CHAPTER XXXV.

Charleston Theatre-Solee-Williamson-Placide-Copartnership of Placide, Greene, and Twaits-Destruction of the Richmond Theatre and the dissolution of the Charleston management of that period-Mr. Caldwell, and Theatres of Western States.

Ir will be remembered that David Douglas, the second manager of the Old American Company, built a theatre in Charleston, in the year 1773. Near the conclusion of our fifth chapter we have mentioned, as an event in chronological order, that a merchant of Charleston, and Mr. Goodwin, a comedian, erected a building called Harmony Hall, in that city, for theatrical and other amusements, in 1786. We have reason to believe that this is the same building now used as a theatre, and standing in Church-street, near Broad-street. This is the second theatre in that city; the first being that which was built by David Douglas in 1773, as above mentioned. We will devote this chapter principally to such facts as we can collect and recollect, connected with the drama of South Carolina.

The place first called Harmony Hall came after

wards to be known as Solee's Long Room. We have had occasion to mention Mr. Solee as a manager at Boston and New-York. He was probably better fitted for his earliest management, as the entertainments first directed by him were in the French language, and he may have known something of French literature.

The company which Mr. Solee carried to Charleston in 1797 was very strong, and probably far superior to any that had exhibited in the Long Room theatre before. Mr. and Mrs. Williamson were leaders, the first in tragedy and second-rate comedy, the second in romps; Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock were equally leaders, the first in fathers, and the second as the representative of the tragic muse; Chalmers was first gentleman comedian, and Mr. Hughes the low comedian; Mr. and Mrs. Jones added strength to the corps; Miss Broadhurst was the opera lady; the singing man was Chalmers's inseparable, Williamson the second; Mr. and Mrs. Cleaveland were the walking gentleman and lady, and both young, handsome, and equal to their lines; Mr. and Mrs. Placide were powerful, the first in dance and pantomime, the second as an actress and singer; Mr. M'Kinzie was an improving second actor in tragedy or comedy. Of Mr. Downie, Mrs. Hughes, and Mr. and Mrs. Rowson, who filled the list, we cannot speak from knowledge.

Mr. Williamson, who stands at the head of this list, succeeded Solee in management, and died in 1802. After the death of Mr. and Mrs. Williamson, the Charleston theatre was taken by Mr. Placide. His

children, the oldest, Miss Caroline Placide, afterwards Mrs. Waring, was born in April, 1798, and Henry, the present excellent comedian, was born in September, 1799. These, and the younger boys and girls, as they could be made useful in dances and pantomimes, were trained to the stage, and have been its ornaments and support.

After a time, Mr. William Greene, mentioned as one of the great Chestnut-street company, joined Mr. Placide in the management at Charleston, and played the first line of business. Robinson, familiarly called Hop Robinson, who had descended from the shopboard of the Park theatre to the stage, and exchanged the thimble and needle for the sword and truncheon, was Greene's second in the buskin. His success, though not great, proved that he had merit. Mat. Sully was the principal low comedian for years. Mr. and Mrs. Claude, Mr. and Mrs. Young, Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, with Messrs. Caulfield, Burke, Anderson, Sandford, Huntington, and Mesdames Greene, Placide, Poe, and others, occasionally changing, made the Charleston theatre rich in efficient performers.

When Mr. Placide, in 1803, engaged Mr. Hodgkinson for the Charleston theatre, he absorbed all the attention which had previously been diffused among many. Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock had again returned to Charleston, and to her Angela Mr. Hodgkinson played Osmond, as his opening part. When this was succeeded by Shelty, and a long list of characters not only dissimilar, but opposite, which he performed with such uncommon powers, he gained that favour

and admiration which was justly his due on the stage. In the winter of 1803-4 he played in Charleston upwards of eighty different characters. Seven of these were from the pen of the writer of this work, who will remark, en passant, that when he played Captain Bertram, the play was advertised by the title of Fraternal Discord in England, to make it appear as an English production, although the whole dialogue indicates Germany as the scene of the action.

In the winter of 1804-5, Mr. Hodgkinson was again the great attraction of the Charleston theatre, which he left in the summer of 1805, and died in the autumn of the same, at Washington, as above recorded.

When Twaits, after his unfortunate quarrel with Captain Smith, and the subsequent disagreement with the managers of the Park theatre, joined himself to the southern company, he was justly, for a time, the favourite actor. The management was now in the hands of three directors-Messrs. Placide, Greene, and Twaits. They occasionally divided their company, and occupied, with the Charleston theatre, the theatres of Norfolk and Richmond.

of an

This company was broken up in consequence astounding calamity which seemed to shake the American theatre for a time to its foundation. This was the destruction by fire of the Richmond house, during the time of performance, and the loss of upwards of seventy persons, burned, or crushed to death, in the course of a few minutes. It is a curious circumstance that Cooke, who never played either at Charleston or

Richmond, was the remote cause of this conflagration, and the ruin of the Charleston company.

The divisions of the corps of Messrs. Placide, Greene, and Twaits, had been united at Richmond, in the autumn of 1811, preparatory to embarking for their winter-quarters in Charleston. But it was known that if they could carry the great George Frederick Cooke with them, even in his shattered condion, their season must be uncommonly productive. The calculation was good. Cooke, removed to a new theatre of action, so very dissimilar from either England or the northern states, would have thrown off his damning vice for a time, exerted a renewed energy, and enjoyed renewed health. He would have been idolized by the hospitable south, and he would have refrained, for the poor object of attaining applause as a player, from that which the great object of health, self-approbation, and universal esteem, could not cause him to eschew--he would have made-that was the the object of the managers-an overflowing treasury.

Mr. Placide had negociated an engagement with the veteran, and had left a carriage in waiting for him at New-York to transport him to Richmond: there to play a few nights previously to embarking. But Mr. Cooke was sick-or did not choose to move. This caused the delay of the company at Richmond, and the keeping open of the theatre until the night of the fatal 26th of December, 1811.

A new play and pantomime had been advertised for the benefit of Mr. Placide. The house was fuller than on any night of the season.

The play was over,