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A DRAMATIC CRITIC have given, on the whole, more complete satisfaction and refined pleasure, than any others which the American stage has ever known. The criticism which precedes this para- graph was printed in the Atlantic Monthly of March, 1884, a few months after Mr. Irving's first appearances in this country. Since that time he has had several seasons in America, and our theatre-attenders and critics have had many opportunities to consider and reconsider the quality of his art. Rereading my essay, I have decided to reprint it with no substantial change, inasmuch as I find that no substantial change of my opinions has taken place ad interim^ though my general summing-up would now be less favorable to Mr. Irving than then it was. In the class of actors worthy to be entitled ^' great," I know of no other player than he whose appeal is effec- C 230 ]
HENRY IRVING tual with the spectator ahnost wholly through the sense of the picturesque, or through what a writer of the eighteenth century would denominate the softer sen- sibilities. Neither in the view nor the retrospect does his acting make the blood jump, deeply stir the heart, or produce any of the higher emotions: one remembers him principally as a crisper of the nerves and a pleaser or tingler of the retina. The more important characters added to Mr. Irving's repertory in this country since he first pla3'ed here are Dr. Primrose in Mr. Wills's dramatic version of The Vicar of Wakefield; Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust, reconstructed for the modern Brit- ish market; Robespierre ;n Sardou's melo- dramatic tragedy of that name; and Mac- beth. The writer manifestly underrated the artist's courage, inasmuch as Mr. Irving did perform both King Lear and Macbeth in England, and made the latter character the prime feature of a recent >* [ 231 ]
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A DRAMATIC CRITIC<br />
have given, on the whole, more complete<br />
satisfaction and refined pleasure, than any<br />
others which the American stage has ever<br />
known.<br />
The criticism which precedes this para-<br />
graph was printed in the Atlantic Monthly<br />
of March, 1884, a few months after Mr.<br />
Irving's first appearances in this country.<br />
Since that time he has had several seasons<br />
in America, and our theatre-attenders and<br />
critics have had many opportunities to<br />
consider and reconsider the quality of his<br />
art. Rereading my essay, I have decided<br />
to reprint it with no substantial change,<br />
inasmuch as I find that no substantial<br />
change of my opinions has taken place ad<br />
interim^ though my general summing-up<br />
would now be less favorable to Mr. Irving<br />
than then it was. In the class of actors<br />
worthy to be entitled ^' great," I know of no<br />
other player than he whose appeal is effec-<br />
C<br />
230 ]
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