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[For the Sunday Dispatch.]

THE PHILADELPHIA STAGE
FROM 1740 TO 1855.

BY CHARLES DURANG.

SECOND SERIES.

Embracing the period between the opening of
the Chesnut street Theatre, December 2,
1822, to its demolition, April 1855.

INTRODUCTORY - The Chesnut street company at
the Walnut street theatre during the season of
1821-'2 - Miss Seymour, afterward Mrs. Rowe -
Nichols - John Greene - Mrs. Alexander Drake,
formerly Miss Denny - The Wests - Capt. Turnbull
- Master George Frederick Smith - Serious
accident to James Wallack - Anecdotes of Pelby,
&c.

We have, in the first series of these sketches,
noticed the proceedings of the old Chesnut
street company, after they were deprived by
fire of the use of their ancient temple. During
the winter of 1820-'21, they were at the Walnut
street theatre, at which house we have
stated Mr. Forrest and other dramatic celebrities
made their first appearance. After the destruction
of the Chesnut street theatre, the
stockholders paused for a while for consultation
and thought. It was finally determined to
rebuild the house, but, before that measure was
perfected, the usual months of the winter season
had arrived. The company again went to
the Walnut street house, where they performed
during the usual period in 1821-'22.

The theatre opened with Cumberland's admirable
comedy of "The West Indian," thus
cast: Mr. Stockwellm Mr. Warren; Belcour, Mr.
Wood; Major O'Flaherty, Mr. Burke, (his first
appearance in two years;) Captain dudley, Mr.
Wheatly; Charles Dudley, Mr. Darley; Varland,
Mr. Francis; Fulmer, Mr. Blissett; Stukely, Mr.
Hathwell; Sailors, Messers. Scrivener and Martin,
Servants, Messrs. Parker and Murry; Lady
Rusport, Mrs. Simpson; Charlotte Rusport, Mrs.
Wood; Louisa Dudley, Mrs. Darley; Mrs. Fulmer,
Mrs. Francis; Lucy, Mrs. Bloxton. This
last lady was known for many years as Mrs.
Seymour, and was a favorite covalist in ballads.
She had a fine soprano voice, but had
the benefir of no cultivation, except the practice
in the profession. She had been a very
pretty little English woman, and was a member
of the old Park company for many seasons.
Miss Seymour, a member of the Philadelphia
comany this season, was let an orphan at a
very early age, in Baltimore. She was generously
adopted by Mrs. Bloxton, who gave her
all the care which an affectionate parent would
have given. She brought her up to the stage,
where the oung lady became a very useful
member to the company as an actress of respectable
attainments. After this season Mrs.
B., with Miss Seymour, (the latter having taken
the name of her foster mother,) accepted an
engagement with Mr. James H. Caldwell for the
New Orleans circuit. Miss. S. became a great
favorite with her audience. Possessing personal
attraction and talent, she sustained a line
of leading business with propriety and entire
satisfaction to all. Miss Seymour married Mr.
James Rowe, the theatrical treasurer of Mr. J.
H. Caldwell. Mrs. Rowe died at New Orleans,
and Mr. Rowe, in a fit of insanity, committed
suicide in Tennessee, in 1835.

The new engagements this season at the
Walnut were Mr. and Mrs. Burke, Mr. and Mrs.
H. Wallack, and Mr. Nichols, from the Charleston
theatre.

On the 15th of November, Mr. Nichols made
his first appearance here as Count Belina, in
"The Devil's Bridge." And ou old friend, Mr.
John Greene, who subsequently became celebrated
in the Irish role, made his first appearance
in this corps in Antonio, in the same piece.
Mrs. Burke sustained the Countess Rosalvina,
her first appearance in two years.

Mr. Nichols was a musician. He possessed a
fine tenor voice, and, for a singer, was a fair
actor. He was bought out to the Charleston
theatre from London in 1817, by Mr. Holman,
to sustain Miss Latimer in English opera. This
lady made, at that period, a great sensation, as
a vocalist, throughout the country. She was
afterwards known as Mrs. Holman, and is now
as Mrs. Sandford. She resides in New York,
having lonf since retired to private life, which
she adorns with as much grace and deserved
respect as she did her sphere on the stage. Mr.
Nichols did not remain in the company after
this season.

On November 16, 1821, the tragedy of "wallace,
or The Hero of Scotland," was produced
for the first time. The casy was thus: Wallace,
Mr. Wood; Comyn, Mr. Warren; Stuart, Mr.
Johnson; Douglas, Mr. H. Wallack; Monteith,
Mr. Darley; Ramsey, Mr. Greene; Angus, Mr.
Parker; Kierly, Mr. Burke; Fergus Mr. J. Jefferson;
Allen, Mr. Jones; Athols, Mr. Murry.
English - Clare, (Earl of Gloster,) Mr. Hathwell;
Lord De Clifford, Mr. Wheatly; Sir R.
Fitz Eustace, Mr. Scrivener; Bracy, Mr. Martin;
Helen, wife of Wallace, Mrs. Wood.

This drama must not be confounded with the
melodrama so popular in our theatres, and
which eclised, in after years, the above tragedy.

Mrs. Drake, of the Kentuky theatres, made
her debut for one night only, this season, (Nov.
22,) as Juliana, in "The Honey Moon." Stars,
at this time, either from the East, West, North,
or South, were not abundant in the theatrical
sky. The astrologicacl dramatic theory, so
transcendentally developed at the present day,
was in embryo, if we except a few of the London
stock actors, who graciously came to throw
the silver mantles of their art over our senses;
but few, if any, then enlightened our native
boards. Their absence made our stage the
more perfect, as their progressive introduction
has served to banish good stock actors to
"Lethe's Wharf," or has turned decent performers
into these glittering rovers. The business
at the Walnut at this time was not good,
and the smiles of the play-going public were
reserved for the opening of the new house in
Chesnut street. But the managerial efforts this
season to produce novelty, illustrated by a
strong company, were most indefatigable.

Mrs. Drake's maiden name was Denny. She
was a native of Albany. As this lady was for
many years a leading actress in the West, and
a protoge of the people in the early days of
trans-Ohio dramatic annals, therefore a few remarks
may not be inappropriate here. Miss D.
became enamored of theatricals in her native
State, where little was to be seen of the stage
but the crudest material. Having witnessed a
performance at the Park theatre, during an
occasional visit to New York, she resolved to
become initiated in Melomene's Eleusinian
mysteries. Albany had no respectable temple
of worship at that time which "young ambition"
could court, and novitiate entrance into
one of our principal theatres was of as difficult
arrangement as a negotiation of the English
provincial aspirant for admittance to the boards
of one of the national theatres of Londod.
After a successful first appearance she was advised
to try her fortune at the West. Thither
she went, and became a member of old Mr.
Saml. Drake's company, soon taking the place as
his leading actress, and subsequently becoming
his daughter-in-law, She married his son,
Alexander Drake, who was a low comedian, and
had the misfortune to be deaf, a calamity to
any player. The patriarchal manager (for the
corps then consisted nearly of his own family)
was a man of integrity, possessing good sense,
dramatic business tact, besides being a musician.
He therefore won and deserved the cognomen
of the "Father of the Western Stage." Our
heroine was a large and fine-figured woman.
Her face was vividly expressive, but rather of
ther hearty Hebe caste than of classical contour.
Indeed her form and powers were Amazonian,
and full of fire and energy, which made
her more suitable to the business of "heavy
tragedy" than to tragic juvenile illustration.
In after days we saw her play Elvira, and parts
of that nature, with excellent effect, bu we
cannot say that she possessed genius. Mrs.
Drake had then improved her readings and
orthoepy with a more chastened style. Her
manner was impulsive, without that refinement
which critics then and now claim for the English
school. But, acting, after all, is a matter of
taste, of opinion, to be made to conform to educated
prejudices as nationally impressed. The
polished mode of the so-called London school,
imbued with a measured energy, as if alarmed
at nature, and also the classical, cold declamation
of French tragedy, seem not congenial
with the native impulsiveness of the American
feeling and conception. That vigor of speech
and action so suggestive, or indicative of
"Young America," is worthy of serious consideration,
and if it could be discreetly modified
and softened, may yet be productive of models,
and a bright school, however it may now prove
obnoxious to foreign criticism.

In 1819, Miss Denny performed quite an
equestrian feat. She felt a desire to visit the
East again, and her home and friends at Albany,
New York and Philadelphia. She had now
been absent for some time in Kentucky. At that
period there were no comfortable and regular
lines of stages or coaches running for public accommodation
between the western and Atlantic
towns. Journeys were often performed on
horseback, which consumed some two or three
weeks from Ohio or "old Kentuck." We have

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