EXTRAORDINARY SCENE ON THE STAGE.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1144, 23 January 1874, Page 4

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE ON THE STAGE.

An almost tragic event has taken place at one of the Birmingham theatres. Mr Charles Calvert produced the Shakespearian play of ' Henry Y.,' taking the part of King Henry. The house was crowded. It appeared to the audience that Mr Charles Calvert was laboring under severe indisposition from the beginning of the play, but he struggled through with evident suffering until about a quarter to ten o'clock. He hid uttered the words 'Oh, God of battles steel my soldiers' hearts,' when he walked to the front of the stage, and said, his last hour had come. The pallor of his countenance, the sweat on his brow, and his evident breathlessness gave the audience the greatest alarm. Amid the breathless silence of the assembled spectators Mr Calvert proceeded, still speaking with broken utterance and gasping for breath, to say that he had struggled for three weeks, and suffered excruciatingly in his endeavor to keep that engagement. He had come on the stage that night knowing that it was at the risk of his life. He was no craven, and his past history would prove that he did not easily give way, but he was now entirely defeated, and could not proceed. He asked for their sympathy as Christian people. His sufferings he almost feltwere those of a dying man. The weeping of women behind the scenes was heard, and members of his company rushed to the foot-iights and supported the now almost swooning man off the stage. The curtain then fell and the audience slowly dispersed.