Part 1 (1/2)

[19th Century Actor] Autobiographies

edited by George Iles

PREFACE

A good play gives us in htened by plot and characterisation, by witty and coht, who has given for scene But that worthyhis coffee at the Authors' Club, gave his drama its form only; its substance is created by the race, e power the hero and heroine, assassin and accomplice, lover and jilt For the success of e a further and initial debt, both in suggestion and criticism, to the artists who know from experience on the boards that deeds should he done, not talked about, that action is cardinal, with no other words than naturally spring from action Players, too, not seldom remind authors that every incident should not only be interesting in itself, but take the play a stride forward through the entangleether probable that the heights to which Shakespeare rose as a drae of how a coedy, appears behind as well as in front of the footlights, all in an at a poet at his desk

This little voluins with part of the life story of Joseph Jefferson, chief of Aed to read a few personal letters froe He is followed by the queen in the same dramatic realm, Charlotte Cushman Next are two chapters by the first emotional actress of her day in America, Clara Morris When she bows her adieu, Sir Henry Irving coe, and in the course of his thoughtful discourse er He is followed by his son, Mr Henry Brodribb Irving, clearly an heir to his father's talents in art and in observation Miss Ellen Terry, long Sir Henry Irving's leading lady, now tells us how she came to join his co in his principal roles The succeeding word comes from Richard Mansfield, whose untimely death is es are froreatest Othello and Sa, are fro the great traditions of the ht on the severe toil dee, and reveals that for the highest success of a drama, author and artist must work hand in hand

JOSEPH JEFFERSON

[William Winter, the dramatic critic of the New York _Tribune_, in 1894 wrote the ”Life and Art of Joseph Jefferson,” published by the Macives an account of Jefferson's lineage, and then says:

”In Joseph Jefferson, fourth of the line, fa remembered by that name in dramatic history, there is an obvious union of the salient qualities of his ancestors

The rustic luxuriance, our, careless and adventurous disposition of the first Jefferson; the refined intellect, delicate sensibility, dry huentle tenderness of the second; and the a temperament of the third, reappear in this descendant But more than any of his ancestors, and more than inator in the art of acting Joseph Jefferson is as distinct as La lyrical poets No actor of the past prefigured hi annals of modern art, has shone with a more tranquil lustre, or can be more confidently coraphy of Joseph Jefferson, copyright, 1889, 1890, by the Century Company, New York, was published 1891 Froes--ED]

HOW I CAME TO PLAY RIP VAN WINKLE

The hope of entering the race for drale attraction never came into my head until, in 1858, I acted Asa Trenchard in ”Our Aht on that ren countries, and increased remuneration floated before me, and I resolved to be a star if I could A resolution to this effect is easily made; its accomplishment is quite another matter

Art has always been my sweetheart, and I have loved her for herself alone I had fancied that our affection was mutual, so that when I failed as a star, which I certainly did, I thought she had jilted ed her She only rereat a liberty, and that if I expected to win her I must press my suit with more patience Checked, but undaunted in the resolve, ed in day-dreahtful reveries it ca Asa Trenchard I had, for the first tie, spoken a pathetic speech; and though I did not look at the audience during the ti--for that is dreadful--I felt that they both laughed and cried I had before this often made my audience smile, but never until now had I htful, and in casting about for a new characteran effect where humour would be so closely allied to pathos that set one? There had been many written, and as I looked back into the drahosts loo as in a procession: Job Thornberry, Bob Tyke, Frank Ostland, Zekiel Homespun, and a host of departed heroes ”withfellows all, but not for me, I felt I could not do the for a ible and impossible But he would not come

Ti the sued to board with my family at a queer old Dutch farmhouse in Paradise Valley, at the foot of Pocono Mountain, in Pennsylvania A ridge of hills covered with tall hemlocks surrounds the vale, and nuh the meadows and tuh the valley, and the few old Dutchmen and their families who till the soil were born upon it; there and only there they have ever lived The valley harmonised with me and our resources The scene ild, the air was fresh, and the board was cheap What could the light heart and purse of a poor actor ask forrainy days that always render the country so dull I had cli upon the hay was reading that delightful book ”The Life and Letters of Washi+ngton Irving” I had gotten well into the volume, and was much interested in it, when to e which said that he had seen me at Laura Keene's theater as Goldfinch in Holcroft's comedy of ”The Road to Ruin,” and that I reesture, size, and make” Till then I was not aware that he had ever seen me I was comparatively obscure, and to find ave et I put down the book, and lay there thinking how proud I was, and ought to be, at the revelation of this coo on

And so I thought to , the author of 'The Sketch-Book,' in which is the quaint story of Rip Van Winkle” Rip Van Winkle! There was to ic in the sound of the name as I repeated it Why, was not this the very character I wanted? An Ameri can story by an American author was surely just the theone to the house and returned to the barn with ”The Sketch-Book” I had not read the story since I was a boy I was disappointed with it; not as a story, of course, but the tale was purely a narrative The the, but not dramatic The silver Hudson stretches out before you as you read, the quaint red roofs and queer gables of the old Dutch cottages stand out against the mist upon the mountains; but all this is descriptive The character of Rip does not speak ten lines What could be done dramatically with so simple a sketch? How could it he turned into an effective play?

Three or four bad dramatisations of the story had already been acted, but without iven one in which the hero dies, one had been acted by my father, one by Hackett, and another by Burke Some of these versions I had remembered when I was a boy, and I should say that Burke's play and perforave ood play out of any of the existingthe part that I started for the city, and in less than a week, by industriously ransacking the theatrical wardrobe establishments for old leather andof the wigs, each article of my costume was completed; and all this, too, before I had written a line of the play or studied a word of the part

This is working in an opposite direction from all the conventional methods in the study and elaboration of a dra the course I would advise any one to pursue