Booth memorials : Passages, incidents, and anecdotes in the life of Junius Brutus Booth (the elder.) . nes of his voice worthy of his palmiest Richard, Booths small person seemed to expand, andthe genius of the man betrayed itself in every look and ges-ture. With reckless indifference he makes his way to theblood-cemented crown, crushing obstacles and commandingcircumstances, until the mind of the spectator almost im-agines he is aided by some supernal power in the career ofhis wild and romantic ambition. In the tent scene, he rushesfrom his couch, his face of the ashy hue of death, hi
Booth memorials : Passages, incidents, and anecdotes in the life of Junius Brutus Booth (the elder.) . nes of his voice worthy of his palmiest Richard, Booths small person seemed to expand, andthe genius of the man betrayed itself in every look and ges-ture. With reckless indifference he makes his way to theblood-cemented crown, crushing obstacles and commandingcircumstances, until the mind of the spectator almost im-agines he is aided by some supernal power in the career ofhis wild and romantic ambition. In the tent scene, he rushesfrom his couch, his face of the ashy hue of death, his limbstrembling, his eyes rolling and gleaming with an unearthlyglare, and his whole face convulsed with intense was the very acme of acting, if such it can be called, andthe death-like silence of the audience was a higher com-pliment to the actor than the long and thundering plauditsthat followed the performance. IN TEE LIFE OF JUN1 US BEUTUS BOOTH. 113 XIII. Clown. Malvolio. is % opinion of |lgtIjagoras wmmning fttilb fofol ?t^rje soul of onr granoant miglji {japlg inhabit a R. BOOTH proceeded from New Yorkto New Orleans, thence to Mobile, andafterward through the Western this tour a calamity, whichseemed to increase in strength and fre-quency with maturer years, assumed asingular phase. In these records of his youth,when his profession held every incentive to am-bition, energy, and indefatigable labor, —when hishabits were most temperate and abstemious, — weoccasionally trace those slight aberrations of mindwhich mark that exquisite turning-point betweengenius and madness. To those accustomed to theintense excitability- of peculiar minds, who witness8 114 PASSAGES, INCIDENTS, AND ANECDOTES how the brain of the actor is wrought upon by theassumption of harrowing, though fictitious scenes,and who feel how frequently that delineator of thepassions thinks, dreams, exists in a sphere ofidealty, it is neither strange nor difficult to com-pre
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