ZZZl

3(n jEemoriam

jWemorial Celebration
OF THE

SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE

BIRTH OF

emin

iSootI)

HELD

IN

THE

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN CONCERT HALL

NOVEMBER THE THIRTEENTH
MDCCCXCIII
BY

THE PLAYERS

Jinprmiatur

Pt^72'^

^^T
\o^

a
*^"

meeting of the Board of Directors of The Players, held

Monday, the 9th of October,

Park,

1893, at the

Club House,
that in

i6Gramercy

New
it is

York,

it

was "Resolved,

the opinion of this Board

fitting that the

anniversary of the
this

birthday of our eminent Founder, Mr.

Edwin Booth, should

year be marked in
of the Club
is

some
to

special

manner, and that the President

hereby authorized to appoint a committee of twelve

members, with power

add to

their

number, to arrange
at

for a

public meeting on the 13th of

exercises in

November,

which appropriate

memory

of Mr, Booth shall be held."

134

GENERAL COMMITTEE
A. M. Palmer, Chairman

John Malone, Secretary

Henry Codman Potter

T. B. Aldrich
E. C.

Henry

Irving

Brander Matthews
F. F.

Stedman

Mack AY

William Bispham

John D. Crimmins

Charles

E.

Carryl

Horace Porter
James
F.

Stephen H. Olin
Joseph
F.

Ruggles

Daly

Sol Smith Russell

E.

Chauncey M. Depew
Daniel Frohman
R.

H. Sothern

Frank W. Sanger
Louis Aldrich

W.

Gilder

Elbridge T. Gerry
A. S.

Charles Scribner
Charles
E. S.
S.

Hewitt

Smith

Laurence Hutton
J.

Willard

Henry Harper

Stanford White
Francis Wilson

A.

Hayman

Barton Hill
Carroll Beckwith
Augustus
St.

W.
F.

E.

D. Scott

HoPKiNSON Smith
J.

Gaudens

Thomas

McKee
Woodberry

W.

J.

LeMoyne

Stuart Robson

Parke Godwin
Francis
J.

George
Quinlan

E.

SUB-COMMITTEES
ON RECEPTION

Frank
James
F.

W.

Sanger, Chairman

Ruggles

W.

H.

Crompton

William Bispham
Daniel Frohman

Evert Jansen Wendell

Nelson Wheatcroft
Francis Wilson
A. H. Canby
Louis Aldrich

John Malone
Charles Pope
Franklin Sargent

Beaumont Smith
Charles
B.

Henry Miller
Charles Harbury
A. Hayman.

Welles

Albert H. Bruning

ON printing and invitations

Charles William Bispham
Stephen H, Olin
E.

Carryl, Chairman
Joseph
E. H.
F.

Daly

Sothern

ON decoration

Stanford White, Chairman

Carroll Beckwith
Louis Aldrich

Augustus
F.

St.

Gaudens

Hopkinson Smith

Francis Wilson

on speakers
E. C.

Stedman, Chairman
F. F.

R.

W.

Gilder

Mackay

on music

W.
Francis Wilson

E. D.

Scott, Chairman

John Malone
A.

Hayman

^^oor

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Cl)e j&rogramme

31n

fl^emomm

EDWIN BOOTH

Madison Square Garden Concert Hall

Novembei' 13th 1893

THE PROGRAMME

Dead March from "Saul"

(Used by Mr. Booth
in

Ha fide/
Hamlet)

Introductory Address

Joseph Jefferson

III

Commemorative Address

Parke Godwin

IV

Overture

Phantasie

"Hamlet"

Tschaikowshy

Hlegy

George

E.

Woodberry

THE PROGRAMME

VI

Nocturne

"Midsummer

Night's

Dream" Mendelssohn

VII

Address

TOMMASO

SaLVINI

VIII

Translation of Signor Salvini's Address

Read by Henry Miller

IX

Address

Henry

Irving

X
Slumber Music
"

Romeo and

"
Juliet

Gounod

Music by the

New

York Symphony Orchestra

Director

Walter Damrosch,
13

Ct)e :aDDresses

3JntrDtJuctorp ^tiDress
JOSEPH JEFFERSON

^^Z^
"al --^^

becomes

my

duty to present to

this

assembly the

distin-

guished speakers of the hour.

You

will hear an elegy

from Mr. Woodberry

a
;

commemorative address

will

be

spoken by Mr. Parke Godwin

a translation of Signor Salvini's

In addi-

address will be delivered to you by Mr. Henry Miller.

tion to this, there will be

words of

praise

spoken

for the

one

whom we
the
sea.

mourn, by two of

his histrionic brothers

from across

They have
revealed

acted
their

with him, upon the same stage.

art

They have

superb

with him.

Those

who

have been fortunate enough to witness these scenes have indeed

something to remember.
as
it

Possibly

it

will

be gratifying to you,

is

to his brother actors in America,

and as

it is

to me, to

know

that those gentlemen are to speak of him.

left

It

attests that

he not only

his indelible
I

mark

here, but his impress

upon

other shores as well.

distinguished actors are

need scarcely say to you that those

Salvini

Tommaso

and Henry
it

Irving.

Signor Salvini has requested

possible for

me

to say that

has been imwritten,

him

to

memorize

that

which he has

and

that he will, of necessity, be compelled to read, instead of delivering

it.

And

here

it

would seem

that
17

my

duty ends.

But

how

can

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
closely allied
I

leave this place without telling

friendship, to

you how

was,

in

Edwin Booth.

We
I
1

were boys
first

together.

He was
sweetest

but sixteen years of age

when

met him

the

nature and the most noble face

social

ever looked upon.

His splendid
its

and dramatic career was marked by

close.
life,
1

me

from

beginning

to

its

trust

am
say

not pressing too closely upon his early

I

domestic

when

was

the confidant between

first

him and

the sweet lady to

whom
1

he gave his

love

was cognizant of
our youthful
arm, in the
illness

his youthful courtship, his early

marriage and the bereavement

that followed after.

have acted with him upon the stage and

rambled with him through the woods.

joys together, and
in after
life,

We shared
upon

years he leaned

my

autumn of
overwork.
It

his

sweet

when broken down by

a

and

was but

little

more than

year ago that

we

strolled to-

gether,

upon the seashore, and he spoke with strange cheerfulness

approaching end; and
aright, he considered
if
I

of his

remember

his

thoughts and

words

no

man happy

until

he could enjoy
elevated condi-

the successes of his enemies.

tion for

Surely this

was an

one

who was

about to step across the threshold from

this world to the next.

We

are

all

well acquainted with

Edwin Booth's

public career,

but his private charities

were only revealed

to his nearest friends,

all

and even these he would have concealed from

been possible.

eyes had

it

May
after a

mention one

When

he returned to San Francisco,

twenty

years' absence, he discovered the

in the

abode of an old

lady
her

who
in

had acted with him

his

years gone by.

He found

poverty, and

charitable
life.

hand surrounded her with

every comfort for the rest of her

Another: Over forty years ago his

tragedians of the world,

father,

one of the great

of Charleston,
of the

came
the

to act in the city

South Carolina.

was

boy stage-manager
i8

theatre

IN

MEMORIAM
ill.
I

EDWIN
called

BOOTH
if
1

there.

His father
1

was

on him to see

could do

anything.

found the elder Booth lying upon a

sofa,

attended
at

by

his son.

They were not

friend.
I

at a hotel;

they were living

the

house of an old
together.

saw them under

this hospitable roof

Thirty years

after,

the unfortunate city of Charleston

was shaken to its very center by a terrible earthquake, and that same house, with hundreds of others, was crushed to earth and
the inmates injured and ruined.

Before the fallen telegraph wires

afflicted

had been
family

lifted

an hour a message of comfort to that

was

flashed over the wires by

Edwin Booth, with

entered this
to relate
it

a splen-

did gift that placed

them beyond reach of want.

I

About
occurrence

five
is

minutes ago, just before

so recent that of
I

room
I

the
told

feel

bound

was

that an old servant

Edwin

Booth's,

who

had attended him

all

many

years, hearing of this

to

ceremony, had come

1

the

way from
a

Richmond
But

be present.

need not say that she received

her.

ticket of admission
I

and had every courtesy shown

close, for
1

now must
which
I

feel that

have been trespassing

1

upon the time of

that in

others,
will join

and

in

doing

so,

can only ask of you

to the

wrapt attention

words you

may

hear.

19

II

Commemorative

;atit)ress*

PARKE GODWIN
Mr. President and Gentlemen of The Players:

(^^^T was
'^l

but a few months since

a

was asked

to speak

some

commemorative words of

dear friend deceased,

who

^W'

was

literature,

Mr. George William Curtis;

I

most distinguished and charming ornament of our and it is to me a most

affecting incident that the last time

saw another dear

in

friend

no

less distinguished

and charming

another sphere

he was
1

reading those words with sympathetic approval.

to his over-generous appreciations
1

But as

listened

little

thought

how
in

soon

should be asked to perform the same melancholy duty

to himself.
1

respect

refer,

of course, to
it,

Edwin Booth.
falters

The name,

as

pronounce

upon

my lips,
it

for

it

recalls

many
he
is

hours of joy, with few of sorrow, while

forever.

reminds

me

that

gone from us

We

shall

no more see that

fine in-

tellectual face

which interpreted with so much beauty and truth

the grandest creations of the foremost

human

intellect;

hear no more that melodious voice which added a

to the

we shall new music

music of poetry, whether

it

came

to us in the flute-like

tones of the sweet south breathing upon a bank of violets, or like

the

deep organ-pipe of the ocean

some passages of

when

it

breaks

in

heavy

* Owing to a want of time here supplied in print.

this address

were not spoken, and are

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN
flung

BOOTH

cadences on the const; he will lead us no more into that ideal

realm,

whose golden

portals are

wide by the magic of

of heroic

genius, to reveal to us the grand figures of history and grander

figures than history has ever
colossal passions
a lover's dreams,

known, men
as fair

mould and

and

women
it is

and lovely as the

it

women

of

whom

a rapture to see, as
shall

would be an
from the

education to

know; and we
pulsations

no more
fresh
silent

feel

the grasp of the

hand whose
heart.

were ever
into the

and

warm

He

is

gone
still

it

gone
is.

land
its

and

how

im-

penetrable and

We
;

peer into

darkness and the

people, and they

clouds only gather and thicken

we
left

call to its

answer us not

again,

and

we

are

to a faith that often

wavers
igno-

and a hope that often sinks; but as

rance backward
better
for us,
let

we walk

in reverent

us indulge the hope and cherish the faith as

as a moral
discipline than

perhaps,

any

clearer

knowledge.

You

will not expect

me,

in this brief

hour of communion, to
elab-

present you a detailed biography

of Mr. Booth, or any

orate estimate of his character and career: those are themes for a

more seem

deliberate occasion,

and

we

can only glance at a few salient

points

which commend him

if

to public

remembrance.

It

would

as

he had been dedicated to the theatre both by outward

If it

circumstances and inward vocation.

as our venerable

cannot be said of him,

and genial President has said of himself, that he

was almost born upon the stage, it may be said of him that he was cradled within sound of its plaudits, and nourished upon some of its noblest traditions. His father, Junius Brutus Booth,
was one
of that galaxy of actors
its

who

rose on the sunset of Garrick,

and included among

bright particular stars the Kembles, Hen-

derson, Cooke, Young, Cooper,

O'Neill.

Kean and Mrs. Siddons and Miss

jealousy

He was, indeed, a formidable rival of Kean, to whose he owed the signal honor, as we do the signal advantage,

of his transfer from the metropolis to this western wilderness.

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

For

many

years he

was

the one cometary splendor of our theatri-

cal skies,

and showed the

way

to a host of luminaries

who
For

have
if

since dazzled our eves, without paling his effulgence.

the

younger

sort in

those early days were disposed to lose themselves

in bursts

of admiration

over any

of

these,

the older

heads

would simply remark,

close of

" Ah, yes! very well, very well; but have

as
if

you ever seen Booth?"

all
it

that

were

at

once the climax and

possible criticism.
is

Well,

among my

earliest recollections to

have seen that

meteor, as he flashed across the boards of the old Park Theatre, as

Richard or Sir Giles or Pescara,

cal,

when

was too young to be

criti-

but not too young to receive an indelible impression of his

brilliancy.

power and

Like Burbage, Garrick and Kean, he

was

small but of a compact figure, with a

commanding

presence, a

most expressive
be set on
less liquid
fire

face

and

great,

luminous eyes that seemed to

His voice
less

from some inner volcanic source.

was

than that of his son, and his carriage

his outbreaks
titanic.

dignified

and graceful, but

pathos,

of passion, whether of rage or

were simply

In

hearing them one could readily

believe the stories that

in their parts to

were

told of his fellow actors stopping

in

gaze upon him

the fourth

mute amazement and awe.

of
this

Edwin
inherited
that

Booth,

son

eccentric

genius,

many

of his best qualities, and added to

their intensity of blaze

them others
Mary-

tempered

and mellowed the excesses

of their energy.
land,

He was born on
father

a farm near Baltimore, in

retreat

which the

had procured as a
;

from the glare

said,

and the bustle of the footlights

and he might have

Glendower,
that,

with

more

truth, perhaps, than

Owen

" At

my
full

birth

The

front of

heaven was

of fiery shapes

"

for

he came into the world

in

November

of 1833, during that

as

me-

teoric

shower of

the 13th,

which passed

phenomenal

into the

IN

MEMORIAM
I

EDWIN
it

BOOTH
distinctly,

annals of astronomy.

remember

when we

stu-

dents of Princeton rushed out into the night to see the sky, from
zenith to horizon, on every side, a sea of streaming flame,
recalled the

which
ere the

most high and palmy

fell,"

state of

Rome, "

little

mightiest Julius
'

when
fire

'

Stars with trains of

and dews of blood

Disastered

tiie

sun,

but they were deemed "the precursors of fierce events," while

these in the milder superstition of the negroes augured a brilliant destiny.

More important
ished

to the

new-comer than

these exhalations
his limbs

was

that grand drop of sunshine, the farm,

where

were nour-

by the

fresh juices of the earth, his lungs

expanded by the

winds, and his imagination kindled by the shapes and shadows

of the darkling wood.
limited

His education there

at a lady's school,

was elementary and

little

little

while

another
violin,

while under

a foreign teacher,

who

taught him the

while the negroes

if

around taught him the banjo, and a

less

while

any

at a higher

academy.

Doubtless the father's presence

was something

of an

education; for he
linguist

was

a scholar

who

read a great deal

an expert
who
lined

at least,

he could present French parts to French audi-

ences

in their native

tongue

and a gentleman of
Edwin

taste,

his walls

with pictures and books. But any education there would

irregular, considering the habit he

have been

had of carrying some

told

of his children on his theatrical tours.

me

that he re-

membered being
then catch him
repeating

taken,

when he was

but five or six years old,

father,

behind the scenes, to await the exit of his

in his

who would
air,

arms, caress him and toss him in the

tale or

some nursery

song, as a

mode

of relieving the

tension of his nerves.

Under these

influences he naturally aspired to the stage, and

a playfellow of his

boyhood,

who remembers him

23

as a curly-

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
enthusiasm
in that

haired, bright-eyed,

handsome
to

lad, recalls his

direction;
villains,

but he always insisted that he would only play the

who

had

much

do and

to say for themselves, while he

despised the parts of lovers,

whom

he regarded as milksops.

In

that the incipient tragedian spoke.

to his

But the father was opposed

children going
his

upon the

stage, not because he underesti-

mated
it.

profession, but because he

in reply to a

doubted

their capacity for

And once
let

remonstrance, he petulantly exclaimed,

acts."

" Well,

them play the banjo between the

first

Edwin's
enteen,

appearance, in 1849,
accident

when he was
of a friend
III.,

scarcely sevpart
as

was by

the

f^iilure

whose

Tressel, in Colley Gibber's mutilation of Richard

he assumed,

and the same companion,

who was
pit.

present, reports that while

he carried himself with self-possession and dignity he

audible
at the

middle of the
father,

was inThe eminent Rufus Choate, a

to

warm

admirer of the
it

was heard
Edwin,
in

remark on that occa-

sion "that

was

a great

pity that eminent

men

should

have

such mediocre children."

however, persevered,

and
re-

got himself regularly enlisted

the stock

munerative salary of six dollars a

get

company at the week, which he was glad

seems soon
part

to

whenever he

could.
for

The

parental objection

to

have disappeared,
father himself,

he was pushed into a

1850 to appear
insisted that

first

by the

who

refused in
it,

in Richard,

when
take

he was announced for

his place.

and

Edwin should
in

This was at the old National Theatre

this city,
I

which became the Chatham Street Chapel, where in later years saw an Abolition riot that was a good deal livelier than any play. One can easily fancy what an ordeal it must have been for a
youth of eighteen to be substituted
the day.
for the

most famous actor of

At

first

he was received with some murmurs, but

gradually
curtain.

won

approval, and at the end

a bit elated

was

called before the

He was
it

by

his

own

success, but in after

his father,

years said that

was

mere boyish imitation of

24

and

IN

MEMORIAM
however,

EDWIN

BOOTH
and he became

execrable at that.

It,

settled his career,

a Thespian for the rest of his days.

But his novitiate, or apprenticeship, passed on the outskirts

of civilization,
disaster.

was

rough one, beset with drudgery, doubt and

in

California

those days lay like a luminous golden

haze on our western horizon, and thither

pursuit of fortune or fame.

many men

turned in

Among them

the father and son

crossed the pestilential isthmus in

cess,

1852 in high hopes of suc-

but destined to encounter a great deal of hardship and vicis-

situde.

The

father

soon abandoned San Francisco

for

New
him
on
the

Orleans, and died on his

to battle against

way

north, leaving the son behind

In the larger cities

the world for himself.

the coast

Edwin

did tolerably well, but his adventures

foothills, as told

among

mining camps of the

by one of

his

companions,
us back

were

full

of grotesque yet painful incidents.

They take

to the very days of Shakespeare,

when

the licensed companies,

driven from the metropolis by the plague, which often carried off

more than
and

one-fifth of the inhabitants,

rambled through towns

wares,
in

villages,

to

exhibit their
in

half-contraband

the

granges of farmers,

the back yards of inns or in booths on the

open

plain

but their experiences must have been luxurious comearliest lessons.

pared to those which gave to Edwin Booth his

What
fifty

with imprisonment

in

mountain burgs

isolated

by snow
thirty or

and threatened with starvation; with long tramps of

miles through slush and

mud; with

the cooking of their

own
on

food or the mending of their

own

clothes; with performances

boards

laid across the billiard tables

of saloons or on the trunks

of fallen trees; with a free discharge of pistols

the midst of

now and

then in
a

some grand scene

of heroism or love;

and with

final return to the coast

so utterly penniless as to render a resort

to negro farces or a local travesty a necessary alternative to

less

hope-

want, his entrance upon his career can not be said to have
cheerful.
35

been either encouraging or

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
voyage he made with
a

Nor was
transient

the

outcome much

better of a

company

to the islands of the South Seas, as far off then

as the Antipodes

now and
it

almost quite as unknown.

For what

reason they went, unless

was to confirm a prophecy of Shakes-

peare that "eyes not yet created should o'er read his gentle verse,"
it

is

difficult to

say; but they played in Australia,

Samoa and

Hawaii, sometimes before royal courts which probably did not

understand a word of what they uttered, but more often to a

frieze

and background of dusky natives

This was
in

in full paradisaic

costume

and intermittent purses.

California,

1854.

On

the return to

where an accomplished

lady, Mrs. Forrest,

had opened

a successful theatre, the light

stroller,

began

to

dawn upon the youthful

in

and he was enabled to show the mettle that was

him, and by a few astonishing hits to gather the means of getting

back to the

East.

These
acting in

six novitiate years

on the

frontiers of civilization,

and

companies picked from the roadside, and

to audiences

not at

all

exacting or refined in their demands, were years rather

of drudgery and of crude and careless

discipline.

work than

of education or

They were

years of apprenticeship and

required sequalities

vere labor and endurance, but did not impart the nicer
of culture.

Yet they were not wholly

fruitless.

He
They

acquired by
familiarized

them the mere mechanical tricks of his trade.

him with the
and perhaps awakened
a

scene, developed his voice, infused self-confidence,

higher ambition.

On

his

return

to

the East in 1856, arduous trials

awaited him there, which proved

however, both educative and disciplinary.

to the defects of his old imitative

They opened

his eyes

and

traditional

methods, and

threw him back upon native original methods, and his better Deficient in early cultivation, and misled by the judgment.
accepted models of the times, he had to unlearn
learned,

and to learn much that he did not

much that he had know. He did not leap

had
to climb to
it,

to the top at

once nobody

ever does
26

but

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

through thickets and thorns, with an occasional tumble on the

rocks.

Even

after

he had ventured an appeal to the cultivated taste

of Boston, and been approved, a foreign actress with

whom

he

played refused to go on because of his ungainly and

awkward
intel-

ways.

In contrast

is

the fact that

differed so

when

he played with Miss Cush-

man

in

Macbeth she

widely from his refined and

lectual conception of the character as to beg

him to

'

'

remember that
villains."
;

Macbeth was the great ancestor of all the Bowery

Mr. Booth

But

was

not too conceited or too indifferent to learn

he read

widely and carefully; he observed constantly and closely

and he

was wise enough

to him, even

to put aside his faults

when

they were discovered

when

they were pointed out by unfriendly criticism.

at

Perhaps the acquaintanceship that he formed

in

this

time here
artists

New

York with

a considerable

number

of

young

and

literary

men (now
his

past masters in fame),

who

had been attracted

to

him by

rare

modesty and unquestionable genius, may

his ambition for the highest places.
details.

have helped to awaken

He He

began, however, at the bottom, with the study of

recalled that Garrick,

who
was
a

to a

mind

that attracted Burke,

Johnson, Goldsmith and Reynolds added accomplishments that

fascinated the multitude,

most sedulous student

in courts,

on the

streets,

in

asylums, and booths,

of features, gestures,

walk and tone;

that Kean, apparently the

most impulsive actor

that had ever appeared, yet

when

preparing for Lear had practiced

before a glass, night after night,

demanding repeated

rehearsals,

and even marking

his positions, his recoils

and advances, on the

stage in chalk, and he followed their examples.

will read his notes to Furness's

Anybody who
will

Variorum edition of Othello

remark the importance

he attached to every movement, every

expression of face, every toneof the voice.

Even

his

own
his

perform-

ances were constant objects of observation with a view to their

improvement.
of which
I

Once when

praised

him highly on

Macbeth,

had formed conceptions, derived from the performance

27

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN
1

BOOTH
it

of Macready, with
replied: "
it

whom,

next to Werner,
think
I

was

his best,

he

It is

only a study, but

can

yet."

At another time, happening into

sofa,

his

make something of room about noon,

and covered
;

found him prostrate on the

half out of breath,

with perspiration, and exclaimed,

plied:

"Not

ill,

hope"
I

and he

re-

"No;
all

it

is

that abominable speech.

I

have been practicit.

I

ing

it

the morning.
it

have shouted
it,

it

and screeched
it,

have roared

and mumbled

and whispered
I

but

it

will not

come right." None the less, very speech was so far right as
of applause.

observed afterwards that this

to bring

down

a triple

bob major

This attention
it

to

details
if

seems, perhaps, mechanical, and

would be mechanical
means; but
out with
it

regarded as an end alone, and not

painter's study

is

no more mechanical than the

of his
fills

chalk drawing, from which he never deviates

all

and yet no more

the glory of color and form.

It

is

mechanical than the metres and rhythms the poet observes in

order to reach the heights of poetic beauty and grandeur;
it

is

no

more

mechanical

than

the

inexorable
if

laws

of counter-

point which the musician obeys

he would delight the world

with the loveliness of a chorus

in

Lohengrin, or with the sublime,

cherubic, heavenly harmonies of a concerto in

is,

minor.

Genius

of course, the main thing;

its

intuitions

and sympathies are the

all

prime movers, the breath of

but genius
itself

life,

the source of

grand

effects;
it
it

can only

work by
snaffle

instruments, and

when

mounts
must

its

winged Pegasus,
its

or drives the coursers of the sun,

still

guide

steeds

by

and

bit.

Mr. Booth had the

taste

genius, but he had

to

no
its

less the

judgment, the

and the

will

put
it

an end to

mere curvetings and prancings, and

to

direct

toward

its

triumphal goals.

Mr. Booth's range of impersonation during these later six years

of journey work,
of the living

when he began
(to
28

to

be recognized as " the hope

drama"

use Barrett's phrase)

but not yet

its full

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

realization

was
some

quite broad, comprising both comic and tragic

thirty
in
all.

characters,

But he was more effective

in

in

tragedy than comedy, though not deficient

of you

the

latter.

Those

who saw
Ruy
Bias

his

Benedick, his Petruchio and the lighter

will

scenes of

and Don Csesar de Bazan,

his

remember the

extreme delicacy and grace of

comic delineations, which never

If at

degenerated into farce or buffoonery.

times, in private

life,

among
more
that

intimate friends, he was, like Yorick, " a fellow of infinite

jest," the

humor which opens

fountains of tears

seemed

to be

suited to his habitual

temperament and tone of thought than

which

ripples the face with smiles.

As he grew older and

towards

more experienced he gravitated by

the grander and

a sort of native affinity

more severe
the

creations of Shakespeare

Lear,
Brutus,

Hamlet,
Cassius,
rightly,

Macbeth,

two

Richards,

Othello,
not,
if

lago,
I

Antony,

and

Wolsey,

but

remember
and then

Coriolanus or the Egyptian Antony.

fields

Now

he strayed into other

and gave us masterly representations

of Richelieu, Pescara, Sir Giles and Bertuccio, and yet he seems to

have avoided,

purposely, Virginius,
little

Damon,

Pizarro,

and the
for

Gladiator, as perhaps a

too sentimentally

ad captandtim

the true

artist.

It

was

to Shakespeare he mainly aspired,

and

through him

won

the place,

which he held

for thirty years, of

rivals,

the foremost American actor.

if

He had many worthy

few,

any, equals; certainly no superiors.

His most formidable com-

petitor,

Mr.

Edwin

Forrest, for

whom

he was partly named,

a superb
ity,

and impressive performer, was, through age and infirmfalling into " the sere and yellow leaf" when he was in the
It

prime of vigor and bloom.

may be

that Mr. Forrest's

growing

fondness for certain native tragedies, in which declamation took

the place of poetry, or a cut-and-dried type of character that of
real nature,

may have

separated himself

somewhat from
to run.

the cur-

rents in
It is

which

aesthetic

judgment was beginning

the highest eulogy one can pronounce

29

upon an English

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN
for

BOOTH

actor to say that his masterpieces of performance

pieces of Shakespeare's creation,

were the master-

they imply more than the

ordinary requirements of a good performer.

These are manifold

and
volitional,

and of a high

order, physical, intellectual, emotional

in a

and these Mr. Booth possessed

proved them by study and

large measure,

and he imhe

self-discipline.

Small

in stature,

was

yet compact and well-proportioned

self

in build,

and he carried him-

with a rare dignity and grace, so that

like the

his poses

were always

statuesque and his motions

wave

of the bending corn.

His mobile features, lighted by large lustrous eyes,

made

his face

not merely handsome,

voice,
clear as a bell,

but exceedingly expressive; while his

and loud as a trumpet, ran through the

marrying sweetness to sonorBut to these mere outer
gifts

whole gamut

of vocal utterance,
jar.

ousness of sound without a

he joined rapidity and ease of emotional excitement, and, more important than the
rest,

a depth

and breadth of

intelligence

which
far-

together enabled him to apprehend the most subtle as well as

reaching thought of his author, and to respond to his sentiment as

the musical chord does to the pulsations of the
air.

His eminence

in

the Shakespeare circle

was due

to his possesall

sion of the latter qualities.

The

great Master differs from

other

dramatic writers

in

many

respects, but in

two respects
actor.

particularly,

which put
these
is

to the final test the

powers of the

The

first

of

his

marvelous insight into what Tennyson called

"The

abysmal deeps of personality."

their personages

Other writers are apt to delineate

from the outside, as embodying solely some im-

perious passion, or as charged with

sion,

some one transcendent miscannon

ball flies,
in

which

is

to be presented, as the

an un-

deviating

line.

Among the
is

ancients, for example,

no one can misor Orestes

take in /Eschylus as to

what Agamemnon, Antigone,

done; amid the

has to do, or
the

how it

to be

pomp of the

language

way is always

clear.

Even among the more romantic moderns,

no one disputes as to what Karl Moor, Don Carlos, Egmont, Her30

IN

MEMORIAM
;

EDWIN
all

BOOTH

nani, or Triboulet

means nearly

actors

would present them

in

the

same way. But Shakespeare's persons

at

are not so easily grasped,

not because they are purposely or bunglingly obscure, but because

they are

once so very deep and so very broad.

In other

words,

while most writers write from the surface Shakespeare writes from
the inmost
life

center outward to the periphery,

side.

where he touches
and so bound
cir-

on every

His characters, therefore, are so involved in the

infinite intricacies of

inward motive and

caprice,

up with the incessant complexities and cross-play of outward

cumstances that they must be studied closely and time and again
to learn

what they

are.

Nobody

gets

them

at a glance.

They

are

too profound to be fathomed by the eye alone, and too

many-

sided to be taken in by any single sympathy. Besides, while they

are such complete

and consistent

individualities,

growing from

youth to age, that one has told of the girlhood of Shakespeare's

heroines,

and another of the after-wedded

life

of Benedick and

Beatrice, of

Imogen and Posthumus, of

Isabella

and the Duke,

they are yet types of permanent and universal humanity, and to

be interpreted, as the living deepens as our

insight.

man

is,

by

a scale

which widens and

in

own
full

hearts and

minds grow

experience and

Two

hundred years of the astutest comment have not

significance.

yet indicated their

The other

trait

of the great Master,

is

an actor should

al-

ways bear
exudes
in

in

mind,

the exuberance of his poetic nature,

which

words, diction, rhythm, scene, personage and story.

for

Goethe was much reproached

peare

having said once that Shakes-

was of a dramatist, by which he merely meant that the poet was primary and predomIn other words, inant while the playwright was secondary. He nowhere poetry is the very atmosphere in which he lives.
of a poet than he
restricts himself, as

was much more

Henry James accuses the great French authors

life

of doing, to the multitudinous glaring outside

of the senses.

He was

as

open as ever man was

31

to every

skyey and every earthy

IN

MEMORIAM
all

EDWIN

BOOTH
deeper, stronger, of the
soul."

influence, but through

these he

saw "the
in
itself

subtler

inward

life,

the

wonderful

adventures

Whatever theme he touches, though

the color over

commonplace and

unpleasing, he steeps in the color of his fancy, and he scatters

all

surrounding objects.

Like a bird, he dips his

wings

in fetid pools

only to disperse the water-drops in showers

tells

of pearls.
in

Whatever story he

or passion he portrays, though

themselves repellant or even hideous, he purges them of their

lifts

grossness and

them

into an

air

of ideal

freshness.
still

Like

Niagara

which

in its

maddest plunge and loudest roar

its

waves

the iridescent banner of

its

rainbow, and

still

sends up to the skies

mist-columns of diamonds
literal

he

raises his scenes,

which
up

in

their

nakedness

might shock us

with

horror,

to

the purer and serener heights of the ideal,

where i^schylus not

only heard the groans of the incestuous king and

saw

the wild-

eyed

furies in pursuit of Orestes,

but heard, too, the thunder-tones

of destiny and

saw
grew

the dread forms of the immortals.

to

Mr. Booth
istics

be keenly apprehensive of the character-

of the Master, and studied

them

closely

and brought them

out as he best could into more and more distinctness and vividness.

His representations, as he advanced, while they

showed

a closer analysis of character,

mark of thought, conveyed at the same time that higher ideal value which is the He seemed to penetrate more and more essence of poetry. into the interior significance of his personages by discerning
which
is

more

fully

what was
humanity.

universal in

them and so of permanent

Lear,

interest to

Thus

his

King

which

in the

begin-

ning was the traditional King Lear, an irascible old

sudden and

fearful

explosions of wrath,

man liable to and who did many foolarbitrary will

ish things, gradually

became the type of imperious

force,

undermining

its

own

dispersing families

and disrupting
a par-

kingdoms through sheer

ticular history,

caprice,

and an exponent, not of

of

but of

a universal truth
32

human

nature.

Thus

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

Hamlet,

whom

he once wrote of as an "unbalanced genius,"

to

was
fell

raised

afterwards

the perfection
it

of

manhood, who,
to execute,

charged with an imperative duty

was impossible
his

by the corrosive and destructive action of

and madness, and brought
his

own
a

thoughts

into distraction
ful

down

whole beautibells.

world with

own

ruin amidst a

sound of wrangling

Thus Macbeth, on the

surface a heartless and sanguinary tyrant

who
is

butchers his best friends and deluges his estates with blood,
to us in the
irritable

shown

end as

infinitely

more than

that: as the vic-

tim of that

imaginativeness which, dealing with the

reason, nature, conscience and affection

darker powers,
in a

whelms

vortex of hell-born dreams.

In the last

observe,

Mr. Booth

constitution,
I

two impersonations, it may be perhaps well to was assisted by a peculiarity of his own which lent them singular truth and awesomeness.
openness to those darker and more mysterious
called the night side of nature.

refer

to

his
life

aspects of

which have been

He was
rolls

peculiarly sensitive to the hidden, subtle, boding, unfa-

miliar influences of that

on the outside of
at

unknown and unfathomable ocean which our habitual and fixed experiences. He
in certain

was

one time deeply interested

abnormal phenomena
of
its

which

are called spiritualism, and, indeed, in the jargon

adepts he

was considered
tales

medium.
his

Certainly he could

tell

some strange
citements.

now

and then of

unconscious cerebral exthey had upon his con-

But the only practical

I

effect

duct, so far as

could observe,

was

to

deepen the awfulness of

his representations of personages

who

had walked on the border

lands of the unseen.

pation of the
that

His Hamlet, whatever the passion or occuthe dread vision

moment, was always haunted by

him on the ramparts of
fatal sisters

came

to

Elsinore,

and Macbeth was

ever accompanied by the

whose pushed him on while they consoled him

supernatural soliciting
in

his

immeasurable

atrocities.

33

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

It

was

consequence of Mr.

Booth's careful study of his

Shakespearian parts that he gradually refined his modes of rendering them out of the old boisterous, objurgatory and detonating style into one
tistic.

more

gentle,

and

therefore, as

think,

more

ar-

He was

at

no period
in

deficient in force
fell

and intensity of

expression.

His curses
a

Lear

like

avalanches from Alpen

heights
to rage

when
in

storm

is

on the

hill;

his alternations

from joy

Shylock throbbed and glowed with the red-heat of

the

molten iron;

lament of Othello was

lost,

like the

moan

of an

archangel for a heaven betrayed and

ful

ending

in that

remorse1

cry,

which "shivered
utter

to

the tingling stars;" and

have

heard him

the simple

phrase in

the

graveyard

scene,

"What!
that
kerchiefs.

the poor Ophelia,"

with such heartbreaking pathos

too,

whole rows of women, and of men

But he never found
his feeling
it

took to their hand-

necessary, at least in his later

like a

days, in order to get

niac or to

understood, to shriek

ma-

howl

like a

wounded

wolf.

He had taken

to heart

what

the great Master,

ity,
tist,

and

who could not be accused of tameness and frigidwho was doubtless as good a critic as he was a dramain

had long since taught us

"the very

torrent, tempest,

and
it

whirlwind of passion,
smoothness."

to beget a

temperance that must give

He had
sion,

learned in particular
1

two phases
original

of emotional expres-

which

do not suppose were

with him, but which

skill

are

very important and

require the utmost

and delicacy
phase

of

management.
in

The

first

may be

called the ascending

fosters

of emotion,
vates
it

which every strong passion

and aggra-

itself,

so that, beginning on a
its

low

level

of excitement,
to a violent in-

rises

by
It

own

self-generated vehemence,

tensity.

was displayed by Mr. Booth

in several

passages of

Hamlet, where, he
is

in spite of the strongest efforts

at self-restraint,

gradually carried
loses

away by
in a

the

movements
that

of his brain, and

for

finally

himself

frenzy
34

passes

madness.

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN
to

BOOTH
I

The Other phase of expression

which may be
passion
in
its

which

have

referred,

and

called

the descending phase, exhibits a towering

It

subsidence.

is

said to

have been one of the

master-strokes of Kean, who, though fond of abrupt transitions

that
is,

from transports of frenzy to calmness or even sportiveartist

ness

was yet

enough

to

natural,

and so

at

times came
like

know that down from

this

was not always

extreme heights
heave

his

by gradations of

fall,

the

waves of the
is

sea

which

still

and swell when the tempest

wholly past away.

in

This effect
dis-

was grandly given by Mr. Booth

self-control,

Lear,

whose tremendous
and

charges of anger are followed by sudden returns to patience and

when

his voice

assumed

to be calm,

his face

appeared to be smooth, but the twitching muscles and the tremulous tones gave proof that the passion had not yet vanished.
It

should always be borne

art,

in

mind

that

it is

not the aim of dra-

matic

whether

in

authorship or representation, to bring forth

It

monsters, either fiends, or freaks, or wild beasts.

presents us

human

beings,

swayed even

to

madness

in

the intensity of their

human beings. Even in its most abnormal departures from the human type, as in Caliban, they have still many touches of human nature in them, which they show, if in
passions, but
still

no other way, by speaking

the most exquisite poetry.
unveil crime in
its

its

language, and at times uttering

as Schiller says,

The drama,
must

deformity, and place

it

it

before the eyes

"must of men
dark

in all its colossal

magnitude;
familiar

diligently explore
at the
it

its

snares and

become

with sentiments
in

wickedness of
itself

which the soul revolts"; but

loose from
all

doing so

does not cut

its

semblance of manhood.

Otherwise

personages

would

excite,

not pity and terror, but horror.

Richard, lago,

Shylock, Macbeth, do diabolical things, but they are none the less

men, perverted by
from goodness and
truth,

evil,

hardened by crime, wholly bent away

truth,

and yet capable of both goodness and

intellect,

and

at their

worst exhibiting, perhaps, masterly

35

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
affection

heroic

courage,

sublime

defiance,

strong

are

like

Milton's fallen angels,

"the excess of glory obscured."

An open
tion he

secret of Mr. Booth's success

was

the high concep-

had formed and cherished of the dignity and usefulness of

Pained at times by the perversions of
his profession
in later
;

the theatrical function.

in

it

bad hands, he was yet not ashamed of

nor did
life,

he suppose, as Macready appears to have done

that

he would have been better and happier

the contrary, he

in

some other walk.

in

On

was proud
it,

of

it,

and rejoiced

his ability to

serve

it,

and through

the
its

highest interests

of the public.

He was
but he

not insensible of

degradations, actual and possible,

knew

that
fall

it

is

precisely those

things

in

our

nature which

the lowest that are capable of the highest.

is

human He
most
sense

knew

that dramatic literature

the highest form of intellectual

is

achievement, and that the stage

vividly interpreted

the

means by which

it is

and most widely

all

diffused.

In a general

the principal aim of

art

is

to please, but

we

should remember

that that pleasure ranges from the merest trivial

amusement
which

of the
inter-

moment
ests alike

to that

which Dryden
once the

calls noble pleasure,

and

at

intellect,

the conscience, the imagination,

the passions and the sensibilities in their finest and sweetest exercises,

and leaves traces of exaltation that go sounding through the

soul for ever.

Even

in its lightest forms, the pleasure

is

produced

by the

histrionic art
calls
it,

not to be despised.

The play impulse,

and which gives
the merry sports

as Schiller
rise to

in

which

it

originates,

the delicious pranks

of children and

and pastimes of the

nature

common
it

people,

is

that instinct of

human

which

lifts

out of

the

hard grind of
surrenders
it it

necessity

whether physical or moral

a

and
it

to

the joy of

disinterested freedom.

Not only does

is

"ease the anguish

of the torturing hour," but

ator

the main support

is

the

gener-

and the regenerator

of

whatever

most
In

healthful

and
par-

wholesome

in the exercise of our faculties.

36

common

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
is

lance,

we name

it

recreation, forgetting often that recreation

simply re-creation

or the
fresh

making over of
and new.
is

that

which

is

worn,
to

and not something

one of

Talleyrand used

say

that the arrantest nonsense

in

very refreshing, and Shakespeare,

it

his eulogies of

merriment, asserts that

life,

both relieves
its

the

wear and the woe of

in this

and cures some of

afflic-

tions,

he anticipated the doctrine of modern science,

that pleasurable excitements build
it

which teaches

up the nervous

system and maintain

in health

and growth, while depression,

in fact

despondency, or sorrow

any

form of pain,

wastes
all

it

away, and ends

in its total

destruction.

Assuredly

we

of us

know
brain

that a sound, hearty laugh clears the

cobwebs from the

and elevates the whole being into a more serene and invigair.

orating
shall

But

if

that be true of our lower enjoyments

what
sort
lofty

be

said

of the recuperative
at

power of the higher

which appeals
capacities

once and
are the

in

harmonious union to those

which

distinguishing marks

of humanity

which, separating

man from

every other form of existence,

creation

make

him what he
grander than

is,

the

crown and consummation of

beauty of the world

the
its

paragon of animals
all

the
as
I

and

infinitely

"this brave o'erhanging firmament," with

fire."

" majestical roof fretted with golden

Now,

dramatic
all

art,

have

said, appropriates to itself the

ex-

cellences of

other forms of

art,

and supplements them with exin that

its

cellences of

its

own.

It

abounds

prose which

is

"full of

wise saws and modern instances";

furnish

naive and racy songs

it

the

best specimens
in the

of lyric

enthusiasm;

rivals

the

solemn epic
speech,
it

grandeur of
as
its

its stories,

and, not satisfied with

calls in

assistants

and handmaids the imposing

its

splendors of architecture to build

temples, of sculpture and

its

painting to adorn them, of eloquence to add charm to

ances,

utter-

and of the delicious exhilarations of music,

to bear the spirit

on harmonious wings to elysian homes.

37

Like other literature,

IN

MEMORIAM
its

EDWIN
themes
;

BOOTH
it

it

rummages

the

ages for

turns over the dusty

in their

leaves of chronicle and annalist for

its

persons, filling
this,

gaps of forgetfulness

but,
it

more than

by

its

marvellous

power
in flesh

of characterization,

clothes the skeletons of the dead past

to us in their very habits as
revisit the

and blood, and presents them

they lived.
the
to

thousand buried majesties

glimpses of

moon;

the colossal

demigods of old mythologies that helped

shape the primal chaos

the noble masters of antiquity, whose

and
policies of
all

words have given law

middle ages
life,

to the arts

future time

the chivalric champions of the oppressed and of

womanhood in the

even the unknown heroes and heroines of domestic

little

to say nothing of the fantastic

loves,

tricksters of faery,

who
than

win our

revive,
in

and

we

are

made acquainted with men

and with

grander than any

actual history,

women

f^iirer

our visionary seraphs, and lovelier than our legendary saints,

in

that they are real

It

women

breathing thoughtful breath.

it

is

not merely the defense,

is

the justification, nay,

it

it is

the pre-eminent glory of the theatre, that

interpreter of this creative inspiration
its

is

the great popular

the channel through which

to the

rare

and exquisite treasures are conveyed

minds of the

people.

The

lofty

achievements of the

human

brain and heart, in

its

nearly every other

its

domain

its

great poems,

great histories,
its

great systems of thought,

its

great pictures, and

great music,

are a closed

book

to the masses.

They

are richly laden argosies

that sail on the unseen ether of the skies,

and not on the ordinary

atmosphere.

Few

see

them but those who have the opulence

stars.

and the

leisure to

climb the golden step to the

They

are an

unknown
of

realm

and how sad the thought! to the vast majority

in

mankind even

the most cultivated nations.

its

But the theatre

brings the gold and the jewels of

to the

Ophir mines of genius home

bosom of nearly every class

It is

one might add, of nearly every

which may be
said

individual.

the one institution of society

to be, in the strict sense of the

word, popular.
38

Other institutions

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
and rouse the souls of

touch the
selected

sensibilities, or tastes, or interests

circles,

but this goes directly to the sensibilities and

all.

rouses the souls of

are
its

Consider, too,

how

incessant
it

and wide

influences.

Victor

Hugo
its

has compared

to the ancient

Tribune whence the orators fulmined over Greece, and to the

modern
these in
time.

Pulpit,

which drops
but
it

heavenly messages

in

"rills

of

oily eloquence,"
its

has an

immense advantage over

nearly every
its

either of
in

almost unbroken activity through space as well as

in

Every night of the week,

it is

town and

city of

civilization,

telling its tales

and teaching
it

lessons of

good

or

ill,

and the Press alone surpasses

its

in the

immediate reach and

constancy of

work.
that

And what is sphere of human

our ethical being.
the conduct of
It is

work

Nothing
is

less

than
the

the

whole

relations,
It

which

precisely

sphere of

deals directly,

almost exclusively, with

is

man

to

man, and morality

force, a

the breath of
for

its

life.

essentially a

moral

tremendous agency

good or

evil.

Scientists tell us that while there are evidences

of a vast

physical order in the external world there are no evidences of a

moral order there.

The grand

forces of nature, regardless of

man

or his desires, drive the wheels of their chariots over his universe axle-deep in blood.
Historians
tell

us that the final adjust-

ments of events, the rewards of good, and the retributions of

evil,

are far apart in space, remote in time,

and seldom observed,

the beginning; but

or not observed in the end

it is

by men

who saw

not so

in

the

little

world of the drama, where the conseDramatic

its

quences of conduct are near, open, and swift.

trols the

art

con-

seasons of
its

its

own

harvests,

hangs

nemeses on the
its

neck of
with the

events, and freights the lighting-flashes of

auguries

rattling thunder-peals of their fulfillment.

is

Such an agency
especially

not to be neglected,

much

less derided,

and

by those who take the moral and

religious

interests of

society into their special keeping; nor are the actual conductors of
39

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

it

to be held

up

to derision,

and excluded from the mercies of the

all-merciful, as they

were but an age ago. by the

in

They

are to be prized,

as others are
If their

prized,

faithful

discharge of their function.

shortcomings

the past have been lamentable,

first

which of
let

the professions shall

throw the

stone

None

the less

us

hold them to their responsibilities, and remind them

of

constantly

what an almost omnipotent means of human

revived

elevation they

wield; and, as in the early days of the beautiful Grecian culture,

the dramatists

and perpetuated whatever was grand,

almost forgotten traditions; as
spiritual
in

awful and sublime

in their

the
still

middle age the Church, the mightiest of

called
to
its

forces,

aid the

Mysteries

which brought
lovely

common
we
not

people whatever

was

and holy

home to the in Hebrew or

Christian legend, so, in this enlightened Nineteenth Century shall

demand

of the

drama

that

it

shall take the lead in all the

purifying,

strengthening, broadening and

a progressive civilization ?

elevating

tendencies

which make
It

was

Mr. Booth's conviction of the real possibilities of the

stage that induced

him

to

work
all

for its

improvement, not only

in

the parts he played, but in

far

its

adjuncts and accessories.

As

back as i860, when he was the manager of the Winter Garden

following the example of Macready and the younger

Theatre,

Kean

in

England, he put

many

pieces

upon the stage with

degree of historical

accuracy and impressiveness that

was an
later

education to our playgoers, and led the

way

in

which our

Wallacks, Dalys and Palmers have creditably followed. His opulent equipment of the Winter Garden went up
in

flames, but, nothing daunted, he soon after projected a theatre

which should be

model of

its

kind, both for the comfort

and
It

safety of the audience, and the convenience of the players.

was made

as complete as

it

could be in every respect, with the

knowledge and resources at his

command.
artistic

Plays were produced

with an accuracy and amplitude of

40

device that pleased

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
in

both mind and eye.

but those
in

Not only the plays

which he took

part,

which others appeared.

in spite of its artistic merits, in

That enterprise,

went down
;

in

bankruptcy, as the former had gone up

jector of
it

flame

but the proto the road;

;

was not
last

disheartened.

Again he took

again the streams of Pactolus flowed into his pockets

and again,

having paid the

penny of former indebtedness, he bethought

It

him, not of himself, but of his fellows.

was on
of

pleasant

yachting voyage

in

the

Summer

time, with chosen friends, loving

and
high

beloved,
hills

along the

picturesque

coast

Maine,
far

where
glance

peep over their forests of greenery, and the

of dancing

waves shoot back the bright beams of the

to

sky, that he
let

communicated

them
of

his plans for

fire will

an institution which,

us

pray, the greediness

not

consume nor

the maelstrom

of finance absorb.

He

told

them of the

society,

"The
it all

Players," to

whose

gratitude and hospitality

now called we owe the

He gave
to

splendid assemblage which honors this hall to-day.

his available funds
life
;

he gave to

it

the companions of his long

it

silent

his

books; and he gave to

the treasures of his secret

heart

his pictures

and

his relics.

His desire

was

to erect a

home
in

where the

selected

members

of his profession

might meet with

one another, and with the representatives of other professions,

friendly intercourse

and on terms of

social equality

and reciprocal

esteem.
It

is

within the walls of

its

sumptuous

edifice, as

you walk

its

halls

and corridors, that the pictures bring back to the eye

the celebrities of the stage

whom we
letter, a

all

revere

and

some

of

whom

have found a place

It is

in

England's proudest memorial of her

honored dead.

there that a

sword, a lock of

hair, or

a tatter of dress restores Garrick, Kemble, Kean, Mrs. Siddons

almost to the touch, and there the elder Booth, Cooke, Cooper,
Elliston,

Munden,

Forrest, Wallack, Gilbert, Barnes,

in
41

Placide and

others look

down upon you

genial

serenity.

As one

sits

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
little

there,
bell

sometimes

in a

kind of revery, he hears the tinkle of a

rise,

and he sees the curtain

and then

whole entrancing
it

world of grace and splendor exhales

there

like a glorious vision,

is is

now

that the genius, the beauty, the distinction of the city

its

gathered annually to lay

feet of the

tributes of affection

and respect

at the

Founder, whose good remembrance

"
Lies richer in their thoughts than

on

his

tomb."

It

was

there that he spent his last hours, in

communion with
welcomes
of the

friends

who deemed

it

an honor to be admitted to his confidence, took

its

and there

his gentle spirit

way

to the

good and great made

perfect.

Like a light in the skies he has

and damps of the horizon; but

earliest of poets

now passed below the dews may we not say of him with our

" That the

soft

mem'ry of

his virtues yet

Lingers like twilight hues,

when

the bright sun

is

set."

May we
fitful

not say of him, as of the

good Duncan,

that "after

life's

fever

he sleeps well,"

leaving behind
bitter

him no rankling

animosities,

no unadjusted wrongs, no
a grateful

remembrances, only
In
life,

sorrow and

sense of his genius and goodness.

no doubt, he had

learned that fact from his

even of

his

who has not but no one ever own lips. There were those, perhaps, own profession, who exaggerated his hereditary traits
his

enemies

into personal faults, but

heart.

it

produced no
I

bitter

resentment

in his

For the thirty years that

I

knew him with more

or less

intimacy
being.

never heard him speak an unkind word of any

human
I

Yet he was as unassuming as he was generous, and

I

may
some

add that during that long interval

at all

never heard him speak

unduly of himself, or of himself

project for the public good.
fell

save in connection with

Affliction

upon him,

the early death of

42

his father
fair

whom
now

he loved and honored the withering of that

flower

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
fibres

" enskied and sainted," around whose being the tenderest

of his heart were strung

that

great public calamity,

which

for a

moment

blotted his

heaven of future hope and happiness; but

these misfortunes, while they

may have deepened

the lines of

thought on

his forehead,

never galled his heart with a drop of

elastic spirit
in

despair or pessimism.

Recovering with

from every

blow, he kept the even tenor of his

duty, as he conceived
it.

way

the discharge of his

The

other day, in taking up his copy of

I

" Macready's Reminiscences,"

found near the

close,

where the

veteran actor expresses dissatisfaction with his

life,

that Mr. Booth

had penciled on the margin,

Blessed with

"What would

this

man

have.?

education, with a loving family, with fame and

fortune and the friendship of the great, he ought to have been

supremely happy."
are; but he enjoyed

Mr. Booth
life.

was not supremely happy few He enjoyed it because he had discov-

ered that true secret of tranquillity and content

faculties

the use

of his
or os-

and

his fortune, not as a

means of self-indulgence

tentation, but for the furtherance of general ends.

Scarcely one

of his

more intimate

friends but could

tell

you of some dark home

or

brightened, of
to

some decayed gentleman

learned the deep

gentlewoman

raised

comfort and cheerfulness by his unseen but timely interven-

tion.
tial,

He had

wisdom
read,

of that epigram of Mar-

which perhaps he had never

possess and try to keep
flies

which says

that

"What
away

we

away, but what

It

we

give

remains a joyful possession forever."

not only admired him, but loved him
greater public mingled with
its

was
and

for this his friends

it

was

for this the

artist its

admiration of the
it

at-

tachment to the man.

had passed
his
life life

For, strange as
in

may seem,

this

man who
This man,

the expression of simulated sentiments

was

in his
like a

own

the sincerest and truest of men.

his

who,
the

nomad, had spent

above
all

days

in

wandering over the

earth, prized

things else the retirement and seclusion of

home;

this

conspicuous leader of a profession more than others

43

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

exposed to temptation, preserved himself as pure as the windsifted

snow

of the mountains; and he, the popular idol,

to

who

had
of

only to

appear upon the boards

awaken round upon round

rapturous applause, dreaded notoriety, shunned the crowd and

loved to be alone with his
I

own

thoughts.

How gentle he was there

strong he

cannot

tell

you

as gentle as the
stem
;

breeze that will not detach the

delicate blossom from the

nor

how

was

in

his

adherence to duty
hills

as

strong as the oak that no blasts from the

can pull up by
it

its roots.

Therefore
popularity.

was

that a strong personal feeling pervaded his

Recall those final days,

when he was
eagerly

laid

upon the

couch of pain, and remember

letins, rejoicing

how

we

followed the bul-

when

they were
skill

favorable and sorrowing

affection

when

they were not

so.

Tried

and devoted

were gath-

ered about that couch

one, the

the affections of life-long friends, and of

image of her
skill

who

had long since gone to prepare

his

way;

but neither

nor affection could delay the death-hour,

soft

and when, on that sweet,

day of June, as and the

light

and warmth
fuller,

were broadening
and richer green,
closed

over the earth,

it

trees had put on a

was announced
brightness

that his eyes

were

finally

on

all

this

and

beauty

how

instinctively

we

exclaimed with Horatio, bending over the prostrate form of

Hamlet,

"Now

cracks a noble heart!" and as the

big tears

flushed our eyes,

how we added

with him: " Good-night, sweet

Prince! And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." Indeed, may we not repeat it here, "Good-night, sweet Prince," and as we utter it may we not hear with our finer ears a responsive echo, floating with solemn softness, downward from the heights, " Good-night, dear friends, God bless you all; good-night "
!

44

Ill

GEORGE
j?ir

E.

WOODBERRY
lovers of the soul,
grief,

INGER
From

ye here,

all

jj^
Bend

Nor, careful of our

too far remove

the last rites of love!

hither your sad hearts,

no more to flow

With deaths

of ill-starred kings and tears of time,

Plucked from your bosoms by a feigned woe;

But frorathe living fountain learn to shed

Some

drops of sorrow for the player dead.

his earth dirges of
if

While round

sorrow go!

Who
Yours

mourn him,

not ye he taught to

weep

are the hearts he sought, the hearts he

won.

This solemn hour with sad observance keep,

living throng, felt

round

his mortal sleep

With man's long

tribute unto greatness

in his

gone!

Ah, not as o'er the violet

prime.

For him sweet pastoral notes and mused rhyme

The shroud
Meeds

of beauty weave, and leave him so;

But honor's breath and virtue's pure acclaim,

of long
life,

guerdons of happy fame.

To
In

future ages shall his blazon

show.

lowly dust abides his honored head,

45

IN

MHMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

But

in

the thoughts of

men
life

he shall aye climb,

Who
And

greatly gave his

in

to noble ends,

himself his country's honor stored,

And, past our borders, was our fame abroad;

Not unlamented he

to night descends.
life

Who

with the people's

his

genius blends;
farewell.

hinumerous sorrow and unseen

And what

the heart but to

itself

doth

tell,

Shall be his passing-bell.

The wide
Yet

stage darkens with such rare eclipse

all

As brings the hush upon

is

breathing

lips;

this silence

one that doth belong

To

music, and this

shadow unto

song.
light.

That leads us up again to heavenly

And makes fame

Nor
shall the

pure,

and grants immortal

right.

Muse's ample store afford

Less than her flourished laurel for his shroud,

Who

followed, for his master and his lord,

Her son, on

whom

immortal ages crowd,

Him who, erewhile, him, too, And Thames's song, was to his
In Stratford; yet again

with sorrow loud

silence

borne

she bids

men mourn

Her

tragic

grave, and by the Atlantic sea

Hath

set her stone of perfect

last,

memory.
fame doth sound.

Nor thou the

great Mother of our verse

his sable hearse

And Avon's

source, that loudest thy

Who
Who,
The

laid

thy

emblems on

Honor the fellow of thy master-mind.

far as

round the illumined world doth reach

large

dominion of thy conquering speech,

Bore England's greatest message to mankind

To him once more let all men's voices roll. Though the loud plaudit fallen to low lament;
46

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN
be,

BOOTH
sent.

The breath

of praise to

him

mourning,

From city and And every soil

For
first

continent
his voice

made Shakspeare's ground;

shall here

Yet greatest love

of

for

him
our

be found.

men born

ours he did advance

title

in the world's front

to the

crown.

And with

old glory blend our

young renown,

In tragedy a victor;

and

his glance

Knew
Yet
in

none but equals on that ancient ground,

each
rival there a

kinsman found,

While

rolled his

triumph to the Danube's bound.

less,

What

could he

inheriting his race,

Ancestral honor, and the

happy breed
art,

That from old Burbage heired the players'

And
In

in

young Garrick treasured up the

majesty, in

seed,
?

Kemble

Kean made grace

oft,

The masters come not

Who
On

lighten in the soul,

and

ride aloft

old Imagination's

winged sphere;

But he was native there.

And

could that orb of pale dominion steer,

Who

bore the soul of Shakespeare in

forth his world.

his heart
art.

And bodied

potent

Clothing with mortal mold the poet's thought,

That so could recreate

The beauty of dead princes and their state, And all that glory to perdition brought
Sorrows of song
!

noble breast o'erfraught.

That such a weight of perilous stuff could carry.

And

to the old

words marry
the Muses' Mercury,

The music of

his tongue, his princely mien,

And beauty
That
like

like

an antique god he trod the scene,

47

IN

MEMORIAM EDWIN BOOTH

And

every motion carved him where he stood

Fit for eternity

Nor came he

to this height

by happy chance;

Nor

birth nor fortune to that presence thrust;

strict

But wisest labor and

governance.

Lower than

in

himself he dared not trust,

But his dear study of perfection made,

Refining nature's
gifts

with learning's
lit

aid.

The

scholar's
all

page

oft

his lonely hour,

alien to his
its

Yet spared

knowledge

power;
source.

The

true tradition,
his

wandering from
its

Taught by

memory, found

ancient course;

Informed with mind

now

Shylock shook the stage,

And subtly tempered burst Lear's awful rage. And more he brought than yet had ever been To plant illusion in the painted scene. And bade the arts a royal tribute pour To make the pageant wealthier than before; As in a living Rome ran Caesar's blood, And round the lovers fair Verona stood; Yet well he knew the action to maintain
Against the scene, that else were
laid in

vain;

Happy who

first

had learned, though hid from youth,

What

Prosper taught him from the buried book,

the brooding eyes of genius look,

Whereon

The way unto the heart is simple truth. Thus did he mount the dais of the throne.
Thus
did he leap into the royal siege.
filled

And
Hark

the stage, and in himself

summed

all.

in

our ears the poor Fool's lip-crushed moan!

liege!
call!

Weep, Bolingbroke! he weeps, thy crownless

Mount, Richard, mount! thy bloody murders
Alas, our eyes

have seen,
48

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN
this

BOOTH

As

if

no Other woe than

had been,

The heart-break

of the Moor,

and heard,

behind,

Of frank

lago's intellectual stealth

footfall in

The panther

the generous mind.

How

oft

with hearts

elate
fate

We

watched the Cardinal play the match with

While, trembling, shook the state

More than

his age,

whose mind,

kingdom's wealth,

Made everything but innocence

With Cassius
O,
did

his tool,
fool!

Daunted the throne and headlong threw the

why

remember,
life

we plot, with Brutus walk. now that all is fled,

is

How
Till

deep as

the fond illusion spread

Round him, who now

dead.
live

we

with Hamlet seemed to

and

talk!

tender soul of
o'er

human melancholy
like the

That

him brooded

firmament!

Thence had

his eyes their supernatural fires

its

And

his

deep soul
felt

element of night;

Thence had he

the touch of great thoughts wholly,

ill

That with mortality but

consent,

The
That

star-crost spirit's unconfined desires.

in this brief breath

plumes

its

fiery flight;

And on his brows hung ever the pale might Of intellectual passion, inward bent.
Musing the bounds of Nature's
In that great

continent.

shadow where

the

mind

aspires,

With
There

flashes beautiful

and eloquent;
with thoughts of youth.
truth.

love, that flies abreast

And
Like
It

glides, a splendor,

by the wings of

Over the luminous vague

to darkness went,

some slow-dying

star

down

heaven's pole.
soul,

moves

o'er earth's blind

49

frame and man's dark

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

And And
So

passes out of sight,

the lone soul once

more inurns

its light.

in his

blood the poet's passion wrought,

lent,

His nature from within dark influence

While with

his

body, there, the

spirit blent.

And stamped
The The The
infinite,

the changeling of creative thought

its

soul incarnate in

mortal bloom.
little

shut in

how

room
yet thereof

The word,
player

the act,

no more;

made
face,

who

the heart of

Hamlet played!
grave

Ah

who

shall e'er forget the sweet,

The beauty flowering from

a stately race,
?

The mind

of majesty, the heart of grace

How

like

himself did
like

all

things there appear,

And hued

him! over whose living head

its

Stood the dark planet, and

burden shed

world disordered, a distempered sphere,

Nature's frame since, earthward wheeled,

Crooked events, and roughness everywhere

The
First

jar of

with nativity the stars grew sad.

prescience of
his

And

what should be sorrow, had

These were

world

who had

world within

Of augury that bankrupts Nature's bond,

power, past her

will,

not from her source.

Felt in the mind, with lightnings round her throne,

Majestic flames, inheriting her gloom.

Pale splendors, yet with

power

to illume

Time's buried tract and reaches of the tomb;

There reigns the

In

spirit,

there

is

truly

known,

whose unclouded sphere doth Nature roll. Herself an image; there, by shadows shown,

He held the mirror up unto the soul. And from his bosom read the part alone,
50

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

The

infinite of

man

within him sealed,

And played He plucked

But, ah,

himself

oh,

with what truth exprest!

the mystery from the Master's breast,

it

what mortal plucks

from

his

own

Such was our Hamlet,

whom

the people

knew,

soul of noble breath, sweet, kind and true

flesh

Our

and blood, yet of the world

to

ideal.

So native

immortal

memory
to die
lie

That to the world he hardly seems

More than the

poet's page,

where buried

The form and

feature of eternity

But when we look within, what spirits there Move in the silence of that hallowed air! He in the' mind shall his black mantle wear.
Pore on the book and greet the players dear.

And make dead

Yorick with his

But, ah, for us, alas!

memory fair. who knew him near,

shall yet

Nearer the loss; ah, what

appear
chair.

Of all he was

For us the vacant

For us the vanished presence from the room.

The silent bust, the portrait hung with gloom He will not come, not come!
Yet doth
his figure linger

on the sense.

And Memory her sacred relics save Of voice, and hand, and silent influence, That some shall carry with them to the grave.

No more
Our

beside the lighted hearth he stands.

Bringing us welcome from o'erflowing hands

host, our benefactor
all,

and our

friend.

Faultless in

who

all in

one could blend;

Gracious, with something of old reverence;

Generous,

Thoughtful,

who never knew the gift he gave; who for the least himself would waive;
51

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
light,

How
The
Blest

oft

we saw him
his

in the

evening

patient sufferer in our daily sight!

Here was
is

home; here were

his

gathered friends;

the

life

that in such friendship ends!

Nor

further looks the verse, though taught to see

that heart of noble privacy,

More nigh

Bosom

of perfect trust, from guile

how

free,

An open soul, with reticence refined Yet when he spoke a child might read
Only great souls have such
simplicity.

his

mind:

Cease, flood of song, thy stream!

now

cease,

and

know

Thy

silver fountains

from

all

hearts

do flow!

Cease

now, my

song, and learn to say good-night

its

To him whose
The
last

glory lends thy stream

light!

great heir of the majestic stage

a great age;

Has passed, and with him passes

Low
And

with the elders

in

lies his

honored head,

one voice are many voices dead.

old tradition, crusted with great names.

Our

captain-jewels!

lo,

among them
still

set.
it

Booth's, like a star! look you,

how sweet
wet!
soul, to

flames,

And with
Farewell

the luster of our tears

farewell! move,
all

sweet

thy rest;

Sleep cloud thy eyes, deep sleep be in thy breast!

Go, noble heart, unto our sons a name.

Through

men's praises
spirit,

to eternal
all

fame!

Move, happy

where

voices cease
love's

Through our love

go, to

where

name

is

peace!

52

IV.

zmxtss
TOMMASO
GGI compiono
sei giorni

SALVINI
un gran
e
in

sessant' anni' che la luce vide nascere

cuore ed una gran mente.

Oggi or son cinque mesi

si

questa mente e questo cuore

spensero

Edwin Booth. Tempo addietro non pensavo di trovarmi presente alia Commemorazione che in questo giorno si tributa giustamente
11

all'

integerrimo Cittadino,
di

al

grande Artista Americano.

Nobile Comitato

questa Commemorazione, fecemi I'onore

d'invitarmi a prendervi parte, ed io accettai convinto del doveroso,

sebbene

tristo,

ufficio,
si

di

rendere con

le

mie brevi

parole,

un

modesto
per me,

tributo, a chi
la

addiceva, per ragione di eta, compiere

lui;

missione che oggi tristamente eseguisco per

e se

cosi fosse stato, era certo a vantaggio della schiera

Drammatica,
il

deir America Settentrionale,

risplendente, che con
ricovrarsi nel
la

che

in

lui,
i

avrebbe ancora
naviganti
dell'

Faro

sua luce guide

Arte, a

benevolo e sicuro suo Porto.

lasciata

La
illustre,

traccia

nella

storia
Artista,

Drammatica
la

da
del

questo

quanto

benemerito
cancellare

potenza

tempo
scolpite
futuri,

non potra
nella
le doti

mai
e

come rimarrano
animo
suo.

perenni,

mente

nel

cuore dei

contemporanei come, dei

elevate e generose dell'

Certo, fu un giorno
e tutto dovettero

di lutto

Nazionale

la

sparizione di tanto
53

uomo,

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN
Simile

BOOTH
I'anima,

provnrne
si

quel

cordoglio,

che

opprime
a

allorquando

perde un
la

caro
dell'

congiunto.

quegli
all'

alberi

immani
del del

che

mano

uomo

recide, peresporle

ammirazione
le

mondo,
grande

oggi, noi esponiamo, sebbene pallidamente,

artista, di cui, I'implacabile

virtu

Natura, pote falciare

la vita,

ma

non mai
danza.
Fra
quella

torleil fascinoimperitiviodella stimabile, universale ricor-

le

dolci

compiacenze
afratellato

della

mia

carriera artistica,
di
la

mi seduce
della

d'essermi

con

attori

diversa

favella

mia
stato

ma

piu che tutte, annovero e vanto

soddisfazione d'essere

compagno (sebbene
si

per breve tempo) a

Edwin Booth.

In

quella fausta ricordanza

consolido I'estimazione che gia da tempo

il

nutrivo per

lui,

e potei

convincermi ed affermarmi che se

Artista, I'educazione, la coltura, e

Genio lo
delicato
dritto
si

accompagnava come
e retto sentire,
egli

il

mai

lo

abbandonarono come uomo.

;

A buon
dritto
ai

godeva

dell'

amore de suoi Concittadini

d'ammaestramenti, e

buon

af-

fidava nella simpatia e rispetto de' suoi

fu

compagni d'Arte
di

quali

prodigo

di consigli
essi
il

generose

offerte,
dell'

dedicando ad
fetto

Players Club

come prova
i

manifesta

af-

che sempre nutri per I'Arte e per

fu artista

suoi sacerdoti.

Edwin Booth
be
il

gentiluomo
e

Lungo

e superfluo sareb-

ricordare,

la serie,

non breve,

sempre
all'

felice, delle

sue im-

personificazioni, che

lo

fecero salire

alto seggio della

Fama,

restando egli sempre, modesto, gentile, ed affettuoso.

Boston,
e qui, in
la

citta intellettuale,

ne conservagelosamente lasalma;
splendido ritrovo ch'
egli

New

York, ov'

egli mori, nello

vi
si

leg6 a suoi compagni,

Nella camera ove
lo
i

respira
si

il

profumo

delle

sue virtu.

suoi occhi

chiusero per sempre, e che con

si

devote e squisita deliberazione,

conserva intatta come

il

al

mo-

mento

della sua morte, in ogni ogetto rivive

il

suo sguardo pene-

trante, palpita

cuor suo e sembra che

la

la

sua

mano

stringa con

effusione in segno di riconoscenza

mano

di coloro

che religiosfu I'im-

amente visitano

il

santuario del grande Artista.

54

Questa

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

pressione da
tutti quelli,

me

provata; questa e I'impressione che sentiranno

che come me, stimarono ed amarono Edwin Booth.

Ed era
chilo,

Melpomene

e Talia lo accolsero nel loro

Tempio Es;

Euripide, Sofocle, Menandro, Plauto,

gli

e Terenzio lo circon-

dano; Shakespeare
Attori che furono
nei
la
cieii,

stringe

la

mano!

La Pleiade dei grandi

lo

abbracciano fraternamente; e mentre Esso,

la

gioisce della Gloria che lo circonda, e per

quale dedico

sua

vita,

noi qui
!

si

piange
Si

L'aposteosi degl'
!

illustri

non

si

piange ne s'invidia
siero

cerca d'emularla

E un audace pen

ma

e pur'

anco un nobile sentimento

55

V
TRANSLATION OF SIGNOR SALVINI'S

Zt)t}VtSS READ BY HENRY MILLER

IXTY
years are fulfilled to-day since the birth of a great
heart and a great mind.

To-day,

five

months and

six

days have passed since that mind and that heart were
stilled in

the death of
I

Edwin Booth.
citizen

In

days gone by

did not

foresee that

should be present at the commemoration which toof integrity, the great artist of

day so justly honors the

America.

The distinguished committee

tion did

in

charge of this
to take part in
if

commemorait,

me

the honor to invite

it

me

and

ac-

cepted, satisfied that

in

was my

duty, even

a sad one, to render

few words

my

modest

tribute to
for

one

who
it

ought

rather,
1

if

age be considered, to have done

day mournfully execute

for

him.

me And

the office
if

which

toit

had been

so,

would

certainly have

been to the gain of our dramatic band of

in

North America, which

beacon whose

him could

still

possess the resplendent

art to

light served to

guide the navigators of our

the kindly and secure shelter of their haven.

The ravages of time

matic history by this
the lofty and generous
rennial,

will never efface the

mark

traced in dra-

artist,

as illustrious as he

was worthy; and

his

endowments

of his soul will remain pe-

engraved

in the

minds and hearts not only of

admir-

ers

but of those to come.

Surely the death of such a

56

man

!N

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH
all

brought a day of national mourning, and

heartache which oppresses the soul
lost.

must have
a

felt

that
is

when

loved

relative

Like those huge trees which are exhibited to the admira-

tion of the world,

we show
artist.
life,

to-day, even in a

weak

portrayal,

the virtue of this great

Implacable nature has indeed had

the

power

to cut short his

but not to take from him his im-

perishable

crown of

universal esteem and remembrance.

Among

the sweetest pleasures of

this, that
1

my

dramatic career none

fraternal relations
all,
1

is

more sweet than

have enjoyed

with

actors of a different tongue, and, highest of

count and boast

the satisfaction of having been the companion, even for a brief

peribd, of

Edwin Booth.
I

In this

time of happy recollection the

for

esteem which

had long cherished

him became

established,

and

had opportunity

to observe that while

Genius attended

him

as an artist, refinement, culture, delicacy as a

and right

feeling

were never absent from him

man.

With good reason he

in the

enjoyed the love of his fellow-citizens, and confided

symhe
of

pathy and respect of his comrades on the stage, to

whom

was

miracle
to

of

good

counsel,

of masterly teaching and

liberality;

whom

he dedicated the Players' Club as a conits

It

spicuous proof of his enduring affection for his art and for
interpreters.

Edwin Booth was

as truly to

gentleman as

artist.
list

would be tedious and superfluous

his
lofty throne of

enumerate the long

of

uniformly felicitous impersonations.

;

They

raised

him

to the

Fame but he always remained modest, courteous

city,

and loving.
Boston, the intellectual
here in
place
jealously guards his clay, and
died,
in the beautiful

New
is

York,
his

where he
legacy to
In the

meeting-

which

his

companions,

we

breathe the

perfume of
ever,
is

his virtue.
in

room where

his eyes closed for-

and which,

execution of a laudable and delicate thought,

preserved intact as at the

moment
57

of his death, in every object

it

his

keen glance

lives again, his

heart pulsates, and

seems

as if

IN

MEMORIAM

EDWIN

BOOTH

his

hand warmly and

gratefully pressed the

hand of him

who

with religious respect seeks the

sanctuary of the great

is

artist.

Such was the impression experienced by me, such

sion

the impres-

which

all

will feel

who,

like

me, esteem and love Edwin

Booth.

And now
their shrine,
tus,

Melpomene and
surround
him.

Thalia have

welcomed him
holds
his
in

to

y^schylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Menander, Plau-

Terence

Shakespeare

hand.

The

constellation of great artists of the past

welcomes

him

new
here

luminary; and while he

to

in the skies

rejoices
his

in the glory
life,

which envelopes him, and

which he devoted

shall

we

weep

The
for

apotheosis of the illustrious gives occasion not

Let us strive to emulate
is

for tears
is

but

envy!

it!

The thought

audacious, but the aspiration

noble

s8

VI

:aiiDress

HENRY IRVING
Ladies and Gentlemen:
i

^^I ESTEEM
'*J||

it

very great privilege to be here to-day and

in

to

be permitted to take part

the proceedings which

^^^
I

have been ordained to do honor to the

memory

of

Edwin Booth.
think
I

must be among the

oldest of his friends, for

more

to make my way as an played with Edwin actor, and in the days of stock companies, Booth an engagement of some weeks in the city of Mancheswas the Bassanio, Laertes, Cassio, Wellborn and Wilford ter.

than thirty years ago,

when beginning

and many other characters

Sir Giles

to

his

Shylock,
etc.

Hamlet,

Othello,

Overreach, Sir

Edward Mortimer,

He was

the star
alert,

which
full

floated across our horizon, bright, brilliant, buoyant,

fire

of vigor and

and genius.
to

and one

who seemed

An example to young actors, show us something of the great traditions,

the genius of which he inherited and the art of which he had

learned from his great father.

and

it

was

a pride as well
I

years after that time,

had

we were friends, as a pleasure to me when, twenty the honor of supporting him in my

From
that time
for his art

own

theatre.

Edwin Booth has done much

59

and much

IN

MEMORIAM
shall

EDWIN

BOOTH

for the players,

and there

be no sweeter memento of his ten-

der, affectionate nature

for

than the

home which

he

made

in this city

the brothers of his craft

all

except

the high place

which he

holds for

time

in

the hearts of his

countrymen and of all those

who

love and

work
"

for the player's art.

When

musing on companions gone

feel

We

doubly

ourselves alone."

60

14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED

LOAN
This book
is

DEPT.
'

date ^' on the date to which stamped below or renewS

last

due on the

REC^D-t^

OCT

1982