Event Comment: "It was with extreme regret that we perceived
the ravages of time in
the person of [
Mrs Crawford, who had not acted in
London since 12 Apr. 1785], tho' we were much consoled in observing that his influence is not equally apparent in her abilities...
The blaze is gone, but
there is a richness in
the setting lustre...
Kemble is evidently [
Johnston's] model,
and he followed him so closely, as even to
the crossing of
the legs in dying; so that where he was best, his efforts seemed to be
the effect of imitation" (
True Briton, 24 Oct.). "Mrs Crawford has had her day; but
the sun of her genius has long sunk beneath
the horizon...Many parts of her performance, we were sorry to observe, evinced
the most evident decline of powers,
and her tremulous accents,
the debility of which was rendered
the more striking from
the want of several teeth, proclaimed that her days of play
and action were nearly brought to a close...She was received with reiterated plaudits throughout...Nature has been very bountiful in supplying [Johnston] with a voice of much compass
and melody, but he does not appear to have paid much attention to
the cultivation of her favours. His transitions are often abrupt,
and sometimes discordant;
and the management of his tones is of so strange a nature that it appears more like two distinct voices than a judicious modulation of his natural accents" (
Morning Herald, 24 Oct.). Receipts: #260 9s. (253.4.6; 7.4.6)