His absence left an opening Edwin was able to exploit—the old greats dead or gone—and only Edwin at the gate. If this opening was mere luck, the use Edwin made of it was the product of hard work and careful planning, not all of it his own. Two other people—Adam Badeau and Mary Devlin—devoted themselves to Edwin’s advancement.

Adam Badeau:

Since that encouraging review back in his first New York run, Edwin and Badeau have grown close. Adam refers to them as Romeo and Vagabond, Edwin calls them Ned and Ad. Adam is older than Edwin by only two years, but he’s better educated, more sophisticated, better connected, and smarter. He’s a short man, as is Edwin, but stout and ruddy where Edwin is thin and pale. He wears glasses. His clothes show the kind of subdued taste that only money can buy. His offer to mentor Edwin is eagerly accepted. Soon Edwin is studying French and Latin for elocution, history and philosophy for interpretation.

“You know he’s in love with you,” Uncle Ben tells Edwin and Edwin does know this. Adam often complains of Edwin’s emotional distance, his coldness, as if Adam has a right to something different. Sometimes this makes Edwin uncomfortable. Sometimes he loves Adam right back.

The two spend hours discussing the state of the theater. The old ranting, referred to now as the Bowery style, remains popular in the cheap seats, but the upper classes want subtlety. “No acting is great which pleases only a single class,” Adam tells Edwin. “The gods of the gallery are as good critics as the blues of the boxes.” Still, the professionals, including Badeau, are working to transform the popular taste. Sometimes people have to be taught to want what they should want.

The war will intensify the growing preference for suppressed over expressed emotion, especially when the suppression comes with evident (though delicately played) struggle.

Badeau admires innovation. He longs to see something new. This desire is, in and of itself, innovative. For years, actors have been applauded for imitation. Every part, however old now, had once debuted with the author there to provide guidance. The less things change over the generations, the closer a performance comes to the wellspring, the true quill. Shakespeare as directed by Shakespeare.

As rewritten by Cibber. Adam and Edwin begin to put more of Shakespeare’s own lines back into his plays. This, too, is innovative.

Adam takes Edwin to libraries and museums to research costumes. They read plays together, stopping to analyze who the character is at each moment, how he develops over the course of the play, and how a quiet line might be read to convey this.