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    386 A FSJW WOBDS ABOUT ACTBESSESi

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    The Life Of An Actress Is To The World A...

    and dangers and sins ia abundance connected with theatrical life poetic "we confess aspirations ; but how what much persevering sincere and industry active and virtue effort , how and many

    en-, durance , are a part of it as well ! An accurate account of the present condition , both moral and

    actual , of the stage , with some sketches of the internal organization of various theatresas types of their most prominent classes , would

    be ah invaluable hel , p towards the full comprehension of the possibilities and difficulties of a woman ' s theatrical career . No such

    help , however , is at hand , and in illustration of them we shall have to confine ourselves to the facts which experience and opportunity

    have placed within our own personal reach . Amongst our present corps of English actresses , besides those

    who have voluntarily embraced the profession from love for the Art , we shall find many who have been forced by stress of circumstances

    to seek in it the means of subsistence , and many too , who , as the daughters of actorshave drifted into it as into their natural and

    inevitable course . , It is painful to refer to some who debase it into the low uses of vanityor make it the adjunct of a depraved life ; .

    Unfortunately the stories , of such women are those best known to the worldand while many an honest actress without regard or

    , distinction struggles bravely on , jaded by hard work _* yet preserving * in the midst of deteriorating influences her purity of character and

    the energies of her artistic nature undestroyed , instead of receiving the sympathy and encouragement she merits , she too often finds

    herseK impeded "by the odium and suspicion which the guilt of others justly inspires . "We merely touch on these baneful notorieties ;

    it is not of them , or , on the other hand , of those whose genius has achieved for them a world-wide fame , that we have here to speak ;

    these are both extremes and exceptions . Our aim will be to give some idea of what constitutes the life of an actress under its

    ordinary and most general conditions , and we promise not to draw on any imaginary or uncertain sources for the substance of our

    remarks . "We should be glad if , in commencing , we could associate the idea

    of an actress with something more spiritually serious and humanly pure than we usually find in connection with it . We could recount

    the history of more than one life , where , united with the impassioned feeling , the intellect and imagination which are the necessary

    elements of an actress ' s nature—of one at least pursuing any of the hiher walks of the drama—would be found an amount of sober

    purpose g and heroic faithfulness to duty , that might well surprise those who regard her only as the frivolous and irresponsible being

    who comes before the foot-lights for their amusement . And there are stage-advents known to us , which were truly the effect of causes

    lying deep amidst all that is most beautiful in aspirationj and noble and pure in sympathy ; the enthusiasts who thus ventured forth

    into the arena , passing on their way to it over the thresholds of

    386 A Fsjw Wobds About Actbessesi

    386 A FSJW WOBDS ABOUT ACTBESSESi

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1859, page 386, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021859/page/26/