THE ARGUMENT.
Reading edition
This book, as its name implies, is a series of chapters from the annals of the American Theatre; and it considers Plays and Players more particularly in their less familiar aspects. It does not pretend to be critical; and the greatest care has been taken to verify all the facts it contains (many of them here presented for the first time), in order that it may appeal to the small but select band of specialists known as Dramatic Collectors, as well as to those influential members of the community who are glad to call themselves Old Play-goers.
The chapters upon “The American Stage Negro,” upon “The American Burlesque,” and upon a “A Century of American Hamlets,” appeared originally in Harper’s Magazine; the others have been printed, in part, in other periodicals, but as now published they have all been rewritten, elaborated, and extended.
The portraits with which the volume is enriched are in many instances very rare, and some of them, never engraved before, have been prepared especially for this work. They are from the collections of Mr. J. H. V. Arnold, Dr. B. E. Martin, Mr. Thomas J. McKee, Mr. C. C. Moreau, Mr. Evart Jansen Wendell, and The Players, to all of whom the author here expresses his sincere thanks.
A double Index—personal as well as local—makes the book easily available for reference; and it will lend itself readily to extra illustration. It is intended to instruct as well as to entertain.
Laurence Hutton.
The Players, 1890.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
PAGE
Junius Brutus Booth Frontispiece
G. W. P. Custis 9
Edwin Forrest 11
John McCullough 15
Major André 21
J. H. Hackett 27
Frank Mayo as Davy Crockett 33
William J. Florence as Bardwell Slote 37
John T. Raymond 41
Neil Burgess as the Widow Bedott 45
F. S. Chanfrau as Mose 49
Epes Sargent 55
Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie 61
Edgar Fawcett 73
Brander Matthews 77
Bronson Howard 81
Charles Dibdin as Mungo 91
Ira Aldridge as Othello 95
Old Play-bill 97
Andrew Jackson Allen 103
Barney Williams in Dandy Jim 105
Ralph Keeler 107
P. T. Barnum 109
John B. Gough 113
Thomas D. Rice as Jim Crow 116
Thomas D. Rice 118
James Roberts 120
George Washington Dixon 121
Mr. Dixon as Zip Coon 123
Daniel Emmett 125
Charles White 127
Edwin P. Christy 131
George Christy 133
George Swayne Buckley 137
Eph Horn 139
Jerry Bryant 140
Nelse Seymour 140
Dan Bryant 141
Stephen C. Foster 143
Mrs. Hallam (Mrs. Douglas) 156
Mark Smith as Mrs. Normer 159
William Mitchell as Richard Number Three 161
John Brougham and Georgiana Hodson in Pocahontas 163
Harry Beckett as the Widow Twankey, in Aladdin 167
James Lewis as Syntax, in Cinderella at School 171
George L. Fox as Hamlet 175
Lydia Thompson as Sindbad 179
William H. Crane as Le Blanc, in Evangeline 183
Stuart Robson as Captain Crosstree 186
Harry Hunter as the Lone Fisherman 189
Francis Wilson in the Oolah 193
Mr. Jefferson and Mrs. Wood in Ivanhoe 196
James T. Powers as Briolet, in The Marquis 197
Charles Burke as Kazrac, in Aladdin 200
N. C. Goodwin in Little Jack Sheppard 201
De Wolf Hopper as Juliet, and Marshall P. Wilder as Romeo 203
Henry E. Dixey as the Country Girl in Adonis 205
Munrico Dengremont 211
Josef Hofman 215
Otto Hegner 219
Elsie Leslie 223
Charles Stratton (“Tom Thumb”) 227
Lavinia Warren 231
John Howard Payne 233
Blind Tom 235
Master Burke as Hamlet 237
May Haines and Isa Bowman as the two Princes in King Richard III. 239
Edmund Kean 259
William Augustus Conway 263
James William Wallack 267
William C. Macready 271
Charles Kemble 275
Charles Kean 279
Edwin Forrest 283
Edward L. Davenport 287
James Stark 291
Edwin Booth 295
Lawrence Barrett 299
James E. Murdoch 303
Charles Fechter 307
Henry E. Johnstone 311
John Vandenhoff 315
George Jones 319
Augustus A. Addams 323
William Pelby 327