Many shortcomings will doubtless be found in this book, and readers of it who are old play-goers may think of many things the author has missed. But we are told by Ruskin that there is "no purpose so great but that slight actions may help it," and by Wordsworth that "Small service is true service while it lasts." DECEMBER, 1884. W. L. K. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. WILLIAM E. BURTON _Frontispiece_ MR. BURTON AS BOB ACRES 10 MR. BURTON AS DR. OLLAPOD 24 PALMO'S OPERA-HOUSE, AFTERWARDS BURTON'S THEATRE 34 MR. BURTON AS CAPTAIN CUTTLE 56 MR. BURTON AS TIMOTHY TOODLES 94 MR. BURTON AS AMINADAB SLEEK 154 CONTENTS. PAGE WILLIAM E. BURTON, 1804-1834 3 WILLIAM E. BURTON, 1834-1848 8 BURTON IN NEW YORK, 1848-1856 33 BURTON IN NEW YORK, 1856-1860 100 LIST OF CHARACTERS 111 RECOLLECTIONS 121 MR. BURTON IN FARCE 128 MR. BURTON IN PARTS HE MADE SPECIALLY FAMOUS 141 MR. BURTON IN COMEDY AND SHAKESPEARE 158 MR. BURTON'S LIBRARY 179 CONCLUSION 207 INDEX 213 WILLIAM E. BURTON. 1804-1860. "_He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his great right to be so._"--SHAKESPEARE. WILLIAM E. BURTON. 1804-1834. WILLIAM EVANS BURTON, the son of William George Burton, an author of some repute, was born in London, September 24, 1804, and died in New York, February 10, 1860. His father was a printer, with a bent of mind toward theology, and gave expression to his views in a work entitled "Biblical Researches," published in the close of the last century. The son was classically educated in St. Paul's School in London, an institution where, before his day, Elliston and the elder Mathews were instructed; and the father's design was to prepare him for the ministry. The parent's death, however, summoned him from his studies, and, at the age of eighteen, he assumed the direction of the printing-office, which he managed for the maintenance of his mother. It may be observed that one of the specialties of the elder Burton's business was the printing of classical works, and the son's knowledge had often been of service in the matter of proof-reading. From the printing-office he was led to the experiment of editing a monthly magazine, thus early revealing an inclination toward the profession of letters which never wholly deserted him; fostered by sundry efforts of authorship in his native land, and appearing subsequently, in this country, in his conduct of "The Gentleman's Magazine" and "Literary Souvenir," and in the compilation known as "Burton's Cyclopædia of Wit and Humor."