The autobiography of Joseph Jefferson . at I could desire. I hadacted the part a quarter of a century before, andpossibly I may have blundered by a kind of in-tuition into some of the effects which now occurto me, but I am quite sure that at that time Icould not have reproduced them from night tonight with any certainty. I will not say that themethods by which I treated the various phasesof the character were all thought out previous toits revival. Some of them came to me after, andmany at the time of their representation; forduring the late run of the comedy I had actedAcres at least a dozen
The autobiography of Joseph Jefferson . at I could desire. I hadacted the part a quarter of a century before, andpossibly I may have blundered by a kind of in-tuition into some of the effects which now occurto me, but I am quite sure that at that time Icould not have reproduced them from night tonight with any certainty. I will not say that themethods by which I treated the various phasesof the character were all thought out previous toits revival. Some of them came to me after, andmany at the time of their representation; forduring the late run of the comedy I had actedAcres at least a dozen times before I had hitupon a satisfactory effect with which to end thesecond act, and even then it did not strike meuntil the very moment of its execution. During our first rehearsal of the comedy inPhiladelphia, Mrs. John Drew, who had evidentlybeen considering the part of Mrs. Malaprop withgreat care, introduced some novel business in herfirst scene with Captain Absohite that struck meas one of the finest points I had ever seen JOSEPH JEFFERSON AS BOB ACRES. OF JOSEPH JEFFERSON 401 When Mrs. Malaprop hands the letter for theCaptain to read, by accident she gives him herown love-letter lately received by her from SirLucius G Trigger. As the Captain reads thefirst line, which betrays the secret, Mrs. Drewstarts, blushes, and simperingly explains that thereis a slight mistake. Her manner during thissituation was the perfection of comedy. She askedme if I thought that the introduction was ad-missible. I replied that I not only thought itadmissible, but believed that Sheridan himselfwould have introduced it if the idea had happenedto occur to him. It would have been curious if Ihad not acquiesced in this original business afterthe liberties I had myself taken with the had not only condensed the play from five actsinto three, but I had cut several of the charactersentirely out of it, brought down the curtain onthe first and second acts with terminations notintended
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectjeffers, bookyear1890
