SALVINTS COMMERCIAL VALUE.

Manawatu Times, Volume V, Issue 131, 6 April 1881, Page 3

SALVINTS COMMERCIAL VALUE .

" Civis "m the Otago Witness writes : — As illustrating the value at which a great tragic actor is appraiser] m Europe and America, some frets about Signor Salvini — nn Italian who has won fame m Shakespearian tragedy— will be read with interest m Puncdin just now. Saivini has been engaged for an American tour at, £100 a week and a share m the gro-s profits. Seven plays constitute his American repertoire, of which "Hamlet," " Othell"," and "Macbeth 11 are three. Re will play only four times a week, his lungs and voice h. ing incapable of bearing the strain of a performance every night. Salavin has absolutely refused to abandon the use of his mother tori<jne, and gives his own part m Italian whilst the rest of the play is presented m English The Home papers give epecimens of the piehaH dialogue thus resulting, and it is difficult to conceive how such a hybrid performance c.in be endurable* Imagine ' 'err Bandmann so'iloquising " To be or not to he " m German, and a dialogue of rapid Shakespearian " tongue- fence " proceeding m two dfferent langnatresf Y*>t for a melange such as this Salvini gefs £100 a week, and haalready accumulated by the practice of his art a fortune of £40,000, and is the owner of a psiface at Florence with an estate on the neighboring hitt*, There he spends his holidays, amuses himself with farming, studies Sheakespear<\ and romps with his children. One- hardly knows how to explain the enormous value estimated m name, fum-, andennh— which a first-class historic famiry represents to the possessor. Salvini, who can't speak a vyord of English, gets the salary of -i l^ime, Minis'cr for interpreting to. the Enalish people their awn national poet ! If he « ere a syjger T could understand it ; as he is merely an, actor, Sal vim's commercial value is one of the most singular facts m the history of She at^ge.