Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-05-19
The Younger and the Elder Booth.

eoASCA eshA tAAO A<A0OA DUOtzAs
From an early age Edwin Booth was
associated with his father in all the
wanderings and strange and often sad
adventures of that wayward man of
genius, and no doubt the many sorrow
full experiences of his youth deepened
the gloom of his inherited temperament
Those who know him well are aware
that he has great tenderness of heart,
and abundant playful humor; that his
mind is one of extraordinary liveliness,
and that he sympathizes keenly and cor
daily with the joys and sorrows of 9TH
ers; yet that the whole man seems satu-
rated with sadness, isolated from COM
panionfhip, lonely, and alone. It is this
temperament, combined with a sombre
and melancholy aspect of conntenance,
that has helped to make him so admira-
BILE in the character of Hamlet. OF his
fitness for that part his father was the
first to speak, when ON a ni.:. It many
years ago, in Sacramento, they had
dressed for st. Pierre and Jallier, in
Venice Preserved. Edwin, as Jaffier,
had put On.a clOse-fitting robe of black
velvet. "You look like Hamlet" tile
father said; "why don't you play it?'
The time was destined to come when
Edwin Booth would be accepted all over
America as the greatest Hamlet of the
century. In the season of 1S54-65, at
the Winter Garden Theatre, New York,
no acfai that rf hnpdrod r,iOhf,
in succession, accomplishing thus feat
unprecedented In theatrical annals.
Since that time Henry irving, in Lon
den, has acted Hamlet two hundred
consecutive times in one season; but
this latter achievement, in the present
day and in the capital city of the world,
seems less remarkable than Edwin
Booths exploit was, performed in tur.
bulent New York in the closing months
of our terrible civil war.
|. The elder Booth was short, spare,
muscular man, with splendid chest,
symmetrical Greek head, pale counte-
nance, a voice of wonderful compass
and thrilling power, dark hair, and blue
eyes. Edwin's resemblance to him is
chiefly obvious in the shape Of the head
and face, the arch and twist of the
heavy eyebrows, the radiant and con-
stantly shifting light of expression
which animates the cOuntenance, the
natural grace Of carriage, and the celeri-
ty of movement. Edwin's eyes are dark
brown, and seem to turn black in mo-
ments of excitement, and they are capa-
hle of conveying, with electrical effect,
the most diverse meanings-the sol
emnity of lofty thought, the tenderness
of affection, the piteousness of forlorn
sorrow, the awful sense of spiritual sur
roundings, the weeful weariness of de-
spair, the mocking glee of wicked sar-
casm, the vindictive. menace of sinister
purpose, and the lightning glare of bale
full wrath. In range of facial expressive
ness his counterance is thus fully equal
to what his fathers was, and to all that
tradition tells us of the countenance of
Garrick. The present writer saw the
elder Booth but once, and that in a COM
paratively inferior part-Pescara, in
Shiefs ferocious tragedy of The Apos-
tate. He was a terrible presence. He
was the incarnation of smooth, speeious,
malignant, hellish rapacity. His exult- |
ant malice seemed to buoy him above |
the ground. He floated rather than
walked. His glance was deadly. His
clear, high, cutting. measured tone was
the exasperating note Of hideous cruel !
ty. He was acting fiend then, and |
making the monster not only possible, |
but actual. He certainly gave a greater |
impression of overwhelming power than |
is given by Edwin Booth, and seemed a |
more formidable and tremendous man. |
But his face was not more brilliant than |
that of his renowned son; and in fact it |
was, if anything, somewhat less splendid |
in power Of the eye. There is a useful |
book about him, called The Tragedian,
written by Thomas r. Gould, who also
made noble bust of him in marble, and |
those who never saw him can obtain a |
very good idea of what sort Of an actor |
he was by reading that book. 1t conveys
the image of great actor, but not a |
more brilliant one, than Edwin Booth. |
Only one man of our time has equalled |
Edwin Booth in this singular splendor
of countenance. That man was the
great New England orator Rufus Choate.
Had Choate been an actor upon the |
stage-as he was before u jury-with
those terrible eyes of his, and that pas
sionate Arab face. he must have lowered
fully to the height of the tradition of
George Frederick Cooke WILLIAM
WINTER, in Harper's Magazine for
June. |