fiasco which attended Forrest's second adventure, the reappearance of the actress in 1852 was the signal for the gathering of troops of friendly playgoers. Acting with all her pristine force and fire, experience had given greater mellowness and maturity to her style. Although unmistakably at a disadvantage in Shakespearian characters, which, for the most part, require subtlety for their proper exposition, Charlotte Cushman gained further laurels for her impersonation of Queen Katherine at the Haymarket in 1854. The popularity of her rendering is accounted for by the fact that she played down to the level of modern intellects. But what the rôle gained in one way it lost in poetic loftiness and classicality.

At the Haymarket (February, 1855) Charlotte Cushman triumphed again as Romeo to the Juliet of her sister Susan. More of passion and less of exaggeration were then exhibited in the part of the lovesick Montague than had ever been witnessed within living memory. The artiste's sex, so far from proving a demerit, was in this instance a material advantage. Her voice and figure, as already observed, had a sufficiency of the masculine. Added to this the greatest vehemence of action she was able to throw into the part was obviously less vigorous than the tensity of the average male Romeo. Were it not for her Lady Townly in "The Provoked Husband," we should be inclined to say that Charlotte Cushman was barely tolerable as a comedienne. Her grip of this character, as played at the Haymarket in November, 1855, was certainly thorough, although marred now and again by her usual earnest intensity of manner. But the few weak points in the interpretation were swallowed up, so to speak, by her admirable delivery of the wit and repartee with which this essentially dialogue part abounds. Indeed, whatever may be the faults of American artists of the first water, a deficiency of precision and distinctness in stage diction is not of the number.

John R. Scott, the Bowery tragedian, visited London and the provinces in 1847, with but moderate success. Early in 1848 we have to note the advent of a charming and variously talented actress in Anna Cora Mowatt. Playing leading business at the Olympic in April of that year, she was capitally supported by a compatriot, Mr. E. L. Davenport. Mrs. Mowatt's own play, "Armand; or, the Child of the People" (originally produced at the Park Theatre, New York, during September, 1847), had its first English performance at the Marylebone, January 18, 1849, when, in deference to the views of the licenser, the ordinary sub-title was changed to "The Peer and the Peasant." Owing to the anti-monarchical tendency of the piece several passages were blue-pencilled by the same

America in England: A Theatrical Retrospect. 93

worthy and had to be omitted. They were afterwards restored when "Armand" was performed in Dublin, and received with very liberal applause. Towards the middle of September, 1849, a new tragedy, called "Velasco; or, Castilian Honour," by an American author, Mr. Eps Sargent, was produced at the Marylebone, with E. L. Davenport in a prominent character. When the New Olympic opened its doors on Boxing Night of the same year, Mrs. Mowatt spoke the inaugural address, and Davenport appeared as Valentine in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona." During January, 1850, Mrs. Mowatt's comedy, "Fashion; or, Life in New York," was brought out, and in the month following G. H. Lewes's play, "The Noble Heart"-the latter supported by G. V. Brooke, E. L. Davenport, and Mrs. Mowatt. Neither piece, however, brought money to the treasury.

Public opinion had it that Mrs. Mowatt was an eminently pleasing actress, but E. L. Davenport was properly adjudged the finest American actor yet seen over here. An artist of extreme versatility, he ranked high in critical estimation even when placed in the scale with Macready and Brooke. There are still those living who have pleasurable recollections of Davenport's acting as Bolingbroke in "Richard II.," when the play was revived at the Haymarket, in December, 1850, with Macready in the name part. After performing for a season at Drury Lane, Davenport transferred his services, in November, 1853, to the City of London Theatre, where he at once met with success in his production of "Jack Cade." Early in the winter of 1854 he said good-bye, and returned to America. His versatility was fairly surprising. On the evenings on which he alternated either Othello and Iago, or Brutus and Cassius, with Macready, he appeared later on as William in "Black-Eyed Susan," and sang a song and danced a hornpipe with true salt-water vigour.

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During the Great Exhibition year of 1851 it was gravely whispered about in theatrical circles that "Mr. Barnum of New York," as the papers then called him, was about to bring over some wonderfully clever children to the St. James's Theatre. The "young eyases proved to be Kate and Ellen Bateman, whose career had begun at Louisville in 1847, when the elder was only five years old. Making their English bow on Monday, August 25, as Richard and Richmond n the fifth Act of "Richard III." and in a translation from the French of Scribe entitled "The Young Couple," they remained at he St. James's some little time, appearing subsequently in scenes rom "Macbeth" and "The Merchant of Venice." After a proincial tour they returned to America, Colonel Bateman taking a arm in Cincinnati, and there his daughter Isabel was born in

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1854. The joys of the country palling somewhat, after the lapse of a couple of years Colonel Bateman "pulled up stakes" and resumed his old life as manager of the St. Louis Theatre. Here the career of Ellen Bateman terminated. But, at the age of sixteen, Kate (Mrs. Crowe) was a full-blown actress on the New York stage. Voyaging to England on a holiday tour in 1863, her father made arrangements for her to appear at the Adelphi early in October in Daly's version of "Deborah," entitled "Leah," which had first seen the light at Boston two years previously. There is little need now to speak of an impersonation familiar to most playgoers by frequent repetition, and which at once won for its exponent an enviable and well-sustained position upon the English stage. No account of the work of the Bateman family over here would be complete without reference to the Colonel's memorable tenure of the Lyceum, which, lasting as it did from 1871 to 1878, saw the production of "The Bells," "Charles I.," "Eugene Aram," "Richelieu," "Philip," "Hamlet," "Macbeth," "Othello," "Queen Mary," "Richard III.," the "Lyons Mail," and " Louis XI." It is not with the Stephen Prices of the profession one must reckon the man who "discovered" Henry Irving, who gave him his opportunity, and who, from first to last, had a great deal to do with the establishment of the popular tragedian's reputation.

Induced to visit Europe in 1851, as the bearer of despatches fron Washington, Josh Silsbee, successor to Yankee Hill and Dan Marble in the personation of Transatlantic peculiarities, was easily persuaded to kill two birds with one stone and take a London engagement while over here. Making his bow at the Adelphi on Tuesday, September 23, 1851, in "The Forest Rose" and the "Yankee Ploughboy," he became very popular in the metropolis, to the no small delight of his friends in New York. Undemonstrative in his humour, Silsbee's countenance and eye had a roguish cast and twinkle that proved very effective in his telling of funny stories. Only half of what he said was intelligible to a British audience, but that half sufficed to send the audience into fits of laughter. Beyond "The Forest Rose," in which, by the way, he danced the "Cape Cod Reel," Silsbee appeared here in only one other piece-a farce called "The Yankee Pedlar."

McKean Buchanan, the American tragedian, made his début at the Marylebone, May 24, 1852, as Sir Giles Overreach, at once challenging comparison with Cooke, Edmund Kean and G. V. Brooke. The performance had its merits, but the style of the actor was marred by extravagance. Buchanan was devoid of neither power nor intelligence, but his training had been insufficient and in the worst of

schools. He starred, here, however, for some months under the management of Mr. E. T. Smith, who even went so far as to revive "The Apostate" on his behalf. At Drury Lane late in July, 1852 (the theatre having been especially re-opened for the purpose by Sheridan Smith), he appeared in an elaborate revival of "Hamlet," got up under the superintendence of Henry Marston. Lacking meditativeness and repose, the American tragedian was truly wretched in the soliloquies. His vigour in the more passionate passages bordered perilously on rant, and evoked abundant protests from the pit. After touring the provinces, McKean Buchanan re-appeared at the City of London Theatre in the autumn of 1854, and then wended his way back to America. It certainly took this milk-andwater Forrest a long time to discover that his elocution was peculiarly unfitted for the fastidious British ear, which never did or could favour the American system of heavy and prolonged emphases.

Mr. G. H. Boker, an American poet and dramatist, whose "Calaynos" had been produced at Sadler's Wells a few seasons previously, had his blank-verse play, "The Betrothal," brought out at Drury Lane during September, 1853, with E. L. Davenport and Gustavus Brooke in the principal characters. Exactly two years afterwards Mr. J. H. McVicker (who is now to be recognised as a prominent theatrical manager in Chicago) made his English début at the Surrey in a piece of extravagance entitled "Sam Patch," which had been especially written for the comedian. Mr. McVicker's acting was as farcical as the play-which aimed at "a kind of coarse Sam Slick humour"was broad and prolix.

James Murdoch, the best American Hamlet of his day, and an excellent light comedian, visited Europe in 1856, and appeared at the Haymarket, late in September, as young Mirabel in an adroit compression of "The Inconstant." There was a touch of irony in the circumstance, as pointed out at the time, that a stranger should revive this witty piece at a juncture when the theatres were otherwise presenting the veriest rubbish. The critics all agreed that Murdoch's acting was remarkable for its virile power and its many well-considered touches of appropriate by-play. About the same time also those excellent farceurs, Mr. and Mrs. Barney Williams, were fulfilling a long engagement at the Adelphi with unvarying success. "Barney" made a very amusing Irish-American, and danced jigs with great gusto; while his wife's songs as the skittish Yankee gal soon found their way into the streets. The art of the Williamses was not of the highest, but it was devoid of any suspicion of coarseness or vulgarity. Hence their long-extended popularity in England.

At the Haymarket, on October 11, 1858, Mrs. Charles Matthews, who had been previously recognised on the American stage as Mrs. "Dolly" Davenport, made her English début as Lady Gay Spanker. In association with her talented husband, this useful actress was afterwards prominently identified with the fortunes of the Haymarket until 1861, appearing from time to time in many important new pieces.

During 1859 Mr. J. B. Roberts appeared at Drury Lane as King Lear, and another American actor, Mr. Joseph Procter, performed at the Surrey with some success. When Boucicault's indifferent comedy of "The Irish Heiress" was produced at the Lyceum about the middle of October, 1860, the leading part devolved upon a sprightly and good-looking American débutante, Miss Gougenheim. The objection sustained against Barney Williams, that a certain Western intonation marred his assumption of the brogue, and rendered doubtful the exact nationality of the character being portrayed, held good in the case of this lady. Equally out of place was this accent subsequently in "The Love Chase," in which Miss Gougenheim showed spirit, but no artistic brilliance to speak of. In the same year, and at the same theatre, Mr. Harry Watkins, another American, made his appearance in the first production of Tom Taylor's "The Brigand and his Banker."

After eleven years' stage experience, which had made of him a ripe and finished tragedian, Edwin Booth visited England for the first time in 1860, and gave performances in Manchester, Liverpool, and London. Between this and his next visit there was an interim of twenty years. Meanwhile the whirligig of time had brought about strange changes, placing Henry Irving, who had played minor parts in support of Booth in 1860, on the very pinnacle of histrionic fame. Attempts were made in certain theatrical quarters to promote an undignified rivalry between the two great artists, but, happily, the day had long gone by for the renewal of those childish bickerings which ended so disastrously in the case of Forrest and Macready. Surrounded by a somewhat inadequate company, Booth inaugurated his engagement at the New Princess's Theatre in November, 1880, by appearing as Hamlet, and soon won critical admiration by his impersonation of Richelieu, Bertuccio, and King Lear. Henry Irving's generosity at this juncture can never be forgotten. Learning that his great American confrère desired to secure the Lyceum for a few matinées, Irving at once proposed they should act Othello and Iago alternately, stayed the course of a prosperous production, and spent a thousand pounds in mounting the tragedy to give his rival a fair