rOEREST
FORREST
number of prizes for five-act tragedies. In the
first comj^etitiou the award was given to " Met-
aniora, ' ' by Jolin Augustus Stone of Philadelphia,
and in the same waj^ lie afterward secured " The
Gladiator," " The Broker of Bogota," and '• Jack
Cade." In July, 1834, lie made a tour of the
continent of Europe and of Great Britain, return-
ing to the United States in 1836. He then played
the parts of Damon, Othello and Spartacus for
five nights in the Chestnut Street theatre, Phila-
delphia, and the same parts with the addition of
Lear in the Park theatre. New York city, and
again sailed for England Sept. 19, 1836, where he
made his first professional appearance in the role
of Spartacus at the Drury Lane theatre, London,
Oct. 17, 1836. He closed there December 19,
having also appeared as Macbeth, Othello and
King Lear and gained a social as well as a pro-
fessional success, being a guest of Macready and
Charles Kemble and of the Garrick club. He
resumed his American engagements on Nov. l.'i,
1837, at the old Chestnut Street theatre, then
entered ujjon regular engagements through the
principal cities of the United States. In 1838 he
essayed the part of Claude Melnotte in "The
Lady of Lyons." In 1845 he made a second pro-
fessional tour of Great Britain and after the
death of his mother in 1847 he retired from the
stage for a short time. On the evening of May
10, 1849, occurred the Astor Place riot in New
York city, the culmination of a quarrel begun
in England between Forrest and the English
actor Macready, which was taken up by the
friends of the respective tragedians, and as a con-
sequence of the riot Macready was driven from
the American stage and Forrest lost much of his
popularity and support. On his first profes-
sional visit to London in June, 1837, he was mar-
ried to Catherine Norton, daughter of John
Sinclair, a London vocalist. His wife returned
to New York with him and he purchased a site
at Jit. St. Vincent on the Hudson river and
built Fonthill Castle which he sold in 1856 to the
Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity. In 1857
he bi-ought suit against his wife for divorce, she
bringing counter-suit. The case was decided in
favor of Mrs. FoiTest. During the last daj's of tin
trial he began an engagement at the Broadway
theatre, New York city, opening as Damon, and
his success for sixty-nine nights was beyond any-
thing ever known in the history of that theatre.
He continued his engagements in all the large
cities and returned in February, 1853, to the
Broadway theatre, presenting Macbeth for twenty
consecutive nights. In 1855 he purchased
"Spring Brook," near Philadelphia, and retired
for several years. In 1860 he was engaged by
James Nixon for one hundred nights, opening on
September 17, at Niblo's Garden, New Y'ork, in
the role of Hamlet, then playing King Lear,
Othello, Macbeth, Richard III., Spartacus,
Damon, Richelieu, Jack Cade, Virginius and
Metamora, and afterward appeared in several of
the large cities of the United States. He played
at Niblo's Garden, the Chestnut Street theatre,
and the Boston theatre in 1863, but after this he
suffered from severe attacks of gout and in 1865
while playing Damon at the Hollida,y Street
theatre, Baltimore, Md., the sciatic nerve be-
came ixirtially paralyzed. He continued to act
but never fully regained his steady gait or the use
of his hand. He appeared at the opera house in
San Francisco, Cal., Maj' 14, as Richelieu, played
thirty-five nights to an aggregate of over sixty
thousand persons and was paid twenty thousand
dollars in gold. lUness then interrupted the
engagement and he went to the mineral springs
wliere he regained his health. After that he
alternately rested and travelled, playing his
last engagement in New Y'ork city, in Februarj',
1871, at the Lyceum in the roles of Lear and
Richelieu. On the night of March 25, 1872, he
opened at the Globe theatre, Boston, Mass., as
Lear, which he played six nights. Richelieu and
Virginius were annovmced for the second week
but on the intervening .Sunday he took a violent
cold, which developed into pneumonia. He
struggled through Richelieu on Monday and
Tuesday evenings, April 1 and 2, 1872, but on
Wednesday was unable to aiipear. He recovered
from this illness, went home to Philadelphia and
shortly after attempted to give Shaksperean
readings, last appearing in Tremont Temple,
Boston, Dec. 7, 1872, but was too feeble to meet
with success. A stroke of paralysis ended his
life. His will left bequests to several friends
and contained a plan by which his fortune was
to be used in founding ' ' The Edwin Forrest
THE EDWrV FORRE«iT HO'ffE AT HOT MFSBURC PA
Iloms iKtieatfoi iged at t ->i -. To this pur pose he devoted "Spring Brook," but nis testa- tors were enabled to carry out his plan onlj- in part. Before Ids visit to England in 1836, his
