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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
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