 CHAPTER 1 OF AMONG THE GREAT MASTERS OF THE DRAWMA This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Nemo AMONG THE GREAT MASTERS OF THE DRAWMA by Walter Rowlands Shakespeare Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb the crowns of the world, O, I sublime of tears and laughter for all time. Elizabeth Barrett Browning To Shakespeare, the intellect of the world, speaking in diverse accents, applies with one accord his own words. How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, an apprehension, how like a god. Sydney Lee Oblivion, which hides from us so much we would faint know of Shakespeare, has covered up nearly all record of him as an actor. When he arrived in London after the journey from Stratford, which he probably made on foot, the future great dramatist was a young man, perhaps just of age, with small means but one friend, so far as known to us in the city. This was Richard Field, a native of Stratford, who had become a printer in London, and some years afterward, in 1593, published Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. We are not informed what assistance, if any, the poet received from his fellow townsmen. Although a theory which has gained but few converts, has been broached that he worked at the printers trade in London for some time before becoming an actor. It is not unlikely that, during his first years in the Metropolis, he earned his bread by very mean employments, even as an old tradition says, by holding horses at the door of the theatre. Another tradition asserts that his earliest employment inside the walls of the playhouse was his call-boy, from which position he ascended to the playing of some small parts. Rolf says, William Shakespeare, when once in the theatre, was where his talents could not fail to be speedily recognized, and where his progress and the work for which he was born and fitted was assured. At which of the only two theatres, the theatre or the curtain, then existing in London, Shakespeare thus found occupation we do not know. It is inferred by Sidney Lee that, of the several companies of licensed actors in London at that time, he originally joined the most influential one, which had been under the nominal patronage of the Earl of Leicester, and was afterward the Lord Chamberlain's company. Documentary evidence proves that he was a member of it in December 1594. In May 1603 he was one of its leaders. Four of its chief members, Richard Burbage, the greatest tragic actor of the day, John Hemming, Henry Condow, and Augustine Phillips, were among Shakespeare's lifelong friends. Under this company's auspices, moreover, Shakespeare's plays first saw the light. When Shakespeare became a member of the company, it was doubtless performing at the theatre. The playhouse in Shoreditch, which James Burbage, the father of the great actor, Richard Burbage, had constructed in 1576. It abutted on the Finnsbury fields and stood outside the city's boundaries. The only other London playhouse then in existence, the Curtain, in more fields, was near at hand. The other theatres identified with Shakespeare's career are the Rose, opened on the Bankside, Southwark, in 1592. Doubtless the earliest scene of Shakespeare's pronounced successes alike is actor and dramatist. Another new playhouse at Newington Butts and the famous Globe in Southwark, built by Richard Burbage in 1599. From that time, the last named theatre was largely occupied by Shakespeare's company and an important share of its profits fell to him. From its opening until his retirement, the Globe appears to have been the only playhouse with which the poet was professionally associated, the Black Friars Theatre not being occupied by his company until nearly the last of his acting days. There seems to be no doubt that Shakespeare accompanied the troupe with which he was connected on their provincial tours. His annual income as an actor is thought to have been not less than a hundred pound, probably more, but his work as a dramatist was far less remunerative, yielding perhaps twenty pound a year up to 1599. As to the parts he played, our information is but meager. Those performances are praised. At Christmas 1594 he joined the chief comedian of the day, William Kemp and Richard Burbage, in acting at Greenwich Palace before Queen Elizabeth. But we know not in what plays or parts. Shakespeare's name stands first on the list of those who took part in the original performances of Ben Johnson's Every Man in His Humour, 1598. But the record is silent as to the character allotted him. The Ghost in Hamlet is said to have been his finest assumption, and there is a tradition that he played the part of Adam in As You Like It, this being based upon the statement of one of his younger brothers, presumably Gilbert, who had often seen him act in London. Peter Bouton's charming picture of the young poet reading a sonnet to Anne Hathaway amid the May Blossom's tinting avance banks. When Daisy's Pied and Violet's Blue and Lady Smock's All Silver White and Cuckoo Buds of Yellow Hue do paint the meadows with delight, is copied herein by the kind permission of its owner, Mr. E. P. Bacon of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Though he was born in England near Norwich in 1834, America has some right to claim Mr. Bouton hers by virtue of his breeding, as his parents brought him to this country when he was but an infant, and here he stayed until 1859, with the exception of a few months spent in England when he was about twenty. In the year just named, the young artist went to Paris and studied art for a year or two, finally removing to London where he has since lived. His brush is placed before us many delightful works, episodes in Puritan Life in New England, who does not know his return of the Mayflower, or among the Dutch settlers of Manhattan, witness the counselors of Peter the Headstrong, with numerous transcripts of peasant life in Brittany or Holland or Old England. The New York Public Library owns his Pilgrims Going to Church and the Corcoran Gallery at Washington, his Edict of William the Testy. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Design in 1871, and has been a royal academician since 1896. His Weeding the Pavement is in the Tate Gallery, London. CHAPTER 2 OF AMONG THE GREAT MASTERS OF THE DRAMA This is a LibriVox recording. Only LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Avayee in December 2019. AMONG THE GREAT MASTERS OF THE DRAMA by Walter Rowlands. MOLIER. In the Literature of France, his is the greatest name, and in the Literature of the Modern Drama, the greatest after that of Shakespeare, and Zhu Lang. Numerous points of likeness are to be seen in the lives of Shakespeare and Molière, and another is visible if we accept the theory that the marriage of the Bard of Avon and Hathaway turned out but an unhappy one, and was some eight years older than Shakespeare, whose 19th birthday was still in the future when they were wet, while, on the other hand, Fickel Armand Molière could count but half her husband's age. This disparity augured ill for their future, a future that was indeed a sad one for poor Molière, who once said when asked why in some countries the king became of age at 14 years but could not marry until 18, because it is more difficult to rule a wife than a kingdom. It was partly for relief from the disquieting influence of his coquettish wife, as well as for the benefit of his health that Molière, in 1667, at about the time of the prohibition of his Tartuffe, leased a cottage at Hauteuille. Hauteuille was then a tranquil village, far away from the town's turmoil, and brought near enough for its dwellers by the silent and swift river. Now it is a bustling suburb of the city, and the site of Molière's cottage and grounds is covered by a block of commonplace modern dwellings. Here in this pleasant retreat the great dramatist enjoyed some ease with his friends, as seen in Melange's canvas. It is summer time and the wide glass doors of the dining room are open to the garden. Molière has assembled together a quartet of brilliant literateurs, La Fontaine, the famous fabulist, Boileau, critic and satirist, Racine, poet and dramatist, and lastly Chapelle, poet and wit, who is credited with the authorship of some sparkling lines in the dramas of both Molière and Racine. The author of Le Misanthrope is seated at the extreme right, and all are listening to Chapelle, who is reading with animation from a manuscript. Judging from the faces of his hearers, it can hardly be one of his own effusions, as Gaéti and Badi-Nage are the characteristics of his pleasant verse. Both dinner and dessert have been discussed, and the servant, La Forêt, the one to whom Molière was wanted to first read his comedies, is bringing in the coffee. An amusing story is told of a noted frolic which once took place at Molière's villa. Van Laon says, Chapelle, La Fontaine, Lully, director of the Royal Academy of Music, Boileau, Minard, the artist, and Quarney, came one evening to a toy to make merry with their friend. Molière was obliged to excuse himself on the ground of ill health, but he requested Chapelle to do the honours of his house. The guests sat down, and presently, warmed with wine, they fell to talking of religion, futurity, the vanity of human life, and such other lofty and inexhaustible topics as are want to occupy the finest moments of intellectual men. Chapelle led the conversation and indulged in a long tirade against a folly of most things counted wise. At length, one of them suggested the idea of suicide and proposed that they should all go and drown themselves in the river. This splendid notion was received with acclamation. The tipsy philosophers hurried down to the bank and seized them on a boat in order to get into the middle of the stream. Meanwhile, Baron, Molière's favourite pupil, who lived in the house with him, and who had been present at the debauch, aroused his master and sent off the servants in quest of the would-be suicides. The latter were already in the water when assistants arrived, and they were pulled out. But, resenting such an impertinence, they drew their swords on their savorers and pursued them to Molière's house. The poet displayed complete presence of mind and pretended to approve of the plan which had been formed, but he professed to be much annoyed that they should have thought of drowning themselves without him. They admitted their error and invited him to come back with them and finish the business. Nay, said Molière, that would be very clumsy. So glorious a deed should not be done at night and in darkness. Early tomorrow, when we have all slept well, we will go, fasting and in public, and throw ourselves in. To this all assented, and Chapelle proposed that in the meantime they should finish the wine that had been left. It need not be added that the next day found them in a different mood. The anecdote illustrates Molière's ability as an actor, and is emphasised by the words of Coquelin, sage critic as well as great comedian in his Molière and Shakespeare. Coquelin asserts, There is no doubt that his, Molière's, vocation as an actor was his master passion. He did not leave the paternal roof for the purpose of writing plays, but for the purpose of acting them. And we know that these were not comedies. The illustrious theatre had in stock at first nothing but tragedies. When he wrote La Tourdie, his first work, Molière had been an actor for nine years, and for fifteen when he wrote The Precious Rédicule. Never could his great success as an author tempt him to leave the boards. He not only continued to act in his own plays, but he acted in the plays of others and did not consider this as lost time. He acted, as we have said, although coughing and spitting blood, and to Boileau who advised him to leave the stage, he replied, It is for my honour that I remain. So much did he love his profession which was killing him. But then he excelled in it. His contemporaries are unanimous on this point. He was extraordinary. Better actor even than author, one of them goes so far as to say. We can imagine what joy it must have been to see him in his great parts. Scannarelle, Orgon, Alceste, Harpagon. Molière, reading a new play to his company, has served Monsieur Mélange, the painter of the dinner at Auteuil, as the subject of a later picture. The artist, born at Paris in 1840, and taught his art by his father, who was actor, painter and sculptor, and Leon Cognet, one for himself a long time ago in a sure place among French painters of historic anecdote. He has painted Edward Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, Hoche in 1789, Katina after the battle of Marseille, Général Domnil et Vincennes, Joan of Arc and Baudricourt, La Tour d'Auverne and Jean-Bart et Versailles. Chapter 3 of Among the Great Masters of the Drama This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Among the Great Masters of the Drama by Walter Rowland Voltaire Every form of composition must be judged in its own order, and the order in which Voltaire chose to work was the French classic. It is no infidelity to the glorious and incomparable genius of Shakespeare to admit that there is in these limits of construction, concentration and regularity, and in these two contend Alexandrines a just cadence that confer a high degree of pleasure of the highest kind. John Morley Like the two great men of whom I have written in the foregoing chapters, Voltaire was both dramatist and actor. We know that he enacted, with great acceptance, the part of Cicero in his own tragedy of Rome-Soviet at Paris in 1749, before an audience which included many notables D'Alembert, Diderot, Marmontel and other distinguished writers, and again later, before the Court of Berlin where, with princes and princesses as fellow actors, he also assumed the character of Lucignan, the aged Christian martyr in Zaire. Yes, says Carlisle, and was manager and general stage king and contriver being expert at this, if at anything. Excellent in acting, say the witnesses, superlative for certain, as preceptor of the art. Some rather neat bits of stage business, so to say, may be discerned in Voltaire's conduct during the famous episode of his detention at Frankfurt by order of Frederick the Great, subsequent to the poet's last interview with that monarch at Potsdam in the March of 1753. Let us hear Carlisle again. The essence of the story is briefly this. Voltaire, by his fine department in partying with Frederick, had been allowed to retain his decorations, his letter of agreement, his royal book of poisees, one of those twelve copies printed au donjon de château in happier times, and in short, to go his ways as a friend, not as a runaway or one dismissed. But now, by his late procedures at Leipzig, and firings out of potholes, in that manner, he had awakened Frederick's indignation again, Frederick's regret allowing him to take those articles with him, and produced a resolution in Frederick to have them back. They are not generally articles of much moment, but as marks of friendship they are now all falsities. One of the articles might be of frightful importance, that book of poisees. Thrice Private, uvre de poisee, in which are satirical spirits affecting more than one crowned head, one shoulders to think what fires a spiteful Voltaire might cause by publishing these. This was Frederick's idea, and by no means a chimerical one, as the fact proved. Said uvre being actually reprinted upon him at Paris afterwards, not by Voltaire in the crisis of the Seven Years' War, to put him out with his Uncle of England whom he quizzed in passages. We will have these articles back, thinks Frederick, that uvre most especially. No difficulty, wait for him at Frankfurt as he passes home, demand them from him there, and has, directly on those new firings through potholes in Leipzig, bidden Friedersdorf take measures accordingly. Friedersdorf did so. Early in April and onward had his official person waiting at Frankfurt, one Freitag, our Prussian resident there, very celebrated ever since, vigilant in the extreme for Voltaire's arrival, and who did not miss that event. Voltaire arriving at last May the 31st did, with Freitag's hand laid gently on his sleeve, at once give up what of the articles he had about him. The uvre unluckily not one of them, and agreed to be under mild arrest parole d'honneur in the Lyon d'Or hotel here, till said uvre should come up. Under Friedersdorf guidance, all this and what follows. Kring Friedrich, after the general order given, had nothing more to do with it, and was gone upon his reviews. In the course of two weeks or more the uvre de Poésie did come. Voltaire was impatient to go, and he might perhaps have at once gone, had Freitag been clearly instructed, so as to know the essential from the unessential here. But he was not. For subaltern, Freitag had to say on Voltaire's urgences I will at once report to Berlin if the answer be as we hope or write you are at that moment at liberty. This a thing unexpected, astonishing to Voltaire, the thing demanding patience, silence. In three days more with silence as it turns out it would have been all beautifully over. But he was not strong in those qualities. Voltaire's arrest hitherto had been merely on his word of honour. I promise on my honour not to go beyond the garden of this in. But he now, without warning anybody privately revoke said word of honour and Colini and he next morning having laid their plan, striving to think it fair in the circumstances walk out from the Leon door. Voltaire in black velvet coat with their valubalist effects, lapousel and money box included, leaving Madame Denis to wait the disemprisonment over the posee and wind up the general business. Walk out very gingerly, duck into a hackney coach and attempt to escape by the mines gate. Freitag's spy runs breathless with the news, never was a Freitag in such taking. Terrified Freitag had to throw on his coat, order out three men to gallop by various routes and jump into some excellency's coach kind excellency lent it, which is luckily standing yoke nearby and shoot with the velocity of life and death towards mines gate. Voltaire whom the well effect orders, suspecting something had rather been retarding is still there. Arrested in the king's name and there is such a scene Freitag too is now raging ignited by such percussion of the terrors and speaks not like what they call a learned sergeant but like a drill sergeant in the heat of battle. Voltaire's tongue also and collinis, your excellence never heard such brazen face lies thrown on a man that I had offered for a thousand thallers to let them go. That I had. In short thing had caught fire broken into flaming chaos come again. Freitag to give one snatch from collinis side, got into the carriage along with us and led us by this way across the mob of people to Schmitz to see what was to be done with us. Centuries were put at the gate to keep out the mob, we were led into a kind of counting room, Clark and the servants are about. Madame Schmitz passes before Voltaire with a disdain for her to listen to Freitag recounting in the tone not of a learned sergeant what the matter is. They seize our effects under violent protest worse than vain. Voltaire demands to have at least his snuff box cannot do without snuff they answer. It is unusual to take everything. Not for two hours had they done with their writings and arrangings. Our portfolios and cassette money box were thrown into an empty trunk. What else could they be thrown into which was locked with a padlock and sealed with a paper. Voltaire's arms on the one end and Schmitz's cipher on the other. Dorn Freitag's Clark was bidden lead us away sign of the book or billy goat there henceforth Leon Dore refusing to be concerned with us further. 12 soldiers Madame Denis with curtains of bayonets and other well-known fragrances. The 7th of July Voltaire did actually go and then in extreme hurry by his own blame again. These final passages we touch only in the lump. Voltaire's own narrative of these being so copious, flamingly impressive and still known to everybody. How much better for Voltaire and us had nobody ever known it. Had it never been written. Had the poor hubbub no better than a chance street riot all of it after amusing old Frankfurt for a while been left to drop into the gutters forever. Voltaire and various others me and my poor readers included that was the desirable thing. Had there but been among one's resources a little patience and practical candor instead of all the vituperative eloquence and power of tragic comic description nay in that case this wretched street riot hubbub needs not have been at all. Truly Monsieur de Voltaire has a talent for speech but lamentably wanted that of silence. John Morley remarks that it would need the singer of the battle of the frogs and mice to do justice to this five weeks' tragic comedy. But Monsieur Giraudet has well imagined for us one aspect of it the arrest. Jules Giraudet born in Paris in 1856 and one of a family of artists has been the recipient of numerous treasures. Among his best works may be named Episode in the Siege of Saragossa The Route of Cholet 1793 The Defeated Army of General Escure passing the Loire and Trying on the Crown the last named picture representing an episode in the life of Napoleon and Josephine. End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of Among the Great Masters of the Drama This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Sonja Among the Great Masters of the Drama by Walter Rowlands Adrienne Le Couvreur We saw in her not the actress but the personage represented. Collie A woman who brought to the work of her life the privilege of gifts as rare as the poetry they serve to illustrate. Frederick Hawkins Without doubt one of the causes of Voltaire's hostility to the church can be found in that church's treatment of Adrienne Le Couvreur in denying her Christian burial. That the corpse of an actress of genius, for years the idol of Paris, one of his warmest friends and the creator of Giochasta in his Oedip should, because of her profession confined to unconsecrated ground, arouse that vehement indignation which Voltaire, to his lasting credit, always displayed against injustice. Contrasting the hurried and forlorn obsequies of Adrienne with the stately funeral of the English actress and Oldfield, who dying the same year was interred in Westminster Abbey, Voltaire breaks forth thus. O London, happy land where no art is despised, where every kind of success glory, where the conqueror of Talar, son of victory, the sublime Dryden, the wise Edison, the charming Oldfield and the immortal Newton all have their place in the temple of glory. In another less material but lasting temple of glory, however, set apart for honouring those whose talents have graced the stage, the memory of Adrienne Le Couvreur is preserved as that of a great actress, one of the chief ornaments of the French theatre. Born in 1692, near Rince, this daughter of a head-maker of Paris was at an early age distinguished as a reciter of poetry and at fifteen became connected with a troupe of young amateurs. Her performances attracted so much attention that steps were taken to fully educate and develop her remarkable histrionic gifts. She made her debut in the provinces and did not appear in Paris until 1717. When she performed Electra in Crébillon's tragedy of that name at the Comédie Française, her career after this was a succession of successes, especially in the leading parts of the tragedies of Racine and Cornel. It is as Cornelia in Cornel's tragedy of the death of Pompey that Quapel has painted her in the picture here reproduced. Adrienne's name inevitably recalls that of her lover Maurice de Saxe, the soldier's son of Augustus the strong and the lovely Aurora von Königsmark, whose association with the actress has been made familiar to the world by Scrib's popular play entitled Adrien le Couvreur, first produced at the theatre where she reigned in 1849. Although the death of Adrienne was not caused by poison sent to the actress by her rival, the princess de Bouillon, as told in Scrib's drama, it was nevertheless a sudden and a sad one. Dying at 37, the great Tragedienne knew that Saxe, on whom she had bestowed literally a fortune to aid him in prosecuting his claim to the Duchy of Courland, was false to her. She died in Voltaire's arms, with her eyes fixed, it is said, on the bust of Saxe. In Scrib's play it is Maurice de Saxe and the faithful old manager, Michonne, who witness alone the passing from earth of poor Adrien. The last scene of the last act is here quoted. Scene 5 Maurice, Adrien, Michonne. Michonne, is it true what they tell me is Adrien in danger? Maurice, Adrien is dying. Michonne, no, no, she still breathes, all hope is not yet lost. Maurice, she opens her eyes. Adrien, oh, what suffering, who is near me? Maurice, and you also, Michonne, as soon as I suffer, you come. It is no longer my head, but my chest that is burning. It is like a fire, like a devouring fire that consumes me. Michonne, all this proves, do you not see as I do the traces of poison, a quick and terrible poison? Maurice, what, you have suspicions? Michonne, I suspect all the world, and this rival, this grand lady. Maurice, hold, hold. Adrien, oh, the pain increases. You who love me so, save me, save me. I do not wish to die. A little while ago I could have begged for death. I was so unhappy, but now I do not wish to die. He loves me. He has called me his wife. Michonne, his wife? Adrien, oh my god, listen to me. Let me live. A few days, a few days near him. I am so young, and life looks so beautiful to me now. Maurice, this is frightful. Adrien, life, life, vain efforts, vain prayers, my days are numbered. I feel the power of existence escaping. Do not leave me, Maurice. Very soon my eyes will see you no longer. My hand will not be able to press yours. Maurice, Adrien, Adrien, oh, triumphs of the theater. My heart beats no more with your ardent emotions, and you, studies of the art I loved so much, nothing will remain to you after I am gone. Nothing lives of us after our death. Nothing but the memory. You will not forget me. Adrien, Maurice, Adrien, my two friends. Michonne, dead, dead. Maurice, oh noble and generous girl, if ever the least glory shall be my lot, it is to you I will render homage, and ever united, even after death, the name of Maurice the Sox shall never be separated from that of Adrien. Charles-Antoine Quapel, one of a family of artists, was born in Paris in 1694 and died there in 1752. Although he painted subjects from history and from more familiar scenes, his best works were his portraits. End of chapter 4 Chapter 5 Among the Great Masters of the Drama This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Catherine Phipps Among the Great Masters of the Drama by Walter Rowlands Garrick If powers of acting vast and unconfined, if fewest faults with greatest beauties joined, if strong expression and strange powers which lie within the magic circle of the eye, if feelings which few hearts like his can know and which no face so well as his can show, deserve the preference. Garrick, take the chair, nor quit it till thou place an equal there. Churchill Hergath painted his good friend Garrick on several occasions. His best known picture of the large canvas produced in 1746 represents him as Richard III. The portrait here given of Garrick and his wife shows him as a writer and was painted in 1757, about eight years after their marriage, and in equal time before the death of Hergath for whose monument in Chiswick Churchyard, Garrick composed the epitaph. In this picture the manuscript of his prologue to Foots comedy of Taste lies before Garrick who is attired in a blue coat embroidered with gold and a rose in his buttonhole. He appears to be speaking aloud as if reciting the prologue on the stage and is unconscious of the cautious approach of his wife, who reaches out her hand to take the pen from him. She wears a pink dress with a white fissue and lace sleeves, flowers in her unpowdered hair and a red wrist, a pearl bracelet which bears set in diamonds a miniature portrait of a lady probably that of the Empress Maria Teresa who had been her friend in Vienna where under the name of Eva Maria Violet she was a celebrated dancer. Mademoiselle Violet came to London when she was about twenty years old and by her dancing at the Haymarket instantly won success and became the reigning queen of the art in England. Several romantic stories are told as to her origin and early life but the real facts are unknown. At all events she was befriended in England by the Earl and Countess of Burlington who made her a handsome settlement on her marriage with Garrick which took place in 1749 and turned out most happily. From the time of their union until the actor's death a period of nearly thirty years they were never apart thirty-four hours and for many years after Garrick's demise his widow would not allow the room in which he died to be opened. Many tributes to her charms of mind and person are extant. Garrick's verse asserts it is not my friend her speaking face her shape her youth her winning grace have reached my heart the fair one's mind quickest her eyes yet soft and kind a gaiety with innocence a soft address with manly sense ravishing manners void of art a cheerful firm yet feeling heart beauty the charms or public gaze and humble amid pomp and praise. She was called the most agreeable woman in England and Horace Walpole not easily pleased said her behaviour is all sense and all sweetness Stern protested that when he saw her walking in the garden of the twillery she could annihilate all the beauties of Paris in a single turn. Garrick died in 1779 and was buried in Westminster Abbey being the last actor there interred. The mourners including such men as Burke Gibbon, Dr Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sheridan and Charles James Fox to the same place followed in 1822 his wife who had survived him 43 years and lies beside him. She is described as a little bad down old woman who went about leaning on a gold-headed cane dressed in deep widows morning and always talking of her dear Davey. Knight says her own death was curious she was on the point of going to see some alterations made by Elliston and Drury Lane a chit somewhat testily the maid servant who handed her a cup put it down Hassee do you think I cannot help myself she said tasted the tea and expired. Some of Goldsmith's inimitable lines on Garrick refer to the great actor's vanity of praise Amir Glutton he swallowed what came and the puff of a dunce he mistook it for fame this failing must have been strong when he found his figure in Hogarth's picture lacking in dignity and said so whereupon the quick-tempered little painter is said to have drawn his brush across the face whether this be true or not and it appears authentic it is certain that the portrait remained in Hogarth's hands until his death when his widow sent it to Garrick at the sale of Mrs. Garrick's effects in 1823 it was sold for 75 pounds 11 shillings to Mr. E. W. Locker of Greenwich Hospital his descendant Frederick Locker the London poet says in My Confidences this picture is so lifelike that as little children we were afraid of it so much so that my mother persuaded my father to sell it to George IV it is now in the Royal Collection at Windsor few actors, if any have served as often as Garrick for a painter's subject and character and out of it Reynolds painted him more than once notably in the splendid Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy and the names of the other artists who limped him include Gainsborough, Zophany, Pine, Hudson Warlage, Leotard, Kosher Pond, Heyman and Dance Sarla says among the Hogarth anecdotes few are so well known as that giving Garrick the credit for having a posthumous portrait of fielding and by his extraordinary powers of facial mimicry making up a capital model of his deceased friend when this was told in Paris by de Laplace during a visit made by Garrick some incredulity was expressed to convince the most skeptical the actor once more personated fielding in a manner that one instant recognition if this be true Garrick must have surpassed as a mime that famous harlequin who used to imitate a man eating fruit and from whose mere gestures and grimaces you could at once tell the fruit he was pretending to eat now he was pulling currents from the stalk now sucking an orange now biting an unright pair now swallowing a cherry and now exhausting a gooseberry then there is the account of Garrick sitting to Hogarth for his own picture and mischievously giving so many varied casts of expression to his countenance that the painter at last threw down his brush in a pet and declared he could do no more End of chapter 5 Chapter 6 of Among the Great Masters of the Drama This is a LibraVox recording All LibraVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer, please visit LibraVox.org Among the Great Masters of the Drama by Walter Rollins Chapter 6 Peg Wolfington In every scene of comic humor known in sprightly sallies wit was all thy own thy ears were ever open to distress, thy ready hand was ever stretched to bliss Hool's Monod She never disappointed an audience through three mentors in Dublin and yet I have often seen her on the stage when she ought to have been in bed. Victor's History of the Theatres of London and Dublin Although little Davey was always a true and loving husband to his spouse he is credited with having played the hero in many love scenes prior to his marriage. The heroines of these dramas were in a special The Famous Actresses Mrs. Clive Mrs. Cibber Mr. Wolfington For the last name it is certain that Garrick felt a genuine passion which was warmly responded to by the fascinating Irish girl to whom he addressed this song entitled Pretty Peggy Once more I'll tune my vocal shell to heels and dales my passion tell a flame which time can never quell that burns for lovely Peggy yet greater bards the leer should hit pray what subject is more fit than to record the radiant wit and bloom of lovely Peggy the sun first rising in the morn that paints the dew bespangled thorn doth not so much the day adorn as does my lovely Peggy and when enthete slap to rest he streaks with gold the ruddy west he's not so beauteous as undressed appears my lovely Peggy when she arrayed in rustic weed with her the bleeding flocks I'd feed and pipe upon my otten reed to please my lovely Peggy with her a cottage would delight all pleases when she's in my sight and when she's gone to this endless night all's dark without my Peggy when Zephyr on the violet blows four breaths upon the damest rose he does not have the sweets that does my lovely Peggy I stole a kiss the other day and trust me not but truth I say the fragrant breath of blooming may was not so sweet as Peggy while bees from flowers to flowers rove and linets warble through the grove or stately spawns the water's love so long shall I love Peggy and when death with his pointed dart shall strike the blow that ends my heart my words shall be when I depart adieu my lovely Peggy these lines were written a year or two after charming mistress Wolfington's first appearance in London concerning that critical period Augustine Daly wrote in his valuable monograph on Pegg Wolfington Wolfington found herself in the metropolis when she arrived after her hurried departure from Dublin without an engagement it is reasonable to suppose that she believed her reputation and popularity in the Irish capital had preceded her and that she would not experience any very great difficulty in renewing her relations with the theatre she first applied to John Rich the manager of Covent Garden at that time the seesaw of public favor rocking between Covent Garden where Elaine had sent the letter to the ground and had lifted its rival house to the airy eminence Rich at this period had grown to be quite an important creature his great good luck in the production of Gay's beggars opera which had made as the wits of the day said Rich Gay and Gay Rich had possibly over elated the fortunate manager and it is said that at this juncture of his career he was at home to nobody under a baronet ignorant or indifferent to all this and quite self confident of her own worth Wuffington boldly went to Rich's office and asked to see him stage porters in those days were quite as obdurate as in our own and faithful guardians of the stage door in the 18th century were quite as insusceptible to bribes or beauty as they are in the 19th Wuffington made 18 visits to Covent Garden before Rich received her Charles Reed in his admirable novel Peg Wuffington did not inflict quite so many rebuffs on poor Peggy he makes her to say to tricklet managers sir are like eastern monarchs inaccessible but too slaves and sultanas do you know I called on Mr. Rich 15 times before I could see him it was years ago and he has paid me a hundred pounds for each of those little visits a writer in the Dublin Review has pictured very graphically this first meeting the great manager as Wuffington first saw him was lolling in ungraceful ease on a sofa holding a play in one hand and in the other a teacup from which he sipped frequently around about him were seven and twenty cats of all sizes colors and kinds toms and tabbies old cats and kittens tortoise shells malteas brindles, white, black and yellow cats of every description some were frisking over the floor others asleep on the rug one was licking the buttered toast on his breakfast plate another was engaged in drinking the cream for his tea two cats lay on his knee one was asleep on his shoulder and another set to merely on his head Peg Wuffington was astounded at the sight Rich, to her mind had for years been the greatest man in the world the menagerie of Grimelkins amid which he lay so carelessly was so different an environment from her conception of the coven garden theater manager that she was embarrassed into silence Rich, in his turn was equally confused by the beauty of his visitor and lay staring at her for a long time before he recollected his courtesy and offered her a chair standing before him was a woman whom he afterward declared to be the loveliest creature he had ever seen she was taller than the ordinary standard of height and form dignified even to majesty yet with all winsome and equant her dark hair, unstained by powder fell in luxuriant wealth over her neck and shoulders it was a fortunate thing for my wife said Rich in afterward recounting the scene to Sir Joshua Reynolds that I was not of a susceptible temperament had it been otherwise difficult to retain my equanimity enough to arrange business negotiations with the amalgamated Calypso Cersei and Arnita who dazzled my eyes a more fascinating daughter of Eve never presented herself to a manager in search of rare commodities she was as majestic as Juno as lovely as Venus and as fresh and charming as Ibi the result of the interview was that Rich offered her an engagement and she made her first appearance on the Metropolitan stage November 6, 1740 as Sylvia in Farquhar's Recruiting Officer one of her happiest assumptions from that night for as long a time as she remained on the boards she reigned supreme in comedy on May 3, 1757 at Covent Garden Theater seeking the epilogue to As You Like It in which she played Rosalind she was stricken with paralysis and quitted forever the stage on which she had won so many triumphs she died on March 28, 1760 aged only 41 End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of Among the Great Masters of the Drama This is a LibriVox recording and LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Catherine Phipps Among the Great Masters of the Drama by Walter Rollins Mrs. Abbington In Now the Muse on High Her Banner Rears Talia Calls and Abbington Appears Yes, Abbington is still about her with all the school of Garrick still about her Coleman Of all the intractable leading ladies who acted under Garrick's management the capricious Mrs. Abbington played Tim the most John Thomas Smith says she was not unlike the melismaire forever looking for a white stone to shy at but however trying she might be to her manager she was a favourite both on and off the stage and although a very doubtful extraction and breeding became a polished woman of fashion as well as the first comic actress of her day in appearance a bird of paradise and a behemoth would not differ much more than Mrs. Abbington and Dr. Johnson yet they were good friends and the graph but great philosopher was like her fond of fashionable folk Boswell writing under date 1775 says on Monday, March 27 I breakfasted with him Johnson at Mr. Strahan's he told us that he was engaged to go that evening to Mrs. Abbington's benefit she was visiting some ladies whom I was visiting and begged that I would come to her benefit I told her I could not hear but she insisted so much on my coming that it would have been brutal to her refused her as a speech quite characteristically he loved to bring forward his having been in the gay circles of life and he was perhaps a little vein of the solicitations of this elegant and fashionable actress he told us the play was to be the hypocrite altered from Gibba's non-jureur I met him at Drury Lane Playhouse in the evening so Joshua Reynolds at Mrs. Abbington's request had promised to bring a body of wits to her benefit and having secured 40 places in the front boxes had done me the honor to put me in the group Johnson sat on the seat directly behind me and as he could neither see nor hear at such a distance from the stage he was wrapped up in grave abstraction and seemed quite a cloud amidst all the sunshine of glitter and gaiety I wondered at his patience in sitting out a play of five six and a farce of two he said very little a few days later Boswell records I sucked with him and some friends at a tavern one of the company attempted with too much forwardness to rally him on his late appearance at the theater but had reason to repent of his temerity Why sir, did you go to Mrs. Abbington's benefit? Did you see? No sir Did you hear? No sir Why then sir, did you go? Because sir she is a favorite of the public and when the public cares the thousandth part for you that it does for her I will go to your benefit too A very different man from Johnson Horace Walpole also admired Mrs. Abbington as can be seen from the following gallant invitation which he sent to her Strawberry Hill June 11 1780 Madame you may certainly always command me and my house my common custom is to give a ticket for only four persons at a time but it would be very insolent in me when all laws are set at nought to pretend to prescribe rules at such times there is a shadow of authority in setting the laws aside by the legislature itself and though I have no army to supply their place my Mrs. Abbington may march through all my dominions at the head of us large a troop as she pleases I do not say as she can muster and command for then I am sure my house would not hold them the day two is at her own choice and the master is her very obedient humble servant Horace Walpole Walpole thought Lady Tiesel which part she created to be Mrs. Abbington's best effort Reynolds painted her in this character again as the comic muse as Roxalana in The Sultan this portrait he presented to Mrs. Abbington and as Miss Prue in Congreve's Love for Love which latter picture is reproduced here it shows Miss Prue in the scene where the rough sailor Ben makes love to her according to his father's commands come mistress are you pleased to sit down for when you stand stern at that and wish you'll never grapple together come I'll haul a chair there and you please to sit I'll sit by you you need not sit so near one if you have anything to say I can hear you father off I aren't deaf why that's true as you say nor I aren't dumb I can be heard as far as another I'll heave off to please you sits father off and we were a legal sonder I done to take to hold discourse with you and to her not a main high wind indeed and full in my teeth look you forsooth I am as it were bound for the land of matrimony to the voyage to see that was none of my seeking I was commanded by father and if you like of it may have I may steer into your how you say mistress the short of the thing is that if you like me and I like you we may chance to swing in a hammock together I don't know what to say to you nor I don't care to speak with you at all no I'm sorry for that but pray why are you so scornful as long as one must not speak one's mind one had better not speak at all I think and truly I won't tell a lie for the matter nay you say true in that tis but a folly to lie for to speak one thing and to think just the contrary way is as it were to look one way and row another now for my part you see there are things above board I'm not for keeping anything under hatches so that if you bent as well in as I say so God's name there's no I'm done may have you been shame faced some maidens they love a man well enough yet they don't care to tell on Solster's face or if that's the case why silence gives consent but I'm sure it is not so for I'll speak sooner than you should believe that and I'll speak truth though one should always tell a lie to a man and I don't care let my father do what he will I'm too big to be whipped so I'll tell you plainly I don't like you nor love you at all nor never will that's more so there's your answer for you and don't trouble me no more you ugly thing End of Chapter 7 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are on the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Wes Freeman Among the great masters of the drama by Walter Rollins Mrs. Siddons What Mrs. Siddons may have been when she had the advantages of youth and form I cannot say but it appears to me that her performance at present leaves room to wish for nothing more Washington Irving, 1805 She was Tragedy Personified William Haslett Instead of gazing upon Mrs. Siddons as painted in or out of character by Gainsborough Sir Thomas Lawrence, Harlow or Beechie and passing by even Sir Joshua's magnificent picture of her as the muse of Tragedy let us look at an unfamiliar interesting group of Mrs. Siddons and her niece, Fanny Kimball by Briggs, a Royal Academician who once enjoyed much repute as a portrait painter This picture is the property of the Boston Atheneum to which institution it was given by Fanny Kimball herself many years ago The charming actress who died in 1893 an old lady of 83 spent many years of her life in America having first appeared in the United States at the Park Theater in New York as Bianca in 1832 She married a Southerner Mr. Pierce Butler in 1834 but the union turned out unhappily and was put an end to by divorce At a later time she gained additional fame by her readings from Shakespeare and her dramatic talent was supplemented by a poetic gift She not only produced verses of merit but two or three plays and wrote several delightful volumes of reminiscences filled with anecdotes of the numberless celebrities she had met Many imminent Americans were her friends long fellow among them and his fine sonnet, written in 1849 in admiration of her readings may be quoted here O precious evenings all too swiftly sped leaving us heirs to amplest heritages of all the best thoughts of the greatest sages and giving tongues unto the silent dead How our hearts glowed and trembled as she read interpreting by tones the wondrous pages of the great poet who forruns the ages anticipating all that shall be said O happy reader having for thy text the magic book whose sibling leaves have caught the rarest essence of all human thought O happy poet by no critic vexed how must thy listening spirit now rejoice to be interpreted by such a voice From Fanny Kimbell's records of a girlhood are taken the following references to her famous aunt When Fanny was a child Mrs. Siddons, she says at that time lived next door to us she came in one day when I had committed some of my daily offenses against manners or morals and I was led nothing daunted into her awful presence to be admonished by her Melphamine took me upon her lap and, bending upon me her controlling frown discourse to me of my evil ways in those accents which curdled the blood of the poor shopman of whom she demanded if the printed calico she purchased of him would wash the tragic tones pausing in the midst of the impressed and impressive silence of the assembled family I tinkled forth what beautiful eyes you have all my small faculties having been absorbed in the steadfast upward gaze I fixed upon those magnificent orbs Mrs. Siddons set me down with a smothered laugh and I trotted off apparently uninjured by my great aunt's solemn moral suasion this sprightly juvenile was but little older when her parents removed a covent garden chambers it was while she says we were living here that Mrs. Siddons returned to the stage for one night and acted Lady Randolph for my father's benefit of course I heard much discourse about this to us important and exciting event and used all my small powers of persuasion to be taken to see her my father who loved me very much and spoiled me not a little carried me early in the afternoon into the marketplace and showed me the dense mass of people which filled the whole stanza in patient expectation of admission to the still unopened doors this was by way of proving to me how impossible it was to grant my request however that might then appear it was granted for I was in the theatre at the beginning of the performance but I can now remember nothing of it but the appearance of a solemn female figure in black and the tremendous roar of public greeting which welcomed her and must I suppose terrified my childish senses by the impression I still retain of it and this is the only occasion on which I saw my aunt in public on June 8, 1831 Fanny Kimball then 21 and an accepted star having one immense success at her debut as Juliet at Covent Garden in 1829 thus records the death of Mrs. Siddons while I was writing to H my mother came in and told me that Mrs. Siddons was dead I was not surprised she has been ill and gradually failing for so long I could not be much grieved for myself for of course I had had but little intercourse with her though she was always very kind to me when I saw her she died at eight o'clock this morning peaceably and without suffering and in full consciousness I wonder if she has gone where Milton and Shakespeare are in her life whose thoughts were her familiar thoughts whose words were her familiar words at least three of Mrs. Siddons great parts Constance, Lady Macbeth and Queen Catherine were also acted by Fanny Kimball speaking of her aunt and herself in the last name character she wrote my performance of Queen Catherine was not condemned as an absolute failure only because the public in general didn't care about it and the friends and well-wishers of the theatre were determined not to consider it one but as I myself remember it it deserved to be called nothing else it was a school girl's performance tame, feeble and ineffective entirely wanting in the weight and dignity indispensable for the part and must sorely have tried the patience and forbearance of such of my spectators as were fortunate and unfortunate enough to remember my aunt one of whom her enthusiastic admirer and my excellent friend Mr. Harness said that seeing me in that dress was like looking at Mrs. Siddons through the diminishing end of an opera glass I should think my acting of the part must have borne much the same proportion to hers I was dressed for the trial scene and imitation of the famous picture by Harlow and, of course must have recalled in the most provoking and absurd manner the great actress whom I resembled so little and so much in truth I could hardly sustain the weight of velvet and ermine in which I was robed and to which my small girlish figure was as little adapted as my dramatic powers were to the matronly dignity of the character I cannot but think that if I might have dressed the part as Queen Catherine really dressed herself and been allowed to look as like as I could to the little dark hard-favored woman painted it would have been better than to challenge such a physical as well as dramatic comparison by the imitation of my aunt's costume in the part English men of her day will never believe that Catherine of Aragon could have looked otherwise than Mrs. Siddons did in Shakespeare's play of Henry VIII but nothing could in truth be more unlike the historical woman than the tall, large, bare-armed white-necked, Juno-eyed feel of queenship of the English stage the quintessence of religious conscientious bigotry and royal Spanish pride is given both in the portraits of contemporary painters and in Shakespeare's delineation of her the splendid magnificence of my aunt's person and dress as delineated in Harlow's picture has no affinity whatever to the real woman's figure or costume or character Henry Peronet Briggs of Walworth in 1793 was educated in the schools of the Royal Academy of which body he was elected an academician in 1832 he painted some historical works together with several scenes from Shakespeare but his talent and portraiture became so much in demand that he devoted himself to that branch of art his picture of Lord Elden is said to be one of his best portraits he died in London in 1844 End of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of Among the Great Masters of the Drama This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Catherine Phipps Among the Great Masters of the Drama by Walter Rowlands Kimball Time may again revive the near eclipse the charm when Cato spoke in him alive or Hotspur kindled warm Kimball That remarkable family, the Kimball's supplied the British stage with numerous actors and actresses of varying degrees of merit from that wonderful woman, the Great Siddons to Stephen Kimball who could play Falstaff without stuffing John Philip the greatest among the male Kimball's only was in his own opinion apparently in that of his famous sister and his brother Charles the foremost actor of them all less prejudiced judges have assigned him a place which though high indeed is next below Mrs. Siddons of all the classic parts which he so well portrayed Coriolanus was perhaps his best yet that fine actor Charles Young spoke of Mrs. Siddons Volumnia as overshadowing Kimball It is with feelings of pity that we read of Kimball a noble representative of Shakespeare's noble Romans being condemned to utter the claptrap speeches of Rola in Sheridan's Pizero produced a dreary lane in 1799 the part however became one of his most effective ones and the play was a tremendous success the cast included Mrs. Siddons, Mrs. Jordan and Charles Kimball the piece was performed 31 nights an extraordinary run for those days 30,000 copies of it were sold and the profits of the first season alone were said to be 15,000 pounds Henry Crabb Robinson wrote to his brother I suppose the fame of Pizero has already reached you it is unquestionably the most excellent play I ever saw for variety of attractions the scenery and decorations are splendid and magnificent without being taudry or purile and these ornaments are made to heighten not supersede real dramatic merit the tragedy possesses scenes of the most tender and pathetic kind and others highly heroic Kimball plays the Peruvian chieftain in his very best style the lover of Cora he voluntarily yields her to Alonso and when they are married devotes his life to their happiness and pious he is a kind of demigod and you know with what skill Kimball can assume the god and try to shake the spheres the incidents are in themselves so highly interesting and extraordinary that far less superiority of acting and pomp of machinery would have given ordinary effect to the piece but when united with the utmost efforts of the painter and machinist they produce a drama absolutely without parallel where you are a little richer I should recommend a journey to London on purpose to see it Percy Fitzgerald in his Lives of the Sheridans gives an account of the opening night of Pizarro which actually arrived before the Dilletry author had completed the play Fitzgerald writes in the case of Pizarro his indolence was so great that some of the players received their parts only the day before Mrs. Jordan obtained her song on the night of performance a friend carried Sheridan off to an airman bag shot where he put together Roller's famous speech adapting to it some of his old thunder even on the very evening that it was first performed the concluding portion remained unfinished Sheridan wrote it at the Shakespeare tavern in Covent Garden not half an hour before the curtain drew up the play commenced the actors received and learned them before the ink was dry with which they were written the time the house was overflowing on the first night's performance all that was written of the play was actually rehearsing and incredible as it may appear until the end of the fourth act neither Mrs. Siddons nor Charles Campbell nor Barrymore had all their speeches for the fifth Mr. Sheridan was upstairs in the prompter's room where he was writing the last part of the play while the earlier parts were acting the minutes he brought down as much of the dialogue as he had done piecemeal into the green room abusing himself and his negligence and making a thousand winning and soothing apologies for having kept the performer so long in such painful suspense one remarkable trait in Sheridan's character was his penetrating knowledge of the human mind for no man was more careful in his carelessness he was quite aware of his power of performance and of the veneration in which they held his great talents had he not been so he would not have ventured to keep them Mrs. Siddons particularly in the dreadful anxiety which they were suffering the whole of the evening Mrs. Siddons told me that she was in an agony of fright but Sheridan perfectly knew that Mrs. Siddons see, Campbell and Barrymore were quicker in study than any other performers concerned they could trust them to be perfect in what they had to say even at half an hour's notice and the event proved that he was right the play was received with the greatest approbation and though brought out so late in the season was played 31 nights and for years afterward proved a mine of wealth to the Drury Lane treasury and indeed to all the theatres in the United Kingdom Campbell took leave of the stage in Larnus on June 23rd 1817 Lord William Lennox who was present says as a boy at Westminster I had seen this great actor in almost all his part but never to my mind did he equal his performance of the noble Roman when taking leave of the stage four days later Campbell was given a farewell dinner at the Freemasons Tavern when young recited Campbell's valedictory stanzas which are taken the lines at the head of this chapter Lord Holland presided at the banquet where literature was represented by Campbell, Rogers, Moore and Crab the stage by Tomer and McCready and art by Hayden, Turner and Lawrence the last named painted Campbell in several characters as Hamlet exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801 and now in the National Portrait Gallery as Cato as Cori Larnus and as Rola here reproduced the head of Rola is that of Campbell but the body was painted from Jackson the celebrated pugilist end of chapter 9 Chapter 10 of among the great masters of the drama this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org among the great masters of the drama by Walter Rollins Miseras Jordan there was one comic actress who was nature herself in one of her most genial forms this was Miseras Jordan Lee Hunt although this fascinating Irish woman essayed some tragic parts in supporting Miseras sit-ins appeared as the original corda in Sheridan's Tragedy of Pizzaro it was in comedy that her real strength lay as a comic actress she must be classed with Woffington Kitty Clive and Mrs. Abington Rosalind and Viola were called two of her finest assumptions Peter Pindara wrote had Shakespeare self at Drury Ben while Jordan played each varied scene he would have started from complete and cried that's Rosalind complete William Robson the old play-goer declared that there never was there never will be there never can be her equal in the part Sir Joshua Reynolds called her Viola tender and exquisite and Charles Lamb who dubbed her Shakespeare's Woman said of it she used no rhetoric in her passion to make sure his own rhetoric most legitimate then when it seemed altogether without rule or law second only, if second to Peg Woffington in the part of Sir Harry Wildair she was unrivaled as a tomboy or a hoiden jenest in his history of the stage asserts that Mrs. Clive is no doubt played Nell as well as Mrs. Jordan it was hardly possible for her Mrs. Jordan's Country Girl Romp, Miss Hoiden and all characters of that description were exquisite in breeches parts, no actress can be put in competition with her but Mrs. Woffington and to Mrs. Woffington she was superior to her in beauty her first appearance at Drew Lee Lane was on the 18th of October 1785 in the part of Peggy in the Country Girl a play which Garrick had altered from Shirley's Country Wife and in which she made an enormous success Bowden, her friend and biographer says, perhaps no actress ever excited so much laughter how exactly had this child of nature calculated her efficacy that no intention on her part was ever missed and from first to last the audience responded uniformly in an astonishment of delight but her fertility as an actress was at its height in the letter scene perhaps the most perfect of all her efforts and the best known without mechanism the very pen and ink were made to express the rustic petulance of the writer of the first epistle and the eager delight that composed the second which was to be dispatched instead of it to her lover Mrs. Tickle wrote to her sister Mrs. Sheridan I went last night to see our new Country Girl and I can assure you if you have any reliance on my judgment she has more genius in her little finger than Miss Brunton in her whole body but to this little actress for little she is and yet not insignificant in her figure which though short has a certain roundness and embon point which is very graceful her voice is harmony itself in level quite speaking we had an opportunity of judging this in few lines she spoke in the way of epilogue like Rosalind and it has certain little breaks and indescribable tones which in simple arcness have a wonderful effect and I think without exception even of Mrs. Sidon's she has the most distinct delivery of any actor or actress I ever heard her face I could not see owing to the amazing bunch of hair she had pulled over her forehead but they tell me it is expressive but not very pretty her action is odd a little otre probably affected for the characters when Mrs. Jordan gained this extraordinary triumph she was in her 23rd year Hazlitt called her a child of nature whose voice was a cordial to the heart to hear whose laugh was nectar his talk was far above singing and whose singing was like the twanging of a cupid's bow Hayden speaks of her as touching and fascinating Byron declared she was superb Matthew's talks of her as an extraordinary and exquisite being distinct from any other being in the world as she was superior to all her contemporaries in her particular line Kemble said she was irresistible it may seem ridiculous he once remarked to Bowden but I could have taken her in my arms and cherished her though it was in the open street without blushing such an expression from the frigid lips of Kemble was a compliment that spoke volumes in her praise the critical Macrody who had played Don Felix to Mrs. Jordan's violante in the wonder permitted himself to speak of her with enthusiasm his words are if Mrs. Simmons appeared personification of the tragic muse certainly all the attributes of Thalia were most joyously combined in Mrs. Jordan her voice was one of the most melodious I ever heard which she could vary by certain bass tones that would have disturbed the gravity of a hermit and two that once heard that laugh of hers could ever forget it the words of Millman would have applied well to her oh the words left on her lips Mrs. Nesbitt the charming actress of a later day had a fascinating power in the sweetly ringing tones of her hearty mirth but Mrs. Jordan's laugh was so rich so apparently irrepressible so deliciously self enjoying as to be at all times irresistible its contagious power would have broken down the conventional serenity of Lord Chesterfield himself Romney painted Mrs. Jordan several times both as in private life and in one or two of the characters with which she had charmed her audiences and there is also an admirable picture of her by Hopner as Hypolita in Sivers she would and she would not end of chapter 10 recording by Aaron Stone recording by Sonya among the great masters of the drama by Walter Rowlands Talma the genius of Talma rose above all the conventionality of schools to my judgement he was the most finished artist of his time McCready incomparably the best actor I ever saw Carl Isle Talma, who had lived much in England in his youth and at a later time acted there with success was a friend of Campbell's and was present at the farewell banquet to the Tragedian when Talma's health being drank he returned thanks in very good English a few weeks before this occasion a noted Bostonian George Tickner had seen Talma on the Paris stage and had set down his impressions of the performance in his diary and he had seen the impressions of the performance in his diary from which we draw the following account April 11th 1817 this evening I have been for the first time to the French theatre and I hasten to note my feelings and impressions that I may have them in their freshness it was rather an uncommon occasion the benefit of mademoiselle Saint-Val now 65 years old who has not played before for 30 years and Talma and mademoiselle Marce both played the piece was Iphigenie Antoride by Guimonde Latouche which has been on the stage 60 years but I cannot find its merits above mediocrity Iphigenie was performed by mademoiselle Saint-Val who is old and ugly she was applauded through the first act with decisive good nature and in many parts deserved it but in the second act when Talma came out as Orestes she was at once forgotten in his presence no other should be remembered the piece and his part like almost everything of the kind in the French drama was conceived in the style of the court of Louis XIV but Talma in his dress in every movement every look was a Greek to have arrived at such perfection he must have studied antiquity as no modern actor has done and the proofs of this were very obvious his dress was perfect his gestures and attitudes were like one of ancient statues and when in imagination pursued by the furies he becomes frenzied, changes color trembles and falls pale and powerless before the impeccable avengers it is impossible to doubt that he has studied and felt the scene in Euripides and the praises of Longinas his study of the ancient statues struck me in the passage when in his second insanity François lancé et de leur long repli te cindre et te presser he started back into the posture of Laocone with great effect like the Mostinis he has had difficulties to overcome and even now at times he cannot concede an unpleasant lisp but I have never seen acting in many respects like his Cook had a more vehement than lofty genius and keen has sometimes perhaps flashes of eccentric talent but in an equal elevation of mind and indignity and force Talma, I think, left them all far behind. As at an earlier date Garrick played Hamlet and Macbeth in the long waistcoat, knee-witches and shoe-buckles of his own time, so the heroes of Greece and Rome were to be seen on the French stage of Talma's day attired like the courtiers of Louis XIV's. The study of the antique which his friendship with the artist David has led Talma to make convinced him of the absurdity of his custom, and in 1789 when he was elected a Sociétaire in the Comédie Française he attempted a reform. Brutus was to be given and Talma, then the youngest number of the company, had been cast for the part of a tribune. So David and Talma conspired together and a little plot succeeded well enough with the public at least to whom a Roman tribune in a real toga and with bare arms and legs was a delightful novelty. The other members of the company, however it was quite a different thing. Jealous of new ideas imbued with the traditions of their theatre they were indignant at this innovation. The actresses in particular were shocked at the unseemly display of arms and legs. Gracious heavens exclaimed Manmousel Conta with a little scream as Talma emerged from his dressing room ready to go. How hideous he is for all the world like one of those old statues and a few minutes afterward Madame Vestris, who happened to be on the stage in the same scene took an opportunity of saying to him in an undertone, Vaitalma, your arms are bare. Yes, he replied, like the Romans. Vaitalma, you have no trousers on. No, the Romans did not wear them. Couchon! Ejeculated poor Madame Vestris and her feelings overpowering her she had to go off the stage. Even the revolution in the air as it was in 1789 it took some little time to habituate Parisian players and play-goers to so radical a change. The next actor, one of the old school who filled a similar part, made great difficulties about donning the toga. He was induced to do so eventually but only on the condition that two pockets should be led into the back of the garment one of these being for his handkerchief the other for his snuff-box. No actor ever studied character with more care than did Talma who lived but for his profession and was his own most severe critic. Alexandre Dumas who always mourned the fact that his acquaintance with Talma began only in the last year of the great actor's life bears testimony to his absorption in his art while suffering from the melody which finally killed him. He said, a fortnight before his death as he seemed to have improved and as this improvement gave rise to hopes that he might soon appear again at the Théâtre Français Adolphe and I paid him a visit. Talma was in his bath studying the Tiberias of Lucien Arnault in which he expected to make his re-entry. Condemned by an inward complaint literally to die of hunger he had become very meagre but in this very meagerness he felt a satisfaction and an omen of success. Eh! my son's! said he cheerfully drawing down his flabby cheeks with his hands. With truthful air this will give to the role of the aged Tiberias. Talma met Bonaparte in 1792 when the young officer of artillery was out of favour, employment and money and did him some service which was not forgotten in after years. Napoleon's well-known message to the actor in 1808 come and act at air-ford. He shall play before pitful of kings indicates the favour with which the emperor regarded him. It was said that Talma taught Napoleon to dress and walk and play the emperor but he always denied this asserting that Napoleon was by nature and training the greater actor of the two. The emperor's criticism of the actor's representation of Caesar in La Morde Pompée is suggestive. He said to Talma you use your arms too much rulers of empires are not so lavish of movement they know that a gesture from them is an order and that a glance means death and again of Nero in Britannicus. You should gesticulate less and remember that when persons of high position are agitated by passion or preoccupied by weighty thoughts their tone no doubt is slightly raised but their speech no less remains natural. You and I for example are at this moment making history and yet we are conversing in quite an ordinary way. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Larry Wilson Among the great masters of the drama by Walter Rollins Liston His humor on and off the stage was irresistible. J. R. Plancher Liston's greatest success was in the character of Paul Pry in Poole's comedy of that name first performed at the Haymarket in 1825. When the part was given to him he objected to it on the ground that it had no connection with the main plot of the piece and appeared at rehearsal imperfect in his lines and undecided as to the costume. Just then a workman came on the stage wearing a pair of Cossack trousers which the day being wet painted in boots and the actor at once adopted these features in dressing the part. Our illustration of Paul Pry from a painting by Clint shows the scene from the second act in a room in Colonel Hardy's house. On the left is Eliza played by Miss Glover next Phoebe Madame Vesty then Colonel Hardy Williams and Paul Pry Liston. Harry Stanley Eliza's lover has just been secreted in her room armed with abrasive pistols in search of the intruder and insists upon hearing the truth from Phoebe who says, You are so passionate sir that even if I knew cries of follow, follow and a noise of barking dogs Pry without window. Would you murder me you heart-hearted monster? Hardy. They have him, they have him. Pry with one foot on the window I'm a friend of the family I tell you Oh if I do but escape with my life Hardy points pistol at Pry Phoebe Then we are saved again Pry tumbles in Hardy So this is the second time I have you Now what rigmarole story can you invent? Pry Let me go, there's a mistake I'm not the man I'm your friend I was coming this way intending just to drop in when Hardy, my friend indeed, places pistols on table. How dare any friend of mine drop in at the first floor window Pry, if you doubt my friendship see what I have suffered in your service Turns about and shows his clothes torn Hardy Explain yourself Pry, I have been hunted like a stag and nearly sacrificed like a heathen to the fury of Jupiter and Bacchus and all owing to a mistake I saw a strange man climb over your wall and be naturally anxious to know what he could want I followed him, gave the alarm and Phoebe Why, this is the same story he told us this morning, sir Hardy And so it is Why, this is the same story you told me this morning Hardy, sir, if you find no better excuse for your extraordinary conduct I shall forget you are my neighbor act in my quality of magistrate and commit you for the trespass I find you entering my house in a very suspicious manner Pry Well, if ever I do a good natured turn again let me tell you, Colonel that you are treating me like a phoenix, a thing I am not used to Hardy, what do you mean by treating you like a phoenix Pry Toss me out of the frying pan into the fire What I tell you is true I gave the alarm but the fellow was so nimble that he escaped While your servant see me run for a wager, mistook me for the man set the dogs after me and in short I am well off to have escaped with my life Hardy If this be true what has become of the other the gates are closed and Pry He's safe enough I'll answer for it Though I could not overtake him I never lost sight of him observing a signal made by Phoebe That explains the mystery some swaying of Mrs. Phoebe's Hardy What has become of him I say I'll not be trifled with You are the only trespasser I discover and you I will commit unless Pry Oh, if that's the case you need not nod and wink at me, ladies The matter is growing serious and I have already suffered sufficiently Here, Colonel, I saw him get in at the window Phoebe Oh, the wretch A likely story The man get in at the window and we not see him Why, we have not been out of the room this half hour, have we miss? Hardy Do you hear that? A likely story, indeed If you saw him describe him Pry How can I describe him? I tell you he was running like a greyhound He didn't wait for me to take his portrait He got up at the window and I'll swear he didn't get down again So here he must be Walks up and round the stage and looks under sofa and table Phoebe It is a pity, Mr. Pry You have no business of your own to employ you That's right, look about here You had better search for him Pry Pry Stand aside, Mrs. Phoebe, and let me Phoebe Why, you abominable person That is Miss Eliza's room How dare you open the door Throwing him round by collar Hardy You abominable person How dare you open my daughter's room Throwing him round by collar Pry If there's no one concealed there Why, object Phoebe I wonder, sir, you allow of such an insinuation Places herself at the door No one shall enter this room We stand here upon our honour And if you suspect my young ladies What is to become of mine I should like to know Pry Can't possibly say But I would advise you to look after it For I protest There he is Hardy endeavoring to suppress his anger Sir, you are impertinent It cannot be And I desire you will quit my house Simon Goes to the door Enter Simon Simon, open the door For Mr. Pry Phoebe, Simon You are to open the door For Mr. Pry Pry Oh, I dare say, Simon, here's I wish you a very good morning I expect it to be asked to dinner for this At least This is most mysterious I say, Simon Exit, whispering to Simon Liston was much addicted to playing practical jokes and to making puns At one time, when Hamlet was the play and Mrs. Stephen Kimball was just going on the stage as Ophelia in her madness She handed her instead of the usual basket filled with flowers and straws one containing carrots, turnips, onions, and other savory but unromantic vegetables and thus equipped, as it was too late to go back, the unfortunate actress was compelled to finish the scene. He once asked Matthews to play for his benefit Matthews having to act elsewhere that night excused himself saying I would if I could but I can't split myself in halves I don't know that, retorted Liston I have often seen you play in two pieces George Clint, miniature painter engraver and portrait painter was born in London in 1770 and died there in 1854 Several of his paintings including the one given here are in the South Kensington Museum and a number belong to the Garrett Club Almost all of these are of theatrical subjects in the representation of which Clint was most successful Keen, Mundan, Farron, Fawcett, Charles Kimball, and Matthews with many others were thus painted by him End of Chapter 12 Chapter 13 of Among the Great Masters of the Drama This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Wes Freeman Mademoiselle Mars The Finest Comic Actress in Existence John Howard Payne 1824 Among the many great parts associated with the genius of Mademoiselle Mars is that of Betty and Alexandre Duval's la jeunesse de Henri Sank It was at the Comédée Française that she created Betty in June 1806 and during the same month the piece was played before the Emperor then resting between Austerlitz and Yenna at St. Cloud Duval's comedy originally bore the name of Charles Duh It has for its subject one of the adventures of that Mary Monarch but the censor dreading possible political illusions Charles being a restored Monarch objected and caused its title to be changed to la jeunesse de Henri Sank This connection of the play with the king who died two hundred years before Charles was born in view of the fact that no other alteration was made of course resulted in some absurd anachronisms as for instance retaining the part of Rochester Charles's boon companion In 1823 John Howard Payne aided by Washington Irving made an adaptation of Duval's piece restoring its original title and brought it out in London the following year with Charles Kimball in the character of Charles II Fawcett is Captain Cop and Maria Tree is Mary Cop Mary Cop, the Betty of the original is in Payne's comedy the niece of an old sea captain who keeps a tavern in Wapping with her Charles and Rochester repairer for a frolic Rochester however has promised Lady Clara in return for her hand in marriage to reform his wild ways and also to use his influence with the king to induce him to follow suit The Enterprise succeeds in the play ends with Mary's betrothal to Edward one of the king's pages who has wooed her in the guise of a music master Charles II which was produced at Covent Garden made a great success not long after the time when Madame Waselle Marce acted Betty before Napoleon a couple of comedies written expressly for the occasion with music by Spontini were to be performed at Malmaison in honor of the Fate Day of the Empress Josephine The distinguished amateurs to whom the various parts were entrusted included the Princess Pauline and Caroline Bonaparte the wives of Marshal's Ney and Junot and Junot himself Madame Junot in her memoirs acknowledges the aid she received on this occasion from Madame Waselle Marce My part, she says was in the piece of Monsieur de l'Enchamps which was by far the prettiest My dramatic skill was at best but indifferent and this character quite unsuited to it I was quite certain of failing in my performance a circumstance probably very desirable to others but quite the reverse to myself I therefore requested Madame Waselle Marce if she had a few minutes to spare would have the goodness to hear me rehearse and by the more than urbanity with which she complied every morning during the fortnight that elapsed before the appointed Fate I had an opportunity of which I perhaps stupidly availed myself far more effectually than of her lessons of admiring the play of her pliant and charming features her expressive smile conveying some idea of while it disclosed her pearly teeth and those beaming eyes which in accordance with the smile revealed the coming sentiment before it could find utterance Hearing her thus in a private room divested of all that delusive attraction which the lights, the public plaudits the whole witchery of the scene cast around an actress on the stage I mentally exclaimed this is the greatest actress in the world she is pursuing her natural vocation here is no appearance of acting it must therefore be the perfection of the art from that moment I became a declared an enthusiastic admirer of Madame Waselle Marce the real public misfortune that she refused to receive pupils in these interviews I had equal reason to appreciate the tone of her conversation, her excellent judgment and her good taste I found in Madame Waselle Marce everything that could constitute a woman form to shine and please in the very best society Fanny Kimball paid the following tribute to Madame Waselle Marce to my great regret and loss I saw Madame Waselle Marce in two parts when in the autumn of her beauty and powers she played a short engagement in London the grace, the charm the loveliness which she retained far into middle age were even in their decline enough to justify all that her admirers said of her early incomparable fascination her figure had grown large and her face become round and lost their fine outline and proportion but the exquisite taste of her dress and graceful dignity of her deportment and sweet radiance of her expressive countenance were still indescribably charming and the voice unrivaled in its fresh, melodious brilliancy and the pure and perfect annunciation were unimpaired and sounded like the clear liquid utterance of a young girl of sixteen her cellamen and her Elmere I never had the good fortune to see but can imagine from her performance of the heroine in Casimir de Lavigne's capital play of The Coal de Villar have deserved her unrivaled reputation in those parts Dr. Guno de Messy who knew her very well and used to see her very frequently in her later years of retirement from the stage told me that he had often heard her read, among other things the whole play of the Tartuffe and that the coarse flippancy of the honest-hearted Doreen and the stupid stolidity of the dupe Orcon and the vulgar, gross, sensual hypocrisy of the Tartuffe with the same incomparable truth and effect as her own famous part of the heroine of the piece Elmere on one of the very last occasions of her appearing before her own Parisian audience when she had passed a limit at which it was possible for a woman of her advanced age to assume the appearance of youth the part she was playing requiring that she should explain Je suis jeune, je suis jolie a loud solitary hiss protested against the assertion with bitter significance after an instance consternation which held both the actors and audience silent she added with the exquisite grace and dignity which survived the youth and beauty to which she could no longer even pretend Je suis mademoiselle Marce and the whole house broke out in acclamations and rang with the applause due to what the incomparable artiste still was all that she had been as a final testimony to the merits of this exquisite comedienne I quote from Madame Junot's memoirs an interesting anecdote which brings together the great queen of French tragedy Ypollite Cléhon and mademoiselle Marce I saw her occasionally she was fond of me but Thalma and mademoiselle Marce caused perpetual disputes between us I was angry because as she did not see their performance she could not appreciate all the talent of these two beings endowed from above with dramatic genius Thalma might be criticized but mademoiselle Marce was even then a diamond of the first water without spot or defect at length I was one day much surprised to find my old friend quite softened toward my favorite actress I never could attribute the sudden change to any other cause than her having seen mademoiselle Marce in one of her characters she did not admit it but I am almost certain of the fact I had spoken so much of her that it was scarcely possible she should not wish to see her to judge for herself in the pupil mademoiselle Marce in the simple action of letting fall a nose-gay unveils at once the secret of a young heart this fact so striking to the feelings is at the same time one which could not be described and yet mademoiselle Cléhon spoke to me of this action as if she had seen it nor do I think that she would have imbibed from any other source opinions sufficiently strong to overcome her prejudices though I know that an old Monsieur Antoine a friend of Lucaine gave her frequent accounts of all that passed at the comédie français I have however no doubt that she had been carried thither herself in a sedan chair and had seen and admired our charming actress End of Chapter 13