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THE NEW HAMLET. I always feel tenderly t...
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KING JOHN. On Monday King John was reviv...
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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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Magnetic Evenings At Home. Letteb Ii.*—T...
< A < lo » s dpwnwa ^ ibas , I venture to assert , ever attained ! Thirdly , I st believe ^ that she ; hai < c gpt Wp ^ beforeaand all the symptoms produced Staking aH the . known poisons in ehennstry , so as to be quite prepared f ' any selection I might choose to make . And fourthly , I must believe tl at she knevv vvhajt poison I Jba . 4 really chosen , though I have no recollect t ' on of the name pf it ever having been even faintly whispered by anybody 1 O the room , until she had been awakened out of the magnetic sleep . Ul Which is the most credulous man- ^ -the man who believes all this ^ oi ' the m who- b ^ wesii ! L \; i ^ e ^ i »^ e fciQ . ipftuwce ? i . ¦ .
But how eoiild this in ^ uencepossibly act , m the case now under review ? Admitting the sympathy between the magnetizer and the person , i magnet " ed—the limitless power of the will of the one over the will of the other _—how was it , if neither the Gount nor V—— - ^ knew anything of the nature or effects , on the human system , of Strychnine , that suck results as I have mentioned were produced ? Here was some strange influence working on the intellectual faculties , the nerves , and the whole vital principle—the question is * how did it work ? I cannot tell ! Neither can I , nor anybody which human knows to b
else , explain several other mysteries every being e exi sting within himself . I have a thinking machine about me , commonly called a " brain" — --by what process is it set working ? What power * when I am asleep , and my will is entirely inactive , sets this thinking machine o-oipg ^—going as I cannot make it go when my will is active * and I am awake ? . 1 know that I have a soul—what is it ? where is it ? when and how was it breathed into the breath of rny life ? Is Animal Magnetism the only mystery which the medical profession , and strong-minded unbelievers in general , cannot scientifically . and logically explain ? Shakspeare
thought not— . " There are more things in heaven and earth , Horatio , than are dreamt of in yonr philosophy . " You will , I doubt not , wish to be informed of the condition in which V—— appeared when she" was awakened from the magnetic sleep , after having heen the sjibject of the painful experiment which I have just related . She was not aroused for another hour and a half , at least . During that period , other magnetic experiments were tried on her > which I shall mention hereafter , when I have more space-to occupy than is now afc my disposal . It was past midnight- —more than three hours from the time when she had been _ first thrown into the sleep—when the process of awakening her began . ^ / ~
The passes made by the magnetizer were at first quick , but very gentle Then he twice drew his hands sharply away from before her head , towards the ground . The second , time ^ he . performed this action , she awoke ; her eyes opened wide , in an instant . They showed the same brightness and intelligence that we had remarked in them three hours ago , before she had fallen into the magnetic , sleep . The change from the calm , blank , statuesque repose of her face , in the magnetized state , to the lively , goodhumoured expression of her face , in the waking state , was accomplished with the rapidity of a flash of lightning . There was no external appearance of any intermediate process whatever : looking at her countenance , you saw her , in obedience to a noiseless action of the magnetizer ' s hands , pass from fast asleep to wide awake , before you would have had time to
count one ! She had no idea whatever of anything that had passed since she had heen first magnetized , at nine o ' clock . I asked whether she felt any pain anywhere . No ! not the least pain of any kind . What were her sensations at that moment ? No sensations particular—nothing but the feeling that she generally experienced ' when she was getting up in the morning : the feeling of being perfectly well . Had she really no faint recollections
of having said , done , or felt anything , during the last three hours ?—no vague idpa , for instance , of having dreamt that she had been , at one time , in a state of great pain ? Not the least ! ' She remembered putting on the magnetized thimble , and then going on with her work after tea ; and from that point all her remembrances stopped . It was always so with her : she never knew anything about what she did , or said , or felt , in the magnetized state , unless other people told her . im
Here our questions and answers wiere interrupted by the noisy patience of a little dog in the room . The animal was waiting to go home with me , and was growing very unwilling to wait longer . Earlier in the evening , this dog had accidentally produced a very curious exertion of V ' s extraordinary perceptive powers , while in the magnetic sleep . His master ( at vyhose house I was then staying ) had como in , as one of the guests , lftte in the evening , when V had been nearly an hour asleep . After a sho rt time , he departed ; and his dog , having followed him to the house , followed him again out of the room . More than half an hour afterwards , » i the middle of an experiment , V suddenly became restless , and " owned . No one being able to imagine what produced this alteration in « er , she was asked to explain what was the matter , nnd answered— «« There ' s
Wi "neil * tho ro ° m tlwt ftnnpy « me . " " What is it ? " "A dog . " Why , Hie dog went away Ualf-an-hour ago , " cried one of my friends . A search was instituted ; and , sure , enough , the dog ( a little terrier ) was found coued up asleep in the darkest comer of the room . He had followed his j nnatcr out ; but not , as we all supposed , home . He was very fond of me ; 1 detormined to go homo with me ; and had quietly crept bnck into the !^ . ^ 1 u * etly » tnat nobody could imagine how or when he had entered to wait my departure . While I was looking for tho dog , tho Count was pursuing hi 8 questions with V ~ . " What sort of dog is it ? " " A
little dog . " " Whose dog is it ? " " He has not followed his master home . " " I ask you whose dog it is ? " " The dog belongs to Mr . —— > " mentioning the name of the dog ' s owner . This gentleman , as I have already said , had only come to the house after V——' s eyes were fast closed in the magnetic sleep . "Wr " v « ' ¦' ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ { To be continued . ' ) ' :
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The New Hamlet. I Always Feel Tenderly T...
THE NEW HAMLET . I always feel tenderly towards dSbutants , and ¦ watch their performances with a different eye to those of old stagers . If I do not let my tenderness issue in eulogies such as I read elsewhere , it is , I suppose , that my brother critics are more tender , or less fastidious . I cannot help my opinions ; if they seem severe , I am assured by my own conscience that their severity is tempered in expression by a predetermination to do my office as kindly as I can . True , that kindness is strangely interpreted sometimes ! If Mr . Barry Sullivan is to get but cold praise from me , it is because his Hamlet was so very feeble , though less offensive than many of more pretensions . It was a mere reading of the part , and that reading elaborated , rather than elaborate . Steering clear of all the detonating violence of Charles Kean , he misses the settled gloom arid overshadowing
melancholy which make the first act of Charles Kean s Hamlet so nne ; Jus sorrow is lackadaisical , womanish , and unreal . The quietness with which he plays the part is highly commendable , and shows a fine ambition . It is surely a considerable merit that of not ranting 1 But Uy <*> fagot et fagot , as Moliere says—there is quietness and quietness : if it be more difficult for the actor to produce his effects quietly , it is because he . must then rely upon intelligence and emotion , instead of lungs and gesticulation ; but quietness without those is simply negative . Mr . Barry Sullivan's personation of the part is riot Shaksperian in its broad out ^ pnes , nor is it felicitous iri its details . He does not present to us a picture of the sceptical prince , suddenly smitten by a grief which becomes a
calamityso great as to overwhelm his reason , and drive him into insanity . We undergo none of those emotions which such a picture of psychological evolution ought to produce—we see nothing of what is passing in Hamlet ' s mind to explain his acts . Mr . Sullivan read the part with fair intelligence ( though he should not say Nemean ) , and played it with what may be called proprietyj but the passion and the subtlety of the part are both beyond him . " His gestures are-graceful , but of a sort of Keepsake grace . Indeed , the phrase , a Keepsake Samlet , would vividly express my view of his performance . What the _ engravings in Annuals are to fine pictures , or to Naturethat is his Hamlet to Me Hamlets , or Shakspeare . His
, appearance is prepossessing ; and being young and ambitious , he may yet create a name for himself . We shall se * e him , however , in a new part soon , and then , when not oppressed by the weight of Shakspeare , he will have a chance of showing us his quality . Meanwhile , let me call his attention to one defect . He has a tendency to screw up his features into a fixed and not very expressive expression , which is almost as bad as Charles Kean ' s perpetual blank look and open mouth , which do 4 uty for all other expressions . In so quiet an actor as Mr . Barry Sulhvan , the face ought to play a prominent part .
King John. On Monday King John Was Reviv...
KING JOHN . On Monday King John was revived at the Princess ' s , and I , like a sort of Oxford-street Tantalus , gazed at the bill , but could not feed my hungry eves with the performance . Then it was I began to feel the anger ot Jupiter Kean ! Then it was I realized the misery of my lot—banished from that Theatre , —excluded from the contemplation of that great man and greater actor . Then ^ it was I sat in my lonely study , howling . King John with Charles Kean , and I not admitted ! At , at , ea « i ! ( iou see , he is such a classic actor , that my very agonies disdain a less lofty expression than Greek !) ,, But there is a limit to human endurance . On Wednesday I would not be longer kept from that theatre , and I went . What I saw there shall now—in all seriousness—be told you . I have dried my tears , and intend
to lest no more . _ , , . ... -, Although King John contains some truly Shakspenzm writing , and characters such as Falconbridge , Hubert , Arthur , Constance , and King John , the effect , on tho whole , is very heavy , and the play needs some accessory attraction . Gervinus , indeed , thinks it a " tragedy of the purest water »_ : reinsten Wasser ( whatever that may bo ); but he is a German , and accustomed to watery dramas : our audiences want something of a more rivetting interest ; they can enjoy poetry and character in their study Tho audiences in Shakspearo's day listened with hungry ears to all the poetry and history , because to thorn tho stage was tho source of almost all their literary culture ; they Avero not reading audiences , and tlioroforo could bo interested by plays which weary our fastidious pit , who as Gootho says , in tho theatre prologue to Faust , have not , indeed , been accustomed to tho finest things in the world , but imhappily are
terribly well read— " Zwftr sind oio an das Boste nicht gowohnt : Allein sio'haben Bohreoklioh viel geloHen ' . " . v It sooms clour , t ] ion , to mo , that wo must have some accessory attraction to replace that literary and historical interest which originally made Shakipoaro ' s hifltorical plays aocoptablo ; and tlioroforo thai ; Maoroacly was wholly right in tho principle of his revivals . Sconory , drosses , ffroumnps , archicolog icnl research , and pictorial splendour , can roplacolor SSSiis the poetic and historic interest which our forefathers folt in these Xvs All those things rondor King John attractive at tho Princess ' s . No pains no expense has boon spared to make the spectacle gorgeous and minutely ' antiquarian . It surpasses everything in tho way ot mise en
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 14, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14021852/page/21/
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