Montfleury, a French player, was one of the greatest actors of his time
for characters highly tragic. He died of the violent efforts he made in
representing Orestes in the Andromache of Racine. The author of the
"Parnasse Reformé" makes him thus express himself in the shades. There
is something extremely droll in his lamentations, with a severe
raillery on the inconveniences to which tragic actors are liable.
"Ah! how sincerely do I wish that tragedies had never been invented! I
might then have been yet in a state capable of appearing on the stage;
and if I should not have attained the glory of sustaining sublime
characters, I should at least have trifled agreeably, and have worked
off my spleen in laughing! I have wasted my lungs in the violent
emotions of jealousy, love, and ambition. A thousand times have I been
obliged to force myself to represent more passions than Le Brun ever
painted or conceived. I saw myself frequently obliged to dart terrible
glances; to roll my eyes furiously in my head, like a man insane; to
frighten others by extravagant grimaces; to imprint on my countenance
the redness of indignation and hatred; to make the paleness of fear and
surprise succeed each other by turns; to express the transports of rage
and despair; to cry out like a demoniac: and consequently to strain all
the parts of my body to render my gestures fitter to accompany these
different impressions. The man then who would know of what I died, let
him not ask if it were of the fever, the dropsy, or the gout; but let
him know that it was of _the Andromache_!"
The Jesuit Rapin informs us, that when Mondory acted Herod in the
Mariamne of Tristan, the spectators quitted the theatre mournful and
thoughtful; so tenderly were they penetrated with the sorrows of the
unfortunate heroine. In this melancholy pleasure, he says, we have a
rude picture of the strong impressions which were made by the Grecian
tragedians. Mondory indeed felt so powerfully the character he assumed,
that it cost him his life.
Some readers may recollect the death of Bond, who felt so exquisitely
the character of Lusignan in Zara, which he personated when an old man,
that Zara, when she addressed him, found him _dead_ in his chair.
The assumption of a variety of characters by a person of irritable and
delicate nerves, has often a tragical effect on the mental faculties. We
might draw up a list of ACTORS, who have fallen martyrs to their tragic
characters. Several have died on the stage, and, like Palmer, usually in
the midst of some agitated appeal to the feelings.[73]
Baron, who was the French Garrick, had a most elevated notion of his
profession: he used to say, that tragic actors should be nursed on the
lap of queens! Nor was his vanity inferior to his enthusiasm for his
profession; for, according to him, the world might see once in a century
a _Cæsar_, but that it required a thousand years to produce a _Baron_! A
variety of anecdotes testify the admirable talents he displayed.
Whenever he meant to compliment the talents or merits of distinguished
characters, he always delivered in a pointed manner the striking
passages of the play, fixing his eye on them. An observation of his
respecting actors, is not less applicable to poets and to painters.
"RULES," said this sublime actor, "may teach us not to raise the arms
above the head; but if PASSION carries them, it will be well done;
PASSION KNOWS MORE THAN ART."
Betterton, although his countenance was ruddy and sanguine, when he
performed Hamlet, through the violent and sudden emotion of amazement
and horror at the presence of his father's spectre, instantly turned as
white as his neckcloth, while his whole body seemed to be affected with
a strong tremor: had his father's apparition actually risen before him,
he could not have been seized with more real agonies. This struck the
spectators so forcibly, that they felt a shuddering in their veins, and
participated in the astonishment and the horror so apparent in the
actor. Davies in his Dramatic Miscellanies records this fact; and in the
Richardsoniana, we find that the first time Booth attempted the ghost
when Betterton acted Hamlet, that actor's look at him struck him with
such horror that he became disconcerted to such a degree, that he could
not speak his part. Here seems no want of evidence of the force of the
ideal presence in this marvellous acting: these facts might deserve a
philosophical investigation.
Le Kain, the French actor, who retired from the Parisian stage, like our
Garrick, covered with glory and gold, was one day congratulated by a
company on the retirement which he was preparing to enjoy. "As to
glory," modestly replied this actor, "I do not flatter myself to have
acquired much. This kind of reward is always disputed by many, and you
yourselves would not allow it, were I to assume it. As to the money, I
have not so much reason to be satisfied; at the Italian Theatre, their
share is far more considerable than mine; an actor there may get twenty
to twenty-five thousand livres, and my share amounts at the most to ten
or twelve thousand." "How! the devil!" exclaimed a rude chevalier of the
order of St. Louis, who was present, "How! the devil! a vile stroller is
not content with twelve thousand livres annually, and I, who am in the
king's service, who sleep upon a cannon and lavish my blood for my
country, I must consider myself as fortunate in having obtained a
pension of one thousand livres." "And do you account as nothing, sir,
the liberty of addressing me thus?" replied Le Kain, with all the
sublimity and conciseness of an irritated Orosmane.
The memoirs of Mademoiselle Clairon display her exalted feeling of the
character of a sublime actress; she was of opinion, that in common life
the truly sublime actor should be a hero, or heroine off the stage. "If
I am only a vulgar and ordinary woman during twenty hours of the day,
whatever effort I may make, I shall only be an ordinary and vulgar woman
in Agrippina or Semiramis, during the remaining four." In society she
was nicknamed the Queen of Carthage, from her admirable personification
of Dido in a tragedy of that name.