Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-08
DEATH AND THE THEhTER.
Some Remarkable Coincidences-Actor
Expire While Stimulating Death.

From the London Standard
1t is recorded of Julius Caesar that in hr
own theater his passion SO overcame him dur
ing the piece that when one of the actors
brought him a poisoned shirt dipped in the
blood Of the centaur Nessus, instead of pre-
tending only to kill him, he did SO actually,
and threw his body over his head. In like
manner one of the earliest passion plays of
which we have any account was rendered ter
rfble in its result. 1t was acted in Sweden in
1913, in the reign of John II. Lengis. The
actor had to pierce the side Of the person
representing our Savior a. he hung upon
the cross. His religious excitement was SO
great that he plunged his lance into the man
and killed him. And this was not the end of
it, for the king. indignant at such brutality,
slew Lengis, and the people incensed at the
death OF their favorite actor, cut off the king 8
head-so at least history tells u.s. In more re-
cent times death has frequently played an I'M
welcome part upon the stage. There once was
a theater in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and here a
celebrated actor named Spiller was in the
early part of the last century, MORALLY stricken
by apoplexy while playing in the Rape of Pros
erpine.' A similar fate befell no less than three
well-known French actors about the SAME time.
These were Monfeury, Mondory and Bricourt.
Fifty years later the celebrated Peg Voting
ton, when acting as Rosalind, in repeating the
epilogue to 'As You Like It." was struck down
by paralysis after repeating the words, "rd
kiss as many OF you as had boards that pleased
me-" From this attack she never recovered.
although she fingered for nearly three years
ere death released her. Samuel Foote, the
English Aristophanes, as he was called, had a
similar seizure while acting in his own comedy,
The Devil Upon Two Sticks" and died few
months afterward. There was CHASTITY ap-
propriateness in the death of an actor named
Dat bn for a iraa a
nent member of the Norwich Theatrical Com
pany. He was taking the part of the Duke in
Measure for Measure" and had no sooner ut
tered the words
Reason thus with life:
That none but fools would keep; breath thou art.
Then he dropped into a brother actors arms
at. died suddenly. The tragic death of Palmer,
the original Joseph Surface, is well known. He
was playing in ''The Stranger" at Liverpool
dren, he had just utter the words, ''Oh, God
God! there is another and better world, "
when hs fell dead at the feet of Whitfield, who
acted b ron Steinfort The singular thing about
these rea stage tragedies is the invisible link
that conn scts the last words of the actor with
the momei 1t of his death. Cumming was per-
forming in Jane Shore" He expired on the
stage Immediately after reciting the following
lines:
Be witness fol me, ye CELESTIAL hostsi
sseors to ef show thee
May such befall ne at my latest hour.
The explanation probably is latent heart
disease brought into activity by the depress-
ing thoughts suggested by the words. As, for
instance, when Miss Maria Lindley expired at
Bath some years ago, while singing Il know
that my Redeemer liveth." The instances Of
death on the stage from culpable negligence
are, unfortunately, numerous enough. Royalty
once Witnessed one of these accidents at
Arnstadt Mime. Linsky, in the conrse Of the
play, had to be fred at by file of soldiers The
men had been instructed, before loading their
pieces, to bite OF the bullet when biting the
cartridge. This one of them neglected to do,
and death was the result. A similar accident
once happened in Dublin: A conjurer, in per-
forming the feat of catching bullet fred from
a pistol in his tee tn, handed to q young gen.
tleman from the auo fence the wrong pistol, and
the bullet pierced his brain. Edmund Kean's
last appearance on thu, stage was tragical in q
double sense. He vast acting in Othello, on
the 25th of March, s33, at Covent Garden
Theater, when he was eized with q sudden in
disposition. His last W. ,rds, as he fell into his
sons arms we're: II am lying; speak to them
for me, Charles"