My sister the actress - 1881 Author:Florence Marryat Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. ' SHE IS THE RAGE NOW.' The play in which Mr. Montgomery Warren has decided that Betha Selwyn shall make her first appearance at the Pompeian ... more »Theatre is ' As You Like It,' and on the night of its production the house is crowded from pit to gallery. The critics, the managers, and the leaders of fashion all press to welcome the actress whose fame has reached them across the Atlantic, and the general verdict is, that the fame is well deserved. As Betha appears before them with all the archness and vivacity of a true Rosalind, combined with her perfect elocution and herbeauty of face and figure, the audience rises en masse to greet her, and it is many minutes before she can do else than bow her acknowledgments for the compliment she has received. But as scene follows scene, and she rises like a true artist to the work before her, the favourable impression she has made gains ground, and there is but one opinion concerning the greatness of her talent. The English stage has gained a genius. She left them as a promising child—she has returned a perfected artist. Six years of unremitting study and practice have brought her literally to the top of the tree, and from the moment she steps on the stage of the Pompeian, Betha Selwyn's name in England is made. Of course she has her detractors—who has not ? Envy, a love of dissension, and a desire to assume fearlessness in their opinions, induce several journals to differ from the majority, but the majority win the day.Where one carping critic declares that her voice is too weak to be heard in the tenderer passages, four insist that the delicate modulation of her tones, which render a whisper as distinct as the most declamatory speeches, is one of the greatest charms the new actress possesses. And whilst two or thre...« less