omes a living
reality; while on the other hand she suffused with a sinister horror her
stealthy, gliding, uncanny personation of the dumb, half-insane Hester
Dethridge. That was the first great success that Mrs. Gilbert gained,
under Augustin Daly's management. She has been associated with Daly's
company since his opening night as a manager, August 16, 1869, when, at
the Fifth Avenue theatre, then in Twenty-fourth Street, she took part in
Robertson's comedy of _Play_. The first time I ever saw her she was
acting the Marquise de St. Maur, in _Caste_, on the night of its first
production in America, August 5, 1867, at the Broadway theatre, the
house near the southwest corner of Broadway and Broome Street, that had
been Wallack's but now was managed by Barney Williams. The assumption of
that character, perfect in every particular, was instinct with pure
aristocracy; but while brilliant with serious ability it gave not the
least hint of those rich resources of humour that since have diffused so
much innocent pleasure. Most of her successes have been gained as the
formidable lady who typifies in comedy the domestic proprieties and the
Nemesis of respectability. It was her refined and severely correct
demeanour that gave soul and wings to the wild fun of _A Night Off_.
From Miss Garth to Mrs. Laburnum is a far stretch of imitative talent
for the interpretation of the woman nature that everybody, from
Shakespeare down, has found it so difficult to treat. This actress has
never failed to impress the spectator by her clear-cut, brilliant
identification with every type of character that she has assumed; and,
back of this, she has denoted a kind heart and a sweet and gentle yet
never insipid temperament--the condition of goodness, sympathy,
graciousness, and cheer that is the flower of a fine nature and a good
life. Scenes in which Mrs. Gilbert and Charles Fisher or James Lewis
have participated, as old married people, on Daly's stage, will long be
remembered for their intrinsic beauty--suggestive of the touching lines:

"And when with envy Time, transported,
Shall think to rob us of our joys,
You'll in your girls again be courted,
And I'll go wooing with my boys."

XXVII.

JAMES LEWIS.

A prominent representative type of character is "the humorous man," and
that is Shakespeare's phrase to describe him. Wit is a faculty; humour
an attribute. Joseph Addison, Laurence Sterne, Washington
Irving--what