12 THE OLD ACTORS. 



the same corps, proportioned to the difference of their ranks.* The 

 last time I saw the Moor of Venice performed in this costume, was 

 when Stephen Kemble was started at Covent-garden in the character 

 of Othello, under the following circumstances. The reputation of 

 John Kemble had been for some time on the increase, particularly in 

 Dublin, where he was said to have displayed astonishing powers, 

 especially in the Count of Narbonne, in Jephson's tragedy of that 

 name. The proprietors of Drury-lane theatre filled the newspapers 

 with reports that they had secured this eminent new actor, by a 

 lucrative and honourable engagement, to fill the first rank of cha- 

 racters at their house, and the day was said to be fixed for his debut. 

 Previously, however, to the arrival of that day, counter-announce- 

 ments, superior in number, whatever they might be in value, 

 appeared, stating that the Drury-lane people had said what was not 

 true, for that the proprietors of Covent-garden, had engaged the 

 really great Kemble, whose first appearance, in the character of 

 Othello, was to be in their theatre a few nights before the other 

 Kemble came out at Drury-lane. By going early, and sustaining as 

 severe a struggle as I had ever before been engaged in to see Garrick, 

 or afterwards to see Mrs. Siddons, when she excited the greatest 

 curiosity, I got an excellent seat in the pit, close to the orchestra. It 

 was impossible the house could be fuller : as many were turned 

 away from the doors as would have filled it twice over. Stephen had 

 dressed himself for Othello, in the scarlet invariably allotted to the 

 character at that time j his only deviation from preceding practice, was 

 that instead of the white bob-major of Quin, he wore a wig as black as 

 the cork had made his face. His voice was the loudest I ever heard 

 from any human being ; there seemed to be no limit to its compass, 

 and it filled that large theatre to its utmost verge ; he seemed to 

 think the great merit of acting was to speak every word distinctly. 

 Henderson, who had deviated from the usual costume of lago, by 

 dressing in a blue frock coat, with scarlet facings, was eminently 

 annoyed at the vocal energy of the debutant. On the following 

 morning, the newspapers praised the new and great Kemble to the 

 skies ; there was a good, but not an overflowing house, the second 

 night ; the third was a failure, and Stephen the great was heard 

 of no more, till upwards of twenty years after, when he became re- 

 markable for playing Falstaff with out stuffing. On the following even- 



* Macklin ; who in his century played many parts, was, when they happened 

 to be in the same theatre, lago to Quin's Othello ; but the resemblance between 

 them was too complete to make their agreement cordial. Quin, whose ex- 

 cellence lay in keen, biting sarcasm, upon some occa ion is recorded to have 

 said, " Mr. Macklin, by the lines I beg your pardon, I should say by the 

 cordage in your face if Nature writes a legible hand, you must be a con- 

 summate villain." To this Macklin, who Knew the inferiority of his own 

 powers, in what was the great excellence of his opponent, made up by the 

 pungency of his fist for the acerbity of his opponent's tongue, and knocked 

 Othello down. The hero started like Anteus upon his legs, and they had a 

 regular set to, la mode de Broughton, (the fistic hero of that time,) in which 

 Charley would have been victorious, if Manager Hich had not separated and 

 fixed them in different pieces, where each could have every thing his own 

 way. 



