s caught in the flare of a patriotic emotion, it
is difficult for an actor to draw them back effectively to the main
currents of his story. We have Ludlow's statement to the effect that
Burke's version was not unlike that produced by him as early as 1828-29,
in the middle West. Could it have had any relationship to the manuscript
by Kerr?

In Philadelphia, at the Walnut Street Theatre, on October 30, 1829,
William Chapman appeared as _Rip_, supported by Elizabeth and J. (probably
John) Jefferson. Winter suggests that the dramatization may have been
Ludlow's, or it may have been the first draft of Kerr's. Though it is
generally conceded that the latter play was the one used by James
H. Hackett, in a letter received by the Editor from Mr. James K. Hackett,
it is suggested that his father made his own version, a statement not
proved, but substantiated by Winter.

The piece was given by Hackett, at the Park Theatre, New York, on
August 22, 1830, and Sol Smith, in his "Theatrical Management in the West
and South," declares, "I should despair of finding a man or woman in an
audience of five hundred, who could hear [his] utterance of five words in
the second act, 'But she was mine vrow' without experiencing some moisture
in the eyes." While the _Galaxy_, in a later year, for February, 1868,
states: "His _Rip Van Winkle_ is far nearer the ordinary conception of the
good-for-nothing Dutchman than Mr. Jefferson's, whose performance is
praised so much for its naturalness." The statement, by Oliver Bell Bunce,
is followed by this stricture against Jefferson: "Jefferson, indeed, is a
good example of our modern art. His naturalness, his unaffected methods,
his susceptible temperament, his subtleties of humour and pathos are
appreciated and applauded, yet his want of breadth and tone sometimes
renders his performance feeble and flavourless." On the day before its
presentment by Hackett, the New York _Evening Post_ contained the
following notice:

Park Theatre, Mr. Hackett's Benefit. Thursday, 22d inst. First
night of Rip Van Winkle and second night of Down East.--Mr. Hackett
has the pleasure of announcing to his friends and the public that
his Benefit is fixed for Thursday next, 22d inst., when will be
produced for the first time the new drama of "Rip Van Winkle; or,
The Legend of the Kaatskill Mountains"--(founded on Washington
Irving's celebrated tale called "Rip Van Winkle")--with appropriate
Du