MR. JEFFERSON'S ADDRESS.

Last evening a very large audience assembled in Sanders Theatre to hear Mr. Joseph Jefferson. The hall was crowded to its utmost capacity. President Eliot introduced the speaker in the following words:

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: There was a reason why the University should honor one who has adorned the profession of an actor. It is a part of a university's work to draw attention to imaginative literature, which consists largely of plays, both comedies and tragedies. The University rightly honors one who has exquisitely interpreted this part of literature. To elevate young men by speech should be the aim of a university, and this an actor knows how to do. I present to you tonight one who has inspired and elevated hundreds of thousands of human beings, Mr. Joseph Jefferson."

Mr. Jefferson arose amidst enthusiastic applause and spoke in part as follows:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND MR. PRESIDENT: I do not know whether you are aware of the fact, but tonight is an excellent example, that an actor enjoys nothing so much as a good round of applause. First, it shows that I am welcome, and secondly, it gives me a chance to think what I shall say next. I do not mean to say that I have come to address you unprepared, nor am I exactly like Mr. Lowell, who said he got off the best after dinner speeches he ever made, coming home in a cab.

With regard to preparation, rehearsal means preparation. It is more important for an actor to be prepared than any other man. While a writer has a chance to revise his work, the picture which an actor presents upon the stage is indelible and can never be gone over again. Therefore preparation is most important and speaking of preparation, an anecdote occurs to me. The last evening that Mr. Florence and I gave "The Rivals" together in New York, Mr. Florence suggested that we arrange our speeches. This I thought to be an excellent plan, and accordingly we prepared our little extemporaneous wit. He was to make some remark as if it had occurred to him for the first time, and I was to reply as if I had never heard it before. It was all very bright and funny. The actors assembled behind the scenes to hear us. The curtain went down, and we weren't called out. So you see the importance of preparation.

Now I wish to speak of oratory and acting, which reminds me of a time that I visited a little New Hampshire school house. After I had surveyed its walls, whitewashed inside and outside, its hard benches and plain blackboard, the unsympathetic teacher and the sympathetic birch rod, an old gentleman came up to me and said: "We don't want any school around here. Years ago we got along without it. I'm going to vote agin it and so's my wife. Daniel Webster, when he was a boy, got it into his head that he had to study books. So he went to Boston and never was heard of again." To go back to oratory and acting, many actors have wondered why they have failed in making speeches, and many orators have been surprised that they have not succeeded on the stage. While many of the attributes are the same, as clear articulation, graceful gesture, impressive manner, and magnetism, they separate at a certain point. The orator must be impressive, the actor impressionable. The orator impresses the audience by what he says, while the actor is most effective in showing how he is impressed by what is said to him. For example, take the famous scene where Othello rebukes Cassio. Cassio makes no reply, but stands dejected, head bowed, eyes on the ground, his whole manner showing the justice of Othello's rebuke. In this case the oratory is confined to Othello; Cassio shows how he is affected by what is said to him.

Many of you are about to choose professions. It is highly necessary for you to consider what attributes you possess. If you are emotional and impressionable, you possess histrionic attributes. If you are impressive, embrace oratory and become statesmen, lawyers, preachers.

I shall now discuss the qualities of genius and art. It is common for genius to look with contempt upon art. This should not be so. If you discard art you are sure to fail. Many geniuses have been forgotten because they have failed to observe art. Genius produces, art reproduces. In acting reproduction is the most important. Night after night a part must be played and give the same effect every time. If the actor grows weary, he produces a weary audience. Mr. Macready, the famous actor, once said to Mrs. Warner that one of his great speeches, which used to make a great hit, fell flat. Was it an old story with the audience? The character has been detected by his son in the act of stealing. "When you spoke that speech ten years ago," replied Mrs. Warner, "you spoke like a man accused of theft by his son. You hardly knew what to say. You stood abashed and acted like an honest man for the first time accused of theft. Now it is an old story with you. You make the speech as if you had been accustomed to steal all your life and always had an excuse ready."

Now I pass to tragedy and comedy. There is in England a picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds of Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy. One day Garrick was asked which he considered the most difficult. "Oh, sir," replied the actor, "whether I am well or ill, in high spirits or low, I am always equal to tragedy, but comedy is a serious business." He meant that comedy requires an amount of earnestness and depth that is not usually given to it. An actor, while thoroughly appreciating it must always take a joke seriously, otherwise the humor is lost. Dogberry, for example, when he hears that the lady Hero was slandered, says "Flat burglary as ever was committed." He saw nothing peculiar in the word "burglary." So the actor must be perfectly serious and speak in good faith.

The other day an old gentleman asked me if I did not think the starring system most pernicious, I replied that when I was a stock actor I looked upon every star as a tyrant, and when I became a star I looked upon every stock actor as a conspirator. Shakespeare invented the starring system. Hamlet, Shylock, Macbeth, Coriolanus are all stars. These plays also were written to illustrate human passions; Othello, jealousy; Macbeth, fate; Coriolanus, the autocrat; Merchant of Venice, revenge.

In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare intended to represent the passion of love, and to do this he needed two stars. When Garrick and Barrie were playing Romeo in London, there was much dispute as to which of the two made the best Romeo. Mrs. Siddons, who was playing Juliet for both, was appealed to, and this is how she answered: "It is very difficult for me to decide, but I will tell you how they both affect me. In the balcony scene, when Garrick is making love as Romeo, he is so eager and ardent that I am afraid every moment that he will leap and jump up to me. When I act with Barrie he is so fascinating that I am afraid every moment that I will jump down from the balcony to him."

Many young actors fail without understanding why. They complain that they play their best roles and no one comes. The fault is not with the roles, but with themselves. The tones of the actor's voice and his manner must convey to the audience a clear understanding of the lines.

I am now ready, gentlemen, to answer any questions you may choose to put to me.

Question - "Is an endowed theatre in Boston advisable?"

It depends on what it is endowed with. If endowed with talent, it would succeed in Boston as well as anywhere else. The question is often asked, why can not we have a theatre like the Comedie Francaise. France is Paris, Germany is Berlin, England is London. America on the other hand, is made up of a number of metropolises. Where would the national theatre be? New York would claim by right of her size, Boston would claim because she is the home of culture and refinement, Washington would claim it as the capital city of America. However there is no reason why Boston should not have an endowed theatre.

Q - "What effect does an academic training have on a person who wishes to become an actor?"

Undoubtedly academic training has a good effect upon the education of an actor, but a great deal must afterwards be learned from practical training.

Q - "Has the decrease in stock companies had a deleterious effect upon acting?"

I do not think it has. The public is now much larger than it used to be, and requires a greater variety. The stock companies used to play many different parts, even opera. Now there are special companies for each, and because they devote more time to them they do them better. Moreover, the best actors in stock companies usually become stars as soon as they achieve their reputation. There is little sense in finding fault and wishing to go back to the old stock companies.

Q - "Is there likely to be a revival of romantic drama similar to the revival of romantic literature which has recently occurred?"

I do not know. If such a revival should take place it might please us, and it might not.

Before closing I wish to speak a few words on the controversy whether Bacon or Shakespeare wrote the plays ascribed to the latter. A well-known critic says that it is extremely improbable that Shakespeare wrote the plays, since not a single scrap of his writing has come down to us. This argument also holds good of Bacon for there is no writing of his to show that he was the author of the plays. If we stick to the argument we shall have Shakespeare, while the critic does not even save his Bacon.

Mr. Jefferson closed his delightful address by reciting a poem which gave full credit of writing the plays to Shakespeare.

After the address a reception was given to Mr. Jefferson at the house of ex-Governor Russell.