They must have marked the breadth and calmness of his style, the self-restraint that never betrays effort, and the grandeur resulting from this element of large effect. They will have seen how superior to points and petty tricks and clap-traps he is from first to last; how completely the Moor, steeped at first in the stately Oriental calm that almost looks like languor, till love lights in his eye and mantles in his face, or doubt begins to torture, and sense of wrong gathers and glows to fury, and a rage, far more terrible and unsparing than a wild beast's, works to madness in his brain. The over-vehemence of Othello's final agony is deprecated, but _Punch_ concludes by recommending all "who wish to know the highest expression of ideal tragic acting to see this famous Italian actor." As he had welcomed another glory of Italian art in Ristori, so he yielded to the versatile enchantments of the "divine Sarah" in her frequent visits to our shores. The following tribute dates from 1879:-- TO SARAH! (By an exuberant Enthusiast) Mistress of Hearts and Arts, all met in you The Picturesque, informed by Soul of Passion! Say, dost thou feed on milk and honey-dew, Draining from goblets deep of classic fashion Champagne and nectar, shandy-gaff sublime, Dashed with a pungent smack of _eau-de-Marah_, Aspasia, Sappho, Circé of the time? Seductive Sarah! "Muse"? All Mnemosyne's bright brood in one! Compound of Psyché, Phryné, Britomarté, Ruler of storm and calm, Euroclydon And Zephyr! Slender Syrian Astarté! With voice the soul of music, like that harp Which whilom sounded in the Hall of Tara. How dare Philistines at thy whimsies carp, Soul-swaying Sarah!! "_Poseuse_"? Pooh! pooh! Yet who so well _can_ pose As thou, sweet statuesque slim sinuosity? "Stagey"? Absurd! "The death's-head and the rose"? Delicious! Gives the touch of tenebrosity That lifts thee to the Lamia level. Oh! Shame on the dolts who hint of Dulcamara, _A propos_ of _levée_ and picture-show, Serpentine Sarah!!! * * * * * O idol of the hour and of my heart! Who calls thee crazy, half, and half-capricious? A compound of _Lionne's_[12] and Barnum's part, In _outrecuidance_ rather injudicious? Ah! heed them not! Play, scribble, sculp, sing, paint, Pose as a Plastic-Proteus, _mia cara_; Sapphic, seraphic, quintessential, quaint, _Sémillante_ Sarah!!!! [Footnote 12: Presumably a reference to Louis XIV's versatile Minister of that name.] [Sidenote: _"Pierrot à Londres"_] [Illustration: THE DIVINE SARAH (_For whose sake we've all gone wrong_) FIRST CRITIC (_ætat. 21_): "Beats Rachel hollow in _Ong-Dromack_, hanged if she don't!"