the tragedian an essay on the histrionic genius of junius brutus booth by thomas ridgeway gould

8/6/2019 The Tragedian an Essay on the Histrionic Genius of Junius Brutus Booth by Thomas Ridgeway Gould

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BERKELEYLIBRARYUNIVERSITY OFCALIFORNIA


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THE TRAGEDIANAN ESSAY ON

THE HISTRIONIC GENIUSOF

JUNTOS BEUTUS BOOTH.

THOMAS R. GOULD.

NEW YORK:PUBLISHED BY KURD AND HOUGHTON.

1868.


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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, byTHOMAS R. GOULD,

In the Clerk s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

LOAN STACK

RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BT

H. 0. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.


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MAc I ^

ToEDWIN BOOTH,

WHOSE RARE GOOD GIFTS HAVE ALREADY WON FOR HEVITHE UNDIVIDED ADMIRATION AND RESPECT OF

HIS COUNTRYMEN,

OF HIS ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER, ARE AFFECTIONATELYINSCRIBED,

BY THE AUTHOR.

716


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PUBLISHER S NOTE.

THE admirable photograph which facesthe title-page, was taken by H. G. Smithfrom a marble bust of Mr. Booth, sculpturedby the author of this volume.


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CONTENTS.PAGE

RICHARD III 37HAMLET 49SHYLOCK 73IAGO 81OTHELLO 92MACBETH 118LEAR . . 134CASSIUS 151SIR GILES OVERREACH 153LUKE 158SIR EDWARD MORTIMER 160BRUTUS 166PESCARA 172REUBEN GLENROT 175OCTAVIAN 176BERTRAM . . . . 177PIERRE 179THE STRANGER . . . . . . 180THE TRAGEDIAN 181AN INCIDENT 182A DIALOGUE 184THE TRAGEDIAN 188


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THE TRAGEDIAN.

DECEMBER, 1852.TEN days ago a private letter from New

Orleans assured us, that the great actor ofthe age had arrived from the " GoldenLand," was then playing an engagement inthat city, and appeared in remarkably goodhealth.

Swiftly following this intelligence whichgave us hope soon again to " have sight "of the Proteus of Shakespearean character" coming from the sea," and hear once morethe strange inward music of his voicecame last week, with " spleen of speed," thetelegram that he had died on the passage toCincinnati.Our first feeling was the pang of a per

sonal friendship, suddenly parted. Thencame the thought that a great artist, thegreatest in his sphere in our day, had passed


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6 THE TRAGEDIAN.away; and finally, vivid images and emotions, won from that wide range of tragiccharacter in which he so truthfully lived,came crowding into our memory.

JUNIUS BRUTUS BOOTH was born in London, May 1, 1796. He appeared on the London stage at the age of twenty, but has runthe greater part of his dramatic career inthis country. He was of short stature, buthis presence and action were types of manliness and power. His face was cast originallyin the antique Roman mould ; and even manyyears after the untoward accident whichspoiled its classic outline, it presented, on oneoccasion, when we were sitting by his side,a singular resemblance to the portraits ofMichael Angelo.No language can do more than recall, tothose who have seen him in his most vitalmoods, the terrible and beautiful meaning ofhis look and gesture ; or the charm of hismassive and resonant voice. For voice,gesture, and every fibre of his wonderfulorganization, were subordinated to a genius,which laid hold of and expressed, withabsolute sincerity, the radical elements ofcharacter ; and gave play to its minor mani-


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 7festations, with the spontaneous freedom andvariety of nature.We well remember how, in former times,we hungered and thirsted, in the intervals ofhis absence, after the intellectual beauty ofhis personations.

His great popularity, which time, accident,and eccentric habits seldom availed to diminish, seemed owing mainly to those fireblasts of a volcanic energy, that power ofinstant and tremendous concentration of passion, which was one constituent of his genius.Yet it was curious to observe a crowded andtumultuous pit, with its new comers struggling for some " coigne of vantage " in thedoorways, noisily careless of the sorrows ofKing Henry, but hushed in a moment,

" Still as night,Or summer s noontide air,"as the grand, but subdued and self-communing intonations of Richard s opening soliloquyfell upon their ears.

In the cumulative and energetic evolutionof character, which forms the basis of hisfame, the subtler traits of Mr. Booth s delineations were often overlooked ; but, to ourthinking, it was this marvelous delicacy


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8 TEE TRAGEDIAN.especially which made his acting " the feastit was." It was this rare power which enabled him to follow the lead of Shakespeare simagination, in its most secret windings andits airiest flights, and found him the soleartist of our time, worthy to present

inlivingform the characters of Hamlet, lago, Othello,

and Lear.Thus much have we felt impelled to say,

in the hurry of the hour,- in grateful memoryof one from whom we have drawn deep delight and instruction ; while we reserve, tosftme future day, an ampler notice, worthy,we trust, in some measure, of his exaltedrepresentative genius.


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1868.AN actor s posthumous fame is, by the

nature of his art, visionary and traditional.The sculptor s thought lives after him, inlines and masses of imperishable marble ; thepainter s in simulated forms and " sorcery ofcolor " on his canvas ; and from the impishfigures of the composer s score, a cunninghand may at any time evoke

" The hidden soul of harmony."But when a great actor passes away, nothingremains excepting grand and delicate images,which in silent hours crowd the memory ofthose who have seen him, and the report ofwhich finds a fainter and still receding echoin the minds of those who have not.In this view, in grateful testimony to the

rare delight his personations have afforded ;and in the hope of giving body to the vision,and language to the common sentiment of hisappreciators, we proceed to record our impressions of Mr. Booth s genius for dramaticimpersonation.


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10 THE TRAGEDIAN.

And here we feel we cannot advance onesteady step without first considering, andhaply disposing of, Charles Lamb s thoughtful essay " On the Tragedies of Shakespeare,considered in their fitness for stage representation"; in which he evinces the mostpenetrating sentiment of the quality ofShakespeare s genius, and denies with equalemphasis, but less discretion, the power of thestage to reproduce it. The sophistry of hisargument, as we apprehend it, lies in his applying to Shakespeare s dramas the mostsubtle imaginative tests, and thereupon assuming the entire absence of the imaginativefaculty in the representation of those dramason the stage. Let us review his theory ; for ifShakespeare cannot be represented, it is idleto assign the quality of genius to any actor.Lamb tells us that, as he was taking aturn in Westminster Abbey, he was struckby an affected figure of Garrick, the player,underwrit by some fustian lines about theequality of genius between Garrick andShakespeare ! Scarcely need we affirm oursympathy with Lamb s condemnation of their" false thoughts and nonsense." They contain sufficient provocation to set off the ec-


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THE TRAGEDIAN. Hcentric genius of Elia at a smart pace in theopposite direction.We can follow him in his lucid expositionof the inadequacy of the stage to representsupernatural scenery ; and the consequentfailure of all attempts to reproduce the fairycreations of "A Midsummer Night s Dream,"and " The Tempest." These require fortheir due appreciation, an imagination subtilized by quiet, and airily abstracted fromthe presence of material objects.But when he

proceedsto

distinguishthe

stage as equally incapable of embodyingsingle human characters, in which the imagination plays a conspicuous part ; or who arepossessed by supernatural emotions, as Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, then we part companywith the ingenious essayist. The possibilityof their adequate representation by livingman is involved in the fact of their creationwithin the sphere of humanity.No doubt, Lamb s sensitive spirit, developed and nourished in the morning light anddew and fragrance of the English classics,was often shocked by pretenders to themuch-abused and misjudged fine art of actingthat swarmed the London theatres. Even


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12 THE TRAGEDIAN.Edmund Kean, no pretender, but an originaland genuine artist, may have swelled thecurrent of this feeling.

Hazlitt cherished a passionate admirationfor Kean ; but he was a jealous lover, andfrequently chastised his favorite. Kean disappointed him in Lear. The critic quotesthe passage,

" heavens,If you do love old men, if your sweet swayHallow obedience, if yourselves are old,Make it your cause; send down, and take my part!Art not ashamed to look upon this beard?

Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand?"and adds, " One would think there are tonesand looks and gestures answerable to thesewords, to thrill and harrow up the thoughts,to i appall the guilty and make mad the free :or that might create a soul under the ribs ofdeath ! But we did not see or hear them.It is not enough that Lear s crosses and perplexities are expressed by single strokes."Lamb retorts, "What have looks andtones to do with that sublime identification ofhis age with that of the heavens themselves,when, in his reproaches to them, for connivingat the injustice of his children, he remindsthem that they themselves are old " ?


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 13Lamb enforces his abstract point by italicizingthe word "heavens." But the attentivereader of the play will see that Lear, thegrand old pagan king, uses this word interchangeably with "gods" the gods werepersons if the heavens are not.

. The respective printed articles in whichthese opposing views occur, are the evidentoutcome of a foregone conversation. Wecan fancy Hazlitt coming, on a Wednesdayevening, hot from the theatre, into that congress of wits and good fellows then assembledat Lamb s lodgings ; uttering and controverting opinion, with fierce and fitful eloquence ;then disappearing, in order to write one ofthose papers on Kean s performances, whichwas to lighten from his firefly page, on thedull world of London, in the " Chronicle "of the following day.Lamb might have added, and with equalpertinency, to his question about looks andtones, what have words to do with thatsublime identification ? Words are arbitrarysigns. Tone is their living spirit. Tone isthe direct utterance of the heart and theimagination. We hold with Hazlitt. Wehave heard tones equal to the expression of


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14 THE TRAGEDIAN.the grandest words of Shakespeare. Theyring in the chambers of memory. We haveseen faces, one face, at least, capable of presenting the very look of Lear, as he stoodwith his lifted face, blanched and wasted byaccumulated and unutterable grief, his soullooking through blue eyes, beyond the storm,towards the blue heavens, the abode of those" kind gods " into whose awful likeness hewas for the moment transfigured.We judge of the capability of an art, hadwe no better guide, by its best examples, notits average product : as in painting we take,not a tavern sign, being a portrait of the proprietor ; but rather Raphael s picture in theDresden Gallery of that Divine Child whosename is Wonderful.Lamb supposes that an actor must be

thinking only and always of his own appearance. " On what compulsion must he ? tellus that." A genuine actor, it is true, delightsin his own product as an artist ; but whymay he not feel, at the same time, the inspiration of his author, even to the point of self-forgetfulness ? Brooding study, and a mastery over the business of his profession, maybe the very means of his emancipation, and


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 15contribute to give free play to his genius ;even as the habit of virtue deepens the fountains of spontaneous goodness.Compare for a moment the histrionic with

a sister, art, and see what delight of libertythe former may command. If the dull andsilent clay can be so manipulated by the handof genius as to insphere and express the rarest beauty of woman, as in that NeapolitanPsyche, pure, proud, visionary ; or rise to thecolossal grandeur of the Phidian Jupiter,("how big imagination glows in that lip

!")

why may not the actor, whose clay is a livingorganism of fearful and wonderful forces,make it an instant vehicle of the most glowing inspiration. He is statue, and picture,and poem, and music, and informs them allwith life and motion, through the charm ofhis magnetic presence.Lamb s article is a special literary plea.Let the closet student exalt, if he will, thepleasure of abstract reverie. We hold it tobe " womanish and weak," compared withthat robust and intellectual delight, whichcomes with the " sense of distinctness " agreat actor is capable of imparting to creationsof human character whose form is genuine,


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16 THE TRAGEDIAN.and which can bear light and sound and motion. The charm of Shakespeare s dramas isnot a witch s spell, that an uttered word maybreak.

Certain purists of to-day are following alike line of argument with Lamb, in theirgraduation of the relative dignity of the arts.Their formula might be stated thus : that isthe finest art which employs the most immaterial vehicle. But so long as the beauty ofthe world depends on the law of gravitation,we dare maintain, that the finest art is thatin which the solidest material is permeatedby the most spiritual thought. This is thetrue

" Bridal of the earth and sky."Not with his usual vision of the germs and

processes of genius did Lamb write, that anactor is an imitator of the signs and turns ofpassion. An actor of the understanding, asensible actor, indeed, always takes thismethod ; an imaginative actor, never. Onetakes the words of the text (always premising that he is not a poor copy of someempirical precedent), reasons upon, andinfers the meaning, and so extracts thecharacter. The result of this method, how-


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 17

ever carefully and comprehensively employed,is at best but an abstract induction, havingsomething of the aspect of reality, but automatic, and without the breath of life.The other looks, for example, into one of

Shakespeare s great creations, as if passinginto a real presence ; is filled and atmospheredby its spirit ; listens to its language as to aliving voice ; is brought into intimate relations with the springs of its being ; andconceives it in unity by the power of abrooding and recreative imagination.And unto this power, because " it comethnot with observation," but transcends theunderstanding ; because it is vital and life-giving, and elevates acting from a mimeticinto an imaginative art, subordinating thecomparative intellect to its higher and self-justified laws, we feel bound to give, witha considerate and responsible decision, thesacred name of genius.

This word is too often profaned. We donot intend either to cumber or distract thereader s mind with a new definition. But itwill be found equally true of the representative, as of the originating arts, that they findtheir highest expression with swiftness, ease,


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18 THE TRAGEDIAN.and joy. With swiftness ; for repose itself,a live quiet, a quality so profound in art andso misappreciated, sits at the farthest removefrom dullness, and necessitates a quick continuity of harmonious conditions. " Living"and " quick " are English synonyms. Withease ; for, when the high powers of the mindcome by invitation or spontaneous consent,and combine and converge towards one common end, the beautiful in art, their grandestand their gravest work is play. The glow ofthis play is the very element of joy.

If in addition to the power we have indicated, but dare not define, an actor be giftedwith an organization instantly responsive toits monitions, the conduit of its influence, andthe varying form of its strong possession, orits subtle and shifting inspiration, we call himby the noble name of artist.That Mr. Booth was a man of genius inthe vital conception, and a consummate artistin the varied expression of dramatic, and especially of Shakespearean character, we hopeamply to illustrate, by a review of his moreimportant personations, defined and refreshedby memoranda made at the time of theiroccurrence, during many years, for privatereference and delight.


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 19In person Mr. Booth was short, spare and

muscular ; with a head and face pf antiquebeauty ; dark -hair ; blue eyes ; a neck andchest of ample but symmetrical mould ; a stepand movement elastic, assured, kingly. Hisface was pale, with that healthy pallor whichis one sign of a magnetic brain. Throughoutthis brief, close-knit, imperial figure, Naturehad planted or diffused her most vital organicforces ; and made it the capable servant ofthe commanding mind that descended intoand possessed it in every fibre.The airy condensation of his temperamentfound fullest expression in his voice. Soundand capacious lungs, a vascular and fibrousthroat, clearness and amplitude in the interior mouth and nasal passages, formed itsphysical basis. Words are weak, but thetruth of those we shall employ, in an endeavor to suggest that voice, will be felt bymultitudes who have been thrilled by itsliving tones. Deep, massive, resonant, many-stringed, changeful, vast in volume, of marvelous flexibility and range ; delivering withease, and power of instant and total interchange, trumpet-tones, bell-tones, tones likethe " sound of many waters," like the muffledand confluent " roar of bleak-grown pines."


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20 THE TRAGEDIAN.But no analogies in art or nature, and espe

cially no indication of its organic structureand physical conditions, could reveal the innersecret of its charm. This charm lay in themind, of which his voice was the organ: a4t most miraculous organ," under the sway ofa

thoroughly informing mind. The chestvoice became a fountain of passion and emotion. The head register gave the " clear,silver, icy, keen, awakening tones " of thepure intellect. And as the imagination stands,with its beautiful and comforting face, betweenheart and brain, and marries them with abenediction, giving glow to the thoughts, andform to the emotions, so there arose in thisintuitive actor a third element of voice, hardto define, but of a fusing, blending, Kindlingquality, which we may name the imaginative,which appeared now in some single word,now with the full diapason of tones in somememorable sentence, and which distinguishedhim as an incomparable speaker of the English tongue. That voice was guided by amethod which defied the set rules of elocution.It transcended music. It " brought airs fromheaven and blasts from hell." It struggledand smothered in the pent fires of passion, or


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 21darted from them as in tongues of flame.It was " the earthquake voice of victory."It was, on occasion, full of tears and heartbreak. Free as a fountain, it took the formand pressure of the conduit thought ; andexpressive beyond known parallel in voice ofman, it suggested more than it expressed.But his voice was marked by one significant limitation. It had no mirth. Therewere tones of light, but none of levity. Nolaughter, but that terrific laughter in Shylock,which seemed torn from his malignant heartat the announcement of Antonio s losses. Itis true Mr. Booth played in farce. We haveseen him repeatedly as Jerry Sneak, inFoote s farce of the " Mayor of Garratt ; "and as Geoffry Muffincap, in " Amateurs andActors." But his acting in this kind wasnever to our taste. It was not fun alive.His farce was simply the negation of histragedy. In it he took the one step from thesublime. The sunny blue eye, the genialsmile, the pleasantry we found so winning insocial intercourse, never appeared upon thestage. His genius, and the voice it swayed,were dedicated to tragedy. Child of natureas he was, though consummated by art, he


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22 * THE TRAGEDIAN.disdained no resource which might ministerto the legitimate effects of tragedy. And itmay be said that, as Phidias blended the lioninto the god, in the face of his Jupiter, soBooth lifted the lion s voice, " the prowlinglion s Here I am, " into the human scale,and with judicious reserve and translatedmeaning bade it "roar and thunder in theindex " of the stormier passions.Such a man, so minded and so organized,we will not say justifies, he necessitates thestage. The moral argument is absorbed inthe inevitable fact. If the theatre had notexisted, he would have created it, accordingto the Divine order, in which the soul inventsthe circumstance. Without it, there wouldhave been no field for the exercise of hispeculiar powers. In him grand passions foundplay through the imagination, not only harmless, but fruitful and beautiful as art. Nay, itwould seem as if the nature of this man lay,a distinct personality, embryonic in the verymind of Shakespeare, whose grander characters awaited, as the centuries rolled by, theirdestined and completed representative. Andhe came, in the fullness of time, to give themliving form, and vital motion, and transcend-


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 23ant speech, and personal unity, and ever-endeared remembrance.We must regard him as the greatest of allactors. Two names alone in the history ofthe stage, might dispute his supremacyDavid Garrick and Edmund Kean. Garrickis a tradition. The record of his histrionicpower is meagre. He seems to have beenhampered by conventionalism, enacting Macbeth in a tie-wig and knee-breeches. Hislook is praised ; and the power of his voice isillustrated by declamatory passages. No satisfactory analysis of his method has reachedus. The anecdote that Dr. Johnson wasoverwhelmed by the pathos of his performance in Lear, is the most noteworthy circumstance of his life upon the stage. ButGarrick played Tate s perversion, not Shakespeare s drama ; and Johnson s morbid sensibility is well known.

Garrick was of French descent, and heseems to have inherited the vivacity, the point,the versatility, of the Gallic branch of theCeltic race. He was playwright, player,dancer, and a facile writer of epilogues andepigrams. He adapted, that is, altered forthe stage, Cymbeline, Winter s Tale, Kath-


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24 THE TRAGEDIAN.erine and Petruchio. Dr. Johnson said that" his death eclipsed the gayety of nations."He was best in comedy, and his comic partsfar outnumber the tragic. From all sourcesof knowledge on the subject, not omittingFitzgerald s fascinating "Life of Garrick,"recently published in London, we must conclude that his tragic acting, although a rareentertainment, did not touch the deepestsprings of feeling ; that it was rather a skillthan an inspiration.The inadequacy of Johnson s commentaries, stamps him, with all his vigorous Englishsense, as singularly deficient in the veryquality which made Shakespeare the greatest of all dramatists, and which, whether inactor or critic, must be employed in interpreting his pages we mean the quality of imagination. And we are without all evidencethat the player went beyond the critic. ThatGarrick did not play up to the height ofShakespeare, is finally evident from the factthat Shakespeare himself was not truly knowntill a later day. Coleridge discovered him.Then Schlegel and other German thinkers(if indeed they did not .precede Coleridge),caught his light,


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 25" The light that never was on sea or lana,The consecration and the poet s dream,"

and reflected it back upon the English mind.About this time Booth appeared, at the ageof twenty, at Covent Garden Theatre, London. At another theatre, another actor oforiginal force and fiery temperament, in thefull maturity of his power and fame, the despot of the stage, jealous of all rivalry, wasenacting Shakespeare to the wonder andadmiration of the city; while such men asColeridge, and Hazlitt, and Lamb, and Godwin, sat attentive in the pit. This actor wasEdmund Kean.

" Two stars keep not their motion in onesphere." It is from the purpose of this essayto detail the circumstances of the war whichfollowed, between the rival players. Thecuriosity of the reader may find satisfactionby looking into any authentic record of theEnglish stage. What we have to do, is,briefly to note the respective forms of histrionic power in Kean and Booth ; to tracethese forms to their true sources in bodilyand mental constitution, and to assign thesuperiority to whom it rightfully belongs.There was a striking resemblance between


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26 THE TRAGEDIAN.these two actors, in height and figure. Intemperament, also, there was a partial similarity both being distinguished by passionate energy, and by daring to displace theprescriptive habits of the stage, by the actionand the tones of nature. To the Englishmind, observant of externals, and thrice-sodden in its regard for precedent, this superficial likeness, coupled with the mere factthat Booth was the younger and later product, seems to have suggested that he formedhis style upon the acting of Kean. Nothingcould be farther from the truth. We propose to state the points of difference betweenthem, condensed from the widest range ofthe most unimpeachable testimony.

In Booth, the passionate energy, commonto both, was sustained and expanded by acertain ethereal quality, wanting in Kean.Kean was alert ; Booth, airy. Kean wasblack-eyed, like the children of SouthernEurope. Booth had the blue eyes of theNorth,

" Whence those arts and races sprungWhich light, and lift, and sway the world."The confined intensity of temperament inKean, limited the range of his voice. Haz-


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 27litt speaks of him as having " the eye of aneagle, and the voice of a raven ; " and elsewhere, while justly lauding the fire, the nature, the genius of his favorite, confesses tohis " inharmonious voice." The voice obeysthe emotion which dominates and employs it,and the pathos of Kean s utterance, particularly in certain passages of Othello, hasprobably never been surpassed.

In that admirable paper on the " Actingof Kean," written by Mr. Dana (himself apoet and imaginative critic of a high and delicate order of genius ; and which brief recordhas gone far to continue the visionary andvanishing fame of the actor), he says, thepronunciation of the single word " Ha ! " inOthello, when the feeling of jealousy isfirst awakened in his heart, seemed to carryaway the listener " on its wild swell."Kean s throat was a cave of magical whispers. But, whether owing or not to thenational catarrh, which afflicts the majorityof Englishmen, and the influence of whichupon the pronunciation of their native tongueis imitated by some absurd Americans, hisvoice was equally deficient in the ringinghead tones, and in that resonant bass, not


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28 THE TRAGEDIAN,

guttural, but far deeper, which Booth usedwith such masculine and memorable effect.We find accordingly in Kean s voice a peculiarity, a mannerism, in which the liquidsm and n had no place, but which consistedin a prolongation of the liquids I and r.

" Farewell-l-1 the pl-1-lumdd trrroop."The most cordial tribute to Kean s excel

lence, was given us by one who, by the lawof retaliation, was under the least obligationto render it, namely, by Mr. Booth himself.Similar magnanimity Kean never wouldhave shown. But Mr. Booth, throughout achangeful career, marked by human infirmity, and running sometimes on the giddyverge of madness, was always a gentlemanas well as a scholar ; while it must be ownedthat Kean, great as were his histrionic claims,was neither the one nor the other.

There existed however a distinction, moreradical than temperament, or education, ormanners, which separated these two actors,and lay in the very core of the mental lifeof each. Look at the portraits of Kean. Allconcur (even that one with the Kemble eyebrow, which Kean had not) in giving him abrain wide at the base, pinched at the tern-


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 29pies ; in marked contrast with the wingedand balanced brain of Booth. Correspondingly, all records and all reports agree, inrepresenting Kean s performances as fearfullyintense, inevitable, aiming to express character by single strokes of overwhelming energy, or heart-broken pathos ; and leavingbetween the strokes wide intervals of dullness.

Coleridge said that to see him act, " waslike reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning." John Kemble said, " the little fellowis terribly in earnest." All records agreeall but one. Macaulay, in his " History ofEngland," in one of those brief and brilliantepisodes which beguile the progress of thestory, traces the pedigree of Kean to theMarquis of Halifax through how manyescapades of illegitimacy he does not confess.He says, the Marquis was the progenitorof " that Edmund Kean, who, in our owntime, transformed himself so marvelously intoShylock, lago, and Othello." If this betrue, no higher praise could be awarded toany actor. If this be true, then the portraits, and Kernble, and Hazlitt, and Coleridge, and a multitude of contemporary observers now living, are all at fault.


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30 THE TRAGEDIAN.

We think it will require something morethan the dazzling dogmatism of the Englishhistorian, to sustain his position. We think,not that Kean transformed himself into Shy-lock, lago, and Othello ; but that the actortransformed those characters respectivelyinto Edmund Kean : that is, that he tookjust those words, and lines, and points, andpassages, in the character he was to represent, which he found suited to his genius,and gave them with electric force. Hismethod was limitary. It was analytic andpassionate ; not, in the highest sense, intellectual and imaginative.Our final authority is Hazlitt, who hasgiven, in his work on the " English Stage,"by far the most thorough exposition ofKean s powers. Hazlitt learnt him by heart.He delved him to the root, and let in on hismerits and defects the irradiating and the" insolent light" of a searching criticism. Hesays, with fine hyperbole, that to see Keanat his best/ in Othello, " was one of the consolations of the human mind ; " yet is constrained to admit, even in his notice of thisplay, that " Kean lacked imagination."Now this power Booth possessed of a sub-


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 31tile kind, and in magnificent measure. Itlent a weird expressiveness to his voice.It atmosphered his most terrific performanceswith beauty. Booth took up Kean at hisbest, and carried him further. Booth wasKean, plus the higher imagination. Keanwas the intense individual ; Booth, the typein the intense individual. To see Booth inhis best mood was not " like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning," in which ablinding glare alternates with the fearful suspense of darkness ; but rather like readinghim by the sunlight of a summer s day, alight which casts deep shadows, gives play toglorious harmonies of color, and shows allobjects in vivid life and true relation.The recorded impression left by Kean onthe minds of his reporters and biographers,is of a mighty grasp and overwhelming energy in partial scenes ; while Booth is remembered for his sustained and all-related conception of character, intensely realized, it istrue, but chiefly marked by those ideal traits,which not only charmed the listener, but accompanied the scholar to his study, and sheda light on the subtlest and the profoundestpage of Shakespeare. The imaginative power


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32 THE TRAGEDIAN.was so opulent in Booth, that he multipliedhimself into the scene, and abolished thedullness of the other players. Filled withthe conception of the supernatural himself, he" shook the superflux to them." In Hamlet,he made the tread and exit of the heaviest"

ghost," airier ; and in Macbeth, transformedby his presence and action, the three fantasticold women into ministers of fate.

In according to Booth the gift of supremehistrionic power, we do not imply that hisperformances were faultless ; for the faultlessperformer is simply the correct. We willingly admit that he may have been matchedby others, and haply surpassed in all secondary qualities, excepting voice, which illuminate the stage ; he holding, beyond rivalry,the single controlling quality of a penetrating,kindling, shaping imagination. Genius canlight its own fire ; and it is the peculiar property of histrionic genius to cherish, manipulate, and apply the flame. Yet in the finestresults of all art there is something independent of the will. Mr. Booth was perhaps themost unequal of all great actors. And thisinequality was more sadly manifest towardsthe latter part of his career. His excellence


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 33was, however, throughout his life, so incalculable and surprising, that one of his verygreatest Shakespearean performances tookplace in the year 1850, during his last engagement in Boston.

Health, animal spirits, that vigor whichcomes from just intervals of repose, clearnessof voice in our trying climate, and generalfreshness of the physical man, may all conspire to serve the exacting hour, and yet thespontaneous actor not find himself "i thevein." The transforming imaginative poweron which he relies to identify himself withthe dramatic character, may be either sluggish or asleep. ,The whence and whither ofthat wind of the spirit, who knoweth ? SoMr. Booth, to the casual attendant on hisperformances, often failed to sustain his greatreputation. Only to those who, like ourselves, had waited on them through remunerating years, did the full depth and refinement,the glow and sway of mind he showed,entirely appear. Many a time, when passionand imagination were comparatively wanting,have we admired the subtle intellect of hisinterpretations ; and werevon such occasions,content to follow his lifted and guiding torch,


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31 THE TRAGEDIAN.

alongthe spar-gemmed labyrinths

of Shakespeare s more intricate meanings.Our course of remark has drifted us intothat cloud which hung over and partiallyobscured his fame, and which, in good men sminds, affixed a blot on his personal character.We mean what has been called, with needlessexaggeration, his habit of intoxication. Wewould gladly avoid this subject, but " omit-tance is no quittance/ and we proceed toset the charge in its true light. During theforty years, save one, which bounded hisdramatic career, Mr. Booth s habit of life,both on his farm and on the stage, was exem-plarily temperate. His reverence for thesacredness of all life amounted to a superstition. He abstained for many years onprinciple from the use of animal food. An* extravagant and erring spirit," allied tomadness, would sometimes take possession ofhim, and hurry him away from the theatre atthe moment the performance was to begin ;and to this cause, and not to intoxication,should be attributed the not infrequent disappointment of the audience. Still it mustbe confessed, with grief and pity, that thebaser charge was often true. A resort to


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THE TRAGEDIAN. 35stimulants is the actor s special bane andever-present temptation : to an actor of Mr.Booth s spontaneous method, sometimes anirresistible temptation. The histrionic artwas to him a cultus, a religion. Not to speakit profanely, he offered himself a perpetualsacrifice to the god of terror and of beauty ;he staked " soul and body on the action both,"and the exhaustion sometimes attendant uponhis performance of the fiery rite, was relievedby means questionable, pitiful, pardonable.The accident by which his nose was broken,spoiling forever his noble profile, threatenedfor a time the more serious disaster of a permanent injury to his voice. Immediately onhis recovery he began to play. To thosewho, during these first performances, recalledthe perfect features and the resonant tonesof former years, the sight and sound wereindeed pitiful. The head tones were scarcely perceptible. But instead of humoring thisvocal infirmity, he spoke with all the oldmastery of motive, and let the result takecare of itself. By this persistent method, inless than two years after the accident, hisvoice had completely recovered its originalscope, variety, and power ; as we can attest


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36 THE TRAGEDIAN.

by close, solicitous, and comparative observation. To this restoration, added to theautumnal ripeness of his physical and mentalpowers, we owe the undiminished zest andlife of his impersonations.We pass on to examples, in the hope thatthe reader will bring to our record that" productive imagination " which alone canrender fruitful the endeavor to rekindle thefire of eye and action, to give form to air, tobring a voice out of the silent past, and toconjure up before him a kingly and inspiringpresence.


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RICHARD III.WE do not quarrel with Colley Gibber,

player and playwright of the time of Gar-rick, because he saw fit, for the convenienceof the stage, to compose, out of several historical plays of Shakespeare, in which thesame characters occur, one entitled " Richard the Third." But we do blame him forhis audacious excision of the living limbs,his more audacious interpolations in the text,and his senseless changes in the characterof that Richard, third of the name, whomShakespeare delineated. He has obliteratedthose lights of human feeling, which thegreat master touched in, and which aloneredeem Richard from the condition of vulgarvillainy, into which Gibber plunges him.The buoyant, aspiring soul of the usurper,finding expression in such language as this

" But I was born so high,Our aiery buildeth in the cedar s topAnd dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun,"does nowhere appear.


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38 THE TRAGEDIAN.In Shakespeare, the villainy is incidental

to the ambition ; and is besides relieved bygenius, energy, and vast and ready varietyof intellectual resources. In Gibber s version, villainy is the substance of the character ; the very element in which it sits andrevels. In Shakespeare, when multiplyingdangers and ghostly visitation have combined to open in Richard s soul " the accessand passage to remorse," occurs this remarkable utterance :

" There is no creature loves me,And if I die no soul will pity me ! "Gibber wantonly hardens the depravity ofthe character, below its all-sufficient wickedness. The interpolated scene with LadyAnne, whom Richard had widowed, cajoled,married, and resolved to slay, is simply atrocious and inhuman.But the play, such as it is, shining withShakespeare s genius, blotted by Gibber sfolly, has always held the stage ; and it isless our purpose to complain of its defects,than to show Mr. Booth s masterly impersonation of the leading part. He is identified with it in the public mind. His performance of it was certain, at any period of


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RICHARD III. 39his life, to crowd the theatre. And in truth,although it excluded all opportunity for thedisplay of the finer traits of his genius, yetthe energy, subtlety, variety, he brought toits representation the sustained vigor ofvoice, and look, and action, to the lastjustified the popular approval.

In Mr. Booth s conception the main impulse was most apparent ; the ambition, andnot the crimes it caused. There was a certainslow movement at the opening ; a sombresettled purpose, underlying and surroundinghis most brilliant action ; and giving place atlast to a preternatural energy, and fiery expedition, only when the object, the crown,was attained, and all the resources of hisfertile brain were drawn on and combined,in the effort to retain the

regal power hehad usurped.With head bent in thought, arms folded,and slow long step, longer it would seemthan the height of his figure might warrant,yet perfectly natural to him, and so that hislifted foot emerged first into view, Boothappeared upon the scene, enveloped and absorbed in the character of Richard.

If tumultuous plaudits extorted from him


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40 THE TRAGEDIAN.a momentary recognition of the audience, itwas done with no suspension of the look andaction of the character. That look and action were profoundly self-involved. He delivered the soliloquy beginning

u Now is the winter of our discontent,"in an inward many-stringed resonance oftone, varied by outbursts of passionate vehemence, when " descanting on his own deformity," and reaching through murderousintent after the glorious diadem. He spokelike a man thinking aloud, not as if recitingfrom memory. Indeed, to speak with strictness, he never re-cited at all. He possessedhimself of the character, and its language,and then uttered it from inspiration, andaccording to the emergency of the scene andthe situation. Memory, the prime need ofan actor, speedily becomes his greatest danger ; a danger lurking always in repetitionsof performance, but one into which our actorseldom if ever fell. He carried distinctnessof articulation to an extreme, pronouncing" ocean," in this soliloquy, as a word of threesyllables.

In the sequent scene where Gloster having killed King Henry, exclaims with bitterscorn


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RICHARD I1L 41u What ! Will the aspiring blood of LancasterSink in the ground? I thought it would have mounted! "he lifts his sword, and his eye following,catches sight of blood upon the blade, in amanner like the very truth of nature. Headds

" See ! How my sword weeps for the poor king s death !O ! may such purple tears be always shed,By those who wish the downfall of our house."

What grim humor was in that cold, self-poised recollection, contained in the words

" Indeed, tis true, that Henry told me of,"Henry lying then warm but dead by hishand, and alone with him in the kingly bedchamber !

Originality in Mr. Booth s performanceswas a necessity of his genius. His actingwas a congeries of causes, coordinated withthe main cause, the conception of the character. Kean s manner of acting, on the contrary, was a series of disconnected brillianteffects. Gloster s wooing scene with LadyAnne is a case in point.The best character portrait of Kean, represents him on one knee, smiling, and saying

" Take up the sword again, or take up me."Hazlitt says, " The whole scene was an ad-


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42 THE TRAGEDIAN.mirable exhibition of smooth and smiling villainy." Booth made no such exhibition.He did not kneel gracefully. The questionwith him was not, how is courtship done ;but how would Gloster do it. Nothingwould be more likely to charm so weak awoman as

Lady Anne, than the repentanceand humility of so powerful a nature as thatof Richard. " You may relish him more inthe soldier than in the lover." Personalflattery was thrown in as a spice, and notas the substance of the dish he offered her.Surprise was blent with joy at his hoped-forvictory, in the glance he darted up from hisabasement at her feet, when Lady Annedrops the sword. Surprise which finds ventin words, as soon as he finds himself alone.

" Was ever woman in this humor wooed?Was ever woman in this humor toon fI ll have her but I will not keep her long."

The whole soliloquy was given with thatmassive, vivid, and varied intonation, whichmight express the tumult of feelings awakened by his almost incredible success. Howfine the sudden halt, in that repeated descanton his own deformity, and airy change oftone, in the passage beginning


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RICHARD 111. 48" My dukedom to a beggarly denier

I do mistake my person all this while."Nothing could exceed the picturesque beautyof his action, as he delivered the closinglines u Shine out fair sun, till I salute my glass,

That I maj- see my ehadow as I pass."He looked down at his supposed shadow(we seem to see the shadow as we write) ;he looked with lingering step, and, withpauses between the words, annihilated thesing-song of the double ending

" That I may see my shadow as I pass."The flexible grasp with which Mr. Booth

laid hold of and personated the elements ofa character, permitted certain minor variations, both in by-play and intonation, in different performances of

the samepart,

without injuring, but rather heightening, thegeneral effect. This freshened the interestin successive exhibitions, and gave scopeoftentimes to rare and vanishing delicacies ofthought and feeling. An instance occurredin the scene between Gloster and the youngprince Edward, sometimes given thus :

Gloster (aside). " So wise, so young (they say), do ne erlive long,"


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44 THE TRAGEDIAN.as if musing complacently on the proverb,yet scarcely harboring the purpose of makingit true. And again thus :

" So wise, so young, they say, do ne er live long."as if the proverb was but the cloak of his fullblown intent to u remove " the prince.From this point he developed the characterwith ever-increasing animation and momen

tum. His change of manner when seatedon the throne was marked and majestic, andin fine contrast with the wily, plotting approaches to it. Buckingham, the agent ofhis elevation, stands at once and forever inthe shadow of his kingly will. Booth s toneand action acquired a combined solidity andcelerity, which continued, with brief but fearful interruptions in the latter scenes, to theend of the play.We may here note an apparent error inhis manner of replying to Buckingham surgent and reiterated demand for the promised earldom. He says :

" Thou troublest me. I m not V the vein,"in a tone of fretful anger. The passagewould seem rather to require a tone of cooland kingly slight. Shakespeare amplifiesthe retort, and has this line, left out in Gibber s version :


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RICHARD III. 45" I am not in the giving vein to-day."

In the scene where Richard pleads withQueen Elizabeth for her daughter s hand, andsays

" When this warlike arm shall have chastisedThe audacious rebel, hot-brained Buckingham,Bound with triumphant garlands will I come,And lead your daughter to a conqueror s bed,"

we cannot express the splendor of his manner better than by saying, that it suggestedthe majestic march, the mighty music, andthe flower-like play of color of a Roman triumph. Lord Stanley enters with thesewords :

Richmond is on the seas."Richard. " There let him sink" (plummet), "and be the

seas on him " ( like the lift, advance, and fall of one hugewhelming wave), "white-livered runagate" (between setteeth, like hissing foam).

In this dialogue with Stanley, Booth restored a passage from Shakespeare, not inGibber s play, but essential to the characterof Richard, who, fighting to maintain histhrone, seems really to feel himself "theLord s anointed." In reply to Stanley ssuggestion that Richmond came to claim thecrown, Richard bursts forth

" Is the chair empty ? Is the sword unswayed ? Is theking dead? "


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46 THE TRAGEDIAN.

The solid, smiting questions, the momentary pause between, as rendered by Booth,can never be forgotten by those who heardthem. The questions continue and culminatein that memorable passage

" What do they i the North,When they should serve their sovereign i the West? "The last line was delivered in one continuous

tone of commanding resonance, in which thewords were dropped like stones in the currentof his speech.

In the concluding scenes of this play heseemed, when in his best mood, to be filledwith " strange fire." He showed infinitevigilance of mind, relentless mastery of will.The tent scene, in which Richard starts outof his remorseful dream, was one of terrificgrandeur, and never failed of producing anelectrical effect. After he had mastered theharrowing thoughts born of his dream, hisutterance of the words

" Richard s himself again,"constituted a brief but pointed study of character. A distinguished tragedian, now livingand performing, and therefore here unnamed,could find no better gesture for Richard sself-recovery than to strike a fencing attitude.


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RICHARD III. 47

But Booth stood still, and with one inclusive,unanalysable motion of the hand, took limbs,body, heart, and brain, in its subtle and commanding sweep, while he delivered the passage expressing his inward victory withinward voice

"As if a man were author of himselfAnd knew no other kin ! "

In the following scene, when Stanley sdefection is announced, Richard exclaims

" Off with his son George s head."

At that moment his ear catches the sound ofdistant music, and his whole manner instantlychanges. He listens, leaning on the air withkeen looks and parted lips, and an expressionof eager and confident expectation.

Norfolk. " My lord, the foe s already past the marsh;After the battle let young Stanley die."Richard " Why, after be it then."

He said this in a tone of the lightest andmost careless readiness, still listening ; thenresumed his energy of manner in the briefand stirring appeal to his soldiers, as he ledthem into the fight.In the last scene he fought with Richmonddesperately ; when wounded and overthrown,fought on the ground. Finally, gathering


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48 THE TRAGEDIAN.himself up with one mighty effort, he plungedheadlong at his cool antagonist, was disarmed,and felled to the earth. Gibber has put into the mouth of the dying Richard, somewretched and inhuman stuff, which, to thecredit of Mr. Booth be it said, we could neverdistinctly hear from his lips. It soundedonly like

" The cloudy groanOf dying thunder on the distant wind."


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HAMLET.THE character of Hamlet has been, ever

since the time of Shakespeare, the delight andthe puzzle of scholars. The portrayal of ithas been equally the ambition and the failureof actors. The scholar finds the drama eminently a tragedy of thought, and is apt torefine into abstraction the personality of thehero. The actor, depending in his art onpresence and speech, usually fails to soundthe depth of the character, to pluck out theheart of its mystery, and so gives its variedincident, action, dialogue, soliloquy, in asuccession of incoherent, perhaps brilliant,effects.

In Mr. Booth s conception, Hamlet was acharacter, not of melancholy, but of a predominant sensibility, which included melancholy. Not of madness, but of one who,bound by strange ties to the invisible world,found his large discourse of reason and hismastery of will distracted between opposing

4


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50 THE TRAGEDIAN.duties. In Hamlet, filial love amounted to apassion. And his father s spirit, in arms,appeared visibly to him, and audibly commanded him, in terms of solemn adjuration,to commit a deed abhorrent to his feelings asa man. Booth s Hamlet was intensely personal. His brain was

" The quick forge and working-house of thought. 5

His heart was full of purpose, as of affection.His indecision was the result of circumstances,not a defect of will. But this positive andpersonal life was so atmosphered by beauty,so steeped in melancholy, so spiritualized bysupernatural emotion, that it seemed to us,in all essential qualities, the very Hamlet ofShakespeare.

That phase of this many-sided creation towhich he gave least effect, was the princeli-ness. That pensive grace and high breedingwhich many regard as Hamlet s permanentcondition, ruffled only by passing gusts ofpassion, illuminated by fitful lights of philosophy and fancy, and crazed by ghostly visitation, found in him an indifferent interpreter. He seemed too severely exercised by" thoughts beyond the reaches of his soul " to


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52 THE TRAGEDIAN.did the soul of Hamlet shine forth moreclearly with its own peculiar, fitful, far-reaching, saddened, and supernatural light.He was not merely sad, but stricken ingrief, at the sudden and mysterious death ofhis father. He is stung by instinctive suspicion of his uncle. He is shamed and outraged by his mother s hasty and incestuousmarriage. He sobs audibly. When his" uncle father " addresses him

" But now my cousin Hamlet, and my son,"he answers aside, in bitter murmur

" A little more than kin, and less than kind."To his mother s vague generalization aboutthe commonness of death, he answers withrestrained respect

" Ay, madam, it is common."But when she urges a question of cold complaint, he vindicates the profound sincerityof his grief, in that fine speech beginning

" Seems, madam! nay, it is."We pause upon this passage, for in the searching and thoughtful emphasis he gave to itsdelivery, Mr. Booth struck the key-note ofHamlet s character, the depth of which


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HAMLET. 53neither action nor language, however eloquent or effective, could ever fully reveal." He had that within which passeth show."Hamlet is left alone, and instantly unburdens his heart in the soliloquy beginning

" 0, that this too, too solid flesh would melt."Did Shakespeare intend the speech to beuttered aloud, or only mused upon ? Thequestion becomes pertinent, in view ofLamb sobjection to the stage representation of theplay, where he speaks of Hamlet s "light-and-noise-abhorring ruminations." We thinkthe terse vigor of the language would find atongue. It did find an eloquent tongue inour actor. The jostle of thoughts, the impatient leaps of emotion, all crowding forutterance, found meet expression in his rapidand changeful delivery.

" Frailty, thy name is woman,"as if no other name were needed.

" Married with mine uncle (pause),My father s brother " (in low and slighting tones),then without pause

" But no more like myfatherThan I to Hercules ."The following scene is chiefly remarkable


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54 TEE TRAGEDIAN.for the report to Hamlet of the appearanceof the ghost. How fit that this disclosureshould be made by Horatio, whose gracious,limited, and firm-seated nature becomes,from this moment, coolness to the fever,and counterpoise to the perturbation of hisprincely friend, even to the closing scene ofthe play, when Hamlet lies dead in his arms !The spiritual tone Booth imparted to thisscene, weighted as it is by specific questionsand answers, as to the time and aspect ofthe apparition, raised the listener at once intothe rare atmosphere of Hamlet s being, andculminated in this remarkable soliloquy :

" My father s spirit in arms ! All is not well ;I doubt some foul play : would the night were come !Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,Though all the earth o erwhelm them, to men s eyes."

Booth uttered the words, " Foul deeds willrise," as with the voice of Fate. Then camethe mighty parenthesis, " Though all theearth o erwhelm them," which he gave witha sweeping gesture, as if taking the solidearth, and lifting it as a wave of the sea islifted, and letting it fall. He then raised awarning hand, with significant motion, beforehis face, and with changed voice, couching


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HAMLET. 55

strength of emphasis on a lower range oftones, resumed the suspended meaning" to men s eyes."

In the platform scene, his adjuration ofthe Spirit reached a climax of feeling in theword "father," into which he threw theagony of his grief, and the contending hopeand fear born of this strange visitation.After a momentary pause, the figure remaining silent, Hamlet recommences, and deliverswithout pause the following :

" Royal Dane^ 0, answer me."In all editions of the play, there is a colonafter " Royal Dane." Booth overruled thispause, with a more subtle perception of themeaning of the passage than has been shownby any commentator.The first effect of the sudden apparitionpasses rapidly off; and Hamlet soon finds

himself in strange and calm accord with thesilent but beckoning visitor. To the dissuasion of his friends he says :

" Why, what should be the fear?[ do not set my life at a pin s fee,And for my soul, what can it do to that,Being a thing immortal as itself ? "

Booth s manner here is hard to analyze. It


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56 THE TRAGEDIAN.

may suffice to say, that both tone and actionscaled the heights of spiritual thought. Heseemed to have digested in his soul the verybitterness of death, to have passed beyond,and to speak as one conscious of his immortality. In fine contrast came the passionateoutbreak

" My fate cries outAnd makes each petty artery in this bodyAs hardy as the Nemean lion s nerve."We know not whether the action origi

nated with Mr. Booth or not : but in thescene following the terrible revelation of theSpirit, when his friends find him, and heswears them to secrecy, Hamlet holds upthe hilt of his sword, the cross, and not theblade, for the imposition of their hands.We have seen, both in picture and on thestage, the hands of Horatio and Marcelluslaid along the blade. In this scene, the" antic disposition," which has so puzzledcritic and actor, begins to play. In Booth sconception, this was partly a reaction fromthe pressure of supernatural emotion ; andpartly assumed as a disguise. Its fitful lightseemed native to the genius of our actor. Itgave variety and unexpectedness in look, and


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HAMLET. 57

tone, and action, throughout the play. Itshone above the melancholy, like phosphorescence on a midnight sea, with most intensifying effect. The scenes with P^lonius,where Hamlet plays upon him ; the sceneswith his school-fellows, in which he shows hecannot be played upon ; and the scenes withthe players, are instances in point.

Ghost (beneath). Swear.Hamlet. There are more things in heaven and earth,

Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy: 1

A light scorn in the last word : and his handpassed his forehead, with a gesture equallylight and evanescent.

Perhaps the most brilliant example of thatunexpectedness which is genius in an actor,as if he indeed were the character assumed ;as if the thoughts were developed fromwithin, and the language occurred to him,might be found in the passage beginning

" I have of late (but wherefore I know not) lost all mymirth."

At the words, " This most excellent canopy,the air, look you, this brave o erhanging "(he omitted the word " firmament," as in thefolio), " this majestical rooffretted with golden


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58 THE TRAGEDIAN.fire," his voice, sombre and husky in thepreceding lines, suddenly darted upward likelight ; seemed to penetrate the sky ; to runall over the firmament ; to search out andgive back the remotest echoes of heaven.The speaker was for the moment forgot,

" HiddenIn the light of thought."

" He that plays the king shall be welcome," was uttered with eager emphasis, amomentary betrayal by Hamlet of his innerthought ; which however he masks immediately, by a running and cheery commentaryon the other players. Hamlet has received,seen through, talked with, and dismissed hisschool-mates ; puzzled Polonius by subtlereaches of wit ; welcomed the players with avolatile and princely grace ; shown a combined freedom and aptitude in all this surface-play of mind, this " whiff and wind "of thought, over the deep sea of his sadspirit, most wonderful in Shakespeare, andreproduced by Booth as in a mirror ; untilhe finds himself alone, when he reveals hislatent purpose in that soliloquy in which thelines occur :


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HAMLET. 59" I ll have these players

Play something like the murder of my fatherBefore mine uncle."

and closing with" The play s the thing

Wherein I ll catch the conscience of the king."

Our Shakespearean scholar found faultwith an emphasis, after the act was done." Booth emphasized catch, " said he ; " heshould have emphasized conscience. " Notso. The actor s spontaneous method gavelife to the whole passage. He really emphasized both words, and all in due relation.The Third Act opened. The play wenton. The atmosphere of Hamlet, with whosevery being Booth was for the time con-substantiated, enveloped also the listeningscholar, and gradually nourished him out ofhis meagre mood of verbal criticism. Andto that degree did the influence work, thatwe heard him uttering unconscious groansfor sympathy, as the catastrophe drew nearand that foreboding illness, "here aboutthe heart," found expression in tones ofmournful, tender trust :

" If it be now, tis not to come. If it be not now, yet itwill come : the readiness is all. Let be."


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60 THE TRAGEDIAN.Hamlet repeatedly revolves the problem ofsuicide. We have seen that he does not

" set his life at a pin s fee ; " but his conscience, the very strength of his moral nature, which withholds his hand from attempting his own life, also makes him fear to takethat of the king. The beginning of themeditation " To be, or not to be " was uttered in a voice like the mystic murmur of ariver running under ground, and required anattentive ear : " That undiscovered country "(in a manner unimaginably remote) " fromwhose bourn no traveller returns " givenwith accelerated and vibrating intensity, thestroke of emphasis coming suprisingly on thelast word. It shocked the elocutionist, butdelighted the Shakespearean scholar.The soliloquy was marked by a curiousreading, thus :

" For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,When he himself might his quietus make."

Here he made a full stop. Then, as if beginning a new sentence, and without pausein the delivery of it, he went on

" With a bare bodkin who would fardels bear, etc.On being called to account for this odd read-


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HAMLET. 61.1

ing, he affirmed, that " bodkin " was a localterm, in some parts of England, for a paddedyoke, worn over the shoulders for the support of burdens on either side ; and that a" bare bodkin " was a yoke without the pad,and therefore galling. The meaning assigned, has, we believe, escaped the notice ofall lexicographers.On suddenly discovering Ophelia hismeditation done with what tremulous tenderness did he say

" Nymph, in thy orisonsBe all my sins remembered."In the acting play, Hamlet is made to catcha glimpse of the king and his minister atespial : the discovery being intended to account for his harshness towards Ophelia.We find no warrant for this in Shakespeare.The intuitive Hamlet knows, it is true, byOphelia s manner, that she is acting a partunder instructions. But we think every oneof his speeches to her is justified by his ownnature ; by his assumed madness ; or by hisendeavor to wipe away both from his ownmind and hers, " all trivial fond records," sothat the commandment of the Spirit " allalone may live "


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62 THE TRAGEDIAN." Within the book and volume of his brain "

and all without supposing him to be aware ofother listeners.

In spite of the set purpose, his deep lovebursts forth in jets of passionate tenderness.It did so in Mr. Booth s rendering. Hespoke with wildness rather than severity.He was in constant action ; striding acrossthe stage ; passing out, still speaking, andbeginning the next speech before he reentered. We seem now to hear his voice ringing, out of view, the phrase

" I have heard of your paintings too, well enough."Only when imploring her to go to a nunnerydid he pause in action ; then, approachingher tenderly, he threw into those oft-repeatedwords " to a nunnery, go," the whole forceof his fervent affection.

Mr. Macready played Hamlet in Boston,and Cambridge crowded the boxes yes,and applauded too, as that sensible but unimaginative actor gave his studied version ofHamlet s idleness.

Hamlet (to Horatio). " They are coming to the play ; Imust be idle:Get you a place."

Macready seemed unaccountably to have


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HAMLET. 63changed natures with Osric the " waterfly ; "for he danced before the foot-lights, flirting awhite handkerchief above his head ! Thiswas that "famed performer" to whom Emerson refers, when he says : " All I thenheard, and all I now remember, of the tragedian, was that in which the tragedian hadno part; simply, Hamlet s question to theghost What may this mean,

That thou, dead corse, again in complete steelRevisit1 st thus the glimpses of the moon?

Booth s idleness was Hamlet s. He retires up the stage, passes from view, and reappears like a shadow ; is lost in the companythat enters to witness the play. We findhim next at Ophelia s feet, at once Mercuryand Nemesis, the lover s wit playing airilyabove the avenging purpose.(We may here mention that in the year1831, Mr. Booth became the temporarymanager of a theatre in Baltimore. Mr.Charles Kean enacted Hamlet. Mr. Booth,on this occasion, assumed the part of Lu-cianus, called in the play-bills, " the secondactor," whose whole office it is to say" Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;

Confederate season, else no creature seeing ;


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64 THE TRAGEDIAN.Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,With Hecate s ban thrice blasted, thrice infectedThy natural magic and dire property,On wholesome life usurp immediately."

In Booth s delivery of these fearful lines,each word dropped poison. The weirdmusic of his voice and the stealthy yet decisive action, made this brief scene the memorable event of the night.)The king does blench " Upon the talk ofthe poisoning ; " he rises " frighted with falsefire." The play within the play abruptlyends. Hamlet is left alone. To him come,first his traitor school-fellows; then themeddling Polonius, envoys of the king andqueen.

In two lines of the short soliloquy whichfollows, the tragedian indicated, by a masterstroke of intonation and expression, the spanand sweep of Hamlet s nature : the restraining force of will, acting as counterpoise tothe momentum of his feelings.

" Soft; now to my mother.heart, lose not thy nature ; let not ever

The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom."The thought of Nero s crime seemed suddenly to occur to him, to fill him with hor-


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HAMLET. 65ror, and to lend to the word " Nero " a surprising repulsion of gesture and emphasis.These lines were a fit prologue to thegreat scene of the play, in the Third Act,the interview with his mother. The strongcurrent, the earnest pleading,

theimpassioned conscience, the noble purpose, the

intense personal life, made manifest by Mr.Booth in this scene, might serve as a studyfor those, who, impressed by a single trait inthis " abstract and brief chronicle " of civilized man this Hamlet weakly concludehim to be full of weakness, and of a melancholy born of weakness. His melancholywas born of his strength.

" Mother, you have myfather much offended."" Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;You go not, till I set you up a glassWhere you shall see the iw-most part of you! "He had already said

" I will speak daggers to her."That word " inmost " touched the core ofthe matter. The sound of it, greatly prolonged on the first syllable, was like a searching probe of steel. After he had killed Po-lonius, mistaking him for the king, he gaveseparately each word of the line


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66 THE TRAGEDIAN." Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell ! "

and all with ascending emphasis, in tones ofmingled grief and anger, and as if dashedwith tears.What exalted passion is in the continuing

portion of this scene ! In the comparison ofthe portraits, what dramatic action, thought,imagery, language ! We know this tributebelongs to Shakespeare. We make it, looking towards him, where he sits, in the gloryand beatitude of his own peculiar heaven.All we claim for Mr. Booth, all that can fcjeclaimed for any actor, is, that he shall, bythe power of imaginative sympathy, passhimself, and draw us after, into the strongcurrent of Shakespeare s thought ; shall remould and rekindle to our attentive senses,the individuality of his unmatched characters.

Looking on the picture of his father hesays

" Where every god, did seem to set his seal.""This was your husband" (kissing the picture and in

a voice that sheathed affectionfor his father, in reprobation forhis mother). "Look you now what follows" (with startlingchange of manner)


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HAMLET. 67" Here is-s-s your husband, like a mildewed ear

Blasting his wholesome brother ! "The words of this phrase were shaken andeddied over by one continuing flood of tone ;in obedience to a passionate method, mostexpressive and quite peculiar to our actor.At the opportune moment, when the heat

of his indignation finds expression thus" A murderer and a villain ;

A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,"the ghost appears. There seemed to passover Booth s features an instant baptism ofdevotion. All anger vanished. The out-reaching and imploring look in his full blueeyes, arching the inner angles of the brows,gave the face a tender exaltation, as he began

thatstrange colloquy

between Hamlet,his guilty mother, and his father s spirit,with the words

" What would your gracious figure? "During the presence of the ghost, until

just before its exit at the opposite door,Booth stood rooted to the spot from whichhe first saw it ; stood with steady gaze, outstretched hands, and such pathetic reverenceof voice and action, that, though we looked


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68 TEE TRAGEDIAN.and listened then in a mood above weeping,yet the memory of it surprises us, as wewrite, " unto the brink of tears."

Ghost. " Speak to her, Hamlet."Ham. (Still looking at the ghost.) " How is it with you,lady?"

Queen. " Whereon do you look ? "Ham. " On him, on him" (as if the question were idle;as if she must see thefigure also).In the oft-quoted passage

" Assume a virtue if you have it not,"Booth paused after u virtue," then utteredthe words, " if you have it not," as if aspring of love gushed in his heart, and hecaught at a hope, that she might have repented already.

In the grave-yard scene, after he hasmatched wit with the clown, and givenanother example of that blended airiness andmelancholy which seemed the very form ofShakespeare s thought, the funeral procession of Ophelia enters.

Hamlet (to Horatio). " That is Laertes,A very noble youth: mark "uttered with perfect simplicity and generoushigh breeding. Perhaps in qualification of anopinion heretofore expressed, the princeliness


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EAMLET. 69came out more strongly in Mr. Booth s delineation of these later scenes. When Laertes says

"A ministering angel shall my sister be,"Hamlet, according to the text, utters theexclamation

" What! the fair Ophelia! "No syllable of this phrase could be heard.Only a wild, inarticulate cry escaped him ;and he muffled his face in his cloak. Heseemed to have gone behind Shakespeare slanguage, into Shakespeare s thought.

Following this fine touch of feeling andcharacter, came what seems to us a whollyunauthorized reading :

" What is he whose griefBears such an emphasis V whose phrase of sorrowConjures the wandering stars, and bids them standLike wonder-wounded hearers ? This is I,Hamlet the Dane."

So Shakespeare ; but Booth made a full stopafter the word " stand ; " then said

" Look ! wonder-wounded hearers, this is I," etc.The scene, however, was grandly carried tocompletion. The storm of mingled grief andlove for the dead Ophelia ; of anger breakingthrough respect, for Laertes, could never


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70 THE TRAGEDIAN.have had a more characteristic representation.

Hamlet consents to play the wager withLaertes, but is possessed by a presentimentof evil. We had heard Mr. Booth give thepassage thus :

" It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gain-giving aswould, perhaps (slight pause, then in lower tone), trouble awoman, 1

meaning, " it ought not to trouble me, aman, yet I feel it does." On this occasion hesaid

" As would, perhaps, trouble (slight pause) a woman,"meaning, " but shall not trouble me." Howfine the sentiment, how delicate the apprehension, that could dictate these distinctions.The wavering balance inclines toward thelatter reading ; for to Horatio s friendly dissuasion, Hamlet immediately rejoins "Nota whit ; we defy augury ; there is a specialprovidence in the fall of a sparrow." RufusChoate said, " I have seen him act Hamletexquisitely : " and again, in comparing Keanand Booth, he said, " This man (Booth) hasfiner touches."The last scene was full of grace and dra

matic truth, in the fencing match with Laer-


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SHYLOCK.THE Hebrew blood, which, from some re

mote ancestor, mingled in the current of hislife ; and was evidently traceable in hisfeatures ; and haply determined the familyname (Booth from Beth, Hebrew for house,or nest for birds), did also undoubtedly influence Mr. Booth s conception of the character of Shylock.He made it the representative Hebrew:the type of a race, old as the world. Hedrew the character in lines of simple grandeur, and filled it with fiery energy. In hishands, it was marked by pride of intellect ;by intense pride of race ; by a reserved force,as if there centered in him the might of apeople whom neither time, nor scorn, norpolitical oppression could subdue ; and whichhas at successive periods, even down to ourown day, drawn the attention of mankindtowards its frequent examples of intellectualpower. His pronunciation of the words


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74 THE TRAGEDIAN." This Jacob from our holy Abraham was,"

carried the mind back into the remotest antiquity, and begat an involuntary respect forthe speaker.The intense realism of Edmund Keanmade Shylock merely a malignant usurer ;and so represented, to our thinking, ratherGratiano s idea of the Jew, than Shakespeare s. But Kean, after making the audi-ance hate him, did, by one of his suddenturns of power, and by the pathos of hisvoice, in the passage beginning

" Nay, take my life and all,"produce an entire revulsion of feeling in thelistener, so that pity took the place of execration.

Booth, on the contrary, whether for betteror worse, made usury the Jew s accidentalor enforced employment ; and avarice, whichis the natural ally of such employment,rather a graft on his nature than a part ofthe original stock. He disdained all appealto the compassion of his judges. He gavethe passage quoted only as a softened expression of that inexorable logic, which inother scenes, yields a certain dignity to thecharacter, and wins our reluctant regard.


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SEYLOCK. 75Geo. Frederick Cooke, in the passage be

ginning " Hath not a Jew eyes ? " when hecame to the word " affections," so informedit with human feeling, so contrasted it withthe context, that it remains as the markedpoint of his performance. But if Kean sabject appeal for the means of living, whenShylock was utterly ruined, be doubtful ;Cooke s turning the Jew out of the currentof his reasoning wrath, when he had wealthand power, and was rejoicing in the prospect of revenge, in order to complain ofhis wounded affections, seems at best but atempting error of conception. Booth, on thecontrary, gave no prominence to his affections ; but did, as we believe Shakespeareintended, evenly include them in that inventory of the qualities and conditions ofman, on which Shylock based his claim to berespected as a man.

Shylock develops the strongest traits ofhis character in the very first scene. Observe the cautious self-satisfaction with whichhe holds and plies the reins of monetarypower, in his interview with Bassanio andAntonio. Yet the Hebrew stands back ofand above the usurer. He says, musing onAntonio


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7t> TIIE TRAGEDIAN." If I can catch him once upon the hip,

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.He hates our sacred nation."Again

" What ! are there masques ? Hear you me, Jessica :Lock up my doors ....Let not the sound of shallow foppery, enterMy sober house."

Perhaps the grandest performance of Shy-lock ever given by Mr. Booth, or any other,was on the third of September, 1850, duringhis last engagement before going to California. He was in perfect physical condition.His voice was still capable of that unfath-omed resonance, which told in the settledrevengeful purpose of the part. The general conception was as we have indicated.The Third Act opened. Salanio andSalarino are conversing of Antonio s losses.

Shylock enters, having just found out Jessica s theft, and heard of her elopement.He should say, " You knew, none so well asyou, of my daughter s flight." But no wordcould we distinguish. His voice seemedmolten by passion, before it could be shapedinto words, and so leaped from his lips, avolcanic eruption of inarticulate speech.


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78 THE TRAGEDIAN.by fearful pauses of thought, followed bysmiting blows of logic, like the hush beforethe thunder-stroke. How those questionscame, winged and edged with scorn, solid asthe substance of thought, fiery and irresistible as the motion of passion !Nor can we tell from what depth of vigor

arose the grand and various expression ofthe next scene, directly after, on the entrance of Tubal. Let the reader review thetext.

"

No ill luck stirring but what lights o my shoulders..... No tears but o my shedding."" I thank God, I thank God."Good news. Ha! ha! ha!"Thou slickest a dagger in me ! "I am glad of it. I ll torture him. I am glad of it."I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys."I will have the heart of him if he forfeit."Go, Tubal, and meet me at our Synagogue, at our Synagogue, Tubal."All given with glowing passion, and fine

artistic changes.In the fourth act, Booth enters the court

room, calm, his tumult of passion condensedinto a settled purpose ; and with a kind ofdignity, if unrelenting hate like his can bearthat quality. From the audience, he listensto the Duke, then quietly begins :


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SHYLOCK. 79" 1 have possessed your Grace of what I purpose ;And by our holy Sabbath have I swornTo have the due and forfeit of my bond :If you deny it, let the danger lightUpon your charter, and your city s freedom."

The last two lines were given with anoutreaching and arching motion of the armand hand, palm downward, like the stoop ofa bird of prey.We feel the pressure of the intense passionate purpose, below the logic, in his shortcolloquies with Bassanio and Gratanio, and inhis longer speeches to the court till Portia,as the Doctor, enters, and speaks of mercyand the law. Against her plea for mercy,as against the twice-blessed quality itself,Shylock sets his face like a flint ; but as hisreligion moved

the tragedian an essay on the histrionic genius of junius brutus booth by thomas ridgeway gould

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