the other was the management of the Winter Garden theatre, New York. Both were undertaken, and they at once opened a field for the energetic exercise of great and various ability. In the direction of the Philadelphia house Booth and Clarke were associated from the summer of 1863 till March 1870, when the latter purchased his partner's interest. In the management of the Winter Garden they associated with themselves, at first as an agent, afterwards as a lessee, William Stuart, already mentioned, and by that triumvirate the theatre was conducted. Its first season under its new management began on September 21, 1863, when Booth reappeared as Hamlet. He was welcomed with cordiality, and he played a prosperous engagement-extending to October 17. Towards its close he acted Ruy Blas, for the first time. Wanderings followed that period of metropolitan effort; but by the ensuing spring those had ended, and on March 28, 1864, he once more claimed the attention of the New-York public, appearing at Niblo's theatre, and winning a triumph, as Bertuccio, in The Fool's Revenge. That play, made by Tom Taylor, on the basis of Victor Hugo's Le Roi S'Amuse was originally produced in London by Samuel Phelps. An outraged husband and father, blindly pursuing a scheme of vengeance upon his wronger, is made to assist a libertine in the forcible abduction of his own daughter. That father is the Fool and that is his Revenge. He subsequently discovers his mistake, and he suffers a revulsion of feeling and a strong shock of agony. The character makes a deep draft upon imagination and sensibility. Booth's personation of it was superb. Fierce vitality, sardonic humour, and mad vindictiveness made the embodiment a horrible incarnation of gleeful wickedness and insane rage. Yet through all there ran a golden vein of pathos. At one time the actor seemed a Fury raving in madness—when, under the night sky and in the lonely street, Bertuccio calls down upon his enemy the tortures which have so long burned and seethed in his own bosom. At another time he was as pitiable as Lear in the climax of his awful agony. That was in a scene outside the door of the banquet hall, when the Fool pleads for admittance, to rescue his child. The simulation of glee, through which the father's frantic grief and terror broke at last, in wild and lamentablé cries of anguish, was one of the finest things ever done by an actor, and one of the most affecting expositions that Booth ever afforded of the power of his genius. That performance, painful and terrible, won for him much admiration and imparted new views of the originality and versatility of his powers. He was also seen, during the engagement at Niblo's, as Raphael, in The Marble Heart, which he then played for the first time in New York - April 18, 1864. On April 16 he had acted Sir Edward Mortimer and Petruchio, for the benefit of the American Sanitary Fair; and for that cause he also joined in a production of Macbeth, with Charlotte Cushman as Lady Macbeth. The engagement terminated on April 22, and he returned to the Winter Garden. The tercentenary of Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, 1864, was celebrated by the production of Romeo and Juliet, to increase the fund for erecting a statue of the poet, in Central Park - James H. Hackett playing Falstaff, at Niblo's Garden, on the same night, in aid of the same cause. Booth continued to act at the Winter Garden till May 14, appearing as Hamlet, Othello, Richelieu, and Richard the Third. A summer of preparation succeeded, with a view to the first of those dramatic pageants by which the tragedian did so much to delight and instruct the community, to dignify the American stage, and to gild his name with honour. Hamlet was brought out on November 26, 1864, and it kept the stage till March 24, 1865-greeted at the outset with enthusiasm, and sustained till the last by a patient public interest. That period saw accomplished for Hamlet a run of one hundred nights. The scenery, devised with scholarship and taste, presented a series of impressive pictures. The view of the moonlit battlements of Elsinore was exceedingly beautiful. A cold wind of death seemed to blow around the dusky, sombre fortress, as the dread ghost came gliding in before the stricken gaze of the terrified midnight watchers. Booth played Hamlet with lofty purity of spirit. Many writers recorded its merits and celebrated its excellence - discussing it with. thoughtful care and deep sympathy. Seldom has the work of an actor concentrated upon itself in an equal degree the attention of judicious intellect and the generous enthusiasm of the people. A special performance of Julius Cæsar, given at the Winter Garden on November 25, 1864, for the benefit of the fund for the erection of the Shakespeare statue in Central Park, attracted much attention, and, by those who saw it, has not been forgotten. The three brothers appeared together, and their aged mother observed them from a stage box. Brutus was acted by Edwin Booth, Cassius by Junius Booth, and Marc Antony by John Wilkes Booth. The official advertisement of that alliance, and of the production of Hamlet for its memorable run of one hundred performances, is a curiosity, and as such it is here preserved: WINTER INTER GARDEN. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. WINTER GARDEN, Nov. 25, 1864. Mr. Stuart has pleasure in announcing that, owing to the generous zeal and untiring devotion of MR. EDWIN BOOTH, a performance will be given at this theatre on FRIDAY EVENING, Nov. 25, (Mr. J. S. Clarke having kindly ceded this evening for the occasion) for the benefit of the fund to raise a statue to Shakespeare in the Central Park, being the second benefit given for this object at the Winter Garden. The evening will be made memorable by the appearance in the same piece of the three sons of the great Booth, JUNIUS BRUTUS, EDWIN AND JOHN WILKES, Filii Patri digno digniores, who have come forward with cheerful alacrity to do honour to the immortal bard from whose works the genius of their father caught its inspiration, and of many of whose greatest creations he was the best and noblest illustrator the stage has ever seen. The play selected for the occasion is the tragedy of Julius Cæsar (first appearance). Octavius Cæsar.. Trebonius. Decius.. Metellus.. Lucius... First Plebeian Second Plebeian Portia... Calphurnia. Mr. E. Varrey Mr. Charles Kemble Mason Mr. C. R. Chester Mr. E. Eberle Mr. O. S. Fawcett .Mrs. F. S. Chanfrau Mrs. C. Walcot, jr. The piece will be presented under the stage direction of Mr. J. G. Hanley. The proceeds will be handed to the Treasurer of the Shakespeare Statue Fund. The doors will be open at 71, and the performance will commence at 8. The prices of admission to Dress-Circle and Parquette will be $1.50; to the Family Circle, which has been recently handsomely fitted up, $1. A few extra orchestra chairs have been added, which will be disposed of at the Box-Office this morning at $5 each. Mr. Stuart trusts that those who have paid or may pay a large price for seats will remember that, in addition to the value they receive in intellectual enjoyment, they are contributing to a great national work and not to the personal advantage of any individual. of the engagement of EXTRA ANNOUNCEMENT. SATURDAY, Nov. 26, OPENING NIGHT EDWIN BOOTH. Mr. Stuart begs to announce, that on SATURDAY, Nov. 26, Mr. EDWIN BOOTH will make his first regular appearance in the play of HAMLET. The piece will be placed on the stage under the immediate direction of Mr. Booth, by Mr. J. G. Hanley, stage manager, in a style, it is hoped, combining splendour of production with strict historical correctness. The play has been in active preparation for the last three months, and no expense or effort has been spared in the endeavour by a more strictly pictorial arrangement of the ordinary stage resources, and by the fidelity, appro |