90
Amateur Theatricals.
Bryan and three or four more, who came in,
attracted by the light in Marchant s window, we
all went on the stage. There, by the light of a
solitary tallow candle, which made our shadows
gigantic on the darkened house, Covert went
through the dagger-scene in Macbeth, Marchant
shaking the stage-thunder at the right wing. The
amateur exhibited real ability but the thing was
unspeakably ludricous and waxed more so anon.
We hi! hi d! applauded, laughed, sang,
danced Dixie and did all sorts of absurdities,
Lavine and Covert acting together, the former
doing, first the Ghost in Hamlet, with an
umbrella for truncheon, and then Richmond in
the Bosworth scene of Richard the Third. The
thunder introduced to every scene was out of all
proportion to the text, and as it rained sharply
every now and then outside, it seemed at least
atmospherically appropriate. Finally the actors
got into the most extraordinary dramatic jumble,
alternating fragments of Hamlet, Richard 3, Ju-
lius Caesar, the Lady of Lyons, Richelieu and
other prominent plays with all kinds of ludicrous
ind incoherence. In one instance Covert wanted
Shakspere s Hamlet, Lavine responding, as Ghost,
in a doggerel comic song; in another there was
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Fifteen: page one hundred |
| Description: | Describes performing amateur theatricals with others in Marchant's theater. |
| Date: | 1861-01-24 |
| Subject: | Bryan; Covert, Harry; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Lavine; Marchant; Theater |
| Coverage (City/State): | [Charleston, South Carolina] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-05-11 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Fifteen |
| Description: | Describes Gunn's experience as a correspondent for ""The New York Evening Post"" in Charleston, South Carolina, in the aftermath of South Carolina's secession from the federal government, including a conflict between A.H. Colt and Mr. Woodward, a visit to Sullivan's Island, John Mitchel's tale of assisting with the lynching of an abolitionist, attending a celebration in honor of Benjamin Mordecai, Will Waud's arrival in Charleston, the scene in Charleston the day the ''Star of the West'' was fired upon by the Morris Island battery, pistol and rifle practice with various Charlestonians, a rumor in New York about his having been tarred and feathered in Charleston, a visit to the quarters of the ''Richland Rifles,'' witnessing a slave auction, and a visit to Colonel Bull's home. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Books and reading; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Military; Publishers and publishing; Secession; Slavery; Slaves; Travel |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Charleston, South Carolina |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
