[Charlotte Cushman, a native of Boston, died in that city in 1876. No
actress ever excelled her as Meg Merrilies, Queen Katherine, and Lady
Macbeth. On the morning following her death, Mr. William Winter wrote
in the New York _Tribune_:--
... Charlotte Cushman was not a great actress merely, but she was a
great woman. She did not possess the dramatic faculty apart from
other faculties and conquer by that alone: but having that faculty in
almost unlimited fulness, she poured forth through its channel such
resources of character, intellect, moral strength, soul, and personal
magnetism as marked her for a genius of the first order, while they
made her an irresistible force in art. When she came upon the stage
she filled it with the brilliant vitality of her presence. Every
movement that she made was winningly characteristic. Her least
gesture was eloquence, Her voice, which was soft or silvery, or deep
or mellow, according as emotion affected it, used now and then to
tremble, and partly to break, with tones that were pathetic beyond
description. These were denotements of the fiery soul that smouldered
beneath her grave exterior, and gave iridescence to every form of art
that she embodied. Sometimes her whole being seemed to become
petrified in a silent suspense more thrilling than any action, as if
her imagination were suddenly inthralled by the tumult and awe of its
own vast perceptions."
Her frlend, Emma Stebbins, the sculptor, edited a memorial volume,
"Charlotte Cushman: Her Letters and Memories of Her Life," published
in 1878. By permission of the publishers and owners of the copyright,
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, the pages that follow are
offered.--ED.]