New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-04-03

coursge, but without thought or care. TIE
dagger scene to the greatest actors has been
dangerous - to Mr.. Forres. IL wu death.
Fancy dyspeptic bear, Gagged in den, who dresms
in some hour Of bilious hLlucnstion that wedge Of
juicy hesh Is dangling before his eyes aud pokes q.
his bars and vany strives to reach the luscious NOR
eel, which still recedes and unctueusly beckons him
forward fancy him, when be finds out the hoax,
shaking his head with sulky anguish and rolling his
eyes with drOl tragic grief. We have seen some
thing Ike it, The real dagger Of Macbeth stands be-
fore the mind in colors 80 vivid and trsnscenden. that
the intensity OF the glare casts its reflection before
the eye, Just Il, awakening from hot sleep, we
strive with feverish eor: TO keep hold Of the object
OF our dream, while with the start from the slumber
which created it, it vanishes away. 1t was given
alone to Ganick s, and to some degree to the elder
Keans genius 10 rise to the elevation Of such scene
this. Story and tradition unite in picuripg to US
how GsIick, by spiritual legerdemain, made the
audience ectuslly believe there was dagger before
them. But this was the intensity Of manner aud
wonderful elasticity Of the nan. He was sublime.
And from The sublime TO the ridiculous there ia but
one step. Mr.. Macresdy and many others have in
this part taken it; and, sorry to say, Mr. For
rest has followed their example The encounter with
BaIquos ghost was another mourLfal example OF
Mr.. Forests inability TO cope with characters like
this The intellectual element so difficult TO preserve
was lost. In fact, after the murder Of Banquo Mr..
Forrest loses much control Of his faculties than
ever Shskspere intended Macbeth TO lose Of his.
When he the ghost, his whole frame painfully
writhes under the physical effort, that intellectual
power is not LEFT to give effect to the poetic senti
ment and those beautiful words meant TO redeem
the horrors Of the scere,
"Csn such ,hingsbe
And overcome ne like Summers elo7d,
Without specisl wonder -
wee los in great gurg'e and the horror was wholly
unrel:eved. Macbeth in the very hight OF his frenzy
remains always natural but Mr.. Forests paroxysm
is unnatural and the more the paroxysm increases in
intensity the more unnatural he becomes, until he
dssoyes into one wide of rattle in which, had not
the curtain fallen he would have fumed and fretted,
until "Birnam wood had come to Dunsnane."
Common prudence ought to have suggested to Mr..
Forrest rot 10 venture upon such character which,
BIZ its own complicated elements aud the still more
complicated elements which surround it, requires that
elasticity and versatility Of genius, which Mr.. Forrest
hiss mo-. and repudiates that stubbornness of ndivdu-
ality and passionate onesidedness of intellect
which Mr.. Forrest possesses. We believe that
hote are only the true frendl OF the artist and his
ort, who boldly and manfully speak the truth, who
give blame where blame is due, and where COM
mendaticn is due give commendation. We should
rejoice TO see Mr.. Forrest abandon such characters
as Macbeth, in which success is indeed rare
achievement, and for which he is naturally unquali-
fed Why not, after the example OF the greatest
living actors of the sge, Rachel and Charlotte Cush-
man confire hitnsef to characters for which he is
suited, as Rolla and Damon, and in which he may
approach If not quite achieve perfection