Joseph Jefferson

“ Jefferson's was to arrange that in his interview with the dwarfs no voice but Rip's was to be heard, thus imparting a more lonely and desolate character to the scene.
While the supernatural interest is, therefore, made more definite there is a growth also in the depth of the human interest. Fewer characters are introduced, and consequently there is more time to develop the relations of Rip, his wife and his daughter. The language owes little to the earlier version—outside of a few phrases in the last act, when Rip enters the village, the speeches are practically all different. ”

“ During his early years, his family moved from place to place, and in 1849 he came to New York, acting at Chanfrau's New National Theatre. After several ventures and a trip to Europe in 1856 he joined Laura Keene's Company in New York. Here he became famous for his performance of "Asa Trenchard" in Our American Cousin, in 1857, the play afterwards known as Lord Dundreary. In 1861 he sailed for Australia and spent four years there, going to London in 1865, and acting "Rip Van Winkle" as above described. ”

“ A National Drama, Philadelphia, n. d. is hard to obtain. The version by Charles Burke, Rip Van Winkle, a Legend of the Catskills, was published by Samuel French as No. CLXXIV, of their "Standard Drama."
Joseph Jefferson was a member of the fourth generation of a family of actors who have borne prominent parts in theatrical history. Thomas Jefferson (1728?-1807) his great-grandfather, an English actor, was the first of the line, and his son, the first Joseph Jefferson (1774-1832) , came to this country in 1795, and after a short season in Boston, acted in New York until 1803. ”