Page:Eminent women of the age.djvu/497

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ADELAIDE RISTORI.
451


its pathos, its hideous details, its retributive justice, and its full social significance.

Ristori's second American engagement lasted nine months. Her last appearance in New York was made on the 26th of June, 1868, as Queen Elizabeth. The chief new part that she played during her final season was Isabella Suarez^ in a five-act drama, of a religious character, entitled ** Sor Teresa," the work of Signor Luigi Camoletti. The entire number of performances given during her second engagement was one hundred and eighty-one, of which fifty-six were given in the iskind of Cuba. Her prosperity in America was very great. Personally as well as professionally she made the most pleas-* ing impression throughout this country. **Away from the theatre," wrote one of her most earnest critics and devoted students, — Kate Field, — ^'sne is the most human (and hu- mane), the most simple, the most unaffected, the most sym- pathetic of women. So strongly is the line drawn between reality and fiction, that, in Bistori's presence, it requires a mental effort to recall her histrionic greatness." . . • That greatness, however, must forever survive in the history of the stage. Putting aside all differences of critical opinion, one thought is held in common by all who have watched her career and studied her achievements. That thought is, that she possesses a great intellect, a good heart, and a pure nature, and that she has exercised the best possible influence upon the drama. True to herself as well as to her profession, by her personal worth and private virtues she has attained a so- cial station commensurate in eminence with that which her genius and aspiring energy have won for her in the world of art. The woman is as great as the actress ; and the best minds and purest lives of our time have proudly and gladly recognized a fellowship with Adelaide Bistori.