"Have many of your actors the intellectual power to conceive and render historical heroes?"
"No; I fear it must be admitted that the great fault of too many actors is illiteracy. But in my young days we were scarcely to blame for this. The Government actually forbade us to receive any other than a theatrical education, which, as then understood, sufficiently taxed our time and strength. We were obliged to learn and reproduce exactly the traditional tones, gestures, and actions associated with any particular part."
"What is your opinion of foreign methods of acting?"
"I have only seen a few amateurs at the Legations, and cannot form an opinion. But when Mr. Fukuchi and Mr. Osada wrote a little piece in one act, half in French and half in Japanese, in which I had the honour of appearing with Madame Théo, I found it most difficult to sustain my part, since the lady's words and by-play were alike mysterious." A grim smile accompanied this souvenir of that comedietta, "The Green-eyed Monster."
"I suppose you have improved in many ways on the old-fashioned style of acting?"
This widely cast question invited such a shoal of answers that the conscientious examinee paused to consider.
"I will try to mention a few of the changes which I have done my best to bring about. The first thing I aimed at was greater freedom of interpretation. Tradition weighed like a millstone on the actor's neck. Instead of painfully and slavishly copying a predecessor, I set the example, as soon as I felt influential enough, of forming and putting into action my own conception of a character. But it was a hard task. Then I tried
