Did with his iron tongue and brazen note," &c.
I remember I felt every drop of blood pause, and then run backwards through my veins with an overpowering awe and horror. No scenic representation I ever witnessed produced the hundredth part of the effect of her reading Hamlet. This tragedy was the triumph of her art. Hamlet and his mother, Polonius, Ophelia, were all there before us. Those who ever heard her give Ophelia's reply to Hamlet,
Hamlet. I loved you not.
Ophelia. I was the more deceived!
and the lines—
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck'd the honey of his music vows, &c.
will never forget their exquisite pathos. What a revelation of love and woe was there!—the very heart seemed to break upon the utterance.
Lear was another of her grandest efforts; but her rare talent was not confined to tragedy; none could exceed her in the power to conceive and render witty and humorous character. I thought I had never understood or felt the comic force of such parts as Polonius, Lucio, Gratiano, and Shakspeare's clowns, till I heard the dialogue from her lips: and to hear her read the Merchant of Venice and As You Like It, was hardly a less perfect treat than to hear her read Macbeth.