150

A TOO-ENERGETIC FATHER.

in acting with Mr. Macready on account of his abandonment to the spirit of natural acting, as he termed it," said Miss Tree, "that I remonstrated, telling him that when I rushed into his protecting arms after the brutal assault in the streets of Rome by the client of Appius Claudius, he, as my father Virginius, clasped me to his breast with such a thump' that I involuntarily uttered a kind of 'ugh!' which made it appear to me quite ridiculous. And then again, I said, he spoiled the arrangement of my hair, which it always cost me an anxious hour with the hair-dresser to put in shape.

"He said, laughingly, 'You should be so glad to find yourself in the protecting arms of your father, instead of the rude grasp of Appius Claudius, that your hair would be the last thing to be thought of.'

"But, Mr. Macready,' I resumed, 'there is no sense in such energetic acting, causing me to utter involuntary exclamations by jerking me so strongly into your arms, and, above all, hugging my head so violently in your assumed frantic and fatherly outbursts of affection as to rumple my curls into frightful disorder.'

"His reply was: 'Miss Tree, I cannot abate what I consider a proper degree of fatherly exultation at the safety of an endangered daughter, and therefore you must submit to my professional vehemence, which I cannot control.'

"Well,' I thought, 'I will find a way to make you feel like Mr. Macready, though you may not

AN AMPLE APOLOGY.

151

at the same time be required to forget Virginius.' And I did so in this way: I directed the hairdresser, in pinning on my characteristic extra appendages, to let the points of the pins mischievously, but not viciously, stick outward instead of inward; and that night the involuntary exclamation came from Mr. Macready, not from me.

"Rushing frantically on the stage, he cried out as I sprang into his arms, 'My Virginia! my Virginia !' But as his hands clasped my head for the usual hug he uttered a quick cry of Ah!' accompanied with rather a loud stage-whisper of 'Good Heavens! what have you got in your curls?' And this assured me that the pins had produced the unrehearsed stage-effect I had intended.

"After that night," added Miss Tree, "I had no complaint to make of an undue expression of fatherly energy on the part of Mr. Macready."

AN AMPLE APOLOGY.

Attached to the theatres of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington was an excellent actor and a man of good principles, although given to occasional excess in drinking; which, fortunately for the welfare of society, is not now regarded with so much leniency as it was forty years ago. It was remarkable that when under the influence of liquor this gentleman was rigidly exact and formal in his deportment and enunciation-so much so as to call forth the expression, “As polite, as correct, and as drunk as Charley Webb," when his

152 A "SLIGHTLY-OBLIVIOUS" ACTOR.

friends were speaking of any one in the "howcame-you-so?" condition.

Miss Tree was performing in the old Chestnut Street Theatre. The play for the night was The Gamester, Miss Tree playing the devoted wife, Mrs. Beverly-one of those performances which few of her admirers can ever forget. Mr. Webb was playing Stukely, the villain, and in one of the most interesting scenes, in consequence of having taken too much sherry at his dinner, he was somewhat oblivious of the language of the part. Miss Tree gave him, as it is termed, "the word" several times, which Webb took up with so much politeness and formality as to render the scene ridiculous, considering the stern villainy of the character and his hateful relation to Mrs. Beverly. Finally, the audience became aware of the true state of the case, and, as usual, in spite of their respect for the lady, began to titter, while some hissed.

Miss Tree was compelled at last to walk up the stage and take a seat, with her back to Mr. Webb. By this time Webb had begun to feel how matters stood, and, a thoroughly polite man under any circumstances, he was now overwhelmingly punctilious, and with assumed sobriety of tone, though hesitating in articulation and rather unsteady in his walk, he approached the footlights with a low bow and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, I am anxious to remove from your minds an evident misunderstanding concerning the true situation of affairs existing on this stage. I see

A SUPERFLUOUS ASSURANCE.

153

-indeed I feel-I may say I very sensibly realize the fact that you perceive that somebody here is intoxi-intoxica-; that is, in plainer words, drunk! Now, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to say that justice compels me to assure you, for fear your impressions should lead you to an erroneous conclusion-to assure you, I say, that whoever is guilty of the unpardonable impropriety I have alluded to, on the honor of a gentleman believe me the offending party is not-Miss Ellen Tree!"

CHAPTER VIII.

SHAKESPEARE AND HIS CRITICS.

(WITH EXTRACTS FROM MAURICE MORGAN'S ESSAY.)

WHAT

HAT we may comprehend through our feelings rather than our understandings enters largely into the composition of Shakespeare's characters, their motives, and their actions. It is only through close observation and familiar intercourse with his creations that we may discover the secret source of their production, but we readily sympathize with them, and recognize their features as perfectly as we do those of our friends and kindred. The language of the heart explains the working of the brain, and it may be said that we perceive the true Shakespearian meaning through the eye of the soul before we see it through the eye of the mind. The creations of Shakespeare are so entirely in agreement with those of Nature that, to use his own words in another direction, they are "the true and perfect image of life indeed." The lovers of the great bard when only the stage knew his works may have been influenced by affection rather than knowledge in awarding him their unbounded admiration; but their approval has since been more than endorsed