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Gallery of Illustrations 1
- Southern Illinois University Press
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Early drawing of Junius Brutus Booth. Artist unidentified. From the author's collection. johannes Jclgerhuis watercolor of costumes worn by the Jonas- Penley Company in Amsterdam during Booth's first tour of the Continent. Courtesy of the Rare Book. Room, University ofAmsterdam. Ed mund Kean, Junius Brutus Hooth's nemesis. From the author's collection. [34.204.3.195] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:36 GMT) -. - . 1817 drawing ofJunius Brutus Booth, based on an unspecified painting. From the author's collection. Junius Brutus Booth as Fitz.harding in The Curftw. From the authors collection. William Charles Macrcady, Booth's co-star and rival at Covent Garden from 1817 t.ill Booth's departure. From the author's wllection. Junius Bruws Hooth as Posthumus in Shakespeare's Cymbtline, ca. 1818. From the author's collection. Mary Ann Holmes Booth, attributed to Sully. From Harper's Weekly, 14 June 1893. Junius Brutus Booth as Guiscard in Adelgitha. Uy permission of the British Museum. [34.204.3.195] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:36 GMT) 'J'.?tr Jt....,~~ from Junius Brutus Booth's account book, the fi rst twO from 1820, listing roles and income. ° n,c second two pages ([Reing PRtIe) cover the period when Booth left London and includes his first engagerncm in Ridu1lOnd, Virginia. Note rhe dercrioration ofBooth's handwriting. Courtesy of the Rare Books and Manuscript Division, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. c:th-r.e - .1.- . Junius Brutus Booth as Hamlet. Edwin Booth placed this portrait over the fireplace in the Great Hall of the Players. O:mrtesy of the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library at the Players. [34.204.3.195] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:36 GMT) An Object ofInterest 91 Washington Gazette, after scolding the audience for talking loudly during the production, complimented Booth, but noted he had received "little or no profit" for his engagement. Whether patronage increased on his benefit on the twenty-sixth we have no record. Booth rested during August then traveled to New York for another Park Theatre engagement. Cooper was appearing there, as were John and Mary Ann Duff, so the engagement proved both amiable and profitable.32 Again, Booth retired for two months. Then he appeared for a few performances in Boston. He included in his benefit on the first ofDecember his demonstration ofRichard Ill's soliloquy, "Now is the winter ofour discontent," in his own style, then in imitation of Kean. Booth still suffered from comparisons to his old nemesis and sought to refute them with this ploy. On that lastnightin Boston, 1December 1823, he was calledfor by the audience, and while he did not always answer such calls, this night he did. The audience insisted he play one more night in their city, but they suspected Stephen Price, a New York manager, wished others to appear (a Mrs. Holman and a Mr. Pearman), so amid the calls for Booth were cries of "No New York managers here!"33 Booth had played tougher houses, so he retired to consult the managers, reappeared to assure the audience he would perform the next evening, but did not. Boston audiences took their revenge on Holman and Pearman , patronizing them sparingly. Booth stopped at the Park Theatre to play Orestes to Mrs. Duff's Hermione for her benefit, then again played Philadelphia the last half of December, this time with moderate success, playing to a $381 average and a benefit of$1,038.34 He repeated his presentation ofthe Richard soliloquies ala Kean and Booth. But after closing his regular engagement in that city on December twenty-ninth, he volunteered to play Hamlet on 7 January 1824 to raise money to help the Greeks in their war ofindependence against Turkey. Philadelphians apparently felt considerable sympathy for a nation fighting for independence. The house filled with an unusually intellectual audience, who had never seen Booth, did not care who played Hamlet, yet paid $922 to see it. Booth acted them to an astonished standstill; after that he drew enthusiastic and large audiences in Philadelphia. An uneventful engagement in Baltimore in late January followed. Mter Booth played Othello, a patron, writing over the name "Spectator ," praised him highly and painted a vivid word picture ofhis Moor. 92 Junius Brutus Booth Mr. Booth ... was from meek-eyed love poisoned into hatred, festered into fury and distorted into madness; by the baleful breath of the green-eyed monster he was gradually swollen from the first ruffle, raised by the...