Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-17

The Temporary Popularity af One aEa
the Permanent Fame of the Other.
The literary editor of the Philadelphia
PreSs has the following:
When David Gsrrick died, DR.. johnson
said, with an affectionate hyperbole charac-
teristic Of the man and time, "The gaiety of
nations is eclipsed." Gerrick has passed from
1he mlmetio stage some years before, but the
compliment was not undeserved. The
memory Of his great histrionic ability re-
uained-all that the ablest actor can achieve,
howeveradmired in life, is TO have tradition
Of bis excellence still kept in mems minds,
still handed down upon the printed paRe--a
record actually more indestructible than
marble or brass, the bust or the statue.
IT, on the stage, the great actor often re-
ycPiyes what may be considered too much ap-
plspse; if the great actors peouniary gain be
nuCh more than, in most cases, his contem-
poraries obtain by other professions, which
require higher education and more constant
toll, time, at last, sets all things even, and
brings round, in its course, sufficient COM
pensation.
The book which the author writes sur
vives it may be, as part Of the literature of
tho world, fulfilling his high desire of being
remembered, as Byron proudly anticipated,
with his lands language, while of the actors
cCnsummate art there is preserved but a
mere recollection, sometimes but mere tra-
diuon, and that mainly through what the
author has written Of him. There is the
case of Hszlitt and Kean-the Kean. we
mean, and not that elaborate and skilful imi-
taior, his son.
When Kean appeared at Drury Lane Thea
ter, as "Shylock,o in January, iSl4 (where.
under the slights which he received from a
knot of enyious performers behind the
scenes he would have failed but for his pos
sessing the irrepressibility Of genius,) there
SGT in the pit a pale, nervous man, the critic
Of The Morning Chronicle William Hazlitt by
name. The performance ended, Hazlitt went
back 10 bis office, and hastily wrote a critique
uron the new mans actirg, in which he told
London how and why Kean had greatly
succeeded.
Years passed on, during which the actor
probably was paid about $4,000 a year; and
the writer rarely received more than 81 500
for years labor. Kean died in 1888 and
HaLlitt in 1880. Both died poor. But how
stands the account between them and fame2
Kean is remembered additionally, partly
through that discriminating, hastily written
criticism in the Morning Chronicle, and Haz-
lit, the earnings of whose whole literary
life did not reach what Kean so easily won
in single year, belongs to the world as one
of the best writers Of the Georgian era.
Think, therefore, oh hard. working man of
letters, that if those who merely amuse OBJ
tain great payment and much applause from
the public whom they entertain, those who
inytruct are heirs, however late their success
sion may take place, TO the enduring and
lotlier fame which grateful readers frankly
sccord through long succession of future
years.
When author or actor dies, a gap seems
made in society. Less when the actor
passes away, because his Initiative skill is of
& rneaner quality than the creative art Of the
author. Less, too, because though the ac-
tor may personally win plaudits--sometime
tears, sometimes smiles-from thousands and
tens of thousands who see him in public, be
is far less known, after all, than the popular
author. For one person who has seen the
performance OF the elder Booth, Kean, For
rests or Macready-all great artists, each in
his own way-a thousand persons have read
Scott Moore, Irving, Cooper, Bulwer or
Dickens.
When the actor dies, his obituary runs
through heetiDg newspaper columns for
week or two, and the next wave of the uu-
fathomed ocean of life covers the chasm
through which he dropped down, out Of
sight forever. When the author dies, new
editions Of his works are called for; the
public monument or bust is raised to his
memory; the houses where he was born,
where he lived, where he wrote, where he
Uied, GTs duly noted, visited, described, and
painted his biography forms part OF the lit
UTsry history Of the world; his literary re-
mains are collected, preserved, edited, and
published.
We are old enough to recollect how, in
England, when news came that Byron had
died, untimely, at the age of thirty-six (the
age, too, when Robert Burns died, all hearts
were moved into tenderness aud regret and
young and old felt ss if national loss had
been sustained. What sudden sadness
shadOwed the public miHd when SCOTS
death took place; when Cooper, and, more
lately, Prescott, Irving and Macaulay! The
Man of Letters, who has done his work well,
is missed, while the departed actor passes
away, with Falstaff's fatal slacrity in sink
ing, into comparative oblivion.