GHL to Theodore Martin, London, [25 April 1876]
Title
GHL to Theodore Martin, London, [25 April 1876]
Title
GHL to Theodore Martin, London, [25 April 1876]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Theodore Martin
Date(s)
- 1876-04-25
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Theodore Martin, London, [25 April 1876]
MS: University of California Los Angeles.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Tuesday.
My dear Martin
Thanks for your pleasant letter and enclosure. Your critical friend, however, seems to me not yet to have mastered the a, b, c of the art. I was at Queen Mary the first night 331 and at Hamlet yesterday afternoon. Queen Mary was deplorably acted throughout (of which said "critic" seems to have no Ahnung) but although nothing could make it a fine drama, if Mary had been played by a certain actress 332 known to us, and prized wherever known, the effect would have been quite other! -- As to Rossi 333 it is difficult to say how bad I thought him; but my objections did not like the critic's fall on his costume and his business so unlike that of English Hamlets -- nor indeed on his conception that Hamlet was mad -- but on the absolute want of expression -- facial, vocal, gestural (sit venia verbo!) and emotional. Let him have what conception of the part he pleases, he has no glimmering of expressing human emotion -- all the sarcasms were sermons or snivels -- all the princely dignity and unbending graciousness were absent -- all the reverie was like that of a drunken man. The man has a bull throat, deep chest, and the animal figure which goes therewith; but brains were forgotten in the making of him. Salvini's Hamlet was not what one desired, 334 but it was stupendous compared with Rossi's. It had very fine moments. Rossi was absurd or ineffective throughout. Yet all your critical friend objects to is a certain extravagance and eccentricity of bearing and reading.
Just as he says not a word on the horrible declamation of Miss Bateman, her sister, and Ellen -- but thinks their acting good enough for the play.
But lunch is served so I must close, with our love to Mrs. Martin.
Ever yours truly
G. H. L.
MS: University of California Los Angeles.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Tuesday.
My dear Martin
Thanks for your pleasant letter and enclosure. Your critical friend, however, seems to me not yet to have mastered the a, b, c of the art. I was at Queen Mary the first night 331 and at Hamlet yesterday afternoon. Queen Mary was deplorably acted throughout (of which said "critic" seems to have no Ahnung) but although nothing could make it a fine drama, if Mary had been played by a certain actress 332 known to us, and prized wherever known, the effect would have been quite other! -- As to Rossi 333 it is difficult to say how bad I thought him; but my objections did not like the critic's fall on his costume and his business so unlike that of English Hamlets -- nor indeed on his conception that Hamlet was mad -- but on the absolute want of expression -- facial, vocal, gestural (sit venia verbo!) and emotional. Let him have what conception of the part he pleases, he has no glimmering of expressing human emotion -- all the sarcasms were sermons or snivels -- all the princely dignity and unbending graciousness were absent -- all the reverie was like that of a drunken man. The man has a bull throat, deep chest, and the animal figure which goes therewith; but brains were forgotten in the making of him. Salvini's Hamlet was not what one desired, 334 but it was stupendous compared with Rossi's. It had very fine moments. Rossi was absurd or ineffective throughout. Yet all your critical friend objects to is a certain extravagance and eccentricity of bearing and reading.
Just as he says not a word on the horrible declamation of Miss Bateman, her sister, and Ellen -- but thinks their acting good enough for the play.
But lunch is served so I must close, with our love to Mrs. Martin.
Ever yours truly
G. H. L.
Signature
G. H. L.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Theodore Martin, London, [25 April 1876], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95030