Master Romeo probably seventeen, and Miss Juliet certainly fourteen years old.
Juliet is, according to her nurse, just fourteen years of age. The story is that of "Villikins and his Dinah":—
There was a rich noble in Verona did dwell,
He had but one daughter an unkimmun fine young gal,
Her name it was Juliet, just fourteen years old,
With a werry large fortune in siliver and gold.
Singing tooral li (ad. lib.).
The southern girl of fourteen equals the northerner of nineteen; and this must ever be the initial difficulty which few experienced actresses, can surmount. Juliet is, in fact, a single girl and a married young woman rolled into one. "Single," "double," and "there's the rub!"
Mrs. Pat Campbell's Juliet takes the poison, but not the cake. Her Juliet has over her the shadow of Paula Tanqueray. From the commencement, except in the Balcony scene, she is a Juliet "with a past." The balcony and the moonlight suit this Juliet. Good, too, is she when, abjectly miserable, she crumples herself up all in a heap, like the victim in a picture of Japanese torture, so that at any moment, without surprising the spectator, she might turn heels over head and straighten herself out at the feet of the irascible old Capulet. Once again let me adapt a verse of the ancient ditty:—
"Oh Papa, oh Papa, I've not made up my mind,
And to marry just yet I do not feel inclined."
(Aside.) To Laurence the Friar I'll tell all my grief,
And the reverend gent may afford me relief
By singing (as a duett) tooral li tooral, &c.
Judging from the Tanqueray model, Mrs. Pat Campbell ought to have been at her best in the potion scene; but, she wasn't. As for the final stabbing, she might as well have tickled herself with a straw and died o' laughing.
Romeo Robertson ready for any undertaking. Vaults opened, &c.
Watching Forbes-Robertson as Romeo, I could not help thinking what an excellent Hamlet he would make; perhaps when I see him in that character, I shall remember how good he was as Romeo:—
"Hamlet Romeo amem, rentosus Romeo Hamlet."
But that's another story; so suffice it that temporarily Forbes-Robertson is "Our Only Romeo."
The Rev. Nutcombe Gould, as Friar Laurence, gives quite a new reading of the part. His Friar has ever a merry little twinkle in his eye, as if quietly enjoying some intensely humourous idea. From this point of view, Mr. Nutcombe Gould's Friar, being a sort of Rev. Theodore Hook, ever ready with a practical joke and an impromptu, is admirable and—inimitable.
Mercutio's part is "full of plums"; but these, in Mr. Coghlan's mouth, seemed rather to mar the distinctness of his utterance, as plums in a mouth have a way of doing. The Apothecary, by Brother Robertson, was not so poor as he looked: but in spite of tradition as to the wondrous excellence of this "bit of character," what is there to be done with it except in a three minutes acting illustration of an artistic "make up"? Were I offered the part I should bargain (after settling of course to receive a thousand a week) for a scene so arranged as to show the exterior and the interior of the shop. I would be "on" from the first, visibly sleeping under the counter. The interior should be fitted up with shelves just as Romeo describes it. Then while Romeo is talking, my Apothecary would be examining his "till"; he would turn it upside down to show there was no cash; he would then in pantomime explain how famished he feels, and would search, even in an old mouse-trap, for a bit of cheese. At last, there being no dinner and no hope of food, he, after a pantomimic exhibition of frenzied despair, would be in the act of drinking from a large bottle, labelled "Poison,—for external application only," when he hears Romeo calling him. Then he starts: while there is life there is hope! he answers the summons! And so forth. Then imagine the Apothecary with the money after Romeo's departure!! As the scene is closing the Apothecary should be seen bucking himself up, and preparing to go out to make a night of it at the nearest restaurant. Should Mr. Forbes-Robertson be making any alterations he is welcome to these suggestions.
