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A DRAMATIC CRITIC
vaguely recall his solid comic power, his
humanness, and his variety, with some
pleasure, but with no feeling that his art
was great or distinguished. The plays
which he produced in Boston were, with
scarcely an exception, flimsy things, whose
vogue had depended upon his success in
their leading parts. I fancy that he was
not happy in his American environment,
and that he by no means did himself justice
here. The testimony of my own mem-
ory is strong only upon a single point, and
that the worst point in his entire method.
He persisted in repeating over and over
again queer little tricks of voice or action,
which were funny for perhaps once hear-
ing or seeing, but would not bear reitera-
tion. His British audiences encouraged
him in this habit by their naif acceptance
of it, I suspect; his American audiences
would not tolerate it. In all my other ex-
perience of the theatre, I never saw a com-
pany of spectators freeze with such steady
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