Booth was intellectual and spiritual. For-
rest obtained his popularity, and the bulk
of his large fortune, by impersonating the
Indian chieftain Metamora. Booth gained
and held his eminence by acting Hamlet
and Richelieu. The epoch that accepted
Booth as the amplest exponent of its taste
and feeling in dramatic art was one of
intellect and refinement. The tendency of
theatrical life received then a favourable
impulse which has never ceased to oper-
ate. Other forces have helped to accelerate
progress, and to foster the higher elements
of the drama ; but it was the influence of
'Edwin Booth that cleared and smoothed the
way. Wallack was cheered by it, in the
management of that theatre which long
held the first position. Jefferson, in conse-
quence of it, more readily found a public
that was appreciative of his gentle genius
and delicate art. The brilliant career of
Augustin Daly as a manager became more
easily possible, and so did the thoughtful,
ambitious, public - spirited enterprise of
Albert M. Palmer. That intellectual and



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LIFE OF EDWIN BOOTH. 21

noble actor, Lawrence Barrett, who made
Booth his model, was, in a great degree, the
direct consequence of it. Every appellant
to the best order of public taste — Henry
Irving, Ellen Terry, Genevieve Ward, Mary
Anderson, Helena Modjeska, Ada Behan,
Bichard Mansfield, Edward S. Willard,
Charles Wyndham, Toole, Mrs. Langtry,
Mr. and Mrs. Kendal, each later votary of
acting — found a readier hearing and an
easier conquest, because Edwin Booth's
ministrations had developed acuteness of
perception, diffused refinement, awakened
emotion, imparted spiritual knowledge of a
lofty ideal, and provided a high standard of
dramatic art. The structural change in act-
ing that has marked our period is a change
from elaborate artifice to the studied sim-
plicity of nature ; but the stage does not
subsist by styles and fashions. The essen-
tial vitalising power is that of elemental
genius, which awakens and perpetuates a
passionate devotion to great ideals. That
power was possessed and exerted by Edwin
Booth, and the prosperity of all good things
upon the American stage, within the gen-
eration now closing, is largely attributable
to the abiding force and charm of his
fine individuality, the purity and beauty of



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22 LIFE AND ART OF EDWIN BOOTH.
