The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-02-09
SUBSCRIPTIONS
HOW ACTORS MEMoRlzE.
Their Trials and Disadvantages as Com
pared with Opera singers.

pared with Opera singers.
New York Graphic.I
No man can tell you more about the
yagaries of memory than member of
the sock and buskin. In the first place,
there are what are called quick studies
men or women who can memorlze a
part very quickly-but the very ''quick
study" as a rule, can not retaln-that
is, if he has studied part very quickly
and PLAYED it-if he is called upon to
repeat the same part after an interval OF
q few months, or even weeks, he has to
re-study it as though it was an entirely
new role. Then comes the "slow study :
those who have to labor at 1t carefully
and patiently, word by word, line by
line, before they can utter the words
''trippingly on the tongue, but 1T Is
singular fact that the ''slow study is as
a rule the best actor. The ''quick study"
is too sure; he can gable out the words
with ease; in short, he is parrot-like.
Salvini, the great italian tragedian, once
said that nothing so spoiled dramatic
entertainment than when the actors ap-
peared to anticipate the dialogue of the
action'3-this is exactly what the ''quick
study does. The slow one is nervous.
To memorize the words of his part has
been hard work; with him there is an
effort to retain them, and this very
effort gives him fire and he acts his
character with an impulse which is, after
all, the very essence of the histrionic
art.
To commit to memory a long part
say, for instance, Hamlet, and which
next to Iago is the longest in the legit
innate dramas no easy task. A man
playing that character has to recall to
mind thousands of words-not only
what he has to say himself, but the cues
given to him by others, independent of
bearing in mind his own "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 memory-one
will keep in close seclusiOn, locking him
self in a room to study; another will
study his part anywhere and at any
time, and it is not by any means an I'M
common occurrence for a Thespian to 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 streets.
There is a general impression that
Shakespeare is difficult to commit to
".
many other authors, for there is a
musical rhythm in his language that is
easily fixed upon the recollection.
Among the comparatively modern
authors Bulwer is far more difficult to
memorize, but there is no dramatic
writer whose works are as hard to MEM
orize as those of KnOwles-fOr his
blank verse, beautiful as it is, is so
cramped that old and experienced actors
dread to study it. Actors have, by the
constant use of the memory, accom-
plished some strange feats. The comedy
of THE Game of Speculation" was
translated from the French, rehearSed
and produced at the Lyceum theatre in
London in four days. Mr.. Charles
Mathews, who played the lead
ing part, Affable Hawk, and who
is on the stage throughout four long acts
without hardly any intermission, COM
mitted the character perfectly to mem
use of his own words after the first
night: 81 swallowed the whole dose and
don't think spilled drop"
When the curtain rose on the first
production of ''Pizarro" the last act of
the drama was not written, and Brinsley
Sheridan wrote off the fifth act in the
green-room, the call boy taking it from
him and then distributing it to the diff
ferent actors as the first four acts were
being played, to be studied by them as
best they could. Not long ago,
in one of the uptown theaters 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 new one from Lon
don. He arrived at the 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 the intervals he was off the stage.
Yet that night he was what is profess
sionally known as ''dead-letter perfect. y
Some actors can take the word quickly
from a prompter. a sign-a motion
from him will set them right, but there
are other old actors to whom the
prompter is of little use, and it is no in
FREQUENT occurrence for them ito fish
for words or substitute language OF
their own until they remember the
words of the author.