CHAPTER IV.

AMERICAN DRAMATIC FUND-SAMPLES OF HISTRIONIC TALENT -MR. FORREST AND HIS CASTLE-MRS. FORREST AND HER CHARACTER-TREADING THE STAGE, AND TREADING THE CEILING FOURRIER'S DOCTRINES, AND THEIR INNOCULATION-LOW PRICES AND LOW PEOPLE-WALLACK'S THEATRE -WILLIAM TELL OUTDONE-AN ACTRESS QUARRELS WITH HER DRESS-A GENUINE YANKEE MANAGER-HOW TO CARRY ON THE WAR-CHEAP LITERATURE-ONE WAY OF KEEPING A CHAMBERLAIN-VIRTUE OF

DAY "HOLY"-A LEARNED LORD

VOX POPULI-VALUE OF PATENT RIGHTS-"DYEING A MARTYR"

-CHARACTERISTICS OF OPERA

SINGERS-THE MANY AIRS

THEY GIVE THEMSELVES, AND THE FEW THEY GIVE THE PUBLIC-DOWNFALL OF OLD DRURY-ITALIAN OPERA DOINGS -POETS AND PENSIONS-POPE'S OPINION OF ALL PUPPETSPERFORMERS' OPINIONS OF THEMSELVES.

ON the 11th of last April (1853) the fifth anniversary dinner of the American Dramatic

Fund Association was celebrated at Astor House, New York, which, as far as the Stage was concerned, seemed to us much more like a celebration of the English, than the American, talent belonging to it. There was but a slight sprinkling of "natives," and the most distinguished of them all, and one who has done more than all put together, for their Stage (Forrest), was among the absentees. The responses to the various toasts proposed partook of a general reference to the drama and its representatives; and as very few artistes of distinction, and not one dramatic author, of American origin, were present, it would have been a matter of perplexity to say much about people, who did not think it worth while to come and say anything about themselves. However, some of the "outsiders" of the Press, who are allowed, now and then, by their principals, to attend a good dinner and make a report upon it, assailed several of the speakers, whose misfortune it was to have their healths drank, complaining bitterly that scarcely a word was said of America, nor a syllable of encouragement was addressed to her professors, her authors, her literary and general talent; but that the whole evening was devoted to the eulogy of British genius.

We have noticed this fact solely for the purpose

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of exemplifying it, and of showing how these very people carry out our argument. The American Stage being entirely of English parentage and of English growth, it is necessary to inquire to what advantage America has turned the great array of talent which has from time to time arrived on her shores, to uphold her histrionic pretensions. During the century that Stage has been in existence, has the genius of the various foreign performers she has patronized, or the works of the several foreign authors they have represented, inspired her children with any high order of dramatic power, either in acting or in literature (beyond those to whom we shall make especial reference), which has for a moment commanded the attention of any nation but their own? She has been enabled to boast of a bright array of statesmen, warriors, senators, divines, pleaders, scientific, philosophic, and other gifted men; but it would seem that either the Stage was beneath her notice, or that she was content to look upon it as an amusement rather than an art, and be satisfied with those who could amuse her most, irrespective of the nation they came from,

The principal American performers who have visited this country, are Messrs. Forrest, Barrett,

Hackett, Hill, Silsby, Risley, Van Amburgh, George Jones, a host of equestrians, a singular pedestrian, Mr. Sands,* &c.; Mesdames Cushman, Sharpe, Clifton, Placide, the Bateman Children, Tom Thumb, &c. (the zenith and the nadir of these importations being Mr. Forrest, much above all others, and Mr. George Jones, far beneath them). In the case of Mr. Forrest, whom we had the pleasure of introducing to a London audience in 1836, we must make a peculiar exception; for not only has he proved himself the most distinguished actor of his country, but he has made unusually strenuous efforts to uphold the dramatic character of it. With every advantage, intellectual and personal; with natural genius, taste, grace, melody of voice and expression of countenance, and, coupled with all these, an untiring energy in the pursuit of his art, disdaining imitation, and standing

* To complete the degradation to which Drury Lane has been reduced, this gentleman came from America to teach the art of walking on the ceiling, as well as on the boards, which gave rise to this jeu d'esprit :

"Old Drury shows, from age to age,

Some novel mode of art revealing,

For Mrs. Siddons trod her stage,

And Mr. Sands now treads her ceiling."

"himself alone," he has been the architect of his own fortune, and a splendid one it is. Mr. Forrest has amassed considerable wealth, and amongst other possessions, is owner of one of the handsomest edifices in his country-Fonthill, a castellated mansion, built under his own superintendence, beautifully situated at Yonkers, on the North River, about fifteen miles from New York. We know of few places where taste in erection, and prospect in situation, are more remarkable. Mr. Forrest has collected a library here of rare works, from different parts of Europe over which he has travelled, and it is perhaps the finest private one in the United States. He built this castle with a view of its being hereafter converted into a dwelling, for the reception of a limited number of his professional brethren, whom chance or misfortune might have brought into decay, and it was his intention to have endowed it with due liberality; but his object has been defeated by some who most probably might have partaken of his bounty, but who bit the charitable hand that was prepared to feed them.*

* Something of the same kind of thing happened to the famous actor, Edward Allen, who erected and endowed Dulwich College for a similar subject; of which Wilkes, in his "General View of the Stage," says: "He designed this college for six men and six