‘T was in this city, darling, just twenty years ago, that I first met your angel mother, who now watches over and prays for us in heaven. Twenty years make a large gap in one’s lifetime, yet they slip away very quickly, and when gone we wonder how little we have accomplished in so long a time. Be sure that you do not waste a day, that you may, twenty years hence, feel the gratification of having accomplished much good since now. My last visit here was seventeen years ago (before you knew me), and the people are greatly excited over my coming. Your grandfather Booth was much beloved here, and made his first appearance (in 1821) before an American audience in this city. You see, I have cause to feel much interest in Richmond. ..Thoughtfulness is a virtue you must strive to cultivate; an anxious care for the feelings of others is productive of much happiness to ourselves as well as to those for whom we make the trifling sacrifice of a moment’s comfort…”
= Edwin Booth: Recollections by his daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, and Letters to Her and to His Friends.” Copyright, 1894, Century Company, New York
1813: Junius makes his professional debut as an actor on December 13, 1813.
1814: While on tour in Europe, Junius (18-years-old) persuades Marie Christine Adelaide Delannoy (22-years-old) to elope with him from her mother’s home in Brussels, Belgium, on November 25, 1814.
1815: Junius marries Marie Delannoy on May 8, 1815, in London, England. Their first child, a daughter named Amelia Portia Adelaide, is born on October 5, 1815. She dies in infancy.
1817: Only three years after his professional debut, Junius finds himself engaged in a bitter rivalry with the great English actor Edmund Kean who emerges triumphant.
1819: Richard Junius Booth, son of Junius and Marie Booth, is born January 21, 1819, in London, England.
1821: In early 1821, 24-year-old Junius “elopes” with the beautiful Mary Ann Holmes. They sail to the United States arriving in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 30, 1821. Their first child, Junius Brutus Jr., is born on December 22, 1821, in Charleston, South Carolina.
1822: Junius and Mary Ann arrive in Harford County in the summer of 1822 and by 1824 own their own 150 acre working farm where many of their children are born.
1823: Junius and Mary Ann’s oldest daughter Rosalie is born on July 5, 1823. Over the next 17 years eight more children are born.
1833: Three of the Booth children (Mary Ann, Frederick, Elizabeth) die of cholera in 1833 and are buried in a cemetery on the Booth farm. Edwin Thomas Booth is born on November 13, 1833.
1835: Asia Sydney Booth is born on November 20, 1835.
1835: Henry Byron Booth, son of Junius and Mary Ann, dies of smallpox on December 28, 1835, while the family is in England. He is 11-years-old at the time of his death.
1838: John Wilkes Booth is born on May 10, 1838.
1840: Joseph Adrian Booth is born on February 8, 1840.
1851: Junius and his first wife are divorced on April 18, 1851; Junius and Mary Ann are officially married on May 10, 1851.
1852: Junius Brutus Booth Sr. dies on a riverboat on the Ohio River while on tour on November 30, 1852, at the age of 56, of a mysterious illness that may have been caused by drinking unclean water from the river. By the time of his death, Junius is considered to be one of the greatest actors ever to appear on the American stage. He is buried in the Baltimore Cemetery, but his remains are moved to Green Mount Cemetery in 1869.
1853: Mary Ann Booth rents out the family’s Baltimore townhouse and moves to Tudor Hall with her four youngest children.
1857: After it becomes apparent that neither John Wilkes nor Joseph is cut out for farming, Mary Ann rents out the Booth farm in the summer of 1857. None of the Booths ever live on the property again.
1859: Asia Booth marries comic actor John Sleeper Clarke on April 28, 1859, in Baltimore, Maryland. They have six children, two of whom become actors.
1860: Edwin Booth marries former actress Mary Devlin on July 7, 1860. They have one daughter named Edwina born December 9, 1861. Mary dies in 1863 of consumption.
1864: Between November 26, 1864, and March 22, 1865, Edwin Booth appears in 100 consecutive performances of Hamlet at the Winter Garden theatre in New York. For nearly 30 years, Edwin continues to be one of the most popular actors in America.
1865: On the evening of April 14, 1865, well-known actor John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. In a failed attempt to escape, John Wilkes is killed in Virginia on April 26, 1865, after the barn in which he is hiding is surrounded by Federal troops. John Wilkes is 26 at the time of his death.
1869: Edwin marries former actress Mary McVicker on June 7, 1869. They have one child, Edgar, who dies at birth. In 1869, the Booth family cemetery plot is established in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. Many (but not all) members of the family will eventually be buried there.
1881: Mary McVicker Booth dies on November 13, 1881, her husband Edwin’s 48th birthday.
1883: Junius Brutus Booth Jr. dies on September 16, 1883, in Manchester, Massachusetts, and is buried at Manchester’s Rosedale Cemetery. “June” had successful careers as a theatre manager and a hotel owner. He married several times and had six children.
1885: Mary Ann Holmes Booth dies in New York City on October 22, 1885, and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.
1888: Asia Booth Clarke dies in Bournemouth, England, on May 16, 1888, and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery. Asia had moved to England with her husband and children in 1868 and never returned to the United States during her lifetime.
1889: Rosalie Ann Booth dies on January 15, 1889, at her brother Joseph’s home in Long Branch, New Jersey, and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery. She never married.
1893: Edwin Booth dies at The Players in New York City on June 7, 1893. The Players is a gentleman’s club founded by Edwin in 1888 that still exists today. Edwin is buried next to his first wife in Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston.
1902: Dr. Joseph Booth dies in New York City on February 26, 1902, and is buried at Green Mount Cemetery. Joseph married twice and had no surviving children.
HAMLET SHUT UP opens November 19, 2009 at Sacred Fools Theater Company and runs through December 19, 2009
www.sacredfools.org
In this photo: Footlights La (photos)
- Mood:
giggly
Descriptive Summary
Title: Booth-Grossman Family Papers, 1840-1953
Collection ID: *T-Mss 1967-001
Extent: 3.5 linear feet (8 boxes
Repository: The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Billy Rose Theatre Division.
Abstract: The primary subject of this collection of family papers is the life of Edwin Booth, one of the most famous American actors of the 19th century. However, it has not been titled the Edwin Booth Papers because the bulk of the collection would more accurately be described as the papers of his daughter and biographer, Edwina Booth Grossman. There is also a small amount of material on other family members including Booth's father, the actor Junius Brutus Booth, his brother, the notorious John Wilkes Booth, and other relatives with less impact on history.
Here's the link to the pdf: http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/the/pd
St. Columba's Chapel
55 Vaucluse Avenue
Middletown, RI 02842
"In the rear of the church, high up in the wall, is a peculiar yet mesmerizing window depicting a woman holding a dove to her breast. She stands in a brilliant blue niche constructed of hundreds of tiny rectangular pieces of tile-like pieces of glass. Around the niche is golden architecture. Although the artist and manufacturer of this window are unknown, the history of its donor is quite famous: this lovely window is dedicated to the first wife of the illustrious 19th century actor, Edwin Booth, whose fame has been eclipsed in our century by the notoriety of his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Edwin Booth and his daughter, Edwina, summered in the Newport area, building a house just down the street from the chapel. They were involved with the construction of the church from the beginning and in 1885 donated this window - the first in the building - in memory of Edwina's mother, Mary Devlin, who died in 1865."
http://www.dmstainedglass.com/colum
http://www.jlsloan.com/columba.htm
Ignatius Booth Grossman (Crossman)
Jun. 6, 1852, Hungary
Death: Sep. 6, 1920
According to the book, Beyond The Garden Gate By Norma H. Mandel, written on Celia Laighton Thaxter, Ignatius Grossman came to live with the Thaxter's family in 1868 at the age of 15 years old from Hungary. Celia Laighton Thaxter was an author, painter, gardener, and one of the most popular New England poets of the late nineteenth century. Her nonfiction works, An Island Garden and Among the Isles of Shoals, continue to engage readers; "her prose," Smithsonian Magazine has said, "has a timeless quality that makes delightful reading today."
*Here's an exerpt from this book:
http://books.google.com/books?id=zVLKse
Pg. 69-70:
"As the year 1868 began, Thaxter summarized her family life to her friend Mary Lawson:
…Mr. Thaxter has not been well this winter, has suffered from rheumatism, and rheumatism in the chest, which isn’t a good place to have it. He declares he never will spend another winter in this climate. I have an addition to my family in the shape of a young Hungarian by the name of Igantius Grossman, about fifteen years old. We have taken him for good. He is a lovely boy and a great comfort…The Thaxter boys are as rampageous as usual. Karl and Ignatius go to grammar school together. Mr. Thaxter teaches John and Lony and is fitting John for High School…
The reference to Ignatius Grossman was a positive note. It is a mystery as to where Levi and Celia might have found this young Hungarian boy, but possibly he was among the immigrant orphans who came to America and were allowed to be adopted upon their arrival. Eventually Ignatius went to college, married Edwina Booth, daughter of actor Edwin Booth, and moved to New York. But he continued to keep in touch with Celia.
In 1891 she wrote to Annie: Ignatius and Edwina were coming to Portsmouth from Jackson Oct. 12th to see me, but alas I fear I shall not get there in time…"
On May 16, 1885, Ignatius married Edwina Booth, daughter of 19th century Shakesperian actor Edwin Booth. They had two children: Edwin Booth Grossman, an artist, and Mildred Booth Grossman. During World War 1, Edwina and Ignatius changed their last name to Crossman for patriotic reasons.
** Also from "Letters of Celia Thaxter," found some correspondences from Celia to Ignatius: http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/s
1) To Ignatius Grossman. Shoals, June 4, 1893.
Do write and tell me about yourselves. I hear Mr. Booth is better, at least the newspapers say so, and that he is going with you to Narragansett Pier. Alas, poor man! why cannot Fortune free him from his captivity of weakness and discomfort, if not of pain, and the worn-out body be dropped for a fresh and happy one! Oh, I trust, when my time comes, that I may be allowed to go in a moment. Death is not cruel, but life under such circumstances is terrible; the long suffering with no hope of recovery is the misery, not the touch of death that opens the doors into a fresh, new world. Well, I want to know about it all, where you are and how it is with you beloved four, parents and children dear, as well as with the poor grandfather. Do write to me. I only hope all is well with you.
2) To Ignatius Grossman. Portsmouth, November 24, 1893.
I am so delighted to hear of Edwina's "new departure," as it were; nothing could be better than that she should do just this thing. No one could do it so well, and I am sure it will be the most interesting book imaginable, and so valuable, not only to the present age, but for time to come. I am glad she is doing it, -- it is wise and right and fitting that she should. She will reap a reward in the gratitude of the world, and in the satisfaction of doing for her wonderful father what no one else could do, and of rendering full justice to his genius and his most marvelous powers, and all the beauty of his character, which no one knows so well as his dear, only child. I am perfectly delighted that she is doing it, I repeat, and congratulate her and you both with utmost love.
3) To Ignatius Grossman. Portsmouth, January 19, 1894.
How gladly, dear Ignatius, would I send you "Lilliput Levee," if I only had it here! It is out at the Shoals, and might as well be in Kamtschatka for any possibility of getting at it. I only bring a very few books in here, and I will try hard and see if I can't get it for you in Boston. Dear Ignatius, if you want the loveliest thing for your children, get "Parables from Nature," by Mrs. Alfred Gatty, and read "Not lost, but gone before," to your dear children. The heavenliest thing, and as good for you as them. There is an illustrated edition, and do get it right off; you and Edwina will love it. Mrs. Gatty was the mother of Mrs. Juliana Horatio Ewing, whose books for children are world-famous, -- "Jackanapes," and "Lob-lie-by-the-Fire," and "Daddy Darwin's Dovecote," etc. If you haven't all her things, get them by all means at once! But "Parables from Nature" you must have, illustrated edition. Mrs. Laura Howe Richards's "Nursery Rhymes" for children are so good! I dare say you have them, -- "Little John Bottlejohn," etc.; capital for very little ones.
*** Lastly court case I came across in the New York supplement, Volume 74 By New York (State). Supreme Court, New York (State). Superior Court (New York), West Publishing Company, New York (State). Court of Appeals:
http://books.google.com/books?id=tNc7AA
BACON v GROSSMAN
(Supreme Court Special Term New York County February 1902)
PERSONAL GUARANTY - ASSIGNMENT = EFFECT
A domestic corporation covenanting to dissolve a foreign corporation and distribute the assets agreed with the stockholders of the foreign corporation to guaranty. If they did not receive in liquidation $65 a share, to make up the difference, not exceeding $10; such stockholders promising to account to it for all the money received in liquidation in excess of such price. Held an agreement personal to the signers, and, where a party to the agreement transferred his stock subject to it, the guaranty of the domestic corporation did not pass to the transferee, and the stockholder is entitled to retain a payment under the guaranty.
Action by Nathaniel T Bacon against Ignatius R Grossman for money had and received. Complaint dismissed. Motion for new trial denied.
Selden Bacon, for plaintiff.
GJ Sproull, for defendant.
****Also the New York Public Library has the "Inventory of the Booth-Grossman Family Papers, 1840-1953." Here's the link to the pdf: http://www.nypl.org/research/lpa/the/pd
My dear big daughter,
Your last letter was very jolly, and made me most happy. Pip (the dog) is yelping to write to you, and so is your little brother, St. Valentine, the bird; but I greatly fear they will have to wait another week, for you know, I have to hold the pen for them, and I have written so many letters, and today my hand is tired.
Don’t you think it jollier to receive silly letters sometimes than to get a repetition of sermons on good behavior? It is because I desire to encourage in you a vein of pleasantry, which is most desirable in one’s correspondence, as well as in conversation, that I put aside the stern old father, and play papa now and then.
When I was learning to act tragedy, I had frequently to perform comic parts, in order to acquire a certain ease of manner that my serious parts might not appear too stilted; so you must endeavor in your letters, in your conversation, and your general deportment, to be easy and natural, graceful and dignified. But remember that dignity does not consist of overbecoming pride and haughtiness; self-respect, politeness and gentleness in all things and to all person will give you sufficient dignity. Well, I declare, I’ve dropped into a sermon, after all, haven’t I?.....
Love and kisses from Y’r grim old father.
= Edwin Booth: Recollections by his daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, and Letters to Her and to His Friends.” Copyright, 1894, Century Company, New York
December 8, 1872
My dear eleven-year old darling:
I arrived here yesterday – went to the city to attend to business and returned last night. In the morning (your birthday) we start for Trenton, half-way to Philadelphia, where I act two nights, and shall be traveling about until the day you come to us for the holidays. While in town yesterday, I left to be engraved and to be sent by express to you a birthday gift – a ruby ring. Now that you are nearing your teens and getting fast on towards young-ladyism – quite out of the range of dolls and toys, we must begin to replenish your stock of jewelry, I suppose, and this ring must begin it. Accept it as my dear love-greeting, with the heartfelt prayers and wishes for many, many happy returns of tomorrow. Your pocket-money will commence also. God grant, my darling child, that your life may be good and happy, and that as you grow in years your determination to do right will increase in strength….Love and kisses, with birthday wishes. Your papa.
= Edwin Booth: Recollections by his daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, and Letters to Her and to His Friends.” Copyright, 1894, Century Company, New York.–ED.
New York, February 5, 1872
My dear daughter: I have been learning to skate, but I make a poor ‘foot’ at it. When I was a little boy I had no opportunity to learn the different games and sports of childhood, for I was travelling most of the time, spending my winters in the South, where they have no sleighing or skating. You must learn – for the exercise is very healthful, and a great many ladies and little girls skate here on the Park lake every day in winter….
Your affectionate father.
Edwin Booth: Recollections by his daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, and Letters to Her and to His Friends.” Copyright, 1894, Century Company, New York.–ED.]
My own dear little daughter:
It made me very happy to receive your letter, which grandma forwarded to me – it reached me the day before yesterday, also the good report of you which your kind teacher sent me. I shall be very happy to see my darling again, and to find her so much improved, as I know she will be, if she is dutiful in all things…You must write to me very often, and give me good long letters, for it pleases me very much to get your little notes, all of which I keep, to show you some day (if the good Lord wills) when you are a woman….Y’r loving papa
“Edwin Booth: Recollections by his daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, and Letters to Her and to His Friends.” Copyright, 1894, Century Company, New York.–ED.]
- Mood:
happy
Take this greeting
From a distant friend of thine:
A friend in far-off Bingen-
Your "Bingen-on-the-Rhine."
Its praise I've heard you singin'
With many a tipsy tear,
But, Dave, I'm disappointed
With all, except its beer.
In the midst of these rich vineyards,
I prefer the poor hop-vine,
Lest I get "boozed" at Bingen-
At "Bingen-on-the-Rhine."
Yes, still to beer I'm clingin'-
And David, it is fine!-
Altho' not brewed at Bingen,
'T is safer than its wine,
Which sets my wits a-wingin',
Puts my plummet out of line:
Were you ever "boozed" at Bingen-
(Hic!) "Bingen-on-the-Rhine"?
If you come again, I'm thinkin'
You'll be so on its wine-
I've drunk all the beer at Bingen-
Beerless "Bingen-on-the-Rhine"!
Confess, now (hic)-no shinnin'-
If "Ya" (hic) don't say "Nein";
D-n the odds! at Bingen-
(Hic) "Bingen-on-the-Rhine"!
- Letter to his close friend Davy Anderson while touring Germany (Bingen), Aug. 17, 1882.
- Mood:
drunk
Player's Club Director John Martello tells Howard Kissel and MIchael Riedel about the vivid history of the Yorick skull that Edwin Booth and his father Junius before him, used when they played Hamlet.
Now, Players can enjoy a quiet getaway from the hustle and bustle of The Grill in the new Members’ Lounge located on the club’s second floor. It’s a perfect place to have a quiet conversation, to read a book, or simply enjoy a drink.
- Mood: happy
- A frequent change of role, and of the lighter sort - especially such as one does not like forcing one's self to use the very utmost of his ability in the performance of - is the training requisite for a mastery of the actor's art.
- It is indeed most gratifying to feel that age has not rendered my work stale and tiresome, as is usually the case with actors (especially tragedians) at my time. Your dear mother's fear was that I would culminate too early, as I seemed then to be advancing so rapidly.
- Nothing of fame or fortune can compensate for the spiritual suffering that one possessing such qualities has to endure. To pass life in a sort of dream, where "Nothing is but what is not," a loneliness in the very midst of a constant crowd, as it were, is not a desirable condition of existence, especially when the body also has to share the " penalty of greatness," as it is termed. Bosh! I'd rather be an obscure farmer, a hayseed from Wayback, or a cabinetmaker, as my father advised, than the most distinguished man on earth. But Nature cast me for the part she found me best fitted for, and I have had to play it, and must play it till the curtain falls. But you must not think me sad about it. No; I am used to it, and am contented.
- Homelessness is the actor's fate; physical incapacity to attain what is most required and desired by such a spirit as I am a slave to. If there be rewards, I certainly am well paid; but hard schooling in life's thankless lessons has made me somewhat of a philosopher, and I've learned to take the buffets and rewards of fortune with equal thanks, and in suffering all to suffer; I won't say nothing, but comparatively little.
- I merely wanted you to know that the sugar of my life is bitter-sweet; perhaps not more so than every man's whose experience has been above and below the surface.
- Do you think now it is possible for me to recite some passages in a play without a something in my heart and throat? God help me! Madness would be a relief to me, and I have often thought I stood very near the brink of it.
- While Mary was here I was shut up in her devotion.
- I feel that all my actions have been and are influenced by her whose love is to me the strength and the wisdom of my spirit. Whatever I may do of serious import, I regard it as a performance of a sacred duty I owe to all that is pure and honest in my nature - a duty to the very religion of my heart.
- Sincerely, were it not for means, I would not do so, public sympathy notwithstanding; but I have huge debts to pay, a family to care for, a love for the grand and beautiful in art, to boot, to gratify, and hence my sudden resolve to abandon the heavy, aching gloom of my little red room, where I ahve sat so long chewing my heart in solitude, for the excitement of the only trade for which God has fitted me.
- The best translations cannot convey to us the strength and exquisite delicacy of thought in its native garb, and he to whom such books are shut flounders about in outer darkness.
- When you are older you will understand how precious little things, seemingly of no value in themselves, can be loved and prized above all price when they convey the love and thoughtfulness of a good heart.
- An actor is a sculptor who carves in snow.
- You and I eat just the same kind of food - plain milk mostly, only you take it from a bottle, which I've given up; it's a bad habit.
- The Players is already popular with the very best sort of folk, and there are more applicants for membership than we can possibly accept.
- Whatever calamity may befall me or mine, my country, one and indivisible, has my warmest devotion.
- I often wondered at the popularity of my Hamlet with the native chiefs.
- I think I am a little quieter.
- I don’t think John will startle the world, but he is improving fast and looks beautiful onstage.
- ‘Tis a great pity he had not more sense but time will teach him.
- I asked him once why he did not join the Confederate Army.
- God bless you, my boy! And stick to the flag, Dick, as I intend to do, though far away.
- To talk about such old-time nonsense as my own affairs is now too trivial. May the God of Battles guard you.
- A daughter, and thank God, all is well with her and her mother.
- I saw every time I looked from the window Mary dead, with a white cloth tied around her neck and chin. I saw her distinctly, a dozen times at least.
- My conduct hastened her death, and when she heard that I - her all - was lost to all sense of decency and respect for her - her feeble spirit sank.
- Although my love was deep-rooted in my soul yet I could never show it.
- Starring around the country is sad work.
- I wish to God I was not an actor. I despise and dread the d-d occupation; all its charms are gone and the stupid reality stands naked before me. I am a performing monkey, nothing more.
- He played Pescara, a bloody villain of the deepest red, and he presented him - not underdone but rare enough for the most fastidious beef-eater…I am happy to state that he is full of the true grit…and when time and study round his rough edges he’ll bid them all ‘stand apart!’
- I’ll struggle – I’ll fight – I’ll conquer too, with God’s help.
- The news is indeed glorious. I am happy in it, and glory in it, although Southern-born. God grant the end, or rather the beginning, is now at hand.
- While mourning, in common with all other loyal hearts, the death of the President, I am oppressed by a private woe not to be expressed in words.
- You know…how I have labored to establish a name that all my friends would be proud of; how I have always toiled for the comfort and welfare of my family - and how loyal I have been from the first of this damned rebellion.
- You must feel deeply the agony I bear in thus being blasted in all my hopes by a villain who seemed so loveable and in whom all his family found a source of joy in his boyish and confiding nature.
- At last the terrible end is known - fearful as it is, it is not withstanding a blessed relief.
- My Fellow Citizens, It has pleased God to lay at the door of my afflicted family the lifeblood of our great, good, and martyred President. Prostrated to the very earth by this dreadful event, I am yet but too sensible that other mourners fill the land. To them, to you, one and all, go forth our deep, unutterable sympathy; our abhorrence and detestation for this most foul and atrocious of crimes. For my mother and sisters, for my remaining brothers and my own poor self, there is nothing to be said except that we are thus placed without any power of our own. For our present position we are not responsible. For the future - alas, I shall struggle on in my retirement bearing a heavy heart, an oppressed memory, and a wounded name.
- At the earnest solicitation of my mother, I write to ask you if you think the time is yet arrived for her to have the remains of her unhappy son. If I am premature in this I hope you will understand the motive which activates me, arising purely from a sense of duty to assuage, if possible, the anguish of an aged mother. If at your convenience you will acquaint me when and how I should proceed in this matter, you will relieve her sorrow-stricken heart and bind me ever.
- Put it on the fire with the others…That’s all, we’ll go now.
- It’s a terrible blow indeed but not the worst that I have felt. The loss of money (so long as God grants me the health to work) does not disturb me much; but the fear of being misjudged by my creditors and the disappointment in not being able to establish the true Drama in New York - those are very painful reflections.
- If your lips you’d keep from slips,
Of these five things beware:
Of whom you speak,
To whom you speak,
And how, and when and where.
- How often, Oh! How often have I imagined the delights of a collegiate education… What a world of never-ending interest lies open to the master of languages!...I have suffered much from the lack of that which my father could easily have given in my youth, that I am all the more anxious you shall escape my punishment in that respect; that you may not, like me, dream of those advantages others enjoy through any lack of opportunity or neglect of mine. Therefore, learn to love your Latin, your French, and your English grammar; standing firmly and securely on them, you’ll have a solid foothold in the field of literature.
- I can give you very little information regarding my brother John. I seldom saw him since his early boyhood in Baltimore…We regarded him as a good-hearted, harmless, though wild-brained boy, and used to laugh at his patriotic faith whenever secession was discussed. That he was insane on that one point, no one who knew him well can doubt. When I told him that I had voted for Lincoln’s re-election, he expressed deep regret, and declared his belief that Lincoln would be made King of America; and this, I believe, drove him beyond the limits of reason..Knowing my sentiments, he avoided me, rarely visiting my house, except to see his mother, when political topics were not touched upon, at least in my presence. He was of a gentle, loving disposition, very boyish and full of fun -his mother’s darling - and his deed and death crushed her spirit. He possessed rare dramatic talent and would have made a brilliant mark in the theatrical world. This is positively all that I know about him, having left him a mere schoolboy when I went with my father to California in 1852. On my return in ‘56 we were separated by professional engagements, which kept him mostly in the South, while I was employed in the Eastern and Northern states. I do not believe any of the wild, romantic stories published in the papers concerning him; but of course he may have been engaged in political matters of which I knew nothing. All his theatrical friends speak of him as a poor, crazy boy, and such his family thought of him. I am sorry I can afford you no further light on the subject. Very truly yours, Edwin Booth.
- Memories are hard on one in the lonely hours.
- Let us drink from this loving cup, this souvenir of long ago, my father’s flagon. Let us now, beneath his portrait, drink to the Players’ perpetual prosperity.
- Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your great kindness. I hope this is not the last time I shall have the honor of appearing before you…I hope that my health and strength may be improved so that I can serve you better, and I shall always try to deserve the favor you have shown me.
- What I want now is to stay in one place with things I like around me…Here is my bed, and here is the fire, and here are my books, and here you come to see me. I suppose I shall wear out here.
- How are you yourself, old fellow?
- Mood:
contemplative
- Let us retain dearest our primitive nature always. Then we will enjoy life and know nothing of the torment, of the blase.
- We must ever dwell “above the thunder,” treading beneath our feet the black clouds of dissension. You are too great ever to descend to discord; I have too high an appreciation of the divine spark God has gifted you with, and which you in trust to my care, ever to cause you to seek another sphere than your natural one.
- You remember, t’was that a passing wind sometimes suggested to you the past, and, carrying you years back, set you dreaming. It is not wonderful that you should have such emotions-sensitive natures are prone to them; then why, I ask myself, should my eyes have filled with tears, and trembled lest you should experience them again? Ah, dear Edwin, t’was a fear that they would lead you from my side and leave me once more alone. I am very wrong, doubtless, to have allowed so simple a fact to impress me, and am still more to blame to repeat it here; for have you “died into life,” as Keats says- and I should wean you from all remembrance of the tomb; and so I promise to do.
- If my love is selfish, you will never be great; part of you belongs to the world. I must remember this, and assist in its “blossoming,” if I would taste of the ripe fruit. That will prove a rich reward.
- The improvement you have made in the “Cardinal” charmed me. You must not forget to tell me of your studies; they interest me alike with the movements of your heart – my heart; for ‘t is mine. Did you not tell me so?
- Acting is an imitation of nature, is it not? Then ‘t is art; and the art must be seen, too, for nature upon the stage would be more ridiculous.
- My future ambition will be to see you great and good, and if devotion of mind and intellect (but what is still more influential, an absorbing affection) can accomplish it, you shall be everything that the world has predicted.
- Dear Edwin, I will never allow you to droop for a single moment; for I know the power that dwells within your eye, and my ambition is to see you surrounded by greatness – is it not a laudable one? Ah, you do not know how close a critic I will be of your genius – a child who requires more nursing than the helpless babe at the mother’s breast.
- I cannot come. I cannot stand. I think sometimes that only a great calamity can save my dear husband. I am going to try to write him now, and God give me grace to write as a true wife should.
- Mood: contemplative
http://spiritsoftudorhall.blogspot.com/
- Mood: happy
A valuable recording, but the current file sounds like a recitation from behind a running woodchipper. Booth's tone and lilt come through, along with some choice word pronunciations, but the words are virtually unintelligible without a libretto.
So here's a complete libretto, (give or take a few textual variations), wherein Booth recites selected lines from Act 1. Scene III:
Othello
Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,
My very noble and approved good masters,
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,
It is most true; true, I have married her:
The very head and front of my offending
Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech,
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace:
For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith,
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used
Their dearest action in the tented field,
And little of this great world can I speak,
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle,
And therefore little shall I grace my cause
In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience,
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms,
What conjuration and what mighty magic,
For such proceeding I am charged withal,
I won his daughter.
Then Booth skips some dialog from other characters
and finishes with:
Her father loved me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it;
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels' history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven
It was my hint to speak,--such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house-affairs would draw her thence:
Which ever as she could with haste dispatch,
She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse: which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour, and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively: I did consent,
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore, in faith, twas strange, 'twas passing strange,
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me,
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story.
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
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ebooth_myhamlet- Edwin Booth Society
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