She appeals to us by a kind of goodness,
much deeper than the sentimental goodness intended by Dumas. It is love
itself that she gives us, love utterly unconscious of anything but
itself, uncontaminated, unspoilt. She is Mlle. de Lespinasse rather than
Marguerite Gautier; a creature in whom ardour is as simple as breath,
and devotion a part of ardour. Her physical suffering is scarcely to be
noticed; it is the suffering of her soul that Duse gives us. And she
gives us this as if nature itself came upon the boards, and spoke to us
without even the ordinary disguise of human beings in their intercourse
with one another. Once more an artificial play becomes sincere; once
more the personality of a great impersonal artist dominates the poverty
of her part; we get one more revelation of a particular phase of Duse.
And it would be unreasonable to complain that "La Dame aux Camelias" is
really something quite different, something much inferior; here we have
at least a great emotion, a desperate sincerity, with all the
thoughtfulness which can possibly accompany passion.
V
Dumas, in a preface better than his play, tells us that "La Princesse
Georges" is "a Soul in conflict with Instincts.
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