New-York daily tribune., 1859-01-13
MRS. KEMBLES READLNGS-OTHELLO.

ton and applause snd thls effect Is 70 pe tAAeh az
proof of the readers skill independently of careful
inquiry into the nature Of that sk-,hen, certainly,
Mrs.. Kemble msy claim high rank among dramatic
readers Her advertisements attract and draw to-
gtther large numbers Of our citizens, and they Listen
st,erti,ey and applaud considerably.
Were We called on to say why they Listen ani sp-
plsud, we might escape Q more ungallant answer BY
copjecturirg tts. they are not very famiisr with
Sakespes.e and thst they never heard the works OF
III. great poet better reai. Many people are now
Ivirg who have seer Edmund Kean on the stage and
many more who h.ve seen Macready; but q large
portion Of sny one Of Mrs. Kembe's audisBces have
seen Iether and they Iecesssry ignorant Of the
the capabilities Of Shakespeares characters, as deve
oped BY thote great masters of the hstnonc art. The
Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, Otheio, Iago, Shylock, CT
those actors have now become mere matters Of trad
ton living only il the memory Of persons Who are old
erough to have and he ard them undersandrgly;
end the psygoers reading Of the prese.t day
cannot comprehend standards Ct comparison entirely
beyond their observation and experience and cannot
be expected 10 be Influenced By them.
Yet independently Of the practical Illustrations OF
great actors, intelligent people can, by their own
study gain some insight into Shskespesres wonderful
creatons-wondeul beca1se and only so far as, they
are transcripts from nature; and if such students Will
take with them to the heater or the reading room
little independent rehecon-ust enough TO resist the
pressure Of fashionable furore-they will not go very
wide Of the mark in discriminating betweenthe pstural
and the artificial the theatrical and the true, in the
representation Of Sbakespeare's plsys. person Of
ordinary Intelligence has bat to think twice TO decide
whether for instance,
Now is the Winter of discomfort
is uttered with the accent of human being, Of
raptng &C or And this test is applicable to the
entire range of the drama whether read or acted.
Every man can Judge for himself if he will. But
Sheridan says in the /" Critic that the number of
those who undergo the fatigue Of judging for them
selves is very small indeed"
Othello is eminently adapted to the single reader
because its dramatic construction s simple its indi-
vdualities are clearly Defined and its specalties Of
passion are of class the most easily sustained and
developed. Simplicity marks every feature of this
ms gnifcent tragedy. Othello, Iago, Casio, Roder-
60, Desdemons and Emilia are all people whom we
know; people rot separated from us by any artih-
cial distinctions, and whose entire action might
happen at the present day, excepting, chiefly the
incident OF the husbands taking the law into his own
hands with mpubity and indeed, considering the
course Of criminal justice in NewYork, even that eI-
ception might easily be overruled. Otheo s substan-
tally, domestic tragedy and even on the stage it
gains little nothing by those scenic accessories that
are so indispensable to other plays. or course then,
Otheo specially requires to be read naturally simply,
colloquialy; and it will always suffer beyond almost
any other tragedy in the hands of mouthng artist.
This mouthing is Mrs. Kembles greatest, because il
is her Ilpervading fault. She to be incapable
A. v,,la ala ta.
feet prolongs her utterance of words 70 painful
tent but occasionally she reverses the system and
mouths rapidly, in way that is relief TO the ear,
but Of not much service to the OF her author
The instances Of her prolonged style innumerabe.
Even in simpe, narrative passages, we have;
my vices .whichs have donea the .esniory" ETC.
not only occupying twice the requisite and proper
tine in delivery, but uttered in sepuchrsl tone, for
reasons beet known to Mrs.. Kembe. In the same
style, we hive;
" And this and this, the greatest discords De
Thst-s-e'eT-s-our-s-he saall-a-mske"
"How-s-oomes it-s-MichaeI-s-you-s-sre- thus
s-forsotf'
"'Tis-a-not-a-to nake-a-me-s-jeslou'" &e
"T-a-I-a-do-s-pro-o-ve- -o-ve-s-her-hsss ard"
"o-o-o- Des-dse moo-nas s-wSsyy"
"O-o-o- perrjuu.red woman"
"Wbeer-se sho-o.uu.ld 0o-thslllo soH
and go FORTH and 80 forth. These instances, as we
have ntmAted, may be cited to an indefinite extent
At other times, Nrs. Kemble, perhaps to make rea-
scnsbe average Of speed goes on entirely too fast
Poor and content Is rich and rich enough
But riches fneless is - poor - Winter &c.
First must tel thee this De,demOua is directly in
love with him.
"A liberal hand hot bot and moist"
But tina, did proceed upon just grounds,
To thi, extremity thy husband knew il ALL
We omit the punctuation in these cases becsuse Mrs.
Kemble did 30.
Ms Kemble has strange notions about the pronun-
citation of many woris: it may be Engnn, but IL 50"
ia Of the provincial kind: soul, boarded dote more,
sword home, old, ard on, become sol, dorded DOT
NOR, sord, HON, old, and 70 Cd. That is, Ms. Mem
bic has no use for long in condensation with other
letters; yet she makes up Tor il in the inerJectlonai
sirse o. And other words there are, If we could but
recall them-such as 6uboon for bsboon, heself for
tbyself, chammberers for chamberers, &c. Beside
this. she often puts her emphasis the wrong word
In personal suit to make me his hsusensai'
"rhe goodness Of the Eight upon you, flend'.'
Upon some presen, busiaess Of the STATE
To bring me 70 him.
And oft my Jealousy shapes faults 'hS ale no''
Now thou my Iier,enani'
"tTi. NEE, should be used thus
The several emphatic words are, 10 their order,
me-" night" "him," "jealou,y' "thou, aud
"I." And, although such errors may not be OF cap.
itsl importance, they indicate want OF study OF Oh
appreciation Of the tex. not to be expected IN an a'
of Mr.. Kembe's preteusiOrs.
Mrs Kemble deals too much in 'rlisgers, t' II tne
"Dead1" Of the Duke, II It were DOW to die, Oh
Othello: and in many other cases where whisper Is
absurd il is. nevertheless, introduced With nNked
dellberatnn and eomPlsceIey.
The address 20 the Senate 6s anything bat an
"urvarnishec tale, and By 10 means becoming the
simplicity of O.hellos character 1t had, besites al
the faults Of speecb learned by heart, which
rrr searns n come frnn the haart and never goes 70