After _Lysiane_, Mme. Sarah Bernhardt gave a series of performances of _La Dame aux Camélias_ and _La Samaritaine_. She then went to London in June on her annual visit, playing _Phèdre_, _Adrienne Lecouvreur_, D’Annunzio’s _Spring Morning’s Dream_. July, August, and September she spent at Belle-Isle-en-Mer. On the 28th October, 1898, she produced M. Mendès’ _Médée_. It was a dead failure, in spite of all the great tragedienne’s efforts. The unsatisfactory receipts obliged her to fall back on _La Dame aux Camélias_, of which she gave a few performances before leaving for Italy and the south of France on a tour she had been obliged to postpone a week before. This brings us to the beginning of the year 1899. The Renaissance theatre had been prospering for five years. In it, as we have seen, Mme. Sarah Bernhardt had successively performed _Les Rois_, _La Dame aux Camélias_, _Phèdre_, _Izeïl_, _Fédora_, _La Femme de Claude_, _Gismonda_, _Magda_, _Amphitryon_, _L’Infidèle_, _La Princesse Lointaine_, _Lorenzaccio_, _La Tosca_, _La Samaritaine_, _Les Mauvais Bergers_, _La Ville Morte_, _Lysiane_, and _Médée_. The plays in which she did not appear were _Amants_, _La Figurante_, _La Meute_, _Snobs_, and _Affranchie_. Notwithstanding the success achieved, there was a feeling of restriction. The field of action was too limited. In spite of perfect prodigies of ingenuity, and the unsparing efforts of all Mme. Bernhardt’s co-workers, great spectacular effects were impossible. Many new plays which the great artiste would have wished to produce could not be mounted satisfactorily at the Renaissance, and had to be left to rival theatres. The Théâtre des Nations, vacated by the removal of the Opéra Comique to its new quarters, tempted her, the 1900 Universal Exhibition being at hand. She applied to the Municipal Council for the theatre, and obtained it. She opened on the 21st January with a revival of _La Tosca_. On the 8th March she reproduced Feuillet’s _Dalila_, and, on the 25th, Rostand’s _Samaritaine_, which seems to have taken the place of the _Dame aux Camélias_ as general stand-by. Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s appearance at the Théâtre des Nations marks the commencement of a new era in her artistic career. I have already said that the history of the arts affords no parallel to the life of Mme. Sarah Bernhardt, and I maintain that we can only bow with respect before the incomparable expenditure of vital energy which she has lavished throughout thirty years of intense and varied activity. SARAH BERNHARDT’S ‘HAMLET’