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«* which . < & . ** . J ¥ aS 5 * 25 ^ 52 af & m ^ d gSs ^ s ggg ^ ITa spec tacle , I have unqualified praise to give it As a tragedy , I was forcibly struck with the truth of a prophecy uttered by Xeon s loving and beloved friend , Albert Smith , in T 7 te Month , which ran thus
:--" Let not Charles Kean deceive himself as to his position as an actor ; he _ has none beyond that which appliances ofniise . en scene assist him to .. KmgJohXi is about to be revived for him . Our readers will see , judging calmly for , themselves , that in spite of all the press laudations that , will follow , it will be simply a success of tin , and banners , and Jewess-like panoply j a metallic triumph m every respect ; including the brass . " The sentence is harsh , but in the main it is correct . Except Falcon-Iridge and Hubert , the parts were played in a style altogether jneom-. _ . *? a , : j . i . j . i . _ j nn j n / -w-f ¦ i- 'Ua -nlo-ir T \ aA fTHnrJAs KAafi allowed , me \ t — w~~— — -. — -..
HienSUrtll / C W 1 UU . hlXV U . C . LLUJ / M »*>* " * vu . j j ^* "jr » .- ~~ . — . ^ rr— .---yr to pursue my own friendly course towards him , I should have passed over the performance with some brief remark ; but as silence is construed into insult , I am forced to speak my mind , and ; the only difficulty I have is how to say what I really think in the least offensive form . He wont believe that , because his . 1 irritable vanity makes him believe iihat no tone can fail to admire except from " bitter enmity ; " and he will attribute my criticism to " anger , " whereas , I am riot " angry" at all-7-I only l » Migh . My public know me too well , I trust , to doubt the sincerity of my opmions , severe or favourable .
King John and Constance are two greattragic parts . Mr , and Mrs . Kean were decidedly effective in them ^ but I venture td dbtibt wheiheir the effect was such as any poetic or cultivated mind can on reflection approve , ^ ad the play been a Porte St . Martin melodrame , King John a housebreaker ; and Constance a widow de la rue St . penis , the acting would have been admirable ; but every one must feel the difference between the impassioned grandeur of ideal sorrowy and the prosaic tr ^ ith of domestic woe . As a bit of " truth , " Mrs . Eeeley's sobbmg perusal of the letter in Prisoners of War is without a rival ; but imagine that order of truth transported into tragedy , and you at once leap upon the platform whence to survey the chasm which separates ' tragedy from .
domestic drama . Mrs . Kean m the opening scene was ideal and graceiul ; her attitudes , her intonations , her whole conception promiseoTwell But when the great storm of grief burst , she dropped from her elevation into domesticity of a not very pleasing kind ; except in the sarcasms with which her indignant heart relieves itself against Austria ( finely uttered ) , the wronged Constance was at no time before us . The grief and rage were well simulated , and . by some of the audience loudly applauded , because the applauders recognised the " truth , " but did not ask themselves " truth of what P—truth of whom P—truth of a Princess in her despair P—truth of a tragic heroine whose agonies are poetry P" It may be said , indeed , that
Constance , though a Princess , was a woman , and probabl y a very . unideal woman ; at any rate Mrs . Kean , by representing the grief of a woman , represented nature . Specious , but false ! Place Mrs . Keeley in the part , and let her represent womanly grief ; no one will doubt that her representation would be intensely true , but could the audience accept it P If the defence be admitted , adieu to all personation ! Grant Mrs . JCean her right of portraying Constance in a domestic light , stripped of all the elevation and grandeur of poetry , and , I repeat , her performance was very effective . But those who have seen Fanny Kemble , or Miss Glyn , or Mrs . Warner in the same part , will scarcely accept such a version .
Charles Kean , as King John , was just what you may expect , showing in one or two scenes a decided quality as a melo-dramatic actor , but nowhere , even b y a look , showing the least penetration of Shakspeare ' s meaning . I will not quarrel with him for the permanent stolidity of his face and bearing ; he cannot help that—it is his misfortune , not his fault , as the man said of his blind horse . But I must object to the unkingly , unideal presentation of the whole part . In his two great scenes—the tempting of Hubert , and- the death—he fell miserably below the character . The wonderful speech , " Hubert , I had a tiling to say , " was an instance
of what I meant in saying the performance was effective , though the effect was wrong , There was a certain breath-suspending , chilling horror , in Iris utterance of that speech , especially in the hoarse whisper of those words , " A grave , " which affected the audience , and wliich , had he been a melo-dramatic ruffian proposing a murder to hia companion , would have been in fine keeping ; but when one thought of it as the expression of that dark hinting at murder , which the poet htm ho wonderfully set forth , it was almost ludicrous . So again in the death-scene ; the agonies were " true , " but they were the agonios of a Jew with the cholic , and produced tittering instead of sympathy . Wigan ' s Falconbridge fairly took me by surprise . I heard with regret of his playing the part , not believing him capable of the brawny gaiety of the Bastard . I was wrong . The first act , indeed , was too light ,, and ueomed to justify forobodinga : it was too much in his light eomedy vein ; | tf ^ fo&T ftttfl | ft play advanced , he rose in excellence , and was equal to all the ' •^ fcMfegJB of the part . You may observe" that Falcpnbridge , who" begins g ^ mjBflraOdJiioareless soldier , deepens into bitter irony when experience of k < JSffla ? iffiW [ Franco haa roused him , and , as the dark scenes of the Wk ^ SSml ^^ S ^ 1 othor ' no loHes tno S ? ty of careless lightheartedness , ^ v ^ Mm ^ EBJ P ° . r 8 Ona J oonsecmonco , till the conduct of affairs seems P ^ ygjj ^ p * ffl ^ Rit -with . him . All those ch angos wore broadly and truly J ^ liaffi ^ jrapiy 7 vV igan ; and for intelligence in conception , and power of oxer ^ S w ^ TW ^ ** £ ^ a ° tinff of the piece , ltyder , as Hubert , played A . wilt mteligence and rugged fooling , and was loudly applauded .
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FRENCH PLAYS . Foe lovers of good acting , there is no aimpuncement more grateful than that of the opening of the St . James s Theatre by . - that model entrepeneur Mr . 'Mitchell . On Monday , the saucy , picj [ iiante , and incomparable Dejazet appears with Lafont , and after a , briet ( brilliant it is sure to be ) engagement , we are to have Frederic Xemaitre , and then "Regnier , and the Theatre Franfiais . Vaudeville— drame ^ -and comedy ( and the greatest in each department ) -ris hot the very prospect enough to make you rub your delighted hands ! At length X shall have . some acting I can praise heartily—which , on the English stage , is only the case with at the utmost some half-dozen actors ; and at length I shaJl feel my duty _ is a pleastire , and riot grumble that I am forced to qint foe Christian Fathers for a Vaudeville ! Vivian .
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BRITISH INSTITUTION . A coNsipEBABLE amount of . ' mild ability covers the ^ walls of the British Institution ; many of our best artists having sent , pictures not discredit * able to their repute . A few works are . striking and only a few ; the rest being precisely of i&e kind that is indicated in ; tlie name . of painter and picture . The story pieces are few , landscapes many , with several pieces of character , and a fair sprinkling of ladies , painted for the abstract admiration of-the fair sex :. ^ . Fdremost is Sir Edwin Iiandseer ' s " Deer Pas * --a . steep , grassy path , Ijetween hugh highland rocks , over a chasm / which is bridged by a great grass'clad rpek . Deer are straggling up the pass , and locking back , as if cttnscjpwa of ait intruder ; a bigstag prominent in the group . It ispainted not in iiandseer's best manner , the texture being of the " tea-board " order ; but there isso ) much living character , so much vigour and bold , ness in the scene , tnatthe very rocks have in them : a dramatic force . Amcmg- the landscapes , there are some which contain more than the mere riatoe suggests . Alfred COmtV " Heatii Scene near Boole" ( 5 ) is striking at the first view ;; but as you look out into the scene , you discern so many varied passages of country , so many moving traits of living nature ^ that you forget the frame and , canvas ,, and the eye seems to be travelling over a region too wide , with incidents'too many , for the pencil to collect . It waiits but an ace of subdued power to escape a certain
harshness , and make us compare it to fitlysdaels&esh suggestive portraitlandscapes , T . Danbys " Jpake of Tlmn , " v « fl ^ wgh / 4 ^ belongs to the category of sun-set effects by ^ the ^ fanlily , whoserepetition is tedious , is reconciled to us by the breathing st » ace , the gentle force and harmony of the tight , glancing over the broken hills and smdptn crater j and it convinces us hpw" Wu the painter might escape the tUraldom of the hereditary manner , if he would but Jryv Town scenes by Holland and Selous ; country scenes by Lee , Creswiek , Bentley , Copley Fielding ; scenes , with a ^ hougH in them , by Linnell , Linton , and Branwhite ; with animals , by Ansdefi and Herrmg ^ whtf ^ ' ^ Likewise the women of Frost , naked , no > Xaicretias , and yet as harmless
as if they were clothed prudes—fixed models of ' / the-nude - —are they not brought to mind at the mere nanieP Here they are seennihttle , which is an improvement ; for it abridges tlxe expanise of smooth nerveless symmetrical flesh , which is the Frost idea of Women jandyou can have the ^ points" jiist as well in the little as in the large . We prefer his " Galatea" and " his " Wood Nymphs" reduced . It is curious to note the tone of the morals which rule British art : in the collection are lovers , so called , with countenances so bare of expression , as to suggest the question whether English lovers have any emotions ; or whether it is that the painters have never seen the light of love in woman ' s countenance P Perhaps the strictness of our moral taste prohibits the painting of the emotion : as Alexander Smith was so severely , handled by certain
of our correspondents-, but then the "Wicked eyes" of Frith are not excluded ; and the bold leer of Newenham ' s " Spanish dance T ^ looks like the portrait of som 0 fearless Lola Montez—is admissible 1 Nakedness you may ; have , gracefully abstract , as in Gambardellas large picture , , of , " " Peace * " or cold and nerveless * as in Frost ; meretricious suggestion , as in Newenkam ' s ; Spanish lady but the tender affection <> ^ . or an Aneelica , of a Genevieve , whether in . Coleridge or Sand , that w
either inadmissible or' is unknown to English artists ! xou may , maeeu , have the countenance of tender beauty , but it must be in perfect repose , as in Phillips ' s •? Suefio "—a charming face . The restraint runs even into " action / ' There is much force in J . Gilbert ' s " Charge of Prince Bupert s Cavalry at Naseby ; " but how faint an idea of action it gives to see every figure on the balance as it is here . Organic life in motion m perpetually off the balance ; but our painters seem to live so nluc ^; r ~ quiese ' enpe and restraint , that they think they neither can nor ougnt w paint either body or soul in any condition but that of even balance ,
wicnout passing act or emotion ! : . « The Prao-Raphaelite school—with which W . B . Scott ' s " Visit ofHoccaooio to Dante ' s Daughter" must be classed—is an attempt to » r 0 * jj away from the modern lifeless school , with its mechanical symmetry : an when it shall have attained a better symmetry , though not mechanicai , » warmer life though not meretricious , a more masterly handling , 9 A not mannered , it will have succeeded in its excellent enterprise , ana come , not Prco-Baphaelite , but ltaphaolesque . — . — 1 . 1 — ¦¦ — ' ¦ — 1- — ' ' 1 - ¦ .... i . ¦ ,-.,.,, ,. 1 . " ., ... ' j—¦' .- ; . _ . . ¦ _ . _ M f \ t
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Abtist OSTatubbs . —No permanent consciousness of their own destiny , « thqir own worth in comparison with others , belongs to them . In their moous elevation thoy . are powers to move the world ; but while the impulse that » gone forth from them in one of those moods may bo still ttirilUng its way onwa in wider and wider circles through the hearts of myriads they have never B ' they , tho fountains of the impulse , the spirit being gone from them , ™ W * sitting alone in the very spot and amid tho ashes of their triumph , sunken u ^ dead , despondent and self-accusing . It requires tho evidence of positive results , assurance of othor men ' a praises , the visible presentation of effects which they ® j " but trace to themselves , to convince such men that they are or oan do ftny * " { £ Whatever manifestations of egotism , whatever strokes of self-assertion come ^ such men , come in the very burst and , frenzy of their passing resifltlessno * North British Review , No . XXXII .
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¦¦ ... ¦ " " TTTT ! LEADlRv ESA ^ tTK DAY . ¦ 162 . - - ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 14, 1852, page 162, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1922/page/22/
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