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diff --git a/14758-0.txt b/14758-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fee2497 --- /dev/null +++ b/14758-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2357 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14758 *** + +MARY ANDERSON + +by + +J.M. FARRAR, M.A. + +1885 + + + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +AT HOME. + + +Long Branch, one of America's most famous watering-places, in midsummer, +its softly-wooded hills dotted here and there with picturesque "frame" +villas of dazzling white, and below the purple Atlantic sweeping in +restlessly on to the New Jersey shore. The sultry day has been one of +summer storm, and the waves are tipped still with crests of snowy foam, +though now the sun is sinking peacefully to rest amid banks of cloud, +aflame with rose and violet and gold. + +About a mile back from the shore stands a rambling country house embosomed +in a small park a few acres in extent, and immediately surrounding it +masses of the magnificent shrub known as Rose of Sharon, in full bloom, in +which the walls of snowy white, with their windows gleaming in the +sunlight, seem set as in a bed of color. The air is full of perfume. The +scent of flower and tree rises gratefully from the rain-laden earth. The +birds make the air musical with song; and here and there in the +neighboring wood, the pretty brown squirrels spring from branch to branch, +and dash down with their gambols the rain drops in a diamond spray. A +broad veranda covered with luxuriant honeysuckle and clematis stretches +along the eastern front of the house, and the wide bay window, thrown open +just now to the summer wind, seems framed in flowers. As we approach +nearer, the deep, rich notes of an organ strike upon the ear. Some one, +with seeming unconsciousness, is producing a sweet passionate music, which +changes momentarily with the player's passing mood. We pause an instant +and look into the room. Here is a picture which might be called "a dream +of fair women." Seated at the organ in the subdued light is a young woman +of a strange, almost startling beauty. Her graceful figure clad in a +simple black robe, unrelieved by a single ornament, is slight, and almost +girlish, though there is a rounded fullness in its line which betrays that +womanhood has been reached. A small classic head carried with easy grace; +finely chiseled features; full, deep, gray eyes; and crowning all a wealth +of auburn hair, from which peeps, as she turns, a pink, shell-like ear; +these complete a picture which seems to belong to another clime and +another age, and lives hardly but on the canvas of Titian. We are almost +sorry to enter the room and break the spell. Mary Anderson's manner as she +starts up from the organ with a light elastic spring to greet her visitors +is singularly gracious and winning. There is a frank fearlessness in the +beautiful speaking eyes so full of poetry and soul, a mingled tenderness +and decision in the mouth, with an utter absence of that +self-consciousness and coquetry which often mar the charm of even the most +beautiful face. This is the artist's study to which she flies back gladly, +now and then, for a few weeks' rest and relaxation from the exacting life +of a strolling player, whose days are spent wandering in pursuit of her +profession over the vast continent which stretches from the Atlantic to +the Pacific. Here she may be found often busy with her part when the faint +rose begins to steal over the tree tops at early dawn; or sometimes when +the world is asleep, and the only sounds are the wind, as it sighs +mournfully through the neighboring wood, or the far-off murmur of the +Atlantic waves as they dash sullenly upon the beach. On a still summer's +night she will wander sometimes, a fair Rosalind, such as Shakespeare +would have loved, in the neighboring grove, and wake its silent echoes as +she recites the Great Master's lines; or she will stand upon the +flower-clad veranda, under the moonlight, her hair stirred softly by the +summer wind, and it becomes to her the balcony from which Juliet murmurs +the story of her love to a ghostly Romeo beneath. + +A large English deerhound, who was dozing at her feet when we entered the +room, starts up with his mistress, and after a lazy stretch seems to ask +to join in the welcome. Mary Anderson explains that he is an old favorite, +dear from his resemblance to a hound which figures in some of the +portraits of Mary Queen of Scots. He has failed ignominiously in an +attempted training for a dramatic career, and can do no more than howl a +doleful and distracting accompaniment to his mistress' voice in singing. +We glance round the room, and see that the walls are covered with +portraits of eminent actors, living and dead, with here and there +bookcases filled with favorite dramatic authors; in a corner a bust of +Shakespeare; and on a velvet stand a stage dagger which once belonged to +Sarah Siddons. Over the mantelpiece is a huge elk's head, which fell to +the rifle of General Crook, and was presented to Mary Anderson by that +renowned American hunter; and here, under a glass case, is a stuffed hawk, +a deceased actor and former colleague. Dressed in appropriate costume he +used to take the part of the Hawk in Sheridan Knowles' comedy of "Love," +in which Mary Anderson played the Countess. The story of this bird's +training is as characteristic of her passion for stage realism as of that +indomitable power of will to overcome obstacles, to which much of her +success is due. She determined to have a live hawk for the part instead of +the conventional stuffed one of the stage, and with some difficulty +procured a half-wild bird from a menagerie. Arming herself with strong +spectacles and heavy gauntlets, she spent many a weary day in the painful +process of "taming the shrew." After a long struggle, in which she came +off sometimes torn and bleeding, the bird was taught to fly from the +falconer's shoulder on to her outstretched finger and stay there while she +recited the lines-- + + "How nature fashioned him for his bold trade! + Gave him his stars of eyes to range abroad. + His wings of glorious spread to mow the air + And breast of might to use them!" + +and then, by tickling his feet, he would fly off: and flap his wings +appropriately, while she went on-- + + "I delight + To fly my hawk. The hawk's a glorious bird; + Obedient--yet a daring, dauntless bird!" + +Here, too, are her guitar and zither, on both which instruments Mary +Anderson is a proficient. + +And now that we have seen all her treasures, we must follow her to the top +of the house, from which is obtained a fine view of the Atlantic as it +races in mighty waves on to the beach at Long Branch. She declares that in +the offing, among the snowy craft which dance at anchor there, can be +distinguished her pretty steam yacht, the Galatea. + +Night is falling fast, but with that impulsiveness which is so +characteristic of her, Mary Anderson insists upon our paying a visit to +the stables to see her favorite mare, Maggie Logan. Poor Maggie is now +blind with age, but in her palmy days she could carry her mistress, who is +a splendid horsewoman, in a flight of five miles across the prairie in +sixteen minutes. As we enter the box, Maggie turns her pretty head at +sound of the familiar voice, and in response to a gentle hint, her +mistress produces a piece of sugar from her pocket. As Mary Anderson +strokes the fine thoroughbred head, we think the pair are not very much +unlike. Meanwhile, Maggie's stable companion cranes his beautiful neck +over the side of the box, and begs for the caress which is not denied him. + +Night has fallen now in earnest, and the beaming colored boy holds his +lantern to guide us along the path, while Maggie whinnies after us her +adieu. The grasshoppers chirp merrily in the sodden grass, and now and +then a startled rabbit darts out of the wood and crosses close to our +feet. The light is almost blinding as we enter the cheerful dining-room, +where supper is laid on the snowy cloth, and are introduced to the +charming family circle of the Long Branch villa. Though it is the home now +of an old Southerner, Mary Anderson's step-father, it is a favorite +trysting-place with Grant, the hero of the North, with Sherman, and many +another famous man, between whom and the South there raged twenty years +ago so deadly and prolonged a feud. While not actually a daughter of the +South by birth, Mary Anderson is such by early education and associations, +and to these grim old soldiers she seems often the emblem of Peace, as +they sit in the pretty drawing-room at Long Branch, and listen, sometimes +with tear-dimmed eyes, to the sweet tones of her voice as she sings for +them their favorite songs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +BIRTH AND EDUCATION. + + +Seldom has a more charming story been written than that of Mary Anderson's +childhood and youth to the time when, a beautiful girl of sixteen, she +made her _debut_ in what has ever since remained her favorite _role_, +Juliet--and the only Juliet who has ever played the part at the same age +since Fanny Kemble. + +There was nothing in her home surroundings to guide in the direction of a +dramatic career; indeed her parents seemed to have entertained the not +uncommon dread of the temptations and dangers of a stage life for their +daughter, and only yielded at last before the earnest passionate purpose +to which so much of Mary Anderson's after success is due. They bent wisely +at length before the mysterious power of genius which shone out in the +beautiful child long before she was able fully to understand whither the +resistless promptings to tread the "mimic stage of life" were leading her. +In the end the New World gained an actress of whom it may be well proud, +and the Old World has been fain to confess that it has no monopoly of the +highest types of histrionic genius. + +Mary Anderson was born at Sacramento, on the Pacific slope, on the 28th of +July, 1859, but removed with her parents to Kentucky, when but six months +old. German and English blood are mingled in her veins, her mother being +of German descent, while her father was the grandson of an Englishman. On +the outbreak of the civil war he joined the ranks of the Southern armies, +and fell fighting under the Confederate flag before Mobile. When but three +years old Mary Anderson was left fatherless, and a year or two afterward +she and her little brother Joseph found almost more than a father's love +and care in her mother's second husband, Dr. Hamilton Griffin, an old +Southern planter, who had abandoned his plantations at the outbreak of the +war, and after a successful career as an army surgeon, established himself +in practice at Louisville. + +Mary Anderson's early years were characteristic of her future. She was one +of those children whose wild artist nature chafes under the restraints of +home and school life. Generous to a fault, the life and soul of her +companions, yet to control her taxed to their utmost the parental +resources; and it must be admitted she was the torment of her teachers. +Her wild exuberant spirits overleaped the bounds of school life, and +sometimes made order and discipline difficult of enforcement. She was +never known to tell an untruth, but at the same time she would never +confess to a fault. Imprisoned often for punishment in a room, she would +steadfastly refuse to admit that she had done wrong, and, maternal +patience exhausted, the mutinous little culprit had commonly to be +released impenitent and unconfessed. Indeed her wildness acquired for her +the name of "Little Mustang;" as, later on, her fondness for poring over +books beyond her childish years that of "Little Newspaper." At school, the +confession must be made, she was refractory and idle. The prosaic routine +of school life was dull and distasteful to the child, who, at ten years of +age, found her highest delight in the plays of Shakespeare. Many of her +school hours were spent in a corner, face to the wall, and with a book on +her head, to restrain the mischievous habit of making faces at her +companions, which used to convulse the school with ill-suppressed +laughter. She would sally forth in the morning with her little satchel, +fresh and neat as a daisy, to return at night with frock in rents, and all +the buttons, if any way ornamental, given away in an impulsive generosity +to her schoolmates. It soon became evident that she would learn little or +nothing at school; and on a faithful promise to amend her ways if she +might only leave and pursue her studies at home, Mary Anderson was +permitted, when but thirteen years of age, to terminate her school career. +But instead of studying "Magnall's Questions," or becoming better +acquainted with "The Use of the Globes," she spent most of her time in +devouring the pages of Shakespeare, and committing favorite passages to +memory. To her childish fancy they seemed to open the gates of dreamland, +where she could hold converse with a world peopled by heroes, and live a +life apart from the prosaic everyday existence which surrounded her in a +modern American town. Shakespeare was the teacher who replaced the "school +marm," with her dull and formal lessons. Her quick perceptive mind grasped +his great and noble thoughts, which gave a vigor and robustness to her +mental growth. Since those days she has assimilated rather than acquired +knowledge, and there are now few women of her age whose information is +more varied, or whose conversation displays greater mental culture, and +higher intellectual development. Strangely enough, it was the male +characters of Shakespeare which touched Mary Anderson's youthful fancy; +and she studied with a passionate ardor such parts as Hamlet, Romeo, and +Richard III. With the wonderful intuition of an art-nature, she seems to +have felt that the cultivation of the voice was a first essential to +success. She ransacked her father's library for works on elocution, and +discovering on one occasion "Rush on the Voice," proceeded, for many weeks +before it became known to her parents, to commence under its guidance the +task of building up a somewhat weak and ineffective organ into a voice +capable of expressing with ease the whole gamut of feeling from the +fiercest passion to the tenderest sentiment, and which can fill with a +whisper the largest theater. + +The passion for a theatrical career seems to have been born in the child. +At ten she would recite passages from Shakespeare, and arrange her room to +represent appropriately the stage scene. Her first visit to the theater +was when she was about twelve, one winter's evening, to see a fairy piece +called "Puck." The house was only a short distance from her home at +Louisville, and she and her little brother presented themselves at the +entrance door hours before the time announced for the performance. The +door-keeper happened to observe the children, and thinking they would +freeze standing outside in the wintry wind, good naturedly opened the door +and admitted Mary Anderson to Paradise--or what seemed like it to her--the +empty benches of the dress circle, the dim half-light, the mysterious +horizon of dull green curtain, beyond which lay Fairyland. Here for two or +three hours she sat entranced, till the peanut boy made his appearance to +herald the approach of the glories of the evening. From that date the die +of Mary Anderson's destiny was cast. The theater became her world. She +looked with admiring interest on a super, or even a bill-sticker, as they +passed the windows of her father's house; and an actor seen in the streets +in the flesh filled her with the same reverent awe and admiration as +though the gods had descended from their serene heights to mingle in the +dust with common mortals. We are not sure that she still retains this +among the other illusions of her youth! + +The person who seems to have fixed Mary Anderson's theatrical destiny was +one Henry Woude. He had been an actor of some distinction on the American +stage, which he had, however, abandoned for the pulpit. Mr. Woude happened +to be one of her father's patients, and the conversation turning one day +upon Mary's passion for a theatrical career, the older actor expressed a +wish to hear her read. He was enthusiastic in praise of the power and +promise displayed by the self-trained girl, and declared to the astonished +father that in his youthful daughter he possessed a second Rachel. Mr. +Woude advised an immediate training for a dramatic career; but the +parental repugnance to the stage was not yet overcome, and Mary remained a +while longer to pursue, as best she might, her dramatic studies in her own +home, and with no other teachers than the artistic instinct which had +already guided her so far on the path to eventual triumph and success. + +When in her fourteenth year, Mary Anderson saw for the first time a really +great actor. Edwin Booth came on a starring tour to Louisville, and she +witnessed his Richard III., one of the actor's most powerful +impersonations. That night was a new revelation to her in dramatic art, +and she returned home to lie awake for hours, sleepless from excitement, +and pondering whether it were possible that she could ever wield the same +magic power. She commenced at once the serious study of "Richard III." The +manner of Booth was carefully copied, and that great artist would +doubtless have been as much amused as flattered to note the servility with +which his rendering of the part was adhered to. A preliminary rehearsal +took place in the kitchen before a little colored girl, some years Mary +Anderson's senior, who had that devoted attachment to her young mistress +often found in the colored races to the whites. Dinah was so much +terrified by the fierce declamation that she almost went into hysterics, +and rushing up-stairs begged the mother to come down and see what was the +matter with "Miss Mami," as she was affectionately called at home. Consent +was at length obtained to a little drawing-room entertainment at home of +"Richard III.," with Miss Mary Anderson for the first and last time in the +title _role_. For some months the young _debutante_ had carefully saved +her pocket money for the purchase of an appropriate costume, and, +resisting, as best she might, the attractions of the sweetmeat shop, +managed to accumulate five dollars. With her mother's help a little +costume was got up--a purple satin tunic, green silk cape, and plumed +hat--and wearing the traditional hump, the youthful, representative of +Richard appeared for the first time before an audience in the Tent Scene, +preceded by the Cottage Scene from "The Lady of Lyons." The back +drawing-room was arranged as a stage; her mother acting as prompter, +though her help was little needed; and, judged by the enthusiastic +applause of friends and neighbors, the performance was a great success. +The young actress received it all with even more apparent coolness than if +she had trodden the boards for years, and made her exits with the calm +dignity which she had observed to be Edwin Booth's manner under similar +circumstances. Indeed, Booth became to her childish fancy the divinity who +could open to her the door of the stage she longed so ardently to reach. +She confided to the little colored girl a plan to save their money, and +fly to New York to Mr. Booth, and ask him to place her on the stage. Dinah +entered heartily into the affair, and at one time they had managed to +hoard as much as five dollars for the carrying out of this romantic +scheme. Some years afterward when the wish of her heart had been long +accomplished, Mary Anderson made Mr. Booth's acquaintance, and recounting +to him her childish fancy asked what he would have done if she had +succeeded in presenting herself to him in New York. "Why, my child, I +should have taken you down to the depot, bought a couple of tickets for +Louisville, and given you in charge of the conductor," was the rather +discouraging answer of the great tragedian. + +Not long afterward Mary Anderson's dramatic powers were submitted to the +critical judgment of Miss Cushman. That great actress, then in the zenith +of her fame, was residing not far distant at Cincinnati. Accompanied by +her mother, Mary presented herself at Miss Cushman's hotel. They happened +to meet in the vestibule. The veteran actress took the young aspirant's +hand with her accustomed vigorous grasp, to which Mary, not to be outdone, +nerved herself to respond in kind; and patting her at the same time +affectionately on the cheek, invited her to read before her on an early +morning. When Miss Cushman had entered her waiting carriage, Mary +Anderson, with her wonted veneration for what pertained to the stage, +begged that she might be allowed to be the first to sit in the chair that +had been occupied for a few moments by the great actress. Miss Cushman's +verdict was highly favorable. "You have," she said, "three essential +requisites for the stage; voice, personality, and gesture. With a year's +longer study and some training, you may venture to make an appearance +before the public." Miss Cushman recommended that she should take lessons +from the younger Vandenhoff, who was at the time a successful dramatic +teacher in New York. A year from that date occurred the actress' lamented +death, almost on the very day of Mary Anderson's _debut_. + +Returning home thus encouraged, her dramatic studies were resumed with +fresh ardor. The question of the New York project was anxiously debated in +the family councils. It was at length decided that Mary Anderson should +receive some regular training for the stage; and accompanied by her mother +she was soon afterward on her way to the Empire City, full of happiness +and pride that the dream of her life seemed now within reach of +attainment. Vandenhoff was paid a hundred dollars for ten lessons, and +taught his pupil mainly the necessary stage business. This was, strictly +speaking. Mary Anderson's only professional training for a dramatic +career. The stories which have been current since her appearance in +London, as to her having been a pupil of Cushman, or of other +distinguished American artists, are entirely apocryphal, and have been +evolved by the critics who have given them to the world out of that +fertile soil, their own inner consciousness. There is certainly no +circumstance in her career which reflects more credit on Mary Anderson +than that her success, and the high position as an artist she has won thus +early in life, are due to her own almost unaided efforts. Well may it be +said of her-- + + "What merit to be dropped on fortune's hill? + The honor is to mount it." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +EARLY YEARS ON THE STAGE. + + +Between eight and nine years ago, Mary Anderson made her _debut_ at +Louisville, in the home of her childhood, and before an audience, many of +whom had known her from a child. This was how it came about. The season +had not been very successful at Macaulay's Theater, and one Milnes Levick, +an English stock-actor of the company, happened to be in some pecuniary +difficulties, and in need of funds to leave the town. The manager +bethought him of Mary Anderson, and conceived the bold idea of producing +"Romeo and Juliet," with the untried young novice in the _role_ of Juliet +for poor Levick's benefit. It was on a Thursday that the proposition was +made to her by the manager at the theater, and the performance was to take +place on the following Saturday. Mary, almost wild with delight, gave an +eager acceptance if she could but obtain her parents' consent. The +passers-by turned many of them that day to look at the beautiful girl, who +flew almost panting through the streets to reach her home. The bell handle +actually broke in her impetuous eager hands. The answer was "Yes," and at +length the dream of her life was realized. On the following Saturday, the +27th of November, 1875, after only a single rehearsal, and wearing the +borrowed costume of the manager's wife, who happened to be about the same +size as herself, and without the slightest "make up," Mary Anderson +appeared as one of Shakespeare's favorite heroines. She was announced in +the playbills thus:-- + + JULIET . . BY A LOUISVILLE YOUNG LADY. + (Her first appearance on any stage.) + +The theater was packed from curiosity, and this is what the _Louisville +Courier_ said of the performance next morning. + + +_Louisville Courier_, November 28th, 1875. + +"We can scarcely bring ourselves to speak of the young actress, who came +before the footlights last night, with the coolness of a critic and a +spectator. An interest in native genius and young endeavor, in courage and +brave effort that arrives from so near us--our own city--precludes the +possibility of standing outside of sympathy, and peering in with analyzing +and judicial glance. But we do not think that any man of judgment who +witnessed Miss Anderson's acting of Juliet, can doubt that she is a great +actress. In the latter scenes she interpreted the very spirit and soul of +tragedy, and thrilled the whole house into silence by the depth of her +passion and her power. She is essentially a tragic genius, and began +really to act only after the scene in which her nurse tells Juliet of what +she supposes is her lover's death. The quick gasp, the terrified stricken +face, the tottering step, the passionate and heart-rending accents were +nature's own marks of affecting overwhelming grief. Miss Anderson has +great power over the lower tones of her rich voice. Her whisper +electrifies and penetrates; her hurried words in the passion of the scene, +where she drinks the sleeping potion, and afterward in the catastrophe at +the end, although very far below conversational pitch, came to the ear +with distinctness and with wonderful effect. In the final scene she +reached the climax of her acting, which, from the time of Tybalt's death +to the end, was full of tragic power that we have never seen excelled. It +will be observed that we have placed the merit of this actress (in our +opinion) for the most part in her deeper and more somber powers, and +despite the high praise that we more gladly offer as her due, we cannot be +blind to her faults in the presentation of last evening. She is, +undoubtedly, a great actress, and last night evidenced a magnificent +genius, more especially remarkable on account of her extreme youth; but +whether she is a great Juliet is, indeed, more doubtful. We can imagine +her as personating Lady Macbeth superbly, and hope soon to witness her in +the part. As Juliet, her conception is almost perfect, as evinced by her +rare and exceptional taste and intuitive understanding of the text. But +her enactment of the earlier scenes lacks the exuberance and earnest +joyfulness of the pure and glowing Flower of Italy, with all her fanciful +conceits and delightful and loving ardor. + +"We could not, in Miss Anderson's rendition of the balcony scene, help +feeling in the tones of her voice, an almost stern foreboding of their +saddening fates--a foreboding stranger than that which falls as a shadow +to all ecstatic youthful hope and joy. Other faults--as evident, +undoubtedly, to her and to her advisers, as to us--are for the most part +superficial, and will disappear in a little further experience. A first +appearance, coupled with so much merit and youth, may well excuse many +things. + +"A lack of true interpretation we can never excuse. We give mediocrity +fair common-place words, generally of commendation unaccompanied by +censure. But when we come to deal with a divine inspiration, our words +must have their full meaning. + +"We do not here want mere commendatory phrases, whose stereotyped faces +appear again and again. We want just appreciation, just censure. Thus our +criticism is not to be considered unkind. Nay, we not only owe it to the +truth and to ourselves in Miss Anderson's case, to state the existence of +faults and crudities in her acting, but we owe it to her, for it is the +greatest kindness, and yet we do not speak harshly and are glad to admit +that most of her faults--such for instance as frequently casting up the +eyes--are not only slight in themselves, but enhanced if not caused by the +timidity natural on such an occasion. + +"But enough of faults. We know something of the quality of our home +actress. We see with but little further training and experience she will +stand among the foremost actresses on the stage. We are charmed by her +beauty and commanding power, and are justified in predicting great future +success." + +In the following February Mary Anderson appeared again at Macaulay's +Theater for a week, when she played, with success, Bianca in "Phasio," +studied by the advice of the manager, who thought she had a vocation for +heavy tragedy; also Julia in "The Hunchback," Evadne, and again Juliet. + +The reputation of the rising young actress began to spread now beyond the +bounds of her Kentucky home, and on the 6th of March, 1876, she commenced +a week's engagement at the Opera House in St. Louis. Old Ben de Bar, the +great Falstaff of his time, was manager of this theater. He had known all +the most eminent American actors, and had been manager for many of the +stars; and he was quick to discern the brilliant future which awaited the +young actress. The St. Louis engagement was not altogether successful, +though it was brightened by the praises of General Sherman, with whom was +formed then a friendship which remains unbroken till to-day. Indeed, the +old veteran can never pass Long Branch in his travels without "stopping +off to see Mary." Ben de Bar had a theater in New Orleans known as the St. +Charles. It was the Drury Lane of that city, and situated in an +unfashionable quarter of the town. Its benches were reported to be almost +deserted and its treasury nearly empty. But an engagement to appear there +for a week was accepted joyfully by Mary Anderson. She played Evadne at a +parting _matinee_ in St. Louis on the Saturday, traveled to New Orleans +all through Sunday, arriving there at two o'clock on the Monday afternoon, +rushed down to the theater to rehearse with a new company, and that night +appeared to a house of only forty-eight dollars! The students of the +Military College formed a large part of the scanty audience, and fired +with the beauty and talent of the young actress, they sallied forth +between the acts and bought up all the bouquets in the quarter. The final +act of "Evadne" was played almost knee-deep in flowers, and that night +Mary Anderson was compelled to hire a wagon to carry home to her hotel the +floral offerings of her martial admirers. General and Mrs. Tom Thumb +occupied the stage box on one of the early nights of the engagement, and +the fame of the beautiful young star soon reached the fashionable quarter +of New Orleans, and Upper Tendom flocked to the despised St. Charles. On +the following Saturday night there was a house packed from floor to +ceiling, the takings, meanwhile, having risen from 48 to 500 dollars. An +offer of an engagement at the Varietes, the Lyceum of New Orleans, quickly +followed, and the daring feat of appearing as Meg Merrilies was attempted +on its boards. The press predicted failure, and warned the young aspirant +against essaying a part almost identified with Cushman, then but lately +deceased, who had been a great favorite with the New Orleans public, and +one of whose best impersonations it was. The actors too, with whom Mary +Anderson rehearsed, looked forward to anything but a success. Nothing +daunted, however, and confident in her own powers, she spent two hours in +perfecting a make-up so successful, that even her mother failed to +recognize her in the strange, weird disguise; and then, darkening her +dressing-room, set herself resolutely to get into the heart of her part. +Mary Anderson's Meg Merrilies was an immense success; Cushman herself +never received greater applause, and the scene was quite an ovation. +Hearing, on the fall of the curtain, that General Beauregard, one of the +heroes of the civil war, intended to make a presentation, she threw off +her disguise, and smoothing her hair rushed back to the stage, to receive +the Badge of the Washington Artillery, a belt enameled in blue, with +crossed cannons in gold with diamond vents, and suspended from the belt a +tiger's head in gold, with diamond eyes and ruby tongue. The corps had +been known through the war as the "Tiger Heads," and were famed for their +deeds of daring and bravery. The belt bore the inscription, "To Mary +Anderson, from her friends of the Battalion." She returned thanks in a +little speech, which was received with much enthusiasm, and retired almost +overcome with pleasure and pride. The youthful actress, who had then not +completed her seventeenth year, took by storm the hearts of the impulsive +and chivalrous Southerners. On the morning of her departure, she found to +her astonishment that the railway company had placed a fine "Pullman" and +special engine at her disposal all the way to Louisville. Generals +Beauregard and Hood, with many distinguished Southerners, were on the +platform to bid her farewell, and she returned home with purse and +reputation, both marvelously grown. + +After a brief period spent in diligent study, Mary Anderson fulfilled a +second engagement in New Orleans, which proved a great financial success. +The criticisms of this period all admit her histrionic power, though some +describe her efforts as at times raw and crude, faults hardly to be +wondered at in a young girl mainly self-taught, and with barely a year's +experience of the business of the stage. + +About this time Mary Anderson met with the first serious rebuff in her +hitherto so successful career. It happened, too, in California, the State +of her birth, where she was to have a somewhat rude experience of the old +adage, that "a prophet has no honor in his own country." John McCullough +was then managing with great success the principal theater in San +Francisco, and offered her a two weeks' engagement. But California would +have none of her. The public were cold and unsympathetic, the press +actually hostile. The critics declared not only that she could not act, +but that she was devoid of all capability of improvement. One, more +gallant than his fellows, was gracious enough to remark that, in spite of +her mean capacity as an artist, she possessed a neck like a column of +marble. It was only when she appeared as Meg Merrilies that the +Californians thawed a little, and the press relented somewhat. Edwin Booth +happened to be in San Francisco at the time, and it was on the stage of +California that Mary Anderson first met the distinguished actor who had +been her early stage ideal. He told her that for ten years he had never +sat through a performance till hers; and the praises of the great +tragedian went far to console her for the coldness and want of sympathy in +the general public. It was by Booth's advice, as well as John +McCullough's, that she now began to study such parts as Parthenia, as +better suited to her powers than more somber tragedy. Those were the old +stock theater days in America, when every theater had a fair standing +company, and relied for its success on the judicious selection of stars. +This system, though perhaps a somewhat vicious one, made so many +engagements possible to Mary Anderson, whose means would not have admitted +of the costlier system of traveling with a special company. + +The return journey from California was made painfully memorable by a +disastrous accident to a railway train which had preceded the party, and +they were compelled to stop for the night at a little roadside town in +Missouri. The hotels were full of wounded passengers, and scenes of +distress were visible on all sides. When they were almost despairing of a +night's lodging, a plain countryman approached them, and offered the +hospitality of his pretty white cottage hard by, embosomed in its trees +and flowers. The offer was thankfully accepted, and soon after their +arrival the wife's sister, a "school mar'm," came in, and seemed to warm +at once to her beautiful young visitor. She proposed a walk, and the two +girls sallied forth into the fields. The stranger turned the subject to +Shakespeare and the stage, with which Mary Anderson was fain to confess +but a very slight acquaintance, fearing the announcement of her profession +would shock the prejudices of these simple country folk, who might shrink +from having "a play actress" under their roof. Some months after the party +had returned home there came a letter from these kind people saying how, +to their delight and astonishment, they had accidentally discovered who +had been their guest. It seemed the sister was an enthusiastic +Shakespearean student, and all agreed that in entertaining Mary Anderson +they had "entertained an angel unawares." + +The California trip may be said to close the first period of Mary +Anderson's dramatic career. With some draw-backs and some rebuffs she had +made a great success, but she was known thus far only as a Western girl, +who had yet to encounter the judgment of the more critical audiences of +the South and East, as years later, with a reputation second to none all +over the States as well as in Canada, she essayed, with a success which +has been seldom equaled, perhaps never surpassed, the ordeal of facing, at +the Lyceum, an audience, perhaps the most fastidious and critical in +London. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE CAREER OF AN AMERICAN STAR. + + +Mary Anderson returned home from California disheartened and dispirited. +To her it had proved anything but a Golden State. Her visit there was the +first serious rebuff in her brief dramatic career whose opening months had +been so full of promise, and even of triumph. She was barely seventeen, +and a spirit less brave, or less confident in its own powers, might easily +have succumbed beneath the storm of adverse criticism. Happily for +herself, and happily too for the stage on both sides of the Atlantic, the +young _debutante_ took the lesson wisely to heart. She saw that the +heights of dramatic fame could not be taken by storm; that her past +successes, if brilliant, regard being had to her youth and want of +training, were far from secure. She was like some fair flower which had +sprung up warmed by the genial sunshine, likely enough to wither and die +before the first keen blast. Her youth, her beauty, her undoubted dramatic +genius, were points strongly in her favor; but these could ill +counterbalance, at first at any rate, the want of systematic training, the +almost total absence of any experience of the representation by others of +the parts which she sought to make her own. She had seen Charlotte +Cushman; indeed, in "Meg Merrilies," but of the true rendering of a part +so difficult and complex as Shakespeare's Juliet, she knew absolutely +nothing but what she had been taught by the promptings of her own artistic +instinct. She was herself the only Juliet, as she was the only Bianca, and +the only Evadne, she had ever seen upon any stage. In those days she had, +perhaps, never heard the remark of Mademoiselle Mars, who was the most +charming of Juliets at sixty. "Si j'avais ma jeunesse, je n'aurais pas mon +talent." + +Coming back then to her Kentucky home from the ill-starred Californian +trip, Mary Anderson seems to have determined to essay again the lowest +steps of the ladder of fame. She took a summer engagement with a company, +which was little else than a band of strolling players. The _repertoire_ +was of the usual ambitious character, and Mary was able to assume once +more her favorite _role_ of Juliet. The company was deficient in a Romeo, +and the part was consequently undertaken by a lady--a _role_ by the way in +which Cushman achieved one of her greatest triumphs. In spite, however, of +the young star, the little band played to sadly empty houses, and the +treasury was so depleted that, in the generosity of her heart, Mary +Anderson proposed to organize a benefit _matinee_, and play Juliet. She +went down to the theater at the appointed hour and dressed for her part. +After some delay a man strayed into the pit, then a couple of boys peeped +over the rails of the gallery, and, at last, a lady entered the +dress-circle. The disheartened manager was compelled at length to appear +before the curtain and announce that, in consequence of the want of public +support, the performance could not take place. That day Mary Anderson +walked home to her hotel through the quiet streets of the little Kentucky +town--which shall be nameless--with a sort of miserable feeling at her +heart, that the world had no soul for the great creations of Shakespeare's +master-mind, which had so entranced her youthful fancy. It all seemed like +a descent into some chill valley of darkness, after the sweet incense of +praise, the perfume of flowers, and the crowded theaters which had been +her earlier experiences. But the dark storm cloud was soon to pass over, +and henceforth almost unbroken sunshine was to attend Mary Anderson's +career. For her there was to be no heart-breaking period of mean +obscurity, no years of dull unrequited toil. She burst as a star upon the +theatrical world, and a star she has remained to this day, because, +through all her successes, she never for a moment lost sight of the fact +that she could only maintain her ground by patient study, and steady +persistent hard work. Failures she had unquestionably. Her rendering of a +part was often rough, often unfinished. Not uncommonly she was surpassed +in knowledge of stage business by the most obscure member of the companies +with whom she played; but the public recognized instinctively the true +light of genius which shone clear and bright through all defects and all +shortcomings. It was a rare experience, whether on the stage, or in other +paths of art, but not an unknown one. Fanny Kemble, who made her _debut_ +at Covent Garden at the same age as Mary Anderson, took the town by storm +at once, and seemed to burst upon the stage as a finished actress. David +Garrick was the greatest actor in England after he had been on the boards +less than three months. Shelley was little more than sixteen when he wrote +"Queen Mab;" and Beckford's "Vathek" was the production of a youth of +barely twenty. + +In the year 1876, Mary Anderson received an offer from a distinguished +theatrical manager, John T. Ford, of Washington and Baltimore, to join his +company as a star, but at an ordinary salary. Three hundred dollars a +week, even in those early days, was small pay for the rising young +actress, who was already without a rival in her own line on the American +stage; but the extended tour through the States which the engagement +offered, the security of a good company, and of able management, led to an +immediate acceptance. On this as on every other occasion, through her +theatrical career, Mary Anderson was accompanied by her father and mother, +who have ever watched over her welfare with the tenderest solicitude. All +the arrangements for the trip were _en prince_. Indeed we have small idea +in our little sea-girt isle, of the luxury and even splendor with which +American stars travel over the vast distances between one city and another +on the immense Western continent. The City of Worcester, a new Pullman +car, subsequently used by Sarah Bernhardt, and afterward by Edwin Booth, +was chartered for the party, consisting of Mary Anderson, her father, +mother, and brother, and the young actress' maid and secretary. A cook and +three colored porters constituted the _personnel_ of the establishment. +There was a completely equipped kitchen, a dining-room with commodious +family table; a tiny drawing-room with its piano, portraits of favorite +artists, and some choicely-filled bookshelves, as well as capital sleeping +quarters. It was literally a splendid home upon wheels. Where the hotels +happened to be inferior at any particular town, the party occupied it +through the period of the engagement. Visitors were received, friendly +parties arranged, and little of the inconvenience and discomfort of travel +experienced. It was thus that Mary Anderson made her first great +theatrical tour through the States. In spite of now and then a cold, or +even hostile press, her progress was very like a triumph. In many places +she created an absolute _furore_, hundreds being turned away at the +theater doors. Indeed, it was no uncommon occurrence for an ordinary seat +whose advertised price was seventy-five cents to sell at as high a premium +as twenty-five dollars. The management reaped a rich harvest, and Mary +Anderson played on this Southern trip to more money than any previous +actor, excepting only Edwin Forrest. There was still one drop of bitter in +this cup of sweetness and success. The company, jealous of the prominence +given to one whom they regarded as a mere untried girl, proceeded to add +what they could to her difficulties by "boycotting" her. There were two +exceptions among the gentlemen actors; and we are pleased to be able to +record that one of these was an Englishman. The ladies were unanimous in +proclaiming a war to the knife! + +Needless to say the impassioned youth of the New World now and then +pursued the wandering star in her travels at immense expenditure of time +and money, as well as of floral decorations. This is young America's way +of showing his admiration for a favorite actress. He is silent and +unobtrusive. He makes his presence known by the midnight serenade beneath +her windows; by the bouquets which fall at her feet on every +representation, and are sent to the room of her hotel at the same hour +each day; by his constant attendance on the departure platform at the +railway station. We are not sure that this silent worship which so often +persistently followed her path was displeasing to Mary Anderson. It +touched, if not her heart, yet that poetic vein which runs through her +nature, and reminded her sometimes of the vain pursuit with which +Evangeline followed her wandering lover. + +Manager Ford had taken Mary Anderson through the South with great profit +to himself. In this she had had no direct pecuniary interest beyond her +modest salary. She had, of course, greatly enriched her reputation if not +her purse. She had become at home in her parts, and even added to her +_repertoire_, the manager's daughter, with whom she played Juliet and Lady +Macbeth alternately, having translated for her "La Fille de Roland," in +which she has since appeared with great success. She was then but +seventeen and a half, and had never possessed a diamond, when on returning +home from church one Sunday morning, she found a little jewel case +containing a magnificent diamond cross, an acknowledgment from the manager +of her services to his company. The gift was the more appreciated from the +fact that it was a very exceptional specimen of managerial generosity in +America! + +The criticisms of the press during the early years of Mary Anderson's +theatrical career are full of interest, viewed in the light of her after +and firmly established success. They show that the American people were +not slow to recognize the genius of the young girl, who was destined +hereafter to spread a luster on the stage of two continents. At the same +time they are full either of a ridiculous praise which is blind to the +presence of the least fault, and would have turned the head of a young +girl not endowed with the sturdy common sense possessed by Mary Anderson; +or they are marked by a vindictive animosity which defeats its very +object, and practically attracts public notice in favor of an actress it +is obviously meant to crush. These newspaper criticisms are further +amusing as showing the family likeness which exists between the _genus_ +"dramatic critic" on both sides of the Atlantic. Each seems to believe +that he carries the fate of the actor in his inkhorn. Each seems blind to +the fact that _Vox populi vox Dei_; that favorable criticism never yet +made an artist, who had not within him the power to win the popular favor; +still more, that adverse criticism can never extinguish the heaven-sent +spark of true artistic fire. + +The verdict of Louisville on its home-grown actress has been given in a +preceding chapter. The estimate, however, of strangers is of far more +value than that of friends or acquaintance. The judgment of St. Louis, +where Mary Anderson played her earliest engagements away from home is, on +the whole, the most interesting dramatic criticism of her early +performances on record. St. Louis is a city of considerable culture, and +stands in much the same relation to the South as does its modern rival +Chicago to the North-West. Its newspapers are some of the ablest on the +continent, and its audiences perhaps as critical as any in America if we +except perhaps such places as Boston or New York. + +The _St. Louis Globe Democrat_ says:-- + +"A diamond in the rough, but yet a diamond, was the mental verdict of the +jury who sat in the Opera House last night to see Miss Mary Anderson on +her first appearance here in the character of Juliet. It was in reality +her _debut_ upon the stage. She played, a short time since, for one week +in her native city, Louisville, but this is her first effort upon a stage +away from the associations which surround an appearance among friends, and +which must, to a great extent, influence the general judgment of the +_debutante's_ merit.... We believe her to be the most promising young +actress who has stepped upon the boards for many a day, and before whom +there is, undoubtedly, a brilliant and successful career." + +The _St. Louis Republican_ has the following very interesting notice:-- + +"A fresh and beautiful young girl of Juliet's age embodied and presented +Juliet. Beauty often mirrors its type in this beautiful character, but +very rarely does Juliet's youth meet its youthful counterpart on the +stage.... A great Juliet is not the question here, but the possibility of +a Juliet near the age at which the dramatist presented his heroine. Mary +Anderson is untampered by any stage traditions, and she rendered +Shakespeare's youngest heroine as she felt her pulsing in his lines.... +She leads a return to the source of poetic inspiration, and exemplifies +what true artistic instincts and feeling can do on the stage, without +either the traditions and experience of acting. She colors her own +conceptions and figure of Juliet, and by her work vindicates the master, +and proves that Juliet can be presented by a girl of her own age.... The +fourth act exhibited great tragic power, and no want was felt in the +celebrated chamber scene, which is the test passage of this _role_.... It +stamped the performance as a success, and the actress as a phenomenon.... +The thought must have gone round the house among those who knew the +facts--Can this be only the seventh performance on the stage of this young +girl?" + +Here is another notice a few months later on in Mary Anderson's dramatic +career from the _Baltimore Gazette_:-- + +"Miss Anderson's Juliet has the charm which belongs to youth, beauty, and +natural genius. Her fair face, her flexible youth--for she is still in her +teens--and her great natural dramatic genius, make her personation of that +sweet creation of Shakespeare successful, in spite of her immaturity as an +artist. We have so often seen aged Juliets; stiff, stagey Juliets; fat, +roomy Juliets; and ill-featured Juliets, that the sight of a young, +lady-like girl with natural dramatic genius, a bright face, an unworn +voice, is truly refreshing. In the scene where the nurse brings her the +bad news of Tybalt's death and Romeo's banishment, she acted charmingly. +In gesture, attitude, and facial expression she gave evidence of emotion +so true and strong, as showed she was capable of losing her own identity +in the _role_." + +As an amusing specimen of vindictive criticism, we subjoin a notice in the +_Washington Capitol_, under date May 28, 1876. This lengthy notice +contains strong internal evidence of a deadly feud existing between +Manager Ford and the editor of the _Capitol_, and the stab is given +through the fair bosom of Mary Anderson, whose immense success in +Senatorial Washington, this atrabilious knight of the plume devotes two +columns of his valuable space to explaining away. + + +Washington City _Daily Capitol_, 28th May, 1876. + +"Miss Anderson comes to us on a perfect whirlwind of newspaper puffs. We +use the words advisedly, for in none of them can be found a paragraph of +criticism. If Siddons or Cushman had been materialized and restored to the +stage in all their pristine excellence, the excitement in Cincinnati, +Louisville, St. Louis and New Orleans, could not have been more intense. +The very firemen of one of those cities seem to have been aroused and lost +their hearts, if not their heads; and not only serenaded the object of +their adoration, but got up a decoration for her to wear of the most +costly and gorgeous sort. Under this state of facts we waited with unusual +impatience for sixteen sticks to give the cue that was to fetch on the +Juliet. It came at last, and Juliet stalked in. Had Lady Macbeth responded +to the summons we could not have been more amazed. Miss Anderson is heroic +in size and manner. The lovely heiress to the house of the Capulets, on +the turn of sixteen, swept in upon the stage as if she were mistress of +the house, situation, and of fate, and bent on bringing the enemy to +terms. Her face is sweet, at times positively beautiful, but incapable of +expression. Her voice, while clear, is hard, metallic, at intervals nasal, +and all the while stagey. She has been trained in the old Kemble tragic +pump-handle style of elocution, that runs talk on stilts. Her manner is +crude and awkward. In the balcony scene she only needed a pair of gold +rimmed glasses to have made her an excellent schoolmistress, chiding a +naughty young man for intruding upon the sacred premises of Madame +Fevialli's select academy for young ladies. In the love scenes that +followed she was cold enough to be broken to pieces for a refrigerator. +But who could have warmed up to such a Romeo? That unpleasant youth pained +us with his quite unnecessary gyrations and spasmodic noise. We soon +discovered that Miss Anderson had been coached for Juliet without +possessing on her part the most distant conception of the character--or +capacity to render it, had she the information. She was not doing Juliet +from end to end. She was as far from Juliet as the North Pole is from the +Equator. She was doing something else. We could not make out clearly what +that character was; but it was something quite different and a good way +off. Sometimes we thought it was Lady Macbeth, sometimes Meg Merrilies, +sometimes Lucretia Borgia, but never for a moment Juliet. We speak thus +plainly of Miss Anderson because her injudicious and enthusiastic friends +are injuring, if they are not ruining her. Her fine physique, her dash, +her beautiful face, her clear ringing voice, have carried crowds off their +heads--well, they are off at both ends; for on last Thursday night the +amount of applauding was based on shoe leather. The lovely Anderson was +called out at the end of each act. As to that, the active Romeo had his +call. We never saw before precisely such a house. The north-west was out +in full force. Kentucky came to the front like a little man. General +Sherman, sitting at our elbow, wore out his gloves, blistered his hands, +and then borrowed a cotton umbrella from his neighbor. Miss Anderson, with +all her natural advantages, added to her love of the art, her indomitable +will as shown in her square prominent jaw, has a career before her, but it +is not down the path indicated by these enthusiastic friends. 'The steeps +where Fame's proud temple shines afar' are difficult of access, and genius +waters them with more tears than sturdy, steady, persevering talent. + +"Charlotte Cushman told us once that the heaviest article she had to carry +up was her heart. The divine actress who now leads the English-spoken +stage began her professional career as a ballet dancer, and has grown her +laurels from her tears. We suspected Miss Anderson's success. It was too +triumphant, too easy. After years of weary labor, of heart-breaking +disappointments, of dreary obscurity, genius sometimes blazes out for a +brief period to dazzle humanity; and quite as often never blazes, but +disappears without a triumph. + +"To such life is not a battle, but a campaign with ten defeats, yea, +twenty defeats to one victory. + +"Miss Anderson will think us harsh and unkind in this. She will live, we +hope, to consider us her best friend. + +"There is one fact upon which she can comfort herself: she could not get +two hours and a half of our time and a column in the _Capitol_ were she +without merit. There is value in her; but to fetch it out she must go +back, begin lower, and give years to training, education, and hard work. +She can labor ten years for the sake of living five. As for her support, +it was of the sort afforded by John T., the showman, and very funny. Mrs. +Germon, God bless her! was properly funny. She is the best old woman on +end in the world. + +"Romeo (Mr. Morton) we have spoken of. Lingham is supposed to have done +Mercutio. Well, he did do him. That is, he went through the motions. He +seemed to be saying something anent the great case of Capulet _vs._ +Montague, but so indistinct that there was a general sense of relief when +he staggered off to die. Deaths generally had this effect Thursday night, +and the house not only applauded the exits, but made itself exceedingly +merry. + +"When Paris went down and a tombstone fell over him, his plaintive cry of +'Oh, I am killed!' was received with shouts of laughter. + +"It was the most laughable we ever witnessed. In the first scene one of +those marble statues, so peculiar to John T.'s mismanagement, that +resemble granite in a bad state of small-pox, fell over. + +"The house was amazed to see it resolve itself into a board, and laughed +tumultuously to note how it righted itself up in a mysterious manner, and +stood in an easy reclining posture till the curtain fell. + +"The scene that exhibited the balcony affair was a sweet thing. Evidently +the noble house of the Capulets was in reduced circumstances. The building +from which Juliet issued was a frame structure so frail in material that +we feared a collapse. + +"If the carpenter who erected that structure for the Capulets charged more +than ten dollars currency he swindled the noble old duffer infamously. The +front elevation came under that order of architecture known out West as +Conestoga. It was all of fifteen feet in height, and depended for +ornamentation on a brilliant horse cover thrown over the corner of the +balcony, and a slop bucket that Juliet was evidently about to empty on the +head of Romeo when that youth made his presence known. The house shook so +under Juliet's substantial tread, that an old lady near us wished to be +taken out, declaring that 'that young female would get her neck broken +next thing.' + +"In the last scene where the page (Miss Lulu Dickson) was ordered to +extinguish the torch, the poor girl made frantic efforts, but failing, +walked off with the thing blazing. + +"When Paris entered with his page, a youth in a night shirt, that youth +carried in his countenance the fixed determination of putting out his +torch at the right moment or dieing in the attempt. We all saw that. + +"Expectancy was worked up to a point of intense interest, so that when at +last the word was given, a puff of wind not only extinguished the torch +but shook the scenery, and made us thankful the young man did wear +pantaloons, as the consequences might have been terrible. + +"When Count Paris fell mortally wounded, a tombstone at his side fell over +him in the most convenient and charming manner. The house was so convulsed +with merriment that when poor Juliet was exposed in the tomb she was +greeted with laughter, much to the poor girl's embarrassment. And this is +the sort of entertainment to which we have been treated throughout our +entire season. But then the showman is a success and pays his bills." + +The great Eastern cities of America are regarded by an American artist +much in the same light as is the metropolis by a provincial artist at +home. Their approval is supposed to stamp as genuine the verdict of +remoter districts. The success which had attended Mary Anderson in her +journeyings West and South was not to desert her when she presented +herself before the presumably more critical audiences of the East. She +made her Eastern _debut_ at Pittsburg, the Birmingham of America, in the +heat of the Presidential election of 1880, and met with a thoroughly +enthusiastic reception, to proceed thence to Philadelphia, where she +reaped plenty of honor, but very little money. Boston, the Athens of the +New World, was reached at length. When Mary Anderson was taken down by the +manager to see the vast Boston Theater, whose auditorium seats 4000 +people, and which Henry Irving declared to be the finest in the world, she +almost fainted with apprehension. She opened here in Evadne, and one +journal predicted that she would take Cushman's place. This part was +followed by Juliet, Meg Merrilies, and her other chief impersonations. On +one day of her engagement the receipts at a matinee and an evening +performance amounted together to the large sum of $7000. + +The visit to Boston was made memorable to Mary Anderson by her +introduction to Longfellow. About a week after she had opened, a friend of +the poet's came to her with a request that she would pay him a visit at +his pretty house in the suburbs of Boston, Longfellow being indisposed at +the time, and confined to his quaint old study, overlooking the waters of +the sluggish Charles, and the scenery made immortal in his verse. Here was +commenced a warm friendship between the beautiful young artist and the +aged poet, which continued unbroken to the day of his death. He was seated +when she entered, in a richly-carved chair, of which Longfellow told her +this charming story. The "spreading chestnut tree," immortalized in "The +Village Blacksmith," happened to stand in an outlying village near Boston, +somewhat inconveniently for the public traffic at some cross roads. It +became necessary to cut it down, and remove the forge beneath. But the +village fathers did not venture to proceed to an act which they regarded +as something like sacrilege, without consulting Longfellow. At their +request he paid a visit of farewell to the spot, and sanctioned what was +proposed. Not long after, a handsomely carved chair was forwarded to him, +made from the wood of the "spreading chestnut tree," and which bore an +inscription commemorative of the circumstances under which it was given. +Few of his possessions were dearer to Longfellow than this dumb memento +how deeply his poetry had sunk into the national heart of his countrymen. +It stood in the chimney corner of his study, and till the day of his death +was always his favorite seat. + +The verdict of Longfellow upon Mary Anderson is worth that of a legion of +newspaper critics, and his judgment of her Juliet deserves to be recorded +in letters of gold. The morning after her benefit, he said to her, "I have +been thinking of Juliet all night. _Last night you were Juliet!_" + +At the Boston Theater occurred an accident which shows the marvelous +courage and power of endurance possessed by the young actress. In the play +of "Meg Merrilies," she had to appear suddenly in one scene at the top of +a cliff, some fifteen feet above the stage. To avoid the danger of falling +over, it was necessary to use a staff. Mary Anderson had managed to find +one of Cushman's, but the point having become smooth through use, she told +one of the people of the theater to put a small nail at the bottom. +Instead of this, he affixed a good-sized spike, and one night Mary +Anderson, coming out as usual, drove this right through her foot, in her +sudden stop on the cliffs brink. Without flinching, or moving a muscle, +with Spartan fortitude she played the scene to the end, though almost +fainting with pain, till on the fall of the curtain the spiked staff was +drawn out, not without force. Longfellow was much concerned at this +accident, and on nights she did not play would sit by her side in her box, +and wrap the furred overcoat he used to wear carefully round her wounded +foot. + +From Boston Mary Anderson proceeded to New York to fulfill a two weeks' +engagement at the Fifth Avenue Theater. She opened with a good company in +"The Lady of Lyons." General Sherman had advised her to read no papers, +but one morning to her great encouragement, some good friend thrust under +her door a very favorable notice in the New York _Herald_. The engagement +proved a great success, and was ultimately extended to six weeks, the +actress playing two new parts, Juliet and The Daughter of Roland. She had +passed the last ordeal successfully, and might rejoice as she stood on the +crest of the hill of Fame that the ambition of her young life was at +length realized. Her subsequent theatrical career in the States and Canada +need not be recorded here. She had become America's representative +_tragedienne_; there was none to dispute her claims. Year after year she +continued to increase an already brilliant reputation, and to amass one of +the largest fortunes it has ever been the happy lot of any artist to +secure. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE. + + +In the summer of 1879, was paid Mary Anderson's first visit to Europe. It +had long been eagerly anticipated. In the lands of the Old World was the +cradle of the Art she loved so well, and it was with feelings almost of +awe that she entered their portals. She had few if any introductions, and +spent a month in London wandering curiously through the conventional +scenes usually visited by a stranger. Westminster Abbey was among her +favorite haunts; its ancient aisles, its storied windows, its thousand +memories of a past which antedated by so many centuries the civilization +of her native land, appealed deeply to the ardent imagination of the +impassioned girl. Here was a world of which she had read and dreamed, but +whose over-mastering, living influence was now for the first time felt. It +seemed like the first glimpse of verdant forest, of enameled meadow, of +crystal stream, of pure sky to one who had been blind. It was another +atmosphere, another life. Brief as was her visit, it gave an impulse to +those germs which lie deep in every poetic soul. She saw there was an +illimitable world of Art, whose threshold as yet she had hardly +trodden--and she went home full of the inspiration caught at the ancient +fountains of Poetry and Art. From that time an intellectual change seems +to have passed over her. Her studies took new channels, and her +impersonations were mellowed and glorified from her personal contact with +the associations of a great past. + +A visit to Stratford-on-Avon was one of the most delightful events of the +trip. It seemed to Mary Anderson the emblem of peace and contentment and +quiet; and though as a stranger she did not then enjoy so many of the +privileges which were willingly accorded her during the present visit to +this country, she still looks back to the day when she knelt by the grave +of Shakespeare as one of the most eventful and inspiring of her life. + +Much of the time of Mary Anderson's European visit was spent in Paris. +Through the kindness of General Sherman she obtained introductions to +Ristori and other distinguished artists, and, to her delight, secured also +the _entree_ behind the scenes of the Theatre Francais. Its magnificent +green-room, the walls lined with portraits of departed celebrities of that +famous theater, amazed her by its splendor; and to her it was a strange +and curious sight to see the actors in "Hernani" come in and play cards in +their gorgeous stage costumes at intervals in the performance. On one of +these occasions she naively asked Sarah Bernhardt why her portrait did not +appear on the walls? The great artist replied that she hoped Mary Anderson +did not wish her dead, as only under such circumstances could an +appearance there be permitted to her. "Behind the scenes" of the Theatre +Francais was a source of never-wearying interest, and Mary Anderson +thought the effects of light attained there far surpassed anything she had +witnessed on the English or American stage. + +The verdict of Ristori, before whom she recited, was highly favorable, and +the great _tragedienne_ predicted a brilliant career for the young +actress, and declared she would be a great success with an English company +in Paris, while the "divine Sarah" affirmed that she had never seen +greater originality. On the return journey from Paris a brief stay was +made at the quaint city of Rouen. Joan of Arc's stake, and the house +where, tradition has it, she resided, were sacred spots to Mary Anderson; +and the ancient towers, the curious old streets, overlooking the fertile +valley through which the Seine wanders like a silver thread, are memories +which have since remained to her ever green. During her first visit to +England Mary Anderson never dreamt of the possibility that she herself +might appear on the English stage. Indeed the effect of her first European +tour was depressing and disheartening. She saw only how much there was for +her to see, how much to learn in the world of Art. A feeling of +home-sickness came over her, and she longed to be back at her seaside home +where she could watch the wild restless Atlantic as it swept in upon the +New Jersey shore, and listen to the sad music of the weary waves. This was +the instinct of a true artist nature, which had depths capable of being +stirred by the touch of what is great and noble. + +In the following year, however, there came an offer from the manager of +Drury Lane to appear upon its boards. Mary Anderson received it with a +pleased surprise. It told that her name had spread beyond her native land, +and that thus early had been earned a reputation which commended her as +worthy to appear on the stage of a great and famous London theater. But +her reply was a refusal. She thought herself hardly finished enough to +face such a test of her powers; and the natural ambition of a successful +actress to extend the area of her triumph seemed to have found no place in +her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE.--EXPERIENCES ON THE ENGLISH STAGE. + + +The interval of five years which elapsed between Mary Anderson's first and +second visits to Europe was busily occupied by starring tours in the +States and Canada. Mr. Henry Abbey's first proposal, in 1883, for an +engagement at the Lyceum was met with the same negative which had been +given to that of Mr. Augustus Harris. But, happening some time afterward +to meet her step-father, Dr. Griffin, in Baltimore, Mr. Abbey again urged +his offer, to which a somewhat reluctant consent was at length given. The +most ambitious moment of her artist-life seemed to have arrived at last. +If she attained success, the crown was set on all the previous triumphs of +her art; if failure were the issue, she would return to America +discredited, if not disgraced, as an actress. The very crisis of her +stage-life had come now in earnest. It found her despondent, almost +despairing; at the last moment she was ready to draw back. She had then +none of the many friends who afterward welcomed her with heartfelt +sincerity whenever the curtain rose on her performance. She saw Irving in +"Louis XI." and "Shylock." The brilliant powers of the great actor filled +her at once with admiration and with dread, when she remembered how soon +she too must face the same audiences. She sought to distract herself by +making a round of the London theaters, but the most amusing of farces +could hardly draw from her a passing smile, or lift for a moment the +weight of apprehension which pressed on her heart. The very play in which +she was destined first to present herself before a London audience was +condemned beforehand. To make a _debut_ as Parthenia was to court certain +failure. The very actors who rehearsed with her were Job's comforters. She +saw in their faces a dreary vista of empty houses, of hostile critics, of +general disaster. She almost broke down under the trial, and the sight of +her first play-bill which told that the die was irrevocably cast for good +or evil made her heart sink with fear. On going down to the theater upon +the opening night she found, with mingled pleasure and surprise, that on +both sides of the Atlantic fellow artists were regarding her with kindly +sympathizing hearts. Her dressing-room was filled with beautiful floral +offerings from many distinguished actors in England and America, while +telegrams from Booth, McCullough, Lawrence Barrett, Irving, Ellen Terry, +Christine Nilsson, and Lillie Langtry, bade her be of good courage, and +wished her success. The overture smote like a dirge on her ear, and when +the callboy came to announce that the moment of her entrance was at hand, +it reminded her of nothing so much as the feeling of mourners when the +sable mute appears at the door, as a signal to form the procession to the +tomb. But in a moment the ordeal was safely passed, and passed forever so +far as an English audience is concerned. Seldom has any actress received +so warm and enthusiastic a reception. Mary Anderson confesses now that +never till that moment did she experience anything so generous and so +sympathetic, and offered to one who was then but "a stranger in a strange +land." Mary Anderson's Parthenia was a brilliant success. Her glorious +youth, her strange beauty, her admirable impersonation of a part of +exceptional difficulty, won their way to all hearts. A certain amount of +nervousness and timidity was inevitable to a first performance. The sudden +revulsion of feeling, from deep despondency to complete triumphant +success, made it difficult, at times, for the actress to master her +feelings sufficiently to make her words audible through the house. One +candid youth in the gallery endeavored to encourage her with a kindly +"Speak up, Mary." The words recalled her in an instant to herself, and for +the rest of the evening she had regained her wonted self-possession. + +From that time till Mary Anderson's first Lyceum season closed, the world +of London flocked to see her. The house was packed nightly from floor to +ceiling, and she is said to have played to more money than the +distinguished lessee of the theater himself. Among the visitors with whom +Mary Anderson was a special favorite were the prince and princess. They +witnessed each of her performances more than once, and both did her the +honor to make her personal acquaintance, and compliment her on her +success. So many absurd stories have been circulated as to Mary Anderson's +alleged unwillingness to meet the Prince of Wales, that the true story may +as well be told once for all here. On one of the early performances of +"Ingomar," the prince and princess occupied the royal box, and the prince +caused it to be intimated to Mary Anderson that he should be glad to be +introduced to her after the third act. The little republican naively +responded that she never saw any one till after the close of the +performance. H.R.H. promptly rejoined that he always left the theater +immediately the curtain fell. Meanwhile the manager represented to her the +ungraciousness of not complying with a request which half the actresses in +London would have sacrificed their diamonds to receive. And so at the +close of the third act Mary Anderson presented herself, leaning on her +father's arm, in the anteroom of the royal box. Only the prince was there, +and "He said to me," relates Mary Anderson, "more charming things than +were ever said to me, in a few minutes, in all my life. I was delighted +with his kindness, and with his simple pleasant manner, which put me at my +ease in a moment; but I was rather surprised that the princess did not see +me as well." The piece over, and there came a second message, that the +princess also wished to be introduced. With her winning smile she took +Mary Anderson's hand in hers, and thanking her for the pleasure she had +afforded by her charming impersonation, graciously presented Mary with her +own bouquet. + +The true version of another story, this time as to the Princess of Wales +and Mary Anderson, may as well now be given. One evening Count Gleichen +happened to be dining _tete-a-tete_ with the prince and princess at +Marlborough House. When they adjourned to the drawing-room, the princess +showed the count some photographs of a young lady, remarking upon her +singular beauty, and suggesting what a charming subject she would make for +his chisel. The count was fain to confess that he did not even know who +the lady was, and had to be informed that she was the new American +actress, beautiful Mary Anderson. He expressed the pleasure it would give +him to have so charming a model in his studio, and asked the princess +whether he was at liberty to tell Mary Anderson that the suggestion came +from her, to which the princess replied that he certainly might do so. +Three replicas of the bust will be executed, of which Count Gleichen +intends to present one to her royal highness, another to Mary Anderson's +mother, while the third will be placed in the Grosvenor Gallery. This is +really all the foundation for the story of a royal command to Count +Gleichen to execute a bust of Mary Anderson for the Princess of Wales. + +Among those who were constant visitors at the Lyceum was Lord Lytton, or +as Mary Anderson loves to call him, "Owen Meredith." Her representation of +his father's heroine in "The Lady of Lyons" naturally interested him +greatly, and it is possible he may himself write for her a special play. +Between them there soon sprung up one of those warm friendships often seen +between two artist natures, and Lord Lytton paid Mary Anderson the +compliment of lending her an unpublished manuscript play of his father's +to read. Tennyson, too, sought the acquaintance of one who in his verse +would make a charming picture. He was invited to meet her at dinner at a +London house, and was her cavalier on the occasion. The author of "The +Princess" did not in truth succeed in supplanting in her regard the bard +of her native land, Longfellow; but he so won on Mary's heart that she +afterward presented him with the gift--somewhat unpoetic, it must be +admitted--of a bottle of priceless Kentucky whisky, of a fabulous age! + +If Mary Anderson was a favorite with the public before the curtain, she +was no less popular with her fellow artists on the stage. Jealousy and +ill-will not seldom reign among the surroundings of a star. It is a trial +to human nature to be but a lesser light revolving round some brilliant +luminary--but the setting to adorn the jewel. But Mary Anderson won the +hearts of every one on the boards, from actors to scene-shifters. And at +Christmas, in which she is a great believer, every one, high or low, +connected with the Lyceum, was presented with some kind and thoughtful +mark of her remembrance. And when the season closed, she was presented in +turn, on the stage, with a beautiful diamond suit, the gift of the fellow +artists who had shared for so long her triumphs and her toils. + +Mary Anderson's success in London was fully indorsed by the verdict of the +great provincial towns. Everywhere she was received with enthusiasm, and +hundreds were nightly turned from the doors of the theaters where she +appeared. In Edinburgh she played to a house of £450, a larger sum than +was ever taken at the doors of the Lyceum. The receipts of the week in +Manchester were larger than those of any preceding week in the theatrical +history of the great Northern town. Taken as a whole, her success has been +without a parallel on the English stage. If she has not altogether escaped +hostile criticism in the press, she has won the sympathies of the public +in a way which no artist of other than English birth has succeeded in +doing before her. They have come and gone, dazzled us for a time, but have +left behind them no endearing remembrance. Mary Anderson has found her way +to our hearts. It seems almost impossible that she can ever leave us to +resume again the old life of a wandering star across the great American +continent. It may be rash to venture a prophecy as to what the future may +bring forth; but thus much we may say with truth, that, whenever Mary +Anderson departs finally from our shores, the name of England will remain +graven on her heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND. + + +Almost every traveler from either side of the Atlantic, with the faintest +pretensions to distinction, bursts forth on his return to his native +shores in a volume of "Impressions." Archæologists and philosophers, +novelists and divines, apostles of sweetness and light, and star actors, +are accustomed thus to favor the public with volumes which the public +could very often be well content to spare. It is but natural that we +should wish to know what Mary Anderson thinks of the "fast-anchored isle" +and the folk who dwell therein. I wish, indeed, that these "Impressions" +could have been given in her own words. The work would have been much +better done, and far more interesting; but failing this, I must endeavor, +following a recent illustrious example, to give them at second hand. +During the earlier months of her stay among us, she lived somewhat the +life of a recluse. Shut up in a pretty villa under the shadow of the +Hampstead Hills, she saw little society but that of a few fellow artists, +who found their way to her on Sunday afternoons. Indeed, she almost shrank +from the idea of entering general society. The English world she wished to +know was a world of the past, peopled by the creations of genius; not the +modern world, which crowds London drawing-rooms. She saw the English +people from the stage, and they were to her little more than audiences +which vanished from her life when the curtain descended. From her earliest +years she had been, in common with many of her countrymen, a passionate +admirer of the great English novelist, Dickens. Much of her leisure was +spent in pilgrimages to the spots round London which he has made immortal. +Now and then, with her brother for a protector, she would go to lunch at +an ancient hostelry in the Borough, where one of the scenes of Dickens' +stories is laid, but which has degenerated now almost to the rank of a +public-house. Here she would try to people the place in fancy with the +characters of the novel. "To listen to the talk of the people at such +places," she once said to me, "was better than any play I ever saw." + +Stratford-on-Avon too, was, of course, revisited, and many days were spent +in lingering lovingly over the memorials of her favorite Shakespeare. She +soon became well known to the guardians of the spot, and many privileges +were granted to her not accorded on her first visit, four years before, +when she was regarded but as a unit in the crowd of passing visitors who +throng to the shrine of the great master of English dramatic art. On one +occasion when she was in the church of Stratford-on-Avon, the ancient +clerk asked her if she would mind being locked in while he went home to +his tea. Nothing loath she consented, and remained shut up in the still +solemnity of the place. Kneeling down by the grave of Shakespeare, she +took out a pocket "Romeo and Juliet" and recited Juliet's death scene +close to the spot where the great master, who created her, lay in his long +sleep. But presently the wind rose to a storm, the branches of the +surrounding trees dashed against the windows, darkness spread through the +ghostly aisles, and terror-stricken, Mary fled to the door, glad enough to +be released by the returning janitor. + +Rural England with its moss-grown farmhouses, its gray steeples, its white +cottages clustering under their shadow, its tiny fields, its green +hedgerows, garrisoned by the mighty elms, charmed Mary Anderson beyond +expression, contrasting so strongly with the vast prairies, the primeval +forests, the mighty rivers of her own giant land. These were the +boundaries of her horizon in the earlier months of her stay among us; she +knew little but the England of the past, and the England as the stranger +sees it, who passes on his travels through its smiling landscapes. But a +change of residence to Kensington brought Mary Anderson more within reach +of those whom she had so charmed upon the stage, and who longed to have +the opportunity of knowing her personally. By degrees her drawing-rooms +became the scene of an informal Sunday afternoon reception. Artists and +novelists, poets and sculptors, statesmen and divines, journalists and +people of fashion crowded to see her, and came away wondering at the skill +and power with which this young girl, evidently fresh to society, could +hold her own, and converse fluently and intelligently on almost any +subject. If the verdict of London society was that Mary Anderson was as +clever in the drawing-room as she was attractive on the stage, she, in her +turn, was charmed to speak face to face with many whose names and whose +works had long been familiar to her. It was a new world of art and +intellect and genius to which she was suddenly introduced, and which +seemed to her all the more brilliant after the somewhat prosaic uniformity +of society in her own republican land. To say that she admires and loves +England with all her heart may be safely asserted. To say that it has +almost succeeded in stealing away her heart from the land of her birth, +she would hardly like to hear said. But we think her mind is somewhat that +of Captain Macheath, in the "Beggars' Opera"-- + + "How happy could I be with either, + Were t'other dear charmer away." + +One superiority, at least, she confesses England to have over America. The +dreadful "interviewer" who has haunted her steps for the last eight years +of her life with a dogged pertinacity which would take no denial, was here +nowhere to be seen. He exists we know, but she failed to recognize the +same _genus_ in the quite harmless-looking gentleman, who, occasionally on +the stage after a performance, or in her drawing-room, engaged her in +conversation, when leading questions were skillfully disguised; and, then, +much to her astonishment, afterward produced a picture of her in print +with materials she was quite unconscious of having furnished. She failed, +she admits now, to see the conventional "note-book," so symbolical of the +calling at home, and thus her fears and suspicions were disarmed. + +One instance of Mary Anderson's kind and womanly sympathy to some of the +poorest of London's waifs and strays should not be unrecorded here. It was +represented to her at Christmas time that funds were needed for a dinner +to a number of poor boys in Seven Dials. She willingly found them, and a +good old-fashioned English dinner was given, at her expense, in the Board +School Room to some three hundred hungry little fellows, who crowded +through the snow of the wintry New Year's Day to its hospitable roof. +Though she is not of our faith, Mary Anderson was true to the precepts of +that Christian Charity which, at such seasons, knows no distinction of +creed; and of all the kind acts which she has done quietly and +unostentatiously since she came among us, this is one which commends her +perhaps most of all to our affection and regard. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE VERDICT OF THE CRITICS. + +"_Quot homines, tot sententiæ._" + + +It may, perhaps, be interesting to record here some of the criticisms +which have appeared in several of the leading London and provincial +journals on Mary Anderson's performances, and especially on her _debut_ at +the Lyceum. Such notices are forgotten almost as soon as read, and except +for some biographical purpose like the present, lie buried in the files of +a newspaper office. It is usual to intersperse them with the text; but for +the purpose of more convenient reference they have been included in a +separate chapter. + + +_Standard_, 3d September, 1883. + +"The opening of the Lyceum on Saturday evening, was signalized by the +assembly of a crowded and fashionable audience to witness the first +appearance in this country of Miss Mary Anderson as Parthenia in Maria +Lovell's four-act play of 'Ingomar.' Though young in years, Miss Anderson +is evidently a practiced actress. She knows the business of the stage +perfectly, is learned in the art of making points, and, what is more, +knows how to bide her opportunity. The wise discretion which imposes +restraint upon the performer was somewhat too rigidly observed in the +earlier scenes on Saturday night, the consequence being that in one of the +most impressive passages of the not very inspired dialogue, the little +distance between the sublime and the ridiculous was bridged by a voice +from the gallery, which, adopting a tone, ejaculated 'A little louder, +Mary.' A less experienced artist might well have been taken aback by this +sudden infraction of dramatic proprieties. Miss Anderson, however, did not +loose her nerve, but simply took the hint in good part and acted upon it. +There is very little reason to dwell at any length upon the piece. Miss +Anderson will, doubtless, take a speedy opportunity of appearing in some +other work in which her capacity as an actress can be better gauged than +in Maria Lovell's bit of tawdry sentiment. A real power of delineating +passion was exhibited in the scene where Parthenia repulses the advances +of her too venturesome admirer, and in this direction, to our minds, the +best efforts of the lady tend. All we can do at present is to chronicle +Miss Anderson's complete success, the recalls being so numerous as to defy +particularization." + + +_The Times_, 3d September, 1883. + +"Miss Mary Anderson, although but three or four and twenty, has for +several years past occupied a leading position in the United States, and +ranks as the highest of the American 'stars,' whose effulgence Mr. Abbey +relies upon to attract the public at the Lyceum in Mr. Irving's absence. +Recommendations of this high order were more than sufficient to insure +Miss Anderson a cordial reception. They were such as to dispose a +sympathetic audience to make the most ample allowance for nervousness on +the part of the _debutante_, and to distrust all impressions they might +have of an unfavorable kind, or at least to grant the possession of a more +complete knowledge of the lady's attainments to those who had trumpeted +her praise so loudly. That such should have been the mood of the house, +was a circumstance not without its influence on the events of the evening. +It was manifestly owing in some measure to the critical spirit being +subordinated for the time being to the hospitable, that Miss Anderson was +able to obtain all the outward and visible signs of a dramatic triumph in +a _role_ which intrinsically had little to commend it.... Usually it is +the rude manliness, the uncouth virtues, the awkward and childlike +submissiveness of that tamed Bull of Bashan [Ingomar] that absorbs the +attention of a theatrical audience. On Saturday evening the center of +interest was, of course, transferred to Parthenia. To the interpretation +of this character Miss Anderson brings natural gifts of rare excellence, +gifts of face and form and action, which suffice almost themselves to play +the part; and the warmth of the applause which greeted her as she first +tripped upon the stage expressed the admiration no less than the welcome +of the house. Her severely simple robes of virgin white, worn with classic +grace, revealed a figure as lissome and perfect of contour as a draped +Venus of Thorwaldsen, her face seen under her mass of dark brown hair, +negligently bound with a ribbon, was too _mignonne_, perhaps, to be +classic, but looked pretty and girlish. A performance so graced could not +fail to be pleasing. And yet it was impossible not to feel, as the play +progressed, that to the fine embodiment of the romantic heroine, art was +in some degree wanting. The beautiful Parthenia, like a soulless statue, +pleased the eye, but left the heart untouched. It became evident that +faults of training or, perhaps, of temperament, were to be set off against +the actress' unquestionable merits. The elegant artificiality of the +American school, a tendency to pose and be self-conscious, to smirk even, +if the word may be permitted, especially when advancing to the footlights +to receive a full measure of applause, were fatal to such sentiment as +even so stilted a play could be made to yield. It was but too evident that +Parthenia was at all times more concerned with the fall of her drapery +than with the effect of her speeches, and that gesture, action, +intonation--everything which constitutes a living individuality were in +her case not so much the outcome of the feeling proper to the character, +as the manifestation of diligent painstaking art which had not yet learnt +to conceal itself. The gleam of the smallest spark of genius would have +been a welcome relief to the monotony of talent.... It must not be +forgotten, however, that a highly artificial play like 'Ingomar' is by no +means a favorable medium for the display of an actress' powers, though it +may fairly indicate their nature. Before a definite rank can be assigned +to her among English actresses, Miss Anderson must be seen in some of her +other characters." + + +_Daily News_, 3d September, 1883. + +"It will be recollected that Mr. Irving, in his farewell speech at the +Lyceum Theater, on the 28th of July, made a point of bespeaking a kindly +welcome for Miss Mary Anderson on her appearance at his theater during his +absence, as the actress he alluded to was a lady whose beauty and talent +had made her the favorite of America, from Maine to California. It would +not perhaps be unfair to attribute to this cordial introduction something +of the special interest which was evidently aroused by Miss Anderson's +_debut_ here on Saturday night. English playgoers recognize but vaguely +the distinguishing characteristics of actors and actresses, whose fame has +been won wholly by their performances on the other side of the Atlantic. +It was therefore just as well that before Miss Anderson arrived some +definite claim as to her pretensions should be authoritatively put +forward. These would, it must be confessed, have been liable to +misconception if they had been judged solely by her first performance on +the London stage. 'Ingomar' is not a play, and Parthenia is certainly not +a character, calculated to call forth the higher powers of an ambitious +actress. As a matter of fact, Miss Anderson, who began her histrion career +at an early age, and is even now of extremely youthful appearance, has had +plenty of experience and success in _roles_ of much more difficulty, and +much wider possibilities. Her modest enterprise on Saturday night was +quite as successful as could have been anticipated. There is not enough +human reality about Parthenia to allow her representative to interest very +deeply the sympathy of her hearers. There is not enough poetry in the +drama to enable the actress to mar our imagination by calling her own into +play. What Miss Anderson could achieve was this: she was able in the first +place to prove, by the aid of the Massilian maiden's becoming, yet +exacting attire, that her personal advantages have been by no means +overrated. Her features regular yet full of expression, her figure slight +but not spare, the pose of her small and graceful head, all these, +together with a girlish prettiness of manner, and a singularly refined +bearing, are quite enough to account for at least one of the phases of +Miss Anderson's popularity. Her voice is not wanting in melody of a +certain kind, though its tones lack variety. Her accent is slight, and +seldom unpleasant. Of her elocution it is scarcely fair to judge until she +has caught more accurately the pitch required for the theater. For the +accomplishment of any great things Miss Anderson had not on Saturday night +any opportunity, nor did her treatment of such mild pathos and passion as +the character permitted impress us with the idea that her command of deep +feeling is as yet matured. So far as it goes, however, her method is +extremely winning, and her further efforts, especially in the direction of +comedy and romantic drama, will be watched with interest, and may be +anticipated with pleasure." + + +_Morning Post_, 3rd September, 1883. + +"LYCEUM THEATER. + +"This theater was reopened under the management of Mr. Henry Abbey on +Saturday evening, when was revived Mrs. Lovell's play called 'Ingomar,' a +picturesque but somewhat ponderous work of German origin, first produced +some thirty years ago at Drury Lane with Mr. James Anderson and Miss +Vandenhoff as the principal personages. The interest centers not so much +in the barbarian Ingomar as in his enchantress, Parthenia, of whom Miss +Mary Anderson, an American artist of fine renown, proves a comely and +efficient representative. In summing up the qualifications of an actress +the Transatlantic critics never fail to take into account her personal +charms--a fascinating factor. Borne on the wings of an enthusiastic press, +the fame of Miss Anderson's loveliness had reached our shores long before +her own arrival. The Britishers were prepared to see a very handsome lady, +and they have not been disappointed. Miss Anderson's beauty is of Grecian +type, with a head of classic contour, finely chiseled features, and a tall +statuesque figure, whose Hellenic expression a graceful costume of antique +design sets off to the best advantage. You fancy that you have seen her +before, and so perhaps you have upon the canvas of Angelica Kauffman. For +the rest, Miss Anderson is very clever and highly accomplished. Her +talents are brilliant and abundant, and they have been carefully +cultivated to every perfection of art save one--the concealment of it. She +has grace, but it is studied, not negligent grace; her action is always +picturesque and obviously premeditated; everything she says and does is +impressive, but it speaks a foregone conclusion. Her acting is polished +and in correct taste. What it wants is freshness, spontaneity, _abandon_. +Among English artists of a bygone age her style might probably find a +parallel in the stately elegance and artificial grandeur of the Kembles. +It has nothing in common with the electric _verve_ and romantic ardor of +Edmund Kean. Of the _feu sacre_ which irradiated Rachel and gives to +Bernhardt splendor ineffable, Miss Anderson has not a spark. She is not +inspired. Hers is a pure, bright, steady light; but it lacks mystic +effulgence. It is not empyreal. It is not 'the light that never was on sea +or land--the consecration and the poet's dream.' It is not genius. It is +talent. In a word, Miss Anderson is beautiful, winsome, gifted, and +accomplished. To say this is to say much, and it fills to the brim the +measure of legitimate praise. She is an eminently good, but not a great +artist." + + +_Daily Telegraph_, 3rd September, 1883. + +"There was a natural desire to see, nay, rather let us say to welcome Miss +Mary Anderson, who made her _debut_ as Parthenia in 'Ingomar' on Saturday +evening last. The fame of this actress had already preceded her. An +enthusiastic climber up the rugged mountain paths of the art she had +elected to serve ... an earnest volunteer in the almost forlorn cause of +the poetical drama: a believer in the past, not merely because it is past, +but because in it was embodied much of the beautiful and the hopeful that +has been lost to us, Miss Mary Anderson was assured an honest greeting at +a theater of cherished memories.... It has been said that the friends of +Miss Anderson were very ill-advised to allow her to appear as Parthenia in +the now almost-forgotten play of 'Ingomar.' We venture to differ entirely +with this opinion. That the American actress interested, moved, and at +times delighted her audience in a play supposed to be unfashionable and +out of date, is, in truth, the best feather that can be placed in her +cap.... There must clearly be something in an actress who cannot only hold +her own as Parthenia, but in addition dissipate the dullness of +'Ingomar.'... And now comes the question, how far Miss Mary Anderson +succeeded in a task that requires both artistic instinct and personal +charm to carry it to a successful issue. The lady has been called +classical, Greek, and so on, but is, in truth, a very modern reproduction +of a classical type--a Venus by Mr. Gibson, rather than a Venus by Milo; a +classic draped figure of a Wedgwood plaque more than an echo from the +Parthenon.... The actress has evidently been well taught, and is both an +apt and clever pupil; she speaks clearly, enunciates well, occasionally +conceals the art she has so closely studied, and is at times both tender +and graceful.... Her one great fault is insincerity, or, in other words, +inability thoroughly to grasp the sympathies of the thoughtful part of her +audience. She is destitute of the supreme gift of sensibility that Talma +considers essential, and Diderot maintains is detrimental to the highest +acting. Diderot may be right, and Talma may be wrong, but we are convinced +that the art Miss Anderson has practiced is, on the whole, barren and +unpersuasive. She does not appear to feel the words she speaks, or to be +deeply moved by the situations in which she is placed. She is forever +acting--thinking of her attitudes, posing very prettily, but still posing +for all that.... She weeps, but there are no tears in her eyes; she +murmurs her love verses with charming cadence, but there is no throb of +heart in them.... These things, however, did not seem to affect her +audience. They cheered her as if their hearts were really touched.... +These, however, are but early impressions, and we shall be anxious to see +her in still another delineation." + + +_Standard_, 10th December, 1883. + +"LYCEUM THEATER. + +"Miss Mary Anderson has won such favor from audiences at the Lyceum, that +anything she did would attract interest and curiosity. Galatea, in Mr. +W.S. Gilbert's mythological comedy, 'Pygmalion and Galatea,' has, +moreover, been spoken of as one of the actress' chief successes, and a +crowded house on Saturday evening was the result of the announcement of +its revival. An ideal Galatea could scarcely be realized, for there should +be in the triumph of the sculptor's art, endowed by the gods with life, a +supernatural grace and beauty. The singular picturesqueness of Miss +Anderson's poses and gestures, the consequences of careful study of the +best sculpture, has been noted in all that she has done, and this quality +fits her peculiarly for the part of the vivified statue. In this respect +it is little to say that Galatea has never before been represented with so +near an approach to perfection." + + +_Daily News_, 10th December, 1883. + +"The part of Galatea, in which Miss Anderson made her first appearance in +England at the Lyceum Theater on Saturday evening, enables this delightful +actress to exhibit in her fullest charms the exquisite grace of form and +the simple elegance of gesture and movement by virtue of which she stands +wholly without a rival on the stage. Whether in the alcove, where she is +first discovered motionless upon the pedestal, or when miraculously endued +with life, she moves, a beautiful yet discordant element in the Athenian +sculptor's household. The statuesque outline and the perfect harmony +between the figure of the actress and her surroundings, were striking +enough to draw more than once from the crowded theater, otherwise hushed +and attentive, an audible expression of pleasure. Rarely, indeed, can an +attempt to satisfy by actual bodily presentment the ideal of a poetical +legend have approached so nearly to absolute perfection." + + +_The Morning Post_, 10th December, 1883. + +"'Pygmalion and Galatea,' a play in which Miss Mary Anderson is said to +have scored her most generally accepted success in her own country, has +now taken at the Lyceum the place of 'The Lady of Lyons,' a drama +certainly not well fitted to the young actress' capabilities. Mr. +Gilbert's well-known fairy comedy is in many respects exactly suited to +the display of Miss Anderson's special merits. Its heroine is a statue, +and a very beautiful simulation of chiseled marble was sure to be achieved +by a lady of Miss Anderson's personal advantages, and of her approved +skill in artistic posing. Moreover, the sub-acid spirit of the piece +rarely allows its sentiment to go very deep, and it is in the +expression--perhaps, we should write the experience--of really earnest +emotion, that Miss Anderson's chief deficiency lies. Galatea is moreover +by no means the strongest acting part in the comedy, affording few of the +opportunities for the exhibition of passion, which fall to the lot of the +heart-broken and indignant wife, Cynisca. Although in 1871, on the +original production of the play, Mrs. Kendall made much of Galatea's +womanly pathos, there is plenty of room for an effective rendering of the +character, which deliberately hides the woman in the statue. Such a +rendering is, as might have been expected, Miss Anderson's. Even in her +ingenious scenes of comedy with Leucippe and with Chrysos, there is no +more dramatic vivacity than might be looked for in a temporarily animated +block of stone. Her love for the sculptor who has given her vitality is +perfectly cold in its purity. There is no spontaneity in the accents in +which it is told, no amorous impulse to which it gives rise. This new +Galatea, however, is fair to look upon--so fair in her statuesque +attitudes and her shapely presence, that the infatuation of the man who +created her is readily understood. By the classic beauty of her features +and the perfect molding of her figure she is enabled to give all possible +credibility to the legend of her miraculous birth. Moreover, the +refinement of her bearing and manner allows no jarring note to be struck, +and although, when Galatea sadly returns to marble not a tear is shed by +the spectator, it is felt that a plausible and consistent interpretation +of the character has been given." + + +_The Times_, 10th December, 1883. + +"Mr. Gilbert's play 'Pygmalion and Galatea,' is a perversion of Ovid's +fable of the Sculptor of Cyprus, the main interest of which upon the stage +is derived from its cynical contrast between the innocence of the +beautiful nymph of stone whom Pygmalion's love endows with life, and the +conventional prudishness of society. Obviously the purpose of such a +travesty may be fulfilled without any call upon the deeper emotions--upon +the stress of passion, which springs from that 'knowledge of good and +evil' transmitted by Eve to all her daughters. It is sufficient that the +living and breathing Galatea of the play should seem to embody the classic +marble, that she should move about the stage with statuesque grace and +that she should artlessly discuss the relations of the sexes in the +language of double intent. Miss Anderson's degree of talent, as shown in +the impersonations she has already given us, and her command of classical +pose, have already suggested this character as one for which she was +eminently fitted. It was therefore no surprise to those who have been +least disposed to admit this lady's claim to greatness as an actress that +her Galatea on Saturday night should have been an ideally beautiful and +tolerably complete embodiment of the part. If the heart was not touched, +as, indeed, in such a play it scarcely ought to be, the eye was enabled to +repose upon the finest _tableau vivant_ that the stage has ever seen. Upon +the curtains of the alcove being withdrawn, where the statue still +inanimate rests upon its pedestal, the admiration of the house was +unbounded. Not only was the pose of the figure under the lime-light +artistic in the highest sense, but the tresses and the drapery were most +skillfully arranged to look like the work of the chisel. It is significant +of the measure of Miss Anderson's art, that in her animated moments +subsequently she should not have excelled the plastic grace of this first +picture. At the same time, to her credit it must be said, that she never +fell much below it. Her movements on the stage, her management of her +drapery, her attitudes were full of classic beauty. Actresses there have +been who have given us much more than this statuesque posing, who have +transformed Galatea into a woman of flesh and blood, animated by true +womanly love for Pygmalion as the first man on whom her eyes alight. +Sentiment of this kind, whether intended by the author or not, would +scarcely harmonize with the satirical spirit of the play, and the innocent +prattle which Miss Anderson gives us in place of it meets sufficiently +well the requirements of the case dramatically, leaving the spectator free +to derive pleasure from his sense of the beautiful, here so strikingly +appealed to, from the occasionally audacious turns of the dialogue in +relation to social questions, from the disconcerted airs of Pygmalion at +the contemplation of his own handiwork, and from the real womanly jealousy +of Cynisca." + + +_The Graphic_, 14th December, 1883. + +"Never, perhaps, have the playgoing public been so much at variance with +the critics as in the case of the young American actress now performing at +the Lyceum Theater. There is no denying the fact that Miss Anderson is, to +use a popular expression, 'the rage;' but it is equally certain that she +owes this position in very slight degree to the published accounts of her +acting. From the first she has been received, with few exceptions, only in +a coldly critical spirit; and yet her reputation has gone on gathering in +strength till now, the Lyceum is crowded nightly with fashionable folk +whose carriages block the way; and those who would secure places to +witness her performances are met at the box offices with the information +that all the seats have been taken long in advance. How are we to account +for the fact that this young lady who came but the other day among us a +stranger, even her name being scarcely known, and who still refrains from +those 'bold advertisements,' which in the case of so many other managers +and performers usurp the functions of the trumpet of fame, has made her +way in a few short months only to the very highest place in the estimation +of our play going public? We can see no possible explanation save the +simple one that her acting affords pleasure in a high degree; for those +who insinuate that her beauty alone is the attraction may easily be +answered by reference to numerous actresses of unquestionable personal +attractions who have failed to arouse anything approaching to the same +degree of interest. As regards the unfavorable critics, we are inclined to +think that they have been unable to shake off the associations of the +essentially artificial characters--Parthenia and Pauline--in which Miss +Anderson has unfortunately chosen to appear. Further complaints of +artificiality and coldness have, it is true, been put forth _a propos_ of +her first appearance on Saturday evening in Mr. Gilbert's beautiful +mythological comedy of 'Pygmalion and Galatea;' but protests are beginning +to appear in some quarters, and we are much mistaken if this graceful and +accomplished actress is not destined yet to win the favor of her censors. +The statuesque beauty of her appearance and the classic grace of all her +movements and attitudes, as the Greek statue suddenly endowed with life, +have received general recognition; but not less remarkable were the +simplicity, the tenderness, and, on due occasion, the passionate impulse +of her acting, though the impersonation is no doubt in the chastened +classical vein. It is difficult to imagine how a realization of Mr. +Gilbert's conception could be made more perfect." + + +_The World_, 12th December, 1883. + +"The revival of 'Pygmalion and Galatea' at the Lyceum on Saturday last, +with Miss Mary Anderson in the part of the animated statue, excited +considerable interest and drew together a large and enthusiastic audience. +Without attempting any comparison between Mrs. Kendal and the young +American actress, it may at once be stated, that the latter gave an +interesting and original rendering of Galatea. As the velvet curtain drawn +aside disclosed the snowy statue on its pedestal, in a pose of classic +beauty, it seemed hard to believe that such sculptural forms, the delicate +features, the fine arms, the graceful figure, could be of any other +material than marble. The gradual awakening to life, the joy and wonder of +the bright young creature, to whom existence is still a mystery, were +charmingly indicated; and when Miss Anderson stepped forward slowly in her +soft clinging draperies, with her pretty brown hair lightly powdered, she +satisfied the most fastidiously critical sense of beauty. Galatea, as Miss +Anderson understands her, is statuesque; but Galatea is also a woman, +perfect in the purity of ideal womanhood. The chief characteristics of her +nature are innate modesty and refinement, which, though, perhaps, not +strictly fashionable attributes, are appropriate enough in a daughter of +the gods. When she loves, it is without any airs and graces. She has not +an atom of self-consciousness; she cannot premeditate; she loves because +she _must_, rather than because she will, because it is the condition of +her life. Some of the naive remarks she has to utter, might in clumsy lips +seem coarse. Miss Anderson delivered them with consummate grace and +innocence, but her fine smile, her bright sparkling eye, proved +sufficiently, that the innocence was not stupidity. The first long speech +at the conclusion of which she kneels to Pygmalion was beautifully +rendered, and elicited a burst of applause, which was repeated at +intervals throughout the evening. Her poses were always graceful, +sometimes strikingly beautiful. + +"Miss Anderson has the true sense of rhythm and the clearest enunciation; +she has a deep and musical voice, which in moments of pathos thrills with +a sweet and tender inflection. She has seized, in this instance, upon the +touching rather than the harmonious side of Galatea, the pure and innocent +girl who is not fit to live upon this world. She is only not human because +she is superior to human folly; she cannot understand sin because it is so +sweet; she asks to be taught a fault; but the womanly love and devotion, +and unselfishness, are all there, writ in clear and uncompromising +characters. The first and last acts were decidedly the best; in the latter +especially Miss Anderson touched a true pathetic chord, and fairly +elicited the pity and sympathy of the audience. With a gentle wonder and +true dignity she meets the gradual dropping away of her illusion, the +crumbling of her unreasoning faith, the cruel stings when her spiritual +nature is misunderstood, and her actions misinterpreted. She is jarred by +the rough contact of commonplace facts, and ruffled and wounded by the +strange and cynical indifference to her sufferings of the man she loves. +At last when she can bear no more, yet uncomplaining to the last, like a +flower broken on its stem, shrinking and sensitive, she totters out with +one loud cry of woe, the expression of her agony. Miss Anderson is a poet, +she brings everything to the level of her own refined and artistic +sensibility, and the result is that while she presents us with a picture +of ideal womanhood, she must appeal of necessity rather to our +imaginations than to our senses, and may by some persons be considered +cold. Once or twice she dropped her voice so as to became almost +inaudible, and occasionally forced her low tones more than was quite +agreeable; but whether in speech, in gesture, or in delicate suggestive +byplay, her performance is essentially finished. One or two little actions +may be noted, such as the instinctive recoil of alarmed modesty when +Pygmalion blames her for saying 'things that others would reprove,' or her +expression of troubled wonder to find that it is 'possible to say one +thing and mean another.'" + + +_Daily Telegraph_, 10th December, 1883. + +"'PYGMALION AND GALATEA.' + +"It is the fashion to judge of Miss Anderson outside her capacity and +competency as an actress. Ungraciously enough she is regarded and reviewed +as the thing of beauty that is a joy forever, and her infatuated admirers +view her first as a picture, last as an artist. If, then, public taste was +agitated by the Parthenia who lolled in her mother's lap and twisted +flower garlands at the feet of her noble savage Ingomar; if society +fluttered with excitement at the sight of the faultless Pauline gazing +into the fire on the eve of her ill-fated marriage, how much more +jubilation there will be now that Miss Mary Anderson, a lovely woman in +studied drapery, stands posed at once as a statue, and as a subject for +the photographic pictures which will flood the town. Unquestionably Miss +Anderson never looked so well as a statue, both lifeless and animated, +never comported herself with such grace, never gave such a perfect +embodiment of purity and innocence. In marble she was a statue motionless; +in life she was a statue half warmed. There are those who believe, or who +try to persuade themselves, that this is all Galatea has to do--to appear +behind a curtain as a '_pose plastique_,' to make an excellent '_tableau +vivant_,' and to wear Greek drapery, as if she had stepped down from a +niche in the Acropolis. All this Miss Mary Anderson does to perfection. +She is a living, breathing statue. A more beautiful object in its innocent +severity the stage has seldom seen. But is this all that Galatea has to +do? Those who have studied Mr. Gilbert's poem will scarcely say so. +Galatea descended from her pedestal has to become human, and has to +reconcile her audience to the contradictory position of a woman, who, +presumably innocent of the world and its ways, is unconsciously cynical +and exquisitely pathetic. We grant that it is a most difficult part to +play. Only an artist can give effect to the comedy, or touch the true +chord of sentiment that underlies the idea of Galatea. But to make Galatea +consistently inhuman, persistently frigid, and monotonously spiritual, is, +if not absolutely incorrect, at least glaringly ineffective. If Galatea +does not become a breathing, living woman when she descends from her +pedestal, a woman capable of love, a woman with a foreshadowing of +passion, a woman of tears and tenderness, then the play goes for +nothing.... Miss Anderson reads Galatea in a severe fashion. She is a +Galatea perfectly formed, whose heart has not yet been adjusted. She +shrinks from humanity. She wants to be classical and severe, and her last +cry to Pygmalion, instead of being the utterance of a tortured soul, is +'monotonous and hollow as a ghost's.' It is with no desire to be +discourteous that we venture any comparison between the Galatea of Miss +Anderson and of Mrs. Kendal. The comparison should only be made on the +point of reading. Yet surely there can be no doubt that Mrs. Kendal's idea +of Galatea, while appealing to the heart, is more dramatically effective. +It illumines the poem." + + +_The Times_, 28th January, 1884. + +"LYCEUM THEATER. + +"Those who have suspected that Miss Mary Anderson was well advised in +clinging to the artificial class of character hitherto associated with her +engagement at the Lyceum--characters, that is to say, making little call +upon the emotional faculties of their exponent--will not be disposed to +modify their opinion from her 'creation' of the new part of distinctly +higher scope in Mr. Gilbert's one act drama, 'Comedy and Tragedy,' +produced for the first time on Saturday night. Though passing in a single +scene, this piece furnishes a more crucial test of Miss Anderson's powers +than any of her previous assumptions in this country. Unfortunately it +also assigns limits to those powers which few actresses of the second or +even third rank need despair of attaining. Such a piece as this, it will +be seen, makes the highest demands upon an actress. Tenderly affectionate, +and true with her husband, when she arranges with him the plan upon which +so much depends: heartless and _insouciante_ in manner while she receives +her guests; affectedly gay and vivacious while her husband's fate is +trembling in the balance; deeply tragic in her anguish when her fortitude +has broken down; and finally overcome with joy as her husband is restored +to her arms; she has to pass and repass, without a pause, from one extreme +of her art to the other. There is probably no actress but Sarah Bernhardt +who could render all the various phases of this character as they should +be rendered. There is only one phase of it that comes fairly within Miss +Anderson's grasp. Of vivacity there is not a spark in her nature; a +heavy-footed impassiveness weighs upon all her efforts to be sprightly. +The refinement, the subtlety, the animation, the _ton_, of an actress of +the Comedie Francaise she does not so much as suggest. Womanly sympathy, +tenderness, and trust, those qualities which constitute a far deeper and +more abiding charm than statuesque beauty, are equally absent from an +impersonation which in its earlier phases is almost distressingly labored. +While the actress is entertaining her guests with improvised comedy, +moreover, no undercurrent of emotion, no suggestion of suppressed anxiety +is perceptible. It is not till this double _role_, which demands a degree +of _finesse_ evidently beyond Miss Anderson's range, is exchanged for the +unaffected expression of mental torture that the actress rises to the +occasion, and here it is pleasing to record, she displayed on Saturday +night an earnestness and an intensity which won her an ungrudging round of +applause. Miss Anderson's conception of the character is excellent, it is +her powers of execution that are defective; and we do not omit from these +the quality of her voice, which at times sinks into a hard and +unsympathetic key." + + +_Morning Post_, 28th January, 1884. + +"A change effected in the programme at the Lyceum Theater on Saturday +night makes Mr. Gilbert responsible for the whole entertainment of the +evening. His fairy comedy of 'Pygmalion and Galatea,' is now supplemented +by a new dramatic study in which, under the ambitious title 'Comedy and +Tragedy,' he has been at special pains to provide Miss Mary Anderson with +an effective _role_. This popular young actress has every reason to +congratulate herself upon the opportunity for distinction thus placed in +her way, for Mr. Gilbert has accomplished his task in a thoroughly +workmanlike manner. In the course of a single act he has demanded from the +exponent of his principal character the most varied histrionic +capabilities, for he has asked her to be by turns the consummate actress +and the unsophisticated woman, the gracious hostess and the vindictive +enemy, the humorous reciter and the tragedy queen. Nor has he done this +merely by inventing plausible excuses for a succession of conscious +assumptions, such as those of the entertainer who appears first in one +guise and then in another, that he may exhibit his deft versatility. There +is a genuine dramatic motive for the display by the heroine of 'Comedy and +Tragedy' of quickly changing emotions and accomplishments. She acts +because circumstances really call upon her to act, and not because the +showman pulls the strings of his puppet as the whim of the moment may +suggest. The question is, how far Miss Anderson is able to realize for us +the mental agony and the characteristic self-command of such a woman as +Clarice in such a state as hers. The answer, as given on Saturday by a +demonstrative audience, was wholly favorable; as it suggests itself to a +calmer judgment the kindly verdict must be qualified by reservations many +and serious. We may admit at once that Miss Anderson deserves all praise +for her exhibition of earnest force, and for the nervous spirit with which +she attacks her work. It is a pleasant surprise to see her depending upon +something beyond her skill in the art of the _tableau vivant_. The ring of +her deep voice may not always be melodious, but at any rate it is true, +and the burst of passionate entreaty carries with it the genuine +conviction of distress. What is missing is the distinction of bearing that +should mark a leading member of the famous _troupe_ of players, grace of +movement as distinguished from grace of power, lightening of touch in +Clarice's comedy, and refinement of expression in her tragedy. At present +the impersonation is rough and almost clumsy whilst, at times, the +vigorous elocution almost descends to the level of ranting. Many of these +faults may, however, have been due to Miss Anderson's evident nervousness, +and to the whirlwind of excitement in which she hurried through her task; +and we shall be quite prepared to find her performance improve greatly +under less trying conditions." + + +_The Scotsman_, 28th April, 1884. + +"Last night the young American actress, who has, during the past few +months, acquired such great popularity in London, made her first +appearance before an Edinburgh audience in the same character she chose +for her Metropolitan _debut_--that of Parthenia in 'Ingomar.' The piece +itself is essentially old-fashioned. It is one of that category of +'sentimental dramas' which were in vogue thirty or forty years ago, but +are not sufficiently complex in their intrigue, or subtle in their +analysis of emotion, to suit the somewhat cloyed palates of the present +generation of playgoers. Yet, through two or three among the long list of +plays of this type, there runs like a vein of gold amid the dross, a noble +and true idea that preserves them from the common fate, and one of these +few pieces is 'Ingomar.' Its blank verse may be stilted, its action often +forced and unreal; but the pictures it presents of a daughter's devotion, +a maiden's purity, a brave man's love and supreme self-sacrifice, are +drawn with a breadth and a simplicity of outline that make them at once +appreciable, and they are pictures upon which few people can help looking +with pleasure and sympathy. We do not say that Miss Anderson could not +possibly have chosen a better character in which to introduce herself to +an Edinburgh audience; but certainly it would be difficult to conceive a +more charming interpretation of Parthenia than she gave last night. To +personal attractions of the highest order she adds a rich and musical +voice, capable of a wide range of accent and inflection, a command of +gesture which is abundantly varied, but always graceful and--what is, +perhaps, of more moment to the artist than all else--an unmistakable +capacity for grasping the essential significance of a character, and +identifying herself thoroughly with it. Her delineation is not only +exquisitely picturesque; it leaves behind the impression of a thoughtful +conception wrought out with consistency, and developed with real dramatic +power. The lighter phases of Parthenia's nature were, as they should be, +kept generally prominent, but when the demand came for stronger and tenser +emotions the actress was always able to respond to it--as for instance in +Parthenia's defiance of Ingomar, when his love finds its first uncouth +utterance, in her bitter anguish when she thinks he has left her forever, +and in her final avowal of love and devotion. These are the crucial points +in the rendering of the part; and they were so played last night by Miss +Anderson as to prove that she is equal to much more exacting _roles_. She +was excellently supported by Mr. Barnes as Ingomar, and fairly well by the +representatives of the numerous minor personages who contribute to the +development of the story, without having individual interest of their own. +Miss Anderson won an enthusiastic reception at the hands of a large and +discriminating audience, being called before the curtain at the close of +each act." + + +_Glasgow Evening Star_, 6th May, 1884. + +"MISS ANDERSON AT THE ROYALTY. + +"No modern actress has created such a _furore_ in this country as Miss +Anderson. Coming to us from America with the reputation of being the +foremost exponent of histrionic art in that country, it was but natural +that her advent should be regarded with very critical eyes by many who +thought that America claimed too much for their charming actress. Thus +predisposed to find as many faults as possible in one who boldly +challenged their verdict on her own merits alone, it is not surprising +that Metropolitan critics were almost unanimous in their opinion that Miss +Anderson, although a clever actress and a very beautiful woman, was not by +any means a great artist. They did not hesitate to say, moreover, that +much of her success as an actress was due to her physical grace and +beauty. We have no hesitation in stating a directly contrary opinion." + + +_Glasgow Herald_, 6th May, 1884. + +"MISS ANDERSON AT THE ROYALTY THEATER. + +"Since 'Pygmalion and Galatea' was produced at the Haymarket Theater, +fully a dozen years ago, when the part of Galatea was created by Mrs. +Kendal, quite a number of actresses have essayed the character. Most of +them have succeeded in presenting a carefully thought-out and +intelligently-executed picture; few have been able to realize in their +intensity, and give adequate embodiment to, the dreamy utterances of the +animated statue. It is a character which only consummate skill can +appropriately represent. The play is indeed a cunningly-devised fable; but +Galatea is the one central figure on which it hangs. Its humor and its +satire are so exquisitely keen that they must needs be delicately wielded. +That a statue should be vivified and endowed with speech and reason is a +bold conception, and it requires no ordinary artist to depict the emotion +of such a mythical being. For this duty Miss Anderson last night proved +herself more than capable. Her interpretation of the part is essentially +her own; it differs in some respects from previous representations of the +character, and to none of them is it inferior. In her conception of the +part, the importance of statuesque posing has been studied to the minutest +detail, and in this respect art could not well be linked with greater +natural advantages than are possessed by Miss Anderson. When, in the +opening scene, the curtains of the recess in the sculptor's studio were +thrown back from the statue, a perfect wealth of art was displayed in its +pose; it seemed indeed to be a realization of the author's conception of a +figure which all but breathes, yet still is only cold, dull stone. From +beginning to end, Miss Anderson's Galatea is a captivating study in the +highest sphere of histrionic art. There is no part of it that can be +singled out as better than another. It is a compact whole such as only few +actresses may hope to equal." + + +_Dublin Evening Mail_, 22d March, 1884. + +"MARY ANDERSON AT THE GAIETY. + +"Notwithstanding all that photography has done for the last few weeks to +familiarize Dublin with Miss Anderson's counterfeit presentment, the +original took the Gaiety audience last night by surprise. Her beauty +outran expectation. It was, moreover, generally different from what the +camera had suggested. It required an effort to recall in the brilliant, +mobile, speaking countenance before us the classic regularity and harmony +of the features which we had admired on cardboard. Brilliancy is the +single word that best sums up the characteristics of Miss Anderson's face, +figure and movements on the stage. But it is a brilliancy that is +altogether natural and spontaneous--a natural gift, not acquisition; and +it is a brilliancy which, while it is all alive with intelligence and +sympathy, is instinct to the core with a virginal sweetness and purity. In +'Ingomar' the heroine comes very early and abruptly on the scene before +the audience is interested in her arrival, or has, indeed, got rid of the +garish realities of the street. But Miss Anderson's appearance spoke for +itself without any aid from the playwright. The house, after a moment's +hesitation, broke out into sudden and quickly-growing applause, which was +evidently a tribute not to the artist, but to the woman. She understood +this herself, and evidently enjoyed her triumph with a frank and girlish +pleasure. She had conquered her audience before opening her lips. She is +of rather tall stature, a figure slight but perfectly modeled, her +well-shaped head dressed Greek fashion with the simple knot behind, her +arms, which the Greek costume displayed to the shoulder, long, white, and +of a roundness seldom attained so early in life, her walk and all her +attitudes consummately graceful and expressive. A more general form of +disparagement is that which pretends to account for all Miss Anderson's +popularity by her beauty. It is her beauty, these people say, not her +acting, that draws the crowd. We suspect the fact to be that Miss +Anderson's uncommon beauty is rather a hindrance than a help to the +perception of her real dramatic merits. People do not easily believe that +one and the same person can be distinguished in the highest degree by +different and independent excellences. They find it easier to make one of +the excellences do duty for both. Miss Anderson, it may be admitted, is +not a Sarah Bernhardt. At the same time we must observe that at +twenty-three the incomparable Sarah was not the consummate artist that she +is now, and has been for many years. We are not at all inclined to rank +Miss Anderson as an actress at a lower level than the very high one of +Miss Helen Faucit, of whose Antigone she reminded us in several passages +last night. Miss Faucit was more statuesque in her poses, more classical, +and, perhaps, touched occasionally a more profoundly pathetic chord. But +the balance is redeemed by other qualities of Miss Anderson's acting, +quite apart from all consideration of personal beauty. + +"'Ingomar,' it must be said, is a mere melodrama, and as such does not +afford the highest test of an actor's capacity. The wonder is that Miss +Anderson makes so much of it. In her hands it was really a stirring and +very effective play." + + +_Dublin Daily Express_, 28th March, 1884. + +"MISS ANDERSON AS GALATEA. + +"Nothing that the sculptor's art could create could be more beautiful than +the still figure of Galatea, in classic _pose_, with gracefully flowing +robes, looking down from her pedestal on the hands that have given her +form, and it is not too much to say that nothing could be added to render +more perfect the illusion. The whole _pose_--her aspect, the _contour_ of +her head, the exquisite turn of the stately throat, the faultless symmetry +of shoulder and arms--everything is in keeping with the realization of the +most perfect, most beautiful, and most illusive figure that has ever been +witnessed on the stage. Miss Anderson indeed is liberally endowed with +physical charms, so fascinating that we can understand an audience finding +it not a little difficult to refrain from giving the rein to enthusiasm in +the presence of this fairest of Galateas. From these remarks, however, it +is not intended to be inferred that the young American is merely a +graceful creature with a 'pretty face.' Miss Anderson is unquestionably a +fine actress, and the high position which she now deservedly occupies +amongst her sister artists, we are inclined to think, has been gained +perhaps less through her personal attractions than by the sterling +characteristics of her art. Each of her scenes bears the stamp of +intelligence of an uncommon order, and perhaps not the least remarkable +feature in her portraiture of Galatea is that her effects, one and all, +are produced without a suspicion of straining. Those who were present in +the crowded theater last night, and saw the actress in the _role_--said to +be her finest--had, we are sure, no room to qualify the high reputation +which preceded the impersonation." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +MARY ANDERSON AS AN ACTRESS. + + +The author approaches this, his concluding chapter, with some degree of +diffidence. Though he has in the foregoing pages essayed something like a +portrait of a very distinguished artist, he is not by profession a +dramatic critic. He does not belong to that noble band at whose nod the +actor is usually supposed to tremble. He is not a "first-nighter," who, by +the light of the midnight oil, dips his mighty pen in the ink which is to +seal on to-morrow's broad-sheet, as he proudly imagines, the professional +fate of the artists who are submitted for his censure or his praise. Not +that he is by any means an implicit believer in the verdict of the +professional critic. An actor who succeeds, should often fail according to +the recognized canons of dramatic criticism, and the reverse. That the +beautiful harmony of nature and the eternal fitness of things dramatic are +not always preserved, is due to that _profanum vulgus_ which sometimes +reverses the decisions of those dramatic divinities who sit enthroned, +like the twelve Cæsars, in the sacred temple of criticism, as the inspired +representatives of the press. + +Those who have been at the trouble to read the various and conflicting +notices of the chief London journals upon Mary Anderson's +performances--for those of the great provincial towns she visited present +a singular unanimity in her favor--must have found it difficult, if not +impossible, to decide either on her merits as an artist, or on the true +place to be assigned to her in the temple of the drama. The veriest +misogynist among critics was compelled, in spite of himself, to confess to +the charm of her strange beauty. Hers, as all agreed, was the loveliest +face and the most graceful figure which had appeared on the London boards +within the memory of a generation. According to some she was an +accomplished actress, but she lacked that divine spark which stamps the +true artist. Others attributed her success to nothing but her personal +grace and beauty; while one critic, bolder than his fellows, even went so +far as to declare that whether she wore the attire of a Grecian maid, of a +fine French lady of a century ago, or of the fabled Galatea, only pretty +Miss Anderson, of Louisville, Kentucky, peeped out through every disguise. +Several causes, perhaps, combined to this uncertain sound which went forth +from the trumpet of the dramatic critic. Mary Anderson was an American +artist, who came here, it is true, with a great American reputation; but +so had come others before her, some of whom had wholly failed to stand the +fierce test of the London footlights. Then to "damn her with faint +praise," would not only be a safe course at the outset, but the steps to a +becoming _locus peniteniæ_ would be easy and gradual if the vane should, +in spite of the critics, veer round to the point of popular favor. One of +the most distinguished of English journalists lately observed in the House +of Commons that certain writers in back parlors were in the habit of +palming off their effusions as the voice of the great English public, till +that voice made itself heard. When the voice of the English theater-going +public upon Mary Anderson came to make itself heard in the crowded and +enthusiastic audiences of the Lyceum, in the friendship of all that was +most cultivated and best worth knowing in London society, it failed +altogether to echo the trumpet, we will not say of the back parlor critics +only, but of some critics distinguished in their profession, who can +little have anticipated how quickly the popular verdict would modify, if +not reverse their own. + +It may be interesting to quote here some observations very much to the +point, on the dramatic criticism of the day, in an admirable paper read +recently by Mrs. Kendal before the Social Science Congress. It will hardly +be denied that there are few artists competent to speak with more +authority on matters theatrical, or better able to form a judgment on the +true inwardness of that Press criticism to which herself and her fellow +artists are so constantly subject: + +"Existing critics generally rush into extremes, and either over-praise or +too cruelly condemn. The public, as a matter of course, turn to the +newspapers for information, but how can any judgment be formed when either +indiscriminate praise or unqualified abuse is given to almost every new +piece and to the actors who interpret it? Criticism, if it is to be worth +anything, should surely be criticism, but nowadays the writing of a +picturesque article, replete with eulogy, or the reverse, seems to be the +aim of the theatrical reviewer. Of course, the influence of the Press upon +the stage is very powerful, but it will cease to be so if playgoers find +that their mentors, the critics, are not trustworthy guides. The public +must, after all, decide the fate of a new play. If it be bad, the +Englishman of to-day will not declare it is good because the newspapers +have told him so. He will be disappointed, he will be bored, he will tell +his friends so, and the bad piece will fail to draw audiences. If, on the +other hand, the play is a good one, which has been condemned by the Press, +it will quicken the pulse and stir the heart of an audience in spite of +adverse criticism. The report that it contains the true ring will go +about, and success must follow. In a word, though the Press can do very +much to further the interests of the stage, it is powerless to kill good +work, and cannot galvanize that which is invertebrate into life." + +To determine Mary Anderson's true stage place, and to make a fair and +impartial criticism of her performances is rendered further difficult by +the fact, that the English stage offers in the last generation scarcely +one with whom she can be compared, if we except perhaps Helen Faucit. +Between herself and that great artist, middle-aged play-goers seem to find +a certain resemblance; but to the present generation of playgoers Mary +Anderson is an absolutely new revelation on the London boards. Recalling +the roll of artists who have essayed similar parts for the last five and +twenty years, we can name not one who has given as she did what we may +best describe as a new stage sensation. Never was the pride of a free +maiden of ancient Greece more nobly expressed than in Parthenia: never +were the gradual steps from fear and abhorrence to love more finely +portrayed than in the stages of her rising passion for the savage +chieftain, whose captive hostage she was. Her Pauline was the old +patrician beauty of France living on the stage, a true woman in spite of +the selfish veneer of pride and caste with which the traditions of the +ancient _noblesse_ had covered her; while Galatea found in her certainly +the most poetic and beautiful representation of that fanciful character, +ever seen on any stage. This was the verdict of the public who thronged +the Lyceum to its utmost capacity, during the months of the past winter. +This was the verdict, too, of the largest provincial towns of the kingdom. +The critics, some of them, were willing to concede to Mary Anderson the +possession of every grace which can adorn a woman, and of every +qualification which can make an artist attractive, with a solitary but +fatal reservation--_she was devoid of genius_. But what, indeed, is genius +after all? It is the magic power to touch unerringly a sympathetic chord +in the human breast. The novelist, whose characters seem to be living; the +painter, the figures on whose canvas appear to breathe; the actor who, +while he treads the stage, is forgotten in the character he assumes; all +these possess it. This was the verdict of the public upon Mary Anderson, +and we are fain to believe that--_pace_ the critics--it was the true one. +Her Clarice was perhaps the least successful of her impersonations; and +given as an afterpiece, it taxed unfairly the endurance of an actress, who +had already been some hours upon the stage. But as a striking illustration +of the reality of her performance, we may mention, that, in the scene +where she is supposed by her guests to be acting, her fellow actors, who +should have applauded the tragic outburst which the public divine to be +real, were so disconcerted by the vehemence and seeming reality of her +grief and despair, that on the first representation of "Comedy and +Tragedy" they actually forgot their parts, and had to be called to task by +the author for failing properly to support the star. "No man," it is said, +"is a hero to his _valet de chambre_," and few indeed are the artists who +can make their fellow artists on the stage forget that the mimic passion +which convulses them is but consummate art after all. + +Mary Anderson's present Lyceum season will exhibit her in characters which +will give opportunity for displaying powers of a widely different order to +those called forth in the last. A new Juliet and a new Lady Macbeth will +show the capacity she possesses for the true exhibition of the tenderest +as well as the stormiest passions which can agitate the human breast; and +she may perhaps appear in Cushman's famous _role_ of Meg Merrilies. In all +these she invites comparison with great impersonators of these parts who +are familiar to the stage. We will not anticipate the verdict of the +public, but of this much we are assured that rarely can Shakespeare's +favorite heroine have been represented by so much youth, and grace, and +beauty, and genuine artistic ability combined. Juliet was her first part, +and has always been, regarded by Mary Anderson with the affection due to a +first love. But it may not be generally known that she imagines her +_forte_ to lie rather in the exhibition of the stormier passions, and that +she succeeds better in parts like Lady Macbeth or Meg Merrilies. I +remember her once saying to me, as she raised her beautiful figure to its +full height, and stretched her hand to the ceiling, "I am always at my +best when I am uttering maledictions." Thus far, Mary Anderson has shown +herself to us in characters which must give a very incomplete estimate of +her powers. None indeed of the parts she assumed were adapted to bring out +the highest qualities of an artist. That she has succeeded in inspiring +the freshness and glow of life into plays, some of which, at least, were +supposed to be consigned almost to the limbo of disused stage properties, +stamps her as possessing genuine histrionic power. She has earned +distinguished fame all over the Western continent. London as well as the +great cities of the kingdom have hailed her as a Queen of the Stage. Such +an experience as hers is rare indeed, almost solitary, in its annals. A +self-trained girl, born quite out of the circle or influence of stage +associations, she burst, when but sixteen, as a star on the theatrical +horizon; and if her grace, her youth, her beauty, have helped her in the +upward flight, they have helped alone, and could not have atoned for the +want of that divine spark, which is the birthright of the artist who makes +a mark upon his generation and his time. When the more recent history of +the English-speaking stage shall once again be written, we do not doubt +that Mary Anderson will take her fitting place, side by side with the many +great artists who have so adorned it in the last half century; with +Charlotte Cushman, Helen Faucit, and Fanny Stirling, who represent its +earlier glories; with Mrs. Kendal, Mrs. Bancroft, and Ellen Terry, whose +names are interwoven with the triumphs of later years. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14758 *** |