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HENRY IRVING
against any lively dissatisfaction which
may attend our early impressions of his per-
formance. His great success is indeed not
to be doubted; but the amplest knowledge
on this head will include the facts that
even in England there are a small number
of persons, of a high intellectual order, who
detest and abhor his playing, and that every-
where, in the best English society, "to
admire him without reserve is held eccen-
tric to the verge of affectation." As for the
deprecation which is used by Mr. Irving's
admirers to quench the anticipated violence
of our first displeasure, surely the like of
it was never before known in the case
of an actor. " Be patient with his manner-
isms" is the innocent and slender phrase
employed; but this is presently found to
bear an awful burden of meaning. We
find that we are asked to forgive, under
the name of mannerisms, sins which we
have always accounted unpardonable in a
dramatic artist. It is much, it seems at first
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