. Recollections of a player. night, when I excitedly nar-rated the experience of the evening,— the laughter,the applause, and oh, best of all, the glory of thatfirst call, when the scene had to be interrupted topermit it,— she and I wept for joy at the sweet-ness of it all. Is there anything in this worldthat can exceed a mothers confidence in hersons success? While she rejoiced with me, Iremember I was greatly astonished at the calmconfidence she expressed in successes still to come. The salary continued at fifteen dollars all thatseason, but I felt that I had a million dollarsworth of glory
. Recollections of a player. night, when I excitedly nar-rated the experience of the evening,— the laughter,the applause, and oh, best of all, the glory of thatfirst call, when the scene had to be interrupted topermit it,— she and I wept for joy at the sweet-ness of it all. Is there anything in this worldthat can exceed a mothers confidence in hersons success? While she rejoiced with me, Iremember I was greatly astonished at the calmconfidence she expressed in successes still to come. The salary continued at fifteen dollars all thatseason, but I felt that I had a million dollarsworth of glory as compensation. William Daly,who was the stage-manager, remarked as I cameoff the stage, Young man, you keep on like that and you 11be playing principal comedy roles next season. Then looking me over, he exclaimed, disdain-fully, Recollections of a Player. 31 The idea of a fellow with such legs and sucha nose aspiring to do serious business! I thought my ability was highly complimentedat the expense of other DOING SERIOUS BUSINESS. But they might say what they liked, I hadtasted of the glory of a curtain call, and, bet-ter still, I had that inward pride of knowing thatI had made no mistake in my vocation. The suc-cess of my appearance as Lamp caused me to turn 32 Recollections of a Player. my attention with much determination towardcomedy parts, and from that time forth all expec-tation of success in tragedy was abandoned. My ambition and expectation were to work forsuccess, and the serious side of stage life presentedthat view to me. I still experience the sense ofrelief that came to me when I felt that all Ihad to do was to give my attention to the humor-ous side of the drama—which accorded so wellwith the impudence and health of youth that weremine. That was going to be no worlz for me; itwas just play; and I have been playing ever since. This season of 1878-79 was an important onefor me, as it added a vast fund of valuable infor-mation to my experience. A
Size: 1843px × 1355px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorwilsonfrancis18541935, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
