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Jpty 30, 1853.] THE DEADER. 741
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SARDANAPALUS AT THE ADELPHL Let not chur...
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A LAST LOOK AT THE EOYAL ACADEMY EXHIBIT...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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German Plays : Othello. T To-Night Tho S...
Herr Desaoir , the leading tragedian , from Berlin , by his performance of Othello , proved what I suspected , from his performance of Faust , that he had a fine intelligence to conceive , and , in some respects / a mastery over the representative power , requisite in the pourtrayal of character under emotion , but he lacks the physical capabilities demanded by the part . He excels where Devrient is so deficient , *—namely , in intelligence and emotion ; but he is deficient m those indispensatte qualities whloh constitute the whole of Devrient ' s claims * ---namely , personal appearance , bearing , voice and diction . I never before Heard the speech to the seriate delivered with such thorough poetic appreciation and artistic execution ; never saw any actor , not even Kean , so truthful and so tragic in the
repres entation of emotion , during the early portions of the great tempting scene . The restrained feeling , struggling for utterance ; the chilled and almost paralysed soul , trying to disbelieve , trying , also , to be calm ; the convulsive shudders , which not only betrayed the suffering then racking jum , but also indicated the apoplectic fit which was to come ; the hoarse voice , and the intense quietness , conveyed a more truthful and tragic representation than any Othello conveyed to my mind before . Critics who are the dupes of Devrient may have seen little in it ; but those who trusted to their own ^ motions , felt what Devrient never made them feelthat here was a passionate soul , depicted in its agony . But , on the other hand , it must be noted first , that when the scene
demands from Othello an exaltation of emotion , —when the inward suffering flames into passion , expressing itself with-terrible vehemence and power , there where Kean was so terrific and lion-like , Herr Dessoir was not equal to the part . He was spasmodic and monotonous ; and instead of rising to a climax , the successive phases left me disappointed and unmoved . The final scene was monotonous . Othello , when he murders jDesdemona , should be calm , but terribly calm , with white wrath more perfect than any vehemence . ^ Secondly , it must be noted that Othello , above all other tragic personages needs great physical qualities in the performer . He must redeem his black complexion by dignity and power which outwardly express the greatness of his spirit . There must be something about him which makes us feel Desdemona could have loved him . Kean , in spite of his small stature , had that something . There was a lion-like grace
about him ; and his eye ! who can forget that eye ! Herr Dessoir is small , ungraceful , monotonous in his gestures , monotonous in voice , and his Othellowas consequently neither grand nor powerful . I regard his performance , therefore , as unsatisfactory—but as the performance of a highly ^ intelligent actor struggling against natural deficiencies . If Herr Dessoir wanted power , Herr Pauli wanted everything in lago —conception , power , finesse , truth . I never saw it so badly , so tamely played . As to Cassio and Roderiao , they were fully equal to the highest style of barn acting . Fraulein Fuhr played Desdemona with less discrimination and charm than I expected ; her scene with JEJmilia , however , was excellent . What a scene it is ! I mean the one after Othello ' s jealousy , where she talks , as she undresses , of Ludovico , of reputed false wives , & c , one of the most Shaksperian scenes in the whole drama , and always omitted on our stage ! Vivian .
Jpty 30, 1853.] The Deader. 741
Jpty 30 , 1853 . ] THE DEADER . 741
Sardanapalus At The Adelphl Let Not Chur...
SARDANAPALUS AT THE ADELPHL Let not churlish critics deny to the eminent antiquarian of the Princess ' s Theatre one rare distinction . He has touched nothing that he has not burlesqued . In other words , he has suggested the ludicrous side of all that is grand in art , and dignified in history . But the misfortune of it is , that after one has seen Mr . Charles Kean as Macbeth , it becomes impossible to realize a Macbeth more comic than that : and when we have once sat out those dreary five acta , in which the collaborateur of Layard presents the Assyrian voluptuary as an overloaded and demoralized old-clothes man , where shall we look for a burlesque of Sardanapalus with any hope of our sense of the ludicrous being stimulated to the same exhausting pitch again P It is by this happy combination of the solemn and the albsurd that Mr . Charles Kean leaves tho
field for those literary contortionists , the burlesque writers , so narrow and bo difficult . Here is a case in point . We emphatically pronounce the Sardanapalus presented to us by Miss Woolgar , at the Adelphi , to be far moro like Lord Byron ' s hero than that strange apparition in Oxford-street , which has lately taken ancient Prophecy into partnership , and shown us what a figure of fun an excavated descendant of iNimrod may be in 1853 . True , Miss Woolgar , in that square-out beard , which cannot for a moment spoil the fine , sensitive face , and in those voluminous robes , which seem only to suggest new poses of easy grace to the wearer , gives us a fleshand-blood nortrait of the Assvrian Kiner , and converts him into a fast
young man of our own epoch . And we are not sorry for the change . Wo wish " faBt" young men ingeneral would take a leaf out of 8 ardana palus % s ( we mean Miss Woolgar's ) book , and bo only half as elegant , and half as delightful . If , however , Miss Wool gar and Mr . C harles Koan were to make an exchange of personations . Lord Byron would bo tho gainer , and Mr . Mark Lemon not all the loser by the exchange ; for what could be more genuine burlesque than , tho Sardanapalus of the Princess's doing the " fast King of Assyria" at tho Adelphi P On tho other hand—who can doubt P—tho Sardanapalus that Byron drew would , in Miss Woolgar ' s hands , resume all that prestige of poetry insouciancethat
aT passion—all that supreme tenderness , that fine , pand weariness , which tradition supposes , and Mr . Charles Koan hideous ly contradicts . Jjut not to overwholm our roadors with hypothesis , we may as well st ate , without further circumlocution , that this AuFXrHi version of Sara <* napalus , is a smart and clever adaptation ; and from beginning to ond , as wo can certify , keeps the audience excited and amused . It does not 2 ff—need we say P—to that swell-mob family of burlesques , consisting ° * execrablo puns torn by force from the dictionary , which condemn tho perpetrator to be kicked out of any rational society . Nor is it , ? n respect of writing , one of the best specimens of itfl own kind . But 11 is bright , genial , and spontaneous : tho table-talk of the day U
copies , with laudable conscientiousness , the familiar gestures seem toliave descended from Assyrian warriors to London street-boys , . and looms , rigid and enormous , in complete armour ; and ttot Miss Collins , the favoured and devoted Myrrha , is quite as statuesque as we could wish that " beautiful Ionian" ( here translated into insn ) to be under such ( or any ) circumstances , and has the additional vraisemblance of youth and good looks . As Myrrha is surely _ not a part for eminent antiquarians , we find no fault with Miss Collins for restoring the Myrrha of Lord Byron in these respects . Altogether , wo decidedly prefer the Sardanapalus of the Adelphi to any other of our contemporaries who have assumed that name ; and we recommend all
which pleasantly struck off : the Cab Act and the Camp are turned to the best advantage ; and every now and then comes a p ithy word of shrewd sens © lurking in a line of fun . Add to this that it is admirably mounted in quasi Assyrian style , and with a sumptuous , prodigality of decoration ; that the musical accompaniments are " seizing and fanciful , the vocal parodies felicitous , tb . e groupings carefully studied and elaboratelyjreproduced from the Nimroud groups ; that Keeley is a prodigious mother-mlaw to a discarded Queen ; that Paul Bedford , as the ambitious Mede ,
friends to pay him a visit . By the way , let not those who do so torgec to stay for the farce of The Camp at Chobham . It is a success ^ ot apropos—just what a flying piece de cirConstance should be , and acted con amore by all concerned . The heavy and the light dragoon are [ real ^ army men , and talk of stables and cigars , et cetera , as army men do . Leign Murray ' s splendid and easy domination , his victorious and imperturbable ftasurance , is to the life ; and Keeley , as the terrified and bamboozled bourgeois , is " more easily imagined than described . " c . H .
A Last Look At The Eoyal Academy Exhibit...
A LAST LOOK AT THE EOYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION . The closing day of the Royal Academy was the hottest we have had , or are likely to have , this summer , and the crowd within the building , from a little after ten until nearly dusk , was a sight to see . There is much difference of opinion as to the merits of the exhibition as a whole . Such gaps among the E . A . ' s , and quasi R . A . ' s , have not occurred for seasons out of mind ; and the absentees had each apublic , certain to lament its missing favourite . Maclise , Mulready , Leslie , Frith , John Martin , auite extinct : Dvce and Herbert only just showing , each in a hasty
study ; and Webster repeating his Dame ' s School with rather dmunisned . effect , and doing nothing besides . All this , it must be confessed , is _ a great detraction of ^ traction , particularly for those who go with the BtacTcuoood and Times critics , and regard sceptically the innovating genius of the younger men . For our own part , in spite of great disappointment at some cases of absence , we hold the merit of this exhibition to have been above the average . " Historical" painting was certainly h Art not
more remarkable for academic propriety ( ten-feet-hig being anywise rampant this year ) than for numbers or ambition . But something more than the conforming merit belonged to Ward's " Execution of Montrose , " to Armitage ' s " City of Refuge , " to Johnston ' s " Edward the Fourth and Elizabeth WoodviUe" ( Johnston is the most promising of the Scotch painters ) , to Egley ' s scene from the Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth , and to Cross ' s " Death of Thomas a Becket . " This last we miffht condemn for its tameness and conventionality , and consistently
defend against our own judgment . The adherence to certain rules ot " High Art" is itself ambitious , and in the very tameness of the design there is evidence of discipline . It is in genre painting only that there was a decided falling off . It would not do to think of Frith ' s " Pope and Lady Mary" while looking at the spectator scene , " Phillis and Brunetta , " cleverly painted too , by Mr . Solomon , or at Rankle / a less attractive picture of " Dr . Watts visiting his little friends . " Among the portraits , Gordon's were conspicuous for their general lifelike appearance , and their personality . This is not the universal attribute of portraits . Indeed , it seems that most painters object to committing themselves to personal views . They have an abstract expression which relieves them from such impropriety , as it fits every sitter ; for
though the proverbial difficulty always holds good about material , whim can only be modified , and not changed , and you can't make a Silk Buckingham out of a John Parry , it is possible to substitute for Parry's habitual expression an ideal loftiness and profundity quite as imposing in its effect as the veritable expression of a Buckingham . It is among the drawimgs and miniatures that tho best portraits are to be found . The merit " hidden in this conspicuous place" has a new importance , since miniature-painting has , by accident , become associated with the great movement in Art , begun by Hunt and Millais , while the practice of multiplying crayon drawings , by improved machinery , is making the public body familiar with the features of its leaders . By the hersWhen
bye , it is a pity that so few of our artists aro lithograp . one aces the admirable effects produced by men like Baugniet and Leon Noel , far inferior aB artists , or even as draughtsmen , to half the exhibitors in the miniature-room at tho Royal Acadomy , it becomes a matter of gigantic speculation as to what Richmond or Laurence might do by direct application to the stone . Tho engravings after their studies are very insufficient re -productions . The landscapes appeared more glorious than ever , on that hot Saturday , when wo were shouldered along through tho stifling rooms . After kneading Fleet-street mud for six wooks and over , it was pleasant , now that July had oomo indeed , to stand before such pictures as those by
Thomas Sydney Cooper , — " With a pant for woodlands dim . " Coopor's landscapes ( ho was always the soul of the picture when he did tho cows to tho landscape of Lee ) were positively the boat things of their kind at tho Royal Acadomy . Ho has a way of getting at tho nett value of a piece of grazing landl , that no man has had ainco Borghem . One of his Boonos , with a light ibreozo sweeping gently over it , flattening the branches of tho trees and stirring "tine tails of tho cattle ( a wonderful touch ) , desorvos a separate notice . We muat Bay more about the landscapes , which have boon tho mainstay of aU , tho galloriea this year . Q .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 30, 1853, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_30071853/page/21/
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