k is that
bestowed on Charles Burke, William Warren, George Holland, Tom Glessing,
and Edwin Adams. Those were men who lived in Jefferson's affections, and
when he wrote about them he wrote from the heart. The sketch of
Glessing, whom everybody loved that ever knew him, is in a touching
strain of tender remembrance.

Jefferson visited England and France in 1856, but not to act. At that
time he saw the famous English comedians Compton, Buckstone, Robson, and
Wright, and that extraordinary actor, fine alike in tragedy and comedy,
the versatile Samuel Phelps. In 1857 he was associated with Laura Keene
at her theatre in New York; and from that date onward his career has
been upon a high and sunlit path, visible to the world. His first part
at Laura Keene's theatre was Dr. Pangloss. Then came _Our American
Cousin_, in which he gained a memorable success as Asa Trenchard, and in
which Edward A. Sothern laid the basis of that fantastic structure of
whim and grotesque humour that afterward became famous as Lord
Dundreary. Sothern, Laura Keene, and William Rufus Blake, of course,
gained much of Jefferson's attention at that time, and he has not
omitted to describe them. His account of Blake, however, does not impart
an adequate idea of the excellence of that comedian. In 1858 he went to
the Winter Garden theatre, and was associated with the late Dion
Boucicault. His characters then were Newman Hoggs, Caleb Plummer, and
Salem Scudder--in _Nicholas Nickleby_, _The Cricket on the Hearth_, and
_The Octoroon_. Mr. Boucicault told him not to make Caleb Plummer a
solemn character at the beginning--a deliverance that Jefferson seems to
have cherished as one of colossal wisdom. He made a brilliant hit in
Salem Scudder, and it was then that he determined finally to assume the
position of a star. "Art has always been my sweetheart," exclaims
Jefferson, "and I have loved her for herself alone." No observer can
doubt that who has followed his career. It was in 1859 that he reverted
to the subject of Rip Van Winkle, as the right theme for his dramatic
purpose. He had seen Charles Burke as Rip, and he knew the several
versions of Washington Irving's story that had been made for the theatre
by Burke, Hackett, and Yates. The first Rip Van Winkle upon the stage,
of whom there is any record in theatrical annals, was Thomas Flynn
(1804-1849). That comedian, the friend of the elder Booth, acted the
part for the first time on May 24, 1828, at Albany.