Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1884-08-06
THE NOSE In TRAGEDY.
It's Help to Make Mccullough, Booth
and Irving Great.
The Successful Actor rs He Who
Follows His Nose The Over
Big as Fatal as the Pug
1.-The Tragic.
INeW York Iournal.l

New York Journal.
Two actors sat discussing "The Gladiator"
one night last week at the Star theatre. The
principal gentleman supporting Mr.. McCul-
Tough was on the stage, and with his front
face to the audience was declaring some
heroic speech. He looked noble and spoke
well and appeared every inch a tragedian.
He turned his side-face, and the illusion was
gone.
THAT man will never make q tragedian,"
said one of the actors.
"Why" asked the other.
Because he has a turn-up nose," answered
the first land you will notice that nobody
without good long nose ever played tragedy
Rcceptably."
Then they got into discussion on noses.
But the remarks suggested a topic, and The
Journal writer spoke to Mr.. Horace Nc
Wicker about it. This young gentleman, the
brother-in-law of Edwin Booth, thought
there was good deal in the tragic nose.
Look at Edwin Booths face" he said.
THE nose is the most striking feature of it at
the first glance. 1t is a long, pronounced
nose, neither thin nor fat, and suggests
character and lends an ample proportion to
the face. 1t is not an over-big nose-that is
as fatal as pug-nose. Both of these sug-
gest comedy. But the Roman and the aqui-
line nose are the distinctive badge of great
actors as they are of great generals We'll
| lington had the most pronounced nose of his
| time. You can't think back of any tragedian,
| taking his picture as an example, without
being struck by this fact. kemble had
long nose; so had Macready. Edmund Kean
had pronounced nose and so had the elder
Booth, though it was broken. Nevertheless
it was there"
I'VE used to say" said John P. Smith,
that Booth and George Fox had the most
| pronounced noses of the day. But Fox had a
comedy nose. 1t was so long that it would
| Lave ruined him for tragedy. Yet when he
| played the burle3Que ON Hamlet the re-
semblance to Booth was quite striking. A
| quarter Of an inch more on Mr.. Booths nose
and he could not have been a tragedian. Take
a quarter of an inch off McCullough's nose
and he would have followed some other line
of business. The nose in tragedy is essential,
and it must be 50 long or it won't do.
| "McCullough's is essentially that Of the
| Roman, and that is why he is spoken of so
often as being the ideal Virginius in appear
ance 1t gives character to the whole part,
and there is nothing more Romanesque than
the side face of Mr.. Mccullough in a picture
| G. V. Brooke, one of the best actors of his day
| had long nose, and John Scott was pro-
nounced in this respect. The only man who
| ever succeeded in tragedy with broken
nose was the e,der Booth, and his own tre-
mendous personality remedied this.
IF you want confirmation on this point, "
said an English actor with a little pimple on
| his face where the rose ususally is, "look at
! Henry Irving. It is full, long, curved and
| pronounced without being too thick. His
| imagination is strong, his knowledge is great,
| but where would he be with a nose like mine
! playing comic serving-men or butts-the
| poor devils the author always conceives as
| proper to be kicked off the stage when he
wants to bring down the house? 1 have to
wear kicking shield half the time because
my nose is not as long as Irving's."
Don't quote me-" said an actor who him
self has had some aspirations in the tragedy
| line, "but when I saw that Fred Warde had
| left his company after two seasons of loss, l
said to myself that it was the natural result
| of turn-up nose. When man is prosper
Gus that is all right But man cannot af-
ford to turn up his nose when he is struggling
for recognition. Fred Warde is first rate in
the second position, but they won't have his
nose in the Roman father and that sort of
thing. Forrest did not have an aqui-
and came out strong in imprisoned
parts. He worked the voice and the
legs against the nose anyway. If he lived
to-day doubt that we would accept him in
certain parts he played. In The Gladiator
he used to wear mustache and imperial
Those would have to be cut off in these days.
| Because of his nose Barrett never tackles
Roman parts, except the snappy, irascible
| part of Cassius. He has something of g
turn-up nose, and it will answer well enough
for Yorick or some fat Lanciotto, but il
breaks down the grandeur of Richelieu
Barrett was meant for a comedian, anyway
In his younger days he used to play Rose
dale and pieces of that kind, and the nose
was all right Do you know that an actor:
line of business is very much determined by
that very member? Coghlan always aspireC
to tragedy, but his nose wouldn't permit hin
10 adopt it. His nose killed his Hamlet
nothing else. Osmond Tearle is good actor
who, in the north of England, PLAYED
tragedy But he has light comedy nos
with tragedy voice. That is the combina
ton that make him ffrst-rate in melodrams
"a cut between the two.
Comedians make a great deal of theil
noses. Some even paint them to make then
more pronounced, and there is a general
idea that a red nose is comic Now, McCul
Tough couldn't be a comedian any more thar
Stuart Robson could play Virginius-voice
and noses are opposed to it, though it may
never have struck you that way.
1.-THE late H. J. Montague was another ma,
with light comedy nose, pretty and attract
i've, but thin and wanting in character HI
could never have gone beyond his bailiwick
He was on the limit, so to speak, and tn
nose was the limitation. Keene has splen
did tragedy nose, and you see how he sue
ceeds. Yet Keene, Mccullough and Boot
are small men, but they have long noses
with character to them. The fact that Bar
rett has not will always prevent his reaching
the first position in tragedy. There is a com
fort about it-that this one fact will Away
keep the race of tragedians within measu1
able limits"