File:Life and art of Joseph Jefferson, together with some account of his ancestry and of the Jefferson family of actors (1894) (14594143278).jpg

Identifier: lifeartofjosephj00win (find matches)
Title: Life and art of Joseph Jefferson, together with some account of his ancestry and of the Jefferson family of actors
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Winter, William, 1836-1917
Subjects: Jefferson, Joseph, 1829-1905 Jefferson family Actors
Publisher: New York, London, Macmillan and Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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xecution asthorough and as fresh as if the part were new, and as ifhe were playing it for the first time. The spontaneousdrollery; the wildwood freedom; the endearing gentle-ness ; the piquant, quizzical sapience; the unconscioushumour; the pathetic blending of forlorn, wistful patiencewith awe-stricken apprehension; the dazed, submissive,drifting surrender to the current of Fate ; and the appar-ently careless but clear-cut and beautiful method, — allthose attributes, that bewitched the community longago, remain unchanged, and have lost no particle oftheir charm. The details of those familiar attractions— the discomfiture of craft by simplicity, the expulsionfrom a desolated home, the flight into the night and thetempest, the aged wanderers return,, the recognitionbetween father and daughter — are matters of generalknowledge. Irradiated as they long have been by thegenius of Jefferson, they could not be forgotten. It isforty years since he played the part for the first time; 272
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RIF> VAN WINKLEFrom a photograph by Sarony, LIFE OF JEFFERSON 273 and although at the outset his performance was viewedwith indifference, it is now recognised throughout theworld as a great achievement. Most persons who haveseen Jefferson as Rip would probably name that achieve-ment as essentially the most natural piece of acting everpresented within their observation. In its effect it isnatural; in its method, in the process by which it iswrought, it is absolutely artificial. In that method— not forgetting the soul within that method — will befound the secret of its power; in the art with whichgenius transfigures and interprets actual life; and inthat, furthermore, dwells the secret of all good acting.If you would produce the effect of nature, in dramaticart, you must not be natural; you must be artificial, butyou must seem to be natural. The same step, the samegesture, the same tone of voice, the same force of facialexpression that you involuntarily use in the proceedingsof a

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