Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 33, November 12, 1870 by Various
page 15 of 77 (19%)
page 15 of 77 (19%)
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will always live as long as there are infant minds to form, or tender
recollections of childhood to remember. P.S.--I forgot to say that I hold a copyright of old GRANNY GOOSE'S works. I have just got it renewed, and it is as vigorous as a kicking-mule. Send in your orders. Contributions to the old gal's statue will be duly acknowledged, and deposited with my tailor. * * * * * THE PLAYS AND SHOWS. JANAUSCHEK is a Bohemian, and with the Bohemian propensity for picking up things, has picked up the English language. The public is somewhat divided in its estimate of her skill in speaking English. One-half of her average audience insists that she speaks better English than nine-tenths of our native actresses: the other half asserts that she is at times nearly unintelligible. Neither of these statements necessarily contradicting the other, they might both be easily true. The fact is, however, that she speaks English like a foreigner. Mud itself--or a Sun editorial--could not be plainer than this definition of her exact proficiency in our unmelodious tongue. If we go to see her play "Lady Macbeth," we meet evidences at every step of her want of familiarity with English, or at all events with American customs. We find her playing at the ACADEMY, and we at once remark that no one but an unnecessarily foreign actress would dare to awaken the sepulchral echoes of that dismal tomb. We find, too, that at the very threshold of the house she defies the one of the most time-honored institutions of our stage, by employing a pleasant and courteous |
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