3-052-729 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mdlle. Sarah Bernhardt as Gilberte, in "Frou-Frou," at the Gaiety Theatre, 1880. London stage production. '"Chez moi! Chez moi!" - Act 5...In "Frou-Frou" another order of sympathies is awakened by the most eminently sympathetic actress of the age...Her conduct in abandoning her husband and child seems to English judges utterly indefensible...An ordinary "Frou-Frou" might fail to move us very deeply - even by the tearfullest of voices and the most skilful simulation of the symptoms of advanced pulmonary disease. But Madame Sarah Bernhardt is not an ordinary "Frou-Frou." As the thoughtless and capricious coquette she may not entirely satisfy those who look in the earlier aspects of the character for exuberant vivacity and entrain. But the repentant and dying "Frou-Frou" at once compels our pity and our love. In expiring accents she herself murmurs, Vous voyez, toujours la même. Mon fils!...vous me pardonnez, n'est-ce pas? Frou-frou! Pauvre Frou-frou!" The murmured plaint finds an echo amidst the tears of a whole audience. The appeal is irresistible. Poor little woman! Poor thing! Poor Frou-Frou!'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.