BY pure chance, I came across a nineteenth century actor who had promised much in his early days but sadly was overcome by alcohol and never regained the status he once had. He was most famous as a tragedian, and his life ended in a truly dramatic and tragic way, as he drowned on a ship the SS London in the bay of Biscay.
here is the report in the London Times
THE LATE MR. G. V. BROOKE.
(From the Times.)
THE tragic actor, whose sad fate and gallant conduct formed one of the most striking incidents connected with the wreck of the London, was born in 1819, and, having shown an early predilection for the stage, made, it is said, his first appearance at the Theatre Royal in his native city, Dublin, in 1833. The character selected was William Tell, in Mr. Knowles play of that name, which seems so singularly ill-fitted for a boy of 14, that we may surmise an inaccuracy in one of the above dates. Nevertheless his performance was sufficiently successful to lead to an engagement.
After playing in two other cities of Ireland he proceeded to Scotland, and there acquired a reputation which even reached London. An engagement at the Victoria Theatre was the consequence of his fame in the sister kingdoms, and he seems to have delighted the audiences on the southern bank of the Thames by twelve performances of Virginius.
His success at the Victoria, which was followed by other provincial engagements, made but little impression on the general playgoers of the capital, but it was otherwise when, in January, 1848, he appeared at the old Olympic Theatre, then under the management of Mr. J. Davidson. Virtually this was his first appearance in London, and not often has the approaching debut of an actor produced so large an amount of curiosity as in the case of Mr. G. V. Brooke. He had many offers from metropolitan managers, and had refused them all, and these frequent negotiations, accompanied by the news of brilliant successes in the provinces,had naturally kept his name before the Londoners, who 18 years ago were much more excitable on the subject of tragedy than they are at present.
His performance of Othello, the character selected for his first appearance, at once secured him a wide popularity. He repeated the part to crowded audiences for 30 successive nights, and for some weeks in 1848 he stood high among the theatrical ” lions” of London, lively discussions as to his merits taking place in every assemblage, where plays and players form a topic of conversation.
His physical advantages were very great. He had handsome and expressive features; his figure was tall and commanding, and, above all, his voice, which was afterwards deteriorated, was at first not only remarkably rich and sonorous, bat singularly capable of extremes of light and shade. It was in giving expression to the more violent emotions that he turned those natural gifts to the best account, and the storms of passion which distinguished his Othello and his Sir Giles Overreach were certain, in his best days, of commanding the tumultuous applause of hundreds. The circumstance that he lacked finish, and was by no means perfect in declamation, rather increased than diminished his favour with the masses, for it confirmed a common belief, that he owed his proficiency, not to crabbed art, but to fresh healthy nature, and the “inspired genius” is always a popular figure.
A similar belief was entertained earlier in the century with respect to Mr. Edmund Kean, and among the theatrical gossips of 1848 those were not wanting who saw in Mr. G. V. Brooke the tragedian on whom the Kean mantle had fallen. At opinions like these cooler judges shook their heads, and predicted that a permanent reputation of the highest kind would prove beyond the reach of the popular idol.
After the destruction of the old Olympic by fire, Mr. Brooke was re-engaged by the unfortunate Mr. Watts, who opened the present Olympic at the end of 1849, and in the course of the season played the principal character in the Noble Heart, a drama written by Mr. G. H. Lewes, on the ancient Spanish model. But his repertory never greatly increased, and to the end of his career his best success seems always to have been achieved in Othello and Sir Giles.
On the termination of Mr. Watts’ management Mr. G. V. Brooke retired from London for a considerable time, and after fulfilling some provincial engagements, visited the United States, where his histrionic success was immense, though a managerial speculation at New York proved a failure. In September, 1853, he reappeared at Drury Lane, then under the management of Mr. E. T. Smith. Again, the opening character was Othello, and the enthusiasm of 1853, having a wider field for display, seemed to exceed that of 1848. In deed, it is not too much to say that the success of Mr. G. V. Brooke as a tragedian in a theatre that long has been dissevered from tragic uses pioneered that permanent establishment of the poetical drama at Old Drury, which we now find under the management of Messrs. Falconer and Chatterton.
But his renewed popularity was not sufficiently vigorous to last through two engagements, and in 1854 he took his leave of the London public, and proceeded to Australia, where, as in America, his success as an actor was prodigious, but where, likewise, he failed as a manager. When, after seven years’ absence from London, he reappeared in October, 1862, again as Othello at Drury-lane, he found a generation that ” knew not Joseph,” and his return made scarcely any impression whatever upon the playgoing world.
After a few performances at the large house he migrated to the City of London in Norton Folgate, and thence to the provinces. When he perished in the foundering of the London, he was on his way to fulfil an engagement at Melbourne. Lovers of coincidences may compare the death of Mr. G. V. Brooke with those of Mr. Tyrone Power in the President, and of Mr. Elton in the Pegasus. A new interest attaches to the once popular favourite, through the melancholy circumstances amid which he perished, but his importance in the annals of the London stage is limited to the year 1843 and the season 1853-4.The Christian names of Mr. Brooke were “Gustavus Vaughan,” not, “Gustavus Vasa,” as some have erroneously supposed.
Lois Elsden 