William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. II. 1785-1788
Thomas Abthorpe Cooper to William Godwin, 11 August 1792
“Newcastle, Aug. 11, 1792.
“I did leave such directions at Edinburgh as answered
the purpose of bringing your letter immediately to hand, which I think it was
most probable I should do, as I had begged you to write by return of post. I
think your observation relative to my being too loud in rehearsal was the true
cause of Mr Kemble’s rejection of
my Douglas: but as you say, that belief is
of little consequence (except, indeed, that it will be a warning to my future
conduct), since I have had no second hearing, and I am afraid shall not have,
for Mrs Siddons, on account of her
health, is unwilling to play any characters that require her greatest exertion.
She has already played Jane Shore,
Desdemona, to-night Mrs Beverley, for the last time but two, one of
the two is to be Zara, of the other I am
ignorant: so that you perceive there is very little chance for me. I have
learned since that it is to be Lady
Macbeth.
“I am, as you say, at a loss for a subject, the
strangeness of ![]()
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which will vanish when you consider that I
am deprived of the characters in which I expected to shine: that I am obliged
to sit down with a black gown over my shoulders as a dumb senator (which I have
done twice in the plays of Shylock and Othello!!) and hear Mr
Kemble hold forth with the most impetuous rant, with sudden,
ill-timed, unmeaning risings and fallings of voice, to astonish the vulgar, and
confound the wise by not articulating a single syllable; and to hear Mr Woods repeat his words in one dull, heavy,
monotonous sound. This circumstance is so remarkable in
Woods, that having repeated a part of Lord Hastings’ speech with tolerable
propriety, and having made a pause introducing a totally different feeling and
passion, and by his pause, and the length of it, rousing every individual to
the highest pitch of eagerness and expectation, he begins to speak, and on the
instant destroys all pleasure by the repetition of the very same sound. I
uttered, at the very first syllable, an involuntary groan (this was at the
first time of my seeing him), and a dirty scene-shifter, cursing him, expressed
his dissatisfaction in a very characteristically awkward manner.
Woods speaks with a remarkably graceful action and
easy deportment. Then to perceive a number of dull fools who scarcely even
pretend to know their right hands from their left, fill up the other
characters, without my being considered worthy to utter a syllable; your
astonishment, I say, must vanish when you consider these things, for it is
natural that a mind reflecting on them should withdraw itself to talk of the
height of steeples, the length of streets, the nature of the soil, &c.,
&c.
“Mr Woods was to
have played Glenalvon, but was obliged to
undertake Douglas, which he had never
played before; in consequence of which a Mr
Sparkes took his Glenalvon.
My reception was such as I could wish: the actors are all very civil, and the
higher are not distant and proud. Mr Bell, and others of
some consequence, give me advice, in general insignificant enough, but
tolerably good of its kind. You need be under no apprehension concerning money,
for I get a guinea every Monday.”
Stephen George Kemble (1758-1822)
English actor and theater manager; he was the brother of John Philip Kemble and Sarah
Siddons.
Sarah Siddons [née Kemble] (1755-1831)
English tragic actress, sister of John Philip Kemble, famous roles as Desdemona, Lady
Macbeth, and Ophelia. She retired from the stage in 1812.
G. Hugh Sparks (1752-1816)
Scottish actor who performed in Edinburgh to 1797 and afterwards at Drury Lane.
William Woods (1749-1802)
Born in England, he was for three decades a leading actor on the Edinburgh stage.
