The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1884-12-18
LEARNING THEIR LINES.
HOW STAGE ACTORS momoalzt,
th.,r Trials and Disadvantages ss COM
pared Win Opsrs singers Hard
sud ts-S rlays- Results ~
TfeashsTou. Memory,

Memory. tho faculty by which Ideas
r. retained IN tho mind, rs the main
reliance Of the actors, aud the oulliya-
ion aud use of this faculty. by them IL,
tn saw the least, very singular. The
singer in tho opera, who also depends
on memory, has tha advantage al the
actor; for instance, II Adelins Patti In
/ her rendering of Nloleita Ia "i.a iravi-
utun should la 4 tho very Dast artists
are liable to I'D omit few notes, the
tenor TAIL 10 reach the high 4 easily, or
| tho chorus ROT out at time, one
I wuye oI Sig. Arditi's baton aud the
inult II hidden from the audience, Not
~ with the dramatic performer lie has
\ Ia speak plain English, aud there are no
| bars OF music ar anything 10 hide his
imperfecliuns, except no has the voice
ni The prou pter, which. Ia the majority
uf eases, only make his imperiecIinns
still more prominent. IL II, therefore,
| interesting 10 note the different methods
| actors adopt tn study ana retain tn. ir
lines. No man eau tell YOU more about
tho vagaries OF memory than member
uf the sock aud buskin la tho first
place, here are what are called "quick
| sludies"-men or women who can
ncmo,ize a pnrt very quickly-but the
very "quick study,' as rule. cam
tot reluin-that is, III he has studied u
part very quickly and played it-if he II
called upon 10 repeat the same part
after AN interval OF few months or
even weeks. Ho has To restudy II rs
| though IL was an entirely new role.
| Then comes the "slow siudy"-those
who have to labor at IL carefully and pa
| ipntly, word by word, line by line, be-
| fure they can utter the words "trip
pingly ON the tongue" but II is u singu-
lar fact that the 'slow study" ~, rs a
rule, the best actor. The "quick study
~ 100 sure; he can gabble out the words
| win ease; in snort he Is parrot-like
| Salvini, the great Italian tragedian, once
said, "that nothing 80 spoiled dra-
| matte entertainment than when tho ac
! tors appeared 10 anticipate the dialogue
| nr the nction"--Jhis is exactly what the
quick study" does. The slow one L.
| nervous. TO memorize tho words OF
nis part has been hard work; with him
there Is AN effort To retain them, aud
lhis very effort gives him fire and
ne acts his character with
an impulse which Is, after
al. the very essence of the histrionlc
art. To commit u memory long part
say, for instance, Hamlet, and VIII oh
next to Iaro is the longest IN the legiti
mate DRAMAS no easy task. A man
u!ayIng that character has recall 10
mind thousands o. words-not only
what he has 10 say himself, but the cues
given To him by others, "advice to the
PLAYERS" of "suiting the action To the
word, the word to the action," and the
special observance that follows. Differ
ent actors have different methods OF
committing their lines TO IN mory: One
will keep in close seclusiOn, locking
himself in "A room TO study; another will
study his part anywhere and at any
time, and it is not by any means an un-
common occurrence for Tnespian
10 be memorizing his lines while
he is talking TO friend. The late
CHARLES Thorne used to boast OF the fact
of having studied some of his best parts
while walking along the street. There
il general impression that Shake
speare is difficult to commit TO memory,
whereas, he is far easier than many
other authors, for there is musical
rhythm in his language that Is easily
| fixed upon the recollection. Among the
comparatively modern authors Bulwer
| is far more difficult to memrrize, but
there is no dramatic writer whose are as
hard to memorize as those of Knowles
| for his blank verse, beautiful as 1t is, is
| so cramped that old and experienced &C
| tors dread to study it. Actors have, bv
| constant use of the memory, accom-
ulishcd some strange feats. Some
twenty years ago Mr.. John Ryder
in England, undertook to memo
rise the copy of a London news
and he did it, reciting the whole paper
from beginning to end. The comedy of
"The Game of Speculation" was trans
| lated from tho French, rehearsed and
produced at the Lyceum theatre in Lon
don in four days. Mr.. Charles Mat
thews, who pi yed the leading part,
| AfTable Hawk, and wno is on the stage
| 1pnts yyithnnt
hardly any intermission, committed the
| character perfectly to memory in
twenty four hours, or to make use OF his
own words after the first night, 81 swal-
lowed the whole dose and don't think L
| spilled drop" When the curtain rose
on the first production of "Pizarro" the
last act of the drama was not written,
9th act in the een-room, the call
nov taking it from HIM and then
distributing 1T t" the different
acters as the first four acts were being
played, to be studied by them as best
they could. The exercise of the think
ing powers by members of the profess
sion is at times something wonderful,
and it pro, es how that organ, like any
other, can be trained and be relied upon.
1t happens at times that an actor is
called upon to enact part at very
short notice and character he is totally
unacauainted with, and perhaps ignor-
ant of the very sense of the play itself.
Not long ago, in one of the uptown
theatres in this city, an actor was
brought to the theatre at 1880 at night to
take the place of a brother professional
who was sick. He knew nothing of the
piece and had never seen it. for it was
a new one from London. He arrived
az tho theatre few minutes only
before the play would begin, and he had
to appear in one of the leading roles.
His only opportunity to commit the
language to memory was during tho in.
teryals no was Off the stage. Yet that
night he was what is professionally
known as "dead letter perfect" Every
one knows that the memory Will at
times be treacherous, and no man feels
this more keenly than the actor. To be
standing before vast crowd OF people
who are wai.ing to hear him say some
thing, and that something to desert him
is indeed painful. Some actors can take
the word quickly from prompter. A
sigma mOtion-frOm him will set him
right, but there AZ other old actors to
whom the prompter is of lit use, and
it is no infrequent occurrence for them
"to fish for words" or substitute Ian
guage of their own until they remember
the words of the author.-lNew York
Graphic.
SHOT HIS BEST LOVED SON..
old Mr. Edwards Puts q Bullet in Harry