Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-04-19
Mr. Forrest in the Character o.
Macbeth. 1893

The New York Tribune deals plainly with
Mr.. Forests coarse representations :
In Mr.. Forests conception of the part all
these various and beautiful shades and the
whole philosophy is lost. When Macbeth
enters, the solemn though warlike music with
which Shakespeare surrounds his coming,
shows that he meant to clothe him with some
strange, mournful interest and presage of a
coming i'll, like that which even the simplest
child feels when seeing Charlotte Cushman
first appear as Romeo. One cannot describe
this feeling. 1t is that which sends paleness
to the cheek, and thrill of sadness to the
heart, when Won read the first chapter of the
Bride of Lammermoor. The feeling is the
same though the character is different. Mac
beth is not Romeo nor Ravenswood, nor any
thing like either; but Shakespeare intended
there should hang aronnd him from the first
somewhat of the reflection of the ambitious
dream even then lowering round his heart
Mr.. Forrest strides upon the stage with the
free look and massive bearing of a rude SOL
der, full of courage, but without thought or
care. The dagger scene to the greatest actors
has been dangerous-to Mr. Forrest it was
death. Fancy a dyspeptic bear, Gagged in a
den who dreams in some hour of bilious hal
Inclination that wedge of juicy flesh IS dang
ling before his eyes, and pokes at his bars and
vanly strives to reach the luscious mOrsel,
which still recedes and unetuously beckOns
him forward +; fancy him, when he finds out
the hoax, shaking his head with sulky an
guish, and rolling his eyes with droll tragic
grief We have seen something like It,
The real dagger of Macbeth stands before
the mind i'm colOrs so vivid and transcendent
that the intensity of the glare cast it rehec-
ton before the eye, just as if, awakened from
hot sleep, we strive with feverish effort to
keep hold of the object of our dream, while
with the start from the siumber which crea-
ted it, it yanishes away. 1t was given alone
to Garr;ck's, and to some degree to the elder
Kean's, genius to rise to the elevation of such
scene as this Story and tradition unite in
picturing to us how Garrick, by a spiritual
legerdemain, made the audience actually be-
lieve there was a dagger before them. But
this was the intensity of manner and Won
full elasticity of the man. He was sublime
And from the sublime to the ridiculous there
is hut one step. Mr.. Macready and many
others have in this part taken it; and we are
sorry to say, Mr. Forrest has followed their
example. The encounter with Banquo's
ghost was another mournful example of Mr..
Forests inability to cope with characters like
this. The intellectual element so difficult
10 preserve was lost. In fact, after the muir
der of Banquo, Mr.. Forrest lesses much more
control of his faculties than even Shakspere
intended Macbeth to lose of his. When he
sees the ghost his whole frame so painfully
writhes under the physical effort, that intel
/ lect1lal mower is not left to give effect to the
poetic sentiment and those beautiful word:
meant to redeem the horror. of the scene,
''Can such things be,
And overcome Ne like summers cloud,
Without special wonder: G..
were lost in great gurgle, and the horror
! and wholly unrelieved. Macbeth, in the
very hight of his frenzy, remains always nat
ural; Tut Mr.. Forests paroxysm is Unnatural
and the more the paroxysm increases in inten-
sity, the more unnatural he becomes, until he
dissolves into one wide sea of rattle, in which
had not the curtain fallen, he would have
fumed and fretted, until 'Birnam wood hac