ART IN ACTING COMEDY.

The acting of broad Farce and the acting of Tragedy appear to have been, at all times, more readily and intelligently appreciated by the general public than the acting of Comedy. The expedients of Farce are obvious. Tragedy, appealing to serious sensibility, arouses excessive, sometimes passionate, sympathy, and when such sympathy is predominant intellectual perception is often blinded. The tremendous passion of Othello or of King Lear so enthralls the popular mind that the manner of its expression (assuming that it be even approximately adequate) is not closely scrutinized,—generally is not considered at all. The Tragedy, therefore, helps the Tragedian, even though he be not possessed of superlative power. The Comedian has no such advantage. He is subjected to cool observation. He must illumine the Comedy. He must excite and charm the fancy, dazzle the mind, and satisfy the perception of character and the sense of humor. "Comedy," said Garrick, "is serious business." No actor

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wins authentic renown in that branch of art,-as Wallack did,-without having richly deserved it. The quality that Lester infused into his acting of Comedy was that delicate, evanescent charm, not readily definable, which may be called romantic, which sometimes,—as in the fragrance of a flower, or the murmur of summer waves upon the beach, or the glint of autumn sunshine on the fading woods,-awakens tremulous sensibility, touches the heart, and, whether gladly or sadly, agitates the mind. His invariable grace, rippling humor, undertone of sentiment, precision of artistic method, exquisite facility of felicitous inflection, intrinsic refinement, and clear, crisp, glittering style of action combined to cause an entirely satisfying effect of absolute completeness in every one of the important fabrics of histrionic art that he displayed. In the realm of light comedy, dealing with things fanciful, romantic, ephemeral, vivacious, halftangible, and half-elusive, things that might, perhaps, be symbolized by a butterfly's wing or the sweet odor of a spring breeze, he was consummate and sovereign. Upon the value of

those things to the world, or upon the value of the art of the actor who deals with them, opinions will always widely differ, and judgment cautiously hesitates to obtrude a decision. The view of the multitude can be surmised: "Ephraim is wedded to his idols"; solemn persons, furthermore, who consider it essential that they should take always a profoundly serious view of human life, assuring themselves of their . firm anchorage on "the Eternal Verities," and concentrating their attention on the Day of Judgment, cannot be expected to care whether Claude Melnotte or Don Cæsar, Alfred Evelyn or Robert Macaire, either are, or ever were, or ever will be, well acted; and often, when writing about actors, I cannot help thinking how utterly insignificant they and all their doings are, and must be, inevitably, to thousands of the human race, largely to the philosopher, certainly to the sciolist. Nevertheless, musing on Lester Wallack and writing the names of the creatures of fiction whom he caused to live and who remain living in memory because he personified them,-Charles Surface, Flutter, Mar

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plot, Young Wilding, Frederick Bramble, Bob Handy, Harry Jasper, Ruy Gomez, Aranza, Captain Bland, Woodcock, Rover, Young Rapid, Wyndham Otis, Adonis Evergreen, and many more, the ghosts of happy hours come thronging from the haunted tomb of the Past, and once more there is golden light around me, and the air is redolent of blooming roses and filled with music and gentle laughter, and again, for one delicious moment, I see the faces and hear the voices of friends whom I knew and loved.

AS I REMEMBER.

Neither adversity of fortune nor encroaching age saddened Wallack's interesting personality or marred his fine manner. To the last of suffering and decline he retained the pictorial aspect, delicate distinction, courtly grace, whimsical humor, vivacity, and kindliness which were his intrinsic attributes. He was not a representative practical American of his day. Brilliant as an actor, judicious as a manager, and active and popular as a leader in New

York society, he nevertheless always seemed to be one of the gay, gallant Englishmen of the Regency, in which period he was born and reared. His birth in America was adventitious, his parents, foreigners, being here as travellers. His childhood and youth were passed in England and in Ireland, and it was not till his twenty-eighth year that he settled in this country. To me he always seemed a cavalier of the Old World, a gentleman of the old school. There was much in his acting of certain Old Comedy characters, such as Valentine, in "Love for Love," and Doricourt, in "The Belle's Stratagem," that deepened this impression. As an actor he incarnated buoyancy and elegance, and was the complete exemplification of all that can be accomplished in histrionic art by sensibility and sprightliness of temperament and elasticity and dash of manner. With the vivacious spirit of such parts as I have mentioned, with the diversified essence, also, of such parts as Mercutio, D'Artagnan, Sir Robert Bramble, and Philip Morton,-volatile, buoyant, expeditionary, passionate, romantic, touch