The Stage

                                                     Sonnet To Kate Claxton

Across the mellow footlights can we gaze,

     We of the restless, pleasure-seeking throng,

     And catch a glimpse, as each scene glides along,

Of other lives; of distant shores; the blaze

Of battlefields, heroic deeds; the ways

Of days long past, with all their hope and fear.

     Acted? Ah! yes; but for the time made real

     By those true masters of the art who feel

Their parts and strive to elevate their sphere.

And thou, sweet namesake, sweet Louise,

Hast done thy share to elevate and please;

     And would that I, who love poetic art,

     Which holdeth by the hand the player’s part,

Could pen to thee more fitting lines than these.

April 24, ‘94

Pub. in B. Courier,

April 29, ‘94

Kate Claxton (August 24, 1848 – May 5, 1924) was an American actress, born Kate Elizabeth Cone at Somerville, New Jersey, to Spencer Wallace Cone and Josephine Martinez. She made her first appearance on the stage in Chicago with Lotta Crabtree in 1870, and in the same year joined Augustin Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York. In 1872 she became a member of A. M. Palmer's Union Square Theatre, playing largely comedy roles. She created the part of Louise in The Two Orphans and then became known as one of the best emotional actresses of her time. Her first starring tour was in 1876. In 1878 she was married to Charles A. Stevenson.

She was performing the play The Two Orphans at the Brooklyn Theatre (Brooklyn, New York), on the night of December 5, 1876 when fire broke out eventually killing 278 persons. It was, and still remains, one of the greatest fires in New York City history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Claxton