File:Life and art of Joseph Jefferson, together with some account of his ancestry and of the Jefferson family of actors (1894) (14777612461).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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ith the warmth of a genuine admirer. She said: Early in life Mrs. Siddons was anxious to succeed in comedy, andplayed Rosalind before I retired. In speaking of the moderndeclamation and the too elaborate emphasis given to insignificantwords, she said, That was brought in by them (the Kembles).She spoke with admiration of the Covent Garden horses, andI have no doubt that her praise was meant to have the effect ofsatire. Of all the present (1811) actors Murray most resembles Garrick.She spoke of Barry with great warmth. He was a nightingale.Such a voice was never heard. He confined himself to charactersof great tenderness and sweetness, such as Romeo. She admittedthe infinite superiority of Garrick, in genius. His excellence lay inthe bursts and quick transitions of passion, and in the variety anduniversality of his genius. Mrs. Abington would not have led meto suppose she had been on the stage, by either her manner or thesubstance of her conversation. She speaks with the ease of a per-
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MRS. ABINGTON. LIFE OF JEFFERSON 29 son used to good society, rather than with the assurance of onewhose business it was to imitate that ease.1 The Covent Garden horses, mentioned by Mrs. Abing-ton, were a number of steeds exhibited at that theatre,in 1811, in processions, in Blue Beard and TheForty Thieves. Sheridan referred to them in thiscouplet: — How arts improve in this degenerate age !Peers mount the box, and horses tread the stage ! Thomas Jeffersons life seems to have been simple,industrious, and kindly. Although he was well known,he never filled a place of great prominence in the publiceye or in the records of his time. The man was, obvi-ously, more than the actor. To us, as his figure glim-mers forth in the dim retrospect of the vanishing past,he is far less remarkable for what he achieved than forthe associations that cluster around his name, and forwhat we are enabled to perceive of those charming-characteristics which have survived in his living de-scendants. It was a

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