Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-12-02

Enect or the His. ON Actors.

From All the Year Round.
High and low, from Garrick to " the
super" it is probably the actor 8 doom,
for more or less reasons, at some time
or another, to be Kissed. He is as mem
bers of Parliament are fond of saying,
in the hands of the House" and may
be ill-considered by it. Any one can
hiss, and one goose makes many. Lamb
relates how he once saw Elliston sitting
in state in the tarnished green-room of
the Olympic Theater, while before him
was brought for Judgment on complaint
Of prompter, one of those little tawdry
things that firt at the tails Of choruses--
the pertest little drab--a dirty fringe and
appendagc Of the lamps smoke-who, it
seems, on some disapprobation expressed
by highly respectable audience, had
precipitately quilted her station on the
boards and withdrawn her small talents
in disgust. And how dare you,
said the manager, "how dare you,
madam, without notice, withdraw your
self from your theatrical dutiesT II
was Kissed, SIR" "And you have the
presumption to decide upon the taste of
the town. II don't know that, sir,
but l will never stand to be hissed, was
the rejoinder of Young Confidence.
Then, gathering up his features into one
significant mass Of wonder, pity, and
expostulatory indignation-in lesson
never to have been lost upon creature
less forward than the one who stood be-
fore Ihim-his words were these
"They have hissed mel" 1t is under
stood that this argument failed in its
effect, for after all, hiss is not to be in
such wise excused or explained away;
its application is far too direct and per-
sonal " Ladies and gentlemen, it was
not / that shot the arrow" said Braham
to his audience, when some hungling
occurred in performance of William
Tell, and the famous apple re-
mained uninjured upon the head of
the hero's son. If derision was moved
by this bungling, still more did the
singers address and confession excite
the mirth of the spectators. To another
singer failure, or the dread Of failure,
was fraught with more tragic conse-
quence. For some sixteen years Adolphe
Nourrit had been the chief tenor of the
Paris Opera House. He had created
VIC lCuulhb IA AhObClhf iNCo
Huguenots, La Juive, Gustave and Mas
saniello. He resigned his position pre-
cipitately upon the advent of Duprez,
The younger singer afflicted the elder
with kind of panic. The news that
Duprez was among his audience was
sufficient to paralyize his powers, to
extinguish his voice. He left France for
Italy. His success was unquestionable,
but he had lost confidence in himself;
deep detection ,settled upon him his ap-
prehension Of failure approached delir-
ium. At last he persuaded himself that
the applause he won from Neapolitan
audience was purely ironical, was but
scoiIing ilLdsguised At five in the
morning, on the Sth Of March, 1869, he
flung himself from the window of an
upper floor, and was picked up in the
street quite dead. Poor Nouritl he was
man of genius in his way; but for him
there would have been no grand duet in
the fourth act of Les Hugeonots, no
cavitina for " Eleazor" in La Juive, and
to his nventiveness is to be ascribed the
ballet of La Sylphide, which Tagliono
IL fo.x