Intimate recollections of Joseph Jefferson . as wise with the wisdomof twenty-five years of work on the stage. Trans-atlantic surely—but a kid! Then the veteran, with rare unction,dropped into a delightful chat about actors andacting. He told of Dion Boucicault and thestage magician he was, and how he had remadethe Rip play, which was first made by or forYates, and then was remade by Hackett, andagain refurbished and played by Burke—Jef-fersons half-brother—and lastly fixed in crystalby the wonderful Dion. It was Jefferson him-self who conceived the weird second act as it isnow played. In k th
Intimate recollections of Joseph Jefferson . as wise with the wisdomof twenty-five years of work on the stage. Trans-atlantic surely—but a kid! Then the veteran, with rare unction,dropped into a delightful chat about actors andacting. He told of Dion Boucicault and thestage magician he was, and how he had remadethe Rip play, which was first made by or forYates, and then was remade by Hackett, andagain refurbished and played by Burke—Jef-fersons half-brother—and lastly fixed in crystalby the wonderful Dion. It was Jefferson him-self who conceived the weird second act as it isnow played. In k the old version the ghostsdanced and sang a chorus ordaining him tosleep. You know, it is the only second act of aplay in which one actor does the entire talks and the others—the ghosts—only nodtheir heads and play bowls. Its more mysteri-ous; gives something to the imagination. Thatsa nice question—how much you must leave tothe imagination of the audience. It is, of course,mostly the playwrights business, but if it is. JOSEPH JEFFERSON 145 badly done the actor suffers for it. Just beforeRip was brought out at the Adelphi I wentwith Boucicault to that theatre one night to seeBen Webster, who was a very good actor. Hewas playing the part of a miser, and in the thirdact he opened a safe in the wall of his house,took out some papers, examined them and putthem back. There was a very strained momentof hushed attention through the house, but pres-ently a small voice rang clear from the gallery:Wots in em, Guvnor? The house laughed, you may depend uponit, and Webster was very angry, but Boucicaultsaid it was bad art on the part of the author toleave that small boy in the gallery in doubt asto the contents of the papers. Boucicault be-lieved in quick action on the stage. I remem-ber once he was reading a play, and he said, This is altogether too slow; here are two char-acters left together for two inches. London has not forgotten Joseph suggestion of
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