History of the Philadelphia Stage, Between the Years 1749 and 1855. By Charles Durang. Volume 4. Arranged and illustrated by Thompson Westcott, 1868

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[C.F. Tayler pinx.t T. Woolnoth sculp.t Engraver to H.R.H. The Duchess of Kent.]

[To Mrs. Siddons, this Portrait of Miss Fanny Kemble, in the Character of Portia]

[Engraved By T. Woolnoth From A Miniature By C.F. Tayler Of Bath. in the possession of Mrs. Charles Kemble. is with permission most respectfully dedicated by Her obedient humble Serv.t F. G. Harding.]

[London. Published by F.G. Harding, 24. Cornhill Jan.y 1831.]

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elocution. Mrs. Rowbotham played Ophelia sufficiently good; but her hair looked like a Lord Chancellor's wig without powder. Roberts was not so irresistibly droll as Blisset, but quite natural. Faulker is the best Polonius we ever had here.

Colly Cibber took exceptions to the long pauses of both Mr. and Miss Fanny Kemble. But the young lady used to occupy such intervals with appropriate expression or action, that forcibly appealed to the mind. Her father was not so happy in his silence. This reminds us of an anecdote: John P. Kemble was noted for pauses. In a conversation with manager R. B. Sheridan, Kemble expressed a wish for some novelty at Drury Lane. Sheridan replied, "Kemble, play Hamlet, and have music set between your pauses." Charles' Hamlet was a transcript of his brother's, without the latter's genius.

October 11th, the Ravels' benefit. This corps was now very attractive. They performed during the "off-nights" of the Kembles' engagement.

October 12th, Miss Fanny Kemble made her first appearance her in Milman's tragedy of "Fazio." Geraldi Fazio, Mr. Wood; Duke of Florence, Rowbotham; Bartolo, Maywood; Bianca, Miss Fanny Kemble; Marchesa Aldebella, Mrs. Maywood. The house was crowded with our fashion and beauty, even to the back seats of the second tier. In the front forms of the pit were seated the critical elite of our city's professional intellect, both old and young, impatiently awaiting the appearance of the celebrated Fanny Kemble, whose extraordinary powers of intellect and genius had just revived the decayed drama of England, and restored the lost image of a Siddons to the London audience in the person of her own niece.

During the first act of "Fazio" a breathless silence pervaded the entire audience. Miss Kemble came in as a lady would enter into her own parlor, with quiet elegance and polish to receive her guests. The manner was novel, for the conventionalisms of the stage were entirely absent. Her stature was short, but she was symmetrically formed, well rounded in graceful contour, having the ample chest and muscular development so characteristic of the English women, no doubt the result of calisthenic exercises, rigidly adhered to in their female educational institutions. Her face reminded us of Harlowe's portrait of Mrs. Siddons, in Queen Katharine, in "Henry Eighth," where she exclaims, "Lord Cardinal, to you I speak!" and also the same artist's painting of Mrs. Siddons in Lady Macbeth, act 5, scene 2, "Out, damned spot!" The likeness was most striking. We cannot say that we saw the same regularity of Grecian features; but there was the dark gushing aspect of the Italian female that at once, although in repose, spoke the passions of the Italian wife she was about to depict. When the progress of the scene brought out the passions of the soul in all their various moods, the fearful energy with which she depicted the emotions of jealousy and rage were intense to a degree that the audience did not anticipate. In her first quiet scenes all was hushed as death. "Silence was pleased." It was only at each approaching climax, and the final consummation, that the feelings of the excited audience broke forth in ecstasies. Her countenance was admirably expressive. She had a flashing black eye; her voice was sweet and musical, well attuned by elocutionary rules; her action was the echo of her thought and feeling, but seldom used. It is said "Racine brought order, precision, purity of language, elegance, tenderness and pathos, into the national drama." It was these intellectual qualities, based on Nature and its harmonies eternal, that gave birth to Miss Fanny Kemble's school of acting; for she originated a school with her powerful genius. The tone and tendency of Miss Kemble's mind are of the masculine, both in her acting and her very able literary productions, abounding in strength and originality of thought.

Whether we contemplate Miss Kemble in the elevated sublimities of heroic verse, or in the utterance of the attic wit of Beatrice, or in the fashionable elegancies of Lady Townley, we only behold the symbols of Melpomene and Thalia in their classic forms. When shall we see such another actress? Echo answers "Never!" The ideal of the Kemble school was repose blended with command; but Miss Kemble's style was based upon a repose, thrilling the feelings at intervals with the electrical shocks of passion. She had none of the mere pantomime of the art, such as vehemence and impetuosity without passion, nay, withot a semblance of nature. The stage tricks are seen in beating the head and body, clasping of the forehead, violent pulling of the hair, and all those ludicrous mock-heroic actions which are so vividly satirized in the Critic, as the exagerations of tragedy, and which are too often witnessed in a certain class of the profession at the present day. A sound judgment and taste made Miss K. ever true and natural, as if she painted from inspiration. Thus the philosophy of her dramatic studies was drawn from the works of nature, guided by a lofty genius. Her acting was of so elevating a tone that it left over the stage, after her retirement, a moral feeling, a purifying influence, such as no other individual power ever so effectually impressed on the histrion's mind. Not even Cooke's depth of genius in the evil passions, nor Kean's dazzling flashes, nor his fitful bursts of eloquence and pathos, ever wrought such spiritual reformation, or those changes to rational acting, as did the beautiful aesthetic conceptions and illustrations of Fanny Kemble.

We have not space or time to point out those silent -- sometimes felt by some as monotonous -- passages, by which her elocutionary beauties so effectively ascended to the climax, or like a musical crescendo descended to the anti-climax. Many must remember her Mariana, in the Knowles' play of "The Wife" -- that graphic, descriptive speech, that she gave with so much emphatic grace, keeping her eyes cast down to the floor while reciting the lines, at the end of which she would suddenly raise her face to the object addressed with a flashing expression, confirmative of her truth. The effect thus ever thrilled her auditory. Yet all these and similar passages were said with the calmness of a prayer.

In 1829-'30, the Covent Garden Theatre was in a hopeless state of bankruptcy. The doors were closed. The pecuniary interests of the Kemble family were seriously affected by this result, such interests having been long connected with the building. In this dilemma the idea of Miss Fanny Kemble's theatrical trial was suggested. This event took place on the opening of the season, October 5th, 1830, when she made her debut at Covent Garden in "Romeo and Juliet," thus cast: -- Romeo, Abbott; Mercutio, C. Kemble; Juliet, Miss Fanny Kemble, her first appearance on any stage. Her mother, Mrs. Charles Kemble, returned to the stage for that night only, and supported her effort as Lady Capulet. Miss Kemble was so attractive that she enabled the proprietors of Covent Garden to pay off a debt of [British pounds symbol]13,000.

Miss Kemble was born in 1811, and bred at one of the educational convent institutions in France. Her literary abilities were early developed in may fugitive poems. Her tragedy of "Francis the First," which the London Quarterly Review pronounced "one of the most extraordinary works of the present age," was written and acted in London before her coming hither. Whatever opinions may be entertained of her literary labors, it cannot be denied that they are imbued with great originality of thought.

A critic of our city said, speaking of her tragedy, "that it abounded in many beautiful passages of poetry, scattered with a profuse hand through its elegant dialogue, such as would confer honor on the name of a veteran author."

Monday, 14th, Mr. Kemble and Miss Fanny Kemble's second night. "Romeo and Juliet" -- Romeo, Kemble; Mercutio, Wood; Friar Lawrence, Maywood; Paris, Smith; Tibalt, Rowbotham; Juliet, Miss F. Kemble.

This performance produced the largest audience in numbers and fashion since Cooke's great benefit, when all the front and second seats of the upper boxes were taken. Thus said Colly Cibber and the other critics, who agreed with him: "Miss Kemble, in the estimation of an audience when a Siddons might be proud to please, more than justified the encomiums showered upon her in London and New York. She proved herself to be a tragedienne of extraordinary powers and genius, most richly endowed with gifts of nature which no art can supply, and thoroughly instructed in an excellent school. The only faults noted are a peculiar manner which frequently appears like affectation in the eyes of those unaccustomed to it, and those inordinately long pauses which weary the audience, and therefore must be wrong."

Mr. McKewan, of Chestnut Street, now published a lithographic portrait of Miss K., taken from a drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and which he dedicated to her mother.

Oct. 17th, the Kembles' third night. "School for Scandal" -- Charles Surface, C. Kemble; Joseph, Wood; Sir Peter Teazle, (first time,) Rowbotham; Lady Teazle, Miss F. Kemble; Crabtree, Roberts; Sir Benjamin Backbite, Mr. Spencer; Sir Oliver Surface, Faulkner; Trip, Whiting; Mrs. Candour, Mrs. Maywood; Maria, Mrs. Rowbotham; Lady Sneerwell, Mrs. Thayer.

Mr. Murgrave says -- and we quote him again on this subject, as he had seen all the old actors of the English stage in these comedies -- "Miss Kemble's Lady Teazle, though we must say we thought it not perfect, was the most charming, take it all in all, that we ever saw. She was not equal to Mrs. Wood in the tattling coterie, and she was inferior to Mrs. Entwisle in animation. But she excelled both beyond comparison in her conversations with Sir Peter and Joseph, and was so admirable in these that nothing, except respect for our seniors, induces us to suppose it possible that Mrs. Warren could have surpassed her. As to the style in which Lady Teazle should be represented, there exists a difference of opinion, which Sheridan had it come up in his time, would never have undertaken to settle. Miss Kemble did not show the fashionalbe airs that it is said distinguished Miss Farren and Mrs. Abington, but there was no want of delicacy in a single word or action."

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Charles Kemble, as Charles, was very fine. He was, to use the words of Goldsmith, as applied to Garrick in another character, "natural, simple and affecting." The simple beauty of his elocution was aided incalculably by the classical elegance of his figure and the perfect grace of all his motions. Gentleman Smith, the original representative, could not have surpassed him. We agree with this notice of Kemble: it was truly the most polished and natural perfomance of the part we ever saw. Mr. Faulkner, as Sir Oliver, equalled Francis in the telling points, and perhaps surpassed him in the more feeling passages which that favorite actor was apt to slight.

Spencer's Sir Benjamin Backbite was clever and well dressed; and Mr. Whiting's Trip was the pink of extravagant valets. Roberts, as Crabtree, gave the dialogue with great point -- it was all good. Mrs. Maywood, as Mrs. Candour, discoursed with fashionable volubility.

On the Kembles' fourth night was played "Venice Preserved" -- Pierre, Mr. Kemble; Jaffier, Mr. Rowbotham; Belvidera, Miss F. Kemble. The Kemble mania rather increasing. Oraloosa drew overflows to the Arch Street nightly, although deemed not so excellent a play as the "Gladiator," but the extraordinary excitement between the two houses seemed only to gather strength from opposition. Forrest was certainly very popular at this time. Well, it was a good thing for the poor actors; they received their salaries.

Saturday, October 20th, Kemble's fifth night, "Much Ado About Nothing" -- Benedict, Mr. Kemble; Beatrice, Miss Kemble. A brief review of the Kembles' acting says: "We were not pleased with Mr. Kemble's Pierre. The bold-faced, valiant, rough soldier of fortune, was not there; and we may well say that 'Passion slept while declamation roared.' But the lady's Belvidera was surpassingly excellent. She displayed her usual rare intellectual qualities in Belvidera's sorrows; it was pathetically picturesque, without those exaggerted outward storms of action, and decidedly sustained with chaste coloring -- the least mawkish and most truly loving and lovable Jaffier's wife we ever saw." Her closing mad scene, where others generally fail, was a wonderful piece of acting, and in her a triumph of the art. Listen to Colly Cibber:

* * * * "The most perfect specimen of the female tragic character to be found in the whole range of the British drama, in my estimation, is Jaffier's wife, the chaste Belvidera, the chef d'oeuvre in the tender Olway. The character is extremely difficult of execution, and is almost hopelessly so to an inexperienced artiste, yet there is a young aspirant to fame, but just escaped from her teens, has essayed it fearlessly." * * * * " ' A frown from a handsome set of features,' Ovid says, 'is more to be feared than a blow from the club of Hercules.' However, I must risk this frown were Miss Fanny Kemble twice as handsome in face and person as she really is. Were the thing possible, I must take leave to tell the lady that in her distress she was too lachrymal -- her sobbing was too loud by half, and too incessant. Her three shrieks on learning of the death of Jaffier were just too many, and out of measure, loud and vehement. I don't believe her aunt, Mrs. Siddons, ever uttered so violent a scream during the forty years she adorned the London stage." He thought Kemble better in Benedick than either james Wallack or Wood.

"In the garden scene, after the discovery of Beatrice's love for him, she was never equaled." It was a fine performance -- super-excellent both in father and daughter.

Miss Kemble exercised great influence on both the audience and the actors. Her quiet mode of expression in the most impassioned parts subdued the explosive sympathies of the audience to the silence of admiration, while she modified the rantiing propensities of the performers to her own soft but energetic tone. Although Bianca becomes a perfect Ate in rage, yet in these fiery outbreaks Miss Kemble begat "a temperance that gave it all smoothness," the delicacy of the female artiste. The trance which she falls into at the departure of Fazio to execution, when the death-bell arouses her to the terrible sense of her condition, her start from her statue-like insensibility, was one of the most thrilling things that I ever witnessed. The shriek, "Not guilty! not guilty!" with the exit, was most appalling to the auditor. The play itself has never been worth its apparent appreciation. Bianca is all in all; the rest is "leather and prunella."

October 22nd, Kemble's sixth night, "The Stranger" -- Stranger, Mr. Kemble; Mrs. Hellar, Miss F. Kemble. The public were now informed that in consequence of the daily increasing demand for seats at the box office, and the limited period of the Kembles' visit, the managers have prevailed upon them to perform every evening during the week, to enable the entire public to behold them.

Wednesday, October 24th, Kemble's eighth night. First night of "The Hunchback" in this theatre. Master Walter, Mr. Maywood; Sir Thomas Clifford, C. Kemble; Modus, Mr. Rowbotham; Fathom, Mr. Roberts; Julia, Miss Fanny Kemble; Helen, Mrs. Rowbotham.

The audiences continued as full and brilliant as ever. Mr. Maywood played Master Walter excellently well, evincing great judgment and originality in its masterly delineation. His peculiar qualities of talent and personal requisites rendered him suitable for this difficut but important feature of the play.

"The Hunchback" was first produced in London, April 5th, 1832, eight or nine weeks before it was produced at the Arch Street Theatre, for Mr. Duffy's benefit, after being offered at Drury Lane and refused -- an act which its management had cause to regret subsequently, as its success at Covent Garden, with Miss F. Kemble's aid, virtually closed their doors. Sheridan Knowles, the author, was the original representative of the male hero of his own creation. It would seem that there was a difficulty in furnishing a Master Walter out of the Covent Garden corps to suitably represent this very original, quaint character. Mr. Macready was then a leading member of it; and his capacity, and we may idiosyncratic mode of acting, would have hit Master Walter's peculiarities to a charm. Of course Macready's position left the election of performing it or rejecting it with himself No doubt but that he read the play previous to its being cast, and declined the part, thinking it, doubtless, secondary to Julia. In this exigency the author thought proper to try the part himself. Whether his mellifluous brogue and rather awkward action, but very natural manner, added strength to the cast, we know not -- it clearly did so as a novelty. We saw him once act Icilius to Cooper's Virginius, and we were satisfied that acting was not his sphere. We trust his pulpit oratory is better. He is decidedly a man of genius, and an ornament to dramatic literature. His themes are ever moral -- his women all that nature intended they should be.

Miss Fanny Kemble's Julia, in "The Hunchback," was a studied and effective performance, and most admirably did she dress it. In the garden scene, her lively, rustic manners, tinged with good breeding, seems just and natural, and thus interesting; but, after her arrival in town, we thought she too soon embodied the ease and graces of a fine lady. A degree of rural simplicity would have been more appropriate. The scene where Julian meets Clifford after his reverse of fortune was indeed the acme of judicious, nay, great acting; its beautiful naturalness drew forth at once the sympathies of the audience. Her delivery of those touching lines, "I call you Clifford, and you call me Madam!" were sweetly and pathetically given, but involved in too long a pause. Again, where she takes the letter from Sir Thomas, and in her abstraction forgets receiving it, but asks for it, she was, in the pauses of her speech, filled up (without being thought impious) with a divinity of expression. Her start when Sir Thomas was too perservering, was full of her sex's dignity. Her elevated emotion when she rebuked Modus for his sneers at Clifford's adversity, was really expressed with peculiar beauty:

"Silence, sir! for shame!" I tell you, sir, he was the making Of fifty gentlemen -- each one of whom Were more than peer for thee! His title, sir, Lent him no grace," &c. * * * *

All her subsequent scenes with Master Walter were excellent, brilliantly so. After the storm of passion had subsided its first terrific outbursts, she sat seemingly senseless, but pallid, attended by heavy breathings, the swell of emotion endeavoring to escape through her throat. It was "a painful picture to dwell upon." Her exclamation to Master Walter, when she seizes his arm, "Do it!" was a most remarkable and effective point.

Her Julia, as a critic truly said, "was a noble and at the same time a most touching performance -- noble in the sustained energy of its passion, and touching in the pure depths of its pathos."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH

Season of 1832-'3 at the Chestnut Street Theatre -- End of the Kembles' engagement -- Mr Horn and Miss Hughes -- J. W. Wallack -- "The Rent Day" -- Re engagement of the Kembles -- Close of the season.

At the Chestnut Street Theatre, on Monday, October 20th, was the last night but two of the Kembles. The new play of the "Hunchback" was repeated for the third time.

October 30th, Kembles' last night but one -- "Much Ado About Nothing."

November 1st, Mr. Kemble's benefit. "The Inconstant" -- Young Mirabel, Mr. Kemble; Old Mirabel, Mr. Faulkner; Duretete, Mr. Wood; First Bravo, Mr. Walstien; Bizarre, Miss Kemble; Oreana, Mrs. Rowbotham. The Kemble engagement was continued for two nights more. They appeared on Friday, the 2d of November, in "Venice Preserved" -- Jaffier, (first time,) Mr. Kemble; Pierre, Mr. Wood; Belvidera, Miss Kemble.

November 3d, Kembles' last night; by desire, "Romeo and Juliet" -- Mercutio, (first time in America,) C. Kemble; Romeo (for this night only), Mr. Wood; Juliet, Miss Kemble; Nurse, Mrs. Thayer. Thus the Kembles' finished their engagement on Saturday, November 3d, after playing eighteen nights with almost unprecedented success. Mr. C. Kemble's Mercutio

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[Act II. Rival Queens. Scene 2.]

[I Roberts del. Publish'd for Bells British Theatre Nov.r 1777. Page Sculp.t]

[Mr. Smith in the Character of Alexander When Glory like the dazling Eagle stood Perch'd on my Beaver in the Granick Hood.]

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[Mr. Smith in the Character of Phocyas.]

[I'm Man, frail Man, to error born. Act IV, Sc. 2.]

[Publish'd by J. Wenman 1 July 1778.]

[Mr. Smith in the Character of Orestes.]

[-He is, if I am so.]

[Act 4th. Scene 1st.]

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