Life of Edwin Forrest, the American Tragedian. Volume 1 (of 2)Alger, Horatio, Jr.
General
Life of Edwin Forrest, the American Tragedian. Volume 1 (of 2)
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
Forrest, Edwin, 1806-1872
"Mr. Forrest selected as his second character the fiery Othello, 'who
loved not wisely, but too well.' There was something nobly daring in
this flight, so soon, too, after he whose voice still dwells in our
ears had passed from among us. To essay before an English audience any
character in which Edmund Kean was remembered was itself no trifling
indication of that self-confidence which, when necessary, true genius
can manifest. To make that attempt in Othello was indeed daring.
And nobly, we feel proud to say, did the performance bear out the
promise. In the Senate scene his colloquial voice told well in the
celebrated address to the Seniors of Venice. He did not speak as if
the future evils of his life had even then cast their shadows upon
him. The calm equability of the triumphant general and successful
lover pervaded his performance throughout the first two acts, with
the exception of the scene of the drunken brawl in the second, where
he first gave token of the fiery elements within him. The third act
was a splendid presentment throughout. He had evidently studied the
character with the judgment of a scholar, 'and a ripe and good one:'
each shade of the jealous character of the easy Moor, from the first
faint guessings at his tempter's meaning to the full conviction of his
wife's dishonesty, was brought out with the touch of a master-hand,
and embodied with a skill equalling that of any actor whom we have
seen, and far, very far superior to the manner in which any other of
our living performers could attempt it. This third act alone would
have placed Mr. Forrest in the foremost rank of his profession had
he never done anything else; and so his kindling audience seemed to
feel, as much in the deep watching silence of their attention as in
the tremendous plaudits which hailed what on the stage are technically
called 'the points' he made.
"In the two succeeding acts he was equally great in the passages which
called forth the burning passions of his fiery soul; but we shall not
at present particularize; where all was good it would be difficult,
and we have already nearly run through the dictionary of panegyric. In
accordance with a burst of applause such as seldom follows the fall of
the curtain, _Othello_ was announced for repetition on Wednesday and
Friday."
The commendation of the London Sun was still stronger:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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