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A DRAMATIC CRITIC
sylvania, where he died on the 5th of
August, 1879.
I have known only one other case of
gradual histrionic disintegration in the
early life of a player. A native actress,
who attained fame in her youth, and, in
spite of many crudities and excesses of
style, prevailed through frequent flashes
of genius, first showed the subsidence of
her power by the steady widening of her
peculiar extravagances; then, suddenly,
all vitality disappeared from her playing,
which became a mere desiccated husk,
with queer contours, rigid and fixed.
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