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1837.]

ENGAGED BY MR MACREADY.

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both points she gave way; for she was personally most desirous to help in establishing in the hands of a man of ability and character a theatre in which the higher drama should be worthily represented. She could not, being still under age, cancel her engagement, but she gave him her personal assurance that she would not stand upon its terms as to choice of parts, but would lend him her loyal co-operation in making his venture a success, and as to salary would reduce it to £15 a-week. His mention of this change of conditions is thus noted in his published Diary :"July 14th. Received an answer from Miss Faucit, expressing the best spirit, so far as she is concerned."

Before the close of Mr Osbaldiston's season, she added, on the 21st of July, to her new parts that of Marion in Sheridan Knowles's now long-forgotten play of The Wrecker's Daughter.

1 It is due to Mr Macready to state that at the end of the season, although it had been a losing one, he paid Miss Faucit, and others, who had made similar concessions, their full salaries.

was enormous.

CHAPTER III.

AFTER the excessive fatigue of the last six months, Miss Faucit spent the summer in seeking entire rest, and the refreshment of a life in the country. It was well she did so, for the strain upon her powers, mental and bodily, during the following nine months During this period her name was scarcely ever out of the bills. She acted in all 110 times, appearing in no less than nine new parts, and on the other nights in the important tragedies and comedies in which she had already given proof of her powers.

Mr Macready must by this time have seen how important an element of success she was likely to prove in his scheme for raising the tone of the performances in his theatre. Whether she had by this time overcome her awe of him, or he had relaxed his haughty coldness of manner towards her, we have no means of knowing, for her Journal was discontinued for more than a year, and in his published Diary her name is scarcely mentioned. This much, however, is certain he seized every opportunity of turning her popularity, which by this time was very great, to his advantage, by placing her before the audience almost nightly in parts of the highest importance.

The season was opened (30th September 1837) with The Winter's Tale, in which he played Leontes to her Hermione, "artist-like," his Diary says, "but not, until the last act, very effectively." Of what he was in that act Miss Faucit has left in her letters a very striking picture.

My first appearance as Hermione [she writes] is indelibly imprinted on my mind by the acting of Mr Macready in the statue scene. Mrs Warner [who had been in the habit of playing Hermione to his Leontes] had rather jokingly told me, at one of the rehearsals, to be prepared for something extra

1837.]

MACREADY'S LEONTES.

49

ordinary in his manner, when Hermione returned to life. But prepared I was not, and could not be, for such a display of uncontrollable rapture.

After describing herself as descending from the dais which led up to the pedestal, advancing slowly, and pausing at a short distance from Leontes

Oh [she continues], can I ever forget Mr Macready at this point! At first he stood speechless, as if turned to stone, his face with an awe-struck look upon it. Could this, the very counterpart of his queen, be a wondrous piece of mechanism? Could art so mock the life? He had seen her laid out as dead, the funeral obsequies performed over her, with her dear son beside her. Thus absorbed in wonder, he remained until Paulina said, "Nay, present your hand." Tremblingly he advanced, and touched gently the hand held out to him. Then, what a cry came with, "Oh, she's warm!" It is impossible to describe Mr Macready here. He was Leontes' very self! His passionate joy at finding Hermione really alive seemed beyond control. Now he was prostrate at her feet, then enfolding her in his arms. I had a slight veil or covering over my head and neck, supposed to make the statue look older. This fell off in an instant. The hair, which came unbound, and fell on my shoulders, was reverently kissed and caressed. The whole change was so sudden, so overwhelming, that I suppose I cried out hysterically, for he whispered to me, "Don't be frightened, my child! don't be frightened! Control yourself!" All this went on during a tumult of applause that sounded like a storm of hail. Oh, how glad I was to be released, when, as soon as a lull came, Paulina, advancing with Perdita, said, "Turn, good lady, our Perdita is found!". . . It was the finest burst of passionate, speechless emotion I ever saw, or could have conceived. My feelings being already severely strained, I naturally lost something of my self-command. Of course I behaved better on the repetition of the play, as I knew what I had to expect and was somewhat prepared for it; but the intensity of Mr Macready's passion was so real, that I never could help being moved by it, and feeling much exhausted afterwards.

A few nights after this performance Miss Faucit appeared as Clotilda Lilienstein in a piece called The Novice. It had a brief career of only three nights; but the Examiner, of which Mr Macready's friend, Mr John Forster, was the dramatic critic. (15th October), speaks of Miss Faucit's performance as being "as natural and unaffected as her Lucy Carlisle in Strafford, with passages of quiet power. It was really a charming piece of acting."1 The part of Jane Carlton, in another short-lived piece called The Parole of Honour, must have been welcome as a relief

1 For a fuller account of the production of Strafford, see letter from Lady Martin to Mrs Richmond Ritchie, dated April 30, 1891, p. 242, postea.

D

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LADY OF LYONS PRODUCED.

[1838. from a long succession of performances of Hermione, Desdemona, Belvidera, Julia, Mrs Haller, Jane Shore, and Lady Townley, and still more welcome the opportunity of playing Cordelia to Mr Macready's Lear. In Lear Mr Macready was in later years certainly seen at his best. Miss Faucit always spoke of it with admiration. During this season it was only performed for a few nights. But after Mr Macready became manager at Drury Lane, she was very often his Cordelia, delighting in the part, and clothing it with all the charm which this exquisite creation of the poet demands.1

The success of the season came with the production, on the 27th of February 1838, of The Lady of Lyons, by Bulwer. During the rehearsals, Miss Faucit writes in her letters, this had been thought very doubtful. "The defects of the play, from a literary point of view, seemed obvious to those who were capable of judging, and its merits as a piece of skilful dramatic construction could not then be fully seen. My master and dear friend [Mr P. Farren] thought the character of Pauline, when I was studying it, very difficult and somewhat disagreeable. I remember well his saying to me, 'You have hitherto, in your Shakespearian studies, had to lift yourself up to the level of your heroines; now you must by tone and manner and dignity of expression lift this one up to yourself."" This, by universal consent, she succeeded in doing, making the character her own by putting into her impersonation qualities of mind and heart which are not to be found in the author's text.

The cast of the piece was very powerful. Every character was in strong hands, and on the first night the play gave every promise of assured success. But for some nights afterwards the audiences were so scanty that Mr Macready talked one day at rehearsal of withdrawing it. Against this Mr Bartley, his stage manager, the Colonel Damas of the play, and himself a fine actor, protested. "Could you see, as I see," he said, "the effect upon the audience of the cottage scene, you would never dream

1 J. H. Foley, the eminent sculptor, executed two fine statuettes, one of Macready with Cordelia lying dead in his lap, the other of Prospero and Miranda, suggested by Mr Macready and Miss Faucit. Both are in my possession.

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