"Miss Cushman", Glasgow Herald, May 11, 1846
Dublin Core
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MISS CUSHMAN.
It will be observed that this accomplished actress is, along with a younger sister, about to enter on limited engagement at Mr. Miller's Adelphi Theatre on the Green, where the lovers of the drama will have an opportunity of witnessing her performance of the character of Romeo, which has excited so much attention elsewhere. It is no mean addition to the reputation achieved by that lady's embodiment of this part, that it has elicited from the pen of the foremost of our living dramatists the following glowing and characteristic eulogium. Mr. Sheridan Knowles, in a letter to a friend in town, thus remarks:–-
"I witnessed, on Wednesday night, With astonishment, the Romeo of Miss Cushman! Unanimous and lavish as were the encomiums of the London press, I was not prepared for such a triumph of pure genius. You recollect, perhaps, Kean's third act of Othello? Did you ever expect to see anything like it again? I never did; and yet I saw as great a thing last Wednesday night in Romeo's scene with the Friar, after the sentence of banishment – quite as great! am almost tempted to go further. It was a scene of topmost passion! – not simulated passion—no such thing—real, palpably real! The genuine heart-storm was on—on, in wildest fitfulness of fury! – and I listened, and gazed, and held my breath, while my blood ran hot and cold. I am sure it must have been the case With every one in the house—but I was all-absorbed in Romeo, till a thunder of applause recalled me to myself. I particularise this scene, because it is the most powerful; but every scene exhibited the same truthfulness. The first scene with Juliet, for instance—'twas exquisitely faithful. The eye— the tone—the general bearing—every thing attesting the lover, emit to the core, at first sight, and shrinkingly and falteringly endeavouring, with the aid of palm, and eye and tongue, to break his passion to its idol! My heart and mind are so full of this extraordinary —most extraordinary performance—that I declare I know not where to stop, or how to go on! Throughout, it was a triumph, equal to the proudest of those which I used to witness years ago, and for a repetition of which I have looked in vain till now. There is no trick Miss Cushman's performance. No thought, no interest, no feeling, seems to actuate her, except what might be looked for in Romeo himself, were Romeo reality."
