Part 2

"The Literary Souvenir," an annual published by Carey & Hart, was edited by Burton in 1838 and 1840, and its pages contained many of his entertaining sketches. He also contributed to the "Knickerbocker Magazine" a series of theatrical papers styled "The Actor's Alloquy." Occasional starring tours belong to the chronicle of these years, and there lies before us a bill of the American Theatre, Walnut Street, dated October 14, 1839, announcing "First night of the re-engagement of Mr. Burton," and also that "His Excellency Martin Van Buren, President of the United States, will honor the theatre with his presence." The President must have been greatly amused, for not only did he see the comedian as _Tom Tape_ and _Peeping Tom_, but he also saw him "dance with Mrs. Hunt the Minuet de la Cour and Gavotte de Vestris." Burton was fairly well known now throughout the Union--except in the town of Napoleon, on the Mississippi River, where, if we may believe Mr. Davidge, he found his Waterloo. The engagement had not been profitable, and his only hope was by personally drumming for his benefit. So he deposited a goodly number of tickets with the bartender at the hotel where he was staying, with a polite request that he would use his best endeavor to get rid of them. The benefit came off, and the attendance was very flattering. After the play the comedian invited several friends up to the bar, and there had the satisfaction of learning that the man had managed to dispose of all the tickets entrusted to him. This was very gratifying; but no offer of settlement being made, he ventured to suggest that, as he was on the point of quitting the town, he would like to have the pleasure of receiving the insignificant amount of seventy-five cents for each piece of pasteboard deposited. Mr. Davidge says it takes a great deal to astonish a barkeeper in Napoleon; but this one was distanced. He surveyed Burton for a quarter of a minute, and seeing not a muscle move in the comedian's expressive countenance, he said: "Look here, Mr. Billy Burton, none of your infernal Northern tricks here; it won't do, no way! You told me to get rid of them tickets, and as I had promised I was bound to go straight through with it--_and by thunder, I was obliged to stand drinks to every man to take one!_" An audience may be uncultured if not lukewarm; and the unimpressible community of Napoleon reminds us that the "Antigone" of Sophocles was once produced under Burton's management, and, on loud and repeated calls for the _author_, the comedian presented himself before the foot-lights and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, it would give me the greatest pleasure to introduce the author of the play; but, unfortunately, he has been dead for more than twenty centuries, and I shall have to throw myself upon your indulgence."

Burton made his first appearance in New York October 31, 1837, at the old National Theatre in Leonard Street--then under the management of the elder Wallack--for the benefit of Samuel Woodworth, the poet, playing _Guy Goodluck_, in "John Jones"; and his first appearance as a star was made at the same theatre February 4, 1839, when he played _Billy Lackaday_, in "Sweethearts and Wives," and _Guy Goodluck_. A complimentary benefit was given to Mr. Wallack in the same year, when Burton played _Sir Simon Slack_, in "Spring and Autumn." The opera of "Amilie; or, The Love Test" was produced on the same occasion. If we mistake not, he was connected with the management when the theatre was destroyed by fire not long after. He also appeared at Niblo's Garden as a star in this year, opening June 25th, and was seen in a round of parts, including _Gregory Thimblewell_, _Euclid Facile_, _Ignatius Polyglott_, and _Tobias Munns_, in his own farce of "Forty Winks." He first appeared on the Park stage June 2, 1840, playing _Sir Timothy Stilton_, in "Patrician and Parvenu," the occasion being a complimentary benefit to Peter Richings; and in the same month acted at Niblo's Garden. At his benefit (July 6th) he played _Brown_, in "Kill and Cure," and _Fluid_ in "The Water Party." The participation of the Cushman sisters in this entertainment greatly enhanced its interest and attractiveness. In this year he fitted up Cooke's circus-building in Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, calling it the National Theatre. He gathered a fine company and was very prosperous. Charlotte and Susan Cushman appeared there, and the sterling comedians Henry and Thomas Placide were among the force. The fairy piece, "The Naiad Queen," was there presented for the first time in the United States, and brought wealth to the manager's coffers. A large amount of his earnings by this enterprise he invested in Nick Biddle's United States Bank, and in the downfall of that institution suffered severely.

In 1841, after a brief engagement at the Providence theatre, he returned to New York, and leased the rebuilt theatre corner of Leonard and Church streets, where his first appearance in New York had been made; brought on his Philadelphia company, and there established himself. This was April 13, 1841, and his first essay as manager in New York. He transported all the beautiful scenery of "The Naiad Queen," and reproduced the piece with gratifying success. But a dread fatality seemed to attend this temple of the drama. As, while under Wallack's management, it was destroyed by fire, so the same doom befell it under Burton. In the height of prosperity the building was again consumed, and with it the elaborate and splendid scenery of "The Naiad Queen." Of this calamity, F. C. Wemyss, in his "Theatrical Biography," remarks: "On this occasion a magnificent and extensive wardrobe, the property of Mr. Burton, was consumed, together with his private wardrobe, manuscripts, books, and other articles of considerable value. He was not insured to the amount of a dollar. The citizens of New York expressed their sympathy with the manager; and a complimentary benefit at the Park placed a handsome sum at his disposal." Undaunted by a disaster which would have utterly discouraged most men, Burton again sought Philadelphia, and after starring for a brief season leased the Chestnut Street Theatre for a fresh essay. There for a while he continued with good fortune, until better prospects invited him to Arch Street, where at last he located with a view to permanency. Meeting now with rich success, he determined to extend his sphere of operation, and added in turn to his lesseeship the Front Street Theatre, Baltimore, and the theatre in Washington; so that in 1845-6 he was guiding the destinies of three dramatic houses, distinguished for well-chosen companies and for the admirable manner in which the plays were mounted and cast. But again the fiat of destiny was written in words of flame. The Washington theatre, for the first time in many years, was handsomely rewarding its manager, when one night, during the performance, the scenery caught fire, and the building was burnt to the ground. The Baltimore theatre was continued; but the lion's share of attention was given to Arch Street, and there for several years Burton enjoyed a flow of prosperity; his fame increasing in public estimation; surprising and delighting all by his wonderful acting, and by the knowledge, taste, and liberality, with which he catered for his patrons. But New York was in the manager's thoughts and seemed to beckon him Northward. Perhaps Burton's prophetic gaze discerned in the great city a field that would respond to careful tillage, and that the rapid growth of the metropolis could not fail to give momentum to enterprise. Whatever the motive spring, the step was taken, and in 1848 the building known as Palmo's Opera-House became Burton's Theatre.

In this brief survey of fourteen years, the absence of detail in many instances will be pardoned, we hope, on a reflection of what it may suggest. We are aware of the interest attaching to strength of companies, citations of casts, and notes of special performance; and in all theatrical histories such details should evoke the most careful consideration. The Philadelphia record, however, is not always full and clear on those points, as respects individual careers, even in one so active and fruitful as our subject's; for, so far as we know, there is no history of the stage of that city which pretends to do for its dramatic life what Ireland has done for the New York stage--regarding which monument of painstaking fidelity, William Winter, in the preface to his recent admirable volume on "The Jeffersons," truly says: "Every writer who touches upon the history of the drama in America must acknowledge his obligation for guidance and aid to the thorough, faithful and suggestive records made by the veteran historian, Joseph N. Ireland. "Yet, in depicting the career of a great actor, many things are rendered subordinate which in a history of the drama of any given period would receive due prominence. That the career of Burton in Philadelphia from 1834 to 1848 embraced much of its stage history during those years, will, of course, be understood; and we shall be sorry if our readers, at the same time, fail to discern the industry, sagacity, courage, and varied powers--with which the actor, author, and manager, illustrated those years--suggested by this recital.

We now approach a period within the memory of many persons now living. Some few octogenarians may survive who can recall Burton's performances of over forty years ago; but they must be few indeed; and their recollections cannot be otherwise than dim and uncertain. But the achievements of Burton in Chambers Street; the unexampled popularity of his theatre; the unequalled company he gathered there; the indisputable creations of character that there originated; the birth of a revival of Shakespeare, with a felicity of conception that revealed the appreciative student, and with a beauty and minuteness of appointment unprecedented at the time;--all this, through a decade of years, forms an enchanting reminiscence vivid still in the retrospect of numberless New Yorkers. It is not surprising that we of the city of New York forget that the comedian so long belonged to Philadelphia. So brilliant was his success in Chambers Street that all other theatres where he flourished seem to be viewed by the reflected light of that; and we think there will be no question that there were clustered his rarest triumphs and there blossomed the flower of his fame.

BURTON'S THEATRE, CHAMBERS STREET.

_"There is the playhouse now, there must you sit."_ --SHAKESPEARE.

BURTON IN NEW YORK. 1848-1856.

Palmo's Opera-House was built in 1842, and, according to Wemyss' Chronology, was the sixteenth theatre erected in New York. It was built by Ferdinand Palmo, and designed for the presentation of Italian opera. To Palmo, it is said, belongs the honor of having first introduced that department of music in the city. In 1844 he opened with "Lucia di Lammermoor"; but the support given to his venture was not generous, notwithstanding the fact that wealth and fashion still resided in Warren, Murray, and Beekman streets. The time apparently was not ripe; the experiment ended in financial ruin to Palmo, and the unfortunate man never wholly recovered from the blow. The house passed into divers hands, and was the scene of a variety of entertainments for two or three years afterward. The writer remembers distinctly going there of an afternoon, when a boy, to a circus entertainment. The place was at a low ebb in point of popularity and attraction when the comedian fixed upon it as his future professional home. He rearranged, fitted it up, and adorned it, and called it BURTON'S THEATRE.

It had no doubt long been a dream of the manager to attain as nearly as possible to perfection in the organization and direction of a first-class theatre. His varied experience in Philadelphia and elsewhere constantly suggested an administration composed of members equally valuable in their respective lines, and forming an harmonious whole under an efficient executive, as the best system of government for the growth and development of dramatic art; and perhaps during his reign in Chambers Street he came as near the realization of that dream as is permitted to human aspiration. In confirmation of the foregoing, we quote a passage from William B. Wood's Recollections, where, writing in 1854 of the evils of the star system, he says: "Let me here remark, that I am happy to see of late times--I mean within the last few years--that the pernicious system of which I speak, by carrying itself fairly out, and by so breaking up all sound stock companies, has finally destroyed itself.... To that intelligent manager, Mr. Burton, the first credit is due. He has been striving for a number of years in New York, as he had been doing here in Philadelphia, to bring his theatre to a proper system, based on the principles of common sense and experience. With talents of his own equalled by few stars, he has preferred to ascertain whether the public could not be better attracted by a good stock company of combined talent, and every New Yorker knows with what excellent effect he has labored. His success, I am happy to learn, has amply confirmed his reputation for dramatic judgment."

We may supplement this by a paragraph taken from Laurence Hutton's entertaining volume of "Plays and Players." Describing in glowing terms the production of Buckstone's comedy of "Leap Year," at Burton's, March 1, 1850, Mr. Hutton says: "That our readers may fully comprehend the subject and period of which we write, it will be well to remind them, perhaps, that the art of acting had arrived at such a point in Burton's Theatre, that, to play a comedy well, was not enough. Every thing was so well done, so perfect in every respect, mere excellence was so much a matter of course, was so positive, on the Chambers Street boards, that there was but little room for the comparative, and the superlative itself was necessary to create a sensation."

The Chambers Street Theatre opened July 10, 1848, with "Maidens, Beware"; "Raising the Wind," and "The Irish Dragoon." These were succeeded by "New York in Slices," "Dan Keyser de Bassoon," and "Lucy Did Sham Amour." The work was slow at first, but the disappearance of money was rapid. We have seen, however, that there was no limit to Burton's energy and perseverance. He played in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, week after week; managed, in conjunction with John Brougham, an engagement with Mr. W. C. Macready at Ford's Theatre, Boston, October, 1848; was announced, on Macready's departure, to appear himself; but the intention was unfulfilled, and so it chanced that he never acted there until the last years of his life. He played for the benefit of the widow and family of Edmund Simpson, at the Park Theatre, December 7, 1848, in referring to which event Mr. Ireland says: "We insert the entire bill to show the forgetfulness of self evinced by the volunteers, and their willingness to assume any character to insure the best result, there being no less than five gentlemen in the cast who had played, and might justly have laid claim to the principal character of the play." The play was "The School for Scandal," cast principally as follows:

SIR PETER TEAZLE Mr. HENRY PLACIDE. SIR OLIVER SURFACE " WM. E. BURTON. JOSEPH SURFACE " THOMAS BARRY. CHARLES SURFACE " GEORGE BARRETT. CRABTREE " W. R. BLAKE. SIR BENJAMIN BACKBITE " PETER RICHINGS. CARELESS " C. M. WALCOT. SIR HARRY " H. HUNT. MOSES " JOHN POVEY. TRIP " DAWSON. LADY TEAZLE Mrs. SHAW. LADY SNEERWELL " JOHN GILBERT. MRS. CANDOUR " WINSTANLEY. MARIA Miss MARY TAYLOR.

This deed of charity was followed by others for the same object on the part of New York managers, and among them Burton contributed a night at his own theatre, on the 5th of March ensuing, in which the full strength of his company appeared.

The burning of the Park Theatre in 1848 left Burton without a rival. The Olympic was of the past; Forrest thundered at the Broadway; Wallack's and Daly's were yet to be. It was not long before the public discovered the genius that presided in Chambers Street, and recognized the unusual excellence which characterized the performances. The location was favorable for Brooklyn people, and from first to last the theatre enjoyed a monopoly of their patronage. "For several years," says Ireland, "Burton's Theatre was the resort of the most intelligent class of pleasure-seekers, and there beauty, wit, and fashion, loved to congregate, without the formality or etiquette of attire once deemed necessary at the Park." Its fame was really phenomenal. Leaping metropolitan bounds, it spread to distant states and neighborhoods, and became, one might almost say, a familiar and welcome contribution to the social and intellectual communion of the time. For a stranger to come to New York in those days and omit to visit Burton's, would imply an obtuseness so forlorn, or an indifference so stolid, that in the one case he would be an object of compassion, and in the other a grave offender of public sentiment. But in all probability he looked forward during his journey city-ward to his evening in those halls of Momus; and we may be certain that the

"Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, Nods, and becks, and wreathèd smiles"

of that night lived in his memory for many a long day.

It is not too much to say that this attraction was almost wholly due to the extraordinary powers of Burton himself. True, his company embraced the finest artists in their several lines of any stage in the country; and it was well known to all lovers of refined drama that the Chambers Street Theatre was the home of English comedy, and that any given play could be there produced with a cast entirely adequate, and with a perfection of detail ensuring to the auditor an artistic delight and a representation of the highest class. But there are many who, while appreciating the delineation of manners and character, seek amusement pure and simple, and who believe that good digestion waits on hearty laughter. To this large constituency Burton was the objective point, for his humor and comic power were a perennial fountain of mirth. His appearance, either discovered when the curtain rose, or entering from the wing, was the signal for a ripple of merriment all over the house. Every countenance brightened, the dullest face glowed with gleeful expectancy. No actor, we believe--unless possibly Liston,--ever excelled Burton in humorous facial expression. Tom Hood, in referring to certain pastimes of a London evening, says in his felicitous rhyme:

"Or in the small Olympic pit sit, split, Laughing at Liston, while you quiz his phiz."

Read the couplet thus:

"Or in the _Chambers Street_ snug pit sit, split, Laughing at _Burton_, while you quiz his phiz,"

and we have the nightly situation. It was a common circumstance for the theatre to receive accessions toward the close of the performance, the new-comers standing in line along the walls, drawn thither by the potent magnet of the manager in the farce. Thus it was that, though the theatre furnished constantly a rich feast of comedy, and was more widely known than any other, still more celebrated was the great actor whose name it bore; and it was the magic of that name that drew the people, and it was he whom the people went to see. It seemed to make little difference what the bills announced; Burton would play,--and that was enough.

It was the privilege of the writer of these pages to have free access to the Chambers Street Theatre, and to know personally its manager, and his recollections are such as to induce him to believe that in no better way can he perform his task of completing Mr. Burton's career than by employing his own knowledge and recording the impressions he received. In so doing, the opportunity afforded for special reference to members of his company will be improved; and perhaps our retrospection may arouse in other breasts a remembrance of past delight.

Alluding to the comedian's first appearance in New York, October 31, 1837, Joseph N. Ireland, so often quoted, remarks: "The advent of Mr. W. E. Burton, the most renowned comedian of recent days, demands more than a passing notice. For nearly twenty years no other actor monopolized so much of the public applause, and popular sentiment universally assigned him a position in broad low comedy entirely unrivalled on the American stage." It was a little over three years between his arrival in America and his New York débût; about eleven between that appearance and his lesseeship in Chambers Street; and eleven more remain to be taken note of. Of these, eight belong to Chambers Street, two to the uptown theatre, and one to starring engagements in various cities--the last being in Hamilton, Canada, and abruptly terminated by the malady of which he died.

* * * * *

The company at Chambers Street now demands our attention; and the wish to suitably recognize the talents, and to chronicle, however simply, the triumphs of that famous array, has constrained us to widen the scope of our original design, and to extend somewhat our notices of certain individual actors. We shall in nowise regret this; for in recalling past delight it is a pleasure to dwell on those who caused it; and we may, perchance, awaken thereby a happy thought of them in other hearts. The departed years are full of memories, and the turning of a leaf may lay bare a volume of reminiscence. It forms no part of our purpose, however, to follow individual careers, and to trace their course on other boards than those of the Chambers Street Theatre. Many of them, indeed, after Burton removed uptown, and after his death, continued their successes and won renown in other scenes and under other management; and our readers may feel that but scant justice is done many meritorious names familiar to the present generation, in confining mention of them to a period when their talents and capabilities had not ripened to that excellence which afterward gave them fame. But we are concerned with them only as they figured as members of Burton's company, and as such contributed richly to our fund of memory. They stand in the dramatic Pantheon with their great chief; and in approaching that central and dominant figure we pause to bend delighted gaze upon the admirable group surrounding it.

From 1848 to 1856 the following names were numbered on the muster-roll: Henry Placide, Blake, Brougham, Lester, T. B. Johnston, Bland, Jordan, Barrett, Dyott, Fisher, Thompson, Holland, C. W. Clarke, Norton, Parsloe, Jr., Holman, Charles Mathews, Setchell, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Russell (now Mrs. Hoey), Mrs. Skerrett, Mrs. Rea, Miss Raymond, Mrs. Hough, Mrs. Buckland, Miss Weston, Miss Devlin, Miss Malvina, Miss Agnes Robertson, Fanny Wallack, Mary Taylor, Miss Chapman. This is by no means intended as a complete enumeration--"but 't is enough, 't will serve." Many names have been forgotten, and some remembered but omitted. It may be of interest to note at this point the fortunes that awaited at least five of the actresses above named--viz.: Mrs. Russell, Miss Weston, Miss Devlin, Miss Malvina, Miss Agnes Robertson.