Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
Charlotte Cushman called few new plays into being. Dramas, entitled
"Infatuation," by James Kenny, in 1845, and "Duchess Elinour," by the
late H. F. Chorley, in 1854, were produced for her, but were summarily
condemned by the audience, being scarcely permitted indeed a second
performance in either case. Otherwise, she did not add to her
repertory. For many years she led the life of a "star," fulfilling
brief engagements here and there, appearing now for a term in London,
and now travelling through the provinces, playing some half a dozen
characters over and over again. Of these Lady Macbeth, Queen Katherine
and Meg Merrilies were perhaps the most frequently demanded. Her fame
and fortune she always dated from the immediate recognition she
obtained upon her first performance in London. But she made frequent
visits to America; indeed, she crossed the Atlantic "upward of sixteen
times," says her biographer. In 1854 she took a house in Bolton Row,
Mayfair, "where for some years she dispensed the most charming and
genial hospitality," and, notably, entertained Ristori on her first
visit to England in 1856. Several winters she passed in Rome,
occupying apartments in the Via Gregoriana, where she cordially
received a host of friends and visitors of all nations. In 1859 she
was called to England by her sister's fatal illness; in 1866 she was
again summoned to England to attend the death-bed of her mother. In
1860 she was playing in all the chief cities of America. Three years
later she again visited America, her chief object being to act for the
benefit of the Sanitary Commission, and aid the sick and wounded
victims of the civil war. During the late years of her life she
appeared before the public more as a dramatic reader than as an
actress. There were long intervals between her theatrical engagements;
she seemed to quit her profession only to return to it after an
interval with renewed appetite, and she incurred reproaches because of
the frequency of her farewells, and the doubt that prevailed as to
whether her "last appearances" were really to be the "very last." It
was not until 1874, however, that she took final leave of the New York
stage, amid extraordinary enthusiasm, with many poetic and other
ceremonies. She was the subject of addresses in prose and verse. Mr.
Bryant, after an eloquent speech, tendered her a laurel wreath bound
with white ribbon resting upon a purple velvet cushion, with a
suitable inscription embroidered in golden letters; a torchbearers'
procession escorted her from the theatre to her hotel; she was
serenaded at midnight, and in her honor Fifth Avenue blazed with
fireworks. After this came farewells to Philadelphia, Boston and other
cities, and to these succeeded readings all over the country. It is to
be said, however, that incessant work had become a necessity with her,
not because of its pecuniary results, but as a means of obtaining
mental relief or comparative forgetfulness for a season. During the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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