The herald., 1895-05-26
When Garrick, Macready and
CuShman Left the Stage.
THEIR SAD LEAVE TAKING,
IN the Character of Lear, Garrick
Played His Last Part.
OF CUSHMAN'S FAREWELL TOUR
Fortune Did Not Repay These Great
Performers With Mig
gard Hand.

We-all of us-the most of us, have our
farewells; that is, if we are not snapped
away, or unceremoniously snuffed out by
the cSr5,e-extinguisher of DEATH 1t is
accounted piece of good fortune with
the actor especially, after having played
his part-his many parts-well after hav-
ing lined his purse with the rewards OF
an appreciating, an adulatng, a doting
public, to be able to make his formal
farevell-to play his last part, and say
his last say, and retire to the shades of
domesticity and private life, contemplate
his past, the storms and quicksands, and
shipwrecks perchance, of his career, and
sit down, as Horace would say, in safety
So great however. is the fascination of
po sing before the fcotlights night after
night--so sweet, so enticing, so intoxicating
is the wine of public applause, that few
of our great stars have attained to the
lf-abnegation to appoint the hour of
their exit and the courage to make a
ffas to their careers. Like the poet who
has charmed all hearts with his words,
like the singer who has ravished all ears,
the actor is apt to ignore the signals of
deepening wrinkles, of departing elias
ticity, of waning volume of voice. 1t
is no easy sacrifice to lay by the pen
whose touch has been magic, or to say
cease to the voice whose utterance has
swayed multitudes. So the actor is apt
to lag superfluous, to over-live his day,
to wear out his elcome, and to expert
ence in life that chagrn. which is sure
to come to poet, singer and actor with
an ebbing OF the tide. In other words, he
cannot expect to be ever in the fashion,
ever in the favor of the tickle goddess.
1t always has been so, and always will
be so.
And yet, if there are thespians who have
reaped the golden harvest of honors and
riches. there are others-faithful servants
OF the public-giving ever of their best
who would fain say amen to it all. but
must perforce still keep to the STAGE
whom the world of theatre-goers has re-
warded with gracious but a luke-warm
applause and fortune has paid with
niggard hand, becarse in their character
nature has left out but the one element
that transfuses talent into genius.
A common fate, however, awaits them
all-the bright particular star who has
illumined his generation as well as the
hard working support who moils through
life near. the ragged edge of gentlity.
Oblivion Ito large eXtenD will sooner
or later cover them with its mantle and
heap them in the great common grave of
forgetfulness. This is the shadow that
may rightly csst its gloom athwart the
actors heart, across the brow of a great
reputation. He may be catalogued as
great, and may expect to see his name
IN Lne HE with AeScnlncS anu ttOSc1uS,
Bellerton and Garrick, Kean and Kem-
ble-but the praise that follows memory
Is not the applause, the ovation which
shall greet his succeeding star, with the
morning dews of young talent and ambi-
ton, and the smile of well-founded hope
and confidence upon his brow. TO be read
of and labelled GREATS not still to have
an audience hanging upon his measured
utterance. responsive to the key-touch of
Joy or sorrow, pity or pathos, or anger,
and all the mingled sentiments stirred by
tragedy and comedy.
David Garrick the greatest performer
of the last century, is the only one Of
his contemporary actors who is remem-
bered at the present time or whose
achievements on the boards has equalled
his posthumous fame. Yet David Gar
rick. the friend of johnson. Goldsmith
and Walpole. has been mouldering in the
tomb now for 115 years. His has been a
fame that has not dimmed. Like Nell
Gwynne, Garrick had an early penchant
for the stage. From wine merchant to
the undisputed Roscius of the English
stage was made with almost a single
bound 1t was not in one character that
he excelled. He was equally proficient
in tragedy as in comedy and as mimic
his equal has not been seen. Besides
having ''ine stage inspiration" he was
. scholar. as we'll as a graceful and ee-