Identifier: autobiographyofj00injeff (find matches)
Title: The autobiography of Joseph Jefferson
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Jefferson, Joseph, 1829-1905
Subjects: Jefferson, Joseph, 1829-1905 Actors
Publisher: New York : Century Co.
Contributing Library: Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection
Digitizing Sponsor: The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

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on, this faithful creature died inmy mothers arms. Who can say how high such apure and loving spirit soars when it is released andtakes its flight ? James Wallack, Sr., played an engagement inMobile, and one little circumstance occurred inconnection with it that I have always rememberedmost pleasantly. He was an actor at the head ofhis profession and in the height of his fame. Iwas only a boy holding a subordinate position inthe theater. He heard some one call me by nameat the rehearsal, and, turning around, asked me ifI was related to Joseph Jefferson of the ChestnutStreet Theater. I told him that I was a grandsonof that gentleman. He said, Let me shake youby the hand for the sake of my dear old friend.The remark was made with much feeling, and theremembrance of it has, I think, often prompted meto do the like for others. James Wallack, Sr., wasan actor of rare attainments; as a legitimate tra-gedian and comedian he ranked very high. Theparts that I remember him in are those o( Ales-
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^^^^^^p^^p^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ■-m ■ tniF THTE THEATRE M.®TA1.,,©IRUTRY ILAWE, PORTRAIT OF JAMES WALLACK. OF JOSEPH JEFFERSON 41 sandro Mazzaroni, in The Brigand, and DonCcEsar de Bazan. Mr. Macready and the elder Booth both acted inMobile during this season; and as the contrast be-tween these tragedians was quite remarkable, Iwill introduce them here, although my judgmentof them was formed upon a later experience. The methods by which actors arrive at greateffects vary according to their own natures; thisrenders the teaching of the art by any strictlydefined lines a difficult matter. Macready andthe elder Booth offer striking examples of thesedistinctions. Macready depended upon the me-chanical arrangement of the scene, while Boothrelied almost entirely on the impulse of themoment, caring little for set rules. As soon asMacready entered the theater he began to assumethe character he was going to enact. He wouldremain in his dressing-room absorbed with theplay; no one was permitted to

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