Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/226

 BARRETT.

BARRETT.

ing ill the Chambers street theatre. Mr. Burton, who had jiist oiiened a new liouse. afterwards called "Winter Garden theatre, was pleased with Barrett's acting and engaged him to play minor parts in the new theatre. In the season of 1S62-'G3, he had risen to the part of leading man, snpi>orting Eihvin Booth, Mary Provost, Mrs. D. P. Bowers, and others. In 186-4 he went south with Lewis Bilker, and undertook the management of the old Varieties theatre in New Orleans, La. There he played for the first time such parts as Hamlet and Richelieu, and Eliot Grey in Lester Wallack's '• Rosedale." He made his first trip abroad in IsiiT, returning in the latter part of that year, and afterward taking a sea journey to California. In February, 18G9, he played Hamlet in Maguire's opera house in San Francisco. While in that city he undertook, in connection with John McCul- lough, the maimgement of the new California theatre, retaining his interest for nearly two years. He returned to New York in the summer of 1870 and played Cassius at Niblo's tlieatre, with E. L. Davenport as Brutus, and Walter Mont- gomery as Marc Antony. The following winter he played %vith Edwin Booth at Bootli's theatre, acting Laertes, Othello and DeMauprat to Booth's Hamlet, lago, and Richelieu, and also appearing as Leontes in "Winter's Tale." In June, 1871, he first acted James Harebell in "The Man of Airhe " at Booth's, and in December assumed the management of the new Varieties theatre in New Orleans, La., remaining in New York to act Cas- sius in Edwin Booth's revival of "Julius Csesar." He went to New Orleans in March, 1872, and played with great success in many roles, among them Hamlet, Richelieu, Shylock, Richard III.. Cassius, Raphael in " The Marble Heart," Alfred Evelyn in " Money," Dazzle in " London Assur- ance," Manuel in "The Romance for a Poor Young ^lan," Harebell, Romeo, and King Lear. Returning to Booth's in 1875 he added to his rep- ertoire "Daniel Druce, Blacksmith," by W. R. Gilbert, Mr. Barrett taking the title roll. In 1877 he went to Cincinnati, O., playing "A Counter feit Presentment," and in 1878 played " Yorick's Love" in Cleveland, both Mr. Howell's plays. In 1881 he went to Chicago, and in 1883 to Phila- delphia, attracting large and enthusiastic audi- encos. He played in the Lyceum theatre, London, in the spring of 1884, and in the fall of the same year again ajjpeared in New York city, having two new plays — " A Blot on the 'Scutcheon," by Robert Browning, and "The King's Pleasure," by Theodore de Banville. In the fall of 1886 he became the manager of Edwin liooth's tours, and in 1887-'88 and 1888-'89 played with that actor in "Julius C;esar," "Othello," "Hamlet," and other plays. He made four tours of Euro])e, but was receive<l with some coldness by English

a udiences. The best critics hesitated to call Mr. Barrett great, or called him great with some reservations. His art was acijuired rather than original, and acquired only by the most assid- uous labor of an earnest and highly intellectual man. His appearance on the stage cannot better be described than by the words of AVilliam Winter, written shortly after Barrett's death: " His coming was always a signal to arouse the mind. His mental vitality impressed even un- sympathetic beholders with a sense of fiery thought struggling in its fetters of mortality and almost shattering and consmiiing the frail temple of its human life. His stately head, silvered with graying liair, his dark eyes deeply sunken and glowing with intense light, his thin visage, i)allid with study and pain, his form of grace, and voice of sonorous eloquence and solemn music (in com- pass, variety and sweetness, one of the few great voices of the current dramatic generation), his tremendous earnestness, his superb bearing, and his invariable authority and distinction, all those attributes united to announce a ruler and leader in the reahn of intellect. " Lawrence Barrett was said to be essentially the student and scholar of the theatre, and it is undeniable that he was a man of unusual intellectual power. But the chief characteristic of his nature was his un- swerving adherence to what he believed to be right. A biographer said of him, " He never spoke a false word or knowingly harmed a hiiman being in all his life." He was a prominent member of the Players' club in New York, the author of " Edwin Forrest " (1881), and " Charlotte Cush- man " (1889). He died in New York city, March 20, 1891.

BARRETT, William E., representative, was born at Melrose, Mass., Dec. 29, 1858. He was graduated from Dartmouth college in 1880, and became assistant editor on the Messenger, St. Albans, Vt., where he remained for two years. In 1882 he connected himself with the Boston Daily Advertiser, and was sent to Washington as regular correspondent for that paper. In 1886 Mr. Barrett left Washington to take the position of president of the Advertiser newspaper com- pany, publishers of the Advertiser and Evening Record. He was elected a representative to the Massachusetts legislature in 1887, '88, "89, '90, "91, '93; became speaker of the house in 1889, and was re-elected every year to 1893 without opposition. In 1891 he was the Republican nominee for gov- ernor. He was elected a representative to the 54th U. S. Congress on the Republican ticket, and made himself conspicuous by his attitude on the Venezuelan matter, and by his efforts for the impeachment of Mr. Bayard, United States ambassador to Great Britain. He was re-elected to the 55th Congress in 1896.