Shakespeare’s “Richard the Third” was another character in which we
especially liked to see him. He was so handsome, so fascinating, that
the scene with Lady Anne, where he wins her from the very bier of her
murdered husband, did not seem unnatural. The scene in the tent he gave
with tremendous power. After the ghosts of his victims have appeared to
him, one after another, calling down defeat upon his head, he arouses
himself from his uneasy slumber. Still half-asleep, and fighting his way
with his sword, he staggers to the front of the stage, crying out, “Give
me another horse; bind up my wounds!” Kneeling for a moment, his
countenance still distorted, he cries out, “Have mercy, Jesu!” His
movements as he blindly made his way forward, the awful expression of
his face, with eyes rolled upward, made this scene more terrible in its
way than that of his death on Bosworth Field.
Yet this revelation of the true soul of the hump-backed king lasted but
a few moments. Soon he recovers and “Richard is himself again.” (This
phrase must have been added by Colley Cibber, for it is not in
Shakespeare.)
As “honest Iago,” the openness of his countenance somehow conveyed to
the beholder that it was assumed. Only in the final scene did he allow
the true villainy of the character to appear on his face. His Othello
was beautiful and moving. As Cardinal Richelieu he was wonderful,
portraying to the life the little, cunning, powerful, yet on the whole
benevolent old man of Bulwer’s drama. With what telling effect he drew
the magic circle and gave the curse of Rome!
I saw him as Shylock a number of times, the last time shortly before his
retirement from the stage. This impersonation had gained greatly in
power since the early days. The awful look of hatred that, during his
talk with Tubal, he allowed for a moment to play over his face was a
revelation. You caught a glimpse of the race hatred accumulated through
centuries of oppression.
Once when I thoughtlessly spoke of the principles of Christianity to a
Hebrew acquaintance, I was frightened to see something of the same
terrible expression come over his face.
When Booth was a young man he often played in comedy. The rollicking
mischief and fun of his Petruchio and Don Cæsar de Bazan we greatly
enjoyed. He gave an abbreviated version of the “Taming of the Shrew” as
companion piece to “The Iron Chest.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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