also upon the
dramatic pieces used by Flynn and Parsons. The date of the first essayal
of the part in New York was January 7, 1850, at the New National Theatre.
But, during the previous year, he went with the play to the Philadelphia
Arch Street Theatre, where his half-brother, Joseph, appeared with him in
the ri?1/2le of _Seth_. Durang, however, disagrees with this date, giving it
under the heading of the "Summer Season of 1850 at the Arch Street
Theatre," and the specific time as August 19. In his short career Burke
won an enviable position as an actor. "He had an eye and a face," wrote
Joe Jefferson, "that told their meaning before he spoke, a voice that
seemed to come from the heart itself, penetrating--but melodious." He was
slender, emaciated, sensitive,--and full of lively response to things. Like
all of the Jeffersons, he was a born comedian, and critics concede that W.
E. Burton feared his rivalry. Between Burke and his half-brother, there
was a profound attraction; they had "barn stormed" together, and through
Burke's consideration it was that Joe was first encouraged and furthered
in Philadelphia. Contrasting Burton and Burke, Jefferson wrote in his
"Autobiography:"

Burton coloured highly, and laid on the effects with a liberal
brush, while Burke was subtle, incisive and refined. Burton's
features were strong and heavy, and his figure was portly and
ungainly. Burke was lithe and graceful. His face was plain, but
wonderfully expressive. The versatility of this rare actor was
remarkable, his pathos being quite as striking a feature as his
comedy. {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} His dramatic effects sprung more from intuition than
from study; and, as was said of Barton Booth, "the blind might
have seen him in his voice, and the deaf have heard him in his
visage."

But the height of Jefferson's praise was reached when he said: "Charles
Burke was to acting what Mendelssohn was to music. He did not have to work
for his effects, as I do; he was not analytical, as I am. Whatever he did
came to him naturally, as grass grows or water runs; it was not talent
that informed his art, but genius."

Such was the comedian who next undertook the ri?1/2le of _Rip_. How often
his own phrase, "Are we so soon forgot," has been applied to the actor and
his art! The only preservative we have of this art is either in individual
expressions of opinion or else in contemporary criticism. Fortunate