John Joseph Knight

“ The anonymous critic continues: ‘His person is well formed, manly, and elegant; a handsome countenance, and brilliant and sparkling eyes;’ and taxes him with an unpardonable roll from side to side, and says he ‘is always endeavouring to do what the situation does not require should be attempted, and what nature is shocked at when done.’ Lamb describes him as ‘the jolliest person’ of any Hamlet he has seen. ”

“ In expressing slowness of apprehension this actor surpassed all others. You could see the first dawn of an idea stealing slowly over his countenance, climbing up by little and little with a painful process, till it cleared up at last to the fulness of a twilight conception, its highest meridian. He seemed to keep back his intellect as some have the power to retard their pulsation.’ Dodd left at his death a collection of books, largely dramatic, which formed a nine days' sale at Sotheby's, and realised large prices. ”

“ Scott, who knew Kemble well, and sympathised with his literary tastes, declared him to be the only man who ever seduced him in his middle life into very deep potations. On the occasion of Kemble's farewell performance previous to quitting the Edinburgh stage, 23 March 1817, Scott adds: ‘He has made a great reformation in his habits, given up wine, which he used to swallow by pailfuls, and renewed his youth like the eagle.’ In his quarrels with his fellow-performers, male and female, he conducted himself generally with tact and feeling. ”

“ The one regrettable action of Betterton that is on record is the share he took in securing the signature of the iniquitous agreement which preceded the fusion of the two companies. Against this stands out a life distinguished not only by integrity, respectability, and prudence, but by that last of virtues to be expected in an actor, modesty. Out of a salary which in his best days never exceeded four pounds a week—an extra pound was after a certain period paid him as a pension to his wife—he saved money. ”

“ Viola, Constance, and Katharine were fine performances, and her Gertrude in ‘Hamlet’ was perfect. Of imagination in its highest sense she was deficient, but she had genuine humour and provocative mirth. Westland Marston declares that ‘in sympathetic emotion, as distinguished from stern and turbulent passion, no feminine artist of her time surpassed her; in suggestiveness of detail, no artist but one.’ Miss Helen Faucit writes: ‘She had in youth much beauty and fascination, and in riper age was handsome and intellectual. ”

“ Theophilus Cibber speaks of her with enthusiasm, so far as regards her moral qualities: ‘she was a beautiful woman, lovely in her countenance, delicate in her form, a pleasing actress, and a most admirable dancer; generally allowed, in the last-mentioned part of her profession, to have been superior to all who had been seen before her, and perhaps she has not been since excelled. ”

“ In the ‘New Monthly Magazine,’ October 1821, a writer, assumably Talfourd, says Emery ‘is one of the most real, hearty, and fervid of actors. He is half a Munden. ... He has the pathos but not the humour, the stoutness but not the strangeness, the heart but not the imagination of the greatest of living comedians. ”

“ Booth's Henry VIII, in which he succeeded Betterton, Davies greatly admired, as, he states, did Macklin and Quin. Theophilus Cibber says he had 'all the advantages that art or nature could bestow to make an admirable actor,' speaks in warm praise of his voice and perfect articulation, and dwells with enthusiasm upon his deportment, his dignity, and majesty. ”

“ A strong desire on the part of Margaret Lucas to be maid of honour to the queen was, in spite of the opposition of her brothers and sisters, encouraged by her mother, and when the young girl, disappointed at the life of court, and discontented at being regarded, owing to her shyness and prudery, as a ‘natural fool,’ repented of her wish, her mother counselled her to stay. ”

“ Byron called him ‘the most supernatural of actors.’ Moore spoke of him as ‘a cultivated man, but a poor creature when he put pen to paper.’ Pitt called him the noblest actor he had seen, and Scott lamented his loss as that of ‘an excellent critic, an accomplished scholar, and one who graced our forlorn drama with what little it has left of good sense and gentlemanlike feeling.’ Lamb, who found it difficult to ‘disembarrass the idea of Hamlet from the person and voice of Mr. Kemble,’ defends and praises him in comedy, and even vindicates his Charles Surface. ”

“ Mrs. Cowley prided herself on her originality and her indifference to stage triumphs. The boast was even put forward on her behalf that she never witnessed the first performance of one of her pieces. Her anxiety on their behalf, however, involved her in a newspaper warfare with Hannah More, whom she taxed with plagiarism, and in quarrels with the managers of Drury Lane and Covent Garden, to whom, in a preface to ‘Albina,’ subsequently suppressed, she imputed, most probably in error, some misuse of her manuscript. ”

“ To be half a Munden is the highest praise we can give to any other actor, short of a Kean or a Macready.’ Hazlitt says of his acting: ‘It is impossible to praise it sufficiently because there is never any opportunity of finding fault with it’ (Criticisms and Dramatic Essays, 87–8) , and Leigh Hunt says he does not know one of his rustic characters ‘in which he is not altogether excellent and almost perfect’ (Critical Essays, 106) . ”

“ Booth's character of the great actor, Smith, may be applied with justice to Mr. King: “By his impartial management of the stage and the affability of his temper he merited the respect and esteem of all within the theatre, the applause of those without, and the goodwill and love of all mankind”’ (Dram. Misc. iii. 372) . Dibdin likens King to Préville as regards his performance of valets, and adds: ‘King is a performer who has thrown novelty into old characters, consequence into new, and nature into all’ (Hist. of the Stage, v. 348) . ”

“ The performance in Dublin of Zanga won him the high commendation of Young, who said he had never seen the part so well done. When the London managers preferred him over the head of Mills to the character of Bajazet, Booth said, upon the displeasure of Mills being manifested, that Elrington would make nine such actors as Mills. Victor says, however, that Elrington owned that the Tamerlane of Booth overpowered him, and that having never felt the force of such an actor he was not aware that it was within the power of a mortal to soar so much above him and shrink him into nothing. ”

“ An excellent vocalist, with a deep bass voice and a serviceable falsetto, a fair actor, a clever mimic, smart in rejoinder, good-natured, easy-going, and thoroughly careless in money matters, he obtained remarkable social success, was popularly known as honest Charles Bannister, and was the hero of many anecdotes of questionable authority. ”

“ The 'Painter's Breakfast' is a clever work. Pallat, a painter, asks to breakfast some known patrons of art. He then, with the aid of Dactyl, a poet, and Friendly, a comedian, sells by auction as original works some copies of paintings executed by his acquaintance. The proceeds of the sale, after the deduction of the cost of the breakfast and the true value of the paintings, are to be devoted to a fund for the relief of lunatics. The intention is of course to ridicule would-be connoisseurs of art, who neglect modern work, and will hear only of the antique. ”

“ While questioning the right of Lewis to the exclusive title of gentleman, Leigh Hunt considers that ‘vulgarity seems totally impossible to an actor of his manners.’ In characters such as Rover, full of frankness and vivacity, Lewis is conceded ‘an original excellence.’ He is said to be ‘the most complete fop on the stage,’ but is censured for extravagance of dress and for excessive indulgence in shaking of the head and respiration. ”

“ An admirable actress of chambermaids, she was also excellent in Mrs. Oakley, Lucy Lockit, Caroline in the ‘Prize,’ Mrs. Sullen, Bisarre, and other similar parts. She was good-looking, intelligent, and so industrious that she was said in her early life to have almost lived in Drury Lane Theatre. A writer in ‘Blackwood’ for 1832 speaks of her as ‘a delightful dark-eyed, dark-haired girl, whose motion was itself music ere her voice was heard,’ and speaks of her as possessing remarkable charm. ”

“ Genest was unfavourably impressed with Cherry as an actor. On the other hand, Tate Wilkinson says that in certain characters 'he possesses great merit,' and adds that he 'has the peculiar excellence as a comedian that when he has to perform a character not so suited to his genius and abilities, yet still it is not Cherry, but the character so justly conceived, that you perceive the skill of the artist perhaps more when he is out of his walk than when in' (Wandering Patentee, iv. 15) . ”

“ Tate Wilkinson declared that 'if any man possessed the gift of pleasing more than another Mr. Foote was the man,' and Colman the younger says Foote always made him laugh. Testimony of the kind may be indefinitely extended. He was short, fat, and flabby in appearance, his face intelligent, and his eye bright. He was a gourmand, an egotist, and a thoroughly selfish man, with a few redeeming traits, which the contrast with his general character gave almost the appearance of virtues. A portrait of Foote by Sir Joshua Reynolds is in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club. ”

“ Gibber is cleanly. He was proud of the moral influence of his works, loose as portions of them must seem in plot and language to a modern generation. Of his adaptations from Shakespeare, he had the grace, under the lash of contemporary criticism, to appear ashamed, and his 'Odes,' in the curious pamphlet, 'The Egotist, or Colley upon Cibber,' 1748, he gives up. His tragedies are poor, but scarcely below the level of the age. His two letters to Pope (1742 and 1744 respectively) are dull but not ill-natured, considering the provocation he experienced. In his 'Apology' he is seen at his best. ”