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A DRAMATIC CRITIC pression. Katharine — now designated in the text as " dowager," since Anne Bullen wears the crown — is led in, " sick," by her two faithful attendants, Griffith and Patience. The careful reader of the text will mark the transition from the previous scene, filled with the pomp and throng of Anne's coronation and with sensuous praises of the young queen's beauty, to the plain room at Kimbolton, whence a homely, discarded wife of middle age is passing into the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Nothing of its kind that I have heard surpassed the actress's use of the " sick " tone of voice through all of Katha- rine's part of the fine dialogue. " Queru- lous " is the only adjective that will describe that tone, and yet " querulous " is rude and misdescriptive. The note was that which we all recognize as characteristic of sufferers from sickness, after many days of pain, or when an illness has become chronic. In Katharine this tone must not [ S8 ]
CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN be so pronounced as to imply mental or moral weakness or a loss of fortitude: it was but one of the symptoms of the de- cay of the muddy corporal vesture in which her glorious soul was closed. Miss Cushman avoided excess with the nicest art, but quietly colored the whole scene with this natural factor of pathos. A finely appealing touch was made on the words in her first speech, — " Reach a chair: now, methinks, I feel a little ease," — So ; which were spoken first with the breaks and halts of an invalid, then with a slight comfortable drop in pitch, succeeded by a little sigh or grunt of relief at the period. All that followed was exceedingly no- ble, — her pity for Wolsey in his last hu- miliations, her pious prayer for his soul, her just, intuitive comment upon his griev- ous faults, her magnanimous acceptance of Griffith's attributions of merit to her implacable foe. As the shadows deepened [ S9 ]
- Page 57 and 58: SELWYN'S THEATRE that of the life o
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- Page 71 and 72: VIII William Warren, Comedian BOSTO
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- Page 81 and 82: WILLIAM WARREN depth and suggestive
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- Page 87 and 88: TRAINING FOR THE STAGE any other th
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- Page 95 and 96: TOOLE AND MATHEWS Mrs. Rousby, who
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- Page 113 and 114: THE XII E. A. SOTHERN, Sr. most not
- Page 115 and 116: E. A. SOTHERN, SR. inverted as in a
- Page 117 and 118: E. A. SOTHERN, SR effective for mir
- Page 119 and 120: E. A. SOTHERN, SR. thrown completel
- Page 121 and 122: E. A. SOTHERN, SR traordinary were
- Page 123 and 124: E. A. SOTHERN, SR. Tragedian, a dra
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- Page 127 and 128: THE ISOLATION OF ACTORS plish. Behi
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- Page 133 and 134: DURING XIV Charles Fechter the seas
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- Page 141 and 142: CHARLES FECHTER clouds, where Shake
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- Page 151 and 152: THERE is XV Edwin Booth no occasion
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A DRAMATIC CRITIC<br />
pression. Katharine — now designated in<br />
the text as " dowager," since Anne Bullen<br />
wears the crown — is led in, " sick," by<br />
her two faithful attendants, Griffith and<br />
Patience. The careful reader of the text<br />
will mark the transition from the previous<br />
scene, filled with the pomp and throng<br />
of Anne's coronation and with sensuous<br />
praises of the young queen's beauty, to<br />
the plain room at Kimbolton, whence a<br />
homely, discarded wife of middle age is<br />
passing into the Valley of the Shadow of<br />
Death. Nothing of its kind that I have<br />
heard surpassed the actress's use of the<br />
" sick " tone of voice through all of Katha-<br />
rine's part of the fine dialogue. " Queru-<br />
lous " is the only adjective that will describe<br />
that tone, and yet " querulous " is rude<br />
and misdescriptive. The note was that<br />
which we all recognize as characteristic of<br />
sufferers from sickness, after many days<br />
of pain, or when an illness has become<br />
chronic. In Katharine this tone must not<br />
[ S8 ]
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