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XX
Henry Irving
TO say that of all the actors who
have appeared in this country Mr.
Irving is the hardest to criticise
fairly and intelligently is to state a vexa-
tious truth with extreme moderation. The
leading English critics, after years of famil-
iarity with his acting, are still puzzled by
it, and find a difficult}^, which seems al-
most exactly proportioned to their acute-
ness and candor, in analyzing it and in
accounting for its effects. And the pro-
blem is complicated, or appears to be
complicated, for Americans by the intro-
duction of a peculiar factor: this is the
necessity, immediately imposed upon us by
Mr. Irving and his friends, of setting off
our knowledge of his slowly won success
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