Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1873-04-19
lEYA GAZETTE 4 VIRGINIA ADVERTISER.
[FnK TILE COuNTRYl


Most people would like to live in the future,
but it was the desire OF llazlilt that he might
live over again that portion of the past upon
which the names of the great artists oftragcdy
and comedy had been recorded, from Mrs.
Bettertun, the first Juliet, to Mrs. Siddons,
the last that he saw We can imague no no.
bier company, most of whom won honorable
graves in Westminster Abbey, side by side
with the authors whose lines they interpreted,
with the kings and warriors and statesmen be-
fore whom they played. We know 50 little
about them, and so much less regarding the
manner of their art, tor they alone OF artists
could leave no copy behind. They come down
to us now only as so many Uames, laden With
an auecdote or so. Yet after ALL we are not
certain that the actors S fame Is not the most
satisfactory. 1t comes to him quick upon his
earning of it, and not, like the authors or
paiuter's, after he is dead The actor leaps to
his reward in single night he may have to
wait, toll, and hunger for that night for years
together, but his moments Of triumph are su:
preme ones. When Charles Mackln walked
off the stage, after playing Shy! !ock for the
first time, he exclaimed in the fulncss OF his
success II am not worth fifty pounds in the
world nevertheless, on this night am Charles
the Great" When kcan came home to his
wife after his debut as Sir Giles, she as ked
him how that dreaded critic Lord Essex, had
liked the performance His jubilaut reply,
"DamD Lord E>sex-the pit rose at me- IS
suggestive still Of his great victory but what
must have been to HIM a yet huer triumph WIS
when the pit rose at him to drive him from
the stage not because he did not play well, but
because he loved his Deighbor's wife better
than his own. For one Instant he savagely
confronted his audience, then flung at it, TO its
:. ~. nh 4rn, fha Of
Richard, that he was playing "Unmannered
dogs stand ye when command.
Among the men Of the dramatic period to
which we have referred there was Betterton,
on seeing whose Hamlet old Pepys exclaimed,
TO the annoyance Of his neighbors, " Fore
God it is the best acted part | ever saw.
NIackin, whom Pope declared to be the very
Jew that Shakespeare drew" and who walked
upon the stage with good Miss Pope as Portia,
to play Shylocl, after his one hundreth year,
and thereafter played 1t no more forever. \
few days latter he was standing at the grave OF
an odtimc comrade of the theatre; he stood so
wrapped that friend touched his arm to
arouse hiu "Do not disturb me sir T. he said,
Il am at my rehearsal" Ouly a few days
more and his mourning associates were at MS
grave. There were also Booth, Wilks, Sanford,
NokeS, Leigh, Peukethman, Bullock, Estcourt,
Dogget, who played the jew as low comedy
part; Cibber, the prince Of fcoxcom9s, and the
first rctormer Of the stage; Quln, Rich, Wes
ton, Shutter, Dowton, and Garrick. Among
the women we're good Mrs. Betterton; Mrs
Barry, scarcely so good, for Lord Rochester
kept her; Mrs. Bracegirde, who left the thea
trc because Anne Oidfeld acted better than
she did, and who presented to her coDqucror
all her stage jewels and dresses, 50 great a wo-
man was she IN her defeat; Mrs. Cibber, whose
thousand pounds; Mrs. Pritchard, who DIR;
johnson said always spoke Of her. '''gown.d;'
beautiful Mrs. Abingdon, Anne Bellamy, Peg
Wellington, who kept Garrick, Mrs. Crawford,
Mrs. Yates Mrs. Jordan, Miss Kelly, aud
greatest of all, Sarah Siddons. =" Gossip About
Actors," IN Guldny.tor May.
UDp,n Hams ''-hr Lewis Mckenzie,