The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shadows of the Stage, by William Winter

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Title: Shadows of the Stage

Author: William Winter

Release Date: July 18, 2006 [EBook #18860]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SHADOWS OF THE
STAGE

BY
WILLIAM WINTER

_"The best in this kind are but shadows"_

SHAKESPEARE

NEW YORK
MACMILLAN AND COMPANY
AND LONDON
1893

COPYRIGHT, 1892,
BY MACMILLAN & CO.

Set up and electrotyped May, 1892. Large Paper Edition printed May.
Ordinary Edition reprinted June, August, November, 1892; January, June,
October, November, 1893.

Norwood Press:
J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith.
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

TO

Henry Irving

IN MEMORY AND IN HONOUR
OF ALL THAT HE HAS DONE
TO DIGNIFY AND ADORN THE STAGE
AND TO ENNOBLE SOCIETY
THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED

_"Cui laurus aeternos honores
Delmatico peperit triumpho"_

PREFACE.

_The papers contained in this volume, chosen out of hundreds that the
author has written on dramatic subjects, are assembled with the hope
that they may be accepted, in their present form, as a part of the
permanent record of our theatrical times. For at least thirty years it
has been a considerable part of the constant occupation of the author to
observe and to record the life of the contemporary stage. Since 1860 he
has written intermittently in various periodicals, and since the summer
of 1865 he has written continuously in the New York Tribune, upon actors
and their art; and in that way he has accumulated a great mass of
historical commentary upon the drama. In preparing this book he has been
permitted to draw from his contributions to the Tribune, and also from
his writings in Harper's Magazine and Weekly, in the London Theatre, and
in Augustin Daly's Portfolio of Players. The choice of these papers has
been determined partly by consideration of space and partly with the
design of supplementing the author's earlier dramatic books, namely:
Edwin B