The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1896-10-22
WHEN A is REAL.
f~agic Fatalities that Have Occurred
Upon the Stage.

f~agic Fatalities that Have Occurred
Upon the Stage.
The recent calamity OF a London
stage in which an actor actually killed
q fellow player in the scene where he
was supposed to run him through with a
dagger has brought to light numerous
former occurrences Of a similar charac-
ter.
The great Roman actor Roscius, en-
acting Aureus, was SO carried away
that he fell upon a slave and killed him
on the spot. Farquhar, in Dryden's
Indian Emperor" wounded a fellow
actor so dangerously that he was said
to have died from his wounds. In
Stockholm, early in the sixteenth cen
fury, an actor who was playing on
ginus in 'The Mystery Of the Passion"
was so realistic in his playing that he
pierced the mimic Christ SO severely
that his death IN the cross vas actual.
Many years ago. an Italian artist nam.
ed lombard, playing in "Antigone,"
had TO turn his sword from his fathers
breast to his own, and did ii so Ger.
tainly that he fell dead.
Upon the opening night of the pro-
duction Of Michael Strogoff' in Lon
don. in 1881, Mr.. Charles Warner, in
the title role, was set upon by the vii
lain of the piece, and in the duel with
daggers which ensued Mr.. Warner was
badly wounded. Barry Sullivan once
attacked Richmond in Richard the
Third" with such vehemcnce that his
opponents sword was struck from his
hand and a serious accident barely
averted. The elder Baron. a French
actor Of note. performing in The Cid'
of Corneille, had to kick a sword out
Of his path and in so doing punctured
his foot: the matter was trihing at first,
but later on gangrene set in and the
player died. Charles Kemble, at one
time playing Macbeth to Mrs. Siddon's
Lady Macbeth. flung away a goblet
with such violence that it shattered a
chandelier above the great Sarah'S
head. That lady bore it without finch
ing, however. At the dress rehearsal
Of THE Huguenots' at Paris several
years ago, the famous tenor NOuritt, in
pretending to jump from a fourth-story
window. injured himself so that the
piece had to be delayed for a week. At
| the final rehearsal Of Faust" the orig
inal Mephistopheles. BalanQue, contriv-
ed to wear a pair of diabolical red
wings. With these Outspread, he rose
from a trap in the first act, and, by
touching a spring, these later became
the conventional cloak. But the spring
behaved badly, and the actors face was
horribly lacerated by the fiuttering
whalebone ribs, over which the cloth
was arranged.
Deaths from sudden and unknown
causes are frequent on the stage. and it
has generally seemed that the passing
Of the actors soul has always been at
some moment when his words were
particularly applicable to the circum-
stance. Not long ago Federico was
playing Faust" in Melbourne. and just
| after he uttered the last word before his
descent to HadeS he gave Il sigh and
fell dead. At this actors funeral. as
the venerable clergyman finished say
ing "In the midst of life we are in
DEATH" he fell ~lifeless. Paterson died
while preparing Claudio for execution
in Measure for Measure" saying of
life "a breath thou art" Cummings,
as Dumont in ".Jane shore expired
with a quotation for Cots mercy on
his lips, and Palmer. as manager and
actor, died as he exclaimed. "Oh, God!
God! There is another and Il better
world.'