Their Majesties' Servants. (Volume 3); Annals of the English Stage, from Thomas Betterton to Edmund Kean

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1888 edition. Excerpt: ...natural expression of feeling, which were so peculiarly his own, identified him with the character. In Kitely, his remembrance of Garrick confessedly served him well. In Sir Giles, he excelled Kemble; but the Stranger was speedily given up by Cooke, and it remained one of his rival's glories to the last. Cooke's general success, the position he had attained, and the prospect before him, steadied his mind, strengthened his good purposes, made him master of himself under a healthy stimulus, careful of his reputation, and strict in performing his duties. I record this, as his previous biographers have registered the character. Consequently, on the night he was announced to appear, to open his second season of anticipated triumph--September 14th, 1801--as Richard, a crowded audience had collected about the doors, to welcome him, as early as four o'clock. At that hour no one could tell where he was, and a bill VOL. III. p was issued, stating that it was apprehended some accident had happened to Mr. Cooke; and the play was changed to Lovers' Vows. In five weeks the truant turned up, played magnificently, and was forgiven. During his truant time, young Henry Siddons made his first appearance at Covent Garden. He played Herman in a dull new comedy, Integrity, and Hamlet; but the Charter-house student would have done better if he had accepted the vocation to which his mother would have called him--the Church. Henry Siddons acted Alonzo to Cooke's Zanga, Hotspur to Cooke's FalstafF, and Ford to the other's Sir John, in the Merry Wives. Cooke's criticism on his own performance was, that having acted all the Falstaffs, he had never been able to please himself, or to come up to his own ideas in any of them....