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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
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