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.