Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn: Chapters of Poetry & Prose | Page 14

Stories Behind the Stones:
A Fox By Any Other Name
by Lauren Marsh and Katie Robinson
In a pretty little nook on Ailanthus Path sits
the Howard and Fox family lot. Many of the epitaphs, which
are familiar lines from Shakespearean plays, may seem odd if
one is not aware that there were several actors in these two
prominent thespian families.
Charles Kemble Fox (1833-1875) began his career
when he was six years old at the Tremont Theatre where
his father was the property-man, though most of his stage
training was received in Providence, R.I., with his other
siblings. He acted for one hundred nights in Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, produced by his cousin, George Aiken. On his mon-
ument are a few famous lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
“A walking shadow/A poor player/That struts and frets/
His hour upon the stage.”
Charles’ more famous older brother, George Washington
Lafayette Fox (1825-1877), was a renowned comic actor,
most known for playing Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream and Hamlet in a farce version of the play that was
much enjoyed by fellow actor Edwin Booth (see page 16),
famous for his “straight” rendition of that coveted role.
After playing Humpty Dumpty an alleged 1,268 times in
New York alone, George became celebrated as the leading
American pantomimist. Appropriate for the headstone of
such a comedian, his monument reads a verse from Hamlet:
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“Alas poor Yorick/I knew him, Horatio,/A fellow of infinite
jest/Of most excellent fancy.”
Perhaps the most somber monument in the lot belongs
to George’s daughter, Emily Caroline, who died at 13 years,
in 1861. On her monument, a line from Macbeth: “Out!
Out! Brief candle!” followed by a lovely passage paraphrased
from Cymbeline:
Fear no more the heat of the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done;
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages;
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning flash,
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finish’d joy and moan:
The scepter, learning, physic must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Howard and Fox family lot on Ailanthus Path