began her experience as a reader.
In the autumn of 1857 she acted at Burton's theatre, New York, and was
seen as Cardinal Wolsey, and in the early summer of 1858 she gave a
series of "farewell" performances at Niblo's Garden--after which she
again crossed the Atlantic and established her residence in Rome. In
June 1860 the great actress came home again and passed a year in
America. _Oliver Twist_ was given at the Winter Garden in the spring of
1861, when Miss Cushman acted Nancy, and J.W. Wallack, Jr., J.B.
Studley, William Davidge, and Owen Marlowe were in the company. In 1863,
having come from Rome for that purpose, Miss Cushman acted in four
cities, for the benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission, and
earned for it $8267. The seven ensuing years were passed by her in
Europe, but in October 1870 she returned home for the last time, and the
brief remainder of her life was devoted to public readings, occasional
dramatic performances, and the society of friends. She built a villa at
Newport, which still bears her name. She gave final farewell
performances, in the season of 1874-1875, in New York, Philadelphia, and
Boston. Her final public appearance was made on June 2, 1875, at Easton,
Pennsylvania, where she gave a reading. Her death occurred at the Parker
House, in Boston, February 18, 1876, and she was buried from King's
chapel.

There is a mournful pleasure in recalling the details of Miss Cushman's
life and meditating upon her energetic, resolute, patient, creative
nature. She was faithful, throughout her career, to high principles of
art and a high standard of duty. Nature gave her great powers but
fettered her also with great impediments. She conquered by the spell of
a strange, weird genius and by hard, persistent labour. In this latter
particular she is an example to every member of the dramatic profession,
present or future. In what she was as a woman she could not be
imitated--for her colossal individuality dwelt apart, in its loneliness,
as well of suffering that no one could share as of an imaginative life
that no one could fathom. Without the stage she would still have been a
great woman, although perhaps she might have lacked an entirely suitable
vehicle for the display of her powers. With the stage she gave a body to
the soul of some of Shakespeare's greatest conceptions, and she gave
soul and body both to many works of inferior origin. There is no
likelihood that we shall ever see again such a