was wholly deficient in spirit, until Mr. Forrest came to the last member of the sentence, which was given with due and proper emphasis. In the rencounter with Macduff, where Macbeth declares that he 'bears a charmed life,' the passage ought to be uttered as the proud boast of one who was confident of supernatural protection, and not in a taunting, sneering manner. Mr. Forrest's error is on the right side, and is very easily corrected. Doubtless, in his future performance of the character he will assume a higher tone in those parts of the play to which we have alluded."
The Morning Chronicle said,—
"Mr. Forrest appeared last evening in the character of Macbeth, and in the performance of it fully sustained the reputation he has already obtained in the parts of Othello and Lear. Mr. Forrest brings to the performance of Shakspeare's heroes an energy and vigor, tempered with a taste and judgment, such as we rarely find combined in any who venture to tread the stage. There is, besides, a reality in his acting, an actual identification of himself with the character he impersonates, stronger than in any actor we have ever seen. If this was remarkable in his performance of Othello and Lear, it is not less so in the performance of Macbeth. From the first act to the last—from his first interview with the weird sisters, whose vague prophecy instills into the mind that feeling of 'vaulting ambition' which leads him to the commission of so many crimes, to the last scene, in which he finds his charms dissolved, and begins, too late, to doubt 'the equivocation of the fiend'—he carried the audience completely with him, and made them at times wholly unmindful of the skill of the actor, from the interest excited in the actions of Macbeth."
In addition to his renderings of Spartacus, Othello, Lear, and Macbeth, Forrest appeared also as Damon, and achieved a success similar to that he had won in the same part at home.
"The part of Damon is decidedly beneath Mr. Forrest's acknowledged talents. No man could, however, have made more of the character than he did, whether he appeared as the stern, uncompromising patriot, the deep-feeling husband and father, or the generous and devoted friend. His rebuke of the slavish senate, who crouch at the feet of the tyrant Dionysius, was delivered with calm and earnest dignity; but his two great scenes were that in which he learns that his freedman, Lucullus, has slain his horse to prevent the anxious Damon from arriving in time to rescue his beloved Pythias from the hands of the executioner; and that with which the piece concludes, where, breathless and exhausted, he rushes into the presence of his despairing friend.
"The burst of passionate fury with which he assailed the affrighted freedman, in the former scene, was awfully fearful; and his expression of wild, frantic, overwhelming joy when he beholds Pythias in safety, and can only manifest his feelings by hysteric laughter, was perfectly true to nature. Mr. Forrest's performance was most amply and justly applauded."
The actor had every reason to feel well pleased with the results of his bold undertaking. His emotions are expressed in a letter written to his mother under date of Liverpool, January 2d, 1837, in the course of which he says,—
"Before this you have doubtless heard of my great triumphs in Drury Lane Theatre; though I must confess I did not think they treated the Gladiator and my friend Dr. Bird fairly. Yet, as far as regards myself, I never have been more successful, even in my own dear land. In the characters of Shakspeare alone would they hear me; and night after night in overwhelming crowds they came, and showered their hearty applause on my efforts. This, my dear mother, is a triumphant refutation of those prejudiced opinions so often repeated of me in America by a few ignorant scribblers, who but for the actors would never have understood one line of the immortal bard."