Macbeth, act 1, scene 5
“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be / What thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature.” (Macbeth, act 1, scene 5)
All illustrations of Friederike Unzelmann as Lady Macbeth are from Wilhelm and Moritz Henschel, Caractere der Madame Bethmann , vol. 1,6 of Ifflands Mimische Darstellungen für Schauspieler und Zeichner: Während der Vorstellung gezeichnet zu Berlin in den Jahren 1808 bis 1811 (Berlin 1811).
Macbeth, act 1, scene 5
“Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top full / Of direst cruelty.” (Macbeth, act 1, scene 5)
Macbeth, act 1, scene 5
“Thou art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it; what thou wouldst highly, / That thou wouldst holily; wouldst not play false.” (Macbeth, act 1, scene 5)
Macbeth, act 2, scene 3
(Banco:) “Our royal master’s murder’d! Woe, alas!” (Macbeth, act 2, scene 3)
Macbeth, act 5, scene 1
“Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.” (Macbeth, act 5, scene 1)
Macbeth, act 5, scene 1
“The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? What! will these hands ne’er be clean?” (Macbeth, act 5, scene 1)
Friederike Unzelmann as Nina 1799
Friederike Unzelmann singing the aria “Wenn der herzgeliebte erscheint” (When to Nina — hapless maid! / The well-beloved shall return), specifically the lines “[ich] harre [des Geliebten] vergebens!” (Alas! I away my love in vain!).
(Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Bildarchiv und Grafiksammlung, Porträtsammlung, Inventar-Nr. PORT_00015189_01, PORT_00015189_02; by permission)
Johann Gottlieb Rhode reviews her performance in 1799:
“The first time, she puts the emphasis on “harre” [wait and watch], and her countenance is the most complete and perfect embodiment of waiting and watching. Carelessly leaning on the bench, she turns her face upward and stretches out her arms. She watches and waits for the beloved, and yet she senses that she is waiting in vain. I need hardly point out to anyone possessing even a modicum of feeling for the mimetic arts just how perfectly she directs her gaze into the vast, indefinite space of heaven.”
Friederike Unzelmann as Nina 1799
“The second time these words occur, she has through the preceding countenances prepared the audience for a completely different expression. Now she wholly emphasizes vergebens [in vain], and her countenance is the purest expression, the most beautiful embodiment of the feeling with which this notion cannot but fill her entire inner being. Her body position is more vehement, her legs more outstretched, her breast more hunched; her right hand covers her eyes and forehead, while her left arm is outstretched.”
