Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-16
COMEDY'S OWN STAR
Miss Rose Coghlan and Her
Career on the Stage.
HER "DOROTRpS DILEMMA"
Which VIII Be Made Known at the Opera
House To-Night--Miss Coghlan's First
Tour of Texas-A Chat with
the Accomplished Lady.

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condolences in this country, arrived N Fort
Worth last evening in her special car, and
is quartered with friends here.
Miss Coghlan is making her first tour of
Texas-she has been starring in this coun-
try for some seven years, but her tour has
not until now included the Lone Star state.
A brief sketch of Miss COghlan and her
ancestry may not be amiss. 1t is from the
English Annual of the Stage" Miss
Coghlan is one of the few great actresses
who are as delightful in comedy as they are
artistic and effective in the emotional
drama, coming from a family of actors who
had found renown even on the French stage.
NJ Frechette, who suffered with the Roy
alists in 1898, being one of her forefathers,
and he being reared in the French capital
himself, and developing passion for the
stage, was allowed to appear few times
with the company which afterward
founded the FRANCHISE and became fixture
in Rouen.
Her parents moving to England, they be-
ing English people, although the children
were all educated in Paris, Miss Coghlan
attracted the attention of Charles Loveday,
since manager for Henry Irving, then man
aging the Theater Royal in Cheitenham,
England, who engaged her for a season as
juvenile woman. Possessed of rare genius,
Miss Coghlan won such instant success and
recognition that, owing to the detection of
the leading lady from the ranks of the COM
pany, Miss Coghlan was forced into that
arduous position, and although in her six
teenth year, she successfully played round
of all the plays, appearing in such parts as
Rosalind, Desdemona, Julian The Hunch-
back" Juliet, Ophelia, Lady Macbeth and
the other Shakespearian and. old comedy
heroineS.
Her fame reaching London, Barry Sulli-
van, the manager of the Holborn thcater,
which then occupied the site where the
First Avenue hotel now stands, at the head
of Chancery lane. journeyed to Cheltenham,
and the result was a very hattering offer to
the young tragedy-comedy actress to assume
the opposite parts to him, he jointly star
ring her with himself. Seeing future
which turned out brilliantly for her, the
young, ambitious actress essayed for her
opening in London the very difficult and
arduous part of Mrs. Halter in THE
Stranger" Her success was instantaneous
The press We'd with each other in describ-
ing her wonderful ability to portray the
garment of the human emotions, and as the
Telegraph said: "a new satellite has
fallen upon US, and welcome one, too
Her career in London was marked
by an array of success such as
have seldom been recorded in the
history of any actress of the Nineteenth
century. True, Sarah Siddons was famous
for her wonderfuld genius in her portrayal
of the deeper and grander elements in
human nature, and Annie Oldfeld as
reader OF the sublimest lines of the wonder
full bard. Rachel for her mimetic power
but Coghlan became as famed for her
comedy as her tragedy. As the Times in
speaking of, her Kate Hardcastle, said:
''At last We have revolution. The
traditions which followed Goldsmith's
wonderful story have been ruthlessly
assailed and We must confess having now
something to compare the old methods to,
hiatt 40 Hpriip11U
and might we say for the betterl
Miss Coghlan is to be congratulated on
her refreShingly original and artistic per-
formance." 1t was in this character that
Lester Wallack, the well-known manager
and commedian of New York saw her and
made a proposition which Miss Coghlan
accepted, and shaking the dust of London
from her feet, she embarked for the new
world where her success in Gotham is so
well known and recognized that she
promises TO become afi xture there.
But the historian stopped too soon. Miss
Coghlan remained at the head of Waliack's
theater for nine years, Succumblng at last
to a managers offer and going on the road
as a stellar attraction. Miss Coghlan is
best known as the portrayer of such char
actres as Beatrice in 'Much Ado About
Nothing" Rosalind, in Gas You Like It,"
Lady TeaZle, in "a School for Scandal"
and later as Peg Wellington" in the play
toured the country.
Last evening representative of THE
GAZETTE had the privilege of a chat with
the famous actress. She is delightful
conversatiOnaliSt, keen observer evidently
of matters not alone pertaining to her art
but general, practical to a certain degree,
and possessing that wonderful attractive
power which, on the stage, is denominated
as magnetism.
Dressed in beautiful blue silk wrapper,
trimmed with point d'alencon lace, Miss
Coghlan looked vision of loveliness.
''Fatigued9" she said laughingly, "Well
should say was. l don't think 1 have ever
had such lengthy journeys as l have had
this week. 1t has simply been from the
car to the theater and back again. But
the rest tonight will refresh me, and as /
have wonderful recuperative powers,
shall be as good as new tomorrow
~ II am very glad now I've seen you, for
I wish to say how heartily l am in accord
with THE GAZETTE in its opinion regarding
dramatic critics. believe that in the theater
the verdict should be, as in the parlia-
mentary halls-the majority rules. A large
portion OF the community want comedy,
and that too, in its broader and more liberal
sense. Others want tragedy, opera and SO
~. A man, therefore, should not judge one
by the standard of the other. nor find moth
ing in the comedy because it wa sn't tragedy
Now, understand me- By comedy | don't
mean that horse-play and acrooatic comedi-
ans with which the stage is surfeited. No!
l mean genuine high-class comedy, of which
Boucicault, Sheridan, Goldsmith, ETC., are
the bright opponents"
But" queried the reporter, ''what
would you doc Would it not be difficult to
get general opinionl'
True, it would. But the critic could
give his opinion tempered with the recep-
ton by the audience. You can't blame Hoyt
for writing the satires on American life he
does. He finds it paying investment
and while he may be in the profession for
glory. yet he finds such a ready response
for his wares by the public that he con-
tinues in the groove he started. 1t would
be manifestly unfair TO Judge him by either
one of the authors | have mentioned, for. he
simply writes TO amuse, without any at
tempt at dramatic consistency or sequence.
'Now in ''Dorothy's Dilemma" which is
one of the most. amusing comedies ever
written, and was denominated by the New
York Times as roar in three acts, repre-
sents phase or an epoch in dramatic writ
ing between the two above mentioned. 1t
might be termed a DAILY comedy, as that
astute and successful manager finds in the
German a source for the majority of his
plays. OF course an enormous amount of
work has to be done upon them before they
are fit to be presented upon the English stage
for the same idioms of speech in the Ger
man, ii freely and literally translated, would
hardly be accepted in an English speaking
country. But stripped of its local verbiage