[41] “Her fiery, voluble utterance of jealous rage when at last she seemed to lose all control of herself (without ever losing it) ... was as splendid, whether viewed as expression of human nature or illustration of proficiency in acting, as any professional exploit of hers in the whole of her long career.... It was in her showing of the sweetly capricious quality of the character, however, that the actress was supremely fine.” The Wallet of Time, Vol. I.
[42] When the American comédienne, Elsie Janis, omitted from her London program her imitation of Bernhardt, Sarah heard of it and cabled to Miss Janis: “I am very well. Continue to charm the public with imitations of me.”
[43] The Polish diminutive of Helena.
[44] “She went into the kitchen when she got home, in order to make the experiment herself. She built a great pile of all the saucepans and frying-pans, and then, climbing to the top, tried to stand there upon one toe. Naturally this venture ended in disaster; and Madame Opid vowed Helcia should go no more to the theatre, for it excited her too much. Nor did she again enter a theatre until she was fourteen.”—Collins, Modjeska.
[45] The masculine form. The feminine ends in -ska. Madame Modrzejewska later simplified the name to Modjeska.
[46] “The picture of this first professional trip stands vividly before my eyes. The weather was glorious!... We were young, full of spirit and hope, and the country enchanting. The joy was so great that I sang. We made plans for future work, we rode in the clouds, building Spanish castles.”—Memories and Impressions of Helena Modjeska.
[47] Marylka; she lived but two years.
[48] The capital of Galitzia.
[49] One of the circle of friends in the aristocratic and literary world which Modjeska now began to acquire was the Countess Patocka. On the occasion of Modjeska’s first visit to her, “her judgment was just and most kind. She said she thought I was unsuited to certain parts, but she was much pleased with my romantic impersonations and also with some of the characters in high comedy. She had seen Rachel and Ristori, and told me I had neither their strong ringing voice nor their tragic statuesque poses. ‘You see,’ said she, ‘they were born with those gifts, and God created you differently. You have, instead of those grand qualities, sensitiveness, intuition, grace’; and then she added, laughingly, ‘You are as clever as a snake. You played the other evening the Countess in The White Camelia as if you were born among us. Where did you meet countesses?’ I answered that she was the only great lady I had ever laid eyes on. ‘You see,’ said she, ‘that was intuition.’”—Memories and Impressions.
[50] Some of her characters at this time were Princess Eboli in Don Carlos, by Schiller; Louise Miller in Kabale und Liebe, by Schiller; Barbara in the tragedy of that name by Felinski; Ophelia in Hamlet; Doña Sol in Ernani, by Victor Hugo; the wife in Nos Intimes, by Sardou; and Adrienne Lecouvreur in the play of that name by Scribe and Legouvé.