The St. Johns herald., 1896-10-31
WHEN DEATH IS REAL.
Tragic Fatalities that Have Occurred
 Upon the Stage.

Tragic Fatalities that Have Occurred
 Upon the Stage.
 The recent calamity on a London
 stage in which an actor actually killed
 a 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 tury, an actor who was playing Lon ginus in ''The Mystery of the Passion" !" was so realistic in his playing that he pierced the mimic Christ so severely that his death on the cross was actual Many years ago, an Italian artist nam. ed Lombardi, playing in "Antigone, had to turn his sword from his fathers breast to his own, and did it so cer 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 vil- lain of the piece, and in the duel with daggers which ensued Mir. Warner s badly wounded. Barry Sullivan nee attacked Richmond in "Richard the Third" with such vehemence that his opponents sword was struck from his ayerted. 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 trifling 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 Sarahs 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 he delayed for week. At the final rehearsal of Faust the orig inal Mephistopheles, Balanque, contriy- ed to wear pair of diabolical red wi fhncn hn 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 futtering whalebone ribs, over which the cloth was arranged.
 Deaths from sudden and unknown causes are frequent on the stage, and 1t 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 | uSSCeAl lO AdueS Ac SdNe d SISA anu 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 q quotation for Gods mercy on his lips, and Palmer, as manager and actor, died as he exclaimed "Oh, God! God! There is another and a better Worldr'