in the art of making points, and, what is more,
knows how to bide her opportunity. The wise discretion which imposes
restraint upon the performer was somewhat too rigidly observed in the
earlier scenes on Saturday night, the consequence being that in one of the
most impressive passages of the not very inspired dialogue, the little
distance between the sublime and the ridiculous was bridged by a voice
from the gallery, which, adopting a tone, ejaculated 'A little louder,
Mary.' A less experienced artist might well have been taken aback by this
sudden infraction of dramatic proprieties. Miss Anderson, however, did not
loose her nerve, but simply took the hint in good part and acted upon it.
There is very little reason to dwell at any length upon the piece. Miss
Anderson will, doubtless, take a speedy opportunity of appearing in some
other work in which her capacity as an actress can be better gauged than
in Maria Lovell's bit of tawdry sentiment. A real power of delineating
passion was exhibited in the scene where Parthenia repulses the advances
of her too venturesome admirer, and in this direction, to our minds, the
best efforts of the lady tend. All we can do at present is to chronicle
Miss Anderson's complete success, the recalls being so numerous as to defy
particularization."

_The Times_, 3d September, 1883.

"Miss Mary Anderson, although but three or four and twenty, has for
several years past occupied a leading position in the United States, and
ranks as the highest of the American 'stars,' whose effulgence Mr. Abbey
relies upon to attract the public at the Lyceum in Mr. Irving's absence.
Recommendations of this high order were more than sufficient to insure
Miss Anderson a cordial reception. They were such as to dispose a
sympathetic audience to make the most ample allowance for nervousness on
the part of the _debutante_, and to distrust all impressions they might
have of an unfavorable kind, or at least to grant the possession of a more
complete knowledge of the lady's attainments to those who had trumpeted
her praise so loudly. That such should have been the mood of the house,
was a circumstance not without its influence on the events of the evening.
It was manifestly owing in some measure to the critical spirit being
subordinated for the time being to the hospitable, that Miss Anderson was
able to obtain all the outward and visible signs of a dramatic triumph in
a _role_ which intrinsically had little to com