54

BETTERTON'S DISADVANTAGES.

tone and expression seemed to mesmerise an audience, and make them the followers of his slightest intonation. Almost without speaking he could let them into the workings of his mind, and anticipate his next motion, as if it arose from their own volition. And yet, cheer up, my dumpy friend with the passionate will to tread the boards! If you have only the tremendous energy which likes to surmount difficulties rather than glide along without an obstacle, never mind your inelegant figure and utterly ungracious face-your scrambling walk and clod-hopping calves. If you feel the divine fury in your heart, and know it to be no exhalation from the stagnant marshes of your self-conceit, but the genuine fire that warmed the stuttering Demosthenes till he became an orator, and the skeleton Luxemburg till he rivaled the Cæsars and Alexanders of ancient story, be not afraid of external deficiencies. We don't see them when our eyes are filled with tears. We don't believe in them when the pulse is stopped in terror and surprise. Read the following description of Betterton, and take courage. It is quoted from a pamphlet by Anthony Aston, called "A Brief Supplement to Colley Cibber, Esquire, his Lives of the Famous Actors and Actresses." "Mr. Betterton, although a superlative good actor, labored under an ill figure, being clumsily made, having a great head, short thick neck, stooped in the shoulders, and had fat short arms, which he rarely lifted higher than his stomach. His left hand frequently lodged in his breast, between his coat and waistcoat, while with his right he prepared his speech. His actions were few but just. He had little eyes, and a broad face, a little pockpitten, a corpulent body, and thick legs, with large feet. He was better to meet than to follow, for his aspect was serious, venerable and majestic-in his latter time a little paralytic. His voice was low and grumbling; yet he could time it by an artful climax, which enforced

ADDISON ON BETTERTON.

55

universal attention even from the fops and orange-girls. He was incapable of dancing, even in a country-dance, as was Mrs. Barry, but their good qualities were more than equal to their deficencies."

Surely this is the picture of a chawbacon, qualifying, by a long course of awkward stolidity of look and attitude, to grin successfully through a horse collar at a fair! Yet this quintessence of the sublime and beautiful threw the brazen Duchess of Cleveland into hysterics, and moved the talkative Nell Gwynne to silence. Of him also Addison wrote a criticism distinguished by his usual refinement:

"Such an actor as Mr. Betterton ought to be recorded with the same respect as Roscius among the Romans. I have hardly a notion that any performer of antiquity could surpass the action of Mr. Betterton in any of the occasions in which he has appeared upon our stage. The wonderful agony which he appeared in when he examined the circumstance of the handkerchief in the part of Othello, the mixture of love that intruded upon his mind upon the innocent answers Desdemona makes, betrayed in his gesture such a variety and vicissitude of passions as would admonish a man to be afraid of his own heart, and perfectly convince him that it is to stab it to admit that worst of daggers-jealousy. Whoever reads in his closet this admirable scene will find that he cannot (except he has as warm an imagination as Shakspeare himself) find any but dry, incoherent, and broken sentences. But a reader that has seen Betterton act it, observes there could not be a word added-that longer speeches had been unnatural, nay impossible, in Othello's circumstances. This is such a triumph over difficulties, that we feel almost persuaded that the deficiencies themselves contributed to the success."

56

A FLORENTINE FEAT.

CHAPTER V.

The Memory of Actors.-How the Memory Strengthens by Practice.How a Distinguished Actor Committed a Whole Play to Memory, by Simply Listening to it Once as Played on the Stage.- Marvelous Feats of Memory.-"Winging" a Part.-Modes of Memorizing.— Learning a Whole Newspaper by Heart.-Treacherous Memories.Instances of Parts being taken at Short Notice.

By dint of practice, the memory of actors becomes remarkable for its quickness.

Not to have "a good study," as it is technically called, would be an almost fatal drawback to the success of a histrionic aspirant, and such cases are rare.

Even a poor memory becomes wonderfully improved by the practice of memorizing stage parts, while the exploits of some actors whose memories must have been. naturally good, and which have been strengthened by practice, are almost beyond the reach of credibility.

One actor, I remember, not a very long time ago, while in London, saw a play presented at one of the theatres; and returning to his room sat down, and aided by memory alone, wrote it all down, word for word, from beginning to end, three lengthy and complicated acts, with long and diversified parts for as many as a dozen persons, running through the piece.

His copy was brought to New York and played. So completely identical was it with the author's manuscript, that it was of course supposed that he had obtained a written copy from some person who was not authorized to sell it. When he took oath that he had written it out from memory, many uninitiated people were inclined to doubt the statement; but any actor or actress could easily testify to its entire credibility.