ce--though impotent and
immeasurably trivial--has not yet died away. There came a time when his
worth was widely recognised, and from that moment onward he had much
prosperity, and his nature expanded and grew calmer, sweeter, and
brighter under its influence. But the habit of warfare had got into his
acting, and more or less it remained there to the last. The assertive
quality, indeed, had long since begun to die away. The volume of
needless emphasis was growing less and less. Few performances on the
contemporary stage are commensurate with his embodiments of Harebell and
Gringoire, in softness, simplicity, poetic charm, and the gentle
tranquillity that is the repose of a self-centred soul. But his deep and
burning desire to be understood, his anxiety lest his effects should not
be appreciated, his inveterate purpose of conquest,--that overwhelming
solicitude of ambition often led him to insist upon his points, to
over-elaborate and enforce them, and in that way his art to some extent
defeated itself by the excess of its eager zeal. The spirit of beauty
that the human race pursues is the spirit that is typified in Emerson's
poem of _Forerunners_--the elusive spirit that all men feel and no man
understands. This truth, undiscerned by him at first, had become the
conviction of his riper years; and if his life had been prolonged the
autumn of his professional career would have been gentle, serene, and
full of tranquil loveliness.

The achievement of Lawrence Barrett as an actor was great, but his
influence upon the stage was greater than his achievement. Among the
Shakespearian parts that he played were Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear,
Othello, Iago, Shylock, Leontes, Cassius, Wolsey, Richard III., Romeo,
and Benedick. Outside of Shakespeare (to mention only a few of his
impersonations) he acted Richelieu, Evelyn, Aranza, Garrick, Claude
Melnotte, Rienzi, Dan'l Druce, Lanciotto, Hernani, King Arthur, and
Ganelon. The parts in which he was superlatively fine,--and in some
respects incomparable,--are Cassius, Harebell, Yorick, Gringoire, King
Arthur, Ganelon, and James V., King of the Commons. In his time he had
played hundreds of parts, ranging over the whole field of the drama, but
as the years passed and the liberty of choice came more and more within
his reach, he concentrated his powers upon a few works and upon a
specific line of expression. The aspect of human nature and human
experience that especially aroused his sympat