Sudden Death from Intense Feeling

Cromwell Argus, Volume 1, Issue 50, 26 October 1870, Page 7

Sudden Death from Intense Feeling

The death of Gottsohalk, while at the piano, m the act of performing his famous composition " La Morte," is by no means the first oirouinstance of its* kind related in musical and dramatic history. We recall immediately Muliero and his " Malad« lmaginaire." The chief personage in the comedy is a sick man, and this part was played by the author himself. It was the fourth nidit of the run. Moliere, weak and ailing, went on for it, and got through it until the scene came in which it was his dutv to fall, as if dead. This he did so well that the audi' ence, as well as the persons in the play, wore deceived. But, alas ! it was no acting, lor the poor dramatist was dead in truth. So sa,s Bayle's account; but in another book there is a a statement that Moliere was attacked in the scene where he speaks of rhubarb and senna (passing himself off as a, physician)—blood gushing from his mouth and nostrils, and Lis limbs quivering with convulsions. He was taken home, and his sufferings ceased for ever two hours afterwards. In biographical history, there are some names especially interesting to readers of all tastes. One of these is poor Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, of whom Hawthorne speaks so tenderly in his English travels ; and another, Captain Farquhar. Farquhar died during the run of his " Beaux Stratagem," perhaps his very best work. "Look on them kindly," said he m his letter to Wilkes, speaking of Ins two little children, soon to be fatherless, "for the sake of hiin who was to the last hour of his life thine." With Hughes it was more singular still. He died an hour after he received the account of the success of his "Siege of Damascus." Moody, the tragedian, fell a corpse in the very middle of his performance of Claudio, i'u Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure." He had been very melancholy for some time, on account of the loss of some member of his family, and on the evening of the play was more than once seen to retire to his dressingroom and weep. But his impersonation was much better than it had ever been before; so much so, indeed, that his fellow-actors remarked it. At last, in the scene where Isabella bids him prepare for execution, and lie answers in those beautiful lines beginning " Ah, but to die and go we know not where," he suddenly became faint, and fell to the stage. The audience for a moment imagined it was a new point, and applauded accordingly. Olaudio's heart had burst with grief. Somewhat similar was the death of John J'almer, for whom Sheridan may be said to have written "The School for Scandal." The bill of the night was "The Stranger." Palmer, who had been, like Moody, beset with melancholy for some time before, played the gloomy count in the early acts with usual effect. After uttering the line", " There is another and better world, - ' with most touching pathos, he suddenly paused, closed his eyes, and leaned upon the Francis of the night, AVhitfield. He had spoken his last words upon earth. Edmund Kean's last appearance was in "Othello," of which occasion Barry Cornwall and Hawkins have given very touching accounts. It seems that all had gone well until the third act; gleams of the old fire had Hashed forth and electrified the house as in the early days, and many hoped to see the tragedian yet recover, and play many times again. But when he came to those grand lines— Oh ! now, for ever. Farewell the tranquil mind ! Farewell content !"

He paiued ; then pealed forth in tones solemn and sweet as the wailing of an organ- tones ao full of love, so wild with vain regret—that eternal adieu to happiness, in whieli we have the heavings of a breaking heart, the despairing lament of a lost soul. He proceeded slowly, slowly, until the music of the last cadence became but a breath, " Othello's occupation's gone]!" It was over. The house rose frantically. "Speak to them, Charles," whispered the actor to his son ; "I am dying !" And so he was. Yet another strange anecdote may be related of this fatal coincidence in death. An American actress, whose name we have forgotten, was performing the part of Sirs Sheppard, in the drama of "Jack Sheppard." In one scene her busiuess was to stab herself. " Now," said she laughingly to some one in the wing, just before entering the stage, " I will go on and be killed, and then go home." Thoughtless jest ! She had scarcely stepped forward three feet before a heavy weight fell from the flies, and crushed her instantly. In the case of Moody and Palmer it is probable that their spirits, already in a state of deep despondency, were seriously affected by the parts they were performing. Actors of strong nervous temperaments very often lose their identity in this manner, so much so as to give way \o violent fits of weeping in the very middle of a scene ; as for instance, the late Brooke on several occasions, or to a more dangerous madness, such as sometimes beset the elder Booth in " Richard 111. ;" but the instances we have related of instant death from excess of emotion (or whatever it may be called) are the only one* recorded.