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Henry Irving's Shakespearean Productions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Edward M. Moore
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Extract

Henry Irving was by far the most celebrated actor during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. He had few rivals, and literally none in Britain. But I believe no other actor has caused such extensive and continual controversy regarding his genius. From the beginning of his triumph, shortly after he joined the company of Hezekiah Bateman at the Lyceum in 1871, until long after his death in 1905, his devotees claimed for him a place among the greats of the past: Alleyn, Burbage, Betterton, Garrick, Edmund Kean; indeed, the claim is still occasionally heard today. No less a man of the theater than Gordon Craig wrote, twenty-five years after Irving's death, “I have never known of, or seen, or heard of, a greater actor than was Irving.” Certainly Irving made the Lyceum the most celebrated theater in England, and not even his severest critics denied his status as the head of his profession. He was the first actor in history to be knighted, and he was given burial in Westminster Abbey. And yet, the best critics of the day were from the first almost unanimous in their condemnation of his acting, and, after he took over the management of the Lyceum in 1878, of his productions. With none of the other “greats” of the stage was there any such distinguished chorus of dissent. A glance at the list of parts Irving performed and plays he produced reveals that he did nothing—absolutely nothing—for contemporary drama.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , November 1976 , pp. 195 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1976

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References

1 Henry Irving (New York, 1930), p. 1Google Scholar.

2 Irving, Laurence, Henry Irving: The Actor and his World (New York, 1952), pp. 662–663Google Scholar. Irving claimed that Ainger had later regretted the article. It was not republished.

3 Theatrical Notes (London, 1893), p. 4Google Scholar (from a review of the original 1874 production in the Atheneum).

4 Sprague, A.C., Shakespeare and the Actors (Cambridge, Mass., 1944), pp. 149–150CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 The first detail is from a promptbook made by I. H. Allen in 1877, in Houghton Library, catalogue number T S 2272.75 (Shattuck, Hamlet, 90). The second is from Irving's own marked studybook in Houghton Library, uncatalogued (Shattuck, Hamlet, 91); the text of this latter is an 1873 Clarendon Press edition of the play, though the markings are obviously later than the promptbook, in that the Ophelia scenes are not as heavily cut—that is, the studybook must have been made after Ellen Terry joined Irving's company late in 1878. Uncited references in the following discussion are to the studybook. Line numbers throughout are to The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. Evans, G. Blakemore (Boston, 1974)Google Scholar.

6 Sprague, Shakespeare and the Actors, p. 134.

7 Stoker, Bram, Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (New York, 1906), I, 76Google Scholar.

8 Promptbook.

9 The Story of My Life (London, 1908), pp. 130–131Google Scholar.

10 Theatrical Notes, p. 246.

11 Hamlet … as Arranged for the Stage by Henry Irving (London, 1879), pp. ix–xGoogle Scholar. The Preface was written by Irving's friend and collaborator Frank A. Marshall.

12 George Bernard Shaw, Letter to Ellen Terry, 23 September 1896, in John, Christopher St., ed., Ellen Terry and Bernard Shaw: A Correspondence (New York, 1932), p. 59Google Scholar. He is speaking with specific reference to Irving. Granville-Barker makes the same point in a letter to John Gielgud, 15 October 1937, in Purdom, C. B., Harley Granville-Barker (London 1955), pp. 253–255Google Scholar.

13 Quoted in Sprague, p. 105.

14 Quoted in Terry, p. 129.

15 The Drama of Yesterday and Today (London, 1899), II, 59Google Scholar.

16 Terry, p. 128.

17 Review in Theatre, quoted in Odell, George C. D., Shakespeare from Betterton to Irving (New York, 1920), II, 418–419Google Scholar.

18 Laurence Irving, p. 646.

19 Ibid., p. 357.

20 Shakespeare on the Stage (New York, 1911–1916), I, 175Google Scholar.

21 Ibid., p. 139.

22 Ibid., p. 190.

23 In Houghton Library, uncatalogued (Shattuck, Merchant of Venice, 57).

24 Laurence Irving, p. 340.

25 Sprague, A. C.. Shakespearean Players and Performances (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), pp. 113–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Richard Mansfield entered the house and gave “a yell of surprise and agony,” then rushed out amid “the hoots of the delighted Christians.” Shakespeare and the Actors, p. 23. Nat Goodwin (in 1901) retained this cry inside the house but appeared outside “distraught and dishevelled, bearing in his hand a letter.” Crosse, Gordon, Shakespearean Playgoing 1892–1952 (London, 1953), p. 39Google Scholar. Tree, not to be outdone by anybody, repeatedly called out “Jessica” from inside the house, becoming more and more hysterical, then rushed out through the streets, watched a gondola pass by, and finally threw himself on the ground in a paroxysm of grief and anger and poured ashes on his head. Trewin, J. C., Shakespeare on the English Stage, 1900–1964 (London, 1964), p. 41Google Scholar.

27 Nights at the Play (London, 1883), II, 225Google Scholar.

28 Knight, p. 303.

29 Laurence Irving, pp. 343–344.

30 Terry, p. 163.

31 These notes are taken from Irving's studybook.

32 In a review of Richelieu (1873) in the Observer, quoted in Laurence Irving, p. 237.

33 The Art of Acting (New York, 1926), p. 12Google Scholar.

34 Henry Irving, Actor and Manager: A Critical Study (London [1883]), p. 61Google Scholar.

35 Henry Irving, pp. 55 ff.

36 Reminiscences of a Dramatic Critic (Boston, 1902), p. 223Google Scholar.

37 The phrase is Shaw's, in the “Preface” to Ellen Terry and Bernard Shaw: A Correspondence, p. xx.

38 Irving had played Othello under Bateman's management in 1876, and also failed.

39 Knight, pp. 102–103.

40 In Houghton Library, uncatalogued (Shattuck, Othello, 73).

41 Laurence Irving, p. 376.

42 Quoted in Sprague, Shakespearean Players and Performances, p. 125. Irving's written remarks on the character are inconsistent with the way he played it; such a state of affairs is not unusual with actors. “My Four Favorite Parts,” The Forum, XVI (09 1893), 36Google Scholar. For a fuller treatment see Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of Othello, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961), pp. 77–79, 126–128Google Scholar.

43 Laurence Irving, pp. 379, 382.

44 Byrne, M. St. Clare, “Charles Kean and the Meininger Myth,” Theatre Research: Recherches Theatricals, 6 (1964), 137–153Google Scholar.

45 See Merchant, W. M., Shakespeare and the Artist (London, 1959), pp. 142–143Google Scholar.

46 Scott, Clement, From “The Bells” to “King Arthur” (London, 1896), p. 233Google Scholar.

47 Stoker, I, 98–99.

48 Laurence Irving, p. 388.

49 Scott, , From “The Bells” to “King Arthur,” p. 234Google Scholar.

50 Ellen Terry, p. 214.

51 Laurence Irving, p. 389.

52 Scott, , From “The Bells” to “King Arthur” pp. 235, 238Google Scholar.

53 Ibid., p. 235.

54 Ellen Terry, p. 215.

55 Odell, II, 402.

56 Scott, , From “The Bells” to “King Arthur” p. 235, 236Google Scholar.

57 The Scenic Art, ed. Wade, Allan (New York, 1957), p. 164Google Scholar.

58 Laurence Irving, pp. 401–402.

59 Scott, , From “The Bells” to “King Arthur,” p. 251Google Scholar.

60 Ellen Terry, p. 163. In Four Lectures on Shakespeare (London, 1932), p. 96Google Scholar, Miss Terry gives a strikingly different version, in which the offensive “gag” was Beatrice's saying at the end of the scene, “Kiss my hand again” with appropriate stage business.

61 Irving, Henry, King Lear as Arranged for the Stage (London, 1893), p. 5Google Scholar.

62 From a review in the Times, 11 November 1892, in Odell, II, 446.

63 See the long review by Russell, E. R. in Nineteenth Century, reprinted in “King Lear” at the Lyceum: Some Extracts from the Press (London, 1893), pp. 5–14Google Scholar. Similarly, in Macbeth Irving appeared much older and with grey hair in the final act, as the chronicles established that many years had elapsed. A note in his preparation copy (Houghton Library, uncatalogued [Shattuck, Macbeth, 92]) reads “Lapse of years—change all beards.”

64 Review in Daily News, in “King Lear” at the Lyceum, p. 25.

65 Review in Daily Chronicle, ibid., p. 29.

66 Sprague, , Shakespeare and the Actors, p. 284Google Scholar.

67 Scott, , From “The Bells” to “King Arthur,” p. 349Google Scholar.

68 Irving, , King Lear as Arranged for the Stage, p. 5Google Scholar.

69 “Henry Irving” (1905) in Pen Portraits and Reviews (London, 1932) pp. 162, 163Google Scholar.

70 The Life of Henry Irving (London, 1908), I, 189Google Scholar. For a fuller treatment of Irving's conception of the role, see Bartholomeusz, Dennis, Macbeth and the Players (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 196 ffGoogle Scholar.

71 In the 1875 production, opposite Kate Bateman, the conception was in all essentials the same. He and Miss Terry were strongly influenced by George Fletcher's study of the characters in Studies of Shakespeare (London, 1847)Google Scholar—see Laurence Irving, p. 499.

72 Terry, p. 303.

73 Archer, William, The Theatrical World of 1896 (London, 1897), pp. 275–276Google Scholar.

74 Laurence Irving, p. 282.

75 Shaw, G. B., Our Theatres in the Nineties (London, 1932), II, 286Google Scholar.

76 Pen Portraits and Reviews, p. 163.

77 Ibid., p. 164. Attilio Favorini tells me there is an “extant recording of what is purportedly Irving delivering one of Wolsey's speeches from Henry VIII” at the Historical Sound Recordings Collection in the Sterling Library at Yale. I have not been able to hear this recording.

78 Odell, II, 414–415.

79 Phelps, W. May and Forbes-Robertson, John, The Life and Work of Samuel Phelps (London, 1886), p. 13Google Scholar.

80 See Downer, Alan, “Players and Painted Stage—Nineteenth Century Acting,” PMLA 61, 2 (06 1946), 522–576CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 James described Irving's acting as that “of a very superior amateur,” and claimed that “in declamation he is decidedly flat; his voice is without charm, and his utterance without subtlety.” Lacking any voice, three-fourths of his obligations as an actor “are simply conceded. What is left to him with the remaining fourth is to be ‘picturesque’ … and you cannot play Shakespeare by being simply picturesque.” The Scenic Art, pp. 36–37, 104–105.

82 Our Theatres. III, 206Google Scholar.

83 Saturday Review, 11 04 1908, 461–462Google Scholar.

84 “The Dying Tongue of Great Elizabeth,” in West, E. J., ed., Shaw on Theatre (New York, 1959), pp. 96–106Google Scholar.

85 Review in Theatre (November 1884).