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post . The idea which he sat down to work out seems to have been that of a poor dependant , stung into rebellion by the daily taunts and temper of lier relations , made fierce , and proud , and stubborn , by injustice . This passionate and sensitive nature , which leads her into insolence towards her uncle and aunt , will cause her to misunderstand her lover , to break from him and accept another , to suffer and give suffering . There lies real domestic tragedy in that conception ; but to evolve the tragedy , the poet must attend to truth and forget the stage , —there lies the difficulty ! Marston fails , I think , simply because , instead of patiently and skilfuily working out his original intention , he has suffered himself to be diverted from it into old conventions—forsaking the real and difficult path , for the easv one of routine . ;
Let me try to make this clear . In the first scene we have the insults to which she is daily subjected as a " poor dependant" indicated with sufficient precision , though with no great art . We are prepared therefore to find her rebellious , and she is so ; " her very words are cuffs , " even to those who are polite to her—a mistake , at the outset , I think , because it makes her unamiable , petty , shrewish , and almost justifies Mrs . Sean ' s extremely unpleasant personation . Anne loves Thorold , a strolling artist , and is engaged to be married to him . Llaniston , a rich gentleman , heir to a peerage , is in love with her , and the first act closes with the offer of his hand , made to her uncle , who being in his debt , anxiously jumps at the proposal . The exposition promises well . It shows us the vulgar insolence of the uncle , the languid insolence of the aunt , the fierce rebellion of the dependant , the little love story , and a glimpse of coming perplexities . A
good start : now for the race ! In the second act , Lady Toppington , desirous of weaning Anne from Thorold before mentioning the offer of Llaniston , undertakes to make her break away in a fit of jealousy . Here I note a false step , and one which is doubly fatal : fatal , because it hurries into routine ; fatal , because it is a deviation from , the original conception . For observe : if Anne is to be made miserable through jealousy , all the previous superstructure is needless ; we do not require a nature made fierce by wrong to illustrate jealousy : we do not want an insulted dependant for that . The tragedy of Marston ' s original conception lay in this character of Anne Blake , and through that character it should have been evolved ; that is to say , we ought to see Iiow such temper and such sensitiveness would naturally lead her into sorrow by its misconstructions . And with this idea Marston began the temptation , but as he proceeded ,
the fatal tendency of that one false step made him falter into conventional stage business ; and you may judge how conventional , when I tell you that Thorold wears a portrait of" her mother next his heart , is seen to kiss it by Lady Toppington , and by that token is proved ( to the satisfaction of Anne ) to iove another ! When will dramatists consent to give up this very improbable portrait business ? Every man , woman , and child in the pit feels that Anne must ask her betrothed about that portrait , tax him with it , taunt him with it ( Anne , especially , not being restrained in matter of speech ) , and that the doubt would be cleared up at the first word . But so completely has Marston sacrificed truth to situation , that ho actually allows so clumsy a contrivance as that of Thnrold ' s leaving on the table the miniature he has kept concealed in his bosom ; he leaves it for the stage necessity of Lady Topping ton s getting it into her possession , and showing it to Anne !
Ihis is not tragic passion , it is contrivance . The audience perceives the strings pulling the puppets . The third act prettily enough seta forth the lovers' quarrel . Thorold , ignorant of the portrait discovery , attributes her coquetting with Llaniston to heartless ambition . This is a really good act ; the fourth is still better . I do not understand the gratuitous insolence of Anne to the man she is about to marry : — " You should have hoard my wooing An hour buck . ' Anne , behold me at your feet , ' 1 cried , — ' You'll f ^ ive me hope ? ' what was her answer ? Straight to the point . She asked my yearly income—Not ;—after all deductions ; if indeed 1 were a poor ' s next heir ; would live in London , Take her to Court , mix with the world and see She matched its proudest— -for all which perhaps She'd give me a wife ' s duty . As for love , I must omit that trifle . " 1 ' ui , 1 puss on to | , ] io scene of remonstrance , wherein Thorold , tries to Warn her against , the step hIio i . s about to take . lie speaks of her parents : — " You know already , How toil brought sickness , sickness- — -poverty ; How—bowed in mind and frame — your father sat l \ y his cold hearth , yet from one faithful breast Drew warmth and hope . Hufore him knelt his wife , Your mother ! ANNK . Well ? TMOItOM ) . He loved lier , as ( . hey only ( -mi love who miller , loved lier—soul and form . Her form was as the crystal to I he light , Her soul the light , that filled it . Y ' el , 17 / e // parted ! Those twin lives broke , and blent on earth no more ! ANN K . What parted them ? TIIOKOI . D . Well asked ! What could ! Not want , They had <] uall " ed it , to the tlivgs , and in its cu |> I'lwlfrod love anew ; not exile ,- where he stood Was home to lier ; not chains , —her faithful ( earn Hud rusted them to free him ; not the seaH , — They had foundered on one plank ; not Iceland snows , - You had tracked her fool fall 1 here ! All these , men brave 1 'V Hold ; why , Love hud mocked them !
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. Tell me , then , What severed them ? TnOROXD . They had a child—an infant . Famine was at their threshold . For "their child Those true hearts quailed . They sought your uncle ' s aid . He offered shelter to the wife and babe , — Denied it to the husband ! AMNM . And my father ? TITOKOLD . Strained Your mother to his breast , till soon their eyes Lit on the form that clung- for life to hers ; They saw its wan , pinched cheek , the blight of want Creep on their blossom . They could save it !—he With one long kiss , till their souls met again , Embraced his wife , unwound his beggared arms , And said— Wife , go 1—And for her child she went ! ANNE { aside ) . I must quit or yield , ( She rises . ) thorold ( detaining lier ) . You were that child—for you They wrenched the bent of life , —slid from the raft That buoyed their fainting limbs , that you might ride The sorrows where they sunk ! ANNE . Cease ! TH 0 B . O 1 D . Will you pay That mighty debt by sin ?—a sin that mocks The love they worshipped . She , your mother speaks , She pleads ., look in her face . ( Snatches the miniature front his breast , and places it in 7 ier Jiand . y AJSnNTE . Her face ! that portrait My mother ' s face ? THOEOLD . Even so . ANNE . My mother , mother ! ( Sinks on her knee , reverently pressing her lijos to portrait . ) ( Thorold gazes on Anne with deep emotion—then quits the room . ) It was that scene saved the piece ; that , and several scattered touches of great beauty and nice feeling ; for if in this analysis of the play I am finding- little but fault , you must not therefrom conclude that I do not seo great merit in it . The tears of the audience during this act , and my own pleasure—though mingled—throughout , were recorded in my notice of the first performance . But with ' whatever ornaments a man of talent may enrich his work , they cannot remove the central defects they may help to conceal . Therefore , speaking critically of Anne Blake , I say it presents no dramatic character consistently evolved , no dramatic story artistically told , no elemental passion vividly portrayed . " Where Mara ton , in his preface , says that in Mrs . Kean ' s ' acting his creation lives , and that such an embodiment of an ideal cannot quickly die , ho seems to me to explain the whole mystery of his failure . Before I close this long and severe notice , let me quote that noblo eulogy of the obscure , yet influential race : — "TlIK MlJN WHO TlIINIi ! Whose weapon is the pen , whose realm the mind . . 1 mean not laurelled bards ; but daily workers , Who , like the electric force , inisccn . pervade ' / 'he sphere t liey quicken : nameless till they die , And leaving no memorial but a world Made bettor l > y their lives !" I could quote other quotable passages , but I leave you to find them in the work yourself .
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J U L L 1 N N'S C O N C K It T S . J i ) i . j . n n ( heMons , the great Napoleon of tlie realms of Polk , the darling of a , promenading public , the best concert giver , and most siuicchhAi 1 entrepreneur , —Jiillien , whose w hiskcrs and whose waistcoats madden ambitious youths , u hone poses and graceful gesticulations rncbant ingenuous maidens from Hie country , whose brilliant qualities and real musical merit . —a , merit , simply proved by appreciation and by composition— , lulhen , is to quit ; us for the dollars of the West ! he is about , to oncbant-Anierica ! and who knows ( bat be may not , carry bis f rimnpliMnt progress from the Lane of Drury to the Spice ' islands of the Kastern SeasP Who can my where he will stop F lie departs from us ! . Lmjvte I ' tncres ihnndincsuue /
JJiif before be
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November 13 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1097
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1852, page 1097, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1960/page/21/
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