“我忍着一副眼泪，
扮演了几场苦戏，
一会儿替人伤心
一会替人着急。
我是 一个多情的人，
这副眼泪如何忍得？
做到了最伤心处，
我的眼泪热滚滚的直滴。
台下的人看见了，
不住的拍手叫好。
——他们看他们的戏，
哪懂得 我的烦恼？”（《尝试集》：《艺术》）
这既是一首带有“叙事性”的抒情诗，又带有诗学（艺术）批评性质。诗的前面有段说明，原文如下：
报载英国第一“莎翁剧家”福北洛柏臣(Forbes-Robertson)（复姓）现在不登台了，他最后的“告别辞”说他自己做戏的秘诀只是一句话：“我做戲要做得我自己充分愉快。”这句话不单可适用于做戏；一切艺术都是如此。
| Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 16, 1853 London, England |
| Died | November 6, 1937 St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, England |
| Occupation | actor |
| Years active | 1874-1913 |
| Spouse | Gertrude Elliott |
| Children | Jean Forbes-Robertson |
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (January 16, 1853 – November 6, 1937[1]) was an English actor and theatre manager. He was considered the finest Hamlet of the nineteenth century and one of the finest actors of his time, despite his dislike of the job and his lifelong belief that he was temperamentally unsuited to acting.[1]
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[edit] Early life
Born in London, he was the eldest of the eleven children of John Forbes-Robertson, a theatre critic and journalist from Aberdeen, and his wife Frances. One of his sisters Frances (1866–1956) and three of his brothers, Ian Forbes-Robertson (1859–1936), Norman Forbes-Robertson (1858–1932) and John Kelt (Eric Forbes-Robertson) (1865–1935) also became actors. He was the brother-in-law of famed actress Maxine Elliott. The uncle of Roy Harrod[2] the economist and he was also the great-uncle of actress Meriel Forbes (granddaughter of his brother Norman), who married the actor Sir Ralph Richardson.
He was educated at Charterhouse. Originally intending to become an artist, he initially trained for three years at the Royal Academy. He began a theatrical career, out of a desire to be self-supporting, when the dramatist William Gorman Wills, who had seen him in private theatricals. offered him a role in his play Mary Queen of Scots.
His many performances led him into, among other things, travel to the U.S., and work with Sir Henry Irving. He was hailed as one of the most individual and refined of English actors. He was a personal friend of the Duke of Sutherland and his family and often stayed with them at Trentham Hall; he is known to have recommended to them various writers and musicians in dire need of assistance.
Forbes-Robertson first came to prominence playing second leads to Henry Irving before making his mark as the greatest interpreter of Hamlet of the nineteenth century, according to many critics. One of his early successes was in W. S. Gilbert's Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith. In 1882, he starred with Lottie Venne and Marion Terry in G. W. Godfrey's comedy The Parvenu at the Court Theatre.[3] He was noted for his elocution, particularly by George Bernard Shaw who wrote the part of Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra for him. Forbes-Robertson's other great roles were Romeo, Othello, Leontes in The Winter's Tale, and the leading role in The Passing of the Third Floor Back (filmed in 1916, released 1918). He did not play Hamlet until he was 44 years old, but after his success in the part he continued playing it until 1916, including a surviving silent film (1913) which indicates his greatness in the role. Shaw considered him the greatest Hamlet he had ever seen.
He was also a talented painter who did a portrait of his mentor Samuel Phelps that currently hangs in the Garrick Club in London. Forbes-Robertson acted in plays with the gifted actress Mary Anderson in the 1880s. He became smitten with her, fell in love with her and asked her hand in marriage. She kindly turned him down though they remained friends. Later he and actress Beatrice Campbell enjoyed a brief affair during the time she starred with him in a series of Shakespearean plays in the mid 1890s.
[edit] Personal life
In 1900 (age 47), he married actress Gertrude Elliott, sister of Maxine Elliott, with whom he had four daughters. Their first daughter was Maxine Forbes-Robertson (b.1901-?). Their second daughter Jean Forbes-Robertson (1905–1962) became an accomplished actress. Their third daughter was Chloe Forbes-Robertson (b.1909-?). Diana Forbes-Robertson (1914–1988), their fourth daughter, was a writer who later wrote a biography of her aunt Maxine Elliott. Through his daughter Jean he is the grandfather of actress Joanna Van Gyseghem. Johnston Forbes-Robertson was knighted in 1913 at the age of 60.
In the last years of his life he produced plays by George Bernard Shaw and Jerome K. Jerome. His literary works include: The Life and Life-Work of Samuel Phelps (actor and theatre manager) as well as his own autobiography Johnston Forbes-Robertson: A Player Under Three Reigns (1925).
The Great Painters of Christendom From Cimabue to Wilkie was written by his father, John Forbes-Robertson. see: The New York Times
In 1937 (age 84), he died on 6 November in St. Margaret's Bay, near Dover, England, UK.[1]
[edit] References
 | This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009) |
- ^ a b c Sir Johnston Forbes Robertson, Beauty And Grace In Acting, Obituaries, The Times, 8 November 1937.
- ^ P. M. Oppenheimer, ‘Harrod, Sir (Henry) Roy Forbes (1900–1978)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2010 accessed 8 Oct 2011
- ^ Culme, John. Footlight Notes No. 389 at Footlightnotes.tripod.com, accessed 18 November 2009
- Berry, Ralph. "Robertson, Sir Johnston Forbes (1853–1937)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 17 Jan 2008]
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