Year: 1874




HENRY vIIT.-MIss CUsHMAN-MR. VANDENHOFF.


The curtain has once more fallen upon
Charlotte Cushman's personation Of Queen Katharine
shutting out from view wonderful majesty
and pathos, with which it leaves the OBJ
servant mind surcharged and silenced. In
these brief and feeting midnight moments to
WRITE for this peerless achievement. word OF ade
quate commcmorston will be impossible. Description
OF the performance cannot be needed. To name Its
great pons-tO pause upon its spendor Of intelligence
the pure and beautiful lenunciaton OF the magni-
fcent language the stately idemean0r; the natural
fluctuations OF passion he apsng from phase to phase
OF emotion smooth and continuous that the acting
Ia not acting. but living the elevation OF mind the
delcacy Of texture the beautiful portrature OF spiritual
power and purity predominant mortal weakness
and the anguish OF sickness and death-all this
would be to follow "a backward pathway and
CLEAN In q traverscd field The great
all that she has been in this touching
type OF dethroned and tortured majesty and virtue Her
Identification alone with the experience but with the
nature Of the injured Queen so entire that again.
as in the old days, It made the spectator for
get the stage and look upon the life. II Ia
not 30 much TO the noble mpersonatioD, though as to
impressive revelation OF agreat soul that we would
dedicate the thought and feeling OF this moment,
None but woman OF royal nature could
fll Shakespeare's massive and tender IDEAL
and 1t was In royalty OF ndiyidualism and reality
OF grandeur and grace and suffering that Miss Cnshmah
had her true victory There IL strange and nameless
quality about ner, IKE tnat when halIO"s
the lonesome sea, In the gloamlDg, ehd on
tho eve OF tempest. IL separates her from
her race and it makes her their type and voice.
flashes from her dark eyes, and trembes in her sad
and melting voice. It power and 1t is sorrow; It is
revelation and prophecy. Back Of everything that
she does in art this mysterious force We call 1t
genius but we cannot describe It, Feeling and not idea
must serve Those who felt her magic VIII
never forget it, and they will know how impossible II isto
put that uagc words Tnat she was again and again
called before the curtain need scarcely he SAID Human
and stones, and under the pathos
of this Queens struggle with injustice aud submission
to destiny and DEATH every human heart is well nigh
broken when Charlotte Cushman acts.


Mr. yandenhoff came forward as Cardinal
WOiSeH II IA ten years since he acted, ana
he was a little formal but the Refinement, the
symmetry and the intellectual character OF his
acting were delightful. His Addsonian countenanee,
noble gentle and picturesque expressed with romantic
beauty the mental concentration and the inward
fret of Wolseys amb tious nature. His ten
der and finely modulated voice gave every shade OF
meaning in the text His keen instinct OF harmony
kept the passion OF the Cardinal in deep
repression during all the scenes that precede
that OF his downfall: but through all OF them
could be traced, in the worn face the


fiery eye the artfuly curbed demeanor and the spen-
ullly tno
mind Within that when the outbreak came. aud the
conflicts of this sorm-tossed soul were barred,
the spectator less startled than afflicted at the pas
sionate and lamentabe fulfillment OF all that had
been promised OF power aud suffering. There
we're no violent Outbursts in Mr.. Nandenhofs
personation and though he less SIMPLE than
could wished in the final he was true TO high
IDEAL he both grand and tender. 1t is not easy
to do even passing justice such acting that with
which Miss Cushman and Mr.. Vanderhof filed this oc-
casion and made it solemn and memorable There are
times when silence and tears the best recognition
that gratitude offer.