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    October 29, 1853.] foffi^ .- 1051

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    OPENING OF THE HAYMARKET. Ok Monday, Buc...

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    LADY MACBETH AT THE MARYLE'BONE. Perceiv...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Vjilpordufca, Juno 27, W»- £St$Bsy Dear....

    left directions whither it should follow you in the forest . That letter must have reported all about our departure and arrival—at least the broad facts j but as we have not yet had a line either from you or Julie , we are uncertain about your having received it . Sarah torments herself with the idea tbiat you and Julie will be " uneasy ; " or rather Julie , for she regards you as being above any weakness so unbusiness-like . " I do not believe , " she says about once a day , " that Mr . Markham would turn pale if he knew that he was going to be a bankrupt to-morrow ; but it is for Mrs . Markham that I feel . " And she imagines Julie as constantly solicitous as she is herself about Margaret—indeed about us all . Dear woman !

    Deprived of a life herself— one of those mournful , resigned negations , which are so common with you , she has thrown her whole soul into the care of Margaret . She loves her for her beauty , her courage , her success , —loves her for being so admired and so loved . It needed all Margaret ' s inflexible resolve to make her mother understand that they must part—that most estimable silk gown , fading and shrinking out-of existence , seemed to feel that it must quite be cast off and laid aside if the sustaining Margaret were removed ; although I do think poor Mrs . Johnson now begins to look up to you as the Zeus of her system ; and to the wayward Julie as to a superior wisdom- —" she has such a position now . "

    Yseult told you generally of our brief peril in the gulf . It is you know often stormy ; but only once do I remember encountering so black and sudden a hurricane ; black as midnight — a thick , palpable midnight ; save when the lightning poured down / straight like a blinding cataract upon the boiling waves ; which shivered under the shock . Hopes and spars broke away like flower stalks . We had just overtaken AucUey ' s yacht when it began ; and it seemed scarcely five minutes before it was daylight again , and we lay a maimed wreck , and the yacht was gone . We fo t them all , however ; with one exception , which Yseult could not tell , ecause I have not yet told her . We were just pulling off from the wreck , when I heard my own name called from the surface of the water . It was

    King ; his left arm round a spar , his right still helpless . The sound of my own name in his voice—the sight of him , in his helplessness , and even of the arm . which Edwardes had crippled , roused a paroxysm of anger that I could not understand when I fxrstj looked back upon it , though now I do know why I resented his appeal to a common humanity , to rescue him partly from the effects of his just retribution . Obeying a double impulse , I cried out to him , —¦ " Sir , 1 detest you , and I despise you ; " and I held out my hand . He left his hold of the spar ; but instead of seizing my outstretched hand , he folded his unwounded arm over the other ; and , with a stedfast look at me , lay back against the wave that rose behind him , and disappeared . I could hardly have supposed that the fellow ' s countenance could have assumed so much dignity ; but it was an ending that redeemed much of his mean existence .

    Next week we take Margaret to Milan . The man with whom we shall place her is in some sort related to Giorgio , who will conduct us ; and under such influence , with the constant guard of the devoted Sarah , Margaret would be safe , even if she could not be her own guard . But the very storm and hideous ruin of that day could not shake her . I do not think that this is properly "firmness , " as we have called it—still less the hardness of heart , which , the perverse Julie calls it—but it is more like a farsightedness , which can look beyond tlio hour , and reposes independently to brief viccissitude . [ Resting , so to speak , on many waves , is not tossed about . Sarah could not conceal her terror , and almost remonstrated with fate for exposing her Margaret . Yseult , with that gentleness that makes us so surprised at her rare bursts of vehemence , lay perfectly still and placid . " I ' m not afraid , " she said ; "if we die , it will be together . "

    However , we reached Valperduta unharmed , unaltered from what we were at Marseilles . It was delicious indeed to witness Yscult ' s childlike interest and delight at all she saw , —her first landing " in Italy ! " her arrival at " Valperduta over the unsubdued mountains , —tier wonder at the magnificence of the house , its size , its picturesque position , its marble hall , its painted walls , —her unconcealed admiration for its majestic owner , and the still lovely Helen , witli her dear counterfeits . At firsfcshe feared that she could not speak enough Italian , for she had forgotten that Helen was born her countrywoman ; and even Giorgio tries to break the ponderous song of his Italian tonguo into clipped lilnglish words , with that courtesy in which the Italians exceed all people on the face of the earth . So hero wo are , gradually getting " at homo , " Yseidt making herself the elder sistor of Helen's dear young counterfeit , and all of us anxiously awaiting Stanhope and Edwardes in the autumn .

    Since I have returned to Valperduta , I have , of course , been subject to endless examinations by Giorgio on the state of England ; and it in curious to note the effect on his own mind . Ho will hardly believe any ill of England . Like many liberal Italian ? , he is minutely familiar with her literature , hor history , her institutions ; and regards her as a model in everything but music and painting . When I describe to him a political condition almost without that passion win oh all other nations call patriotism —a society pharisaically " moral , " yet presenting the spectacles of London Htreets , and scourged by vices , and by sacrifices as bad as vices , ' —when I paint the corrupting devotion to the commercial idol of profit , —whon I compare our enormous wealth with our hideous , unpitied poverty , ' —when I ask , of what use i » liberty , that ends only in " agitation , " or scientific freedom

    of thought that ends in social nullification , thought without act , •—ho smiles , and tells mo I am prejudiced , Uut , the next moment , he draws consolation from what I say , in thinking that , after all hor degradatioiiH , Ital y is not ho very much worso off oven than boasted England . " Our l * opo , ' ho says , " seize our papers and our persons ; but I do not think ho bo much enslaver our minus as your woman Pope , la Signora Orondi . Wo havo our , unhappinoHses and our chains ; but ; perhaps life is not in such chains here as m England . Wo arc a degraded nation , since wo aro enslaved ; but patriotism still lives as a passion in our hearts ; and , perhaps , an Italian can better know what wan moving itself in tho heart of a Hompdcn or a Chatham than your most favourite elected Englishman of your own day . " And he is right , 30 fur . Yet , I cannot justify tho inaction of such men

    as he is- —men of great minds , who see their country enslaved , and yet who remain quiescent , content to cultivate themselves , and to preserve a freedom in the midst of slavery . Keeping alive , he says , the sacred fire of thought . " And as to quiescence ^ you in England—or , at least , they in England , "—for he knows that I disclaim the land of the Collar and of Anti-Hampden , — " they in England are quiescent , only their quiescence is not so perfect . We must wait on , while great minds work , till tlie world shall be ready for action again . "

    " Wait ! it is the German idea—the contemplative principle ; and when their time comes they are unable to act . " " We must wait until statesmanship , public opinion , science , and art , are all brought to an equal height , and a true direction can be given to act . " " And yet , " exclaimed Margaret , " would it not hasten the time , to carry art into the world , and there letitw r ork its own influence in bringing on the day when action can be better understood ?" " The world spoils it , " replied Giorgio .

    " Nothing strong is spoiled . The world kills bad art , and converts it into a manufacturing accessory , " I said ; " but true art can always sustain itself by the force of its own labour , and its own vitality . Margaret so far is right . If we all wait , as you teach , the world would never end with waiting . It is only by incessantly watching the moment to begin , that we can seize the first opportunity . " " Look there ! " said Giorgio . He pointed to the low wall at the end of the viotto in which we were sitting , separating the vineyard from the road . Standing on the other side of the wall were a young couple , whom I recognized at once : but lifted above the head of Lionardo , seated on one of his hands , while the other held it up for me to see , was a very

    young infant . " That , " said Giorgio , "is the answer . Let art go on ; let us who understand the mystery , keep alive tlie sacred fire . " Let those who have the strength , "—and he laid his paternal hand on Margaret ' s shoulder , — " carry forth the sounds of truth , into the ears of tlie world . Let native-born life like that , " pointing to the child , " still go on , where learning has not pestered it into pining . Let the world agitate , as it does in England , with its imperfect problems , the ferment saving it from death . Let all these things go on , and the day will come when tlie three elements , life , art , and science , shall understand one another . And on that day Anarch Custom , as you say , shall fall off his cruel throne , and the people shall be free . "

    October 29, 1853.] Foffi^ .- 1051

    October 29 , 1853 . ] foffi ^ .- 1051

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    Opening Of The Haymarket. Ok Monday, Buc...

    OPENING OF THE HAYMARKET . Ok Monday , Buckstone revealed the result of an active " recess , " and presented the Haymarket as an elegant and much improved house . These improvements I suppose he counted on as attractive enough for the first week , for his programme was specifically wwattractive . Not being well , I seized hold of the excuse to stay away . But I did see two acts of the new Hamlet , which were enough to show that in Mr . George VaudenhoiTwchave an intelligent , graceful actor , who will be an nmienso improvement on Mr . Barry Sullivan , and I dare say will be very effective in serious comedy . Hamlet lie was not . He did what all the Hamlets do—declaim instead of feel—and he did it in the old-established way . But his " reading" was that oi' a cultivated man , his bearing gracefully conventional , his person prepossessing , and his voice agreeable .

    Who says that ShalcHpearo wont draw now-a-days p Does he not reign supreme at Sadler a Well * ! Is not the Surrey triumphant with tho Tempest ? Does not the Haymarket give us Hamlet ' ! Have not the Princess ' s and the Marylebone each their Macbeth ' ! Keally , theatricals seem bursting into a new bloom of popularity ! Everywhere there in a "hit" of some kind or other . Tho last has been that of Mrs . Walhiek , of whose performance another pen will write . Vivian .

    Lady Macbeth At The Maryle'bone. Perceiv...

    LADY MACBETH AT THE MARYLE'BONE . Perceiving from tho advertisements that Mrs . J . W . Wai lack had " achieved a triumphant success" ( that fine old conventional ! phrase !) , 1 wont on Monday to the Marylcbone . Mi-s . Wallack is what would be willed a "Lady Macbeth-styleof woman , " tall , majestic , and commanding . Her features are capable of great expression , hor voice of . modulation ; her attitudes are imposing , and hor reading of the text good . Her greatest defect in being Mrs . Wallaok , an

    sho lias in sonic measure formed herself upon her husband , not tho best modol she could have chosen . ( She- is , how ever , the bout Lady Macbeth 1 havo ever neon , as , notwithstanding a certain amount of mouthing and rant , more fitted for J ^ itzball than Shakspoare , she bus much feminine sweetness . An unpleasant drawl in her tones reminded me of Laura AddiBon , but hor acting , in tho first scono especially , was ho womanly , and ovinced so much tender prido in Macbeth \ v success , that 1 have scarcely Hoon \ t equalled on tho stage .

    Mr . Wallack has a handsome face , fine figure , deep voice , and largo calvcfl . The possession of theso accessories constituted him as the hero of tho tragedy in the eyes of his principal audionco , tho pit and gallery , and they bravoed and halloed till they were hoarse . Mr . . 11 . Vundonhoff divided Jlf a cdnjf into two separate , portions , 'playing the first three acts in a jaunty Charles MathewH-liko Htyio , tho last two , after tlio example of tho ronownod Hicks . Mr . Shaldorfl was tho First Witch , and relieved the tedium of tho tragedy with many of tho buffooneries of the circus . Miss Gordon played JLLceate , and aang Locke ' s music with spirit . 1 J h M . II . Y .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 29, 1853, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29101853/page/19/