On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (3)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    €ht Ms.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    One star alone grew yet more bright , And larger with the death of night , And cast on flower and tree fresh light : But chiefly fell its mystic beams On the pale maiden of my dreams , "Who weeps by Eden ' holy streams . She ; self-reproached and self-betrayed , ' Half sorrowful and half dismayed , Grieves under an enchanted shade .

    • ' O star , " she cries , ¦ " dost thou regain Thine ancient splendour ? fair domain Made fairer to increase my pain ! " O star ! be sad as I am sad , Our dear lost angel is not glad , And can we have the joy we had ?" So grieves she still , so still resents Her angel ' s fate , and scarce laments The trespass she but half repents .

    But through this lattice-work of trees A red and angry light she sees , That rolls along the rolling breeze : It comes that way , it grows more red , Self-moving > self-concentrated j She sees it come , she droops her head . It comes more near i she sees , she hears , She moves not ; if she feanvshe fears As one who looks for falling spheres :

    And may not feel , and cannot know , Whether such things as weal and woe , Or love and grief , abide below . It comes , Jt stands the dawn beneath , She feels the presence and the breath Of him whom we poor men call Death : In crimson heart of flaming cloud His shadowy head a . shadow bowed , But opened wings like daylight's " shroud ,

    Embroidered by the sunset skies . When day lay dead on Paradise , And Eve taught Adam it would rise . It touches her , her heart is cold , Her eyes may look , but not behold , And misty waves are round her rolled . M .

    Untitled Article

    DEJAZET . JElle ria pas d ' age J is the universal exclamation : " Age cannot wither her , nor custom stale Her infinite variety . " No young woman on the stage could be so young , and so captivating , as Dejazet in the character of Richelieu at fifteen . It is not that one has to make allowances and say how " wonderful at her age ! " the performance is intrinsicall y fine , wonderful at any age . A very thin , house enjoyed her Cohmbine , but to Les Premigres Armes de Richelieu there was an

    immense house , and , immense enjoyment in that house . Tho first is a tiresome piece a , tiroir , wherein the actress shows you her wardrobe , and exhibits her faire ; but a singer might almost as well sol fa and call it singing . You admire the wardrobe , you admire the talent , but you yawn at the pieco . In Les Premieres Armes de Richelieu , on the contrary , wo have a gay , sparkling , little comedy , without a superfluous passage , without a sentence that hangs fire , and with several phases of a character naturall y presented . As the boyish , awkward bridegroom , just introduced at court , Dejazet was natural and charming : through that awkwardness , winch was not without its graoo , there shono a glittering wit and resolution , which prepared us for thn ohnr \ crn frnm iho naive hnv into tho cool .

    caroloss coxcombry of tho man an sucoes . Very noticeable was tho quiet truth of manner with which she received tho " lesson" given by tho Princess who aonds a box of bonbons as a cadeaic de noces ; she did not exaggerate , oven by a look , and tho effect was very sensible As for tho delivery of repartees , no language can convoy an idea of that —( at least , no languago 1 "I ° e < T [ uiotly wo gontlemon of the press assume that fcho standard ot accomplishment must be nieasurod by our incompetence , and uocauso we are beggars in phrase , and know not the dolicato secrots of a language which refuses nothing to happy ardour of search , decloro " no words can point this , " or " it is impossible to describe that 1 " ) Dojazefa xnannor ot uttering a slight phrase makes it flash upon you as a brilliant witticism . This is a aervioo which good actors render authors , for which tuoy do not ofton get tho credit . nin , 5 PJf ° e was mcolv aotod altogether , and beautifully dressed . Lafont Ployed the email part of the Chevalier , and made it an agreeablo figure . Jw-aue . Avenel was hearty , and not coarse , in . tho bourgeoise at court—a

    class of characters for which she is better suited then the class she played last season . The rest , though not good , were inoffensive . . An absurd prejudice exists , upon which . I am tempted to make a remark . Because the best French actors are unquestionably excellent , our public , by an easy fallacy , assumes that all French actors are good ; and 1 hear on aH hands the foolishest remarks depreciating our own actors , in favour of men and women whom I must call simply detestable , but who ,- because they are French , are applauded , and pronounced " so superior to anything on our stage . " No one will accuse me of underbad

    rating French acting . When it is worst , it is nofc so bad as our acting . But it is often very bad ; and I do not much believe in the talent of the second-rates . What our actors want , and -what they might learn from the French , is the drawing-room quietness of well-bred acting—the subordination of " points" to character—the reliance upon nature . It is in these things that Charles Mathews surpasses all English actors , and has gradually earned for himself his peculiar reputation ; it is by the absence of these that Charles Keanf out of melodrame , has acquired his peculiar reputation . Charles Kean , after vainly battling with fate so many years , seems now , consciously or unconsciously , settling down into the conviction that his talent does not lie in any Shaksperian sphere whatever , but in melodrames , such as Pauline , or his last venture ,

    THE COBSICAN BROTHEBS , where , as high intellect is not de rigueur , he is not restricted by its fastidious exigencies . It is certainly worth a passing remark , to note how bad an actor he is in any part requiring the expression of intellect or emotion * —in any part demanding some sympathy with things poetical , — in any part calling for representative power j ana how impressive , and , I may say , -unrivalled , he is in gentlemanly melodrama . The successful portions of his tragic characters are all melodramatic ; and in Pauline

    and the Corsican Brothers he satisfies all the exigencies of criticism . shall not be suspected of partiality , and I beg the reader not to suppose any latent irony in my praise , ( for I am ftot afraid to praise Kean when that praise is due , ) and , with this preface , let me say that the Corsican Brothers is the most daring , ingenious , and exciting melodrama I remember to have seen ; and is mounted with an elegance , an accuracy , an ingenuity in the mingHng of the supernatural with the real , and an artistic disposition of effects , such as perhaps no theatre could equal , certainly not

    surpass . The first act sets forth Corsican life in its wildness , its superstitions , and its vendetta . An excellent scene is that of the reconciliation of the Orlandos and the Colonnas , and their relinquishment of the vendetta , —a scene both fresh and effective , and capitally played by Byder ; but it has nothing to do with the piece , and surprises by its presence in a French drama , where construction is always so careful . Its only office is to bring visibly before us the Corsican feeling about la vendetta . Besides this feeling , there is another indicated in this act , —viz ., the mysterious affinity of the twin brothers , Louis and Fabian , through which they communicate at whatever distance . Fabian is now restless and uneasy , convinced that something has happened to his brother Louis , and , while he

    writes to him , to learn the truth , the spectre of his brother , with blood on his breast , appears to him . Nothing can exceed the art with which this is managed ; with ghostly terror , heightened by the low tremolos of the violins , and the dim light upon the stage , the audience , breath-suspended , watches the slow apparition , and the vision of the duel which succeeds : a scenic effect more real and terrible than anything I remember . By a daring novelty of construction , the second act is supposed to go on simultaneously with the first , so that at the end of the second , the two are blended in one vision . The second act opens with a gay and brilliant scene of a bal de VopeVa , wonderfully well done , —the groups animated and lifelike , the dresses splendid and various , and the drama naturally issuing out of the groups in the most unforced manner . The action of : this act is simphr the entanglement of Louis in the circumstances which

    load to tho duel wherein ho is kiUed , as the vision of Act I . exhibited to us . The third act is brief , and is little more than the duel with Fabian , come from Corsica to avenge his brother ; but it is surrounded with a number of superstitious circumstances that give a shuddering anxiety to every passage . Fabian and Chateau Renaud fight ; during tho pause , the latter loans upon his sword , and breaks it . Fabian , to equalize the combat , snaps his sword also ; and both then take the broken halves , and fastening thorn in their grasp by cambric handkerchiefs , they fight as with knives . This does not read as horriblo , perhaps ; but to see it on the stage , represented with minute ferocity of detail , and with a truth on the part of the actors , which enhances tho torror , the effect is so intense , so horrible , bo startling , that one gentleman indignantly oxclaimed w » - English f It was , indeed , gratuitously shocking , and Charles Kean will damage himself in public estimation by such moral mistakos , showing a vulgar lust for tho lowest sources of oxoitomont—tho tragedy of the shambles ! But it is tho fatality of melodrama to know no limit . The

    tendency of tho senses is downwards . To gratify thorn stimulants must Tbo added and added , chili upon cayonno , butchery upon murder , " horrors on horrors' head accumulated ! " And horoin . hos tho secret weakness and inevitable failure of Molodramo ; tho secret of the failure of Le The'&tre JFistorique , in spito of Dumas , in spite of Molingue , in spite of tho concentration of " effects , " in spito of vogucy scenery , drossoa , acting , terrors , tears , laughter , tho clash of swords , tho clatter of spurs , the spasms of agony , tho poniards , tho poisons , the trap-doors , and moonlight ofFocts—bankruptcy was the goal to which all tended 1 Tho soorot , as I said , lies in the fact that Molodramo appeals to tho lowest facultios , the avonuos to which aro very limited , consequently tho influence is soon oxhaustod ; whoroas LVoma appeals to the highest faculties , and their avenues aro infinite .

    But I will not philosophize ; enough for tho present that the Corsican Brothers is a Molodramo , full of invention , rivetting in intorost , put on tho stage with immense varioty and splendour , and very finoly acted . Leave the resthotio question aside , and consider tho Molodramo as a Molodramo , and , short of tho horriblo termination , I say wo liavo had nothing so offeotivo for a . long while .

    €Ht Ms.

    € ht Ms .

    Untitled Article

    Feb . , 1852 . 1 THE LEADER . 209

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 28, 1852, page 209, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1924/page/21/