The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-10

long stays and hoped pettlcoatS, and
dressed her powdered hair high upon her
head, costuming Lady Macbeth in the
same way that Cleopatra and other
herolnes were clothed. 1t was Mrs. Sid
dons, says Mr.. Wingate, who first of all
mad the sense and courage to wear flowing
draperies with very short waist, and TO
braid her hair close to her head
An amusing story of Mrs. Siddons' real
ism is told in g Shakspeare's Herolnes."
The author is describing the establishment
she created in the mind of her dresser when
preparing for Lady Macbeth. Without
thinking of her assistant, Mrs. Siddons,
running over her part in her mind, sud-
denly uttered aloud, with full force of in
tonatlon and with appropriate gesture, the
words: Here's the smell of blood still'
whereat the startled dresser cried, [ pro-
test and VOW, ma'am, you're hysterca,.
It's not blood, but rose-pink and water.
saw the propertyman mix it up with my
own eyes,"
Macready and the beautiful Helen FAUCET
| came to the chief roles of Macbeth in
the early part of this century. Then came
the rude, impulsive soldier" of Samuel
Phelps and the careful Macbeth of Charles
Kean.
OF Henry Irving's Macbeth the book
| says: Kate Bateman Mrs. Crowe), one
of the child prodigies of 1851, played the
part in 1878 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
| criticism, has chung to his humanized
character.
Ellen Terry attempted to revolutionize
the remorseless, terrible woman of pre-
vious impersonators. She believed Shakes
| peare's Lady Macbeth was essentially
| feminine, and based one argument to
clinch that plea, upon the woman's faint
| ing after the murder, when triumph is APP
| parently at hand. Mrs. Siddons, with
others, omitted that effect as inconsistent
with their conception of the character.
| With Terry, soft smiles preceded and fol-
| lowed terrible utterances; in Macbeths
| arms she rested in gentlest womanhood;
| in the manner of a dove she described the
murderous act of q demon. Human even
to charming, modern and womanly,
| Terry's Lady Macbeth was regarded as
more of a curious novelty than an accurate
impersonation.
while this new Lady Macbeth, in place
Of the raven locks of tradition, displayed
hair of reddish tint, with two long
braids reaching to the ground, and showed
a 5lithe, compdnionable woman, her Mac
| beth, as pictured by Mr.. Irving. was an
,rresolute, craven self-lover. Beardless,
with little, flaming red mustache pro-
| jecting only beyond the corners of the
lips, Irving was pictured by one critic as a
Macbeth with a restless eye, Macbeth
! With spare, nervous frame, Macbeth
with the face of a hungry gray wolf
| With rare consistency the actor has kept
| his delineation of the character IN
changed, in spite OF the criticism that had
! attacked his first presentation, some years
before the latter grand revival
An interesting coincidence is mentioned
by Mr.. Wlngate, who throughout his book
presents not only criticisms of the Lady
Macbeths, Ophelias, Desdemonas and
| III
quaint bits of information and amusing
| and pathetic anecdotes.
Son the very night Ellen Terry for the
first time essayed Lady Macbeth, - he says,
Isabel Glyn-Dallas, the most noted Lady
Macbeth surviving at that time, lay on
known to old playgoers in America
But one native born American has ever
| become famous in Lady Macbeth. The
world knows her name-Charlotte CuSh-
man. Mrs. Duff and Nine. Janauschek,
however. 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
December /, 1853, with her son, the
younger Lewis Hallam, as the first Mac.
beth 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 "Shaks-
peare's Heroines on the Stage: 1.-The
once shapely figure of the lady had now
developed into such generous proportions
as to nearly wreck her debut in New York,
through one of those dnlucky misappli-
cations OF the text of the play. Strike
here she cried, as Euphrasia in the
'Grecian Daughter when bidding
Dionysius kill her rather than her be
loved father: Strike here; here's blood
enough The audience forgot the point
of the dagger in the point of the words,
and roared so heartily as utterly to discon-
cert the players. Never again did Mrs.
Melmorth utter those words. Here's blood
enough when she acted Euphrasia. But
as Lady Macbeth she certainly succeeded"
The Oldest surviving Lady Macbeths OF
America to-day are Nine. Ponisi and Mrs
ID. L. Bowers, OF whom entertaining stories
are told in several chapters of Mr.. Win
gates book. The first has record OF
forty-five years upon the stage, the other
nearly half century of experience.
mime. Ponisi acted to the Thane of Ed
win Forrest shortly after the great Aston
place riot, when Macreadv was practically
stoned from New York by the assault of
the mob on the playhouse while the Eng
llshman was trying to act Macbeth. And
here it may be mentioned that the English
born Lady Macbeth of that unfortunate
night of May 10, 1S49, was Mrs. Coleman
Pope, beautiful and queenly looking
woman, who, when the stones crashed
through the windows and the rattle OF
musketry without showed that blood was
being shed, stood without flinching by the
side of Macbeth, displaying undaunted
mettle. She was at that time 40 years oil
age"
Few people before reading Mr.. Wingate's
book would have known that Charlotte
Champion, the famous Mazeppa of past
years, was once the Lady to Edwin Booths
Macbeth, or that Matilda Heron and Clara
Morris, both noted as Camille, had essayed
the Shakespearean role. The character
was the last played by Charlotte Cushman
"On the 7th of Novem Der, 1874 says the
author, cat Booths Theater, she bade
farewell to New York in her favorite char.
acter. George Vandenhoff acting Macbeth
A grand testimonial was the outpouring o!
noted men and women on that occasion
and the subsequent reception, when 60 0o(
people crowded about her hotel to greet
her. A round Of the other cities followed
and then, on May Is, 1875. her Lady Mac.
beth to D. w. Walters Macbeth, at the
Globe Theater, Boston, closed her career
Nine months later, February 49, 1876, ir