New-York tribune., 1868-03-04
hrs. KEAfBLES MIDsUafAfE8 66fGRTs
., ., DREdM - g.if,ae

BITS hemDles second heatng, TO demonstrate their
moral relationship to that vast assembage mentioned
in Scripture, who certain occasion ran violently
down steep place to the sea aud were DESTROYED.
In the advertisement of Mrs. Kemble's Readings.
which is published in all the daily papers. and in the
printed slip which is handed by the users to every
person entering there is to be found respectful
request that in order to avoid interruption the audi
ence will be seated before the commencement of tina
headings 1t Is but Justice TO say that the great body
of the audience, ALIKE consulting their own comfort
and this request, were quietly seated ia ample
time, but Mrs. Kemble had entered, had. 10
her usual deliberate way, found the place
in her book, had announced the name Of
the play, bad taken her seat. had read the Ora.
matis Persona, aud the Act and Scene when bevy
of people, males and females conspicuously capped.
and mufed, aud featfered, came sauntering down
the alley as if they had been a quarter-hour too
early instead of just that much too late and finding
that the entrance to their seats carefully chosen
probably, to secure greater ecIat to this perform
ance in the very middle Of the row. was blocked up
by half-dozen punctual people, they forced their
way in one by one noddng smiling. taxing it easy.
and. no doubt thinking that the Surrounding bar
barians were glad Of this opportunity to look on
majesty. After the women had packed themselves
ill., aud hustled their wellbehaved neghbors to their
content with adjusting their odious furs and bonnet
one man Ol party MS NebA w
the alley, bowing to the few people who wero so
unfortunate as to DO his acquaintances, and
so indiscreet as to own it. ogling here. aud
smirkng there, all the time as unconscious OF
the spectacle he was making OF himself il ho were
Bottom himself. he then walked cooly across Ia
the wall-aley, dropped leisurely down dozen rows
and seated himself at last as IT, on the whole, he had
given the audience treat they had littie looked for
All this time Mrs Kemble, who behaved liko an
angel or a lamb, had arrested her Reading, and sat
waiting patiently, albeit the angry spot did glow on
Ciesars brow now and then making futile attempts
to begin and often stopped, until at last these ill
bred dsturbers Of thousand people allowed her To
proceed. They not, it is true. the only sinners
but they were the vulgarest. the most conspicuous
Mrs. Kemble has two ways at her command by which
she may save herself in future from people Ike these
| who think of nothing but themselves. One is, to
rise from her seat and appeal to the audience by
| leaving the room until order is assured Another
is, to order the doors peremptorily locked iu'
side against all late-eomers, and have theis
money rendered to them in the open
Court AS people of this stamp have but one motive
for being late namely, to show their rig they would
take good care how they any such mortal risk Of
being deprived of tho dear opportunity. We beg
Mrs. Kemble to try this plan in the interest OF the
majority of her audience
bles perso nal claims TO immunity from such treat
ment as she received last night 1t is enough thai
she Is a woman, it ought to be enough that being
woman of the finest breeding and gentlest manners,
she takes 10 for granted that she addresses audi
ence Of equals. Whether it ought to DO more or not
we are not able say but to us, it is that be-
side being woman of genius, who Is herself asse
ciated in the memory of our generation with
many of their happest and most intellectual
ho,. .l,o l. f.a los nfatfv Of
family who, if titles and honors vent by
desert, haxe deserved of England noble
name. But the name of Kemble is itself & coronet
and has been on brOws SO pure and ordly, that
it would be iexchanged for any Bedford or Stafford
| of her peers. One word moro and we dismiss tins
subject. Mrs. Kemble has always herself been noted
for the extreme punctliousness with which she per-
forms her public duties Any person that has ever
little penetration perceive that these readings
the result of the most panstakng and c0nscien-
tious study. Her money is earned by honest hard
work. Then, she is always punctual; as punetnal
the Queen of England herself. She never yet keps
an audience waiting one half-second. And lastly.
she always reads her very best be she i'll or we'll be
it istorm or shine, lbe her audience small or
great. We heard her once read to twenty
people on a bowling equinOotial Friday In
Stuyvesant Hall perfectly well as If the room had
been cranmed with people. Before she began she
thanked in her sweet way for coming out in such
whirlwind and then read so beautifully that she
made us know she meant her thanks. The moral 6f
all this is that the man or woman who treats Mrs.
Remble with the disrespect of coming in late ought
TO be ashamed of himself.
The last time we heard Mrs Kemble read the Mid
summer Nights Dream was In the Academy OF
Music when her reading was accompanied by Meu-
desSohns music to the play, performed we believe,
by the band Of the Philharmonic Society. This was
for some charity il we remember. 1t was, at all
events a great occasion and the house was packed
from pit TO dome. But she could not have read it
better than she did last night Her voice IN the del
icate poetcal passages with which this most poet-
cal Of all the plays abound, had ripe sweetness IN
it that happiness to hear how simpiy true.
without thaleast faint of fattery seemed LonRfel-
lows lines in his Sonnet to her when, addressing
Shakespeare, he says,
"How must thy listening spirit now rejoice
To be interpreted by such a voice"
1t seems that Shakespeare must have died without
knowing the perfection Of his work. for who
could ever have read his verses to him as Mrs.
Kemble reads them to u.s.
Last nights dress too showed us how Theseus'
Duchess would have looked if she had been born in
our century. Right glad we were to see that black
was not to be only wear, but that we are good
we are to be blessed with the sight Of our be-
loved millinery. This beautiful robe of white
silk and lace was very becoming and suited
we'll with the festa air Of the play It seemed to as
that the least satisfactory part of the Reading wss
that from which. perhaps the most might have boon
expected-we mean the scenes with the clowns.
But, though these scenes were done IN a way tnat
moved the mirth Of the audience, and presented
many admirable points, the whole they struck ms
as little overdone; we thought we had heard mrs:
thew only seemed q little coarse alongside os
the indescribablo, dellcacy and sweet purify OF