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THE TRUE CHARGES KEAN AT LAST! It has be...
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ELLA'S MUSICAL EVENINGS. Ridixg in an om...
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DREARY LANE , . Keets up its character o...
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MR. WYLD'S GLOBE IN LEICESTER SQUARE. . ...
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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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Buy Blas. That Victor Hugo Is A Man Of I...
Victor Hugo ' s talent for miso en scene , \ As invention of striking and terriWe situafioiis , liis-dramatic intentions , so to speak :, hare misled people Sto the belief that he is a dramatic poet . But there is one fundamental S ; in all his pieces : a want of life . The figures move , bu ^ with the movement of galvanized corpses , and with visages asr hideous ,. There is no St , no reality , no P » lse ofiife . Nothing but antitheses and tirades . Preoccupied with " effects / ' and like a true rhetorician thinking only of literary " effects" he sacrifices everything to an antithesis . Wten reproached for this unliealthy craving he replied , " People object to my lofe of antithesis ; as if God were not stul more antithetical than I ! Apart from -the frightfulfcathos of this reply , do note its absurdity ! But neither bathos ^ nor absurdity can have a limit with the poet who imperiously demands from Heaven an explanation of the great mystery in these terms : — ¦ ¦
Et maintenant Seigneur eocpliquons nous , tout deux ! ^ . ^ I should like toplace before him Charles Nodier ' s opinion of antithesis / . — " figure aussi incompatible avec la belle construction poetique qu ' elle Test ave . c la verite et la raison ; qui brise , qui mutile , qui denature la penseei qui contraint l ' esprit a s ' oceuper sans cesse de comparisons et de contrastes . With Hugo it is not a vice of language merely , it is equally a vice of conception . All his works are built up out of antitheses . Let us cast but a glance at Buy Bias , that long and tiresome drama with which we were afflicted on Friday night . ' - , _ . , _ . loves and is loved b
The central position is an antithesis—the lackey y the queen—the minister disgraced because he will not marry aberrant whom he has seduced / revenges himself by making his servant the lover of the queen . There is also the eternal recurrence of Vange et l g demon , without whom Hugo ' s muse seems unable to move : the demon is Salluste , the angel the queen . Buy Bias himself Au lieu d ' un ouvrier on a fait un reveur , thrown on the streets , friendless and penniless , he becomes , of course , a poet and a dreamer ( as Didier , in Marion de VOrme , before him ) , and the dreamer ends by donning the livery of a valet ; and the valet ends by becoming prime minister and lover of the queen . JPeste ! comme on y va ! Then there is Don Cesar de Bazan ( the original of the character in the celebrated drama )
Drapant sa gueusene avec son arrogance , animpersonation of the chivalrous blackguard ; and so the play goes on from antithesis to antithesis , much to the fatigue of the spectator , who , for a little touch of nature , a little impulse of feeling , would so willingly give all this . cold and glittering epigram . # _ That there are capital situations in this play , and some energetic lines , will not soften the verdict ; it * has the irredeemable defect of seeming unreal from first to last ; and if the ear is gratified by a "fine verse now and then , it is more often offended by such as these : — Parle ! ravis-moi ! Jamais on ne m ' a dit de ces choses la , J ' ecoute ! Ton ame en me parlant me bouleverse towte ! These are naivetes which Hugo and liis school naively believe are
Shak-Bad as the play is , the acting was worse . You know what I think of Lemaitre , and may imagine the shock my admiration must have received before I could write this sentence : he was as bad as a fine actor could be ! He whirled his arms about like a delirious windmill ; he mouthed and ranted with explosive bursts that would not have disgraced Charles Kean in his most Shakspearian moments ; he was neither dreamy , terrible , loving , nor pathetic . To see so fine an actor—K > ne who can be so impas-Bioned , so real , so pathetic—labouring in vain to represent the emotions of his part , and not succeeding in the slightest degree , puzzled and set me meditating on the cause , For observe , the failure was not one of degree ; Fre"de " ric was not less admirable than on other occasions—he was simply not admirable at all : the failure was total , absolute ! It then occurred to me that the reason of this failure was the unreality
of the part . Fre'de ' ric ' s greatness consists of two distinct things—his original and fantastic buffoonery , and his intense perception of the details which represent a real emotion . Give him a part like Robert Macaire or Don CSsar , and his magnificent buffoonery enchants you j give him a part like the gambler in £ a Vie d ' un Joueur , or like JPatllasse , and his pathos goes direct to the heart . But g ive him an heroic part , and he is out of his element ; he does not feel himself at home in it ; he knows not the details which incarnate it ; he becomes an ordinary actor . This was entirely the case with Buy Bias , which is utterly unreal , and gives the actor no chance . People commonly suppose that it is the actor who makes the play ; but although the actor may spoil a part , ho cannot make one and that is the answer to those who assert that . Rachel s genius alone makes Racine effective—her genius cannot make the modern writers
Let me , in concluding , say a" word in favour of Clarissc , who played the Queen , not indeed with queenly dignity , but with as much womanly tenderness as the part admitted . _ .,.., , , T I had been always told that Buy Bias was Frederic s greatest part . I have now seen it for the first , and I pledge you my honour , for the last time .
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The True Charges Kean At Last! It Has Be...
THE TRUE CHARGES KEAN AT LAST ! It has been said , in not very elegant Latin , that vainly do you oxpol Waturo with a fork , she will come back again " . The fact is , JNature is a woman , and will have the last word . See the truth illustrated in , the career of thatremarkablo actor , Charles Koan , who , bearing the burden of his father's name—a name associated with Shakspcare ( but rejoicing , i . would liavo you know , in a genius of a totally different order)—has been , condemned by the force of circumstancos to strut and fume ( and how no jNEWKPAPWiw strutted ! how fumed !) his hour on the stage as a Shakapoarian S ^ L ^ - £ ™ rSB £ oF , Na ^ re all the while having sternly said to him : " Charles , you / %$$ ' ¦ ' i iMfitt & S * no faculties for poetic representation ; Charles , you do not know & , !& Vc ... 7 ^ ^ m 3 fc poetry is , and there is a vulgar prejudice abroad which demands that t' [ K ' ' ?' ' i : ^>^ B ^ epreBenting a part vou ehouli know something of what it means . ; V ; - v . ' - ' ^ v rJ ^ pK 8 tr £ n your fings at Shokspearo P" Nature might speak , but there km : i a v a T
was the conventional fork expelling her , and insisting unon SlioV being performed ! *"" "reare Now , Charles Kean could not overcome circumstances ; but lit adroit man , he made use of th ^ m . Born , with a decided aptitude'f ** melodra-ma , he exercised , himself as amelodramatist in the plays of Sh v speare . He knew he could not play Qthellq , Macbeth , Lear , Borneo ( I sho u ld like to see his Romeo !)* thepublicknew it , top ; but an actor must le his art , and all the time he was detonating through Shakspeare he -V ^ silently training himsdlf for Pumas . We critics were all on a false scent ^ It was not Othello , it -was notMacbethfre was trying to play itWaa + h Jfaumie
Corsican JSrothers , it was . xnere lay nis taste , there lay hi talent . He has revealed himself at last . In Pauline , and in the Gor sican Brot 7 iers , he is excellent ; one desires nothing better-of its ' kind " He has found his vein , the public appreciates it , success is won . Let him peril it no more b y Shakspeare ( unless in parts like Ford , which he plavs admirably ) . Let him frankly take position as the hero of the Blood and Bogie School , and leave Poetry in unmangled repose .
Ella's Musical Evenings. Ridixg In An Om...
ELLA'S MUSICAL EVENINGS . Ridixg in an omnibus one day , in company witli seven men and a small dog , I was mildly asked by a meek gentleman , with a snub nose and desultory whiskers , whether that dog belonged to me . " No , sir , no , " I replied ; * ' I never Own anything smaller than- ' a mastiff ! " the meek gentleman said , " Oh , indeed ! " said my collocutor , with an effort at reply , "you have great ideas 1 " I startled him into silence by severely asking , " Sir , why doyou impute little dogs to strangers ? " He stammered apolojafetically ] and very soon got Out of the omnibus , doubless wondering at the Olympian pride of his persecutor ! This mysiafication— -worthy , I venture to say , of Yivier the prince of mystificateurs- ^ wa & recalled to me on Thursday by an ingenuous youth , who wishing " to make a remark , " asked me whether- I was going to see the new debutante , Mrs . Hose Ellen Temple , in the JETeir at Law , for I loftily answered , " Why do you impute such intentions to meP and on a Thursday night , too , when Ella ' s Musical JZveninfflxires me to Willis's Booms ! When Mozart ' s quititet inG minor , Beethoven ' s Trio B flat , and Mendelssohn ' s quartet No 4 , are to be performed by Leonard , MeUon , Oury , Le Jeune , and Piattij when Madame Mendi is to sing , and M . Leonard , -the new violinist is to make his first ¦
appearance ! " , '¦¦ . _ With all my interest in dMts , I could not give up such a concert as that for a dibut , so I went to Ella ' s . I did well . Tie concert was delightful . Ella is an enterprising manager , and to his sagacious enterprise the subscribers owe many a treat ; for no sooner does some wandering planet come within Ella ' s orbit , than , sure as fate , the planet is whirled into the Musical Union * ( by which lofty and astronomical phrase I mean that " air the talents" are secured , all the great players certain to be _
engaged ) . M . Leonard and his wife are on their way to Russia , but EJla knows how to make them pass through London and jeday at his concert . M . Leonard—the attraction of theieyening ^ is a fine _ player certainly ; but he seemed more at home in Mozart and Mendelssohn than m Beethoven : he played with delicacy and with purity ; but the impetuous iterations of Beethoven's fiery and impassioned phrases were inadequately given . It was Boothoven from the surface inwards , so-.-.. to speak- —not ; from the mysterious depths of passion piercing a way outwards . JNothing could be more delightful than his playing of the enchanting tno m "MTMo-nt ' a nninf ^ t - nt » mnrfl Hftiinatelv discadminatin ff than the muted
tenderness of the adagio—one of the loveliest things Mozart ever wrote . But the Beethoven trio in B flat left me unsatisfied , craving lor a Beethovenish je ne scais quoi , the absence of which almost spoiled my enioyment of that exquisite composition . Ah ! what writing ! lUere waa a poet ! His invention was as exhaustless as it was pnmesautterl ; his least effective phrases never have an accent of commonplace : lie is a miracle of science and genius ! . . . ,, Of M . Aguilar ' s pianoforte playing _ I can say nothing favourable . Coming after such men as Halle" and Pauer , he was subjected to a comparison that must have thrown ten times his talent into the sliade ; dui to come after Halld and Pauer , and to play in that loose expressionless stylo was inexcusable . Nor will I say more of Madame Mendi , than timi she sang Handel's Lasda clCio pianga—no favourite of mine , —ana Isouard ' s Nonje ne veuxpas chanter . The rooms were crowded .
Dreary Lane , . Keets Up Its Character O...
DREARY LANE , . Keets up its character of enterprising failure . The immortal JJunn , uw ava £ avbpw , that man of men , whose knowledge , experience , w . - j , and enterprise are the admiration , of the profession , continues to issue u which are the delight of critics , and continues to revive pieces JJ «»" prodigality of invention peculiar to himself . What a brilliant ^ jV . that was to revive Azaell Mr . Anderson had worn it out A f } f management , and had himself tried the effect of its revival ; mA ^ Jsad Azael was worn out , because the public was weary of Azael , becau ^ was certain to fail , Mr . Bunn revives it—otherwise , where wouia . u < " enterprise P" what audacity is there in reviving a piece certain ^^^
Mr. Wyld's Globe In Leicester Square. . ...
MR . WYLD'S GLOBE IN LEICESTER SQUARE . . j To the attractions of his Great Globe , Mr . Wyld has added a h ^ model of the Arctic Regions , displaying the portion of the wonu Franklin and his fellow voyagers have been lost . The model is a » ^ of a sphere , of considerable size , the land raised in reliet irom i f . ^ ^ the water , and skilfully coloured so as to aid the apprehension oi ^ ^ jocts . . An oral explanation is given , not only of the struotur ^ . gion , but also of Franklin ' s route , as far as it is known , and ol >\^ of efforts to follow him . It is impossible to conceive so distinct au the facts as half an hour sppnt over the model will supply- . un < jc-The largo globe appears to find increasing f ^ our , certttimy « ]() aJ ) . served . The expansion of the map , the striking an V i tL San ation proach to a sculptured roliof of the dry land , the truly clear e * i ^^ of tho guide , are characteristics which render it the beet xorju i ng practical geography that wo have seen .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 27, 1852, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27031852/page/22/
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