Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1895-12-12
Mrs. jackson l177sl.

4
meo and Juliet into his Caius Marius,
about half of which was lifted bodily
from Shakespeare; and this history
seems to have superseded Shake
spearc's plays on the stage for more
than half a century. Thus, neither
Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Bracegirdle nor Mrs.
Oldfield ever appeared as Juliet, and
we have to leap from Mrs. Betterton
to Mrs. Jane Cibber, Colley's grand
daughter, who played the part at the
Haymarket in 1744, to the Romeo of
her father, Theophilus Cibber. Thus
resuscitated, the great love tragedy of
the world was never again suffered to
lapse into disuse, and every generation
for the past century has had not only
it's Juliets, but it's bevy of Juliets.
The first actress whose rendering OF
the part we find described in any de-
tail is Mrs. Cibber, who played it at
Drury Lane in 1854, to the Romeo OF
Barry. When she and Barry, two
years later seeded to Covent Car
den, they opened in these, their most
popular Characters; while Garrick, at
Drury Lane, produced the same play
Oh the same evening, himself playing
Romeo to the Juliet of George Anne
Bellamy. Except in one or two tndi-
vidual passages, Garrick was probably
inferior to Barry, and there is little
doubt that the Drury Lane Juliet was,
throughout, inferior to Mrs. Cibber.
Mrs. Bcllamy, according to Francis
Gentleman, ..'excelled in amorous rap
ture," while Mrs. Cibber called every
power of distress and despair to her
aid.' "If we ask" says Hill, in the
Actor (1755), "why Mrs. Cibber is more
herself in Juliet than in any other
character, it is because Mrs. Cibber
has heart more formed for love than
for any other passion; and if we ap-
prove Miss Bellamy in her declara-
tions of love in the same character
more than in any other it is because
she has heart also more susceptible
of tenderness than of any other pas
sion" The same critic declares that
he who has seen Mrs. Cibber in the pO-
ton scene "has seen all that is posi-
bic to be conveyed this way Of terror"
1t appears that "the disproportion in
stature between Barry and Mrs. Glib
bel'' verged upon the ludicrous, but
that the genius of the actors carried it
off. Between Garrick and Miss Bella
my the disproportion was, probably,
all the other way. Mrs. Cibber, falling
into ill-health, Barry, in 1853. found
another Juliet in new actress, Miss
Nossiter, scarcely older than the Juliet
of Shakespeare. ."She was possessed"
says Tate Wilkinson, ''of a handsome
fortune and a genteel education, and"
(what was, perhaps, OF more import
ancc) "strong sensibility and feeling"
Nnrecver cit added to the perform
4',c+ rrrreo ard Juliet were real
~ III love, and well known to be So"
-.-.. ...u, was Successful III Juliet, but
-. 40, 1ulnu the promise she thus
case. The same may be said Of Miss
Iritchard, who played the part at Dru-
~ Lane in 1856 to the Romeo of Gar
rick She was introduced by her moth
or, the great Lady Macbeth, who
Played Lady Capulet for the occasion,
and her extraordinary beauty made
great impression on an audience which
was resolved to applaud her mothers
daughter Nevertheless, she presently
faded into obscurity. From this time
forward Juliets abound. The part
became, as it remains, favorite one
with debutantcs. (''You must help me-"
says Lady Muricl, in pantomimc re-