Or watch Zaza discovering a hole in the tablecloth,
making faces at the bonne about it, and trying to hide
it with a plate. What a " convincing " spectacle, what a
marvellous application of another player's famous theory
about holding the mirror up to nature ! When you
have done with these mechanical details, these " fireside
concerns " as Elia would have called them, you may turn
to examine Zaza in an attack of nerves. See her
mouth twitching, her hands clenched, listen to the shrill
note gradually coming into her voice. Then sit tight
in your seat for the final explosion, the total physical



292 DRAMA AND LIFE

abandonment and degradation. It is the very thing.
Coleridge had a mock apostrophe to

" Inoculation ! Heavenly maid ! "

So Mme. R^jane — for Mme. R^jane and Zaza are one
— so Mme. R^jane is the muse of hystero-epilepsy.
And when you have wallowed in the crapulous, and
been dragged through the sordid, and shocked with the
frantic, and fooled by the sham-sentimental for five acts,
at the end of it all the question occurs — Is even Mme.
R^jane " worth it " ? She does it all to the life — seems,
in fact, to live the character. But Zaza is rather a
heavy price to pay even for this incomparable talent.
What really saves Mme. Rejane and the play is her
unfailing sense of humour. Her winks of intelligence,
her droll intonations, her irrepressible playfulness do
relieve the character of some of its grossness. You
come back to the old position. Because Rejane is
Rejane, the disagreeable play has been written ; and if,
on occasion, you cannot help being pleased in spite of
yourself, that also is because Rejane is Rejane.
