On Monday the 5th I attended rehearsal at the American Theatre, and was
pleased to find it a large, well-proportioned house, with three rows of
boxes, a pit, or _parquette_, as it is termed, subdivided as in the
French Theatre: each seat is numbered, and, being taken at the
box-office, is secured to the purchaser for any part of the evening. The
company was a very tolerable one; and in the person of a nephew of Mr.
W. Farren's, I found an adjunct of much importance to me--an excellent
old man.
My next anxiety was about my audience, not its numbers, as I was assured
every seat in the house was disposed of, and this as far as could be
allowed, for every night I might perform; but I felt solicitous with
respect to its character and composition, of which I had received very
discouraging reports. I kept however my apprehensions to myself,
resolved to do my best after my own fashion, and abide the result as I
best might.
On Tuesday I made my _debut_; and never was man more agreeably surprised
than myself when, after making my bow, I for the first time took a rapid
survey of the aspect of the house: the _parquette_ and dress-boxes were
almost exclusively filled by ladies, _coiffees_ with the taste which
distinguishes Frenchwomen in every country, and which becomes peculiarly
striking here, where are to be seen the finest heads of dark hair in the
world; many wore bonnets of the latest Parisian fashion, and all were
more dressed than it is usual to be at theatres in America. This
attention to costume on the part of the ladies, added to their occupying
the pit, obliges the gentlemen to adopt a correspondent neatness; and
hence it occurs that, when the New Orleans theatre is attended by the
belles of the city, it presents decidedly the most elegant-looking
auditory of this country.
For myself, I found them in manner equal to their appearance; a greater
degree of repose and gentility of demeanour I never remember to have
noticed in any mixed assembly of any place. So much for report, which
informed me I should find the American house here filled by noisy
planters from the up-country and boisterous Mississippi boatmen. Let me
however add, that my personal friends assure me a class of families
attend my performances that is but rarely seen within this theatre,
which the creoles do not usually patronize; and that this extreme
decorum and exclusive appearance are assured by the places being all
secured by families.
This may in some sort be true; but at most can only apply to the
_parquette_, dress, and private boxes; the mixed population is still
here; and, after nightly observation, rendered acute by interest and
anxiety, I must assert that, taken generally, I do not desire to meet an
audience whose behaviour more decidedly justifies the terms respectable
and intelligent.
The least prolonged tumult of approbation even is stilled by a word to
order: and when it is considered that here are assembled the wildest and
rudest specimens of the Western population, men owning no control except
the laws, and not viewing these over submissively, and who admit of no
_arbiter elegantiarum_ or standard of fine breeding, it confers
infinite credit on their innate good feeling, and that sense of
propriety which here forms the sole check on their naturally somewhat
uproarious jollity.
Let me add, that my first engagement was for twelve nights, four nights
per week; that I, on my return from Natchez, acted a like number, with
equal patronage; and that on no one night was I afforded an occasion of
making an exception to the opinion I have above honestly recorded,
certainly with greater pleasure, because in asserting the truth I feel I
am at the same time performing an act of justice.