SAMUEL PHELPS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5500, 12 November 1878, Page 2

SAMUEL PHELPS.

It will be seen by oar Loudon telegrams that the well-known actor Samuel Phelps has passed to his rest. “ Men of the Time ” gives the follovviug notice of Mr. Phelps : Phelps, Samue', actor and manager, born at Davon port in 1806, was apprenticed to a printer ; but the bent of his mind lay ia another direction, and he made Ms first appearance on the stage at York in 1828. His first attempt before a London audience was in the character of Shylock, at the Haymarket Theatre, under the raanag meat of Mr. Webster, and the performance was favorably received ; nor was his next essay in the arduous part of Hamlet successful. When Mr. Macready undertook the management of Covent Garden Theatre in 1837, Mr. Phelps was engaged as one of the leading performers, and at the public entertainment given to Mr. Macready on his retirement from the stage, in 1851, ha pointed to Mr. Phelps as the moat promising, if not the most accomplished, rfhaksperian performer of the day. In 1844 he became manage'* of •Sadler’s Wells Theatre, and in so doing onej o£

his ch?ef objects ;ia to restore the popularity of the leiiitiuntpe drama, then uC a very low eh I) ; aiio' it. rhi* experiment he was completely aucce-stul. He was engaged by Mr. Feebler M. tbo lioce.,iu. and aVierw-uNlg at \U-\wy Lane Th at»r, wum-e he has appeared regularly for -eve* al season iI is l«.i lUi i ' characteris: ica as in aciur boil) in tragedy and comedy are, n acrupulourt adherence to the meaning of the author, and a fi .e elocution, combined with care ul regard fc-» the arcotelogical requirements of the wise en sc6ne. Me edited au edition ol rfhakepere, published in 1853.