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33.
dissolved.

Thus having brought after numerous salient
digressions the old American company proper
to its closing scenes ere we ring the curtain
down upon the original founders of our infant
stage we will by way of epilogue sketch the
characters of the two dramatic governors who
ruled the destinies of the fancy land of the
drama in the new world.

Much romance has been thrown around the
itineracy of the profession ; Wit has enlivened
and Pathos rendered it interesting eliciting the
best sympathies of our nature for the lives and
fate of the wandering theattriccal tribes who
when banished from cities like the ancient
Druids worshipped their gods in the "woods
and wilds" of Dame Nature.

Riley's celebrated work entitled the "Itin-
erant"--perhaps the best work on the subject for
humor and sentiment extant--most graphically
in fact and fiction records the life of the stroll-
ing player. But tte coryphees of the first Ame-
rican company deserve a monument immortal
from the hands of Thespian disciples as a token
of their indomitable adventures and for their
patience in enduring every privation to establish
the civilizing dramatic creed in the new world.
Like the serial conception of the great poet of
nature--Hecate--they sailed over sea and land
for thousands of miles encountering every cli-
mate from burning tropics to the frigid zone--
even from the North American colonies to the
West Indies and back again ; their whereabouts
being like evanscent sand-tracks-as traceless
as the lightning's flash.

Mr. Hallam was a sterling actor--rather pe-
dantic in his character--or what now-a-days
would be called old-fashioned which would be
consequently sneered at ; yet there was a spirit
and gentlemanly ease in all he did. A thorough-
bred artist of the old school correct in concep-
tion which would have been more pleasingly
developed by a closer adherence to nature he
performed an extensive round of characters and
lived to a good old age. We saw him play the
Miller in the "King and Miller of Mansfield"
in the old South stret theatre in the summer
of 1807 a few month before his death. We
think it was one of the last parts that he ever
played on the then fast decaying stage of his
original glory. He died in South Fifth street
Philadelphia on the 1st of November 1808
aged as the papers said 73 years. But if he
was 12 years of age on his arrival in this coun-
try in 1752 he could only have been 68. He
was followed to his last resting place in St.
Peter's church yard but by a few person ; but
those few were most respectable in personal
standing. Among the group who testified their
respect to the memory of the old and forgotten
player we remember to have seen James N.
Barker the dramatist then a dashing young
fashionable. As a manager Mr. Hallam was
inactive and economical to a fault--this inert-
ness and penurious system of saving brought
the concern to the lowest ebb of prostration.
Mutations in taste and the irrespressible desire
for novelty could not be made obvious to his
preconceived peculiar notions. Thus dogmati-

cal on all points he eventually embarrassed the
theatre to almost dissolution. This with some
complicity with his partner (Henry) directed
as Mr. Wignell thought against the interests of
the latter led to Wignell's witdrawal from his
cousin's corps and the erection of the Chesnut
street house. I think but am not certain that
the last character Mr. Hallam ever played was
Cranmer in "Henry the VIII." Although I
was then young I retain a vivid ecollection of
his delivery of Cranmer's benediction over the
infant princes.

His Hamlet as we have before said was well
received in England. We believe that Hallam
was the first actor that ever attempted the
philosophie and university-bred Prince of Den-
mark in this country. We presume that he
wore a court suit as Garrick did. Even John
Kemble as Othello was at first dressed in a
formal suit consisting of coat waistcoat and
small-clothes of scarlet wearing also white silk
stockings and having his hair dressed in a long
military queue. Iago was costumed in a blue
uniform. Sir Thomas Lawrence's picture of
Kemble in the reformed costume of the Hamlet
with the hanging cloak trimmed with black
bugles is really beautiful. Cooper was the first
Hamlet that introduced the present costume to
the American stage. The picturesque beauty
of the dress causes us to loathe the unpoetical
and stiff appearance of the English court suit.
We can only wonder how it kept so long pos-
session of the wardrobe department. Macklin
has been called the Nestor of the English stage--
with what truth we know not. Taylor in the
Records of his Life says "The character of Mac-
beth had been hitherto performed in the attire of
an English General ; but Macklin was the first who
performed it in the old Scottish garb. His ap-
pearance was previously announced by the
Cold-stream March which I then thought the most
delightful muic I had ever heard ; and I never
hear it now without most pleasing recollections.
When Macklin appeared on the bridge he was
received with shouts of applause which were
repeated through his performance. Garrick's
representation of the character was before my
time. Macklin's was certainly not marked by
studied grace of deportment ; but he seemed to
be more earnest in the character than any actor
I have subsequently seen." Thus says John
Taylor the author of Mansieur Tonson and of
prologue and epilogue notoriety.

Of John Henry as an actor we have spoken
heretofore and alluded to the manner in which
his Sir Peter Teazle and Major O'Flaherty was
received. Mr. Henry was excellent in English
opera and we may aver that he was au fait in
any role. He had been an officer in the British
service and always in private appeared the ac-
complished chevalier. A victim to gout he was
obliged to keep a small one-horse coachee to
convey him to his business. t was said that
he was an old-fashioned affair and as an excuse
and also preventive of impertinent remarks he
had painted on the coach doors in the form of
a coat-of-arms a pair of crutches with the sig-
nificant motto "This or these." It was a curious
fact in contrast to see Hallam who was un-

commly active tottering over the stage in
Lord Ogilby assuming admirably the decrepi-
tude of the part while Henry was suffering the
most excruciating torments of gout yet gliding
over the boards like a floating gossamer.

Messrs. Hallam and Henry were proverbial for
giving meagre salaries--a mistaken system ; it
keeps the actor poor and grumbling--ever
seeking to better his condition and never
suitably or satisfactorily fulfilling his duties to
himself or the manager. However it may have
been in those days that the receipts would not
afford a more liberal scale. After Henry re-
turned from England in 1793 he gradually
found himself supplanted in public favor by
Hodgkinson. This unlooked-for event together
with losses threw Henry into a fatal illness and
worked him out of the theatre. He died of a
rapid consumption on board of a sloop going
through Long Island Sound to Boston to fulfill
an engagement and was buried near Oyster
Bar on the sands of the beach--his funeral
dirge the rolling surf and not even a sea-shell
to mark the spot of his sepulture.

Hallam and Henry were often at variance.
Hallam has been accused by his cotemporaries
of machiavellian principles. Mr. Dunlap in his
Annals of the American Stage with some bitter-
ness of feeling records this disposition of Hal-
lam. Mr. D. alleges with some acrimony and
we believe with some truth that "he was sow-
ing the seeds of discontent successfully dividing
but never successfully governing." Our notes
bear us out in the same charge. From or
recollection of him in 1807 he exhibited a very
querulous disposition during the rehearsals.
However the weather was very warm and the
business of the theatre was bad.

Hallam and Henry never cordially agreed.
The former was cross and crabbed and ever
snarling at his shadow ; while Henry was hot-
headed weak in business transactions and
always ready to quarrel and fight. Hallam was
not tall was about five feet seven in stature
and not disposed to fight--yet no coward. The
partners had a regular set-too one night in the
dressing-room of the old South street theatre
wherein Hallam got the best of it. Hallam was
an active man and Henry's gouty disposition
restrained the vigor of his spirit.

Their quarrels were frequent and contrariness
usually characterized their intercourse. One
would seldom do what the other asked or request-
ed. One night appointed for performance Hallam
seemed or was very ill. He requested Henry to
make an apology for him. (At this time Henry
was limping with gout.)

"What shall I say ?" inquired Henry. "What
excuse can I make ? You look tolerably well."

"Why then say that I am lame" replied
Hallam.

"That will be of no use" said Henry ; "the
audience won't believe me."

"Why ?" said Hallam.

"Because" replied Henry "they will see
that I am lame and that you are not."

"Well" says Hallam "tell them that my
sympathy for you has made me lame."