Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 8.djvu/251

EDWIN BOOTH 371 Booth, after the Roman patriot. This son was born in London, in 1796. His father was a man of scholarly tastes, and gave the boy a classical education, but it was long before he showed a marked inclination for any particular walk in life. He tried his hand at painting, sculpture, and poetry ; and for a while stud- ied law with his father. But, when the time came to choose, he gave his voice for the navy, and would have joined the brig Boxer, then fitting out for Nova Sco tia. But, as war threatened between England and America, he was induced, by the strong persuasions of his father, not to run the risk of being forced to light against America. He then decided to go upon the stage, and, in spite of his father's remonstrances, carried out his purpose. After some unimportant essays he at last succeeded in attracting public attention, and before long showed such unmistakable ability in dealing with difficult parts, that the public, till that time undivided in its enthusiasm for Kean, awoke to the fact that a dangerous rival threatened the security of their idol's throne. In the midst of his successes, how- ever, Booth married and left England with his wife for a honeymoon trip to the West Indies. He had intended to return at once to England, but he was per- suaded to prolong his journey and to visit New York. After playing a success- ful engagement there he went to Richmond, where he was no less prosperous. He next visited New Orleans and acquired such facility in speaking French that he played parts in French plays more than acceptably, and distinguished himself by acting Orestes in Racine's " Andromaque," to the delight of the French-speak- ing population. His accent is said to have been remarkable for its purity. Re- turning to New York, he acted Othello to Forrest's Iago ; but, in the midst of his successes, the death of two of his children produced a temporary insanity, and this was made worse by the news of the death of his favorite son, Henry Byron, in London, of small-pox. This grievous loss was, however, to be made up to him by his son, Edwin, in whom he was to find the counterpart of himself, soft- ened, refined, ennobled, while between father and son was to grow a strong at- tachment, a bond of mutual affection to last as long as life should endure. Edwin Thomas Booth was born at Bel Air, Maryland, November 12, 1833. He was named Edwin, after his father's friend, Edwin Forrest, and Thomas, after Thomas Flynn, the actor, whom the elder Booth had known intimately in London. His son dropped the name of Thomas, later in life, and was only known to the public by the name of Edwin Booth. Owing to his father's wan- dering life Edwin had few advantages of education, but he made the most of his opportunities, and indeed was a student of good letters all his life, turning the light of all he learned from books and experience upon his art. His youth is described as reticent, and marked by .a strong individuality, with a deep sympathy for his father, early manifested ; his father, a much enduring, suffering man, strongly in need of sympathy, knowing to repay it, too, in kind. Edwin Booth made his first appearance on the stage in 1849 at the Boston Museum in the youthful part of Tressil, in Colley Cibber's version of Shakes- peare's " Richard III." It had been against his father's wishes that he had adopt- ed the stage as a profession ; but, as his father had done in a like case before him.