1843.]

DEATH OF MR PERCIVAL FARREN.

113

Dunstan, and Olgar. It appears from Miss Faucit's copy of the play, that on the next performance the curtain fell upon his death, and no opportunity was given for the reaction of which the critic speaks. Of the performance of this undoubtedly very remarkable play, Mr Macready has nothing in his Diary to say but this: "Acted, or rather scrambled through, Athelwold; was called for." [Again no mention of any one else being called.] "I have acted against my own judgment in taking this part, but I did it for the author's interest."

A few days after the performance of Athelwold, a great sorrow befell Miss Faucit. Her constant friend, Mr Percival Farren, had gone to see her in Elfrida, but was then so ill that he had almost to be carried to his private box, and he died about ten days afterwards. Preoccupied with her stage work, Miss Faucit had not seen Mr Farren for some days. Among other things, the task had been assigned to her by Mr Macready of delivering the Address to be spoken on the 29th of May, on the occasion of a performance for raising funds for the monument to Mrs Siddons, now in Westminster Abbey. "I was very ill, and tired," she writes, "so that my memory, usually quick enough, seemed to fail me. I grew nervous, and even by sitting up at night I feared I could not be ready at the time he wished. This engrossing study accounted for my not seeing my dear friend for some days together, only sending to inquire after him. During one of those nights that I was spending in study the night before its results were to be made public-he died. This was kept from me, but word of the sad event was sent in the morning to Mr Macready." He knew well how dear a friend Mr Farren was, and that, if it were known to Miss Faucit, she could not execute her task. So he sent her a note, begging her to come at once to the theatre, go quietly over what she had to speak, and share his little dinner there. "I accepted his invitation, and his gentle kindness I shall ever remember with gratitude. As the afternoon wore on, he sent for my dresser, and told her to make me lie down for an hour or two before I thought of dressing for the stage. I had a lurking feeling all through the day that something was happening, for all about me looked at me so earnestly and kindly, but what trouble was hanging over me I could not

H

114

MACREADY GIVES UP DRURY LANE

[1843.

even guess, because the last news given to me of my dear friend before I left home had been reassuring."

When the task of the night was over, Mr Macready met her as she was leaving her room, and put a letter into her hand, telling her that, as she was tired, the morning would be the best time to read it. But as on her way home she had to pass her friend's house, she alighted from the carriage to make her own inquiries. "The surprised and frightened look of the servant who opened the door told me everything, and I saw at once why all had combined to keep me in ignorance through the day. Then I understood how thoughtful Mr Macready had been. His letter was most kind. He gave me some days' rest to face my trouble, although, as the close of the season was near, he must have been put to extreme inconvenience by my absence."

The rest was indeed brief, for on the 5th of June she appeared as Portia in Julius Cæsar, and must have done so with a further sorrow in her heart, for in the playbill of the night Mr Macready announced, "that in pursuance of arrangements with the proprietary of this theatre he will relinquish its direction upon the close of the present season." If instead of "pursuance of arrangements" he had said "by reason of failure of arrangements," he would have been more exact. The proprietary, selfishly desiring to profit by the prosperity he had brought to their theatre, demanded an increased rent. Naturally irritated by their attitude, Mr Macready declined to renew his lease. Although he had not lost by his tenure of the theatre, his gains had not been adequate to his expenditure of thought and energy. With an increased rent, gain might have been turned to loss. At any rate, it was only by his personal influence and exertions that prosperity could have been maintained. A sorry return this "proprietary" made him for having done so much for two years to restore the prestige of their theatre, and to raise the tone of the metropolitan stage to a worthy level.

During the few nights of the season that remained Miss Faucit played Pauline, Hermione, Desdemona, and Rosalind (performance by command of the Queen), winding up with Beatrice on June 13, 1843.

1843.]

TO GREAT REGRET OF MISS FAUCIT.

115

This sudden and unexpected breaking up of Mr Macready's enterprise was a public loss.

To me [Miss Faucit writes] it was a heavy blow indeed. Severe as my labours had been, the delight in them far more than outweighed the fatigue. Drury Lane Theatre, conducted as it then was, was an arena in which every gift I had found scope for exercise. My studies were all of an elevating character: my thoughts were given to the great types of womanhood drawn by Shakespeare's master-hand, or by the hands of modern poets-Browning, Marston, Troughton, Bulwer Lytton, and others-anxious to maintain the reputation of the national drama. My audiences, kind from the first, grew ever more and more kind to me, and I felt among them as among friends. Now an end to all this had come-" the world seemed shattered at my feet." Engagements were offered to me in many theatres; in one case I was even asked to assume the office of directress. But I shrank from the responsibilities of such a position, and felt that, for my own interests as an artist, it was not well to allow myself to be hampered by them.

CHAPTER VI.

FULL of difficulty as Miss Faucit's position was on finding herself thus unexpectedly flung upon her own resources, her conclusion was a wise one, and it was proved to be so by the result. From the hour of her first appearance until then the whole weight of every leading female character had rested on her shoulders. She had won her way to the hearts of her audiences, and left indelible impressions there. But for her assistance and power of attraction, Mr Macready could never have made his management of Drury Lane the success it was. But from him this fact never received any adequate recognition; and his predominating influence, while it pressed upon her spirits, cramped and hampered her freedom in working out the impulses of her own genius, and even her own methods of expression. "Now at length her soul had elbow room," and it only wanted a free field to win from the public elsewhere, as, under much embarrassing restraint, it had already done in London, a cordial recognition of its quality.

This she quickly found. She tells us, "It was with a sad heart I started on my first engagement out of London-for Mr Macready had always told me that it was in London I must make my home, as no provincial audience could care for or understand my style." Of his own style this was true enough, for in the provinces his popularity had for some time been on the wane. But how unjustly he rated the intelligence of provincial audiences, and their appreciation of fine acting, was very soon. conclusively shown. Miss Faucit took Edinburgh first. "I had gone," she writes, "as I afterwards made it my rule to go, wherever I went, without any heralds in advance to proclaim my coming or to sound my praises." Her name even was unknown,

1843.]

FIRST APPEARANCE IN EDINBURGH.

117

save to a very few, for Edinburgh being then a two days' journey from London, either by sea or road, travellers between these cities, except for business or from necessity, were few indeed. She even brought no personal introduction. Unknown to her, Charles Dickens wrote to his friend Sir William Allan, President of the Royal Scottish Academy, calling his attention to her in the following letter:

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE,

YORK GATE, REGENT'S PARK, 13th November 1843.

MY DEAR ALLAN,-I am very anxious to bespeak your kind offices in behalf of Miss Helen Faucit: a young lady who is a much esteemed friend of ours, and whose great abilities I hold in high regard. She is coming to Edinburgh to fulfil an engagement with Murray. If you and Miss Allan can come to know her in private, I will answer for your having real pleasure in her society, and for your not taxing me with overrating her excellent qualities. I am "very fond" of her, which I think-and as an Edinburgh citizen I ought to know-is good Lowlan' Scotch.

Kate unites in this, and in kind loves to Miss Allan and yourself.-Always, my dear Allan, faithfully your friend, CHARLES DICKENS.1

Sir William having the entrée to the stage of the Edinburgh theatre, lost no time in introducing himself to Miss Faucit, and welcoming her as a guest to his house. Dickens's letter, and one from her friend Mr M'Ian to an intimate friend of my own, requesting him to call and show her what attention he could, was the medium of my own introduction to her.

Thus unheralded and unknown, she made her first appearance on the 14th of November 1843 as Pauline in The Lady of Lyons, and had, as she writes, "a sufficiently cold reception from a house far from full. However, the lessee and manager, Mr Murray-a man of great dramatic ability and many accomplishments, who acted Colonel Damas to my Pauline, the first night of my experience there, told me not to be disheartened. He felt sure, he said, I had taken hold of my audience, and that this was the only indifferent house before which I should ever have to act there. The event proved that he knew his public, for neither there or elsewhere did I ever play to an indifferently filled house. Of want of enthusiasm or of constancy in my provincial audiences

1 Of this letter Miss Faucit was not aware, until I bought it a few years ago at an auction at Sotheby's.