FORREST, EDWIN. 



313 



He was tolerably successful, but gave little 

 promise of his subsequent distinction. For 

 the next twelve months his lot was a liarJ one; 

 the theatrical company to which he belonged 

 made the tour of the country towns of Ohio 

 and Kentucky, and often lacked for food in 

 consequence of their ill success. In 1823 he 

 made an engagement with Mr. James H. Cald- 

 well, in the American Theatre at New Orleans, 

 and remained in that city and its vicinity for 

 about two years. He did not distinguish him- 

 self there as an actor. Returning to the North 

 in the latter part of 1825, he made an engage- 

 ment with Mr. Charles Gilfert, at a salary of 

 $7.50 per week. Here he was fortunate enough 

 to attract the attention and commendation of 

 Edmund Kean, while acting lago to his Othello. 

 He acted, during this engagement, at Albany, 

 Philadelphia, and New York, and in the last- 

 named city he won his first great success in 

 the part of Othello, May 23, 1826. Thence- 

 forth his services were in demand. Mr. Simp- 

 son immediately offered him an engagement on 

 excellent terms at the Park ; but Mr. G-ilfert, 

 who had just taken the Bowery Theatre, of 

 which he was the first lessee, succeeded in 

 securing him for that theatre, on a salary of 

 $800 a year. The Bowery, under Mr. Gilfert's 

 management, was the scene of great triumphs 

 for Mr. Forrest. Among the parts which he 

 there represented with extraordinary popular 

 success were Damon, Jaffier, William Tell, 

 and Marie Antony. He remained here nearly 

 three years ; but, at the death of Gilfert, in 

 1829, he withdrew, and accepted an engage- 

 ment at the Park. It began October 17th, in 

 that year, when he appeared as Damon. At 

 this theatre Mr. Forrest long enjoyed a high 

 popularity. It was here that he first acted 

 Metamora, in John H. Stone's tragedy of " Met- 

 amora" (produced December 15, 1829), and 

 Spartacm, in Robert M. Bird's tragedy of 

 "The Gladiator" (produced September 25, 

 1831), both of which plays were written with 

 a special view to fit, his talents and peculi- 

 arities, the perfection of physical realism. In 

 the summer of 1834 his reputation was so high 

 that a company of citizens tendered him the 

 formal courtesy of a public banquet, and pre- 

 sented him with a gold medal, struck in his hon- 

 or, from a design of Ingham, and engraved by 

 0. 0. Durand, on ons side of which was his por- 

 trait, with the inscription, " Histrioni Optimo 

 Edvino Forrest, viro prcestanti;" and on the 

 other the tragic muse, with the Shakspearian 

 legend, " Great in mouths of wisest censure." 

 Mr. Forrest was npw twenty-eight years old, 

 and in the first flush of his remarkable popu- 

 larity, a man of magnificent personal presence 

 and muscular beauty, possessing a voice of 

 glorious volume and melodious sweetness, and 

 a power of depicting the emotional experience 

 of turbulent character in an intensely passion- 

 ate and forcible way. His admirers, and they 

 were many, proudly claimed for him an equal 

 rank with the best foreign representatives of 



tragedy. For himself, he was fully convinced 

 that he was the greatest of living tragedians. 

 In 1835 he sailed for Europe, and, after a pro- 

 tracted pleasure-trip through France, Italy, 

 and Germany, reached England, and on the 

 17th of October, 1836, appeared at Drury Lane 

 as Spartacus in " The Gladiator." This per- 

 formance stirred the theatrical public in Eng- 

 land with a sensation different from any it had 

 known before since it offered an unprece- 

 dented union of enormous physical vigor with 

 uncommon talent for tragic acting. Great 

 success and corresponding popularity ensued, 

 and Forrest became a lion of the hour. It is 

 worthy of mention that he received, at this 

 time, especially kind treatment at the hands 

 of Mr. Macready, and from other persons 

 eminent in the profession of the stage. Many 

 and pleasant tokens of courtesy were also ex- 

 tended to him by members of the literary craft. 

 Talfourd presided at a dinner which the Gar- 

 rick Club tendered to the American actor, and 

 Charles Kemble and Stephen Price gave him 

 swords which had once been the property, 

 respectively, of John Kemble, Edmund Kean, 

 and Talma. 



On the 23d of June, 1837, he was married 

 to Miss Catharine Norton Sinclair, daughter 

 of the vocalist John Sinclair, whom he had 

 met for the first time during this visit to Eng- 

 land. Immediately after their marriage, Mr. 

 and Mrs. Forrest came to America. The actor 

 made his professional reappearance at Phila- 

 delphia, and was welcomed with great enthu- 

 siasm. A public banquet, given in his honor, 

 in that city, at which J. R. Ingersoll presided, 

 emphasized this greeting, and indicated the 

 pride and pleasure with which his prosperity 

 and fame were generally recognized. From 

 Philadelphia, still pursuing his triumph, Mr. 

 Forrest proceeded to New York, and appeared 

 at the Park Theatre. The receipts of the box- 

 office on the first three nights of that engage- 

 ment, says one record, amounted to $4,200. 

 One of the most interesting incidents of this 

 portion of his career was his first appearance 

 as Aylmere in "Jack Cade," a tragedy written 

 expressly for him, by Judge R. T. Conrad, of 

 Philadelphia. This part was always a favorite 

 with him, and it was one in which he appeared 

 to the best advantage. His second visit was 

 made to London in 1845. Mrs. Forrest went 

 with him, and they were welcomed in the best 

 circles of the most intellectual society of the 

 metropolis and the Scottish capital. Mr. For- 

 rest acted at the Princess's Theatre, in Lon- 

 don. Here Sheridan Knowles so great was 

 his satisfaction with Mr. Forrest's Virginius 

 played, by his own offer, the subsidiary part 

 of Dentatus, on the occasion of the tragedian's 

 benefit. Here, also, it happened that the pub- 

 lic hissed his performance of Macbeth, a char- 

 acter entirely unsuited to his physique and 

 style of acting. Mr. Forrest chose to attribute 

 this hissing to the hostile machinations of Mr. 

 Macready, and indulged in the most bitter re- 



