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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 t*
 
 Lawrence Barrett. 
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH 
 
 By Elwyn a. Barron. 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 
 KNIGHT & LEONARD CO., PRINTERS, 
 
 1889.
 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 ONE of the Indian jxjets named the dignities and honors 
 of well-won reputation "the mellowed fruits of virtu(jus 
 actions." There is nice distinction here between notoriety, or 
 sudden, perhaps questionable fame, and the wholesome, 
 orderly development that only is reputation in mouths of 
 wisest censure. 
 
 In its highest, pure sense, reputation is the fruit of long 
 tested good conduct and scrupulously examined merit, being 
 as it is the aggregate result of many findings. Trials and 
 adversities, the flaws of prejudice are its weather; a not 
 over-generous encouragement is its sunshine. But its growth 
 under these conditions is the more substantial, its perfection 
 the richer and sweeter. As the choicest fruits are not those 
 which ripen quickly through much nourishing, the most 
 enduring reputations are not easily won, but crown lives of 
 patient devotion to high aims and lofty purposes, — lives in 
 which self-sacrifice is the instrument of ideal aspirations, and 
 to which the " whips and scorns of outrageous fortune " have 
 come only to strengthen resolution, dignify courage and for- 
 -^ tify perseverance. 
 
 Self-reliance battling its way through hostile environments, 
 
 refusing to be dismayed by persistent opposition, presents a 
 
 Z type of moral heroism that compels the sullen respect of the 
 
 \-£ meanest and wins the applause of the best. When to this qual- 
 
 ' ity of spirit is added the grace of genuine sensibility governed 
 
 5 
 
 570550 
 
 T HRAT RK ^BIS
 
 6 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 by noble impulses and governing strong capabilities, we 
 have elements of the power to which, lacking better terms, we 
 give the mysterious name of genius. In whatever sphere of 
 action, in whatever profession or calling, it is the master of for- 
 tune, not fortune's favorite, who performs the larger service 
 toward the adjustment of the world, — in ethics, and in esthetics, 
 as well as in material things — to its noblest uses. Large ability 
 calmly resolute is like a capped wave moving shoreward over 
 a summer sea, the force of which we do not appreciate until it 
 leaps to its goal among the crags and overwhelms us. We 
 know not the storms and stress that give extra momentum to 
 special character more than we know what gales gave irresisti- 
 ble movement to a particular wave ; but when a man rises 
 conspicuously eminent from the plane of the commonplace, we 
 are interested in learning what were his early circumstances, 
 and what were the means employed to promote his success. 
 
 Apology there need be none for attempting, however imper- 
 fectly, to answer biographically such tpiestions; and certainly 
 if reputation is worth achieving we cannot do better than 
 honor, while they live, the men who have done something 
 to merit remembrance.
 
 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY YOUTH. 
 
 IN the picturesque town of Paterson, N. J., fifty-one years 
 ago, April 4, 1838, amid humble surroundings, into con- 
 ditions that ordinarily forbid the promise of future celebrity, 
 Lawrence Barrett was born. His father, Thomas Barrett, was 
 one of those free-souled Irishmen, large of frame, muscular, 
 capable, in whom the ancient Celt revives to make the 
 restraints of industrious life intolerable, and in whom is lack- 
 ing that economic providence which is essential to the care 
 of a family and the proper education of the young. His 
 mother, on the contrary, was frugal, thrifty, patient, with the 
 ambition to rear her children to usefulness and respectability. 
 To this mother, who often quitted her laborious household 
 duties to bear to school in her arms her feeble, sickly child, 
 Lawrence Barrett owes the moral impulse that enabled him 
 to master circumstances and rise superior to his natural 
 environments. 
 
 At an early age he was removed to Detroit, where his father 
 hoped to succeed better with his trade, and there gained health 
 and strength in a climate peculiarly suited to his development. 
 The family necessities, however, compelled him to become a 
 helper at an age when boys most need the nurture of home 
 and the benefits of school, and it is not surprising that he 
 looked to the theatre for employment. He became call boy 
 
 7
 
 8 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 and general apprentice to the then principal theatre of Detroit, 
 and unwittingly laid the foundation of his fame. It was acci- 
 dent rather than design that took him to the theatre, how- 
 ever. His first and brief employment was in the linen 
 department of a Detroit dry-goods establishment. His taste 
 for the drama was already marked, and frequently, when 
 business was dull, he would mount a box in the rear of the 
 store and entertain his companions by declaiming passages 
 from plays he had heard at the theatre. He was much of 
 a mimic, and his proclivities gained him great popularity 
 with the boys. The "store walker" was a pompous, exact- 
 ing, disagreeable fellow, thoroughly detested by the lads 
 over whom he exercised tyrannous sway. Young Barrett 
 delighted to mimic the mannerisms of this individual, and 
 never failed to set his fellows in a roar with his imitations. 
 On one of these occasions, when Barrett was in excellent 
 humor for the mischief and had the little circle about him in 
 high glee, the subject of their ridicule suddenly pounced upon 
 them. The boys were completely humiliated by the majestic 
 rage of their tyrant, and young Barrett took his instant dis- 
 charge as well-merited punishment. As he was turning away 
 with downcast eyes, the store walker said to him sneeringly: 
 "You have mistaken your vocation, young man; you should 
 go on the stage." It was then and there that the boy, bright- 
 ening at the hint, resolved that he would go on the stage, and 
 in a few days he was engaged at the old Metropolitan at the 
 bewildering salary of $2.50 a week. Though exceedingly 
 timid, and easily abashed, the lad was shrewd, observing, nat- 
 urally studious of men and things, and had a surprisingly 
 analytical turn of mind. He therefore profited by his sur- 
 roundings more than miglit a less diffident nature, and he 
 gained a great deal from his elders who, to his admiring, 
 though awe-struck fancy, were men apart from the common. 
 
 It need hardly be said that the dramatic profession of that 
 day was less circumspect tlian we now fintl it. Its members 
 did not always prove to tiie highest moral average; and many
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 9 
 
 who figured as the gods of the call boy's idolatry were neither 
 patterns of sobriety nor examples of reverence. Yet through 
 the atmosphere of intemperance and profanity shone a clear, 
 strange light that stole into the darkness of the boy's mind 
 and filled him with wonderment. It perplexed him sorely for 
 a time, this peculiar influence, and lying on his hard pallet 
 in a dingy out-of-the-way room of the theatre he puzzled his 
 brains to make out the difference between these men and him- 
 self. In a vague, uncertain way the answer came to him at 
 last, and he realized for the first time his ignorance and 
 how great a barrier it raised between him and his dreams of 
 the future. But the sturdy self-reliance so conspicuous in the 
 character of the man was not wanting in the boy, and he 
 straightway resolved to overcome the dangers that threatened 
 him. It was a veritable battle with giants to which he pledged 
 himself in the stillness of the night, for at the age of fourteen 
 years Lawrence Barrett could barely read and write. 
 
 He lost no time lamenting the fact that his resources were 
 few. He determined to make the very best possible uses of 
 the opportunities at hand. Standing in the wings or in any 
 convenient corner of the stage, when there was no demand 
 upon his services he listened with the ears of the soul to the 
 dialogue of the play, absorbing what his intelligence could 
 grasp, taking care to note the pronunciation of words, learning 
 words, phrases and entire speeches. When the play was over 
 he gathered up the rejected bits of candle from the dressing 
 rooms and bore them, with expectantly beating heart, to his 
 hole-in-the-wall lodging place where, the gift of a friendly 
 actor, he had stored as a treasure of great price a worn and 
 dog-eared copy of Johnson's Dictionary. The little room was 
 without any conveniences, having neither chair nor table nor 
 other furniture than the shake-down bed. For candlestick, 
 therefore, young Barrett drove three nails into the floor and 
 between the heads of these his scrap of candle was placed and 
 lighted. Then, lying flat upon the floor, the precious book, — a 
 wonderland of information, philosophy and literature it seemed
 
 lO LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 — spread open before him, eagerly, aglow with rapture, sought 
 out for their meanings the words he had learned, and explored 
 the pages for further knowledge. No boy ever read a novel by 
 Scott with more enthusiasm, with greater delight, with more 
 feverish expectancy than did Lawrence Barrett study the dic- 
 tionary of the pompous, pedantic old Doctor. Sometimes the 
 piece of candle would be barely enough for the supper of a 
 mouse, and the boy who saw its expiring fiickerings shadowing 
 his page until he could no longer discern the words in fine 
 print went weeping to bed, only at such times bitter against his 
 fate. 
 
 Alert in mind, active in body, willing, even forward, Barrett 
 was a general favorite among the actors of the company, and 
 when his studious habit became marked encouraging contribu- 
 tions to his library of one book served to broaden, though but 
 slightly, his field of fruitful literature. He began to feel the 
 joy of knowing. He found it easier to engage in conversation 
 with his elders, and it delighted him that now and again one of 
 them would discuss with him his plans, offering perhaps a hint 
 for his guidance, or stimulating his mind with anecdotes of 
 others who had struggled to success through adversity. In 
 some mysterious manner his old gods became resolved into men 
 among men, no longer occupying inaccessible heights, no 
 longer creatures of marvelous character, and suddenly the belief 
 that he too might become as one of these filled his young life 
 with a new purpose and his soul with a noble ambition. With 
 this intellectual awakening his moral sensibilities were aroused, 
 and with the wish that he might achieve something as an 
 actor went the resolve that he would be something as a man. 
 The intemperate habits of the actors that before seemed noth- 
 ing strange, now filled him with disgust. Their shiftlessness 
 and careless dissipation taught him what to avoid, and the 
 very surroundings that were fatal to less earnest natures rein- 
 forced his character and fostered his hopes. The conviction 
 that sober industry, zealous endeavors aiul persistent study 
 would enable him to rise superior to those conditions was the
 
 A l'R(jrESSIONAL SKETCH. II 
 
 guardian genius of his youth, the prophecy of his manhood. 
 He plunged into books for safety against the temptations that 
 encompass youth, especially a youth amid the unrealities of 
 the theatre, and for recreation learned passages of Shakes- 
 pearean plays to declaim in imitation of the leading actors 
 whom it was his occasional privilege to see and hear. Spout- 
 ing Shakespeare is a familiar weakness of youth, but this boy, 
 with the remarkable voice, the deep, luminous eyes into which 
 the soul cast the lights and shadows of feeling, of impetuous 
 manner and intense earnestness, was something more than a 
 spouter, despite his untutored elocution. His young friends 
 about town esteemed it a pleasure to listen to him, the pas- 
 sion and enthusiasm of an ardent, not unpoetic nature lend- 
 ing to his recitals an eloquence that often impressed others 
 than his familiars, and gained for him such words of appro- 
 bation as, not misvalued, make the wholesome food of young 
 ambition. 
 
 His exceptionally studious habits, the rapidity with which 
 he acquired knowledge and the evident intelligence with 
 which he converted to his own profit the matter he got from 
 books and sensible conversations, early attracted the favorable 
 attention of the manager, and one morning the land of promise 
 was suddenly opened to him and he was invited to enter into 
 the glory thereof. He was to have a part in the next produc- 
 tion. It mattered nothing to him that the part was only that 
 of Murad in the " French Spy; " it was a world to conquer as 
 great as any Alexander sighed for, and no one of the cast felt 
 more the weight of responsibility. Barrett went as diligently 
 to the work of mastering the few lines of Murad as if he were 
 bent on plucking out the heart of Hamlet's mystery, and though 
 there were many perturbations of nervous excitement before, 
 when the night came he acquitted himself so creditably that 
 he was entrusted with a great deal of minor work throughout 
 the next year. This was in 1853. The following year the 
 young actor went to Pittsburg as a member of the Grand 
 Opera House Stock Company, then under the management of
 
 12 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 Joseph Foster. For two years Barrett played in the support 
 of the leading actors and actresses of the day, among them 
 Edmund Conner, C. W. Couldock, J. A. Neafie, Eliza Logan 
 and Julia Dean, doing some traveling between St. Louis, Chi- 
 cago and other western cities. 
 
 It was while he was a member of Julia Dean's company that 
 he played his first really important character, with a singular 
 result. It was in a small Ohio town. The play was "The 
 Hunchback." The leading man of the company suddenly was 
 taken sick, leaving the only person available for the part of 
 Sir Thomas Clifford the by no means confident Lawrence 
 Barrett. The young man with much hestitation consented to 
 undertake the part, and applied himself to the task so intelli- 
 gently and faithfully that he acquitted himself respectably 
 enough to win a complimentary speech from Miss Dean. 
 Conscious that he had not distinguished himself, yet feeling 
 that he had done as well as the circumstances permitted, he 
 was up betimes the next morning, feverishly impatient to see 
 what impression his acting had made on the critic of the one 
 paper the town boasted. He bought a copy and withdrew to 
 a secluded part of the hotel, where he might unobserved 
 gladden over the generous words of forbearing criticism he 
 properly felt were his due. With trembling fingers he 
 unfolded the paper and with quick eye scanned its columns 
 for its only important matter. He was not long in finding 
 it, and as he read the notice the eager flush faded from his 
 face, his heart throbbed with violent emotion, and despite his 
 will, tears (jf resentment and uinncritcd humiliation sprang 
 into his eyes. The article, mainly devoted to him, was most 
 cruel and unrelieved ridicule of his performance, coupled with 
 a scathing rebuke of the actress for presuming to foist such 
 a wretched leading actor upon an intelligent community. 
 
 IniUy conscious of the injustice done him, burning with 
 indignation against what he conceived to be the wanton cruelty 
 of iIk: writer, who surely was aware of the facts in [he case, 
 young Barrett then formed a resolution to win from rebellious
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. I3 
 
 fame and from unwilling critics a complete vindication of his 
 abilities against the merely censorious. 
 
 Years afterward, in 1867, when he had already achieved an 
 enviable distinction and gained the praise of able critics as well 
 as the applause of the public, Mr. Barrett visited England. At 
 a little breakfast with Charles Dickens, Artemus Ward and one 
 or two others, given m his honor in London, the conversation 
 drifted into a discussion of criticism and Mr. Barrett, to illus- 
 trate how great hurt to young ambition careless. or injudicious 
 criticism might be, related this incident in his own experience, 
 remarking that, though the strictures but strengthened his pur- 
 pose, many another had been utterly discouraged by them. 
 Mr. Barrett was surprised to note that Ward found the narra- 
 tive highly amusing, and in his quiet way was laughing 
 immoderately. When the story — told pleasantly enough now 
 that its sting was gone — was ended. Ward said, in his stam- 
 mering way, and yet unable to control his laughter: 
 
 "Why, God bless you, old man, I wrote that article. It was 
 my first dramatic criticism, and I felt that, for my own credit, 
 I had to do some one up. 1 saw that you were making your 
 first stagger at important work, and I felt perfectly safe in 
 skinning you." 
 
 There was a general laugh, and from that breakfast dated 
 a very warm friendship between Lawrence Barrett and poor 
 Charley Browne.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN NEW YORK AND BOSTON. 
 
 AT the close of his season with Miss Dean, during which he 
 l\. played a number of important parts and made admirable 
 progress in the art of his profession, Mr. Barrett went to New 
 York, with no definite prospects, and was only fortunate in 
 securing an engagement to support a debutante, Mrs. McMa- 
 hon, who played four weeks at the old Chambers Street 
 theatre. The opening piece chanced to be " The Hunch- 
 back," December, 1856, and he was the Sir Thomas Clifford. 
 During this engagement Barrett played a variety of leading 
 parts, and attracted so much favorable attention from man- 
 agers that he was placed in the happy position of being able 
 to make choice among the theatres of New York for his next 
 season's engagement. At that time men of remarkable talent 
 were the heads of the several leading play-houses, giving the 
 ideal character of actor-manager to the conduct of the 
 theatres. The elder Wallack was in the height of success at 
 his own house; Blake was at the Broadway; Laura Keene had 
 her own theatre, and Burton was then in control of the New 
 Metropolitan, afterward known as the Winter Garden. The 
 position he had accepted reluctantly as principal support to 
 Mrs. McMahon proved to be a most lucky circumstance for 
 the young actor, his enthusiastic, yet well governed and earn- 
 est work in that engagement procuring him flattering offers 
 from each of the famous managers named. Mr. Barrett found 
 the proposition of Mr. Burton bast suitetl to him, as presenting 
 larger advantages and better opportunities, and the offer of the 
 eminent comedian was accepted. Mr. Barrett began his work 
 at Burton's theatre in February, 1857, making his aj'jpcarance 
 
 «4
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 15 
 
 in Douglas Jerrold's three-act play, "Time Tries All." This 
 was a propitious year in the formative period of the young 
 actor's life. Among other helpful incidents, Edwin Forrest 
 played his farewell engagement at the Broadway theatre, where 
 Barrett first saw him in " King Lear," and perhaps nothing in 
 his fanciful dream.s, his eager longings, or his encouraged 
 hopes did so much to inspire him and give new purpose to his 
 ambition as did the influence of this performance. Forrest 
 had not yet come to that time of year 
 
 " When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang 
 
 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, — 
 Bare, ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang." 
 
 Indeed, though then fifty-one years of age and soured by 
 disappointments and the pangs of disease, he was at the very 
 zenith of his power, majestic, commanding, overwhelming in 
 the poise or mad whirl of his genius, having at their full the 
 very qualities calculated to arouse the enthusiastic admiration 
 and compel the profound respect of an ardent, impulsive, 
 courageous, aspiring youth. The soul of the tyro leaped out 
 to the veteran, and though Forrest never in any sense served 
 as a model to Barrett he certainly was an inspiring example. 
 
 In this year also Matilda Heron, then in the glory of her 
 ill-prized womanhood, made her first appearance in New York 
 and played a brilliant engagement at Wallack's, which was not 
 without its value to the studiously observant Barrett. But the 
 event of most direct and practical service to him was the 
 Metropolitan debut of Edwin Booth, the hereditary prince of 
 theatric tradition, above whose brow the lustre of manly 
 beauty shone like a shadowy nimbus prophetic of immortal 
 honors. They who believe in a guiding and ruling destiny 
 must see something more than chance issue in the fact that 
 Booth made his appearance at Burton's, where Lawrence 
 Barrett was the leading support in youthful characters, and 
 that these two young men, so opposite in temperament, so dif- 
 ferent in method, and yet so much alike in purpose, were
 
 l6 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 brought into professional relations in the very beginning of 
 their respective careers, and were led into a friendship that 
 has since been so fruitful to both of them. Booth was a 
 remarkably handsome man in those days, picturesque in 
 appearance, almost classic in feature, full of spirit, somewhat 
 careless, but frank, genial and loyal, the very man to win the 
 regard of the reserved, modest and book-loving Barrett. The 
 two struck hearts as well as hands in that first season of their 
 association. From that time to the present their relations 
 have been cordially sustained, and the influence of one upon 
 the other has been of a kind to benefit both to a degree few 
 besides themselves appreciate. Unfortunately there is but a 
 meagre record of those days, really among the most critical in 
 the formative period of the actor's life. But were the details 
 of that experience more abundant, it is hardly within the prov- 
 ince of a generalizing sketch to recount them. The main 
 facts are alone essential to mark the progressive steps of one 
 whose early trials were not signalized by brilliant achieve- 
 ments, who wrested by sheer force of mind and will from 
 reluctant fortune what honorable triumphs were his to enjoy. 
 It is perhaps enough to know that the particular season 
 referred to was one to arouse the best energies of an ambi- 
 tious nature, a time of emulation not alone in the sense that 
 some of the noblest examples of the standard, or so-called 
 legitimate school were inspiringly present, but because 1857 
 was in some respects a transition period with the American 
 stage. Not only did the young Booth, with his easy, graceful 
 and natural methods, his coUocpiial readings, give rise to a 
 new idea that divided public sentiment as between it and 
 devotion to the barbarian ruggedness and passionate vehe- 
 mence of the Forrest school; but a new spirit had stolen into 
 the form of the drama itself. At Wallack's old theatre, at the 
 corner of Broome Street and Broadway, Dion iJoucicault ush- 
 ered in with "Jessie Brown" the sensational and pictorial 
 drama, with its startling mechanical effects and Ijroad sphishes 
 of familiar character, the commonplace made romantic, and
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 1 7 
 
 this modernizing of melodrama was an element in the change 
 that brought about in a comparatively few years the com- 
 plete reformation of acting and the character of plays. 
 
 Lawrence Barrett, however, was not entirely in sympathy 
 with the new movement, notwithstanding his ardent admira- 
 tion of the ini|)ulsive, unfettered Edwin Booth. He had a 
 reverence of the old masters, whose names meant so much to 
 him, in whom lie beheld the conservers of the best that had 
 been handed down from generation to generation to the glory 
 of the theatre, and so he came into a middle ground of 
 thought that sought to differentiate the two conditions and 
 select a golden mean. He made choice slowly, the analytical 
 faculty that has ever been a distinguishing trait with him 
 being exercised with caution, the more deliberately and 
 repeatedly for the reason he yet doubted his own discretion. 
 In this frame of mind he attended the performances of the 
 elder Wallack, then in the foremost rank of actors. Barrett 
 saw him in many of his most famous characterizations and 
 discovered in them an instance of the degree of moderation he 
 felt might best serve the end of interpreting classic character. 
 Pleased thus to be confirmed in his judgment, the young 
 actor laid down as the fundamental principle of his acting 
 the rule "force when force is reasonable; never as a mere 
 expedient." If he did not entirely succeed in subordinat- 
 ing to this formula his excess of enthusiasm and natural 
 impetuosity, the self-imposed discipline produced such good 
 results that the attention of Charlotte Cushman was spe- 
 cially attracted to the young actor, when she played at 
 Burton's some months later. Miss Cushman was then in her 
 prime, imperiously exacting, not easily pleased with the sup- 
 port furnished her by the stock companies, rather disposed to 
 criticise than commend, notwithstanding she was at heart a 
 most kindly and sympathetic woman. With her art out- 
 weighed sentiment, and she did not hesitate to administer 
 reproof when an occasion warranted her in so doing. Com- 
 pliments from her lips fell into grateful ears, having the value
 
 l8 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 to her younger brother and sister actors of jewels to the 
 society debutante. The great actress evinced more than 
 passing interest in the diffident young man who gave her such 
 intelligent and earnest support. She received him into her 
 friendship with a cordiality that made her long engagement 
 of the highest practical value to Barrett, and often proved a 
 comfort and stay to him in after years of struggles with adver- 
 sity. This friendship continued during the life of Miss Cush- 
 man, and no one more sincerely mourned the death of that 
 gifted woman than the actor who was then well along toward 
 the fulfilment of her predictions as to his success. 
 
 In the fall of 1858, yielding to very flattering inducements, 
 Mr. Barrett went to Boston and became leading actor in the 
 Museum stock company. He at once became associated with 
 a society of notable players, among them rare William 
 Warren, then at his best. Mr. Barrett began his engagement 
 by appearing as Frederick Bramble in the old comedy of 
 "The Poor Gentleman," in which Mr. Warren was the Dr. 
 OUapod and Mr. W. H. Smith was the Sir Robert, with corre- 
 sponding excellence throughout the cast. During his two 
 years stay at this theatre Mr. Barrett played a great variety of 
 leading characters, established himself firmly in popular favor, 
 and made very considerable progress. 
 
 Recognition of his ability is contained in a criticism of a 
 play, " Mesalliance," in which Miss Davenport (Mrs. Lander) 
 appeared as the heroine, giving "a performance that will for- 
 ever be remembered as among the most brilliant of her 
 efforts." The critic, not disregarding his manifest duty to 
 condemn the moral tone of jilays derived from the French 
 source, hastens to note "the credit universally awarded to Mr. 
 Lawrence Barrett, — not only for his e.Kcellent performance on 
 this occasion, but for his invariable faithfulness to the arduous 
 duties of his position. He is one of those in the dramatic 
 profession who are going up, — steadily antl slowly, perha|)s, 
 but surely — and we hope he may succeed in reaching the 
 highest honors to which his ambition can point."
 
 MR. BARRE'rr AS HAREBELL.
 
 A l'ROI'"ESSIOXAL SKliTCH. 21 
 
 Mr. Barrett remained at the Museum two years, during 
 which period he did the most varied and trying work with 
 which good fortune had favored him. He came to Boston 
 somewhat apprehensively, having, perhaps, extravagant ideas 
 of the critical exactitude of that city, impressed with the 
 importance to himself of making at least a creditable record. 
 Among the first performances that gave him opportunity to 
 court especial notice was his appearance in " King of the 
 Commons." He succeeded well enough to be assured that 
 " his personation clearly shows his undeniable talent, has 
 many fine points, and as a whole reflects great credit on him." 
 The critic also discovered "two desirable qualities in Mr. 
 Barrett, ambition and energy." He had plenty of both, 
 indeed, but he had also a higher virtue not so generously rec- 
 ognized, an intelligence in the direction of his energies. 
 Presently we learn that " Mr. Barrett, the new comer at the 
 Boston Museum, will have his ability as a juvenile tragedian 
 fairly tested this evening, as 'Romeo and Juliet' is to be 
 produced, in which he will sustain the character of Romeo to 
 the Juliet of Miss Cunningham." This unintentional prophecy 
 was satisfactorily verified. Mr. Barrett did sustain the char- 
 acter of Romeo, and that too in a manner so entirely credit- 
 able to him that it was the real basis of his Boston popularity, 
 and opened to him the privilege of appearing in other import- 
 ant parts. "Ingomar" was soon after brought out, Miss 
 Cunningham having an enviable local reputation as Parthenia. 
 Mr. Barrett made his first appearance as Ingomar and "made 
 a fine hit. His rendition reminded one continually of good 
 scraps of acting from able actors, and could not fail to be 
 agreeable for just that reason." 
 
 Possibly Mr. Barrett was reminded by this agreeable experi- 
 ence of an evening three years before at Burton's, when 
 Charles Matthews produced for the first time in New York the 
 drama entitled "A Day of Reckoning." Mr. Barrett played 
 the part of the young workman, his acting being "the most 
 marked feature of the performance. It was a most conclusive
 
 22 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 corroboration of the axiom, ' You never know what you can do 
 till you try.' We do not think it would be possible for any 
 one to play his part much better than he did it." He was so 
 enthusiasticall}^ recalled at the end of one scene that Mr. 
 Matthews himself led him before the curtain as a compliment 
 to "a young actor likely to make his mark." Mr. Barrett 
 played all the youthful heroic parts during his stay at the 
 Museum in support of one or another of the stars of magni- 
 tude until he had secured that share of appreciation from the 
 frequenters of that theatre which was evinced in the " liberal 
 applause bestowed upon him whenever he makes his first 
 appearance for the evening." 
 
 From the Museum Mr. Barrett went to the Howard Athe- 
 naeum, then under the management of E. L. Davenport. Here 
 he remained one sea.son, playing with the great tragedians 
 and comedians of the day, including Charlotte Cushman, 
 Barry Sullivan, Hackett, Davenport and Couldock, adding to 
 his stock of characters as well as to his store of practical 
 information, not of the theatre alone, but of men and books. 
 Not a systematic reader at that time, perhaps not always care- 
 ful to make choice of the best, he mentally devoured whatever 
 came to hand, keeping up well with current literature, poetry 
 especially attracting him. He favored the writings of Bayard 
 Taylor and G. P. R. James, but he was not averse to certain 
 sentimental verses by one W. D. Howells, then a youthful con- 
 tributor to the New York Saturday Press. Ambition hindered 
 of its desires sometimes takes gloomy views of the common- 
 place, and Barrett, no doul^t feeling peculiarly afflicted because 
 his struggles were greater than he thought his rewards should 
 be, found a s(jrt of morbid satisfaction in collecting and jire- 
 serving poems that dealt with the hollowness, the miseries, the 
 disappointments of life. 'I'here is no worse ])essimist than a 
 young man of two and twenty who has begun to moralize.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AS STAR AND MANAGER. 
 
 ONE wlio remembers says of Mr. Barrett's first appearance 
 on the stage, as Murad in "The French Spy," "the 
 y(Hithful asi)irant was tongue-tied and limb-smitten." He was, 
 indeed, laughed at by the more froward youths in the audi- 
 ence, and for a moment felt an almost irresistible inclination to 
 dash from the stage and abjure the theatre forever. This 
 moment of irresolution was in a measure disconcerting and 
 gave a cue to the juvenile roisterers for a volley of bantering 
 noises. Instantly the proud spirit of the sensitive youth rose 
 in rebellion; an honest rage routing his fears, restoring his 
 self-confidence, converted threatened failure into fair success. 
 The trait thus early manifested has ever been characteristic of 
 Mr. Barrett. Antagonism has been to him always a helpful 
 spur, putting him to his mettle, arousing in him new energies, 
 strengthening him to over- ride or beat down obstacles, devel- 
 oping him as the smiles of ready favor never could have done. 
 He began his New York season raw and rudely disciplined, 
 road travel in those days being no better than now for the 
 positive art of the actor. He had, therefore, to encounter 
 and master ridicule in his first appearance at Burton's. But, 
 as we have seen already, his admirable management of him- 
 self matle that New York season the substantial basis of 
 respectable reputation, and he went to Boston with much to 
 his credit in the way of valuable recognition. There his 
 experience was in all respects beneficial, and it is uncertain 
 how long he might have clung to surroundings so entirely 
 congenial had not the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion 
 
 affected him. 
 
 23
 
 24 LAWREN'CE BARRETT. 
 
 This event naturally disturbed theatrical plans and arrange- 
 ments as it interfered with every kind of business carried on 
 between the North and South. There was a general change 
 and shifting about of engagements made when there was but 
 an uncertain prospect of war, and among the professional 
 transitions Mr. Barrett found it to his advantage to accept an 
 offer to unite with the stock company of the old Walnut Street 
 Theatre, then under the management of Mrs. Garretson. 
 
 This was coming into an atmosphere of memories and tradi- 
 tions always helpful to a poetic temperament. The oldest 
 theatre in Philadelphia, the natural resort of the ablest actors 
 of the time past and present, this then true temple of Thespis 
 was in the nature of a rallying post to the young actor sturdil}' 
 pushing along the rugged and evil beset way that only leads to 
 enduring success. Mr. Barrett made his first appearance there 
 in the character of Cassius in "Julius Caesar." This was the 
 second occasion of his having to do with a part in which he 
 was destined to become famous. He was but seventeen years 
 of age when he first put on the toga of the sour-visaged 
 Roman, playing the part in the old Metropolitan Theatre, 
 Detroit, to the Antony of the now venerable Joseph Proctor 
 and the Brutus of George Jamison. Little did he dream then 
 there would be a time when the popular Edwin Booth should 
 approach him after the glory of a splendid revival and say, 
 with cordial deference, in highest compliment to the achieve- 
 ment of the 3'ounger actor, " I shall never play Cassius again." 
 Indeed, since 187 1 there has been but one Cassius. 
 
 Mr. Barrett remained at the Walnut Street Theatre only 
 three months, going from there to Washington under the man- 
 agement of Mr. Grover. The professional gain to him here 
 did not equal the social privileges he enjoyed. The season 
 was not fruitless of theatric honors, but its chief value con- 
 sisted in the opportunities for making desirable and influential 
 acquaintances. It was in this winter that Mr. Ikirrett came to 
 know the late martyred President, James .\. (iarfield, then a 
 young congressman from Ohio. Between the two grew up a
 
 A l'K<JFESSIUNAL SKETCH. 25 
 
 firm friendship that lasted, with increased esteem as each 
 aspired the road of fame, until the agonized death of the great 
 victim of murderous madness. Mr. Barrett also formed the 
 acquaintance of eminent statesmen and generals then at Wash- 
 ington, and had the honor of becoming personally known to 
 President Lincoln. What such associations would do for a 
 man of Mr. Barrett's mental and moral traits may be imagined. 
 Theretofore his principal ambition was to educate and disci- 
 pline himself to take honorable rank as an actor. From this 
 time forward the desire possessed him equally with his profes- 
 sional longings to take intellectual stand with men of scholarly 
 attainments, to be one of them as well as to know them. He 
 accordingly added to his studies how to become an actor the 
 more important inquiry how to become a man in the imperial 
 domain of mind. It may be said that his Washington experi- 
 ence was the point of demarkation between a purely selfish 
 ambition and a broad, productive, and beneficial purpose. He 
 discovered, perhaps, that the circle of each individual life 
 impinges many others and that the real test of substantial suc- 
 cess is its general utility of service. At any rate there was a 
 marked change in his general demeanor, noted by his asso- 
 ciates, curiously commented upon, appreciated by some, mis- 
 understood by many. More and more withdrawing from the 
 careless and idling that he might the more diligently and effect- 
 ually pursue his plan of self-education, he was charged with 
 e.xclusiveness and arrogance, and was certainly not a favorite 
 with brawlers and revelers, nor with those who, in the stage 
 parlance of the time, knew no other study than how to "get 
 through " a part. It may here be said, en passant, that it is an 
 entire misconception of character by those who, knowing him 
 little, accuse Mr. Barrett of being austere and egotistic. To 
 be sure he has a manly contempt for those who having eyes see 
 not what opportunities lie around them, neglecting advantages 
 to lift themselves above the mean plane of professional vaga- 
 bondage and mere bohemianism. He does hold himself aloof 
 from associations that could in no wise benefit him and would
 
 26 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 tempt him only to squander time on empty things. But with 
 all his positiveness of character and independence of thought, 
 Lawrence Barrett is, among his social and intellectual equals, 
 as modest as he is amiable, as courteous and as well bred as he 
 is brilliant and scholarly. On the stage, in his field of practical 
 duty, it is another matter. He is there, properly, a task mas- 
 ter, for he is there a minister of art seeing in individuals the 
 mere instruments to an end, the more valuable as they are 
 mtelligent and tractable. It is this spirit has made Mr. Barrett 
 the chief conservator of the classic drama in this country. 
 
 At the close of his Washington season Mr. Barrett returned 
 to Philadelphia as a member of the Chestnut Street Theatre 
 Company, where he again played in leading support with Mr. 
 Booth, Mr. Davenport, and others of the great stars with whom 
 he had now become somewhat familiar. At this time, the win- 
 ter of 1863, the veteran Edwin Forrest was in retirement, living 
 quietly at his home in Broad street. He was a regular attend- 
 ant at the theatre, however, and nearly every evening he was 
 to be seen in a box of the Chestnut Street Theatre, an atten- 
 tive listener. He observed young Barrett with peculiar and 
 approving interest, and on several occasions went behind the 
 scenes before the close of the play, called for the young actor 
 and spoke to him words of commendation or offered valuable 
 suggestions as to the betterment of some bit of action or read- 
 ing. These attentions, we may be sure, were gratefully received 
 by the aspiring and zealous young actor, and the value of 
 them may be surmi-sed from the fact that Mr. Forrest's com- 
 ment and criticism was .so e.xact as to take note of the j^ronun- 
 ciation of words. Mr. Barrett, of course, had the failing of all 
 self-educated men, who acquire language from reading and 
 speak words as they are printed, not always as they are con- 
 ventionally sounded. One evening Mr. Forrest sent a card 
 from his bo.x on which was written simply, "Kxtrordinary, not 
 extra-ordinary." Barrett thought this gave him a point 
 against his curt but kindly disposed critic, and he rather 
 triumphantly sent back word, " But it is extraordinary," having
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 27 
 
 in mind, of course, the (]uestion of orthography instead of 
 that of orthoepy. Mr. Forrest confined his reply to four 
 words, "Look at your dictionary." 'I'he injunction was fol- 
 lowed and the young actor added to his course of studies the 
 practice of justifying words by the rules of a pronouncing 
 dictionary. 
 
 At the time Edwin Booth came to the Chestnut to play an 
 engagement he was arranging matters for an important season 
 at the Winter Garden, formerly Burton's New Metropolitan, 
 in New York. Such was his esteem of Mr. Barrett, personally 
 and as an actor, he made his junior a tempting offer to join 
 with him for that season. Mr. Barrett accordingly returned to 
 New York, this time as the principal member of Mr. Booth's 
 special company. This season at the Winter Garden was an 
 event of no inconsiderable importance. The productions 
 were elaborate and attracted a great deal of attention, critics 
 and professional people sharing the interest of the public. 
 Mr. Barrett won quite his share of the honors, notwithstanding 
 the great and almost affectionate favor in which Mr. Booth, 
 described as "the Hope of the Living Drama," was then held. 
 What impression Mr. Barrett made may be estimated by an 
 incident of the representation of "Othello." The elder Wal- 
 lack went that evening to see Mr. Booth, toward whom he felt a 
 sort of paternal disposition, play lago, a part in which the star 
 already had made reputation. Mr. Barrett played Othello 
 and Mr. Wallack looked on in astonishment. Returning to 
 his own theatre, he declared to the actors in the green room 
 that he had just witnessed a performance by a young unknown 
 person more striking than any that he had seen for twenty 
 years. This high praise did not soon find its way to the ears 
 of Mr. Barrett, but it came in time to perform its ofifice of 
 encouragement. It was during this season tliat '* Julius Caesar " 
 was brought out with a cast including Junius Brutus Booth 
 as Brutus, Edwin Booth as Cassius — a part he much affected 
 then — and John AN'ilkes Booth as Mark Antony. Mr. Barrett, 
 of course, had had no opportunity to show to this famous
 
 28 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 trio what power he had to usurp and hold as his own this very 
 exacting and, until Mr. Barrett's time, not properly esteemed 
 character. The season was brought to a sudden close by the 
 death of Mr. Booth's first wife, Mary Devlin. 
 
 While he was in New York a proposition was made to Mr. 
 Barrett that he enter into partnership with Mr. Lewis Baker in 
 the management of the Varieties Theatre, the then principal 
 play-house in New Orleans. After some hesitation Mr. Bar- 
 rett decided to enter into the enterprise as one affording him 
 an opportunity to essay certain ambitious plans and test him- 
 self as an actor of the chief characters of the standard tragic 
 dramas. The arrangement was accordingly perfected and Mr. 
 Barrett began the active management of the house in con- 
 junction with Mr. Setchell, inaugurating a prosperous, and in 
 some respects brilliant season that was continued for thirty 
 weeks. The patronage was a mixed one of soldiers and citi- 
 zens. Northerners and Southerners, the city being blockaded 
 at the time. Here, for the first time, and not without fear and 
 trembling, Mr. Barrett appeared in some of the great parts 
 with which his name has since been honorably, and in some 
 cases distinctively associated. Among these were Richelieu, 
 Hamlet, and Shylock, and with them the starring career of 
 the young tragedian may be said to have begun, though he 
 was yet to do subordinate work. The success tliat had 
 attended his appearance as Othello in New York, induced him 
 to produce the passionate tragedy on his own account, the 
 result being in every way gratifying, especially as confirming 
 his opinion of the dramatic harmony between him and the 
 character. 
 
 It was during this season that Mr. Lester Wallack — then 
 known as Mr. Wallack the younger, though at this writing he 
 has just bowed an aged head in sad farewell to the triumphs 
 of the theatre — produced, at his own theatre in New York, an 
 admirable romantic drama, uni(|ui' in siylf and (|ualily, that 
 made an instant success and ran for over one hunch-cd nights, 
 something extraordinary at thai lime. This was the interesting
 
 A I'KOFESSIONAL SKETCH. 29 
 
 but now neglected play of " Rosedale." Mr. Barrett secured 
 the play for representation at his New Orleans theatre, 
 appearing in it as Elliott Grey, the part played by Mr. W'allack, 
 and was so entirely successful in a character that seemed to be 
 especially fashioned for him, that he purchased from its author 
 the American rights to the play. When the old Varieties was 
 destroyed, and its memorable season brought to a summary 
 close, Mr. Barrett decided to tempt fortune as a star and 
 began his independent career with this play, at Pike's Opera 
 House in Cincinnati, in the fall of 1864. Mr. Barrett was 
 then twenty-six years of age, and, by sheer force of mind, had 
 lifted himself from the mean condition of the ignorant lad, 
 painfully poring over the mystery of words in a dim closet of 
 the theatre, to a position that not only gave commanding 
 prominence to his unmistakable talent, but made it difificult of 
 belief, that ten years before he was entirely without advantages 
 of education. The more he became favored of circumstances, 
 the greater was his resolution to deserve well of fortune. 
 Praise was not food to his vanity but inspiration to his genius, 
 and in each new success he simply found an incentive to bet- 
 ter performance. During these ten years, certainly the most 
 arduous and trying in his life, Mr. Barrett almost confined 
 his studies to the drama itself, devoting himself most assidu- 
 ously to Shakespeare. He now recognized the fact that all 
 things are Concomitants of dramatic art, and enlarged his 
 study to embrace its most illustrative collateral branches, 
 biography, history, general literature, and such essays as 
 embodied mental or physical analysis. His work began to 
 reveal the intelligent student as well as the sympathetic mimic 
 of passion, and presently a discerning writer found occasion to 
 remark, "That which most impresses us in the impersonations 
 of this young actor is the mental clearness of his conception 
 and the scholarly precision with which he develops an idea." 
 
 Mr. Barrett played in " Rosedale " throughout the season of 
 1864 and 1865, occasionally assuming one and another of the 
 characters by means of which he hoped to gain a higher place
 
 o 
 
 O LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 in his profession than is assured by other than the classic drama. 
 He early learned in this season how great and almost disheart- 
 ening is the distinction made by popular, that is to say, jour- 
 nalistic, criticism between the ambitious efforts of a subordinate 
 actor, and the no less earnest, hopeful, and one would think 
 equally deserving endeavors of that same actor in the capa- 
 city of principal, or star. Whereas he before received kind 
 consideration and generous encouragement, he now tasted the 
 bitter sweet of the faint praise that damns, and felt the smart 
 of censure whose severity sometimes smacked of resentment. 
 It is a strange quality of human weakness that we often dispar- 
 age the success, the struggle for which we had applauded 
 heartily. The same hand we reach down to raise the lowly, we 
 thrust upward to drag down the high. In art nothing is more 
 strenuously opposed than the aggressive influence which dis- 
 passionate judgment tells us is irresistible. A nature less self- 
 contained, a purpose less firmly fixed, had been dismayed and 
 given over to defeat by the vigorous criticism Mr. Barrett 
 had to encounter and surmount in the beginning of his career — 
 a criticism so adverse, so determined, so persistent in some 
 quarters that, in reading it, one is tempted to ask if it pro- 
 ceeded entirely from that moral sense which is cruel only to 
 be kind, or had in it something of the spirit which 
 
 Damns the worth it cannot imitate. 
 
 On the other side were a few men of approved judgment, 
 whose words had value whether spoken in reproof or in com- 
 mendation. These encouraged the young actor by kindly 
 explaining his faults and cordially acknowledging his worth; 
 and if occasionally some writer was moved by good feeling to 
 extol what others merely praised, the actor was gratified but 
 never unduly elated. Indeed, it is a fact worth knowing that 
 Mr. Barrett is a very clever analyst of criticism. He knows a 
 hawk from a hernshaw, blow the wind whence it may, and is 
 not more easily swayed by llatlery than disconcerted by 
 injudicious censure. He early learned to distinguish between
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 
 
 31 
 
 those extremes which are self-consuming when opposed, and a 
 temperate adjustment of differences to an intelligent demon- 
 stration. He read comments on his acting not for the praise 
 or blame they contained, but for the instruction they might 
 impart. He was anxious to learn, and he valued criticism pro- 
 portionately as it taught him how to improve. Sitting one 
 morning at a late breakfast with a journalist friend, Mr. Bar- 
 rett said, in the course of conversation: "That was a delight- 
 ful article you wrote last night, old fellow, and I read ii with 
 genuine pleasure; I)ut here is one less kind that dues me more 
 good. It points out a fault and suggests a remedy." That 
 night Mr. Barrett proved the sincerity of his words by follow- 
 ing what he knew to be a bit of good advice, possibly to the 
 astonishment of the unfriendly critic.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND. 
 
 IN the several years of his first starring experience, Air. 
 Barrett encountered varying fortunes, but httle that was 
 significant or decisive with reference to his future career. 
 The constant self-examination to which he subjected himself 
 informed him of a certain though not generally recognized 
 progress. As his mind expanded under the nourishing influ- 
 ence of healthful and delightsome study his hope increased 
 and gave him strength to persevere in his fight against preju- 
 dice and discouragements of every description. He found 
 least opposition when he appeared in romantic or semi-melo- 
 dramatic creations; but this, instead of tempting him to con- 
 tinue acting in " Rosedale," "The Duke's Motto," and corres- 
 ponding dramas, only served to increase his determination to 
 win honor in the higher class of plays. He did not, however, 
 make rapid progress in this direction, the public mind being 
 yet too much absorbed in memories of the passing generation 
 easily to be won to regard of new adventurers in a somewhat 
 jealously guarded province of the drama. 
 
 In 1867, at the close of a fairly prosperous season, Mr. Bar- 
 rett decided to go to England, not especially with a view to 
 acting there — though he may have had a vague hope of find- 
 ing an opportunity .so to do — but to profit by acquaintance 
 with scenes rich in theatrical traditions, and to gratify a 
 natural longing for travel. It was his fortune on arriving in 
 London to be brought at once into friendly relations with 
 some of the leading spirits of the day. Charles Matthews, with 
 wlioni he had jiiayed at Burton's years before, was then a man 
 of no little importance in literary and artistic circles, and he 
 
 32
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 33 
 
 very cordially welcomed the young actor, for whom he had 
 conceived a great respect. With the same generous frankness 
 that prompted him to lead young Barrett before the curtain a 
 triumphant night in New York, he now introduced the rising 
 star to his London confreres and acquaintances. Among 
 others he met Charles Dickens and discovered much that was 
 congenial between them upon which to base a lasting, and in 
 some measure, influential friendship. Charles Fechter and 
 others of the principal actors of London contributed to the 
 pleasure of his visit, entertaining him most hospitably, quite 
 dispelling from his mind any con.sciousness that he was a 
 stranger among them and little more than a beginner at the 
 art some of them were thought to have mastered. It was at 
 this time Mr. Barrett first met Artemus Ward and learned from 
 his stammering tongue who it was so mercilessly criticised his 
 maiden effort as a "juvenile lead." Mr. Barrett did not 
 appear professionally at any time during this visit, but the 
 year following he returned to England under engagement to 
 act for one week at T^iverpool. This he did, appearing in a 
 round of tragic characters with greater artistic than popular 
 success. That he deserved better of the conservative Liver- 
 pool people, we may infer f'-om the favorable impression he 
 made upon the late John Oxenford, then one of the literary 
 authorities of London, famous in art circles as the critic of 
 the Times. He arrived in Liverpool on his way from America 
 to London, and reading the announcement that an American 
 actor would that evening appear as Hamlet, resolved, in idle 
 curiosity, while waiting for his train, to get a glimpse of the 
 unknown tragedian. At the end of the third act Mr. Oxen- 
 ford sent to Mr. Barrett on the "stage a note of gratulation, 
 saying that he had come to the theatre only for a moment, 
 being in haste to reach London, "but I have missed three 
 express trains and been held here until the end of the third 
 act by the power of your performance." He concluded his 
 brief note by assuring Mr. Barrett of success should he appear 
 in London.
 
 34 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 In those days there was less inducement than now to an 
 American actor anxious to test his abilities in England. 
 There was, indeed, a coldness amounting almost to opposition, 
 due to the oelief, apparently, that this country was a theatric 
 Nazareth from which no true prophet could come. American 
 actors did little enough to overcome this prejudice, which even 
 Edwin Forrest had not greatly disturbed, and it must be 
 recognized as a gratifying compliment to Mr. Barrett that the 
 success of his Liverpool engagement was sufficient to secure 
 to him several offers of further engagements in England, even 
 though he declined them as being unsatisfactory. In a mone- 
 tary sense few English engagements are satisfactory to Ameri- 
 can actors. The hope of achieving greater professional dis- 
 tinction is about all there is to tempt the Yankee player across 
 the sea. As for the matter of money, there has been, until 
 recently, no comparison between the two countries, and even 
 now the advantages are so largely with the American side that 
 the United States have become something in the sort with 
 recuperating resorts for European artists, and a field of advent- 
 ure for European speculators. The uninviting financial pros- 
 pect deterred Mr. Barrett from spending more time in a 
 country he had found very agreeable and in which he had 
 made many valuable friends, besides enjoying exceptional 
 social honors. 
 
 When Mr. Barrett returned from England in the December 
 of 1867, he was induced to make an engagement to appear, as 
 soon as the trip could be made, at Maguire's Opera House, 
 San Francisco. Going to California in those days was no 
 pleasure jaunt. It involved hardships and suffering in one 
 direction and positive danger in another. There was no over- 
 land railway, and the journey could be made more safely and 
 generally more quickly by water, and travel was rarely in any 
 other way than by steamer to Aspinwall. thence by rail across 
 the isthmus of Panama, where another steamer was taken for 
 'Frisco. This required from twenty-seven to thirty days in 
 good weather. Though Mr. Barrett is rather fond of ocean
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 
 
 35 
 
 travel in the improved and perfectly comfortable steamers of 
 the European lines, there was little to charm him in the tedi- 
 ous time consumed by the traffic steamers of the old New 
 York and Aspinwall line and the craft of the Pacific. He was 
 inclined to forswear that route for the future. Ending a dis- 
 tressing voyage, he arrived in San Francisco about February 
 I, 1868, and began his engagement February 13, appearing as 
 Hamlet. His success was immediate, and to the reputation 
 that had j^receded him was added a local fame that much 
 exceeded his hope. He became a great favorite with the pub- 
 lic and was instrumental in retrieving the fortunes of the house, 
 which had begun to decline through lack of suitable attractions. 
 Mr. Barrett played a very prosperous season of eleven weeks 
 supported by a company of which Mr. John McCullough was 
 the leading actor. The cordial frankness and free-hearted 
 manner ever characteristic of McCullough, were even more 
 marked in that period of his young manhood, when he was 
 care free and apparently indifferent to the honors of the future. 
 Mr. Barrett conceived a great liking for this joyous Irishman, 
 this splendid type of physical manhood, whose temperament 
 and habits were so unlike his own, but whose genial nature was 
 irresistible. McCullough was popular with everybody and 
 knew everybody, was admired as an actor but inspired no 
 great confidence as a business man. When Mr. Barrett 
 became known to Ralston and other capitalists of the city, his 
 practical ideas and conservative methods commanded their 
 respect as business men, and brought to a point some vaguely 
 entertained notions as to the need of a really first-class theatre 
 in that city. These gentlemen proposed to Mr. Barrett to 
 build a magnificent theatre, provided he would remain and 
 undertake its management. After some deliberation Mr. Bar- 
 rett accepted the proposition, a formal agreement was entered 
 into between the parties, and the building of the new theatre 
 was begun forthwith. 
 
 The next six months or more Mr. Barrett had pretty much 
 at his own disposal and he improved a considerable part of
 
 36 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 the time by playing engagements in the interior of the state 
 and in Nevada. This was a unique and interesting experience, 
 reveaUng varied and rough phases of Hfe of which the actor 
 had little knowledge even from reading. He entered inquisi- 
 tively into the life he encountered and made some acquaint- 
 ances with men who, then roughing it in the mining camp, 
 have since gained wealth and in some instances have arisen to 
 political eminence. It was in the summer of this year that he 
 made his third visit to England. The principal purpose of the 
 visit was to purchase costumes and engage certain people for 
 the new California Theatre, ^^'hen he returned he determined, 
 recalling with aversion the disagreeable features of his first 
 journey to California, to make the second trip overland. 
 Much of the journey across the plains was made by stage, and 
 what hardships and dangers beset the way are too familiar inci- 
 dents of Western romance for recital in these pages. Mr. Bar- 
 rett has no pleasant recollections of that severely trying journey 
 in which he almost lost his life through privation, but it is one 
 of the treasures in his storehouse of experience, a memory he 
 would not lose. The new theatre, a superb structure, built at 
 the cost of half a million of dollars, was opened as the California 
 Theatre, under the management of Barrett and McCu Hough, 
 January 18, 1879, and ran a splendid course of twenty months 
 under that auspicious union of actor managers. Mr. Barrett 
 received $18,000 a year for his services as actor and manager. 
 He was left free to carry out his ideas, and the glory of that 
 brilliant season has not yet faded from the remembrance of 
 Californians. The theatre and the splendor of its productions 
 excited universal comment, the reputation of the management 
 quickly becoming a guaranty to actors in the East who more 
 willingly than ever before faced the discomforts and perils of 
 the long overland journey. Accordingly some of the most 
 celebrated actors of the day appeared at the theatre, and the 
 grand dramas were presented with unprecedented casts, with 
 unaccustomed scenic embellishments and auxiliary numbers, 
 and had the liberal support of an always generous public. The
 
 MK. I!AkKi;TT AS YOklCK.
 
 A PROFESSIONAI, SKETCH. 39 
 
 first really great American production of "Julius Caesar" was 
 one of the triumphs in the brilliant career of this noble theat- 
 ric enterprise. It is significant that the theatre, which was 
 remarkably prosperous during the time that Mr. Barrett 
 remained in active management, fell upon troublous times 
 soon after he retired from its control. Not without some 
 regret did he decide, at the end of twenty months, that his 
 best interests lay in the large field of general action, and in 
 order to resume his active career he sold his rights in the 
 theatre to his managerial partner, Mr. McCullough. From 
 that time, though its lustre did not immediately pale, the Cal- 
 ifornia Theatre seemed fated. Mr. McCullough became 
 heavily involved financially and was finally forced from the 
 management of the house by his personal necessities. In the 
 end the theatre fell under that mysterious ban of ill-luck that 
 the superstitious imagine may infect stone and brick as well as 
 flesh and blood, and in some way the tragic fate of its original 
 projector seemed to bear upon the fortunes of the chief temple 
 of dramatic art on the Pacific coast. The practical may argue 
 that Mr. Barrett withdrew in time; but there is an inviting 
 speculation in the question what might have been the result had 
 the calm intelligence, sound judgment and artistic enterprise 
 of Lawrence Barrett continued energetically to direct the 
 affairs of the house. The California Theatre possibly had 
 thrived in prosperity, but very probably the dramatic art of 
 this country had missed its now chief servant and conservator. 
 Mr. Barrett resumed his interrupted career as a star by 
 appearing at Niblo's Garden under Jarrett and Palmer in the 
 summer of 1870. During this engagement "Julius Csesar " 
 was produced on elaborate scale with Mr. Barrett as Cassius, 
 E. L. Davenport as Brutu.s, Walter Montgomery as Mark 
 Antony, Mark Smith as Casca, Theo Hamilton as Julius 
 Cffisar, Madame Ponisi as Portia and Miss Virginia Buchanan 
 as Calphurnia. As this was on the eve of the great success 
 Mr. Barrett was to achieve as the representative of Cassius,
 
 40 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 the following extract from a criticism in the New York Leader 
 of Sept. lo, 1870, may prove interesting. 
 
 " Whatever may be the individual star standards of these 
 personages — and estimated by their individual exertions in the 
 star field, they are all supereminent- — the performance could 
 not help being an unusually good one, because each actor was 
 stimulated by the presence of kindred ability into a generous 
 rivalry, that meant for the audience just so much extra talent. 
 This is one of the advantages of a stock company formed on 
 sound principles in art, or, to borrow a phrase from another 
 profession, when the right men are in the right place. Mr. 
 Lawrence Barrett, as Cassius, shot up a head and shoulders 
 esthetically taller than he appeared in the unsupported tur- 
 gidities of the week before. If we may use the agricultural 
 idiom which Mr. Greely is introducing so successfully into 
 polite literature, we may say he seemed to be manured by the 
 occasion into new development, and put forth leaves which 
 looked wonderfully like laurel before the play was over. This 
 is saying a great deal for a young actor who has been thus 
 early subjected to all the disadvantages of the star system, and 
 who has many infirmities of manner to soften and eradicate 
 before he can hope to have columns written on his ideality and 
 his elocution. He, however, luckily possesses the acting 
 instinct, a quick, vigorous mind, a virile body, attuned with a 
 splendid voice, and a passionate nature which needs the curb 
 rather than the spur. These are things not to be slighted in 
 this day of Chesterfield tragedians. Cassius was, therefore, a 
 manly success; a bold, somewhat hard, but an even perform- 
 ance; and in the quarrel scene with Brutus, the vehemence, 
 the fiery temper and impassioned manner not only bespoke his 
 forte, but won him plaudits that rung all round the house. 
 But the interest of the performance was materially heightened 
 by the vivid contrast presented in the conjunction of l^arrett 
 and Davenport, the latter playing Brutus. One all impul.se, 
 the other all metlmd, tin- charactcrizalions thus joined slooil 
 out in black and white from the start. Mr. Davenport admirably
 
 A I'ROFLSSIUXAL SKETCH. 4I 
 
 assumed tlie dignity and stately bearing of the Roman; his 
 whole impersonation was marked by the precision and per- 
 fection of an actor who never yet depended on his impulses, 
 but who made his whole art, from the first essay in his pro- 
 fession, a matter of technical study, with a reason behind 
 every gesture, and something of the irrefutable coolness of 
 reason in every gesture, too. It would be folly to expect the 
 same finish in Mr. Barrett; we 'doubt that he ever will attain it. 
 There seems to be little room for repose in his strenuous, 
 impatient manner; but in its stead he has the clans of a French- 
 man or a Celt; and never did it appear in more vivid light 
 than by the side of this imperturbable Brutus." 
 
 Since that time Mr. Barrett has tempered the Celtic trans- 
 ports of emotion with requisite artistic repose, a fact the care- 
 ful critic of the Leader may have observed if he yet lives to 
 balance candidly the virtues and demerits of actors. 
 
 The popular success of this production is attested by the 
 number of performances, four given in one week. This was 
 remarkable enough to arouse the ready letter writers of private 
 life, one of whom hastened to assure his paper that " not in 
 London, not in New York, not anywhere in the whole history of 
 the stage was ' Julius Caesar ' ever before played four nights in 
 one week." During this engagement Mr. Barrett for the first 
 time played lago, Mr. Davenport being the Othello. Mr. 
 Edwin Booth was now at his own new and magnificent theatre, 
 at the corner of Twenty-third street and Sixth Avenue, and 
 was eager to have with him the young actor with whom his 
 earlier associations had been so agreeable. Very satisfactory 
 arrangements were made, and Mr. Barrett went to Booth's in 
 December, and for sixteen weeks played opposite characters in 
 the round of great plays that followed one another in rapid 
 succession. At the end of this special season Mr. Booth with- 
 drew to meet engagements elsewhere, leaving the theatre to 
 Mr. Barrett, who was prepared for a great revival of Shake- 
 speare's "Winter's Tale." The play was brought out toward 
 the end of April with Mr. Barrett as King Leontes, Mark
 
 42 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 Smith as Autolycus, and a fine general cast in a superb pro- 
 duction. For a month the patronage was suited to the import- 
 ance of the enterprise, but it was found advisable to make a 
 change at the end of six weeks. The New York press united 
 to lament the withdrawal, after so brief a season, of the finest 
 Shakespearean revival that had been seen in America, and 
 which was said to be no less brilliant in performance than 
 in appointments. But the support of the thoughtful por- 
 tions of the community, merely, is not sufficient to sustain 
 a costly enterprise. Mr. Barrett's acting of King Leontes was 
 variously criticised, and one of the free lances of the press 
 came to the relief of the perplexed ones by declaring the 
 truth of the matter to be that " Leontes is such a disagreeable 
 brute that even Mr. Barrett's talent cannot make him endur- 
 able." This fact has always weighed against the play. 
 
 "A Winter's Tale" was succeeded, June 5, by the first 
 American production of W. G. Wills' poetic drama, the " Man 
 o' Arlie," adapted from the German of Karl von Holte. The 
 play was very successfully brought out in London in 1867, and 
 had a noted run. The cast for the production at Booth's 
 included — besides Mr. Barrett as James Harebell — Mr. Gloss- 
 ford as Saunders, Miss Ellen Livingston as Mary Harebell, Mr. 
 Anderson as Lord Steelman, Mr. Sheridan as Sir Gerald Hope, 
 Mr. Howsen as George Brandon, Miss McCormack and Mr. 
 Pitou as Robert Harebell and Teresa Selden as Miss Steel- 
 man. Some of the comment on the production and perform- 
 ance will be found interesting. Mr. William Winter wrote for 
 the Tribune: "The first representation in America of 'The 
 Man o' Arlie' was given, last night, at Booth's Theatre. A 
 large company of persons witnessed it — the house, though not 
 crowded, being well filled. Just before the performance began, 
 the Caledonian Club, arrayed in Scottish dress, and marshaled 
 by the shrill music of the pipes, marched into the house and 
 took places in the auditorium. Sincere and hearty enthusiasm 
 prevailed, indeed, both at \\\c first and aftiTward. Significant 
 token of this was seen in the fact that Mr. Lawrence Barrett
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 43 
 
 — who played James Harebell with delicious sweetness of sen- 
 timent and very noble fervor and thought as becomes the 
 part — was called before the curtain at the end of every act, 
 and in each case by spontaneous and genuine applause. 'The 
 Man o' Arlie ' is a sinii)le, tender, affecting and lovely work, 
 and it was seen with profound pleasure. There is no attribute 
 of the piece that startles. There is no trickery in it. The 
 aim which it powerfully follows and thoroughly accomplishes 
 is to affect the mind and heart by a straightforward exposition 
 of true experience, upon a high plane of life, thought and 
 feeling. No one can see it and feel its force without being 
 elevated in moral condition. Mr. Barrett has done himself 
 great honor by this performance, revealing qualities of mind 
 and temperament that will endear him to all who appreciate 
 fineness of feeling and of art." 
 
 The Sim, after commenting on the sad and tearful story, 
 said: 
 
 " Mr. Lawrence Barrett acted the part of James Harebell, 
 the poet, with genuine pathos. It seemed particularly suited 
 to his temperament and adapted to his refined and delicate 
 mode of acting. Certainly, he never has appeared to such 
 excellent advantage in any play in which we have seen him. 
 He took hold upon the sympathies of the audience at the out- 
 set and held them firmly to the end. The joyousness of the 
 early scenes, the sweet homeliness and tenderness of domestic 
 life, the giving way of reason, and the final representation of 
 the ' darkened mind ' were alike admirably done — always 
 within bounds, naturally, and without yielding to any tempta- 
 tation to exaggeration. The audience was deeply touched by 
 the performance, and listened to it, not with loud and mean- 
 ingless applause so much as with the sincere tribute of 
 emotion." 
 
 After the play had been running for some time the Tribime 
 said: " Mr. Barrett's personation of the poet has aroused 
 much enthusiasm — but not more than is fully warranted by its 
 beauty of spirit and form; " and Harper's Weekly took unusual
 
 44 
 
 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 pains to say: "As an act of justice to a most meritorious 
 young actor, we are happy to invite. the public attention to one 
 of the finest personations it has been our fortune to witness. 
 It is true that tragedy is scarcely the thing for hot weather; 
 but if it is justified it is when an exquisite representation 
 enlists the sympathies and holds the attention from the rise to 
 the fall of the curtain. As the ' Man o' Arlie,' Lawrence Bar- 
 rett demonstrates that he is an actor of the highest grade, and 
 the little songs he brings in so naturally prove that it is not 
 alone as such he could shine. From first to last Barrett as 
 James Harebell allows no blur to detract from his art, so natural 
 that art in him is nature. To those who desire to see a fine 
 and growing native artist, let nothing prevent a visit to Booth's 
 Theatre while this drama is on the boards." The play was 
 continued at Booth's for a trifle over four weeks and in a 
 review of the brief season the Express said of Mr. Barrett's 
 personation of Harebell: "A chaste and symmetrical figure, 
 sentient with the being of the poet and the man, and so 
 noble in its aspirations toward a true art standard, that it has 
 won for him 'golden opinions from all sorts of people.' There 
 is power, force, and energy in this young actor, as his Cassius 
 and Leontes have shown us; but it was left for the 'Man o' 
 Arlie' to show, too, how well grounded, how sympathetic, and 
 how intrinsically poetic is the art of which he is possessed." 
 
 Mr. Barrett thought it well to go upon the road with this 
 play, and at the conclusion of his engagement at Booth's he 
 arranged a short tour for the fall, that embraced a part of New 
 England and terminated with an engagement at the Arch 
 Street Theatre, Philadelphia. This was a pleasant, and in fair 
 degree profitable, experience, the actor nowhere encountering 
 dissent from the uniform praise of his New York critics. 
 James Harebell has ever since been in Mr. Barrett's ready 
 repertoire though, because of its dccivtoned sadness, its 
 almost painful pathos, it is rarely played by him. Perhaps no 
 character he personates affects him more profoundly, and there 
 are scenes in which he has been so overcome by his own
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 45 
 
 emotions responding to the sentiment of the character as to be 
 forced to interrupt his speech by some trifle of business to 
 recover necessary self-possession.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HIS CREATION AS CASSIUS. 
 
 DURING this year, 187 1, the building of the new Varieties 
 Theatre, New Orleans, was in progress, and Mr. Barrett 
 had already been urgently invited to assume the management 
 of the house. This he was reluctant to do, not wishing for a 
 second time to interrupt his active career; but repeated 
 appeals and the offer of a very large salary, with a guaranty 
 against any pecuniary risk in the enterprise, induced him to 
 undertake the management. The theatre was brilliantly 
 opened the night of December 4, 187 1, with Albury's charm- 
 ing four-act comedy, " The Coquettes." The house staff was: 
 Lawrence Barrett, manager; Lorraine Rogers, business man- 
 ager; John Selwyn, stage manager; M. Maddern, leader of 
 orchestra; H. Tryon, scene painter, and F. B. Cilley, treasurer. 
 The stock company consisted of George Clancey, Stuart 
 Robeson, Dominick Murray, George Ryer, T. J. Hind, George 
 Holland, Frank Murdock, Harold Fosberg, John Howson, 
 Augustus Pitou, H. B. Bradley, George Herbert, R. M. Brels- 
 ford, C. H. Fry, R. J. Brown, Augusta L. Dargon, Edith 
 Challis, M. E. Gordon, lona Burke, Rosa Cooke, Mary Carr, 
 Georgie Reignolds, Rose Wood, and Mrs. Schubert. The 
 occasion was made memorable in many ways, the elegant and 
 beautiful temple of the imjierial art being opened with cere- 
 monious pomp, and with the patronage of the fashion and 
 pride of the Crescent C'ily. An inaugural ix:)em, wrillen l)y 
 Mr. E. C. Hancock, associate editor of the New Orleans 
 Times, was read before the curtain by Mr. Barrett, in which 
 was expressed a hope that was not altogether prophetic, though 
 the initial weeks were in every way satisfactory. The theatre 
 
 ^6
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 
 
 47 
 
 had an excellent stock, ]:)roduced plaj^s in capital style, pre- 
 senting several changes of bill a week, and had engagements 
 with most of the leading stars of the day. It was the chief 
 place of polite amusement in New Orleans. The beginning 
 was so very auspicious and the promise of success so bright, 
 that Mr. Barrett felt warranted in accepting an offer made him 
 by Mr. Booth. This was to appear as Cassius in a grand 
 revival of "Julius Coesar" at Booth's Theatre, New York. He 
 accordingly went to New York where extraordinary prepara- 
 tions were making for those Shakespearean productions the 
 most remarkable in the history of the American stage, and 
 which are yet cited as standards of comparison. They were 
 sumptuous in scenery and costumes and unprecedented in 
 caste. "Julius Caesar" was in every particular the most 
 notable of these superb revivals. It was presented the night 
 of December 24, 187 1, with the precision that could result 
 alone from the thorough and harmonious discipline of skilled 
 actors, and achieved an instant success, creating, really, a 
 profound sensation professionally and in popular effect. 
 When this play was brought out at Niblo's a year before, it 
 was thought remarkable that it should be given four times in 
 one week. "Julius Caesar" ran at Booth's for eighty-three 
 successive nights, exclusive of Sundays. The cast of prin- 
 cipal characters presented Edwin Booth as Brutus, Lawrence 
 Barrett as Cassius, Frank C. Bangs as Mark Antony, Miss 
 Pateman as Portia, Miss Selden as Calphurnia, Mr. Waller as 
 Caesar and James Stark as Casca. The production was 
 described as being the most impressive stage portrait ever wit- 
 nessed in New York. It was in this engagement, as Cassius, 
 that Mr. Barrett overleaped whatever prejudice had before 
 impaired his success in the metropolis, and proved his right to 
 the distinction immediately allowed him and which he has since 
 maintained with so much honor to himself and with such 
 profit to the American stage. There need be no apology for 
 introducing here some of the leading opinions as to the high
 
 48 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 order and decisive character of his work in this role. The 
 New York Tribiuie said: 
 
 " Mr. Barrett personated Cassius. We say personated, and 
 mean it. INIr. Barrett is a man of genius; we have had 
 doubts on this point, but those doubts are removed. The 
 actor grasped this part with a grip of gold — with intuition, 
 that is, and he moved his sympathetic auditors to literal tears 
 of delight. The identification was perfect. From first to last 
 it never swerved; Mr. Barrett was always Cassius — and Cas- 
 sius is a very complex character to represent. He has been 
 clearly drawn by the poet, but he is none the less a personage 
 difficult to reproduce. He is a man of splendid intellect, and 
 of very tender heart — tender in its affinities with all that is 
 good. Mr. Barrett made this clear, and he worked up the 
 leading scenes with admirable skill and with inspired fervor. 
 He has probably achieved other fine successes; we doubt 
 if he ever achieved so fine a success as this. The audi- 
 ence gave him a very cordial testimonial in its applause. For 
 our own part, we confidently place Mr. Barrett — on the 
 strength of his Cassius — among those artists from whom it is 
 always safe to expect revelations of power. We were mis- 
 taken in thinking him specifically a comedian. His powers 
 are versatile." 
 
 Subsequently the same journal remarked: "Mr. Barrett 
 acted Cassius with splendid spirit and great effect. On a pre- 
 vious occasion we have expressed the opinion that this is a 
 work of absolute genius. It will suflice now to remark that it 
 easily bore away the richest honors of last niglu's perform- 
 ance." 
 
 The Evening Post declared, " Barrett's Cassius stands out 
 boldly as a striking and characteristic personation," and it was 
 the Su7i, we believe, that said, " the conception is not only a 
 correct one, but it is embodied with extraordinary force and 
 fervor." Reviewing the general work at the end of the month, 
 a personal writer for the New York Leader, Nym Crinkle, said: 
 "Infinitely superior is this cast to the somewhat famous one at
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. ^o 
 
 the Winter Garden when 'Julius Ccesar' was mounted so 
 extravagantly. The return of Mr. Lawrence Barrett did more 
 than anything, unless it be the assumption of the role of 
 Brutus by Edwin Booth, tu insure the real success of the 
 piece. Mr. Barrett's greatest role is Cassius. I know of no 
 one who can approach him in the fiery impatience and ner- 
 vous vigor of the part. You know what a splendid voice he 
 has; how clear and ringing is his articulation; how elastic and 
 instant his actions are; and how much passion he can put 
 into his face. Well, try to think of a better character for him 
 than Cassius. I can't. So you see it is a hit. And I am 
 glad of it. People applaud him vociferously, and the critics 
 do him ample justice at last." The Albion, a critical periodical 
 of importance at the time, in its second review of the great pro- 
 duction, said: "The crowning feature of the representation is 
 to be found in the Cassius of Lawrence Barrett, an artistic 
 triumph of which any actor may might be proud. It is one of 
 the most intense, thrilling embodiments of character that has 
 been seen for many years. Mr. Barrett won great honor upon 
 his first performance of the part, in connection^ with Mr. 
 Davenport, and Mr. Walter Montgomery, (since deceased), 
 but he has never before been seen to such advantage as at the 
 present time, and it is but natural that he should gather a har- 
 vest of praise more abundant than ever. From first to last the 
 personation is consistent and powerful; there is no falling off, 
 no perceptible husbanding of resources to make ' points ' and 
 produce startling effects. Although notably great in certain 
 passages, it is also evenly good throughout; and everywhere 
 reveals a force and unity which mark it as a truly noble work 
 of art. Mere industry and care are insufficient to account for 
 Mr. Barrett's Cassius; it bears the unmistakable stamp of 
 genius." 
 
 These extracts summarize a glorious judgment of the ac- 
 complishment of a young actor at whom, but a few years 
 before, when he made his first New York appearance at 
 Burton's as a recruit from the unschooled and unschooling
 
 50 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 West, superficial critics were disposed to laugh. As Cassius 
 had been a well favored part with Mr. Booth, one in which he 
 had won high credit, there was a good deal of curiosity with 
 the public to see him again in the role Mr. Barrett had so 
 splendidly usurped. Letters to the press and the press itself 
 frequently urged Mr. Booth to alternate with ]\Ir. Barrett in 
 playing Cassius and Brutus. It was on the occasion when, 
 taking note of this general wish, Mr. Barrett volunteered 
 to surrender his part to Mr. Booth, that the senior trage- 
 dian said with cordial candor, " I shall never play Cassius 
 again." Of all the praise and commendation Mr. Barrett 
 received at the pens of his kindly critics nothing was more 
 flattering to his ambition, more gratifying to his sensibility 
 than this significant and not ungenerous declaration of his 
 fellow tragedian. 
 
 Before the run of "Julius Csesar " came to an end Mr. 
 Barrett was compelled by business concerns to withdraw from 
 the cast and return to his theatre at New Orleans. The man- 
 agement of the house had failed to meet its obligations, and 
 Mr. Barrett was forced once more to assume the entire and 
 active responsibility of the house, and that not without sharp 
 regret, for the double reason that his departure from New 
 York interrupted the thus far greatest success of his life, and 
 at the same time militated against the continued prosperity 
 of "Julius Caesar." Mr. Junius Brutus Booth succeeded Mr. 
 Barrett as Cassius, and the Herald commenting on the change 
 said: "The departure of Mr. Barrett from Booth's Theatre 
 has deprived ' Julius C?esar ' of one of its principal attractions. 
 To those who look for vigorous and appropriate expression of 
 the thoughts shadowed forth by the dialogue, the substitution 
 of Mr. Junius Brutus Booth for Mr. Barrett cannot be 
 regarded otherwise than as a misfortune." The run con- 
 tinued but two weeks longer. 
 
 The result of the season as il related to Mr. Barrett is 
 fairly expressed in the words of a correspondent writing from 
 New York to a southern paper. "He (Mr. Barrett) has not
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 5 I 
 
 only stood beside the first tragedian of the day, upon his own 
 boards, and held his own right nobly, but he has acted down 
 and compelled applause from an ugly nest of adverse critics. 
 He has drawn so strong and yet so beautiful a picture of the 
 great Roman that it stands out clear, sharp-cut and distinct, 
 even from the grand group that surrounds it here. And 
 while he has thrown about it the graphic vividness of a Dore,' 
 he has lost no clearly delicate detail of a Meissonier." 
 
 Returned to New Orleans, Mr. Barrett devoted himself with 
 customary energy to the management of the Varieties, taking 
 upon himself the entire responsibility of business and stage 
 direction in addition to sustaining the burden of the dramatic 
 representations. His professional reappearance was made 
 March 4, 1872, as Hamlet, and he was welcomed by an audi- 
 ence that crowded the theatre and most enthusiastically attested 
 his popularity. Actors worked for their living in those days, 
 and in this first week of his return Mr. Barrett appeared in 
 si.x widely different characterizations in eight performances, 
 Hamlet, Raphael in " The Marble Heart," Alfred Evelyn in 
 " Money," Shylock, Richelieu and Richard HI. Surely there 
 must be versatility of art and expression with the actor who 
 can represent these varied characters to the satisfaction of an 
 intelligent audience; and the general consensus of opinion in 
 those earlier days indicates the excellence of Barrett's romantic 
 and comedy performances as well as the power, intelligence 
 and scholarly precision of his classic personations. The New 
 Orleans Times said: "Among the personations of the week 
 we unhesitatingly select Hamlet as the most finished and 
 acceptable. To say this does not detract from his other ren- 
 ditions, for in them all he has shown the fires of that won- 
 derful genius which so eminently marks him as an actor 
 whom few on the stage can equal; but in the 'Melancholy 
 Prince,' he finds a character so well suited to him that with- 
 out an effort he seems to glide into the wayward, pensive 
 mood whi(h characterizes the ideal, and in evident sym- 
 pathy with the character he displays to its full bent that
 
 52 . LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 poetic temperament with which he is so gifted." AVe need 
 hardly remark that no actor ever glided into a truly great 
 character without a previous mighty battle with himself, sub- 
 duing imperfections of habit or natural disposition and enlarg- 
 ing traits and qualities essential to the " artless art of perfect 
 simulation." 
 
 For two months Mr. Barrett was indefatigable in his dual 
 office of actor-manager, doing much to establish the theatre 
 and correct the mistakes of his former representatives. 
 Besides the plays named, he produced and took part in " Lon- 
 don Assurance," "Rosedale," "The Streets of New York," 
 "Julius CjEsar," "The Man o' Arlie," "The Romance of a 
 Poor Young Man," and "Romeo and Juliet," closing his 
 engagement with the last named play. The Picayune in 
 reviewing this brief but arduous season said: 
 
 " It is rare that a manager has risen so rapidly as has Mr, 
 Lawrence Barrett in the confidence and respect of this com- 
 munity, and in the personal esteem of those around him as 
 employes and artists. When he took charge of the Yarieties 
 some months ago it was almo.st a theatrical corpse; but he 
 touched it and it sprang up a living, breathing dramatic fact. 
 The untiring energy, cultivated taste, the uniform courtesy, 
 and a certain grave dignity of manner he has always exercised 
 and exhibited, have made him hosts of friends, on and off the 
 boards, among people whose good will is worth having. He 
 has done more than any one else to put the entertainments 
 upon a firm and popular foundation. His extraordinary exer- 
 tions as actor and manager, it is to be hoped, have not 
 impaired his health. He owes it to himself and to art to seek 
 some recreation for a while from the incessant and exhaust- 
 ing demands of his profession. He has succeeded in putting 
 the drama upon that high footing it held in older times; and 
 although the full fruits of his labors may not be immediate, 
 the appreciation and substantial prf)ofs of public approval and 
 favor have been sufficient to show that his merits have taken 
 deep root in the public mind."
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 53 
 
 In retiring from the personal management in order to meet 
 engagements elsewhere, Mr. Barrett did not surrender control 
 of the Varieties, which he held under a five years lease. This 
 was unfortunate and gave rise to the most serious disaster of 
 his business career. Political disturbances, local riots and 
 other distressing circumstances combined to reduce the pat- 
 ronage of the theatres to a minimum, and, deprived of Mr. 
 Barrett's vitalizing presence, the Varieties fell into sore straits 
 and at the end of the year ^Ir. Barrett found himself involved 
 to the extent of $57,000. It recjuired the hard savings of many 
 years to relieve him from this burden which bore heavily upon 
 a nature painfully sensitive to the humiliations of debt.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GROWING RECOGNITION. 
 
 ON the evening of June 3, 1872, Mr. Barrett made his 
 reappearance upon the stage of the California Theatre, 
 in the character of Hamlet. This visit had been anticipated 
 pleasantly, both by the actor and by the public, and it was not 
 without a glow of pride that the actor stood in the house built 
 as a tribute to his talents, and bowed to the prolonged applause 
 of a vast audience. It was a genuine California welcome. 
 
 This engagement was remarkable in success beyond any 
 precedent in the history of the California Theatre. The stay 
 was a prolonged one, and the actor was seen in a round of the 
 best characters, having excellent patronage and cordial 
 endorsement throughout the engagement. This was the 
 beginning of a tour of the country, among the principal 
 states of the Union that did not prove a great financial advant- 
 age to the young tragedian whose fame was only beginning to 
 get noised about in the minor cities on which he had to depend 
 largely for time. Prior to this time, Mr. Barrett had been seen 
 in Chicago^where he enjoyed no little popularity — only in 
 romantic roles. In his earlier starring experience he had 
 played " Rosedale " with very great success in that city. 
 When, however, he was engaged to open Gardiner's new 
 Academy of Music, Sept. i, 1873, he made his appearance 
 for the first time as Richelieu. The general critical impres- 
 sion of his work during this engagement is pictured in the fol- 
 lowing excerpt from the Evening Post : " Mr. Barrett is far 
 from being a stranger in our mitist. He is a prodigy in his 
 line. From being considered a fair actor in society drama he 
 has come to be regarded as a rival of the histrionic kings who
 
 MR. liAKKKTT AS I.ANCIOTTO.
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 57 
 
 now Strut upon the 'rhcs|iiaii l)()ards. He has even cast off 
 the servility of miiiiicism, which used to disfigure his earliest 
 efforts, and, daring all, stands forth as distinctively original as 
 any tragedian of our day. Gifted with an intellectual face 
 and a graceful figure, with a keen and flashing eye, and with a 
 voice that can thrill with passion, hiss with hatred, or kindle 
 with warlike enthusiasm, Mr. Barrett has much to thank nature 
 for and has also nuich reason to pride himself on his own 
 indomitable industry." That wliich was particularly notable 
 was the fact that the young tragedian had pushed away in 
 many respects from the tradition of the character, and instead 
 of dwarfing every other element of the Cardinal's nature to 
 that of craft, he defined a loftier and better type in which 
 craft and cunning were incidental and called into play only for 
 specific purposes. Whatever the Richelieu of history, the 
 actor felt that his first duty lay with the Richelieu of the play, 
 and the conviction formed then with respect to this character 
 has governed Mr. Barrett's study of every other part he has 
 undertaken to interpret. Certainly a consistent performance 
 should be the first and chief concern with an actor; the dramat- 
 ist only has to do with the historic truth of a dramatic creation. 
 In this engagement Mr. Barrett also was seen as Hamlet and 
 Richard III.; and though in recent years he has not played 
 Richard, it was one of the characters in which he was very 
 popular at that time, when every tragic actor thought it incum- 
 bent upon him to appear as the crook-backed tyrant. He 
 presented an intellectual rather than a brutal villain, and he 
 invested the character with the courage of a mind conscious 
 of superiority, not the mere bravado of a malignant nature. 
 It does not appear that at this time he had given the same 
 stamp of large originality to his Hamlet that distinctly marked 
 his personations of Richelieu and Richard, but we neverthe- 
 less find thfe critic beginning to associate Barrett's Hamlet 
 with that of Booth, certainly a high recognition of his ability 
 at a time when Mr. Booth was generally accepted as the ideal 
 and incomparable Hamlet.
 
 58 LAWRENXE BARRETT. 
 
 In all the criticisms of Mr. Barrett's work there was one 
 point at which opinion concurred; his remarkable elocution 
 invariably commanded and received praise. What an eminent 
 critic recently declared of his readings was but the repetition 
 of an estimate made by a vocal teacher in 1873: " There is 
 more pleasure in hearing his rich voice, with its faultless inflec- 
 tion, careful modulation and perfect distinctness than one 
 often finds at concert or opera. A more careful reader we 
 never heard on the stage, nor one whose voice, in every 
 range of tone, was more delightful to the ear." This season 
 Mr. Barrett made his most extensive professional tour up to 
 that point in his career. Among the cities he visited in their 
 order were Pittsburg, St. Louis, Brooklyn, Cleveland, Cincin- 
 nati, Louisville, Albany, Waterbury, New Haven, Worcester, 
 Springfield, Hartford, Richmond, Va., Charleston, Savannah, 
 Mobile, New Orleans, Memphis, Springfield, 111., Quincy, lead- 
 ing cities of Indiana and smaller cities of Ohio, Detroit, Min- 
 neapolis and St. Paul and parts of Canada. His active reper- 
 toire comprised "Hamlet," "Richard III.," "Richelieu," 
 "Julius Caesar," "Lady of Lyons," "Marble Heart," "Man 
 o' Arlie," "Damon and Pythias," " David Garrick," and the 
 little comedy of "Home," in which he played Col. John White. 
 He was received with honor in each of these places, if not 
 with unanimous endorsement. 
 
 For several years Mr. Barrett had been patiently studying 
 the tragedy of " King Lear," rather for his own instruction 
 than with any immediate intention of producing it; but in tliis 
 year, emboldened by his success with other great and thought- 
 flooded characters, he decided to make trial of himself in the 
 role before a friendly community. W' hen, therefore he ncared 
 his engagement at his own theatre, the Varieties, New Orleans, 
 he announced his plan, and on the night of Jan. 30, 1874, 
 made his first public appearance in the sublime character. 
 The occasion was his benefit, ami the double attraction 
 crowded liic theatre with llic best people of the city. Though 
 Mr. Barrett was by no means satisfieil with the results of his
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 59 
 
 work, even considered as a first i)erformance, the audience was 
 evidently surprised that the personation presented so much 
 naturahiess and force as to command " constant interest and 
 sincere applause." The papers agreed in declaring that "for 
 a young man contending against many disadvantages, Mr. 
 Barrett achieved a wonderful success." Mr. Barrett has many 
 times since then appeared in this deep-souled character, and 
 received no little encouragement to persevere in the endeavor 
 to master it; but he is now nearly of a mind with Charles 
 Lamb, that " King Lear " is not a play for the stage, and that 
 no actor may hope to grasp for portraiture the shadowy ele- 
 ments of this subtle epitome of human nature and its immortal 
 properties of passion, sorrow, agony and madness. The late 
 John McCullough, whose life so pitifully ended, had, in the 
 strong days of his glorious physical manhood, a consuming 
 ambition to excel as King Lear. Sitting one evening in the 
 rags of the demented King, he shook his head, deprecating the 
 praise of a fellow actor, and said with more sadness than often 
 came into his voice, " I am afraid I shall never play Lear. So 
 many great actors have failed in it. But I would rather act 
 the part one night as I feel it than be President of the United 
 States." 
 
 That a prophet is not without honor save in*his own country 
 is a general truth that was not enforced against Mr. Barrett. 
 On the occasion of his first visit to l^etroit he was, to be sure, 
 approached somewhat warily and had to content him with 
 audiences of moderate size, though these did not lack sympa- 
 thy. When he came again, however, he was made to feel 
 that the city of one's youth may rejoice in his fair fame and 
 good fortune, and it grew into a fashion to treat his reappear- 
 ances as events for social recognition as well as occasions for 
 arti.stic distinction. This year one of the old citizens of 
 Detroit addressed the following not uninteresting letter to the 
 
 Union : 
 
 "About twenty years ago this gentleman (Mr. Barrett) was 
 playing as a stock actor in the old Metropolitan Theatre on
 
 6o LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 Jefferson Avenue, in this city. He was not then a star of the 
 first or second magnitude, and probably had not himself the 
 remotest idea of being one. Mr. A. D. Frazer, who is now in 
 retirement, was then in full practice at the bar, and he was 
 probably the most severe critic, and at the same time the most 
 com.petent judge of dramatic talent then in Detroit. He and I 
 strolled around the Metropolitan one evening, and went in to 
 spend the evening. Mr. Barrett played in a comedy, and so 
 far as I could see, went through it as any other stock actor 
 would do. I discovered nothing whatever to especially attract 
 my attention, in the acting of Mr. Barrett, and on the whole, 
 as I remember, his peculiar manner, and a sort of stiffness 
 which he had not yet overcome, were rather displeasing to 
 me. On passing out after the play was over, Mr. F. and I 
 naturally engaged in conversation as to the entertainment of 
 the evening, when he remembered that he thought he had 
 detected something extraordinary in that young man — alluding 
 to Mr. Barrett; and he then made the remark and prediction 
 that, if the young actor continued on the stage, and if he 
 studied his profession as he could and ought to do, he would 
 some day arise to distinction. Nearly a quarter of a century 
 has since passed away. Mr. Frazer is in advanced age, and 
 Mr. Barrett is now among the first of American actors; and 
 time has justified the shrewd observation of the one as to the 
 then undeveloped talents of the other." 
 
 Mr. Barrett visited Boston to close his season, acting at the 
 Boston Theatre May 25, his first appearance in that city in si.x 
 years. The Post oi the ne.xt day said: " When this gentle- 
 man left the city some time ago, he was merely a promising 
 young actor; last evening he appeared once more before our 
 public, at the Boston Theatre, a star, in an impersonation that 
 recpiires the exercise of the most subtle gifts of the finished 
 dramatic artist. The man who can present satisfactorily Bul- 
 wer's Richelieu, will find no fnriher test in his profession that 
 need appall him. To (all Mr. llarrett's success satisfactory, 
 merely, would but tamely express the impression whiJi he made
 
 A I'KUl-ESSlUNAL SKETCH. 6l 
 
 upon his audience last evening. No actor who has appeared 
 here the i)resent season has received more flattering demon- 
 strations of favor than were accorded him, and it certainly 
 was not praise wasted or ill bestowed." One of his critics 
 expressed the not altogether fanciful opinion that the actor 
 was great in proportion to the difficulties to be surmounted, so 
 that the more exacting and trying the role, the more admira- 
 ble the performance. This is not an unusual view of Mr. Bar- 
 rett's art; and it is due to this distinguishing (luality of the 
 actor that he has the courage to undertake and the power to 
 perpetuate new characters that have sprung from the patient 
 toil or genius of modern writers of tragic drama. More is 
 demanded of the actor who attempts to introduce into the 
 classic repertoire the work of some new playwright, than is 
 required of the actor who follows the old order exclusively, 
 profiting by tradition and example. Mr. Barrett has dared to 
 be a creator, and we shall see what has been the estimation of 
 his effort in that noblest and most joyful province of dramatic 
 action. 
 
 In the fall and winter season of 1874-75 Mr. Barrett tra- 
 versed much the same ground covered in the previous season, 
 and had the good fortune to i:)lay to largely increased patronage. 
 In this season Shylock and King Lear were given more promi- 
 nence in his repertoire, and he was particularly happy in giving 
 new soul and coloring to the character of the Jew. Mr. Bar- 
 rett got from his study of the play a sympathy with Shylock, 
 whom he thought to have been abused by the perhaps pre- 
 judiced actors of the past, the tradition of whose acting had 
 governed for so many generations the treatment of the role. 
 He gained for the Jew the sympathies of an audience in his 
 departure from the conventional. As a just view of his sincere 
 purpose and high ambition in whatever work he took in hand, 
 the Brooklyn Eagle said editorially, referring to the reign of 
 farce and burlesque: "During this steady degredation of a 
 noble art, Mr. Barrett worked hard to snatch some remnant of 
 the spirit of its former time, and Ristori came thrice among us
 
 62 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 to remind us not only of what the stage might be and ought 
 to be, but of what it had been. If we leave wholly out of 
 consideration the skill and talent of Mr. Barrett, the lovers of 
 the great dramatic literature of the English language, the only 
 line of literature in which that language is unsurpassed by other 
 nations, owe Mr. Barrett no small debt of gratitude for his 
 unswerving adherence to it, amid the temptations of the puer- 
 ile and vulgar which none of his brothers of the stage have so 
 consistently resisted. Ristori, in her unchallenged greatness, 
 comes like a meteor and so departs; but through obscurity and 
 discouragement, Mr. Barrett has toiled steadily among us, 
 traveling from New York to Leavenworth, and each year at 
 least once reviving Shakespeare and Bulwer where the heels of 
 Lydia Thompson and her ilk seemed to have trampled them 
 out of sight forever. It is only in the last two years that he 
 has begun to reap the reward of a life's faithful toil, only in 
 the last two years that the preeminence of his talent has begun 
 to be adequately recognized. If Ri.stori, by the sublimity of 
 her genius, reawakes our old enthusiasm for great acting/^/- se, 
 Lawrence Barrett steadily keeps before us year after year 
 the memory of our enthusiasm for our own plays in our own 
 familiar tongue, and by the skill and fervor of his renditions 
 makes us once more to see those heroes of the mind which in 
 our younger theatre days illustrated to us the beauties of 
 virtue, the grandeur of heroism, and the nobilities of love and 
 friendship." 
 
 This season Mr. Barrett enlarged his available repertoire by 
 the addition of such then popular plays as "Money," "The 
 Robbers," "The Iron Chest," "The Wonder," and "The 
 Duke's Motto." Occasionally, too, he presented "Romeo and 
 Juliet," chiefly to favor Miss Effie Ellsler, who was then play- 
 ing juvenile parts with him, and in whom Mr. Barrett detected 
 an ability he thought might be developed to good uses. Mr. 
 John W. Norton was his leading actor in these two seasons, 
 and during the first the ill-starred Louise Hawthorne was his 
 leading lady.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENT OF LITERARY MEN. 
 
 IN the fall of 1875, in recognition of popular sentiment, a 
 revival of " Julius Caesar " at Booth's Theatre was effected 
 with Mr. E. L. Davenport playing Brutus to the Cassius of 
 Mr. Barrett. This production was scarcely less elaborate in 
 spectacular appointments and in the employment of numbers 
 than was the original representation of the grand tragedy at 
 this theatre. The public impression, too, seemed to be 
 greater, the nightly patronage being of a size to warrant an 
 indefinite run of the play. The remarkable record of one 
 hundred and fifty nights was added to the past successes of 
 this exceptionally favored classic, and even then its career was 
 only brought to a close by the pressure of engagements made 
 with managers in other cities. After a brief tour with the 
 play Mr. Barrett returned to Booth's for the long anticipated 
 production of " King Lear," which was brought out with a 
 great cast, including E. L. Davenport as Edgar, F. B. Ward as 
 Edmund, and the late W. E. Sheridan as Kent. Mr. Barrett 
 was, of course, the King, a character in the interpretation of 
 which he achieved a popular success and an artistic recogni- 
 tion exceeding his hopes. His critics assured him that the 
 part was one in which he might excel when he had given it the 
 same creative study that distinguished some of his other per- 
 formances. The run of this play was brought to a summary 
 close by the unparalleled horror of the Brooklyn Theatre 
 holocaust, a calamity that depressed the theatrical business 
 throughout the entire country for many months. Patronage 
 fell off to the extent that made it impossible to support such 
 an expensive affair, and the management withdrew "King 
 
 63
 
 64 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 Lear " and put in its place Gilbert's drama of " Daniel 
 Druce," the title role of which Mr. Barrett created in this 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Barrett now began to entertain the idea of seeking for 
 plays of merit among native writers, believing that he could in 
 this way develop a stage literature worth}- to rank with many 
 of the standard plays of the past and give the American 
 stage greater distinction abroad. He was on friendly terms 
 with Mr. W. D. Howells, whose reputation as a novelist was 
 then at its best, and when that author suggested his wish to 
 write for the theatre Mr. Barrett urged him to make the ven- 
 ture, promising to produce the play if it gave any promise of 
 dramatic service. The result was the comedy, "A Counter- 
 feit Presentment," first played by Mr. Barrett at the Grand 
 Opera House, Cincinnati, October ii, 1877. It proved to be a 
 pretty, quiet treatment of phases of real life, devoid of sensa- 
 tionalism, its claims resting upon the literary quality of its 
 dialogue and the unaffected naturalness of its incidents and 
 characters. The cast included Mr. John A. Lane and Miss Ellen 
 Cummens, and though the play was favorably received, it was 
 not a financial success, nor did it long hold a place in the rep- 
 ertoire of the actor. Nevertheless it was played in all the 
 leading cities during that season, in part because its pure and 
 delicate tone made it attractive of a select class of patrons, but 
 chiefly for the reason that Mr. Barrett had no half-hearted 
 interest in encouraging the growth of a high grade native 
 drama. 
 
 The modern institution, the interviewer, was just then 
 coming into favor with the press, and to one of the strange 
 genus Mr. Barrett said: "It is one of my highest aims to 
 bring literary men to the stage. The men who have left the 
 highest marks in literary history were dramatists. Shakes- 
 peare, Corneille, Moliere, Congreve and Schiller, for exam- 
 ple. The literary men of Anicrit-a arc in iieartfelt sym- 
 pathy with the stage, and 1 am encouraged to believe that 
 some of them will yet enrich our dramatic Htcraturc with
 
 A I'KOFESSIONAL SKETCH. 65 
 
 contributions destined to achieve lasting and brilliant success." 
 So sincere was Mr. Barrett in tliis l)elief and his purpose to 
 establish the fact, he followed his acceptance of "A Counter- 
 feit Presentment " by inducing Mr. Howells to undertake 
 another play and by engaging Bayard Taylor to translate and 
 adapt for his use Schiller's "Don Carlos," a tragedy almost 
 Shakespearean in noble sentiment and lofty character. Mr. 
 Taylor's work, in an imperfect sitate, is now in the possession 
 of Mr. Barrett, but, owing to the death of the poet, has never 
 been produced by him. Mr. Howells prepared in time for the 
 next season his translation from the Spanish of Estebados, to 
 which he gave the title "The New Play." This excellent 
 play was first produced at Cleveland, October 26, 1878, and 
 was at once successful. A few months later Mr. Barrett 
 wisely changed the title, and under the name of "Yorick's 
 Love" Mr. Howells' clever play was a conspicuous feature in 
 Mr. Barrett's repertoire for several years. His acting as 
 Yorick caused Mr. Barrett to be regarded by his critics in a 
 new light. His work hitherto had been strictly in the line of 
 theatric tradition, however much it may have been tempered 
 and diversified by the influence of a vigorous, thoughtful and 
 original mind. He was accordingly measured by traditional 
 standards, held accountable to old canons of criticism, judged 
 by the findings of the old school of critics who were governed 
 by conditions wholly unlike those of the modern stage. As 
 Yorick he allowed his fancy and his genius free play, standing 
 boldly out from the environments of tradition as a creator as 
 well as a delineator. His performance was a startling revela- 
 tion to many of his critics, and one of the happiest of them 
 found no better way in which to express his surprise than in 
 the declaration, " For once Mr. Barrett ceases to be scholarly 
 and rises to the natural." The truth, the fervor, the passion, 
 the pathos, the soulful impulse of his performance permitted 
 no other opinion. The ]:)ersonation was thoroughly and 
 heartily natural, in the dramatic sense of the term. It is 
 doubtful, however, if this new esteem sprang from the
 
 66 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 unwonted power and thoroughness of the actor's performance, 
 so much as from the absence of opportunity to introduce that 
 iniquity of criticism, "comparative analysis." Mr. Barrett 
 stood on his own merits free from the sUghts of bias toward 
 some other player or ideal, and had the benefit of impartial 
 judgments. It required something of this kind to remove a 
 not prevalent but obstinate opinion found in occasional cri- 
 tiques, that Mr. Barrett lacked both originality and versatility. 
 As a matter of fact there were few actors less dependent upon 
 established rules and fixed methods, or of more diversified tal- 
 ents than Mr. Barrett in those days. Every actor has his 
 distinguishing traits and mannerisms, the individuality that 
 makes him what he is; and in proportion as he rises supe- 
 rior to the commonplace does this individuality impress 
 itself upon his work and upon the sensibilities of an audi- 
 ence. Unless an actor can give something of himself to a 
 character assumed he must remain forever a negative force in 
 the drama. Positive energy is not diffusive and, as many 
 writers employ the word, no really great actor has much ver- 
 satility. In the proper and artistic sense, however, Mr. 
 Barrett has proved himself possessed of unusual versatility. 
 This was shown not merely in the ability to interpret a 
 variety of dissimilar characters, in comedy, in romance, in 
 melodrama, in classic tragedy, but in his mental acquirements 
 and general accomplishments. From the untutored supernu- 
 merary of the old Metropolitan Theatre he had grown into 
 one of the most scholarly and widely informed men before the 
 public. He was thoroughly versed in literature, — not only as 
 a reader but as a writer, as his contributions to the leading 
 magazines of the time attest, — and had devoted himself to a 
 knowledge of the kindred arts of music, sculpture and painting 
 with most beneficial results. He brought to bear upon his 
 profession, from every available source, whatever would fit 
 him adequately to lill a star position, a position he conceived 
 to be an artistic ideal. He had just the mind for creative 
 versatility as distinguished from the mimetic: and as an
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 67 
 
 interpreter, which we believe is the chief end of acting, Mr. 
 Barrett is as versatile as his characters are various. 
 
 September 22, 1879, Mr. Barrett dedicated Pope's new 
 theatre, St. Louis, to the drama with the performance of 
 "Hamlet." The house was crowded in every part and the 
 private boxes, parquet and balcony were brilliant with the 
 beauty and fashion of that city. The occasion was further 
 marked for remembrance by an eloquent address by the Hon. 
 Chester H. Krum, who improved the opportunity to speak in 
 compliment of Mr. Barrett, and by a poetic prologue written 
 and spoken by George Alfred Townsend. Throughout the 
 season Mr. Barrett gave special prominence to "Yorick's 
 Love," playing it in all the principal cities with unmarred suc- 
 cess, the general verdict being one of approval. The com- 
 pany with him was unusually well balanced in strength. Li 
 the summer of 1881 Mr. Barrett revisited England, renewing 
 earlier acquaintances and gaining other friends. The few 
 meetings he had had with Henry Irving in the course of 
 former visits were the basis of a warm friendship that sprang 
 up on this occasion, Mr. Barrett having so far made good the 
 promise of his younger days that he now stood on a profes- 
 sional equality with England's foremost actor. The friend- 
 ship was profitable to both. Mr. Barrett was the honored 
 guest of the Lyceum Theatre during his stay and availed 
 himself of courteous invitations to see Mr. Irving in a variety 
 of characters, among them Hamlet, Charles I., Shylock and 
 Doricourt. Mr. Barrett then for the first time saw Miss 
 Ellen Terry and recognized how large a share of his own 
 success Mr. Irving owes to the joyous, vivifying genius of 
 this brilliant actress. 
 
 Returning to America, Mr. Barrett began his new season in 
 the west, but a month later appeared at the Fifth Avenue 
 Theatre, New York, in a round of characters. He was excep- 
 tionally well received both by the public and by the press. 
 Mr. , William Winter, who formerly had been one of Mr. 
 Barrett's severest and most unyielding critics, now revealed to
 
 68 
 
 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 him the generous side of his nature, and admitted the actor's 
 honestly urged claims in no half-hearted or reluctant spirit. In 
 his review of the brief engagement Mr. Winter said: 
 
 " It is not a new truth that Lawrence Barrett is one of the 
 best actors of his time, whether in comedy or tragedy; yet at 
 each fresh performance that is given by him the sense of his 
 extraordinary and indomitable intellectual force comes home 
 to mind with the effect of novelty. He has been seen within 
 twelve days as Richelieu — which he acted seven times — 
 Hamlet, Yorick, Shylock, David Garrick, Othello and Cassius. 
 This was carrying a tremendous weight, and it is not easily 
 possible to do justice to such an exploit. The time has gone 
 for weighing in nice scales such exercise of the actor's power, 
 to determine its existence and its limitations. This power 
 displayed its scope and conquered its recognition long ago, 
 and there is no person who can teach Mr. Barrett anything 
 about his own profession. But the tendency of observing 
 thought to dwell on the character of the actor's efforts, 
 and on their influence over the public taste, is rational and 
 not exercised amiss. Mr. Barrett has an almost unequaled 
 magnetism and ability, in promoting the noble excitement of 
 thought. To see him act is to see a splendid engine of intel- 
 lect in grand and ceaseless motion, and to be roused into a 
 mental activity that at once disperses all the wearisome com- 
 monplaces of daily life. Those who saw him, last night as 
 Cassius, or, two nights since as Shylock and Garrick, must 
 signally have felt this astonishing and invigorating influence of 
 mental passion. His Cassius is a great work, — a pure ideal of 
 Roman heroism. The massive grace of the execution keeps 
 an even balance with the grandeur of the ideal. There is 
 scarce another work on the stage that burns with such intel- 
 lectual concentration, or is rounded into such a statue-like 
 beauty and completeness of art. There certainly is no work 
 of Mr. Barrett's that .so wholly shows him in the type that he 
 distinctly embodies — the man of clear, exalted, restless, pas- 
 sionate intellect. * * It is not that Mr. Barrett is a Cassius,
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 69 
 
 because he enacts Cassius so impressively well, but that this 
 character calls forth into bold relief the intense mentality in 
 which he is a distinctive actor. Nor is it meant to deny or 
 overlook the brighter or sweeter elements of his nature. He 
 gave as David Garrick an embodiment that proves them — 
 an embodiment not only easy, graceful, colloquial, humorous, 
 subtile, in gesture and inflection — and brilliant in the u.se of 
 transparency (as in the scene of simulated inebriety) — but 
 very winning in its simple manliness, pleasing in sentiment, and 
 dignified by the gentle gravity of a spirit that experience has 
 saddened and innate goodness made patient and tender." 
 
 This gratifying expression of scholarly opinion is a bright 
 reflection of the general tone of criticism that Mr. Barrett's 
 work invited this season. Whether this favorable turn was 
 due wholly to the marked improvement apparent in the actor's 
 performance or was influenced in part by the large increase of 
 popular patronage he received, it were perhaps impertinent to 
 inquire. An editorial paragraph in the Brooklyn Times was 
 not, however, without significance. It said: "Mr. Barrett 
 has been a patient waiter. He has appeared in this city year 
 after year presenting in masterly style the very best plays, but 
 he has been greeted by audiences that would have shamed a 
 New England village. With firm belief in himself and in the 
 dignity of the stage, he has refused to lower either the char- 
 acter of his acting or the quality of his plays to catch what is, 
 oftentimes wrongly, called the 'popular taste;' and he is win- 
 ning his reward. He would not sink to his audience, but he 
 has raised his audience to him, and there probably will be 
 no reason to complain hereafter of any neglect by the Brook- 
 lyn public." This season was, indeed, the beginning of 
 Mr. Barrett's real financial success as a star actor of classic 
 characters. 
 
 November 28, i88i,an engagement was begun at McVicker's 
 Theatre, Chicago, that was distinguished by the production of 
 the third play by an American author, resulting from Mr. 
 Barrett's at once patriotic and artistic patronage of the
 
 70 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 "native dramatist." This was Mr. William Young's romantic 
 tragedy, "Pendragon," founded upon the Arthurian legends. 
 It received its first representation December 5, with Mr. Barrett 
 as King Arthur, and with an efficient cast. The play was 
 magnificently mounted and richly dressed, the material condi- 
 tions being in every possible way equal to the dignity and 
 character of the drama. The play was successful with the 
 public and with the critics, save that attention was directed to 
 its extreme sombreness, its " annoying uniformity of lofty 
 poise, and some few structural weaknesses that have since 
 been remedied between the actor and the author." There 
 was only praise in comment upon Mr. Barrett's personation of 
 King Arthur. Reviewing the engagement at the end of the 
 week the Inter Ocean said: 
 
 " The pronounced success that has attended the production 
 and performance of the new blank-verse tragedy, ' Pen- 
 dragon,' has a double value. It offers encouragement to 
 American authors and justifies our tragedians in departing 
 from the time-worn path beaten around the works of Shakes- 
 peare and other poets of another time. Mr. Barrett has been 
 the most daring of our classical actors in that he has produced 
 two new plays and created two new characters, while his 
 fellow artists in the tragic school have been content to fol- 
 low in the way of numberless leaders, guided by their expe- 
 riences or inspired by the traditions that fashion the graces 
 and effects of the parts played. In this Mr. Barrett does the 
 stage a great service, besides holding out a hand to lift up the 
 despairing genius of this country, which has found managers 
 unwilling to risk anything on native productions while spend- 
 ing wasted thousands upon things foreign. * * Mr. Barrett 
 comes very near to perfection in the mental and sentimental 
 grasp and absorption of written ideas, in the analysis of heart 
 and mind. There is an inexplicable charm in his definition 
 of the impassioned speech that ever flows from the restless 
 .Arthur, even in the su.stained and trying scene where the 
 heart-stung king abases his lofty and pure spirit to lift some
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 7 1 
 
 of her shame from the groveling Guinever. He gives beauty 
 to the lines and brilliancy to the thoughts. He makes 
 Arthur real, and honors himself. This is a bright crown to 
 the finely artistic and unusually successful engagement which 
 concludes to-night. With this fortnight Mr. Barrett has won 
 more admirers than during any previous engagement, and 
 has secured tribute from Chicago to further his future 
 advance along the honest way to his honest fame." 
 
 "Pendragon" did not prove a pecuniary success, and 
 after a stipulated number of performances in the course 
 of the next year, Mr. Barrett returned it to the author with 
 the request that specific changes be made in the form and 
 incidental conditions of the work. Mr. Young has largely 
 reconstructed his really fine and beautifully poetic play, 
 which is again in the hands of Mr. Barrett, as his personal 
 property, and will be revived in commanding style after 
 another season or two. 
 
 The season of 1881-82 was a particularly wearisome one 
 to the actor, owing to the great amount of work forced upon 
 him by the demands for a complete repertoire in his many 
 engagements that were more than ordinarily wide-spread, 
 extending as far west as Leadville. He therefore eagerly 
 sought the recreation of foreign travel and, with his family, 
 passed the summer of 1882 in visiting the principal points 
 of interest in Europe, spending some time in Germany. In 
 the meantime, however, preparations were doing for the 
 production the next season of the Hon. George H. Boker's 
 historical tragedy, "Francesca da Rimini," a poetic work 
 that had been in the possession of its author for thirty 
 years. Mr. Barrett saw great possibilities in the work and 
 with his practical assistance the play was suitably changed, 
 new situations were effected, a more picturesque coloring 
 was given the scenes and story, and all that was repellant 
 in the too close following of Dante was removed. The 
 play was first produced at the Chestnut Street Theatre, 
 Philadelphia, at the beginning of the season, September
 
 72 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 II, and was received in a spirit that assured Mr. Barrett 
 of its unqualified success, a success so well established by 
 the favor of other cities that Mr. Barrett found the financial 
 profit of the season considerably in excess of any former 
 earnings in his professional career. Indeed, this season was 
 the end of his struggle for preferment. The public, uncer- 
 tain, coy and hard to please, had come to appreciate his 
 worth, and seemed now anxious to make amends for its 
 past indifference. It suddenly confessed the truth it had 
 long disregarded, and, in its patronage, acknowledged the 
 genius of the actor as it had earlier admitted the culture 
 of the artist. It began paying him the reward of many 
 years of arduous and worthy work, but it also took account 
 of the fact that his powers were yet ripening. The Chicago 
 Inter Ocean of November 7 observed: 
 
 "He has made the most pronounced changes in his work 
 during the past three years, changes that are wholly in the 
 nature of improvement. There is more warmth, more feel- 
 ing, more expression in his acting. His grasp of emotion 
 is truer, his definition of sentiment is finer, the use and con- 
 trol of his voice better. These differences admonish one 
 to be careful in judging this actor by any previous experi- 
 ence of his work; and these differences appear admirably 
 clear in his impersonation of Lanciotto in 'Francesca da 
 Rimini.' The character is one that embraces the greatest 
 contrasts of feeling, — misanthropy, benevolence, gentleness, 
 affection, the fiercest passions, soldierly daring and valor, 
 womanly tenderness and compassion, and all within a nature 
 the most keenly sensitive to its isolation from and unlikeness 
 to others. Mr. Barrett defines these conflicting phases with 
 the most admirable ability, in a manner to leave no doubt 
 as to the brilliancy of his power, and the sympathetic quality 
 of his reflection." And a few days later the same journal 
 said: "We are heartily glad to see tiiat the fine scholarly 
 grace, artistic finish, and sensitive emotions which so clearly 
 distinguish this actor are being more generally recognized
 
 MR. BARRKTT AS RIENZI.
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 75 
 
 for their worth. With people who think as well as feel, and 
 like to confess a reason for their sentiments, Mr. Barrett has 
 long been in high esteem. If he has not enjoyed popular 
 favor to tlie extent of some others it is in great part due to 
 the fact that he has been faithful to his art without regard 
 to the pecuniary fruits of his practices. His work has at 
 all times been conscientiously performed, with due regard 
 of the proprieties of the character assumed, with almost rev- 
 erent respect for the true principles of his noble profes- 
 sion. An actor who will not pose for the applause of the 
 vulgar, unreasoning minds that delight in sensation, cannot 
 hope to catch the questionable success with which too many 
 content themselves. Mr. Barrett can easily devise means for 
 increasing the size of his audiences, but it would be at the 
 sacrifice of his better qualities, the accomplishments that now 
 endear him to intelligent lovers of dramatic art in its highest 
 form. This faithful adherence to well-conceived duty will 
 not go without its reward, for there is certainly growing a 
 better and more finely cultivated appreciation of theatrical 
 work in its intellectual phase, and it must follow that the 
 actors who best define the nature and significance of char- 
 acters will find most favor with educated people. Mr. Barrett 
 is in the very prime of mental vigor and physical health, 
 and that means continued growth of artistic power and dra- 
 matic force." 
 
 Mr. Winter, in his thoughtful and comprehensive criticism 
 of the performance of " Francesca da Rimini," clearly defined 
 one great quality of Mr. Barrett's success as an interpreter. 
 He said: "Mr. Barrett's delivery of one line — in which all 
 this pent-up misery is crystallized into words of simple yet 
 burning eloquence — will long be remembered. It comes when 
 Paulo has entreated the moody Lanciotto to be hopeful, and 
 to 'Look up.' The answer is a quick, involuntary, lament- 
 able, wailing cry of passionate despair: ' I cannot, brother; — 
 God has bowed me down.' Moments like this, in which 
 there is subtlety as well as power, and which discover a deep
 
 76 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 knowledge of the human heart, impress us as more affecting 
 in themselves and as nobler achievements for the actor, than 
 those frenzied and far more tumultuous outbursts — the one 
 of frantic joy and the other of frantic ferocity — with which, 
 ending the third and fourth acts, last night, Mr. Barrett 
 electrified his audience and swept the house like a whirlwind. 
 Yet these paroxysms of tragic power are very splendid, and 
 should have their rightful due of admiration." 
 
 Many years before this, "Francesca da Rimini" was a fail- 
 ure at the old Broadway Theatre when produced in its origi- 
 nal form with Mr. E. L. Davenport and a good company in 
 the cast. Mr. Barrett attained the height of popularity in 
 this play, and gave it deserved prominence during the remain- 
 der of the season, steadily perfecting his characterization of 
 Lanciotto until he finally brought it to an intensely human 
 embodiment of passion, pathos, and exquisite soulful sensi- 
 bility. Early in the season Mr. Barrett was earnestly re- 
 quested to take part in a grand dramatic festival to be given 
 in Cincinnati the first week in May, 1883, and had given his 
 consent to appear. It was the purpose to unite the leading 
 actors of America then available — Mr. Booth was in Europe — 
 in a series of great productions. When, therefore, Mr. Barrett 
 visited Cincinnati in January he was welcomed as the special 
 guest of the Festival Association, and was entertained at the 
 Queen City Club, where a dinner was served in his honor 
 presided over by Governor E. F. Noyes. 
 
 This festival was a remarkable event in the local record 
 of a city earnest in its desire to shine as a patron of the arts, 
 and though it was not a monetary triumph, so great was the 
 expense, it was a splendid affair artistically in many ways, and 
 was superbly patronized by people who came from all parts 
 of the Union to witness the performances of such an extraor- 
 dinary association of noted players. "Julius Cresar" was 
 presented with a cast tiiat inchuled Mr. Uarrett as Cassius, 
 John McCullough as lirutus, and janies Murdoch as Antony. 
 In "The Hunchback," Mr. lUirrett played Sir Thomas
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 77 
 
 Clifford, Mr. McCullough, Master Walter, and Miss Mary 
 Anderson, Julia. Mr. Barrett here made his first appearance 
 as Benedick in " Much Ado about Nothing," Mile. Rhea 
 playing Beatrice. Mr. Barrett gave the audience an agreeable 
 surprise. One of the visiting critics — the Festival attracted 
 all tlie leading dramatic writers of the country — said of his 
 performance- "It was like the revelation of a new man. The 
 jovial spontaneity, the readiness and vivacity of his manner, 
 the hearty good humor of his lighter episodes, and the fine 
 comedy tone that pervaded his impersonation throughout, 
 were a positive refutation of the not uncommon but ridicu- 
 lous assertion that he is a hard, unsympathetic actor." Mr. 
 John A. EUsler was the Dogberry on this occasion. When 
 "Hamlet" was produced as a gracious compliment to the 
 veteran Murdock, Mr. Barrett proved his artistic honesty by 
 assuming the humble character of Horatio. Mr. McCullough 
 was the Ghost. At the matinee Mr. Barrett played Romeo to 
 the Juliet of Miss Anderson, acting with enthusiasm and 
 ardor. In the representation of "Othello" Mr. Barrett played 
 lago, Mr. McCullough the Moor, and Miss Clara Morris 
 made an unfortunate Shakespearean appearance as Emilia. 
 Miss Anderson for the first time in her life assumed the char- 
 acter of Desdemona. Never before in the history of the stage 
 were six plays so splendidly done in one week, or as a united 
 series of performances. It is questionable, however, if there 
 was any real gain to dramatic art, and a subsequent attempt 
 to repeat the enterprise proved both an artistic and financial 
 failure, — possibly because there were no actors of note con- 
 nected with the second venture.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 APPEARANCE IN LONDON. 
 
 RETURNING from a trip west, including a fine engage- 
 ment in California, in the latter part of August Mr. 
 Barrett began a special engagement at the Star Theatre, New 
 York, presenting " Francesca da Rimini." So great was the 
 success of the production, — though that success was due more 
 to the actor than to the play, — it was found unadvisable to 
 change the bill during the engagement, and the play w'as con- 
 tinued to uninterruptedly large patronage for nine weeks. It 
 was one of the most notable engagements ever played in New 
 York and was threefold complimentary to Mr. Barrett ; it was 
 a recognition of his enterprise in the production of the drama, 
 an acknowledgment of his superb performance, and a testimo- 
 nial to him of the good wishes he would take abroad, whither 
 he was about to go to make his first formal and professional 
 appearance in London. The total receipts of this brilliant 
 engagement were in excess of $70,000. On the last Saturday 
 night there was a famous gathering of people eminent in art 
 and literature, prominent in society, to say farewell to the tra- 
 gedian. At the close of the third act he was three times 
 recalled, the last time complying with the unmistakable wish 
 of the audience that he should make a speech. He was evi- 
 dently deeply affected, and with some difficulty got command 
 of his voice sufficiently to make his fervent speech under- 
 stood. He said: 
 
 "Ladies and Gentlemen: — I feci that if there is an 
 excuse for an artist in stepping out of his assumed character 
 to address an audience in his own real person it might be on 
 an occasion like the present, at the close of an engagement 
 
 78
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 79 
 
 which has lasted about nine weeks by your sufferance, 
 patience and support, — an engagement which, I may sin- 
 cerely say to my pride as well as to your own, is unex- 
 ampled in the history of the drama in this country. It has 
 been a genuine, positive success, a quiet success, but sus- 
 tained and supported chiefly by yourselves and those who 
 have occupied the seats which you now occupy, for the past 
 nine weeks. I feel that on this occasion there is much 
 that I should say, but 1 feel that the most important part 
 has remained unsaid. This venture has been entirely my 
 own. I trusted entirely to the support of the New York 
 public to carry forward this enterprise, and it has been 
 successful in the highest sense and gratifying to the highest 
 degree. 
 
 " In the name of the ladies and gentlemen of my company 
 I thank you also for the courtesy you have extended to them. 
 They one and all feel themselves entirely at home. I speak 
 more timidly when I speak absolutely of myself through you 
 to the many audiences who have sat before me. I have been 
 your servant for a quarter of a century, and have been asso- 
 ciated with the New York drama since the first appearance of 
 America's greatest actor — one of the greatest actors in the 
 world — Mr. Edwin Booth. Were I to attempt to tell you all 
 I feel on the present occasion I should be undertaking a task 
 which I could not fulfill, and which you have not probably 
 the patience to hear. When my foreign engagement is con- 
 cluded I shall return to you with anxiety and happiness. 
 This is to be my home; you are to be my friends. Until I 
 once more appear before you, thank you, thank you. Mr. 
 Lester Wallack has, like a true artist, done even more than 
 he promised, and the press — the respectable press — has come 
 forward in the truest spirit. To these and to all I return an 
 artist's thanks — an artist who has labored, perhaps unsuccess- 
 fully, to make himself prominent in assisting and forwarding 
 the literature of his country, and who is proud of being an 
 American in every sense of the word.
 
 8o LAWREN'CE BARRETT. 
 
 " This occasion has something more than an ordinary sig- 
 nificance to me. I may tell you that, before I shall have the 
 happiness of coming before you again, I shall appear before 
 a foreign audience. What the result may be no one can tell ; 
 but I feel full of hope. I trust that in connection with this 
 you will pardon me if I make a few remarks concerning my 
 friend, Mr. Henry Irving. England's distinguished artist, 
 supported by eminent artists from the Lyceum Theatre com- 
 pany, is now among us, while our own Mary Anderson is 
 playing on his stage with great success. I trust he will meet 
 with the liberal and cordial support due to his merit as an 
 artist and in recognition of what he has done for the art of 
 which I have the honor to be a member, and that you will 
 receive and extend to him the liberal support due to an artist 
 of such celebrity and distinction." 
 
 Mr. Barrett sailed for London March 25, 1S84, to begin, 
 April 14, an engagement of seven weeks at Mr. Irving's 
 Lyceum Theatre, Mr. Irving at that time being in the midst 
 of his first American season. Miss Anderson was about to 
 conclude a triumphant career at the Lyceum, and Mr. Barrett 
 arrived in time to rejoice with his fair countrywoman in her 
 good fortune in securing the favor of the English public. Mr. 
 Barrett was most cordially welcomed to London, where his 
 personal friends were numerous, and the fact that he was 
 about to make his dramatic debut in that metropolis gave 
 occasion for something more than private courtesies and 
 attentions. It also exposed him to the interviewer, who by 
 this time had become almost as formidable as his American 
 prototype. 
 
 Seldom, if ever, in the personal history of the dramatic art 
 has there been a more distinguished occasion or a more gra- 
 cious hospitality than was a dinner at the Langham Hotel at 
 which Mr. Wilson Barrett was the genial host and Mr. Law- 
 rence Barrett the honored guest. It was a very notable gath- 
 ering of celebrities, among them being the Earl of Lytton, 
 Lord Greville, Signor Salvini, Mr. L L. Toole, Mr. S. B.
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. gj- 
 
 Bancroft, Mr. W. S. Gilbert, Mr. W. H. Kendall, Sir A. Bosth- 
 wick, Mr. John Ryder, Capt. Hawley Smart, Sir Charles 
 Young, General E. A. Merritt, Carl Rosa, Sir Julius Benedict, 
 T. P. O'Connor, M. P., Comyns Carr, G. R. Sims, John Hare, 
 Charles Dickens, Moncure Conway, Oscar Wilde, J. Forbes 
 Robertson, Lionel Brough, Bronson Howard, Howard Paul, 
 Henry A. Jones, Dr. H. Griffin, B. L. Farjeon, Henry Neville, 
 A. \y. Pinero, Charles Warner, in all one hundred and fifty 
 guests chosen from literary and artistic T-ondon. The occa- 
 sion was one of felicity and social brilliancy, with an honest 
 English heartiness of welcome to the American actor. The 
 utmost of good-fellowship prevailed, constraint was banished 
 in the first half hour, and the chief guest was made to feel 
 that he was among friends with hearts behind their candid 
 speech. One of the morning papers describes the double 
 feast as a veritable symposium, and added : 
 
 "The speaking, which began at two o'clock in the morning, 
 had in it all the sparkle of such an hour when intellect and 
 sentiment are commonly, perhaps because abnormally, most 
 alive and quickened. When Mr. Wilson Barrett, in a speech 
 full of point and delicate grace proposed the toast of the 
 evening, the reception accorded it was so hearty and unani- 
 mous that it must have convinced our honored guest that he 
 had already secured many true, warm-hearted friends among 
 those met together to bid him welcome. Wilson Barrett has 
 a deserved fame as a ready public speaker, but on this occa- 
 sion he eclipsed all his previous efforts in oratory. 
 
 "Nor was Mr. Lawrence Barrett one whit behind when, in a 
 low, carefully modulated voice, he returned thanks in phrases 
 which at times almost rose to eloquence. The two speeches 
 will not readily be forgotten by any of those who had the priv- 
 ilege of listening to them." 
 
 Charles Dickens proposed the drama, coupling with it the 
 names of Salvini and Toole. The latter made a humorous 
 response, but the Italian hesitated to trust himself to speak in 
 a strange tongue, and handed a translation of a short essay,
 
 82 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 rather than speech, to his host, with a request that he would 
 read it to the company. 
 
 The toast of music was responded to by Sir JuUus Benedict, 
 who crowned an evening of bright sayings by one of the most 
 dehghtful bulls ever uttered by a person who could not 
 claim to be an Irishman. Winding up his little oration, which 
 received a hearty burst of applause, he said : " I am glad to 
 think what I said is so good (and placing his hand on his 
 heart, confirmed it with words that caused as much love 
 as laughter), but it is not half so good as what I have not 
 said." 
 
 The whole affair was one of the most successful of its kind, 
 and when somewhere about five in the morning the company 
 took their departure, it was no empty compliment when Lord 
 Lytton thanked the host for one of the most memorable and 
 enjoyable evenings he had ever spent in a large professional 
 gathering. 
 
 Mr. Barrett began his engagement April 14, making his first 
 appearance as Yorick in Mr. Howells' play of " Yorick's Love." 
 The welcome was an almost unprecedentedly warm one. The 
 theatre was crowded, and the audience was one of great brill- 
 iancy, the more complimentary to the actor because of the 
 recent death of the Duke of Albany, which many feared would 
 have a depressing effect upon Mr. Barrett's season. There 
 was a throng of notable mep and women who were attracted 
 to the theatre only by events of the first magnitude, and the 
 Americans in London were present to participate in the tri- 
 umph of their countryman. The actor did triumph, though 
 the play was rather severely treated. The Telegraph said : "It 
 says much for Mr. Barrett's acting that he could sustain the 
 interest of a work so clumsy and unsatisfactory." And the 
 limes remarked : " His highest achievement was that, with his 
 great command of the minutiae of his art, together with a nat- 
 urally pleasing air of gentleness and refinement, he could 
 interest us in this monotone of passion." The general opinion 
 of Mr. Tuirrett, as he ajjpeared on this occasion, is well
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 83 
 
 expressed in the following paragraph from the critique pub- 
 lished in the Daily Telegraph : 
 
 " ' Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest,' is a pleas- 
 ant motto, as true on the stage as elsewhere. In the English 
 theatrical world there are no prejudices. Miss Mary Ander- 
 son departs, and Mr. Lawrence Barrett reigns in her stead. A 
 cold, statuesque, and impassive beauty delights and disappears; 
 whereupon attention is instantly directed to the nervous power, 
 the quick, intelligent eye, the pleasant voice, and the wholly 
 refined manner of an actor who little knew how severely he 
 prejudiced his cause by announcing himself portentously as 
 the 'American tragedian.' Nothing is more grateful to an 
 English audience than the unexpected. Those alarming words 
 'American tragedian ' augured ill for the success of Mr. Law- 
 rence Barrett. But judge of the surprise of- all who expected, 
 and were bravely determined to endure, when there rushed 
 upon the stage a well looking, impulsive, and bright-faced 
 gentleman, with a graceful figure and a persuasive voice, who 
 had evidently determined to show us that the tragic moments 
 of life are not wholly dissociated from pathos, and that the 
 agonies of existence need not necessarily be associated with 
 the grand manner, or expressed in deep baritone or double 
 bass. In less than five minutes Mr. Barrett had made friends 
 with his audience. The overwhelming reception accorded to 
 him unnerved, and, for a moment, paralyzed the actor ; but it 
 caused the very nervousness that does an actor good. Sym- 
 pathy is the sustenance of a sincere artist. In this instance it 
 created an excitement that admirably suited the opening scenes 
 of the play called 'Yorick's Love,' which deal with the posi- 
 tion of a well recognized comedian suddenly being called upon 
 to play a part of intense interest and serious moment. Every 
 gesture, every glance, every movement, every flash of intelli- 
 gence that came from the new actor were eagerly scanned, 
 and the audience soon settled down contented with the idea 
 that if tragedy could be played as brightly, as quickly, as sj^m- 
 pathetically and with as much intelligence as this, then tragedy
 
 84 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 might be made a pleasant, instead of a very depressing form of 
 entertainment. It says much for Mr. Lawrence Barrett's act- 
 ing that it could sustain the interest of so unsatisfactory and 
 clumsy a dramatic work. He never faltered or delayed in 
 energy, and his best work was shown in that struggle of a 
 generous nature and an affectionate disposition against the 
 complicity of fate and circumstances which is, of course, the 
 leading motive of Othello. The point made by Mr. Barrett, 
 at the close of the first act, where the mind of the loving hus- 
 band receives its first shock, was singularly impressive, and his 
 half-hysterical burst of maddened rage when the truth began 
 to dawn upon him was even better than the grim vengeance 
 c^f the murder. 
 
 "So far then, the appearance of Mr. Lawrence Barrett has 
 been an unexpected and pleasant surprise. He belongs to the 
 order of tragedians that is most welcome, since he sinks his 
 own individuality in his work, and relieves tragedy from its 
 funereal gloom and mourning. Bright in manner and natural 
 in expression, he can be solemn without being wearisome, 
 and earnest without pedantry, and it would no doubt please 
 many play-goers to see an actor so full of magnetism and 
 so glib of tongue in one of the roles of Shakespearean 
 drama." 
 
 Mr. Barrett followed "Yorick's Love" with "Richelieu," in 
 which he was so successful the play was continued five weeks, 
 completing the engagement. For his farewell appearance, 
 however, Mr. Barrett preferred the character of Yorick. 
 There was an enthusiastic call for the actor at the end of the 
 play, and coming before the curtain Mr. Barrett said, address- 
 ing the large audience : 
 
 "I thank you for your reception of Mr. Howells' play of 
 'Yorick's Love,' and 1 thank yuu for your reception of our 
 performance of Lord Lytton's 'Richelieu,' and for the measure 
 of success which we have been enabled to achieve notwith- 
 standing the recent period of social and pul)li(- depression in 
 T-ondon. I thank you for ])ermitting me to have the honor of
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 85 
 
 appearing in a city in which it is the pride and ambition of 
 every actor once at least during his career to appear and play 
 in. To have gained even a slight recognition at your hands 
 as an actor of modest claims would have satisfied me. (Cries 
 of "No," "No.") But you have received me with so hearty a 
 welcome that I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to 
 you. In my own country I could never have imagined 
 that this could have come to pass. There is not an English 
 speaking actor who has not welcomed me, not an English 
 speaking actress who has not treated me as a brother, not 
 an employe of this house who has not treated me with the 
 utmost kindness and consideration. To the great press of 
 London, which has given me more than I could have asked, 
 more than I could ever hope to claim, I have also to 
 return my hearty and sincere thanks. I trust, and I cherish 
 the hope encouraged by this kind reception which you have 
 accorded me, that I may again, ere long, have the honor 
 of appearing before you." 
 
 This intimation of a possible return to London was greeted 
 with a cheer and great applause. Although socially and 
 artistically the London season of Mr. Barrett was a decided 
 success, it was not financially what it deserved to be. 
 Indeed, his experience was precisely in a line with that of 
 Mr. Booth before him, the experience of Mr. McCuUough, 
 of Mr. Jefferson, in short of every American actor or actress, 
 Miss Anderson alone excepted, who had undertaken to pro- 
 fessionally court the London public. It is a truism of theatri- 
 cal philosophy that there is no money for American actors of 
 the star class in London. But in addition to natural causes, 
 Mr. Barrett had against him an indifferent supporting com- 
 pany, a fact very generally noted. Mr. Whitefoot, editor of 
 the Sportsman, summed the case in turf parlance : " The 
 American actor is a thoroughbred and he had a goodish 
 course for a run, but he was badly jockeyed." He was affected 
 by the popular dislike of "Yorick's Love," a play the critics 
 would not commend; and when he appeared as Richelieu he
 
 86 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 nad to encounter the prejudice in favor of English impersona- 
 tors of the great Cardinal. The first estimate of his perform- 
 ance was censorious; but in a week a very marked change of 
 critical tone was noted, and one of those who frankly admitted 
 his undue severity said, in finally reviewing the personation : 
 " That the American tragedian thoroughly conceives the very 
 complex character of Richelieu is certain, and that he pos- 
 sesses all the dramatic power necessary for the successful 
 impersonation of the Cardinal is equally sure. His perform- 
 ance is an intelligent one, constantly marked by unmistakable 
 evidences of rare genius." 
 
 Mr. Toole gave a midnight supper at the Chandos Street 
 Theatre as a farewell testimonial to Mr. Barrett. It was a dis- 
 tinguished affair, largely attended by noblemen and artists 
 and professional people who came to say good-bye. Among 
 the guests were Lord Loudesborough, Henry Irving, Wilson 
 Barrett, Charles Wyndham, Bronson Howard, George Augus- 
 tus Sala, Henry Rutledge, John Hollinshead, Joseph Hatton, 
 and a score of other good fellows. These bade Mr. Barrett 
 God speed and good luck, and, congratulating him on his 
 London debut, echoed the sentiment of the enthusiast who 
 cried from the gallery, when Mr. Barrett modestly deprecated 
 his first night's reception, " It's no more than you deserve, old 
 man." He left London poorer in pocket than when he arrived, 
 but he had reason to believe that the artistic satisfaction 
 gained, and the respect for him established in the British mind 
 richly compensated him for any monetary loss sustained. He 
 brought back to America many, many pleasant recollections 
 of his first season in London, during which he did a very 
 great deal to increase English respect for the American stage.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MEMORABLE ACHIEVEMENTS. 
 
 MR. BARRETT arrived in New York July 15, very 
 glad once more to be in his native land, where he 
 found an affectionate welcome awaiting him. One of the 
 first greetings was a cablegram from Alma Tadema, which 
 read : " Welcome home ; best love from all of us," a pecu- 
 liarly felicitous remembrance of many delightful hours in 
 club and studio that the two friends had enjoyed together. 
 To a representative of the New York Herald Mr. Barrett 
 gave his impression of his London season, which may serve 
 a good purpose if repeated here. He said of the engage- 
 ment : 
 
 " I have every reason to regard it as a great success. 
 Everything passed off well and there is nothing about it I 
 regret except that it was not long enough. My audiences 
 were bright, intelligent, and extraordinarily demonstrative 
 throughout. On the first night I was called out by accla- 
 mation after the first act of 'Yorick's Love.' After the 
 second the audience brought me out several times, and at 
 the end there was a tempest of applause. I never saw any- 
 thing like the enthusiasm of my first night, excepting that 
 on the occasion of the close of my engagement, when the 
 great warmth and affection displayed in the most enthusi- 
 astic manner by my audience proved a very gratifying con- 
 clusion to a most happy engagement. On the next night, 
 the memorable re-entry of Mr. Irving at the Lyceum, when 
 I entered the box which Mr. Irving had placed at my dis- 
 posal, the audience rose and cheered me. You can imagine 
 my gratification at this spontaneous outburst from, perhaps.
 
 88 LAVt^RENCE BARRETT. 
 
 the most notable audience that has assembled at a London 
 'first night.'" 
 
 An arrangement had already been entered into by which 
 Mr. Barrett was to play a return engagement at the Lyceum 
 in 1885, but the plans that subsequently engaged his attention 
 for this country determined him to withdraw from that agree- 
 ment. The intention was that he should play in " Francesca 
 da Rimini " for three months and then appear with Mr. Irving 
 in a series of Shakespearean revivals. Mr. Irving in the mean- 
 time decided to make a second tour of this country, and Mr. 
 Barrett did not care to assume the management of the Lyceum 
 alone, which would have been necessary had he filled the pro- 
 posed London engagement. 
 
 The regular season for this year began at Denver, August 3, 
 with the presentation of " Yorick's Love." It happened that 
 the Rev. Robert Laird Collyer, a gentleman of peculiar idio- 
 syncrasies, was in Colorado at the time, and in an interview 
 with a reporter expressed some very singular, if not altogether 
 inexplicable, views relative to Mr. Barrett. This gentleman 
 saw fit to revive a long before dismissed falsehood that Mr. 
 Barrett's real name is not Barrett, but Brannigan. This sense- 
 less, contemptible lie had its malicious origin some years ago 
 in a sketch of Mr. Barrett in a collection of short biographies 
 of American actors, and was inserted for the expre.ss purpose of 
 humiliating a then successful actor by making it appear that 
 he was ashamed of a name certainly no more Hibernian than 
 Barrett. The. invidious remarks of Mr. Collier were promptly 
 resented by the Hon. (ieorge C. Bates, who, in a long commu- 
 nication to the Denver Republican, said : 
 
 "Having lived in Detroit constantly from May 10, 1S33 
 down to April i, 1852, and being engaged in the practice of 
 my profession there, I knew Lawrence Barrett as a mere lad, 
 away back in 1848, when by hi.s industry, his brightness as a 
 boy, he attracted the attention and secured the good will of 
 all prominent citizens, including General Cox, Ju(l,<ics Sibley 
 and iMona, Senators Woodbridge and Porter, and such men,
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 89 
 
 and when he was always and only known by his true and real 
 name of Lawrence Ikirrett. My <jnly child, Captain Kensie 
 Bates, U. S. A., who died at Detroit February 20, 1882, was 
 his playmate and companion, and down to the day of his death 
 was his devoted friend. All our old citizens of Detroit, from 
 his very youth, were proud of iJarrett for his abstinence from 
 all boyish vices and bad habits, his intense devotion to his 
 duties and his steady advance up the ladder of fame." 
 
 Falsehood travels further than truth, and is hard to down. 
 There are people, having great admiration for Mr. Barrett as 
 an actor, who believe the absurd libel, never having heard it 
 authoritatively denied. The .story was conceived in guile and 
 fostered by petty malice. 
 
 Mr. Barrett extended his tour to California, where he played 
 an unprecedently large engagement, and then journeyed east- 
 ward, playing in all the principal cities of the Union. In the 
 West he rela.xed from the more arduous duties of his regular 
 repertoire by occasionally appearing as Benedick in " Much 
 Ado," a character for which he has great liking, and which he 
 finds truly recreating. He added two plays to his long list of 
 personally controlled dramas, appearing at Washington Decem- 
 ber 19, as Thorold in Robert Browning's old play, "A Blot on 
 the 'Scutcheon," first, and unsuccessfully produced by Mac- 
 ready at the Drury Lane Theatre, London, in 1845. The poet 
 himself presented the manuscript to Mr. Barrett, telling him 
 to do what he pleased with it, and it pleased the actt)r to make 
 a success of the sombre drama, for in his acting it was a suc- 
 cess despite its gloom. The other play was the delightful little 
 comedy, translated from the French of de Banville by Captain 
 Alfred Thompson, and entitled "The King's Pleasure." The 
 Gringoire of Mr. Barrett will long remain a charming memory 
 to lovers of dramatic art. 
 
 The tragedian now had in hand undergoing a process of 
 reconstruction Miss Mitford's turgid tragedy of "Rienzi," an- 
 other play Macready had tried with ill results and which for 
 many years had been stored away as having no value to the
 
 90 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 Stage. Mr. Barrett himself rearranged and elided portions of 
 the play, and had the assistance of Mr. Boker in preparing 
 more dramatic speeches for certain scenes. Confident that 
 the play could be given a picturesque treatment that would 
 insure its popularity, Mr. Barrett trusted to the time and 
 romance of the story to please the intelligent, and unhesitat- 
 ingly invested a large sum in preparations for its production. 
 The play was brought out at Washington the following season. 
 For several days prior to the opening, the actor-manager 
 worked so persistently at rehearsals that he was overcome b)^ 
 nervousness which induced anxiety, and he became apprehen- 
 sive that the play would fail. But the night of December 13, 
 1886, witnessed an unqualified triumph for the enterprising 
 artist, the play proving a great spectacular success, his own 
 performance of the Last of the Tribunes commanding enthu- 
 siastic applause from the audience, and securing the most flat- 
 tering commendation from the critics, of whom many were 
 attracted from New York and other cities. Mr. Barrett there 
 inaugurated the most profitable and splendid season of his pro- 
 fessional career. "Rienzi" was made the chief, if not the sole, 
 attraction of his engagements during the season of 1886-87, 
 and everywhere attracted enthusiastic audiences of great size. 
 In this season Mr. Barrett drank deeply from the cup of success, 
 and felt the sweet reward of his arduous, painstaking life. His 
 season ended with an engagement for five weeks at Niblo's, 
 during which time " Rienzi " was played to crowded houses 
 nightly. Of this performance the Chicago Inter Ocean had 
 this to say : 
 
 " It is one form of admirable art to become so closely iden- 
 tified with the material, the e.xternal view of a character as 
 entirely to lose the personality of the actor in the make-up of 
 the dressing-room. Such actors there are, Barnay among 
 them. This famous German tragedian can appear each night 
 of the week in a different character, allowing none to bear 
 resemblance to another, his own individuality being lost in all. 
 There could be no greater excellence in practical art than
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 9I 
 
 distinguishes the character impresses of this actor. This ac- 
 complishment is a delight and a satisfaction to the natural eye, 
 and is by no means a phase of dramatic description lightly to 
 be estimated. There can be no doubt, however, that this not 
 general nor essential adjunct of the mimetic vocation is much 
 inferior in actual or nssthetic worth to that quality, amounting 
 to an attribute, through which the soul of poetry, the passion, 
 the pathos, the joys, and the sorrows of noble ideas, sublime 
 conceptions are given truthful expression and impressive sig- 
 nificance. Emotions are more than forms, idealities are loftier, 
 better than facts. Mr. Barrett has not the art of identification 
 in its physical development ; but he has the art of psychical 
 interpretation, of mental revelation so thoroughly mastered 
 that he enables one to look through the outward seeming into 
 the interior truth; and if he does not take on the bodily fact 
 of a character he possesses himself utterly of the spiritual idea 
 and distinctly, completely defines it. This is not to say Mr. 
 Barrett never errs in the exposition of character, it is to say he 
 clearly and unmistakably presents his conception of character ; 
 though it is rarely permitted one to discover in the interpreta- 
 tions of this peculiarly inquisitive and scholarly actor evident 
 misapprehensions .of motive, purpose, or ideality in dramatic 
 creations. The justification of this view of Mr. Barrett's work 
 lies in his treatment of Rienzi, a character not in the highest 
 sense dramatic. A grave, well-poised demeanor is that of 
 Miss Mitford's hero; an intellectual rather than a physical 
 type of tragedy, a thinker, a philosopher, a sentimentalist, as 
 we see him ; active, aggressive, objective only as we under- 
 stand him. A man of thoughts rather than of deeds, ruling 
 by will more than by energy. And yet Mr. Barrett makes a 
 vividly dramatic picture of this intensely repressed, singular, 
 undemonstrative ideal. Soul leaps through form with all the 
 vigor, all the passion, all the overwhelming sway of a living, 
 portentous truth, and we feel the humanness of the perform- 
 ance. We see the form of Mr. Barrett, undisguised, individ- 
 ual, but we gaze through the familiar presence and look upon
 
 92 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 the luminous soul of the Tribune, feeling with him, suffering 
 or rejoicing in him, a full deep sympathy controlling us, a per- 
 fect realization of the character possessing us. This is the 
 .height of interpretive art to which Mr. Barrett has brought 
 himself as the reward of a long, wearisome discipline of mind 
 and refinement of spirit. It is the definition of subtle elements 
 that constitutes the highest virtue of character acting. The 
 material portraiture is of lesser worth, possible with many, is 
 rather a native qualification than an artistic acquirement or an 
 intellectual development. The mimic is a natural product, 
 the artist is a careful creation ; but above either is the inter- 
 preter, who, both actor and artist, has the instincts of the poet 
 and the feeling of the sentimentalist to color and vitalize his 
 work. Mr. Barrett proves in Rienzi that he is an interpreter. 
 No better testimony could be offered than is to be found in 
 that scene at the foot of the cathedral stairs when the father, 
 throwing off the authoritative austerity of the Tribune, pleads 
 for his daughter's life and happiness with her young, mis- 
 guided husband. There is little action, no dramatic display, 
 none of the realism many actors might impart to the scene ; 
 but there is a great truth sorrow-laden, a living fact that closes 
 in upon the actor and all that is theatric,^and sets fancy in 
 that dim century when Rome rose from her degradation at the 
 call of an enthusiast, and recoiled again into wretchedness 
 from the stern presence of an uncompromising justice. The 
 character of this episode, so unaffected, free from artifice, and 
 yet powerfully full of meaning and significance, illustrates the 
 general bearing of Mr. Barrett's work in these latter days, and 
 establishes his excellence as an actor in the highest sense of 
 the term. 'Rienzi' is a pleasing, picturesque, beautifully 
 toned and splendidly produced play; but to Mr. Barrett's fine 
 reflection of the chief character is due the great success of 
 the revival." 
 
 At this time Edwin Booth was completing what had been 
 announced as his last professional tour of the country. 
 Though he lacked much of the age at which he could,
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 93 
 
 without Other excuse, retire from the stage that yet had artistic 
 claims upon him, Mr. Booth was not entirely in health, and 
 had, moreover, fallen into a melancholy state of mind that 
 rendered him indifferent to theatrical honors. He seemed to 
 have lost all interest in professional work and reputation, 
 being desirous only to seclude himself from the world. In 
 addition to his admiration for Mr. Booth as an actor, Mr. 
 Barrett had strong personal affection for the man, and his 
 quick, friendly sympathies taught him what might be done to 
 reawaken in Mr. Booth the old spirit of earnest ambition. 
 He brought his strong, nervous energy, vigorous health and 
 earnest confidence to bear upon his almost gloomy friend, 
 persuaded him to visit Cohassett, where he engaged daily in 
 revivifying exercise on land and sea, and with the stimulus 
 of Mr. Barrett's hearty, cheerful companionship, Mr. Booth 
 rapidly cast off his melancholy and became quite another 
 man, happier than he had been in years. Still he had little 
 thought of playing again, until Mr. Barrett proposed that 
 they should travel together as stars of a combination of 
 which Mr. Barrett should have the entire management and 
 business direction, leaving Mr. Booth unburdened of care or 
 responsibility beyond the mere work of acting. The plan 
 was approved gratefully by Mr. Booth, and there began an 
 artistic association that gave to the country the most notable 
 touring attraction ever known in the history of the American 
 stage. The season began in Buffalo, in September, 1887, 
 the supporting company being one of judiciously selected 
 people, acting together with great excellence under the 
 unsurpassed stage direction of Mr. Barrett. Such audiences 
 were never known in the theatres of the United States, as 
 patronized Booth and Barrett throughout the season, the 
 unprecedented success of which is defined by the fact that 
 the profit to the tragedians, above all expenses, was a little in 
 excess of $600,000. Under the stimulus of Mr. Barrett's 
 cheery nature and nervous activity, Mr. Booth recovered his 
 old buoyancy of mind, entered spiritedly into his work, found
 
 94 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 pleasure in exercises and recreations he had shunned in recent 
 years, and, despite the months of arduous travel, ended the 
 season stronger in body and happier in mind than he 
 began it. The original intention of the tragedians was not 
 to continue the association, which was merely an experiment 
 of high artistic enterprise. But popular pressure, the impor- 
 tunities of managers, and their own mutual enjoyment of 
 the relation, conspired to change certain of Mr. Barrett's per- 
 sonal plans, and before the close of the first season, arrano-e- 
 ments were perfected for another year of the Booth-Barrett 
 combination. This second season began in due form, the con- 
 templated tour embracing new and more extended territory, 
 though, of course, the important cities were revisited. There 
 was no abatement of popular interest, theatres were thronged 
 everywhere as before, and most flattering results were achieved, 
 not only in financial gain, but also in the great merit of the 
 dramatic representations. One formidable event of the season 
 was the journey to San Francisco, to open the new California 
 Theatre, April 13, 1889. This was accomplished most trium- 
 phantly, the western reception being an ovation of such enthu- 
 siastic character, that the distinguished tragedians were fully 
 compensated for the fatigues of the long journey. Never- 
 theless, it became distressingly apparent that excessive travel 
 was wearing upon the constitutional forces of Mr. Booth, and 
 ill-health returned upon him. It was the intention to play 
 various parts of the extreme west after the close of the San 
 Francisco engagement; but at the end of three weeks, not- 
 withstanding the immense monetary sacrifice they must make 
 in so doing, the tragedians determined to bring their season 
 to a summary close and return east for rest and recuperation. 
 Mr. Booth retired to the sea-shore, intending to pass his 
 vacation (juietly. Mr. Jkirrett at once sailed for Germany 
 to enjoy a restorative season among its famous watering- 
 places. 
 
 In the two .seasons these tragedians presented superb pro- 
 ductions of "Julius (\xsar," "Othello" and "Merchant of
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 95 
 
 Venice," besides playing "King Lear," "Hamlet," "Macbeth" 
 and other classic works. Never before did an actor assume 
 the responsibility that bore upon Mr. Barrett in these memor- 
 able two years. To the sufficiently trying duties of the actor 
 he added the burdensome obligations of general manager and 
 the exacting cares of stage director, his remarkable mental 
 resources and e.xhaustless energies enabling him to triumph 
 splendidly in the discharge of an undertaking that would 
 have dismayed another man. New phases of his great talent 
 were developed by this experience, and he gave further and 
 abundant proofs of his extraordinary abilities.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 THOUGH the chapters of Lawrence Barrett's life here 
 offered to the public are restricted to a professional 
 view, they are necessarily cursory, brief glimpses of a career 
 that is rich in exceptional interest, and hardly less romantic 
 than that of Edmund Kean, to which, in many particulars, it 
 bears resemblance. Much inevitably has been omitted that 
 would have delighted the reader, especially the many illus- 
 trative anecdotes that have as important place in the analysis 
 of character as the record of adversities encountered and 
 obstacles overcome. In explanation of such shortcomings it 
 is enough to say this little work is not a biography, and the 
 writer has not had that cooperation with his subject without 
 which a comprehensive personal history is impossible. What 
 is believed to be a judicious admiration of Mr. Barrett in his 
 public sphere has been the guiding spirit of a memorial that 
 will not be unwelcome to thousands who share that admiration. 
 No actor has deserved better of the public, for none other has 
 held to higher purposes, and none has done so much to dignify 
 the stage or advance and beautify its art. The admonition of 
 Polonius to Laertes was adopted into the professional creed 
 of Lawrence Barrett: 
 
 To thine own self be true; 
 And it must follow, as night the day. 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man. 
 
 Faithful to the laudable ambition of his youth, true to the 
 ideal of his deep, sympathetic intelligence, he has been at 
 once a servant and patron of his art-profession, of incalculable 
 benefit and honor to the stage of this country. To his 
 
 96
 
 A PROFESSIONAL SKETCH. 97 
 
 wisdom, moral force and artistic enterprise, as much as to any 
 other influences that can be named, is due the high standard 
 of the American stage in comparison with that of older art- 
 serving countries. The knowledge acquired in foreign travel 
 and through close friendly intercourse with the best minds of 
 the United States and Europe he has applied to the enriching 
 of his profession; so that students of the drama have no better 
 preceptor, indeed, no safer intellectual guide than this eminent 
 actor. 
 
 What remains to be said touches the future work of the 
 tragedian. Just returned from a health benefiting rest among 
 the German spas, Mr. Barrett is about to begin a season that 
 promises to be exceptionably notable. Ripe in intellect, rich 
 in experience, well matured in judgment, he has yet all the 
 buoyance of spirit, all the ardent professional zeal, and the 
 enterprising confidence of his younger days. Instead, there- 
 fore, of retiring upon his ample fortune, or hugging prosperity 
 close by risking little, trusting to acquired reputation to sus- 
 tain him in old lines of established plays, Mr. Barrett reappears 
 in his character of friend of the American drama. He enters 
 heartily and with enthusiasm into a new production, involving 
 a greater financial outlay and a more ambitious purpose than 
 any that hitherto engaged his care. To Mr. William Young, 
 the poet-dramatist, author of "Pendragon," falls the honor of 
 this enviable attention. In his new and semi-historical tragic 
 drama, "Ganelon," Mr. Barrett thinks he has secured the 
 greatest play ever written for the American stage, superb in 
 passion, magnificent in opportunities for impressive spectacu- 
 lar display. The plot is one of peculiar fascination and deep 
 interest, and has its singular poetic strength in the irresistible 
 stress of circumstances by which a Frank is forced into the 
 same base treachery that gave his ancestor to infamy and 
 death. The historic Ganelon, one of Charlemagne's officers, 
 betrayed the Christians to the Saracens at Roncevalles, and 
 for his treachery was torn to pieces by four horses. Love and 
 revenge are the conspiring motives to the great catastrophe of
 
 i 
 
 98 LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 Mr. Young's plaj-, in which the frenzied hero repeats the 
 ancestral treason, and, repentant, slays himself for his base- 
 ness. The period and the strong national contrasts allow 
 resplendent stage pictures, in costumes, in trappings, and in 
 scenic surroundings, of which opportunities the fullest advan- 
 tage has been taken. Some very novel devices are in readi- 
 ness for trial, and one of these, presenting the illusion of a 
 vast army in actual motion, will startle and bewilder spectators 
 of its mechanical triumph. The music with which the play is 
 enriched is the work of a celebrated composer, and was written 
 in harmony with the character and spirit of the tragedy. 
 Some idea of the magnitude of Mr. Barrett's preparation may 
 be derived from the fact that an expense of $30,000 has been 
 incurred, that being the largest sum of m.oney ever invested 
 in a legitimate stage production in this country. " Ganelon " 
 will be produced in Chicago October 7, and with it Mr. 
 Barrett will begin a new professional enterprise that has as its 
 object the annual production of a new play of sterling quality. 
 With the exception of Edwin Forrest, Mr. Barrett is the onlv 
 tragedian who has directed his genius to the upbuilding of a 
 native drama of literary dignity and enduring character. The 
 extent of his efforts in this direction, and the artistic success 
 of them entitle him to preeminent distinction as the conserver 
 and promoter of the best fruits and noblest results of the 
 American theatre as a temple of art and mind. The name 
 and fame of Lawrence Barrett will be the honored heritage of 
 long posterity. 
 
 THE TTT>i?ARY 
 
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