Transcriber's Note:
The tables of contents and steel plates reflect future volumes.
See end of text for further notes.
[Illustration: EDWIN FORREST. ÆT 45]
LIFE
OF
EDWIN FORREST,
THE AMERICAN TRAGEDIAN.
BY
WILLIAM ROUNSEVILLE ALGER.
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players."
VOLUME I.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1877.
Copyright, 1877, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
TO
JAMES OAKES,
THE
TRUE PYTHIAS
IN THE REAL LIFE OF THIS
DAMON,
THE FOLLOWING BIOGRAPHY
IS INSCRIBED.
PREFATORY NOTE.
THE AUTHOR of the following work apologizes for the delay of its
publication on the ground of long-continued ill health which unfitted
him for mental labor. He has tried to make amends by sparing no pains
in his effort to do justice to the subjects treated. The plan of the
ensuing biography is that of a philosophical history, which adds to the
simple narrative of events a discussion of the causes and teachings of
the events. The writer has interspersed the mere recital of personal
facts and incidents with studies of the principal topics of a more
general nature intimately associated with these, and has sought to
enforce the lessons they yield. His aim in this has been to add to
the descriptive interest of the work more important moral values.
The thoughtful reader, who seeks improvement and is interested in
the fortunes of his kind, will, it is believed, find these episodes
attractive; and the frivolous reader, who seeks amusement alone, need
not complain of disquisitions which he can easily skip.
The author foresees that some opinions advanced will be met with
prejudice and disfavor, perhaps with angry abuse. But as he has written
in disinterested loyalty to truth and humanity, attacking no entrenched
notion and advocating no revolutionary one except from a sense of duty
and in the hope of doing a service, he will calmly accept whatever
odium the firm statement of his honest convictions may bring. Society
in the present phase of civilization is full of tyrannical errors
and wrongs against which most persons are afraid even so much as to
whisper. To remove these obstructive evils, and exert an influence
to hasten the period of universal justice and good will for which the
world sighs, men of a free and enlightened spirit must fearlessly
express their thoughts and breathe their philanthropic desires into
the atmosphere. If their motives are pure and their views correct,
however much a prejudiced public opinion may be offended and stung to
assail them, after a little while their valor will be applauded and
their names shine out untarnished by the passing breath of obloquy. It
is, Goethe said, with true opinions courageously uttered as with pawns
first advanced on the chess-board: they may be beaten, but they have
inaugurated a game which must be won.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
PRELUDE 13