The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-10-06

ANECDOTES OF THE GREAT IMPER-
SENATORS FOR A CENTURY.
Chief Local Attractions This Week
Are kelIar and His Magic and
"a Bovery Girl"

Since Henry Irving In a few days makes
his first appearance as Macbeth I'm the
United States, at Boston. it is interesting
to note the great actors who have preceded
him in that role and the famous actresses
who played Lady Macbeth before Ellen
Terry's day.
Many an entertaining anecdote exists Of
those players of old. and from the collec-
ton OF picturesque stories made by Mr..
Charles E. L. Wingate in the Macbeth"
chapter of his fascinating new book. "Shak-
spea-e's Heroines on the Stage some of the
sketches can be culled. There, for instance,
is the story of Mrs. Pritchard, one of the
greatest of Lady Macbeths. who was to-
tally ignorant of the play except from her
hearing ii acted under the glare OF the
footlights. never having read a line of it
except the text of her own part on the
leaves given her by the prompter.
And yet when Pritchard played Lady
Macbeth. the utterance of the words. Give
me the daggersi' is said by MI. wingate,
Ito have sent a thrill through the audience
that no one else could produce. while in the
s~leep-walking scene the horror of her sigh
was such as to make the young remember
1t with trembling" In this character she
played her farewell the 18th of April, 176S,
to Garrick's last Macbeth.
David Garrick's Macbeth must have been
wonderful when, in a drawing room, with
out any stage illusion. the actor, in his
ordinary dress, could recite the dagger
scene SO grandly, following with his eyes
In such intense earnestness the air-drawn
dagger, that the whole gathering broke
forth into a general cry of admiration.
An amusing story of Mrs. Siddons's
IA T. 80 - O.,
The author is describing the establishment
she created in the mind of her dresser
when preparing for Lady Macbeth. With
out thinking Of her assistant, Mrs. Siddons,
running over her part in her mind, sud-
denly uttered aloud, with full force Of in
donation and with appropriate gesture, the
words, Here's the smell of blood STILL
whereat the startled dresser cried. L pro-
test ana vow. ma'am. you're hysterical.
It's not blood, but rose pink and water. l
saw the property man mix it up with my
own eyes,"
Macready and the beautiful Helen
Faucit came to the chief roles of Mac
beth" in the early part Of this century.
Then came the rude. impuIsive soldier
Of Samuel Phelps and the careful Macbeth
OF Charles Kean.
OF Henry ~Irving's Macbeth. the book
says: Kate Beteman Mrs. Crowe), one
OF the child prodigies of 1851, played the
part in 1873 to Henry Irving's Macbeth,
and then came Ellen Terry to a later Mac
beth Of Irving-later In date. but not in
conception-for Irving. in spite of hot criti-
cism, has chung to his humanized char
acter.
ELLEN Terry attempted to revolutionize
the renorseless, terrible woman of previous
irnpersonators. She believes Shakspeare's
Lady Macbeth was essentially feminine,
and based one TO clinch that
plea, upon the woman's fainting after the
murder. when triumph is apparently at
hand. Mrs. Siddons, with others, omitted
that effect as inconsistent with their con-
ception of the character. With Terry, soft
smiles preceded and followed terrible ut
~teiances; in Macbeth's arms she rested in
g%entlest womanhood; in the manner of a
dove she described the murderous act of
a demon. Human even to charming, mod
ern and ~wornanly, Terry's Lady Macbeth
was regarded as more Of a curious novelty
h an accurate representation.
while this new Lady Macbeth, in place
Of the raven locks Of tradition, displayed
hair of a reddish tint, with two long
braids reaching to the ground. and showed
a blithe, companionable woman, her Mac
beth. as pictured by Mr.. Irving. was
an irresoiute, craven self-lover. Beardless,
with a little. flaming red mustache pro-
jecting only beyond the corners of the
lips, Irving was pictured by one critic as
"a Macbeth with a spare. nervous frame.
a Macbeth with the face of a hungry
gray wolf With rare consistency, the
actor has kept his delineation Of the
character unchanged. in. spite of the criti-
cism that had attacked his first presenta-
ton, some years before the latter grand
revival"
An interesting coincidence is mentioned
by Mr.. Wingate, who throughout his book
presents not only criticisms of the Lady
Macbeths. Ophelias. Desdemonas and other
Shakspearean heroines, but also quaint bits
of information and amusing and pathetic
anecdotes.
ION the very night Ellen Terry for the
first time essayed Lady Macbeth" he says.
Isabel Glynn Dallas, the most noted Lady
her deathbed." Mrs. Glynn was Wen known
to old playgoers in America.
But one native-born American has ever
become famous in Lady Macbeth. The
world knows her n~ame-Charlotte Cushman.
'Ao 0a-1 ~AAN
became so identified with the American
stage that their names should, in justice,
follow that of the great Boston actress.
Mrs. Douglass formerly Mrs. Hallam)
was the first actress in the role on our
stage. playing the part in Philadelphia
Dec. 1, 1853, with her son, the younger
Lewis Hallam, as the first Macbeth of
America. just as he had also been, ten
weeks before, the first Hamlet.
OF a later Lady Macbeth, Mrs. Melmorth,
the following story is told in "Shakspeare's
Heroines on the Stage The once shape
+ into such generous proportions as nearly
to wreck her debut in New York. through
one Of those unlucky misapplications OF the
text of the play. Strike here she cried.
as Euphrasia, in the 'Grecian Daughter
when bidding Dionysius kill her rather thai
blood enough. The audience forgot the
point of the dagger in the point of the
words. and roare6 so heartily as utterly to
disconcert the players. Never again did
Mrs. Melmorth utter those words, Here's
blood enough when she acted Euphrasia.
But as Lady Macbeth she certainly sue
ceeded."
The Oldest surviving Lady Macbeths of
America to-day are Nine. POnisi and Mrs.
d. p. overs, of whom entertaining stories
are told in several chapters of Mr.. Win
gates book. The first has a rec ord of
forty-ive years upon the stage, the other
nearly half a century of experience.
mime. Ponisi acted to the Thane of
Edwin Forrest shortly after the great Astor
Place riot, when Macready was practically
the mob on the playhouse while the Eng
lsshman was trying TO act Macbeth. And
here il may be mentioned that the English
born Lady Macbeth of that unfortunate