Sargent's Portrait of Edwin Booth at "The Players"

The Sisters' Tragedy

by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

That face which no man ever saw
And from his memory banished
quite,
With eyes in which are Hamlet's awe
And Cardinal
Richelieu's subtle light,
Looks from this frame. A master's
hand
Has set the master-player here,
In the fair temple that
he planned
Not for himself. To us most dear
This image of
him! "It was thus
He looked; such pallor touched his cheek;

With that same grace he greeted us--
Nay, 'tis the man, could it
but speak!"
Sad words that shall be said some day--
Far fall
the day! O cruel Time,
Whose breath sweeps mortal things
away,
Spare long this image of his prime,
That others
standing in the place
Where, save as ghosts, we come no more,

May know what sweet majestic face
The gentle Prince of Players
wore!