Mr. G. H. Lewes, a young author of mark, known
in a wide range of literature from philosophy to fiction, has made his appearance on the stage at Manchester, in the part of Shybck. A local contemporary reports a successful debitt.
" The style of acting which Mr. Lewes adopts is free from all mannerism, and reminds us of no actor we have ever seen. His purpose is to give an idea of perfect reality—to make the character lifelike in the highest degree, enlarged so far as to produce on the audience the natural propor- tion, without their being conscious of any exaggeration. * • • Shy
lock, as Mr. Lewes embodied him, is a man hardened all over with habits of business and money-making, which have absorbed his soul, not so much for the sordid love of gain as from its being the only mode in which he can work out his hatred to the gain, with safety to himself. Every dolt and penny wrung from the prodigal Christian LS so much realized revenge." [Upon the whole, we gather that the performance was self-possessed, perhaps even constrained; that it "eschewed all meretricious appeals to effect" and conventional tricks; was forcible in conception, rather than in its impression on the audience ; was animated and artistlike.]
Previous page
