SHERIDAN KNOWLES has been playing Macbeth at the Victoria this
week. It was a vigorous and intellectual rehearsal, rather than a complete piece of acting. We are afraid he is not qualified to reach a very high elevation in this class of SHAKSPEARE'S cha- racters. He embodies his own creations finely as well as naturally ; for it requires much less effort to throw himself into characters that he has already sympathized with so strongly as to enable him to fill up the noble outline of their deeds with the feeling, thought, and eloquence fitting to them. Besides, the simple characters that KNOWLES has presented to us are much more easily rendered into the pantomime of acting, than such imaginative creations as Macbeth. Diesels little ideality in KNOWLES'S personations even of his own heroes. He gives us the genuine reality : the honest, sturdy, straightforward, generous, warm-hearted, and noble- Minded man stands before you, and acts his part on the stage as his prototype did, or ought to have done, in the world.
Previous page
