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Booth's Theatre has become famous as the place where Mr. MOLLENHAUER
nightly leads his admirable orchestra, and plays with exquisite skill
and infinite tenderness his unrivalled violin solos.
Since this theatre opened, there have been several attempts to add
dramatic entertainments to the attractive concerts given by Mr.
MOLLENHAUER. Two great actors, Mr. JEFFERSON and Mr. BOOTH, have at
different times appeared at this house, and in _Rip Van Winkle_ and
_Hamlet_ have given us the most perfect specimens of dramatic monologue.
Lately, there was an attempt made to present _Macbeth_ during the
intermissions in the performance of the orchestra. Had an actor been
engaged who was capable of playing _Macbeth_, and had a company been
engaged to support him, the tragedy would doubtless have been well
played. There was really little else wanting to make it a meritorious
Shakespearean revival.
To visit this theatre is held to be a solemn duty by a large class of
respectable and serious people. They don't go for amusement--they are
far too sensible for that--but they go to support the legitimate drama,
to testify their respect for SHAKESPEARE and for Mr. BOOTH'S classic
brow. The Worldly-Minded Persons who attended the representations of
_Macbeth_, found themselves assisting at a scene compared with which a
funeral would have been jovial, and a hanging, a wild dissipation.
This is the sort of thing that presents itself to our memory as we
recall the first night of _Macbeth_.
A large and elderly audience enters the portals with subdued and
mournful mien. The ushers, who, in imitation of Mr. BOOTH, do a little
of the classic brow and curl business themselves, chew tobacco with an
air of resigned melancholy, and spit upon the carpet, as though
renouncing the pleasures of the world and the decencies of civilization.
At the first intermission of the orchestra, the curtain rises upon the
three Weird Sisters. Mr. HIND is a Weird Sister, and he improves the
opportunity to howl with a weirdness that draws an involuntary laugh
from an irreverent young lady.
_Respectable Father_. "Laughing in BOOTH'S, my dear! I am astonished at
you. Sh."
_Respectable Mother_. "Ellen, if you can't behave in ch--in the theatre,
you ought not to come." _Irreverent young lady becomes an object of
scornful pity to every one in the neighborhood. She never smiles again_.
The play proceeds. An inarticulate person is brought in on a litter, who
looks like a Tammany man whom some irate young Democrat has "put a head
on." He indulges in an inarticulate speech, which is warmly applauded by
the gallery. Then the Weird Sisters meet MACBETH and BANQUO on the
heath, and Mr. HIND howls at them until the Worldly-Minded auditor
blesses the memory of the Salem witch-burners. Then the King brevets
MACBETH. Then Lady MACBETH reads a letter from her husband with the
demonstrative energy of a Chicago Wild Woman reading the decree that
divorces her from a kind and honorable husband. Then the King arrives,
and MACBETH and his wife agree to kill him. Then the curtain falls, and
Mr. MOLLENHAUER repays the Worldly-Minded Person for having stayed
through the first act. Conversation is indulged in by the audience in
subdued whispers.
_All the Respectable Men in the house_. "Ah! there is nothing like
SHAKESPEARE, and there is no theatre like BOOTH'S. This is indeed an
intellectual feast."
_All the Middle-aged Ladies, wiping away the tear of sensibility_. "This
is something worth seeing! How can people be so frivolous as to go to
see comedies?"
_All the Young Ladies_. "Isn't BOOTH perfectly splendid? Isn't he
magnificent? You should have seen his CLAUDE MELNOTTE; it was so
perfectly lovely."
_All the Ushers, each to the other_. "Have another chew?"
_Worldly-Minded Person to Congenial Reprobate_. "Let's hear MOLLENHAUER
once more, and then go."
But MOLLENHAUER'S violin ceases to weep, and the curtain rises again.
The remainder of the play proceeds in due solemnity. MACBETH has the
usual fit of _delirium tremens_ at the banquet scene, where the nobility
of Scotland--one of whom wears low shoes, Oxford tie pattern--drink with
national ardor, and don't take the slightest interest in MACBETH'S
hallucinations. Lady MACBETH afterward enjoys her own little private
delirium in a gorgeous night-dress, and MACBETH is finally done for by
MACDUFF, who can outfight and outhowl him with perfect ease. The tragedy
being at last over, the audience disperses with solemn steps and slow;
the men and elderly ladies still whispering their stereotyped chorus of
praise, and the young ladies adding to their panegyrics of BOOTH
ecstatic admiration of Lady MACBETH'S night-dress.
And the Worldly-Minded Person, walking homeward, soliloquizes in some
such strain as this: "BOOTH can't play MACBETH; for he neither looks nor
understands the character. FANNY MORANT can't play LADY MACBETH as
perfectly as it should be played; but she tries to do her best, and is
quite respectable. Nobody else plays any part with common decency. But
then the scenery is good; the Scottish nobility look sufficiently hungry
and seedy, and MOLLENHAUER is superb."
"Didn't somebody say of WASHINGTON that "Providence made him childless,
that the nation might call him father?" Somebody ought to say of Lady
MACBETH that she was made childless, that no one might call her
mother-in-law. Neat thing that! Somebody ought to send it to
PUNCHINELLO. By Jove! what a mother-in-law that woman would have made.
Or what a landlady; with the Weird Sisters to prepare the morning hash!"
"Well! BOOTH can't do every thing; and we ought not to expect it. A man
who plays HAMLET as well as he does, can't possibly play MACBETH. As
well might we ask TENNYSON to turn Ward politician. We all owe him a
debt of gratitude for building MOLLENHAUER so splendid a theatre, and
for giving us the best IAGO and the best HAMLET that we have ever seen,
or ever shall see. And so, I for one am ready to forget and forgive when
be fails as MACBETH, and does not succeed as ROMEO."
--MATADOR.
* * * * *
Grant on Cuba.
The President is really in favor of the recognition of Cuba, with a view
of ultimate annexation. He wants to have his Havanas a home production.
* * * * *
Robbery at the Mines.
It is not strange that robberies are so frequent in the California
mining regions, a country in which the mountains are full of Pyrites.
* * * * *