I had been for a
long period extremely solicitous to see Robson undertake the part of
_Sir Giles Overreach_ in "A New Way to pay Old Debts." You know that
_Sir Giles_, after the discovery of the obliterated deed, goes stark
staring mad. I should have wished to see him assume Edmund Kean's own
character in the real play itself; but Robson was nervous of venturing
on a purely "legitimate" _role_. I was half persuaded to write a
burlesque on "A New Way to pay Old Debts," and Robson had promised to do
his very best with _Sir Giles_; but a feeling, half of laziness, and
half of reverence for the fine old drama, came over me, and I never got
farther than the first scene.
By this time some of the foremost dramatists in London thought they
could discern in Robson latent characteristics of a nature far more
elevated than those which his previous performances had brought into
play. It was decided by those who had a right to render an authoritative
verdict, that he would shine best in that which we call the "domestic
drama." Here it was thought his broad fun, rustic waggery, and curious
mastery of provincial dialect might admirably contrast with the
melodramatic intensity, and the homely, but touching pathos of which in
so eminent a degree he was the master.
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