| Show IS DAYS GONE BY r J Reminiscences of Macready the Great Tragedian HIS PECULIAR PERSONALITY Professional Jealousy Between Him and For rest Which Lead to the Famous Astor Place mot On the evening of March 3 a little party sf old actors with two or three young members of the profession gathered at a chop house in New York noted for its good cook and its sturdy liquors Some member of the gathering with a better memory than the others announced that it was the ninetyeighth anniversary of the birth of Charles William Macready the famous q WILLIAM MACREADY From a painting by William Inman in the possession of Joseph Jefferson English tragedian who died April 271673 and by unanimous consent the somewhat aimless gathering was turned into an informal in-formal memorial meeting in the dead actors act-ors honor Said an old man with smooth face and jolly eyes Macready was a man of strange disposition disposi-tion He forever seemed unhappy with an often petulant and unenviable temper and yet with all his l faults he was possessed pos-sessed of a good heart and honesty of purpose pur-pose His unpleasant peculiarities wers evidenced h evi-denced more perhaps in his exactions at rehearsals than anything else and during his visit to this country the actors with whom he came in contact almost invariably invari-ably disliked him and made it a point to I annoy him At one time while rehearsing his great character of Richelieu in Boston he attempted at-tempted unsuccessfully to correct the reading read-ing of certain lines in the early part of the play by the actor cast for the king But when the time came for rehearsing the last scene Macready wa > most particular in his direction telling the actor especially to keep a certain document which he was to handto Macready unfolded in such a position j posi-tion that it would not obscure the audiences au-diences view and not in any circumstances to touch Richelieu But when the scene came on the actor instead of doing as directed di-rected rushed at the great actor and held before him the large parchment thereby concealing from tho audience the tragedians trage-dians face and the whole of the upper part of his body Macready literally groaned After much pawing Richelieu was enabled en-abled to grasp the document when the rebellious re-bellious actor not satisfied with the mischief mis-chief he had wrought seized the unfortunate unfortu-nate Richelieu by the arm and commenced pumping it up and down and shaking him I with great violence Let me go groaned I Macready Let go my arm sir and by a succession of jerks he finally released lymself amid great laughter from the audience It is needless to say that the actor was never permitted to act with Ma cready again This anecdote recalled another incident which occurred during a rehearsal of the same piece at the Astor Place Opera house in New York An actor of the name of Keller who was cast for the part of Hnguet appeared at rehearsal with a large bowie knife stuck in his waistband and when he came on the stage to go through his scene with Macready without saying a word he pulled it out and keeping his eyes fixed fiercely on the tragedian picked his teeth with it At this Macready became very nervous and asked Mr Ryder who accompanied him to find out from the manager why the young gentleman carried so dangerous a weapon Keller on being asked said To cut in pieces any Englishman who dares to affront me Macready on being told this nervously replied I shall be careful not to affront the young gentleman This same actor having been cast for the king in Hamlet was directed when Hamlet killed him in the last scene tofull well up the stage Hamlet reserving the front of the stage for his own death throes When night came and the action took place Keller instead of doing as he was directed di-rected fell and expired in the exact spot Macready had reserved for his own death scene and the Prince of Denmark was compelled com-pelled to die on the side of the stage As the curtain fell the enraged tragedian rose to his feet and roundly rated the derelict THE ASTOR PLACE mOT Drawn from an old print actor who drawing himself up to his full height exclaimed with mock dignity Sir I am the king and Ill die where I please and strode from the stage with majestic strides Such little occurrences were mild though to some of the humiliations to which Macreadywas subjected said another an-other One day just as ho had entered the stage door of a theater at which he was to rehearse he was seined from behind by the collar and the seat of his breeches and forced much against his will down behind be-hind the scenes to the first entrances In ain he struggled to free himself in vain he demanded his release until on reaching reach-ing the glare of the prompters light jerking jerk-ing himself loose he confronted his assailant assail-ant and demanded to know what the other meant by such liberties The assailant assail-ant w lh great solemnity and mock contrition con-trition exclaimed Great heavens Mr Macready 1 beg a thousand pardons I thought it was a friend of mine A friend of yours sir If thats the way you treat your friends I do not wish to be one After various other anecdotes had been told an old actor raised a curious charm which hung from his watchchahu It was a misshapen leaden bullet That said he is a memento of the bloodiest blot which ever appeared on the pages of an actors career It is one of the bullets fired by the military on the night of May 10 1849 in quelling the famous Astor Place l Opera house riot r This riot grew out of a personal quarrel f between the great American actor Edwin Forrest and Macready the Englishman Professional jealousy was its first cause Friends and sympathizers took it up until the unlawful classes in New York saw hi it an opportunity for creating a disturbance disturb-ance On the night in question a mob of r ruffians stopped Macreadys oerformanca d Q of of Macbeth almost wrecked tne opera house and fairly forced the soldiers de I tailed to keep the peace tofire upon them I I Twentythree people were killed or fatally I woun3ed and more than a hundred were J less seriously hurt And itall came from I a quarrel between two actors ROBERT JOIISSTON I |
