Marcready and Forrest; and their contemporariesBrander Matthews, Laurence Hutton Cassell, Limited, 1886 - Actors |
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acting actor actress Adelaide Neilson admiration American appearance applause artist audience beauty became Booth Boston Broadway Theatre Brutus burlesque Camille career chap character Charles Kean Charlotte Cushman comedy Covent Garden Davenport début dramatic Drury Lane Dundreary E. L. Davenport Edmund Kean Edwin Forrest Ellen Tree engagement English eyes farewell father Fechter feel friends gave genius grace Hamlet Haymarket heart Helen Faucit Henry Heron honor Iago John Juliet Julius Cæsar Kemble Lady Macbeth Lady of Lyons LAURENCE HUTTON Lawrence Barrett Lear London Macready Macready's manager manner McCullough Melnotte ment mind Miss Neilson Mowatt nature never night occasion Othello passion performance person Phelps play profession rehearsal Richard III Robson Romeo Rosalind Sadler's Samuel Phelps scene season Sept Shakspere Shaksperean Sothern stage Street Theatre success theatrical tion tones took tragedian tragedy tragic Virginius voice William woman words York young
Popular passages
Page 99 - Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that: You take my house, when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life, When you do take the means whereby I live.
Page 55 - Methinks I should know you and know this man; Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant What place this is, and all the skill I have Remembers not these garments; nor I know not Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me; For, as I am a man, I think this lady To be my child Cordelia.
Page 31 - Who made a nation purer through their art. Thine is it that our drama did not die, Nor flicker down to brainless pantomime, And those gilt gauds men-children swarm to see. Farewell, Macready; moral, grave, sublime; Our Shakespeare's bland and universal eye Dwells pleased, through twice a hundred years, on thee.
Page 218 - I felt once more what a great play it was, with all its faults ; and they are gross and numerous. On leaving the theatre after Othello, I felt as if my old admiration for this supreme masterpiece of the art had been an exaggeration.
Page 144 - I had done anything remarkable," she says, " and when the knock came at my dressing-room door, and I heard Braham's voice, my first thought was, Now what have I done ? He is surely displeased with me about something, — for in those days I was only the utility actress, and had no prestige of position to carry me through. Imagine my gratification when Mr. Braham said : ' Miss Cushman, I have come to thank you for the most veritable sensation I have experienced for a long time. I give you my word,...
Page 16 - In Edmund Kean and Rachel we recognize types of genius; in Macready I see only a man of talent, but of talent so marked and individual that it approaches very near to genius; and, indeed, in justification of those admirers who would claim for him the higher title, I may say that Tieck, whose opinion on such a matter will be received with great respect, told me that Macready seemed to him a better actor than either Kean or John Kemble; and he only saw Macready in the early part of his long and arduous...
Page 14 - Romeo by a young gentleman, his first appearance on any stage," the emotions I experienced, on first crossing the stage, and coming forward in face of the lights and the applauding audience were almost overpowering. There was a mist before my eyes. I seemed to see nothing of the dazzling scene before me, and for some time I was like an automaton moving in certain defined limits. I went mechanically through the variations in...
Page 105 - I am too much i' the sun. Queen Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy veiled lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.
Page 24 - In rehearsing the play of Virginius, an occurrence took place which caused a hearty laugh at the expense of Mr. William Forrest, (brother to the tragedian) who was the Icilius. Caught by the natural tone and manner of Macready, who, turning suddenly, said, " Will you lead Virginia in, or do you wait for me to do it." " Whichever you please, Mr. Macready," was the ready answer, followed by such a laugh as only actors can enjoy.
Page 15 - trod on air," became another being, or a happier self; and when the curtain fell at the conclusion of the play, and the intimate friends and performers crowded on the stage to raise up the Juliet and myself, shaking my hands with fervent congratulations, a lady asked me, " Well, sir, how do you feel now ?" my boyish answer was without disguise, " I feel as if I should like to act it all over again.