America, toward the close of her career, she even ventured to
appear as Cardinal Wolsey, obtaining great applause by her exertions
in the character, and the skill and force of her impersonation. But
histrionic feats of this kind trespass against good taste, do violence
to the intentions of the dramatists, and are, in truth, departures
from the purpose of playing. Miss Cushman had for excuse--in the first
instance, at any rate--her anxiety to forward the professional
interests of her sister, who, in truth, had little qualification for
the stage, apart from her good looks and her graces of manner. The
sisters had played together in Philadelphia in "The Genoese"--a drama
written by a young American--when, to give support and encouragement
to Susan in her personation of the heroine, Charlotte undertook the
part of her lover. Their success prompted them to appear in "Romeo and
Juliet." Other plays, in which both could appear, were afterward
selected--such, for instance, as "Twelfth Night," in which Charlotte
played Viola to the Olivia of Susan--so that the engagement of one
might compel the engagement of the other. Susan, however, quitted the
stage in 1847, to become the wife of Dr. Sheridan Muspratt, of
Liverpool.

[Illustration: Charlotte Cushman as Mrs. Haller.]

Charlotte Cushman called few new plays into being. Dramas, entitled
"Infatuation," by James Kenny, in 1845, and "Duchess Elinour," by the
late H. F. Chorley, in 1854, were produced for her, but were summarily
condemned by the audience, being scarcely permitted indeed a second
performance in either case. Otherwise, she did not add to her
repertory. For many years she led the life of a "star," fulfilling
brief engagements here and there, appearing now for a term in London,
and now travelling through the provinces, playing some half a dozen
characters over and over again. Of these Lady Macbeth, Queen Katherine
and Meg Merrilies were perhaps the most frequently demanded. Her fame
and fortune she always dated from the immediate recognition she
obtained upon her first performance in London. But she made frequent
visits to America; indeed, she crossed the Atlantic "upward of sixteen
times," says her biographer. In 1854 she took a house in Bolton Row,
Mayfair, "where for some years she dispensed the most charming and
genial hospitality," and, notably, entertained Ristori on her first
visit to England in 1856. Several winters she passed in Rome,
occupying apartments in