Download File

A DRAMATIC CRITIC
in opera ; Edwin Booth was approaching
the zenith of his fame and power ; Jeffer-
son's Rip Van Winkle was causing itself to
be accepted as the highest achievement of
American comedy ;
Sothern's unique art,
especially in Lord Dundreary, its most
original expression, had prevailed over the
two great English-speaking nations, but
was still as fresh as the dew of morning ;
Madame Janauschek's superior ability was
beginning to be appreciated ; Adelaide
Neilson, the incomparable, entered upon
her American career ; W. S. Gilbert's
peculiar gifts as a dramatist were in pro-
cess of acceptance on this side of the
Atlantic ; and our country, through Mr.
Bronson Howard and his Saratoga, was
making a new essay of originality in the
creation of a play of contemporaneous
" society." This was the period, also, of a
great revival of dramatic versions of Dick-
ens's novels, in the best of which, Little
Em'ly, there was much good acting in Bos-
[ 48 ]