【英文原著类】[19th Century Actor] AUTOBIOGRAPHY(十九世纪男演员自传).pdf

AUTOBIOGRAPHY
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Edited by E ILES
1
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
PREFACE
A good play gives us in miniature a cross-section of life, heightened by
plot and characterisation, by witty pact dialogue. Of course we
should honour first the playwright, who has given form to each well knit
act and telling scene. But that worthy man, perhaps at this moment
sipping his coffee at the Authors' Club, gave his drama its form only; its
substance is created by the men and women who, with sympathy,
intelligence and grace, embody with convincing power the hero and
heroine, assassin and plice, lover and jilt. For the ess of many
a play their writers would be quick to acknowledge a further and initial
debt, both in suggestion and criticism, to the artists who know from
experience on the boards that deeds should he done, not talked about, that
action is cardinal, with no other words than naturally spring from action.
Players, too, not seldom remind authors that every incident should not
only be interesting in itself, but take the play a stride forward through the
entanglement and unravelling of its plot. It is altogether probable that the
heights to which Shakespeare rose as a dramatist were due in a measure to
his knowledge of how edy, or a tragedy, appears behind as well as in
front of the footlights, all in an atmosphere quite other than that
surrounding a poet at his desk.
This little volume begins with part of the life story of Joseph Jefferson,
chief of edians. Then we are privileged to read a few
personal letters from Edwin Booth, the acknowledged king of the tragic
stage. He is followed by the queen in the same dramatic realm, Charlotte
Cushman. Next are two chapters by the first emotional actress of her day
in America, Clara Morris. When she bows her adieu, Sir Henry Irving
comes upon the platform instead of the stage, and in the course of his
thoughtful discourse makes it plain how he won renown both as an actor
and a manager. He is followed b