The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 08 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 08 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
Miss O’Neill repeated her usual characters last week. We saw her in
Belvidera, and were disappointed. We do not think she plays it so well
as she did last year. We thought her representation of it then as near
perfection as possible; and her present acting we think chargeable in
many instances, with affectation and extravagance. She goes into the two
extremes of speaking so loud as to ‘split the ears of the groundlings’
and so low as not to be heard. She has (or we mistake) been taking a bad
lesson of Mr. Kean: in our opinion, the excellences of genius are not
communicable. A second-rate actor may learn of a first; but all
imitation in the latter must prove a source of error: for the power with
which great talent works, can only be regulated by its own suggestions
and the force of nature. The bodily energy which Mr. Kean exhibits
cannot be transferred to female characters, without making them
disgusting instead of impressive. Miss O’Neill during the two last acts
of Belvidera, is in a continual convulsion. But the intention of tragedy
is to exhibit mental passion and not bodily agony, or the last only as a
necessary concomitant of the former. Miss O’Neill clings so long about
Jaffier, and with such hysterical violence, before she leaps upon his
neck and calls for the fatal blow, that the connection of the action
with the sentiment is lost in the pantomime exhibition before us. We are
not fastidious; nor do we object to having the painful worked up with
the catastrophe to the utmost pitch of human suffering; but we must
object to a constant recurrence of such extreme agony, as a convenient
common-place or trick to bring down thunders of applause. Miss O’Neill
twice, if we remember, seizes her forehead with her clenched fists,
making a hissing noise through her teeth, and twice is thrown into a fit
of agonized choking. Neither is her face fine enough in itself not to
become unpleasant by such extreme and repeated distortion. Miss
O’Neill’s freedom from mannerism was her great charm, and we should be
sorry to see her fall into it. Mr. C. Kemble’s Jaffier had very
considerable effect. Mr. Young’s Pierre is his best character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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