The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-02-19


taken ill, and died soon afterwards
Mrs. Pope, an actress of some eminenct
in her day, was seized with an apoplecti,
fit while playing Desdemona, and wa.
lost to the world week later. Luce:
Fabres, a singer at the San Carlo Opera
house at Naples, broke blood-vesse
while attempting to reach a note above
the COMPASS of his voice. Two sterling
comedians, Farren and Harley, whose
acting is still fresh in the memory Of
men i'm middle life, were attacked with
paralysis while on the stage. The for
mer played afterwards, though symp-
toms of the affection were painfully
visible; he was playing Old Parr when
seized. Harley's attack came on while
he was acting Bottom, in Midsummer
! Nights Dream" 1t is said that his
dying words, uttered unconsciously,
were some of those which Shakespeare
puts into the mouth of the IedOubtable
Bottom the Weaver-''I have an EXPOSE
ton of sleep come over me-"
The death of the elder Kean was
peculiar in many ways. He virtually
received his death-stroke on the stage,
though he survived little longer. His
irregular mode of life had weakned his
health, impaired his memory, and de-
stroyed his elasticity of spirit; he had
been troubled, too, by the determination
of his son Charles to take to the stage as
a profession, against the parental wish.
The resolve Icing fixed, the father
agreed to give the son an introduction
to the public, by playing Othello TO his
hgo. The performance took place on
the 25th of March, 1883. The great
actor was tanner than usual. The au-
dience waited for the burst of energy
with which they had SO long been fami-
liar but waited in vain. The accounts
do not exactly agree as to the precise
passage which was destined to be the
last uttered by him on the stage. We
are inclined to think it WAS
oh, now Tor ever
Farewell the tranquil mind;
saying which he broke down, became
speeches., and was led off the stage.
Mr. BARLEY solicited the indulgence of
the audience for a few minutes; but
when it was found that the great actor
could not reappear, Mr.. Warde took the
character of Othelto during the remain
ing scenes of the play. Virtually an
old man at the age of forty-five, Kcan
fingered awhile and finally sank.
The actual deaths upon the stage,
without n moments warning, are of
course more sad to contemplate, and
more impressive to those who witness
them. Rather more than a century ago,
at the Norwich Theatre, Peterson the
actor was performing he part of the
Duke in Shakespeare's Measure for
Measure" He had to address Claudio
in the words:
Reason thus with life;
II do lose thee do lose q thing
That none but fools would keep
when he suddenly dropped into the arms
of Moody, who was acting Claudio, and
expired. The words, having so impress
sive meaning at such time, were
afterwards engraved on his tombstone
John Palmer, an eminent tragedian
toward the close of the last century, was
engaged on what proved to be the last
evening he was destined to live, in act
ting the character of the Stranger, in
Kotzebue's drama of the same NAME
He had recently heard of the death of
favorite: sOn-news which unnerved and
agitated him. In the fourth act of the
play, Baron Steinfort obtains an inter-
view with the Stranger, recognises him
as an old acquaintance and asks the
cause of his seclusion. The Stranger re-
plies that he has left his children at
town hard by; and then exclaims: so
God, o God! there is another and better
world" Palmer, directly he had uttered
these words, fell dead at the feet of the
actor who was performing the part of
Baron Steinfort.
Two more instances of these unre-
hearsed, unforeseen tragic stage-effects.
About sixty years ago, an actor named
Cummins, in a drama in which he was
performing, had to deliver a speech end
ing with the words:
Be witness for me, We celestial hosts;
Such mercy and such pardon my soul
Aecords to thee, and begs of Heaven TO show thee,
May such befall me at my latest hour.
Scarcely had the words fallen from his
lips, when he fell down dead upon the
stage. Only a year or two ago, NJ.
Victor, comedian at a provincial thea
tire in France, fell down on the stage
while performing comic character, and
expired almost instantly.