11 - Back on Tour

Summary

The new 1848 tour began badly. In Carlisle, Aldridge was favorably received by those who saw him act, but his audiences were very small: “The houses have been wretchedly attended, and the receipts of the painstaking and worthy manager must have been indeed beggarly.” In Glasgow, he attracted large crowds that included the leading literary men of the city, but the actors and actresses with whom he performed at the Adelphi were woefully deficient; Aldridge was said to be “the only personage on the stage that knew anything of business. It was pitiful to see the Moor surrounded by such a pack of ignorant mouthing humbugs…. All their voices are cracked and broken, as if the best of their days were spent.”

Matters improved markedly when he moved on to Dundee where there was an efficient stock company run by actor-manager J. W. Anson. There he created a sensation, winning frequent bursts of applause from enthralled hordes of spectators. The acclamation and public support grew with each successive appearance, so his run was prolonged for several nights. On the evening of his benefit hundreds were turned away from the doors unable to obtain admission, and a general demand for a repetition of the pieces the next night was made. As a token of Dundee's appreciation of his achievements, he was presented with “a large Celtic fibula or brooch, set with costly stones, bearing the following inscription:—‘Presented to Ira Aldridge, Esq., the African tragedian, by a few friends, in admiration of his great and varied talents as an actor, and of his character as a gentleman.’”

This was the kind of furore that Aldridge was capable of arousing in the months that followed. Through the rest of 1848 he is known to have acted before very large audiences at Stockton, Hull, Douglas (Isle of Man), Newcastle upon Tyne, Edinburgh, Ulverston, Southampton, Durham, Perth, and Arbroath, the latter two towns being on a theatrical circuit managed by the same J. W. Anson, who later became Aldridge's agent in London. Almost everywhere the public response was exuberant, a phenomenon trumpeted on playbills in large letters: “Immense Success, Crowded Houses,” “Unparalleled Success,” “Great Success and Applause,” “Triumphant Success.”