Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/233

 CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN 869 "hats and handkerchiefs waved tome; flowers sent to me," etc. In October, 1844, she sailed for England in the packet-ship Garrick. She had little money with her. A farewell benefit taken in Boston, her native city, had not proved very productive, and she had been obliged "to make arrangements for the main- tenance of her family during her absence." And with characteristic prudence she left behind her a certain sum, to be in readiness for her, in case failure in England should drive her promptly back to America. No engagement in London had been offered her ; but she received, upon her arrival, a letter from Macready, proposing that she should join a company then being formed to give representations in Paris. She thought it prudent to decline this proposal, however, so as to avoid entering into anything like rivalry with Miss Helen Faucit, the leading actress of the troupe. She visited Paris for a few days, but only to sit with the audience of the best French the- atres. She returned to her dull lodgings in Covent Garden, " awaiting her des- tiny." She was fond, in after years, of referring to the struggles and poverty, the hopes and the despair, of her first sojourn in London. Her means were nearly ex- hausted. Sally, the dresser, used to relate : " Miss Cushman lived on a mutton- chop a day, and I always bought the baker's dozen of muffins for the sake of the extra one, and we ate them all, no matter how stale they were, and we never suf- fered from want of appetite in those days." She found herself reduced to her last sovereign, when Mr. Maddox, the manager of the Princess's Theatre, came to her with a proposal. The watchful Sally reported that he had been walking up and down the street for some time early in the morning, too early for a visit " He is anxious," said Miss Cushman. " I can make my own terms." He wished her to appear with Forrest, the American tragedian, then visiting the London stage for the second and last time. She stipulated that she should have her opportunity first, and " alone." If successful, she was willing to appear in support of Forrest. So it was agreed. Her first appearance upon the English stage was made on February 14, 1845 ; she assumed the character of Bianca, in Dean Milman's rather dull tragedy of " Fazio." Her triumph was indisputable. Her intensity and vehemence com- pletely carried away the house. As the pit rose at Kean's Shylock, so it rose at Charlotte Cushman's Bianca. She wrote to her mother in America : " All my success put together, since I have been upon the stage, would not come near my success in London." The critics described, as the crowning effort of her per- formance, the energy and pathos and abandonment of her appeal to Aldabclla, when the wife sacrifices her pride, and sinks, " huddled into a heap," at the feet of her rival, imploring her to save the life of Fazio. Miss Cushman, speaking of her first performance in London, was wont to relate how she was so com- pletely overcome, not only by the excitement of the scene, but by the nervous agitation of the occasion, that she lost for the moment her self-command, and was especially grateful for the long-continued applause which gave her time to recover herself. When she slowly rose at last and faced the house again, the spectacle of its enthusiasm thrilled and impressed her in a manner she could never