I heard Alboni
every time she sang in New York and vicinity--also Grisi, the tenor
Mario, and the baritone Badiali, the finest in the world.
This musical passion follow'd my theatrical one. As a boy or young man
I had seen, (reading them carefully the day beforehand,) quite all
Shakspere's acting dramas, play'd wonderfully well. Even yet I cannot
conceive anything finer than old Booth in "Richard Third," or "Lear,"
(I don't know which was best,) or Iago, (or Pescara, or Sir
Giles Overreach, to go outside of Shakspere)--or Tom Hamblin in
"Macbeth"--or old Clarke, either as the ghost in "Hamlet," or as
Prospero in "the Tempest," with Mrs. Austin as Ariel, and Peter
Richings as Caliban. Then other dramas, and fine players in them,
Forrest as Metamora or Damon or Brutus--John R. Scott as Tom Cringle
or Rolla--or Charlotte Cushman's Lady Gay Spanker in "London
Assurance." Then of some years later, at Castle Garden, Battery, I
yet recall the splendid seasons of the Havana musical troupe under
Maretzek--the fine band, the cool sea-breezes, the unsurpass'd
vocalism--Steffan'one, Bosio, Truffi, Marini in "Marino Faliero," "Don
Pasquale," or "Favorita." No better playing or singing ever in New
York. It was here too I afterward heard Jenny Lind. (The Battery--its
past associations--what tales those old trees and walks and sea-walls
could tell!)
THROUGH EIGHT YEARS.
In 1848, '49, I was occupied as editor of the "daily Eagle" newspaper,
in Brooklyn. The latter year went off on a leisurely journey and
working expedition (my brother Jeff with me) through all the middle
States, and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
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