{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:tribute-to-lawrence-barrett",
  "slug": "tribute-to-lawrence-barrett",
  "title": "A Tribute to Lawrence Barrett",
  "subtitle": "Memorial tribute to the actor.",
  "excerpt": "Memorial tribute to the Shakespearean actor Lawrence Barrett.",
  "year": 1891,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Tribute",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/tribute-to-lawrence-barrett/",
  "wordCount": 350,
  "body": "A Tribute to Lawrence Barrett\n\nAt the Broadway Theatre, New York, March 22, 1891.\n\nMY heart tells me that on the threshold of my address it will be\nappropriate for me to say a few words about the great actor who has\njust fallen into that sleep that we call death. Lawrence Barrett was my\nfriend, and I was his. He was an interpreter of Shakespeare, to whose\ncreations he gave flesh and blood. He began at the foundation of his\nprofession, and rose until he stood next to his friend—next to one who\nis regarded as the greatest tragedian of our time—next to Edwin Booth.\n\nThe life of Lawrence Barrett was a success, because he honored himself\nand added glory to the stage.\n\nHe did not seek for gain by pandering to the thoughtless, ignorant or\nbase. He gave the drama in its highest and most serious form. He shunned\nthe questionable, the vulgar and impure, and gave the intellectual,\nthe pathetic, the manly and the tragic. He did not stoop to conquer—he\nsoared. He was fitted for the stage. He had a thoughtful face, a vibrant\nvoice and the pose of chivalry, and besides he had patience, industry,\ncourage and the genius of success.\n\nHe was a graceful and striking Bassanio, a thoughtful Hamlet, an intense\nOthello, a marvelous Harebell, and the best Cassius of his century.\n\nIn the drama of human life, all are actors, and no one knows his part.\nIn this great play the scenes are shifted by unknown forces, and the\ncommencement, plot and end are still unknown—are still unguessed. One\nby one the players leave the stage, and others take their places. There\nis no pause—the play goes on. No prompter's voice is heard, and no one\nhas the slightest clue to what the next scene is to be.\n\nWill this great drama have an end? Will the curtain fall at last? Will\nit rise again upon some other stage? Reason says perhaps, and Hope still\nwhispers yes. Sadly I bid my friend farewell, I admired the actor, and I\nloved the man.\n"
}