The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-12

in that famous role. Finding her sing
ing voice iTretrievably impaired, she
began studying the drama with even
greater seriousness. While she some
times showed herself to be a charming
coincidence, she felt herself irresistibly
drawn to the higher plane of tragic act
ing, and her instant reputation as ira
gedienne but increased her confidence
in her original convictions.
The year fOllWing $3.50, she appear
ed in the same character in New York
and induced her sister Susan also to
depart from the traditional family
pathway and act with her. They ap-
peared together in Philadelphia, where
Charlotte CUshman became manager Of
one of the theatres until Macready
came TO this country; then she played
with him.
Next to that of Lady Macbeth, her
most important representation was that
of Meg Merrilies, the result of a happy
inspiration while she was acting as
understudy to Mrs Chippendale. While
waiting in the side scene, book in hand
the wonderful dramatic possibilities Of
the character burst uDOn her; seizinS
upon the sudden inspiration with her
usual concentrated energy of purpose,
she flashed upon the stage, a being so
weird, so original, 50 powerful that she
fairly startled her audience into sym
pathy with her conception, and drew
from her manager the following COM
mendatiOn, long cherished by the util-
ity actress: L have come to thank
you he said, for the most veritabie
sensation have experienced for a long
time. / give you my word when /
turned and saw you in that first scene
] felt a cold chill run all over me-
Rather masculine in appearance, she
developed a propensity for appearing in
male parts, Hamlet, Romeo, Claude
MelnOtte and Cardinal Wolsey being
her most prominent efforts in this line.
While her Cardinal WOlsey was con-
sidered in many ways a remarkable
performance, her Romeo was probably
more marvellous in its assumption of
a susceptible delicate phase seldom
happily portrayed by male actors.
Warm-hearted and high-spirited, her
sympathies were actively enlisted r :
ing the civil war, when she acte
pecially for the support of the
tary commission, to which she c
uted over $1,000. IL this, as in "
other instances, she showed the l.
eral trend of her noble life, st lg
under all circumstances, to quote ner
own smile, Ito keep the prov always
turned toward good"
After thirty-five years of successful
acting, both in this country and in
England, where she was accorded an
unusually high position aS an actress.
she determined to devote the remainder
of her life to public readings. At the
reading desk she confined herself
chiefly to Shakespearean interpreta-
lions, and found it afforded finer op-
pOrtunity for her subtitle Intellectual
ism. In her acting of Lady Macbeth
Ie.a = aTrtss sac1-.
caught the facts of a character, but
its conceits were beyond her reach.
She was intensely prOsaic, def
nitely practical, and hence her perfect
identity with what may be termed the
materialism of Lady Macbeth" VIII
liam G. Macready, always generous in
acknowledging her powers, averred
that when playing Macbetk to her
Lady Macbeth he felt himself to be less
than of secondary impoTtance-in
truth, a mere thing of naught" At the
reading desk, however, there was no
chance for. conflicting opinion. Here
there was DO opportunity for display
ing her marvellous talent Of "nraking
up" no scenic setting nor realistic
claptrap. nothing but that exquisite
elocutiOn, accommodating itself to the
varying necessities Of the play, balanc-
ing every character and producing
upon the fascinated audience the con-
viction that Shakespeare could have 70
grander exponent Solely by the charm
of her rich supple voice. she portrayed
the Intellectual body Of the poets con-
ception, so using it to set forth the
groan of agony, the struggling sensa-
tons of death, the hOllOwness of re-
morse, the abandon of despair, and the
tremulous pathos of old age that the
totally Of the drama represented had
a powerful oftentimes an appalling,
effect upon her hearers. Lawrence