And certain actors and singers, had a good deal to do with the business.
All through these years, off and on, I frequented the old Park, the
Bowery, Broadway and Chatham-square theatres, and the Italian operas
at Chambers-street, Astor-place or the Battery--many seasons was on
the free list, writing for papers even as quite a youth. The old Park
theatre--what names, reminiscences, the words bring back! Placide,
Clarke, Mrs. Vernon, Fisher, Clara F., Mrs. Wood, Mrs. Seguin,
Ellen Tree, Hackett, the younger Kean, Macready, Mrs. Richardson,
Rice--singers, tragedians, comedians. What perfect acting! Henry Placide
in "Napoleon's Old Guard" or "Grandfather Whitehead,"--or "the Provoked
Husband" of Gibber, with Fanny Kemble as Lady Townley--or Sheridan
Knowles in his own "Virginius"--or inimitable Power in "Born to Good
Luck." These, and many more, the years of youth and onward. Fanny
Kemble--name to conjure up great mimic scenes withal--perhaps the
greatest. I remember well her rendering of Bianca in "Fazio," and
Marianna in "the Wife." Nothing finer did ever stage exhibit--the
veterans of all nations said so, and my boyish heart and head felt it in
every minute cell. The lady was just matured, strong, better than merely
beautiful, born from the footlights, had had three years' practice in
London and through the British towns, and then she came to give America
that young maturity and roseate power in all their noon, or rather
forenoon, flush. It was my good luck to see her nearly every night she
play'd at the old Park--certainly in all her principal characters. I
heard, these years, well render'd, all the Italian and other operas
in vogue, "Sonnambula," "the Puritans," "Der Freischutz," "Huguenots,"
"Fille d'Regiment," "Faust," "Etoile du Nord," "Poliuto," and others.
Verdi's "Ernani," "Rigoletto," and "Trovatore," with Donnizetti's
"Lucia" or "Favorita" or "Lucrezia," and Auber's "Massaniello," or
Rossini's "William Tell" and "Gazza Ladra," were among my special
enjoyments. I heard Alboni every time she sang in New York and
vicinity--also Grisi, the tenor Mario, and the baritone Badiali, the
finest in the world.
This musical passion follow'd my theatrical one. As a boy or young man
I had seen, (reading them carefully the day beforehand,) quite all
Shakspere's acting dramas, play'd wonderfully well. Even yet I cannot
conceive anything finer than old Booth in "Richard Third," or "Lear,"
(I don't know which was best,) or Iago, (or Pescara, or Sir Giles
Overreach, to go outside of Shakspere)--or Tom Hamblin in "Macbeth"--or
old Clarke, either as the ghost in "Hamlet," or as Prospero in "the
Tempest," with Mrs. Austin as Ariel, and Peter Richings as Caliban. Then
other dramas, and fine players in them, Forrest as Metamora or Damon or
Brutus--John R. Scott as Tom Cringle or Rolla--or Charlotte Cushman's
Lady Gay Spanker in "London Assurance." Then of some years later, at
Castle Garden, Battery, I yet recall the splendid seasons of the Havana
musical troupe under Maretzek--the fine band, the cool sea-breezes,
the unsurpass'd vocalism--Steffan'one, Bosio, Truffi, Marini in "Marino
Faliero," "Don Pasquale," or "Favorita." No better playing or singing
ever in New York. It was here too I afterward heard Jenny Lind. (The
Battery--its past associations--what tales those old trees and walks and
sea-walls could tell!)