The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-04-28
MISIC AND THE DRAMA

1t is truly refreshing once in a while to have
somebody to praise. 1t is not pleasant to be always
finding fault, and we seldom get chance to be
amiable, we mean to make the most of the present
opportunity. Not that we take any credit to our
selves for good nature in the present instance,
for the artist whom we wish to applaud is CHAR
LoTTE CUSHMtN, and to speak of her in any other
terms than those Of praise, would be doing in
Justice alike to her great merits and to our own
critical acumcn The lateness of the hour, after
the play on Monday night, prevented us from Civ
ing, yesterday morning, more than passing no
tice of the evenings performance. To-day we
wish to supply the omission, by speaking more in de-
tail of Miss CUsHSAN'S style and manner of acting
The play of ROMEO and Jdict is difficult one to
act and the part o! Romeo is the hardest part in
the play. Shakespeare has given Jslid decidedly
the advantage Any pretty woman with tolerable
powers of eocutioH act the part of Juiet so as
to be quite of the Sympathies of the audience
and be able to cast poor Romeo entirely in the
shade. During the whole of the first two acts the
latter appears in alght not at all likely to excite
either sympathy for the part applause for the
actor lie is franicay in love with Rosaline but
as the latter Is nota character in the play the au-
dlence have no opportunity of judging how far his
passion may be eXcusable, while like most
persons in his unhappy condition, he is ex-
cessively stupid and maudln. The suddenness.
with which he subsequently forsakes Rosaline for
juliet, Is piece of Inconsistency, which of ITSELF is
enough to forfeit any small amount of sympathy
which his lovelorn woebegone plight might other
wise have excited in the minds of the audience
at least OF the female part thereof AS for the
men, during these two acts, he has not the smallest
chance of gaining their commiseraton in the slight
est degree lie is represented mere houting-
stock for the wit Of his light-hear ted mates,
the bold Wercwio and Bcnrolio. He is milksop
without spirit enough to resent the insults of the
fiery 7yJah. Not until he kills the latter, does he
establish the smallest claim to the sympathes of his
audience, or receive any portion of their applause
During those portions Of the play which follow,
he figures only as J@liefs lover His very passion
only serves to exalt. not himself but Juliet 1t is
Juliet who does everything, and we had almost ad-
died. suffers everything-for if Romeos sufferings be
great, Julet's sacrifices greater. Romeo is the
enemy of her house, and the SLAYER of her kinsman
yet for his sake, inlet braves her parents wrath
and all the terrors of the dismal vault ''where"
she tells US
flor these many hundred years, the bones
VI all my buried ancestors packed:
Where bloody Tybalt. yet but green in earth,
Lies fostering in his shroud.'
All this and more Juliet does and suffers Romeo
simply wrings his hands, and rails on fortune and at
last 'unable to bear the ills he has takes poison
and SO, he says, ''runs on the dashing rocks his
sea-sick weary bark" Juliet, the woman. is nm
doubtedly heroine but Romeo the man. is. we ara
afraid, not much of a hero. Yet this Romeo. an
parently unatracive, is made by Miss CUsHMAy. if
not a hero, at least man. He is made the leading
character in the play,-made what the poet must
evidently have designed that he should be-a man
worthy of the love of JIiet and of the sacrifices
which JaIiet makes for him, and of the admiration
and sympathy Of the audience. All this Miss
CuSHMAN accomplishes by the mere force of
her acting. 1t is true, that Monday night
the part of J"liet was but feebly played, and
amounted to little more than blank or cypher in
the play Yet even if the part had been represented
by rstrae actress the result would still have been
the same 1t is not merely by comparison with
others that Miss CUSHMAN takes rank as an actress
nor was 1t by contrast only with feeble Juliet that
her Romeo appeared to such striking advantage 1t
was, throughout. consummate piece of acting, and
a mastery embodiment of the conceptions of
the poet. She gave to the part itself a
reality and importance, and to the charac-
ter of Romeo a dignity and ananliness, which
we have never seen it possess in the hands of
any male performer. That woman should be able
to achieve this triumph of art, is indeed remarka-
Bile. That which is conceded to be difficult part
for man, must be proportionably more difficult for
a woman. y ct these difficulties, whether inherent
in the construction of the play itself, arising
from the inability of woman to play properly the
part of man, Miss CUsHMAN surrounded So
completely did she herself and lose her per-
sonal indemnity in her assumed character that the
woman may be fairly said to have been merged in
the artist, and the actress in Romeo. In a perform
admirable in all its parts it is as difficult to
specify particular exceilences, as it would be to
point out defects. We therefore refrain from fur
Their comment upon Miss CUsHMAN's acting in Romeo
and pass to her Queen Katharine.
In this character, which she played last night to
crowded house, her purely tragic powers were dis
played to even greater advantage than in Romeo.
The bearing of the wronged and outraged Queen
before the priestly judges whose authority she de
nies' and whose fairness she impeaches was grandly