of her
stage-life had come now in earnest. It found her despondent, almost
despairing; at the last moment she was ready to draw back. She had then
none of the many friends who afterward welcomed her with heartfelt
sincerity whenever the curtain rose on her performance. She saw Irving in
"Louis XI." and "Shylock." The brilliant powers of the great actor filled
her at once with admiration and with dread, when she remembered how soon
she too must face the same audiences. She sought to distract herself by
making a round of the London theaters, but the most amusing of farces
could hardly draw from her a passing smile, or lift for a moment the
weight of apprehension which pressed on her heart. The very play in which
she was destined first to present herself before a London audience was
condemned beforehand. To make a _debut_ as Parthenia was to court certain
failure. The very actors who rehearsed with her were Job's comforters. She
saw in their faces a dreary vista of empty houses, of hostile critics, of
general disaster. She almost broke down under the trial, and the sight of
her first play-bill which told that the die was irrevocably cast for good
or evil made her heart sink with fear. On going down to the theater upon
the opening night she found, with mingled pleasure and surprise, that on
both sides of the Atlantic fellow artists were regarding her with kindly
sympathizing hearts. Her dressing-room was filled with beautiful floral
offerings from many distinguished actors in England and America, while
telegrams from Booth, McCullough, Lawrence Barrett, Irving, Ellen Terry,
Christine Nilsson, and Lillie Langtry, bade her be of good courage, and
wished her success. The overture smote like a dirge on her ear, and when
the callboy came to announce that the moment of her entrance was at hand,
it reminded her of nothing so much as the feeling of mourners when the
sable mute appears at the door, as a signal to form the procession to the
tomb. But in a moment the ordeal was safely passed, and passed forever so
far as an English audience is concerned. Seldom has any actress received
so warm and enthusiastic a reception. Mary Anderson confesses now that
never till that moment did she experience anything so generous and so
sympathetic, and offered to one who was then but "a stranger in a strange
land." Mary Anderson's Parthenia was a brilliant success. Her glorious
youth, her strange beauty, her admirable impersonation of a part of
ex