The Clever Canadian Woman, in the Role
of Roxane, Leaped from Obscurity
in a Single Night.
From Mr. Mansfield it is but natural to pass to Margaret Anglin, who, from
practical obscurity, leaped to distinction in a night as _Roxane_, the
heroine of "Cyrano de Bergerac." This was produced at the Garden Theater,
New York, on the 2d of October, 1898, and the next morning readers of the
papers were asking themselves why they had never heard before of this
young woman, who had almost shared equal honors with the redoubtable
Richard himself.
The first meager information about her was furnished by Acton Davies, in
his _Evening Sun_ notice of the play, from which it may prove interesting
to quote a couple of paragraphs:
"It rarely happens that an actress scores a success so unostentatiously as
Miss Margaret Anglin. All that had previously been known of her were the
facts that she was a Canadian, and that last season, while understudy in
the Sothern company, she played _Lady Ursula_ in Hope's play with such
amazing success that it compelled Miss Virginia Harned to recover from a
somewhat serious illness and resume her role after missing one
performance. When Miss Anglin first appeared as _Roxane_ last night, a
sigh went up from all parts of the house: 'Here's another blond and
simpering ingenue.'
"But as soon as she spoke Miss Anglin arrested attention. Her voice was
charming, and she moved about the stage with an ease which showed that,
however short her training may have been, she was in every sense an
experienced actress. As the play progressed, this young girl, who has
neither beauty nor a fine stage presence to assist her, fairly captivated
the audience by the grace and tenderness with which she invested a most
thankless and trying role."
Thus was Miss Anglin started on a career in which she has taken no
backward step. On the night before the twentieth century came in, when, as
leading woman of the Empire stock, she came forward in "Mrs. Dane's
Defense," she justified every prediction that had ever been made regarding
the trend of her attainments, which she had varied since the _Roxane_
days, by proving herself an exquisitely pathetic _Mimi_ with Henry Miller
in "The Only Way." And during the present season as the star _Zira_ in
Wilkie Collins's revamped "New Magdalen" she kept people coming to the
Princess from September until the middle of January.
How did she obtain her opening in the first instance, you ask? I had the
reply to this from her own lips for the benefit of THE SCRAP BOOK
audience.
"I had the ambition to become a professional reader. Rather an absurd one,
wasn't it? The stage itself seemed to hold no special lure for me. Well,
after some opposition on the part of my family, I came to New York at
seventeen, with money enough to pay for a season's tuition at a school of
acting, which had just been opened in connection with the Empire Theater.
"I was one of the very first pupils to be enrolled, and in spite of my
indifference to the theatrical side of elocution I could not but be
dazzled by the bait which Charles Frohman dangled before the eyes of the
students. This was the promise of an engagement to four of the pupils who
should acquit themselves with the most credit at the public performances
of the school.
"The crucial afternoon arrived, and I went through my part. I dare say
Mr. Wheatcroft, our principal, was more excited than I, as it was the
initial performance of his pupils, and I knew that I had several other
opportunities in which to make good in case my part did not show me up to
the best advantage on the present occasion. Judge of my amazement, then,
when word came from Mr. Frohman that he stood ready to give me the part of
_Mildred West_ in 'Shenandoah' right away.
"To be sure, it was only a tiny role, but in my recollection now it bulks
big, as it proved the gateway to a career which I had no idea of following
when I paid down my four hundred dollars for a year's tuition in the
dramatic school."