Count Johannes. The Count's favorite part seems to have been Hamlet. Nature had fitted him for this, and saved him much trouble, for he was not obliged to "put an antic disposition on." He was even better equipped for his part than that enthusiastic actor who was accustomed to black himself all over to play Othello. He was a " star " who " shot madly from his sphere." Possibly the frequent af fectation of insanity in the part drove him distraught in fact. Yet Mr. Phelps does not include the Count in his book on the Rep resentatives of Hamlet. On the other hand, Laurence Hutton, in his agreeable " Curios ities of the American Stage," includes him, and gives his portrait, as Hamlet, from which that accompanying this sketch is produced. Mr. Hutton quotes George Henry Lewes' assertion that " no actor has been known utterly to fail as Hamlet," and remarks that he evidently forgot, first, infant prodigies; second, ladies; third, men who burlesque it; and fourth, "men who fail not only as Hamlet but as everything else," and con tinues: "of the fourth, George, the Count Johannes, in his later days, was a brilliant example. His occasional productions of Hamlet for his own benefit, a few years ago, were the source of much silly amusement, and rude horse-play upon the part of audi ences not wise enough to appreciate the mental condition of the unfortunate star, or their own want of taste in encouraging his buffoonery even by their ridicule. His sup port, composed entirely of amateurs, was without question the worst that any Hamlet has ever known in this country; but his own performance was neither good enough to be worthy of any notice whatever, nor bad enough to be funny. The connection of George Jones with the American stage as a professional actor, dates back to the early days of the Bowery Theatre. He made his American debut there as the Prince of Wales in Henry IV, on the 4th of March, 1831. He played Hamlet at the National Theatre
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in 1836, and he repeated the part (before he became too mad to portray even the mad prince) many times, not only in this country, but in England. The last occasion which merits even a passing word being at the Academy of Music, New York, on the 30th of April, 1864, when he was associated with Mrs. Brougham (Robertson) as Ophelia, and Mrs. Melinda Jones as the Queen." So his Countess was his Queen. It is greatly to his credit that he chose to marry one of his own profession rather than sell his title to an heiress. His wife was a person of respectable histrionic talents, and the pair had a clever daughter, Avonia (named after Shakespeare's Avon, probably), who fol lowed her parents' calling, and acquired fame at home and in England as " Leah, the For saken." Mr. and Mrs. Jones separated after awhile. He made his final exit, in New York, on December 20, 1879. His favorite pupil, Miss Lydia Avonia Fairbanks, of New Jersey, attended him in his last moments, and it was due to her devotion that his remains were not buried in Potter's Field. Through her exertions, and the charity of a number of persons connected with the stage and the press, on January 5, 1880, his body received the last rites of religion, not "maimed," at the " Little Church around the Corner," and were interred at Maple Grove Cemetery, Long Island, in a lot given to Miss Fairbanks for the purpose by a generous gentleman. There was no meet ing of actors on the occasion, for the Count was not considered an actor. There was no meeting of the Bar, for he was not regarded as a lawyer. But according to Dr. Putnam, his friend and physician for thirty years, who had often lent him money, the theatre and the Bar have frequently been convened over more unworthy although saner men, for he said : " I never knew him to tell a lie nor to leave one of the small sums to which I have referred unpaid."
