DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6872, 9 March 1883, Page 3

DRAMATIC GOSSIP.

An American fcapsr hsi gathered a list of the bobbies of various leading actors and actresses, of which the following are a fowt—Joseph Jefferson’s hobby is painting and ho ha# considerable ability with the brush. Landscape it his forte, and he has done some good work among the scenery of Louisiana, where be spends most ot his vacations on his own plantation. Miss Laura Don is alto an artist with the brush, and a clever author besides. F. F. Maokay (the husband of Miss Louise Sylvester), and Charles Thorne are alto painters. In the literary line Lawrence Barrett heads the list since (he death of John Brougham. Barrett is a student, a devoted reader, and a writer of considerable power. His “ Life of Forrest” is his most ambitious work, but his papers on the stage possets more critical value. M’Oullooh bat a craze for collecting old theatrical wardrobes, and possesses an enormous collection, employing a man to keep them in good order. Edwin Booth has no particular weakness except his fondness for colouring meerschaums ; and Tom Keene is a furious collector of dramatic books. Mdme. Janueschek has a studious hobby, and goes in for classical study. She possesses the polyglot genius of the Hungarians and Russians, speaks most of the living languages, and has a mania for studying dead ones. Like a female Forson, she never travels without a Greek or Latin classic to keep her company. Next to dead languages, Mdme. Janueschek’a hobby is live diamonds. Harry Edwards is a great entomologist and a litterateur of ability ; and Charles Bishop’s taste runs to medicine and surgery. Both James Lewis and Mia Fanny Davenport have an absorbing passion for the collection of wigs. Mrs Kemble, in her recent book " Gilt and Talent,” makes a very fine distinction between the dramatic gift and the theatrical talent The dramatic gift, she says, is an instinctive I tendency to demonstrate emotion in voice, or look, OF gesture; or if not this, it is the power to understand the passionate, the emotional, or the humoUMPS element in life and. literature, while the theatrical ># merely (be faculty that imitates what is dramatic ao3 self-consciously reproduces it. She considers that the dramatic gift is essentially that of the Italians, while the theatrical talent is as essentially French in its nature. The combination of both is required to make the ideal actor. " There is,” Mrs Kemble continues, “ a specific comprehension of effect and of the means of producing it, which is in some persons a distinct capacity, and this forms what actors call thei study of their profession; and in this, which is the alloy necessary to make theatrical that which was only dramatic, lies the heart of the mystery, land the snare of their craft in more ways than one; and this, the actual bnsiness, goes sometimes absolutely against the dramatic temperament, which is, nevertheless, essential to it.” Ure Kemble’s keen and delicate insight, never missing one shade of spiritual values, renders her observation as applicable to social life as to that of the professional stage. ' It is the dramatic temperament that perceives life in its relations, its situations; that has its unity o! ideal toward which all these evanescent groupings tend. It may be an element of the revised ideal of living to grow out of the imitative, which Mrs Kemble defines as the theatrical talent, alone, into the wider grasp, the deeper sympathy of real relations with that which furnishes suggestion and inspiration to us. The London correspondent of a New York paper told the following story to Booth of the time when the American actor and Irving played together years ago: ” Irving tells me that he played with you at Manchester when you were in England on your first visit. The piece he remembers best was Richard 111. The manager of the theatre was Richmond, and he had given himself a splendid new set of armour, and had provided the best the theatre afforded for bis army. He was popular with the public in front, and did not mean to have hit position unduly interfered with by the star in Richard. Ha interpolated the prayer scene, the invocation to the god of battles, from Henry V, While Biohara’e army was clothsd in the most ordinary costumes, Richmond's wa# ablaze, partially in new armour, and in old armour cleaned up and polished. When the manager came on, the extraordinary display of magmfioentlj' appointed men was loudly applauded. Everything went as he could wish, till at last came the invocation to the god of battles. Down on his knees went bionmond; hie army tried to follow suit. The property man had not oiled or greased the joints of their armour. Upon going to kneel, they fell into all kinds of oomio attitudes, one or two fell upon their faces, all of them looked ridiculous. The stiff joints of the armour would not work. The audience screamed with laughter. A more absurd stage picture was never seen. The invocation over, the army attempted to rise. This w«a still more awk-ward-looking business than trying to kneel. The men on their faces could not gat up again. Those who did get up msde far more to-do about it than Bip Van Winkle after his long sleep, so admirably represented by Jefferson. Richmond went off, amidst shouts of laughter and chaff from the gallery. Apart from any question of ability, Richard had the best of that arrangement.” An amusing Incident occurred daring the first performance of Siberia at San Francisco. The scene is a settlement in Siberia; the convicts have just successfully revolted, and a large sleigh enters bearing a courier with despatches. A short dramatic dialogue ensues and the courier orders the driver to hasten on. But it was no go. No aperture had been made large enough to drive through, and the horse becoming frightened, refused to turn. Fulling and tugging were of no avail, and eventually the convicts who were in hiding had to step out and lift the sleigh bodily off the stage. It disappeared; and then the hero, the leader of the revolt, stopped forward and epoke the next lines, “ Freedom! It was the work of God!” The audience was convulsed with laughter. Chiarini’s Circus arrived in Bangkok, Siam, from Cochin China, Oct. 6, in a steamship' specially chartered for thst purpose. On the 16th and 17th performances were given before the King. The New York "Clipper ” hat received a letter, dated Singapore, Nov. 6, from the treasurer of the Company. The following extracts from it will be fonud interesting: —” Now, I wont to give you some of the news from China, Cochin China, Siam, India, and Singapore. We left this plane last March, playing during April in Manilla to big business. Tbsn we went to Hongkong. We had only tolerably fair houses, owing to stormy weather. Then to Shanghai, and played to good business. A great number of Chinese mandarine and their wives came in chain of most elaborate workmanship and fantastic figure. Some of (he wives had feet so sma.l that they were unable to walk, tod womenservants carried them to seats in the show. We sent our agents to Taohow, Amoy, Ningpoo. Swataw, and Canton. We could not obtain the sanction of the Ja-o-taie, or Governors, upon the ground* that they could not guarantee us safety from the mobs or disturbers of order. The people were already alarmed by the bills which billposter* had placed upon the walls. The fearful appearaooe of (he tigers on (he bills created gnat excitement among the people. Great crowds collected, and they were not easily dispersed by toe authorities. Orders were sent from FeMn to the Ministers and Consuls advising that the show should remain away three places. We thought ot suing for damages, but were informed that the treaty does not mention the exhibition of wild animate. We were farther told that if we insisted upon showing we might not look for protection, and that the masses would probably be arrayed against us. Bo w* concluded to leave John Chinaman alone. Then w* went to Saigon, la Cochin China, a French colony, and a nice place, with dean, shady streets, good hotels, and barber*’ shops. W* playel to very good businees. The people hod never before seen a circus, and their enthusiasm cannot be deecribed. From there w* went to Bangkok, the capital of Siam. The King § : of toeitew buflding, where a centennial exhibition woe held. Oar ’ this structure, *« (hat the King, with hie . household, eoald eome from Us palace by a i

postage-way made expressly for him. W® gave three private exhibition*, changing the programme each time. Four Siamese curled the Xing on a gilded dragon-shaped chair. Following him wae the Queen. Then came the inmates of his harem, one hundred or more pretty women. All of these women prostrated themselves before him, and were then assigned seats behind him. The Princes and Princesses sat on the opposite side of the ring. Many soldier* were also present. The King’s party were immensely pleased with the show. .... The Xing has fourteen very large elephants, and six or seven are small ones. He has two white elephants. The latter are kept separate from the others, and are tenderly caret for. They have beds to lie upon, and are attended by four or five keepers. All the boys were very anxious to see the white elephant#, but we were much surprised when we discovered that they were about the same colour as the black ones, the only difference being that these precious besets have striped blue eyes, and their skin it something like a chocolate colour. So yon can tell Mr Baroum that I believe he has more elephant* which might pats for white one* them the King of Siam possesses. Bow we are at Singapore. Our route from here it British Burmah and then Java.” MiacßiiAHßors Sobaps Jenny Lind now resides in London, and is by no means the aged lady that some report* describe. She is 60, but does not look 50, her eye# bright and happy, and her form well preserved. Her home is spacious and attractive. She retains warm memories of the stags, and hoe kindly welcomed and advised the young singers who have sought her out. —A new opera by Beisler, entitled £>tr Wilde Jdger, has been produced at Strasburg.—The guaranty fund for the Leeds Musical Festival, 1833, bow retches nearly #17,000. A new cantata by Frederick Clay, on the subject of Byron’s Sardaaapalut, is to be peforaed. The lyric and other numbers will be from the pen of W. 8. Will*. Dr Macfarren is writing an oratorio on the subject of King David, and Joseph Barnby, organist of Eton College, has nearly completed a setting of the 97th Psalm, “ The Lord is King.”—lt is a strange fact that the Alhambra was burnt on Dec 7, and that npon that day, in 1867, Her Majesty’s Theatre passed through the same fiery ordeal at the same hour.—Charles WyndhaM will leave AMoii ca March, a* the London authorities require Llm to alter the Oriteriod Theatre somewhat, owing to a complaint being made that, should a panic occur, it would he difficult for people to gel out.—ln Cinderella at the Pavilion, London, there ie a ballroom scene in which 1500 lights are used. General Tom Thumb is the smallest knight alive; ho is a Knight Templar, and ho wcare a regalia which 1 cost more than that of the Prince of Wales.—A suit of Millie Christine, the two-headed nightingale, against Adam Forepaugh, for libel, woe dismissed in the U. 8, Court, Fort Wane, led, owing to the absence of Joseph P. Smith, her manager, who was informed by his attorneys that the cose would net be called until Dec. 15, when it was in reality called for the 12th. Mr Smith arrived there from South Carolina promptly on time for the 15th, and has had the suit for £SOOO damages reinstated, and it will come up at the Jane term of the U. 8. Court.—Herr Wagner was at the time of his decease engaged npon the remainder of kis autobiography, four volumes of which have already been printed for private circulation. —Miss Kate Pattieon, who supports Mrs Langtry on the stage, is said to have a rich voice, smooth and faultless delivery, many gifts of nature, and a trained intelligence of high order.—Alfred Arthur, who stabbed his wife, Kellie, a variety performer, eleven times in Aberie’s Theatre, New York, on Oct. 2, was convicted of assault with intent to do bodily harm in the Court of General Sessions Dec. 11, and was sentenced by Judge Cowing to five years in State Prison.— At sixteen Mdme. Modjeska was married to her first husband, and after hie death, at twenty-four, to the Count Charles Bozsnta Chlapowski.—Mdlle. Dora Lebrun, the wellknown vocalist, attempted to poison herself in Hew York on Deo. 11, owing to a disappointment in a love affair.—Every known edition of Shakespeare, and nearly everything published, books or pictures, relating to the subject, among the rest an edition once owned by the comedian Burton, a reading-desk edition used by Fanny Kemble, and «nnth«r with Macready’s name on the title-page, is in the Shakesperian library of Colonel E. H. Thomson, which James M’MiUan, of Detroit, has bought to give to the University of Michigan.—Residences have been bought in Worcestershire, England, by Mdme. Albani and by Jenny Lind. Yictor Hugo has authorised Massenet to make )an opera oat of Noire Dame de Farit ! on the basis of Paul Maurice’* dramatic adaptation. Victor Hugo’s own libretto, written for Mdlle. Berlin’s Esmeralda, played at the Opera in 1836, is to be thrown overboard altogether and a new one written.— Master J. O. Trinder, known as 11 The Boy Shakespearian,” has been giving readings in London. He gave from memory. Samlet , Othello, The Lady of Lyons, ic.— Henry S. Abbey has secured a lease of the Metropolitan Opera home, now being erected on Broadway, New York. It is to be opened with an Italian Opera Con pony, headed probably by Nilsson and Campanini, Oct, 23 next. The seating capacity of the honse is intended to be: Orchestra stalls, 735; private boxes, in three tiers, each with a retiring room in its rear, 132 in number, accommodating six persons each, 732; balcony (above the boxes), 735; and the gallery, 973. Total, 3175.—A play, most extraordinary both in title and incident, has just been produced in San Francisco, and is certainly not likely to bring much credit to its author, Mr Leonard Grover. The title is Cad, the Tom Bog, the dialogue is coached in the slangiest slang of the day, and the central figure ie a female ” hoodlum.” One situation in the second act teste the tolerance of the audience to tike utmost.—A German composer was conducting one of his overtures. As the horns played too loud, he told them repeatedly to play more softly I and more softly they played each time. At the fourth repetition, with a knowing wink at each other, they put their instruments to their lip* but did not blow at all. The conductor nodded approvingly: ” Very good indeed! Now, one shade softer, and you’U have it"—Mary Anderson has sat for her photograph more times than any other woman alive, and it is more in demand than that of any other actress.—St. Louis he* a stage lily in Mrs Paramore, who is handsomer than Mr* Langtry, and is nearly as poor an actress. — The latest sensation in London is found in the teetotal lecture* of Wah-hun-ah-kee, a picturesque North American Indian, who, arrayed in his festive robes, with feathers in his hair, the skin dress over hit shoulders, and the hoof* of buffaloes for gaiters, mores big audiences in London to unwonted enthntiasm when he denounces the fire-water of the pale-faces.