The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1905-06-09

Edwin Forrest; with James E. Murdoch,
once much admired in classic tragedy;
with Agnes Robertson, William Warren,
William Blake, Edwin Adams, and many
Others. In 1850 he was married to Miss
Margaret Lockyer, an English girl, with
who he visited England in 1856. He
did not act himself, but studied the work
OF many eminent London players, incud-
ing Blackstone Robson, Wright, Comp
ton, Chippendale, and the versatile Sam
uel Phelps, by far the greatest of them
all Returning to New York he Joined
the company of Laura Keene in New
York, an engagement which proved for
him stepping stone to fame and fortune
By this time he was recognized as a
well-trained and versatile comedian. en-
dowed with winning personality and a
vein of delightful humor, not very broad
or deep, but sparkling, quaint, sympa-
thetic, and generally fascinating. The
first production of the season was "The
Heir at Law" in which he played Pang-
loss, neither additionally nor truthfulIy,
but with admirably comic effect. His
performance pleased the public, but soon
afterwards he made much greater hit
as Salem Scudder, the typical Yankee, in
"Our American Cousin" the play which
gave to Edward Askew Sothern the great
opportunity of Lord Dundreary. As
Scudder he was so popular that after
playing the part for year or two, and
| winning success also as Newman Noggs,
in Nicholas Nickleby' and Caleb Plum
4 mer in "The Cricket on the Hearth" he
determined to set out as star. He pros
| pered from the first, but in 1861 he sus-
\ tanned staggering blow in the death of
his wife, which wrecked all his plans.
Finally, he started for California and
\ Australia, in which latter country he re-
manned for four years, meeting with
many adventures, of which not the least
curious was his performance of Dick
| Briefly in "The Ticket of Leave Man"
before an audience of convicts in Tas.
mania. All this while he had been pos
sessed of the notion OF playing the charac-
| Lei vi ~ TON II Wig NIP ' an w H.
kle in which be thought he saw vast pos
| Sibilities. He had even written a playon
the subject, but was not satisfied with it
or with any of the versions of the tale
| which had been acted during the proceed
ing forty years by Flynn, Parsons, Burke,
Hackett, Yates, sherwood and other
actors upon the American stage. His
mind was full of the subject when he land
ed in England, on his way homewards, in
1865, and. meeting there that arch
adapter Dion Boucicauit, he sought his
help in the matter, with the result that
the new rip Van Wrinkle" was produced
at the Adelphi Theatre in London,
in September of that year. For him
the consequences were momentous. His
fame was established, his fortune made
and bar set against his further pro-
gress as creative actor.
The remainder of his theatrical biogra-
ply may be sketchedin very few words.
After playing Rip in England for year,
to an incessant accompaniment of public
and critical applaudits, he set sail for his
native country, with his laurcls thick
upon him, to achieve new triumphs.
Throughout the length and breadth of
the United States, season after season,
his Rip was received with undirninished
delight and enthusiasm. For fifteen years
he PLAYED nothing else. Then in 1880 he
produced condensed version of Sheri-
dams "Rivals," in which he acted Acres
upon wholly original lines of gentcel
comedy. He revived also THE Cricket
on the Hearth" and the old farce Lend
Me Five Shillings," furnishing tanta-
lizing glimpse of his versatility in the
widely differing characters of old Caleb
and Captain Golightly. Occasionally he
was seen as DR.. Pangloss. But Grip Van
Wrinkle" was ever his mainstay. Outlast-
ing the nineteenth century, it was hailed
rapturously by fresh generations of play
goers in the beginning of the twentieth.
Between 1878 and 1877 he acted on three
different occasions in London, but with
these exceptions he played altogether in
the United States, and in Canada, ap-
pearing regularly every season and with
almost undininished vigor until he was
far advanced in his eighth decade.
In the whole history of the stage it
would be difficult to find parallel in
stance of an actor maintaining himself at
the summit of his fame for forty yearsb
means of single representation. Moth
ing short of masterpiece could have ex-
hibited such vitality. And masterpiece
it most assuredly was. 1t was the ap-
parent transmutation ofthe basest metal
into fine gold. Tested by any ordinary
standard of art or morally, the play of
rip Van Wrinkle" is radically bad; infan-
tile in construction and most mischier-
Gus in its teaching miserable sot, who
has reduced his Industrious wife and her
children to bitter penury, is represented
as an object of sympathy and is made
happy in the end by the restoration of
his squandered fortune at the expense of
his victimized creditors. But no particle
of this sordid truth was allowed to as
sertitselfin Jefferson's picturesque fiction.
In his drunkenness there was no gross
ness, or physical or moral degradation
1t became trait of beaming, inexpress-
ible amiability. Upon his first entrance,
with one child upon his shoulders and
others at his heels, he was the embodi-
ment of Joyous, affectionate irresponsi-
bility. Even when bewailing his own
worthlessness, which he did with pleas
antly sentimental melancholy, it was
only for himself that he provoked pity.
1t was impossible to be indignant with a
scapegrace so winning and picturesquein
his personality, so brimful of mirthful be-
nevolence, and OF quantity mischievous
humor. Beyond doubt, much of the in
defnable charm of this delightful vaga-
bond proceeded from the reflected indi-
viduality of Mr.. Jefferson himself, but the
greater part of it was due to the extraor-
binary art with which stage pretence
was transformed, into exact and sponta-
neous reality. 1t was this perfect natu-
ralism, the rigid avoidance of anything
dimly resembling theatrical trick, that
made his expulsion into the storm by his
outraged wife at once so affecting and
dramatic But moment before he had
excited merriment by his comic efforts to
i