Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-08-06
MIMIC LIFE.

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The Effects Produced ON Actors by
Continuous PersOHRIi0n Of "a ParI.
London Spectator
1t has now and then happened to an
actor to play a part so well that the pub
lie never ceases to demand it, and he
himself has begun to confess to an inhu-
ence arising from the repetition which
perplexed and worried his mind. We do
not know if the saying attributed to Mrs.
Dion Boucicsult is true or not, but it ex.
actly represents our point Her repre-
sensations Of the dark colleen" 10 Col.
leen Bawn" so charmed all London that
the piece, perhaps the best meledrama
ever written, to have no genius ia il.
went on for hundreds OF nights, till at
last the actress declared that she must
stop, that her brain was growing con.
fused, and that she began to be uncer-
tain whether she was acting the Colleen
Bawn or the Colleen Bawn was acting
Mrs. Boucicault." We have heard
Americans say hat they believed that
most perfect of actors, Mr.. jefferson.
was distinctly modified in character, and
Tor the better, by his endless repetions of
Rip Van Wrinkle, and certainly it is diff.
cult to conceive how a mar could create
that character and then pass his life ia
representing it without imbibing in some
degree its essential qualities, the spirit
OF humorous tolerance and sense of the
puzzles OF daily life. But one wants
direct evidence Of that. Does Mr.. Irv.
ing, for example, find that when he has
been acting Hamlet" for fifty nights
the tone OF his W mind has become
more or less Hamletian2 We saw lesa
because, Of course, the chance of an in
huenee ~oterepulsion must always exist.
and we can imagine an actor hating am.
bltion more because he was every night
a =" Richard Ill" or growing graver be-
cause OF part of every day he was "Mer-
cutie. Listens incesssnt playing of
fools helped, in all probability, to make
Of him the depressed Evangelical he was.
and we could hardly imagine Mr.. Irving
less alive to the uselessness of religious
Journalism because be had played for
forty nights a. Louis XI. Could a man
act "Prospero" every day for q year and
not acquire something, however little, or
dlgniied security OF mind Of the sense
OF the power possessed by the inmate
rial to rule material circumstancesP
Or could he be jacques" for a year.
and not tend to melancholy reflective
ness. 1t has often been remarked that
men to whom life seems unreal, who have
a sense Of the histrionlc element ia it.
are the least dependable Of mankind
aud OF all foibles, absence OF depend.
ableness is the one most frequent with
an actor. May not that be increased by
. bis half dubiety whether he is himself or
that other man whom every night he
seems to a watching audience to be
Can Mr.. Charles Matthews have sepa.
rated himself entirely from the "Sir
!. Charles Coldstream," of whom the little
girl said that she did not admire that
Mr.. Matthews, he was 80 lazy, and all
through the play was only himself. Is
Mr.. Jefferson ever quite sure, as he walks
about, hat Schneider" is not at his
hesls2 That the long repetition of a
dramatic character will make a certain
physical mannerism cling to an actor
) for mouths, and even years after he has
discontinued the performance, is quite
certain-jast watch Mr.. Sothern as
Garrick and why not mental man,
nerisms too2 Was there no trace of
Lady Macbeth's" nature, no iron cf re.
solve 10 Mrs Siddons, even thoreh she
had acted tragedy, aud especially trag-
edy, so long that she could not get rid Of
her grandeurin private life. and appalled,
an unhappy waiter with: You've
brought ne water, boyl l asked for
q beer"