could ever be dimmed. Yet now,
in a moment, his light was quenched and there was darkness on his mirth.
We shall hear his pleasant voice no more and see no more the sunshine of
a face that was never seen without joy and can never be remembered
without sorrow. The loss to the public was great. Few actors within the
last forty years have stood upon a level with Florence in versatility
and charm. His gentleness, his simplicity, his modesty, his affectionate
fidelity, his ready sympathy, his inexhaustibly patience, his fine
talents--all those attributes united with his spontaneous drollery to
enshrine him in tender affection.

William James Florence, whose family name was Conlin, was born in
Albany, July 26, 1831. When a youth he joined the Murdoch Dramatic
Association, and he early gave evidence of extraordinary dramatic
talent. On December 9, 1849 he made his first appearance on the regular
stage, at the Marshall theatre in Richmond, Virginia, where he
impersonated Tobias, in _The Stranger_. After that he met with the usual
vicissitudes of a young player. He was a member of various stock
companies--notably that of W.C. Forbes, of the Providence museum, and
that of the once-popular John Nickinson, of Toronto and Quebec--the
famous Havresack of his period. Later he joined the company at Niblo's
theatre, New York, under the management of Chippendale and John Sefton,
appearing there on May 8, 1850. He also acted at the Broadway, under
Marshall's management, and in 1852 he was a member of the company at
Brougham's Lyceum. On January 1, 1853 he married Malvina Pray, sister of
the wife of Barney Williams; and in that way those two Irish comedians
came to be domestically associated.

At that time Florence wrote several plays, upon Irish and Yankee
subjects, then very popular, and he began to figure as a star--his wife
standing beside him. They appeared at Purdy's National theatre, June 8,
1853, and then, and for a long time afterward, they had much popularity
and success. Florence had composed many songs of a sprightly character
(one of them, called _Bobbing Around_, had a sale of more than 100,000
copies), and those songs were sung by his wife, to the delight of the
public. The Irish drama served his purpose for many years, but he varied
that form of art by occasional resort to burlesque and by incursions
into the realm of melodrama. One of his best performances was that of
O'Bryan, in John Brougham's play of _Temptation, or th