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Olympic Theatre. ...
OLYMPIC THEATRE.
Last night Mr. Wigan formally took leave of the public, which had assembled in great force to celebrate his benefit with appropriate honour. Almost to the moment when his address was actually delivered a doubt was entertained whether the indisposition that causes him to retire from management would not prevent him from performing the melancholy duty announced in the programme. However, at the end of the second piece came forward, amid loud and encouraging cheers, the expression of his countenance bearing witness to the depth of his feelings on this really solemn occasion. After a short pause, during which he collected himself with some difficulty, he spoke as follows:--
"Ladies and Gentlemen,--I appear before you this evening under the influence of very strong feelings--feelings of mingled pride gratitude, and regret. This has been announced as a farewell benefit, but it is not the familiar farewell of the outworn veteran, retiring in the natural decay of his powers to the leisure fairly earned by long service. It is the leave-taking of one stopped short in mid-course--in the most vigorous time of life--compelled to retire from management when most successful, and from acting when in the full enjoyment of your favour and approbation, by strange and unforeseen illness. But with pain at this unlooked for close (for the present, at least) of my managerial and professional career are blended pride and gratitude for the favours so liberally bestowed upon me for years past, and so nobly crowned this evening.
I have had the honour of managing the Olympic Theatre for four years, or, more strictly speaking, for three years, for during the whole of the present season the active business of management in every department has devolved upon my wife. During that period ten pieces have been got up and produced under her sole superintendence, and I trust you will not attribute it to a husband's partiality if I say she has performed her task well and bravely under circumstances of peculiar difficulty and depression. That the public has been satisfied with her exertions is best proved by that most satisfactory of all tests-- the balance sheet. The result of the season has been prosperity and profit, where disaster and loss must have been looked for had I not possessed so able and indefatigable a substitute. She can no longer support the fatigue, excitement, and anxiety of such exertion without risk, and I am therefore compelled to retire until I may again be able to take my share of labour. The course I have adopted during my management has, I am proud to think, raised the Olympic Theatre to a high position in public favour, and I can look back and fearlessly say that its success has been honestly and fairly won by hard and well-directed work. When retrospect leaves this feeling, no wonder that parting from the theatre and from you, its indulgent patrons, should be very painful. But on painful feelings I will not dwell. After surmounting the many difficulties in the way of firmly establishing this theatre as a place of rational and harmless amusement, I shall, on the 7th of next month, relinquish all connexion with it; but I shall always feel a warm interest in its fortunes, and a sincere wish that it may long enjoy the success that has hitherto attended it. I have now a large debt of thanks to pay to the gentlemen of the newspaper press, for the fairness and the good-nature of their criticisms upon the performances at this theatre, and also for the warm and cordial sympathy which they have expressed with my present position; to the committee of friends who have done me the great honour to associate their illustrious names with mine; to the authors who have written for me; and to my company generally, not only to my brother actors for their zealous and loyal co-operation (more especially during this last season, under the direction of my wife), but to every one employed in the theatre, down to the humblest artisan; and above all, my warm thanks are due to the public, whose support has so generously rewarded my exertions. For myself, should the blessing of health be restored to me--and I will look forward hopefully--I may again be able to contribute to your amusement, when I trust that, by keeping to the same course, the same result will follow--that success will be won by a sincere desire and an earnest effort to deserve it. But should my hopes be doomed to disappointment--should this be my last appearance before you, I will carry with me to the end the memory of the great kindness I have always received at your hands--kindness so warm, so sympathetic, and so unvarying, that it leaves me scarcely able to pronounce that word which for me blends so much sweetness with so much sadness. But, linger as I may, it must be spoken; and so ladies and gentlemen, good friends and patrons, I most respectfully and gratefully bid you all farewell."
Never, probably, was a speech delivered with more genuine and unaffected eloquence than the above. The sad countenance of the excellent actor and manager, whose right arm was in a sling, the voice suppressed throughout, though never becoming inaudible, and the almost choked utterance when he approached the conclusion, gave a meaning to the words which, well-chosen as they are, cannot be perceived by a mere reader. The printed speech, however, answers our purpose. It exactly states the cause of Mr. Wigan's retirement, with all its mournful peculiarities, and renders superfluous any comment on his management and its termination.
When Mr. Wigan had left the stage an unanimous call was raised, and he soon reappeared leading forward Mrs. Wigan, whose services he had so justly and so touchingly recorded. They both retired amid the deafening cheers of the whole audience.
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