Kean, or some expression of an author two hundred years old, violated
the decorum of fashionable indifference." These were good reasons for
his objection to the boxes. But he preferred the pit, in truth,
because he could there see and hear so very much better. "We saw Mr.
Kean's Sir Giles Overreach on Friday night from the boxes," he writes
in 1816, "and are not surprised at the incredulity as to this great
actor's powers entertained by those persons who have only seen him
from that elevated sphere. We do not hesitate to say that those who
have only seen him at that distance have not seen him at all. The
expression of his face is quite lost, and only the harsh and grating
tones of his voice produce their full effect on the ear. The same
recurring sounds, by dint of repetition, fasten on the attention,
while the varieties and finer modulations are lost in their passage
over the pit. All you discover is an abstraction of his defects, both
of person, voice, and manner. He appears to be a little man in a great
passion," &c.
But the pit was not famous merely as the resort of critics.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177