Shadows of the Stage   By: William Winter (1836-1917)

BY WILLIAM WINTER

"The best in this kind are but shadows"

SHAKESPEARE

NEW YORK MACMILLAN AND COMPANY AND LONDON 1893

COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY MACMILLAN & CO.

Set up and electrotyped May, 1892. Large Paper Edition printed May. Ordinary Edition reprinted June, August, November, 1892; January, June, October, November, 1893.

Norwood Press: J.S. Cushing & Co. Berwick & Smith. Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

TO

Henry Irving

IN MEMORY AND IN HONOUR OF ALL THAT HE HAS DONE TO DIGNIFY AND ADORN THE STAGE AND TO ENNOBLE SOCIETY THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED

"Cui laurus æternos honores Delmatico peperit triumpho"

PREFACE.

The papers contained in this volume, chosen out of hundreds that the author has written on dramatic subjects, are assembled with the hope that they may be accepted, in their present form, as a part of the permanent record of our theatrical times. For at least thirty years it has been a considerable part of the constant occupation of the author to observe and to record the life of the contemporary stage. Since 1860 he has written intermittently in various periodicals, and since the summer of 1865 he has written continuously in the New York Tribune, upon actors and their art; and in that way he has accumulated a great mass of historical commentary upon the drama. In preparing this book he has been permitted to draw from his contributions to the Tribune, and also from his writings in Harper's Magazine and Weekly, in the London Theatre, and in Augustin Daly's Portfolio of Players. The choice of these papers has been determined partly by consideration of space and partly with the design of supplementing the author's earlier dramatic books, namely: Edwin Booth in Twelve Dramatic Characters; The Jeffersons; Henry Irving; The Stage Life of Mary Anderson; Brief Chronicles, containing eighty six dramatic biographies; In Memory of McCullough; The Life of John Gilbert; The Life and Works of John Brougham; The Press and the Stage; The Actor and Other Speeches; and A Daughter of Comedy, being the life of Ada Rehan. The impulse of all those writings, and of the present volume, is commemorative. Let us save what we can.

"Sed omnes una manet nox, Et calcanda semel via leti."

W.W. APRIL 18, 1892.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE GOOD OLD TIMES 13

II. IRVING IN FAUST 30

III. ADELAIDE NEILSON 47

IV. EDWIN BOOTH 63

V. MARY ANDERSON 90

VI. OLIVIA 119

VII. ON JEFFERSON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 130

VIII. ON JEFFERSON'S ACTING 151

IX. JEFFERSON AND FLORENCE 159

X. ON THE DEATH OF FLORENCE 169

XI. SHYLOCK AND PORTIA 178

XII. JOHN McCULLOUGH 185

XIII. CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN 206

XIV. LAWRENCE BARRETT 215

XV. IRVING IN RAVENSWOOD 226

XVI. MERRY WIVES AND FALSTAFF 243

XVII. ADA REHAN 258

XVIII. TENNYSON'S FORESTERS 269

XIX. ELLEN TERRY: MERCHANT OF VENICE 286

XX. RICHARD MANSFIELD 301

XXI. GENEVIEVE WARD 315

XXII. EDWARD S. WILLARD 322

XXIII. SALVINI 339

XXIV. IRVING AS EUGENE ARAM 348

XXV. CHARLES FISHER 367

XXVI. MRS. GILBERT 374

XXVII. JAMES LEWIS 379

XXVIII. A LEAF FROM MY JOURNAL 383