The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1882-03-08
Moving the Passions.


Mrs. Siddons played with Garrick
occasionally during his last season,
QS85 '76,) but her success Was not such
as to give her q re-engagement at
Drury Lane, and she returned to the
provinces, where she remained, chiefly
at Bath, which supported the best
theatre out of London, until the au-
tumn of 1882. Then, at the age of
twenty seveu, she reappeard in the
capital, and a. Isabella the innocent
bigamist OF Southerne's Fatal Marri-
age called forth such peais of ap-
plause as she never heard Of before.
This play WAS always q favorite with
her. and some years later a singular
incident happened in connection with
it. The lady, then unmarried. who
afterward became the poet Byron's
mother, was so affected by the acting
of Mrs. Siddons that she had an at
tack of Mysteries, and was carried out
of the theatre repeating lsa6eHd's cry
on recognizing her first husband oh,
nv Biron my Biron!" Sobs, shrieks
fainting accompanied this great &C
tress' rendition of Jane Shore, BcirId-
| Tu, III OLl III hCh
Crabb Robinson, then a mere youth,
saw her in Fatal Curiosity be burst
into a laugh which drew on him the
anger of the house till it was found to
be hysterical.
The audiences of the olden time seem,
however. to have been more impress
ionable than our own. A young girl
fell dead FIR agitation at seeing a Lot
very distinguished contemporary of
the Kem1les play Charles l." and
several ladies tainted when Mrs. Litch
field played in Monk Lewis ''ascumu-
lation Of horrors" The Captive IN
1903. When ''OthelIo" was frs play
ed at Hamburg the consequences to
several ladies in the audience were
lie plus regrettables. Similar mishaps
were occasioned in France by q scene
from a tragedy Of Eschylus, were
ten Furtes pursue Oestes. With every
allowance for the greater excitability
of the theatrical public of lang syne,
such incidents show the great power
of The performer, and in Mrs. Sid
dom case other anecdotes confirm the
inference. Her audience were SO 90
oered by her pathOs or awed by her
sublimity hat the best comic actors
in farces that used to excite unfailing
merriment, could not restore their
spirits. In a scene Of the expression
of Zara's resentment seldom fails to
raise a laugh, even when that character
was liz the hands of such powerful &C
tresses as Mrs. Porter AMI Mrs. Pritch-
I'd but before Mrs. Sidaons' anger
me Ill timed mirth was banished. She
could make her fictitious griefs as real
TO herself as to others. When she play
ed LadY Constance .Afthur's collar was
with her tears, In .'Ene Fair Peni
tent her paleness became visible
through her rouge and in ''Tameriane'
she once flinted from emotion. This
sensibiiltv MAS no doubt Il secret of her
power. She was always what actors
call 'in the character never allowing
her attention to wander to the audi
ence, and she WAS always, too, in
downright earnest
In rot.s Of hot. tumuitous passion
and concentrated malignity Edmund
Kean was grand and awful. When,
as Zunga, in DR.. Young's neglected
tragedy OF Revenge" a character in
famed by the passion in the play, be
stood exultlng over his PROSTATE foe,
his eyes flashing from his dark counte
nance and his arms thrown upward, be
seemed to SOuthey and Proctor Barry
Cornwall) the %archangel ruined, the
devil himself. The effect of the last
scene of his SIR Giles OUerreach, when
first given, has never been paralleled;
on the one side, shrieks of terror, Lord
Byron ia commissions, the house on foot
frantic with enthusiasm; on the other
the fading lady in a swoon, another
actress weeping aloud, aud the veteran
Munden. who was playing MaraN, for
the moment paralyzed with astonish-
ment. The impotent rage Of the dy
ing villain was 4 study from nature,
the fruit of observation of the helpless
fury of a man vanquished in a fight.
kemble attempted to MAINTAIN his tot
tering throne by appearing in the same
character, but he was Kissed. Sub
lime and thrilling as Kean could be Ia
such passages-the death of Richard
III was another, "where the very
phantoms of his despair had a wither-
ing power"-he could be greater yet.
From THE Stage a $ 1t Vas" IN the
GALAXY.