c < - r THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 7^ EXCERPTS FROM THE MANY GOOD WORDS UTTERED IN HONOR OF Edwin Booth At the Supper given on Saturday Night, March 50, i88g, by AUGUSTIN DALY AND A. M. PALMER. Printed for the Players. New York 1889. i > I i -* '' J -» ■* J t > 1 i ^ i > ' ' ' ' J TROW-8 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, NEW YORK. • •• ••• •• •••••• ••• •••«••• •••• ,*.• • • > • • • • • • • •• « t • • • • • » • « • • * • • • • • • • • aft* _ _ • • * / J*- to CM o 2.2;" A NARRATIVE OF THE EVENT. (Partly from a report printed in the New York Times of April i, 1889.) The table fet In the great hall at Delmonico's on Saturday night for the fupper party given by Auguftin Daly and Albert M. Palmer In honor of Edwin Booth was in the form of a ftar. At each of the five arms were feats for fifteen gentlemen. At the apex of the northern arm fat Mr. Booth, between Mr. Daly and Mr. Palmer. Near them . were General Sherman, Lawrence Barrett, Hon. o Chauncey M. Depew, General Horace Porter, W. ^5 J. Florence, Conftant Coquelin, Thomas Bailey ^ Aldrich, Horace Howard Furness, wifeft and moft amiable of Shakefpearean fcholars ; George H. Boker, the Philadelphia poet; L. Clarke Davis, ex-Judge Charles P. Daly, Parke Godwin, and L'l ! J /^ n; S. L. Clemens. Among the adors prefent, befides thofe already named, were John Gilbert, Dion Boucicault, George Clarke, John Drew, James Lewis, John A. Lane, Ben G. Rogers, Louis MafTen, Herbert Kelcey, E. M. Holland, Alex- ander Salvini, Jean Coquelin, Edward Harrigan, Walden Ramfey, and Harry Edwards. Among the poets, artifts, and men of letters were William Winter, Edward A. Dithmar, Appleton Morgan, Edmund Clarence Stedman, James R. Ofgood, Frank Millett, J. S. Hartley, Auguftus Saint Gau- dens, Judge Jofeph F. Daly, John H. V. Arnold, Laurence Hutton, George Parfons Lathrop, Bran- der Matthews, John Foord, Dr. A. Ruppaner, Stephen H. Olin, Richard Watfon Gilder, Daniel Frohman, Edgar Fawcett, Brayton Ives, Stanford White, James A. Mitchell, Arthur F. Bowers, Marfhall P. Wilder, Pierre T. Barlow ; and the Hon. Thomas L. James, Peter Cooper Hewitt, Eugene Tompkins, G. S. Bowdoin, Marfhall H. Mallory, H. C. Jarrett, Theo. E. Roefelle, Will- iam Bifpham, and Hon. W. R. Grace were alfo numbered in the feventy-five. The arms of the ftar radiated from a circular mass of rofes, and flowers in rich profufion were banked in the middle of each of the five branches of the table. A band was ftationed In the balcony. The fupper began at midnight. The company was good and the feaft as excellent as Delmonico's kitchens could produce. Many admirable fpeeches were made, efpecially thofe by the Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, General Sherman, General Porter, Mr. Florence, and Lawrence Barrett; and Mark Twain difcourfed on the " Long Clam." After a few words preliminary to propofing Mr. Booth's health — refponded to briefly by that gentle- man — Mr. Daly refigned the chair to Mr. Palmer, who very gracefully introduced the fpeakers of the evening with a v/itty and appropriate compliment to each. The guefts did not difperfe until nearly five o'clock on Sunday morning. 5 A LETTER BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. (Addressed to Mr. Daly, after expressing regret at his inability to be present.) Were it poffible I fhould gladly join in the tribute of honor to Mr. Booth perfonally, and to the ancient fraternity of which he is fo eminent a member. I once heard Mrs. Fanny Kemble fay in a diftin- guifhed company, with melodious intonation, and a dignity and pride which well became the niece of Mrs. Siddons and John Kemble; " I belong to her Majefty's players." In another fenfe who of us cannot fay it ? For their genius, their ikili, their magic enchant us all, and as captives and thralls we too belong to the players. When Sir Peter Teafle and Squire Hard- caftle felicitoufly interchange we belong to John 7 Gilbert. As our hearts melt in the pathetic human- ity of Rip Van Winkle we are our own no longer, we are all JefFerfon's. When Katherine yields to Petruchio we furrender to Ada Rehan. When Hamlet " The expectancy and rose of the fair state," fills the great fcene with melancholy fplendor we are held faft and poflefled by Edwin Booth. The players have all much more multitudinous belong- ings than they fufped;, and never captives marched with fo willing and fo charmed a loyalty as theirs. Over your hofpitable table I fhould like to tell them fo in more words, but I could not fay it with greater fincerity than in this note; and with my hearty homage to your famous gueft and your brilliant company, I am very truly, etc. s A SALUTE M. CONSTANT COQUELIN. MoN CHER Monsieur Booth — Depuis le jour ou vous avez debute, vous avez ete proclame, et vous etes refte, le premier, le grand artifte tragique de votre pays. On n'arrive pas a rimmenfe fitua- tion que vous vous y etes faite fans I'avolr meritee. Vous avez eu le bonheur de n'etre pas difcute, meme en reftant indifcutable. Les hivers ont palTe fur vous fans vous toucher, et votre reputation a garde la fraicheur d'un jour de printemps. Ce foir, mon fils et moi, nous nous faifons un peu I'efFet de deux fauvages, puifque feuls peut-etre en Amerique, nous n'avons pas eu I'honneur de vous entendre ; mais nous favons fort bien ce que vous valez ; nous favons que vous etes un artifte d'une qualite effentiellement fuperieure ; un artifte qui a 9 trouve la haute expreffion de la poefie ineffable fans faire fi de la belle realite ; nous favons aufli que vous etes un grand efprit et un grand coeur, que vous I'avez magnifiquement prouve. Je re- mercie mon ami Daly et le cher M. Palmer de nous avoir invites, afin que nous puiffions nous incliner devant vous avec tous les refpefts qui vous sont dus, au milieu de vos meilleurs amis, et parmi ceux qui doivent favoir le mieux vous admirer. lO AN ADDRESS BY STEPHEN HENRY OLIN. (In response to a call from the Chairman, Mr. A. M. Palmer.) When I heard you begin a moment ago, Mr. Chairman, the lift of " foremoft men " who fit about this table, I fuppofed myfelf — the leaft and laft of the Players' Board of Managers, for a long time fafe from notice. But I am very ready to fpeak to the toaft which you give, becaufe, warm as are the feelings of efteem and admiration for Edwin Booth which we fhare with his fellow men, warmer ftill for moft of us here to-night is the gratitude pro- voked by his great gift, a gift which brings to each of us prefent advantage and thofe favors to come to which gratitude is faid to be moft fenfitive. In the life of the modern man, the club counts for much; and in clubs of the older faftiion — before II the ideal was a nocfturnal flock exchange or a peren- nial caucus — before wits had begun to hoard all their jefts for the weekly papers and when wife men had wifdom for their friends as well as for the magazines, in fuch clubs the a6tor counted for much. We find him in the coffee-houfes, which were clubs in embryo ; and in that bright com- pany which at the Mitre Tavern formed what was then and is ftill known as The Club, the adlor was confpicuous. There were men whom the world is not yet weary of regarding. Sir Jofhua Reynolds and Oliver Goldfmith, models ftill for artifts and men of letters ; Sheridan, wit and manager and poli- tician ; General Oglethorpe, who had learned the art of war under Prince Eugene, and whofe distinc- tion it was to found the colony of Georgia and thus fct the ftage on which an even greater foldier fhould appear; Johnfon and Bofwell, whofe united efforts produced that "Tour in the Hebrides," which took the place filled in our more fortunate time by "The Innocents Abroad." It might occupy philofophers or fchoolboys to decide which of thefe men deferved beft of man- kind, but certainly not the leaft picturefque and diftinguifhed figure was the accomplifhed ador 12 whofe death was to " eclipfe the gayety of nations," and who alone among that brilliant company became the namefake of a great modern club. It is not without reafon that we confidently hope for the fuccess of our Players' Club. We all fhare the bright expectations formed by your honored gueft for the future of the inftitution of which he may well be called the founder. We fee a library which Ihall contain the dramas of every tongue and the criticifm of every time, and where, as the years go on, fhall be carefully gathered the hiftory of the ftage and the biography of thofe who belong to it ; and, as well, the anecdotes, the jefts, the unconfidered trifles of the player's life. We fee a mufeum in which fhall be ftored the pidures of plays and the portraits of the men and women who win renown in their performance, and we fee this library and mufeum not fet apart for the occafional ufe of the ftudious, but brought into the ador's daily life, made the home alike of the veteran of the ftage and the ambitious recruit. We fee the refining influence of art and literature aided by the fliimulus of example, the power of tradition, and the encouragement of chofen friendfliips and aflxDcia- tions. All this, we believe, will make for the lafliing good of American dramatic art — of that prudifli 13 Anglo-Saxon art which cares for the Beautiful and the True, but cares for the Good as well. In that houfe iliall be virtue, and there fhall alfo be abun- dant cakes and ale. This profpect is plain before us all, but there are other things in the future of this foundation which we fee better than does its founder. It will per- petuate his fame, not as a monument guards a buried treafure, but as a living organifm preferves what it holds dear. The ftage is the only form of art which among Englifh fpeaking men has a permanent hierarchy. In painting, fculpture, mufic, architecture, poetry, one great man fucceeds another to whom he owes little or nothing; one fchool is followed by another differing and divergent. But it happened that when the Englifh language was yet young, while it was pent within the limits of a little ifland, when it had gathered up its mighty forces but had not yet begun to fpend them over all the earth, it was touched by the wand of a great enchanter. All at once, per- fedl and complete, the Englifh drama came to life. Some greater genius may, perhaps, hereafter live, but he can no more rival Shakefpeare than the prophet of an Eafhern tribe can now difplace Mohammed between heaven and all the fcattered 14 peoples of Iflam. To the end of time when anyone fhall fay " Great is the Englifh drama," he will reverently add " And Shakefpeare is its prophet." The dramatift, unlike other artifts, does not ad- dress diredlly thofe whom he would affect, and fo it has come to pass that men gain fame and fortune becaufe they, better than their fellows, can fpeak the words of the great mafter, can make his creations move again upon the ftage, can in his name touch thofe fibres of our Anglo-Saxon nature which in fome fort he created, and which vibrate moft ftrongly at his call. There are ftudents of hiftory here to-night who can name the chiefs of this honored priefthood as they ftretch back in unbroken fucceffion, in con- tinuity of tradition and teaching, to the men who ftudied their partitions In Shakefpeare's crabbed handwriting. It is not for me to point out how clear has been the title of Edwin Booth to this primacy, fince it came to him from his father's hand ; but I can fay that it is well that his fame fhould be not only left to his countrymen, but par- ticularly in the keeping of an ever renewed com- pany of his friends. For years, for generations perhaps more numerous than we venture to im- 15 agine, will glow at the mention of his name the fvmpathy and afFedion which on New Year's eve burned up fo brightly around the newly-lighted hearth of the Players. i6 A TRIBUTE WILLIAM WINTER. (Delivered at the supper of March 30th, and printed in the Tribune, April 7th.) It was my fortune, many years ago, to be prefent in the old Bofton Theatre on a night when that famous American ador Edwin Forreft, at the clofe of an exceedingly brilliant engagement, reprefented Hamlet and delivered a farewell address. I can fee him now, as I faw him then — not the moft intel- ledual nor the moft brilliant figure in our theatrical hiftory, but certainly the moft coloflal, the moft im- pofing, the moft definite, impreftive, infpired animal individuality that ever has been feen upon the American ftage ; and I can hear his voice as I then heard it, when, as he gazed around upon a vaft aflemblage of the public and upon the ftage that 17 \ was literally covered with flowers, he faid — in thofe magnificent, vibrating, organ tones of his, which never in our day have been equalled or approached — " Here, indeed, is a miracle of culture — a wilder- ness of rofes, and not a fingle thorn ! " To-night it is my fortune to be prefent at this memorable feaft of tribute to genius and virtue, and to behold his great and famous fucceflbr in the leaderfhip of tragic art in America, furrounded by friends who greet him with affection no less than homage, and who honor themfelves rather than him by every denotement of refpe6l and appreciation they poflibly can give to Edwin Booth : and I can imagine that he alfo, looking upon your eager, happy, affection- ate faces, and liftening to your genial eloquence — in this fcene of light and perfume and joy, of high thought and fweetly ferious feeling and gentle mirth — may utter the fame exclamation of grateful pride — " Here, indeed, is a miracle of culture — a wilderness of rofes, and not a fingle thorn ! " For if a man eminent in public life and illufi:rious in the realm of art may not indulge a fentiment of honefl; pride and grateful exultation at fuch a mo- ment as this I know not when he may indulge it. Honors are fometimes given where they are not due ; but in thofe cafes although they are accepted they are not enjoyed. In the prefent inftance they flow as naturally and as rightly to the object of our efteem as rivers flow to the fea. Edwin Booth adopted the profefllon of the fliage when he was in his fixteenth year and he has been ador clofe on forty years. Looking back upon that long career of ambitious and noble labor and achievement I think he mufl: be confcious — I know that we who have obferved and fl:udled it are confcious — that he has been animated in every minute of it by the paflionate defire, not to magnify and glorify himfelf, but, through the minifliration of a great and beautiful art, to fliimulate the advancement of others, to increase the fl:ock of harmless pleafure, to make the world happier and nobler, and to leave the fliage a better inftitution than it was when he found it. Speaking with reference to adlors in general it might perhaps juflily be faid that it is the infirmity of each one of them to confider himfelf as the centre of a folar fyftem around which everything elfe in the creation revolves. Not fo with the guefl: of this occafion, the hero of this feflial hour — the favorite of our fancy and the comrade of our love ! For he " has borne his faculties fo meek, has been fo clear in his great ofiice," that whether on the golden fummits of profperity or in the valley of the 19 fhadow of loss and forrow his gentle humility of difpofition, his fimple fidelity to duty, his folid fincerity of felf-facrificing character, and his abfo- lutely guileless and blameless condud of life have been equally confpicuous with his fupreme dramatic genius, his artiftic zeal and his glittering renown. Edwin Booth's fame is afTured, and I think it ftands now at its height ; and no artiftic fame of our gen- eration can be accounted brighter ; but to my mind the crowning glory of it is the plain fad that an occafion like this — reprefentative to him of the uni- verfal fentiment and acclamation of his time — is simply the fpontaneous acknowledgment that grate- ful fincerity awards to genuine worth. My words about him, on another feftival occafion in this fame place may fitly be repeated now : Though skies might gloom and tempests rave, Though friends and hopes might fall, His constant spirit simply brave Would meet and suffer all — Would calmly smile at fortune's frown, Supreme o'er gain or loss : And he the worthiest wears the crown That gently bore the cross ! It was not to tell Edwin Booth that he is a great ador, and it was not to tell him that he is dear to 20 the hearts of his friends, that this afTemblage has been convened. The burning of incenfe is a de- lightful and often a righteous occupation, and of all the duties that your Shakefpeare has taught there is no one that he urges with more ftrenuous ardor than that of whole-hearted admiration for every- thing that is noble and lovely in human nature and condud;. Him at leaft you never find niggard and reticent in his praife. But, as I apprehend it, the motive of this occafion was the defire to express, for our own fake, our fenfe of obligation to Edwin Booth for the leflbn of his life. As the years drift away, as the fhadows begin to Hope to the eaflward, the firft faint mifts mingle with the light of the finking fun, nothing imprefles me fo much as the imperative need that we fhould preferve the illufions of a youthful fpirit and look upon this world not in the cold and barren light of fact but through the golden haze of the imagination and the genial feel- ings. To fome men and women it is granted that they can diffufe this radiant glamour of ideal charm. Like a delicate perfume that suddenly comes upon you from a withered rofe, or a bit of ribbon, or a tress of hair, long hallowed and long preferved ; like a faint, far-off flrain of mufic that floats on a fummer breeze across the moonlit fea, they touch 21 the fpirit with a fenfe of the beauty and glory, the myftery and the pathos of our exiftence, and we are lifted up and hallowed and ftrengthened, and all that is bitter in our experience and fordid in our furroundings is foothed and fweetened and glorified. They teach us hope and belief, inftead of doubt and defpondency ; and thus, in a world of trouble and forrow, giving to us the human patience and the fpiritual nobility which more than anything elfe we need, they " Shed a something of celestial light Round the familiar face of every day." It is becaufe Edwin Booth has been in this way a bleffing to his generation that we are met to thank him ; and furthermore it is becaufe in a period that greatly requires nobility of practical example he is a vital and influential and conclufive proof that an adlor may know and may fulfil his duty to his time. What that duty is you will not expect any fpeaker here to defcribe. I will but aflc you to recall what the American ftage was when he came upon it thirty years ago, and to confider what it is now and to whofe influence mainly its advancement is due. And I will but add that when you fl:and beneath the fl;upendous majefty of St. Paul's Cathedral and look upon the marble which commemorates its great architect you may read one fentence that is the perfed: flower of fimplicity and eloquence — " If you would behold his monument, look around you ! 23 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. WAR 31 '^^*" NOV 1 11957 0^. ttU. MAY 6 1968 REC IQpURL LD-URIi m FEC'D QL APR ^ MA^>^3i •^•"ti|iu RENEWAL LD URL \ 1967 1976 UG 2 51906 VB-vn Form L9 — 15m-10,'48(B1039)444 TJNfVE»<'^^ vl/vLli'OK^iA LOS ;^ 3 1158 00777 6445 PN 2287 B6P$ UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY III 11 I II 11 I II pill II AA 000 410 895 7 r