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November 27, 1852.] THE LEADER. 1145
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We should do our utmostto encourage the ...
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LADY BARBARA. Earl Gawain wooed the Lady...
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€l)t Ms.
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MASKS AND FACES. Go and see Masks and Fa...
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T11K BRITISH INSTITUTION. Till! Hfii<len...
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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Transcript
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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.
November 27, 1852.] The Leader. 1145
November 27 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1145
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We Should Do Our Utmostto Encourage The ...
We should do our utmostto encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —Goethi .
Lady Barbara. Earl Gawain Wooed The Lady...
LADY BARBARA . Earl Gawain wooed the Lady Barbara , Hig h-thoughted Barbara so white and cold ! 'Mong broad-branched beeches in the summer shaw , In soft green light his passion he has told . When rain-beat winds did shriek across the wold , The Earl to take her fair reluctant ear Framed passion-trembled ditties manifold ; Silent she sate his amorous breath to hear , With calm and steady eyes , her heart was otherwhere . He sighed for her through all the summer weeks ; Sitting beneath a tree whose fruitful boughs Bore glorious apples with smooth shining cheeks , Eerl Gawain came and whispered , " Lady , rouse ! Thou art no vestal held in holy vows , Out with our falcons to the pleasant heath : " Her father ' s blood leapt up unto her brows . He who exulting on the trumpet ' s breath Came charging like a star across the lists of death , Trembled , and passed before her high rebuke : And then she sat , her hands clasp'd round her knee : Like one far-thoughted was the lady's look , For in a morning cold as misery She saw a lone ship sailing on the sea , Before the north ' twas driven like a cloud , High on the poop a man sat mournfully : The wind was whistling thorough mast and shroud , And to the whistling wind thus did he sing aloud . " Didst look last night upon my native vales Thou Sun , that from the drenching sea hast clomb ? Ye demon winds that glut my gaping sails , Upon the salt sea must I ever roam , Wander for ever on the barren foam ? O happy are ye resting mariners , 0 Death that thou would ' st come and take me home ! A hand unseen this vessel onward steers , And onward I must float thro' slow moon-measured years . " Ye winds ! when like a curse ye drove us on , Frothing the waters , and along our way , Nor cape , nor headland , thro' red mornings shone , One wept aloud , one shuddered down to pray , One howl'd , ' Upon the Deeps we are astray . ' On our wild hearts his words fell like a blight : In one short hour my hair was stricken gray , For all the crew sank ghastly in my sight As we went driving on thro' the cold starry night . " Madness fell on me in my loneliness , The sea foamed curses , and the reeling sky Became a dreadful face which did oppress Me with the weight of its unwinking eye . It fled , when I burst forth into a cry—A shoal of fiends came on me from the deep , 1 hid , but in all corners they did pry , And dragg'd me forth , and round did dance and leap ; They mouthed on me in dream , and tore me from sweet sleep . " Strange constellations burned above my head , Strange birds around the vessel shrieked and flew , Strange shapes , like shadows , thro' the clear sea fled , As our lone ship , widc-wing'd , came rippling thro ' , Angering to foam the smooth and ( decked blue . " The lady sighed , " Far , far upon the sou , My own Sir Arthur , could 1 die with you ! The wind blows shrill between my love and me . " Fond heart 1 the space between was but the apple tree . There was a cry of joy , with seeking hsuuls She ik'd to him , like worn bird to her nest ; ; Like washing waiter on the figured sands His being came and went in sweet unrest , As from the mighty shelter of his breust Tim Lady Barbara her head uprear . s With a Man smile , " Methinks I but half blest , Now when I ' ve found thee , after vvoury years , I cannot sec thee , love ! so blind I am witli tears . " Alkx . Smitit .
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Masks And Faces. Go And See Masks And Fa...
MASKS AND FACES . Go and see Masks and Faces , for several reasons . You will be amused that is something . Laughter and the tears of sympathy alternate through the varying scene ; bright ingenious dialogue , playing like lambent flame , stimulates the intellect ; and homely pathos , homely mirth , kind hearts and loving voices gently touch the various chords of emotion . But there are other reasons why you should go . You should go if you are a dramatist or dramatic critic , to learn there the secrets of success and failure . You should go if you are a lover of acting , to learn how truly and artistically Webster , Leigh Murray , Mrs . Stirling , and Mrs . Leigh Murray can speak behind the Mask when a real Persona is afforded them .
I am not going to tell you the story of this comedy , j : ou liave seen or will see it . In the long scene of the second act , where the poor poet is writing his comedy , with a starving family for inspiration , and tears for gaiety—in that touching scene , I say , the dramatic critic will learn the secrets of success and failure . ' It sticceeds because it has the elements of eternal success—character and emotion : the sharpness and individuality of the well-contrasted characters , and the unmistakable reality of the emotion arising out of true circumstance , not artificially brought in for the sake of effect . But then , beside this quality , so precious on the stage
and elsewhere , there is a deficiency—felt more on the stage , but felt everywhere—a deficiency of organic construction . All the details of that scene are admirable ; and . they do illustrate the characters of the poor poet , his sick wife , his children , the kind Peg Wqffington , and the empty Connoisseurs of Art—but they do no more . They afford the actors good material—they are not built up into a work of art . It is a portfolio of sketches , not a picture . Hence it requires all the resources of the actors to keep up the interest ; and even in spite of our laughter and our tears , a sense of weariness ever and anon steals over us . I point out this scene as a study .
"Webster surpassed himself in Triplet , the poor poet , painter , and actor . There was an abashed seediness of manner , only half covering the glimmering vanity and hope which shone beneath , as the fire shines through the ashes—a radiant confidence in his own genius , which neglect and failure might sadden , but could not suppress—a contrast between the visionary splendour of hopes formed in the twilight of reverie , which magnifies all things , and the actual poverty which was breaking his heart for the dear ones at the fireless hearth ; in a word , there was a picture of the poor poet , such as the stage has never seen before—the eye lighting up its signal of contradiction to the seedy dress and starved sallowness of complexion . In his first scene , where his tragedies are rejected , and where Peg Wqffington melts him with her kindness , he was less obviously
but as truly a fine actor than in the garret scene , which is more effective on the stage . But go and see him , I say again , and note at the same time the delicate nuances with which Leigh Murray varies his coxcombs . In Money , he plays a quiet , selfish coxcomb : in the Foundlings , he is inimitable as a good-natured coxcomb , just stepped from the Guards' Club ; in Masks and Faces , he plays a selfish , but clever , cold , and unscrupulous coxcomb , who is a fine gentleman because he is thrown among line gentlemen , but whose quiet self-mastery and steady intellect imply that he is capable of playing a part in the world . For gentlemanly ease of bearing and truth of elocution , quiet as effective , I commend this to your notice . If he will step aside with me a moment , 1 will just whisper that he makes rather too frequent use of the snuff-box ; but that is the only fault , and a slight one .
Mrs . Stirling has not for a long while had a part which shows her off to such advantage , and she evidently resolved not to let a bit of it slip through her fingers . She was gay , natural , touching , loving , throughout , and made one perfectly understand Mrnest Vanes infatuation , though nut his subsequent desertion of her for his wife . There must he Home extraordinary charm in " conjugal love "—some inten . se fascination in legal happiness which lias hitherto escaped my observation ; or else ; no man could possibly , with forty parsons ' power of morality , think of quitting such a , Peg TVoJJiiK / lon , for such a Mrs * lave / I must marry , and find out that secret ! If I do marry , beloved reader ! ( I whan '! , ; hut I put the extreme hypothesis , ) 1 will tell you all about it ; isn ' t that my function , in this majestic universe , —to tell you " all about" everything ?
1 forgot to tell you about . JM rs . Leigh Murray ; but I will not close without a line directing your attention to the truthfulness and pathos with which who plays a very small part , but a part which so many would have owr-played . 1 ought also to fell you " all about " THOSE DEAR BLACKS ! at the Lyokum ; but . 1 have only time to say that it- is a preposterous piece of absurdity at which you cannot help laughing : the situations are so funny , and Charles Mathews is ho cool , so voluble , and ho gay . It wont beiir a , moment ' s criticism , but it makes you " roar . " Probably ( ho author—William Hrough—and < ho nctorn , care more about making you laugh than about boring you " according to the rules of Art . " ISo I will only add that Those dear lilachs is of" the farce , farcical . " 'Vivian .
T11k British Institution. Till! Hfii<Len...
T 11 K BRITISH INSTITUTION . Till ! Hfii < lenfs' copies luivo been displayed in I lie gallery , and show the usual amount of cure , chiefly expended on the " handling . " Titian ' s " Daughter" has been Mm favourite moiled , but the happiest efforts nre among some bits from " Lang . Jan mid his Wife , " Mr . VV . Rimer having proved , in his version of the feniule bend , a , habit of studying life in action . From the "Hoar Hunt , " by SnyderH , Mr . Earl lias made up a , tolerublo picture , by transposition of' the forms , introducing a . largo ( log of bin own design . Tito . ltergheinn have fared beHt among tlie hindm-apes , and there are two really excellent water-colour copien of thai , master , by
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27111852/page/21/
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