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HENRY IRVING
face is found to be singularly well adapted,
within the limits which will presently be
shown, to the indication of fear, disgust,
suspicion, malice, envy, superstition, and
hatred, and to be incomparably well fitted
for the expression of dignity, reserve, and
melancholy. It is capable of gentle but
not poignant pathos, of a certain sort of
unmirthful intellectual mirth, and scarcely
at all of heroic scorn, wrath, frenzy, de-
spair, or exaltation. Mr. Irving uses ges-
ture sparingly, — a fault, if it be a fault
at all, which is near akin to a virtue, —
and not in such a way as to contribute to
the vivacity or significance of his text
a statement which at once demands quali-
fication in favor of some half dozen bits
of brilliant or beautiful illustrative ges-
ture which I can recall, and nearly all of
which are divided between Hamlet and
Shylock. In the art of fencing, if one
may judge by the duel of Hamlet with
Laertes, Mr. Irving is a master j and the
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