Then at times came the exceptionally decorous and
intellectual congregations I have hinted it; for the Bowery really
furnish'd plays and players you could get nowhere else. Notably, Booth
always drew the best hearers; and to a specimen of his acting I will
now attend in some detail.
I happen'd to see what has been reckon'd by experts one of the most
marvellous pieces of histrionism ever known. It must have been about
1834 or '35. A favorite comedian and actress at the Bowery, Thomas
Flynn and his wife, were to have a joint benefit, and, securing Booth
for Richard, advertised the fact many days beforehand. The house
fill'd early from top to bottom. There was some uneasiness behind the
scenes, for the afternoon arrived, and Booth had not come from down
in Maryland, where he lived. However, a few minutes before ringing-up
time he made his appearance in lively condition.
After a one-act farce over, as contrast and prelude, the curtain
rising for the tragedy, I can, from my good seat in the pit, pretty
well front, see again Booth's quiet entrance from the side, as, with
head bent, he slowly and in silence, (amid the tempest of boisterous
hand-clapping,) walks down the stage to the footlights with that
peculiar and abstracted gesture, musingly kicking his sword, which he
holds off from him by its sash. Though fifty years have pass'd since
then, I can hear the clank, and feel the perfect following hush of
perhaps three thousand people waiting. (I never saw an actor who
could make more of the said hush or wait, and hold the audience in
an indescribable, half-delicious, half-irritating suspense.
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