Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 6
1835-04-06
Continued Schiller. My Wife coughs so much that I again sent for Dr. Bigelow who advised the application of Leeches. Office. Received a long Letter from my father making the second of a series which he has addressed to me upon the subject of the political intrigues of last winter.1 He seems still to be involved in them and to take as much interest in them as if he was a young man. Yet the result was and is only bitter ashes. The field of politics is a shining one but it requires a sacrifice, and that is happiness. I do not like to look forward to my father’s future.
Read a little of the North American Review—Enough to be disgusted with it’s littleness. Then to my house to make examination of 111things. The time of transfer is drawing near. Short walk and visit to T. K. Davis where W. C. Gorham and Mr. Walsh came in so that I left. Afternoon continued Marmontel’s Biography with as much charm as ever. He has arrived at his marriage with a niece of the Abbé Morrellet at the age of 54. A pretty adventurous thing in the then state of Morals in France—She being only eighteen.
Evening, Coleridge’s Ode on War Pestilence and Famine, the spirit of which I do not admire. It is a miserable party piece of malignity against Mr. Pitt, which his Apologetic Preface does not succeed in defending. Coleridge should have blotted it out of his works. Continued reading Wilhelm Meister.
On the two letters from JQA (31 March, 2 April; both in Adams Papers) relating to the senatorial contest in Massachusetts and to JQA’s course in Congress on the French question and other matters, the first of eight in the series, see note to entry for 11 Feb., above.
1835-04-07
A thorough April day with alternate shower and sunshine. After reading Schiller for some time I went to the Office where I was occupied in writing a reply to my father’s last letters. I should like very well to see all the underplot of that business although I have no regret at the result. My Letter was long and contained much that was not prudent to commit to the Mail.1 But do we always listen to prudence? Not I certain
Short walk in which I seized the opportunity to collect some Dividends. Home. Read Wilhelm Meister. Afternoon, continued and read through the third Volume of Marmontel in which he arrives at the period of the French Revolution and his tone immediately and naturally becomes much more grave. What a period for men like him living upon salaried Institutions. Others could save Property and have a hope of Indemnity. But the places were irrevocably lost. In the evening Coleridge’s Poetry and Wilhelm Meister.
CFA to JQA, 7 April (Adams Papers). On the letter, see note to entry for 11 Feb., above, and to that for 20 April, below.
1835-04-08
A pleasant day. I finished the first Volume of Schiller’s Thirty Years War which is more interesting than any Novel. Then to the Office where I did not remain long for meeting with my Carpenter, Thomas Ayer, I took him right up with me to look at a house in Acorn 112Street which is for sale and which I had thoughts of buying. We examined it from top to bottom and I authorized him to attend the sale and bid to a certain limit for me. Thence to my house where I gave him some directions about repairs. I had only time enough left at the Office for Accounts and Diary. Walk which was but short. Wilhelm Meister.
Afternoon continued Marmontel but he becomes far less interesting when he goes into a historical sketch of the events of the Revolution than he was when giving an Account of the incidents in his private life. It is a little singular that I am reading de Grimm at the same time.
I went to the Theatre. The Marriage of Figaro. The Countess by Miss Cushman. This is her debut. She is a young girl just brought forward to try her chance. There is something interesting and yet painful in this kind of spectacle. The trial is no small one for it depends upon the most treacherous organ possible. On the whole she succeeded better than could be expected. Her voice is good though not firm in the middle notes. The high and the low which require exertion seem to develope her powers. She wants to get the tread of the Stage and the power of managing her voice in large spaces. Her singing is perhaps too artificial for a beginning. The first point is to understand the place. After this has become so familiar as to allow the voice full play, then any ornament can be added with effect.1 The music of the Opera was just performed well enough to see how beautiful much of it was, and how much better it might be done. I have seen the piece often but never with a strong cast.2 Met a gentleman who accosted me with a request for the House3 which it appears I have purchased. Home.
Inasmuch as Charlotte Cushman’s career in the theater would reach heights that were unprecedented for an American actress, this “first performance on any Stage,” has all the importance which CFA senses in it. Miss Cushman, a native of Boston and a direct descendant of Robert Cushman of Leyden and Plymouth, was brought to the professional stage by the poverty of her widowed mother, who had five children to support. Charlotte had studied singing for some years with James Paddon, an English organist and vocal teacher in Boston. She came to the attention of Mrs. Wood during one of that artist’s earlier engagements in Boston; through Mrs. Wood’s influence she became the pupil of James Gaspard Maeder, music director at the Tremont Theatre. The Boston newspapers gave Miss Cushman’s debut extensive coverage; the principal reviews are reprinted in Edward G. Fletcher’s “Charlotte Cushman’s Theatrical Debut” (Univ. of Texas Studies in English, 1940, p. 166–175).
Miss Cushman’s career as a vocalist was to be but of short duration. In less than a year she would turn to the spoken drama and almost instantaneous success in tragic roles. See below, note to entry for 15 Oct.; for her career in general, see
DAB
and
Notable American Women
.
The present performance at the Tremont Theatre had special deficiencies. There was a chorus for the concerted pieces, but apparently the only roles that were sung were those of the 113Countess and Susanna, played by Mrs. Maeder. The male roles seem to have been spoken; the role of Cherubino was omitted, apparently because Charlotte Watson, who sang it in all later performances, would not arrive until 13 April. (Columbian Centinel, 8 April, p. 3, col. 4; 11 April, p. 2, col. 4.)
On Acorn Street.