Daily gazette and comet., 1860-10-26
Edwin Forrest and Charlotte Cushmsn.
In respect to Miss Cushman, have

III icSp,Ds w Hioo Oushludn, hh'O
seen her, since my last, in Meg Mer-
riles, which is said to be her favorite
role, and in which she certainly ex-
hibits a trauscendant power, though
not, as / think, power Of very high
order.
Certainly not power Of the first or
der, since, with all artistes Of the in
tense school, she leaves nothing to the
imagination.
Like the pre-Raphaeltes, she has
great faith in literal delineations and
strong colors.
There is no mistaking her portrait.
ures, and no forgetting them; but
they are too material and coarse.
Her Meg Merriles is painfully so.
| would prefer, for one, to have less
fidelity in the matter Of dress, feature
and generally make up, Tin which
Miss Cusbman is frightfully correct)
for the sake Of having somewhat more
fidelity in the strict matter Of cbarac-
terization.
The letter killeth, but the spirit Civ
eth life.
To get up an efficient costume /; to
make the countenauce wearied and
haggard /; to give hoarse and sepul-
chral tone to the voice TO assume
striking and picturesque attitudes,
undoubtedly requires moro or less tai
ent; but to reveal the motive power
Of O character, to disclose its hidden
springs, to develop its delicate lights
and shades, in word, to show us,
through all the external trappings,
the character ITSELF requires not only
talent but genius.
And herein, submit, Miss Cush-
man generally fails.
The same is true of Forrest.
He has great strength, but no deli
cacy; a fine eye for color, but none
for character a good idea Of what is
called effect, but scarcely any of gen.
uine art.
Both he and Cushman appeal main
ly to the outward ear, and aim to pro-
duce strong and immediate sensa-
tions.
According they walk down to the
foot-lights and summon you to surren-
der in such terms that if you happen
to have weak nerves Gas most people
have) you are obliged to comply.
Their plan is to take the house by
storm and, truth to say, they do
it.
Nine persons in ten who see Cush-
mans Meg Merriles, 60 home and
have the nightmare after it.
A good dose Of Forrest produces
the same effect.
/ generally neutralize it, in my own
case, by going straight from the thea
ter to Pfaff's and listening to n dis
cussion about something; very likely
about dramatic art.
But most people like these sensa-
tons. My Glovina told me the other
day that she went to the theater for
the sake Of stirring up
Accordingly she dotes upon Cush-
man and adores Forrest; they are
her opium and hasheesh I; and the dear
child has addicted herself so much to
them, Of late, that she has become as
pale as n ghost.
And this is what the Forrest-and-
Cushman school 60 in for, and against
which the subscriber begs leave re-
spectfully to protest. And to pro-
test against it, among other reasons,
because it is grossly unnatural.
No such character as Cusbman's
Meg Merriles or Forests MetamOrd
(and they are strikipgly alike in some
respects) ever lived, or ever could
live.
know they are very powerful stage
characters, 70 all that but then they
are both II ng and irrepressibie lu-
natics, and brought before us at all,
ought to be brought before us as