CHAPTER XV Fanny Kemble, in her delightful "Recollections of a Girlhood," says, in speaking of her aunt, the famous Mrs. Siddons, "The last years of her life made a profound impression upon me. Her apparent deafness and indifference to everything I attributed less to her advanced age and impaired powers, than to what I supposed to be the withering and dying influence of the overstimulating atmosphere of emotion, excitement, and admiration in which she had passed her life.” Certainly one of the evils attending the abnormal rush of the theatre is, to the young, a restlessness accompanied by vague longings which, as soon as satisfied, gives way to new dissatisfaction; and, to the old, that pathetic listlessness described so well by Fanny Kemble, who, having spent her life in a theatrical family of great fame, realised its full meaning. There is a belief among certain classes that the stage and immorality are synonymous. This is so palpably blind prejudice that it needs no refutation. My observation has taught me that the greatest dangers of the theatre are a strong tendency to vanity, a certain carelessness about the great realities of life (which are principally noticed and used for gaining dramatic effects), and the feverish lack of repose that made the old age of Siddons so pitiable. It is not good for an instrument to be strung too high; and it seems to me that the actor (an instrument of many strings) is constantly tuned up to concert pitch. During my last years before the public, I felt and dreaded the undermining effects of such restlessness, and, after the season in America, I resolved to take a full year's repose. To do this, offers from Spain, Germany, France, and Australia were refused. We went to a quiet part of Paris for the winter, taking an apartment near the Bois. But, instead of using my time for recreation, I devoted it to the study of French, music, and to general reading. As I had almost entirely educated myself, I wished to profit by such an opportunity for further improvement. Our days always began with Mass at Notre Dame des Victoires. What a lesson of beautiful and enduring faith that church teaches! One |