of American actresses, the idol of the American child. She was without doubt the best box-office attraction in the country. Yet she had made her way to this eminence by an industry and a concentration that were well-nigh incredible.
People began to say, "What marvelous things Charles Frohman has done for Miss Adams."
As a matter of fact, the career of Miss Adams emphasizes what a very great author once said, which, summed up, was that neither nature nor man did anything for any human being that he could not do for himself.
Miss Adams paid the penalty of her enormous success by an almost complete isolation. She concentrated on her work--all else was subsidiary.
Charles Frohman had an enormous ambition for Miss Adams, and that ambition now took form in what was perhaps his most remarkable effort in connection with her. It was the production of "Joan of Arc" at the Harvard Stadium. It started in this way:
John D. Williams, for many years business manager for Charles Frohman, is a Harvard alumnus. Realizing that the business with which he was a.s.sociated had been labeled with the "commercial" brand, he had an ambition to a.s.sociate it with something which would be considered genuinely esthetic. The pageant idea had suddenly come into vogue. "Why not give a magnificent pageant?" he said to himself.
One morning he went into Charles Frohman"s office and put the idea to him, adding that he thought Miss Adams as _Joan of Arc_ would provide the proper medium for such a spectacle. Frohman was about to go to Europe. With a quick wave of the hand and a swift "All right," he a.s.sented to what became one of the most distinguished events in the history of the American stage.
Schiller"s great poem, "The Maid of Orleans," was selected. In suggesting the battle heroine of France, Williams touched upon one of Maude Adams"s great admirations. For years she had studied the character of Joan. To her Joan was the very idealization of all womanhood.
Bernhardt, Davenport, and others had tried to dramatize this most appealing of all tragedies in the history of France, and had practically failed. It remained for slight, almost fragile, Maude Adams to vivify and give the character an enduring interpretation.
"Joan of Arc," as the pageant was called, was projected on a stupendous scale. Fifteen hundred supernumeraries were employed. John W. Alexander, the famous artist, was employed to design the costumes. A special electric-lighting plant was installed in the stadium.
Miss Adams concentrated herself upon the preparations with a fidelity and energy that were little short of amazing. One detail will ill.u.s.trate. As most people know, Miss Adams had to appear mounted several times during the play and ride at the head of her charging army.
This equestrianism gave Charles Frohman the greatest solicitude. He feared that she would be injured in some way, and he kept cabling warnings to her, and to her a.s.sociates who were responsible for her safety, to be careful.
Miss Adams, however, determined to be a good horsewoman, and for more than a month she practised every afternoon in a riding-academy in New York. Since the horse had to carry the trappings of clanging armor, amid all the tumult of battle, she rehea.r.s.ed every day with all sorts of noisy apparatus hanging about him. Shots were fired, colored banners and flags were flaunted about her, and pieces of metal were fastened to her riding-skirt so that the steed would be accustomed to the constant contact of a sword.
Although the preparations for her own part were most exacting and onerous, Miss Adams exercised a supervising direction over the whole production, which was done in the most lavish fashion. She had every resource of the Charles Frohman organization at her command, and it was employed to the very last detail.
"Joan of Arc" was presented on the evening of June 22, 1909, in the presence of over fifteen thousand people. It was a magnificent success, and proved to be unquestionably the greatest theatrical pageant ever staged in this country. The elaborate settings were handled mechanically. Forests dissolved into regal courts; fields melted into castles. A hidden orchestra played the superb music of Beethoven"s "Eroica," which accentuated the n.o.ble poetry of Schiller.
The first scene showed the maid of Domremy wandering in the twilight with her vision; the last revealed her dying of her wounds at the spring, soon to be buried under the shields of her captains.
The battle scene was an inspiring feature. It had been arranged that Miss Adams"s riding-master should change places with her at the head of the charging troops and ride in their magnificent sweep down the field.
It was feared that some mishap might befall her. When the charge was over and the stage-manager rushed up to congratulate the supposed riding-master on his admirable make-up, he was surprised to hear Miss Adams"s voice issue forth from the armor, saying, "How did it go?"
Strapped to her horse, she had led the charge herself and had seen the performance through.
"Joan of Arc" netted $15,000, which Charles Frohman turned over to Harvard University to do with as it pleased. There was unconscious irony in this, for the performance aroused great admiration in Germany, and the proceeds were devoted to the Germanic Museum in the university; in the end, the Germans were responsible for his death.
Accentuating this irony was the fact that Charles Frohman had made a magnificent vellum alb.u.m containing the complete photographic record of the play, and sent it to the German Kaiser with the following inscription:
_To His Majesty the German Emperor. This photographic record of the first English performance in America of Friedrich von Schiller"s dramatic poem, "Jungfrau von Orleans," given for the Building Fund of the Germanic Museum of Harvard University under the auspices of the German Department in the Stadium, Tuesday, twenty-second of June, 1909, is respectfully presented by Charles Frohman._
There is no doubt that "Joan of Arc" was the supreme effort of Miss Adams"s career. She was the living, breathing incarnation of the Maid.
When she was told that Charles Frohman had refused an offer of $50,000 for the motion-picture rights, she said:
_Of course it was refused. This performance is all poetry and solemnity._
The following June, in the Greek Theater of the University of California, at Berkeley, Miss Adams made her first and only appearance as _Rosalind_ in "As You Like It." Ten thousand people saw the performance. Her achievement ill.u.s.trates the extraordinary and indefatigable quality of her work. She rehea.r.s.ed "As You Like It" during her transcontinental tour of "What Every Woman Knows," which extended from sea to sea and lasted thirty-nine weeks.
Most managers would have been content to rest with the laurel that such a performance as "Joan of Arc" had won. Not so with Charles Frohman.
Every stupendous feat that he achieved merely whetted his desire for something greater. He delighted in sensation. Now he came to the point in his life where he projected what was in many respects the most unique and original of all his efforts, the presentation of Rostand"s cla.s.sic, "Chantecler."
It was on March 30, 1910, that Charles crossed over from London to Paris to see this play. It thrilled and stirred him, and he bought it immediately. He realized that it would either be a tremendous success or a colossal failure, and he was willing to stand or fall by it. In Paris the t.i.tle role, originally written for the great Coquelin, had been played by Guitry. It was essentially a man"s part. But Frohman, with that sense of the spectacular which so often characterized him, immediately cast Miss Adams for it.
When he announced that the elf-like girl--the living _Peter Pan_ to millions of theater-goers--was to a.s.sume the feathers and strut of the barnyard Romeo, there was a widespread feeling that he was making a great mistake, and that he was putting Miss Adams into a role, admirable artist that she was, to which she was absolutely unsuited. A storm of criticism arose. But Frohman was absolutely firm. Opposition only made him hold his ground all the stronger. When people asked him why he insisted upon casting Miss Adams for this almost impossible part he always said:
_"Chantecler" is a play with a soul, and the soul of a play is its moral. This is the secret of "Peter Pan"; this is why Miss Adams is to play the leading part._
Miss Adams was in Chicago when Frohman bought the play, and he cabled her that she was to do the t.i.tle part. She afterward declared that this news changed the dull, dreary, soggy day into one that was brilliant and dazzling. "To play _Chantecler_," she said, "is an honor international in its glory."
The preparations for "Chantecler" were carried on with the usual Frohman magnificence. A fortune was spent on it. The costumes were made in Paris; John W. Alexander supervised the scenic effects.