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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13483-0.txt b/13483-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a65b99 --- /dev/null +++ b/13483-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2682 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13483 *** + +THE DRAMA + +Addresses by + +HENRY IRVING + +With a Frontispiece By Whistler + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. The Stage as it is + + II. The Art of Acting + + III. Four Great Actors + + IV. The Art of Acting + + + + +LECTURE + +SESSIONAL OPENING + +PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION + +EDINBURGH + +8 NOVEMBER 1881 + + + + +THE STAGE AS IT IS. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +You will not be surprised that, on this interesting occasion, I have +selected as the subject of the few remarks I propose to offer you, +"The Stage as it is." The stage--because to my profession I owe it +that I am here, and every dictate of taste and of fidelity impels me +to honor it; the stage as it is--because it is very cheap and empty +honor that is paid to the drama in the abstract, and withheld from the +theatre as a working institution in our midst. Fortunately there is +less of this than there used to be. It arose partly from intellectual +superciliousness, partly from timidity as to moral contamination. To +boast of being able to appreciate Shakespeare more in reading him than +in seeing him acted used to be a common method of affecting special +intellectuality. I hope this delusion--a gross and pitiful one as to +most of us--has almost absolutely died out. It certainly conferred a +very cheap badge of superiority on those who entertained it. It seemed +to each of them an inexpensive opportunity of worshipping himself on +a pedestal. But what did it amount to? It was little more than a +conceited and feather-headed assumption that an unprepared reader, +whose mind is usually full of far other things, will see on the +instant all that has been developed in hundreds of years by the +members of a studious and enthusiastic profession. My own conviction +is, that there are few characters or passages of our great dramatists +which will not repay original study. But at least we must recognize +the vast advantages with which a practised actor, impregnated by the +associations of his life, and by study--with all the practical and +critical skill of his profession up to the date at which he appears, +whether he adopts or rejects tradition--addresses himself to the +interpretation of any great character, even if he have no originality +whatever. There is something still more than this, however, in acting. +Every one who has the smallest histrionic gift has a natural dramatic +fertility; so that as soon as he knows the author's text, and obtains +self-possession, and feels at home in a part without being too +familiar with it, the mere automatic action of rehearsing and playing +it at once begins to place the author in new lights, and to give the +personage being played an individuality partly independent of, and +yet consistent with, and rendering more powerfully visible, the +dramatist's conception. It is the vast power a good actor has in this +way which has led the French to speak of creating a part when they +mean its being first played; and French authors are so conscious of +the extent and value of this co-operation of actors with them, that +they have never objected to the phrase, but, on the contrary, are +uniformly lavish in their homage to the artists who have created on +the boards the parts which they themselves have created on paper. + +I must add, as an additional reason for valuing the theatre, that +while there is only one Shakespeare, and while there are comparatively +few dramatists who are sufficiently classic to be read with close +attention, there is a great deal of average dramatic work excellently +suited for representation. From this the public derive pleasure. From +this they receive--as from fiction in literature--a great deal of +instruction and mental stimulus. Some may be worldly, some social, +some cynical, some merely humorous and witty, but a great deal of it, +though its literary merit is secondary, is well qualified to bring +out all that is most fruitful of good in common sympathies. Now, it +is plain that if, because Shakespeare is good reading, people were to +give the cold shoulder to the theatre, the world would lose all the +vast advantage which comes to it through the dramatic faculty in forms +not rising to essentially literary excellence. As respects the other +feeling which used to stand more than it does now in the way of the +theatre--the fear of moral contamination--it is due to the theatre of +our day, on the one hand, and to the prejudices of our grandfathers on +the other, to confess that the theatre of fifty years ago or less did +need reforming in the audience part of the house. All who have read +the old controversy as to the morality of going to the theatre are +familiar with the objection to which I refer. But the theatre of fifty +years ago or less was reformed. If there are any, therefore, as I fear +there are a few, who still talk on this point in the old vein, let +them rub their eyes a bit, and do us the justice to consider not what +used to be, but what is. But may there be moral contamination from +what is performed on the stage? Well, there may be. But so there is +from books. So there may be at lawn tennis clubs. So there may be at +dances. So there may be in connection with everything in civilized +life and society. But do we therefore bury ourselves? The anchorites +secluded themselves in hermitages. The Puritans isolated themselves in +consistent abstinence from everything that anybody else did. And there +are people now who think that they can keep their children, and that +those children will keep themselves in after life, in cotton wool, so +as to avoid all temptation of body and mind, and be saved nine-tenths +of the responsibility of self-control. All this is mere phantasy. You +must be in the world, though you need not be of it; and the best way +to make the world a better community to be in, and not so bad a place +to be of, is not to shun, but to bring public opinion to bear upon +its pursuits and its relaxations. Depend upon two things--that the +theatre, as a whole, is never below the average moral sense of the +time; and that the inevitable demand for an admixture, at least, of +wholesome sentiment in every sort of dramatic production brings the +ruling tone of the theatre, whatever drawback may exist, up to the +highest level at which the general morality of the time can truly be +registered. We may be encouraged by the reflection that this is truer +than ever it was before, owing to the greater spread of education, the +increased community of taste between classes, and the almost absolute +divorce of the stage from mere wealth and aristocracy. Wealth and +aristocracy come around the stage in abundance, and are welcome, as in +the time of Elizabeth; but the stage is no longer a mere appendage of +court-life, no longer a mere mirror of patrician vice hanging at the +girdle of fashionable profligacy as it was in the days of Congreve and +Wycherley. It is now the property of the educated people. It has +to satisfy them or pine in neglect And the better their demands the +better will be the supply with which the drama will respond. +This being not only so, but seen to be so, the stage is no longer +proscribed. It is no longer under a ban. Its members are no longer +pariahs in society. They live and bear their social part like +others--as decorously observant of all that makes the sweet sanctities +of life--as gracefully cognizant of its amenities--as readily +recognized and welcomed as the members of any other profession. Am +I not here your grateful guest, opening the session of this +philosophical and historic institution? I who am simply an actor, +an interpreter, with such gifts as I have, and such thought as I +can bestow, of stage plays. And am I not received here with perfect +cordiality on an equality, not hungrily bowing and smirking for +patronage, but interchanging ideas which I am glad to express, and +which you listen to as thoughtfully and as kindly as you would to +those of any other student, any other man who had won his way +into such prominence as to come under the ken of a distinguished +institution such as that which I have the honor to address? I do not +mince the matter as to my personal position here, because I feel it +is a representative one, and marks an epoch in the estimation in +which the art I love is held by the British world. You have had many +distinguished men here, and their themes have often been noble, but +with which of those themes has not my art immemorial and perpetual +associations? Is it not for ever identified with the noblest instincts +and occupations of the human mind? If I think of poetry, must I not +remember how to the measure of its lofty music the theatre has in +almost all ages set the grandest of dramatic conceptions? If I think +of literature, must I not recall that of all the amusements by which +men in various states of society have solaced their leisure and +refreshed their energies, the acting of plays is the one that has +never yet, even for a day, been divorced from literary taste and +skill? If I meditate on patriotism, can I but reflect how grandly the +boards have been trod by personifications of heroic love of country? +There is no subject of human thought that by common consent is deemed +ennobling that has not ere now, and from period to period, been +illustrated in the bright vesture, and received expression from the +glowing language of theatrical representation. And surely it is +fit that, remembering what the stage has been and must be, I should +acknowledge eagerly and gladly that, with few exceptions, the public +no longer debar themselves from the profitable pleasures of the +theatre, and no longer brand with any social stigma the professors of +the histrionic art. Talking to an eminent bishop one day, I said to +him, "Now, my Lord, why is it, with your love and knowledge of the +drama, with your deep interest in the stage and all its belongings, +and your wide sympathy with all that ennobles and refines our +natures--why is it that you never go to the theatre?" "Well," said +he, "I'll tell you. I'm afraid of the _Rock_ and the _Record_." I +hope soon we shall relieve even the most timid bishop--and my right +reverend friend is not the most timid--of all fears and tremors +whatever that can prevent even ministers of religion from recognizing +the wisdom of the change of view which has come over even the most +fastidious public opinion on this question. Remember, if you please, +that the hostile public opinion which has lately begun so decisively +to disappear, has been of comparatively modern growth, or at least +revival. The pious and learned of other times gave their countenance +and approbation to the stage of their days, as the pious and learned +of our time give their countenance and approbation to certain +performances in this day. Welcome be the return of good sense, good +taste, and charity, or rather justice. No apology for the stage. None +is needed. It has but to be named to be honored. Too long the world +talked with bated breath and whispering humbleness of "the poor +player." There are now few poor players. Whatever variety of fortune +and merit there may be among them, they have the same degrees of +prosperity and respect as come to members of other avocations. There +never was so large a number of theatres or of actors. And their +type is vastly improved by public recognition. The old days when +good-for-nothings passed into the profession are at an end; and the +old Bohemian habits, so far as they were evil and disreputable, have +also disappeared. The ranks of the art are being continually recruited +by deeply interested and earnest young men of good education and +belongings. Nor let us, while dissipating the remaining prejudices +of outsiders, give quarter to those which linger among players +themselves. There are some who acknowledge the value of improved +status to themselves and their art, but who lament that there are now +no schools for actors. This is a very idle lamentation. Every actor +in full employment gets plenty of schooling, for the best schooling +is practice, and there is no school so good as a well-conducted +playhouse. The truth is, that the cardinal secret of success in acting +are found within, while practice is the surest way of fertilizing +these germs. To efficiency in the art of acting there should come a +congregation of fine qualities. There should be considerable, +though not necessarily systematic, culture. There should be delicate +instincts of taste cultivated, consciously, or unconsciously, to a +degree of extreme and subtle nicety. There should be a power, at once +refined and strong, of both perceiving and expressing to others +the significance of language, so that neither shades nor masses of +meaning, so to speak, may be either lost or exaggerated. Above all, +there should be a sincere and abounding sympathy with all that is good +and great and inspiring. That sympathy, most certainly, must be under +the control and manipulation of art, but it must be none the lest real +and generous, and the artist who is a mere artist will stop short of +the highest moral effects of his craft. Little of this can be got in a +mere training school, but all of it will come forth more or less fully +armed from the actor's brain in the process of learning his art by +practice. For the way to learn to do a thing is to do it; and in +learning to act by acting, though there is plenty of incidental hard +drill and hard work, there is nothing commonplace or unfruitful. + +What is true of the art is true also of the social life of the artist. +No sensational change has been found necessary to alter his status +though great changes have come. The stage has literally lived down +the rebuke and reproach under which it formerly cowered, while its +professors have been simultaneously living down the prejudices which +excluded them from society. The stage is now seen to be an elevating +instead of a lowering influence on national morality, and actors and +actresses receive in society, as do the members of other professions, +exactly the treatment which is earned by their personal conduct. +And so I would say of what we sometimes hear so much about--dramatic +reform. It is not needed; or, if it is, all the reform that is wanted +will be best effected by the operation of public opinion upon the +administration of a good theatre. That is the true reforming agency, +with this great advantage, that reforms which come by public opinion +are sure, while those which come without public opinion cannot be +relied upon. The dramatic reformers are very well-meaning people. They +show great enthusiasm. They are new converts to the theatre, most of +them, and they have the zeal of converts. But it is scarcely according +to knowledge. These ladies and gentlemen have scarcely studied the +conditions of theatrical enterprise, which must be carried on as a +business or it will fail as an art. It is an unwelcome, if not an +unwarrantable intrusion to come among our people with elaborate +advice, and endeavor to make them live after different fashions from +those which are suitable to them, and it will be quite hopeless to +attempt to induce the general body of a purely artistic class to make +louder and more fussy professions of virtue and religion than other +people. In fact, it is a downright insult to the dramatic profession +to exact or to expect any such thing. Equally objectionable, and +equally impracticable, are the attempts of Quixotic "dramatic +reformers" to exercise a sort of goody-goody censorship over the +selection and the text of the plays to be acted. The stage has been +serving the world for hundreds, yes, and thousands of years, during +which it has contributed in pure dramaturgy to the literature of +the world its very greatest master-pieces in nearly all languages, +meanwhile affording to the million an infinity of pleasure, all more +or less innocent. Where less innocent, rather than more, the cause has +lain, not in the stage, but in the state of society of which it was +the mirror. For though the stage is not always occupied with its own +period, the new plays produced always reflect in many particulars +the spirit of the age in which they are played. There is a story of +a traveller who put up for the night at a certain inn, on the door of +which was the inscription--"Good entertainment for man and beast." His +horse was taken to the stable and well cared for, and he sat down +to dine. When the covers were removed he remarked, on seeing his own +sorry fare, "Yes, this is very well; but where's the entertainment for +the man?" If everything were banished from the stage except that +which suits a certain taste, what dismal places our theatres would be! +However fond the play-goer may be of tragedy, if you offer him nothing +but horrors, he may well ask--"Where's the entertainment for the man +who wants an evening's amusement?" The humor of a farce may not seem +over-refined to a particular class of intelligence; but there are +thousands of people who take an honest pleasure in it. And who, after +seeing my old friend J.L. Toole in some of his famous parts, and +having laughed till their sides ached, have not left the theatre more +buoyant and light-hearted than they came? Well, if the stage has +been thus useful and successful all these centuries, and still is +productive; if the noble fascination of the theatre draws to it, as we +know that it does, an immortal poet such as our Tennyson, whom, I can +testify from my own experience, nothing delights more than the success +of one of the plays which, in the mellow autumn of his genius, he has +contributed to the acting theatre; if a great artist like Tadema is +proud to design scenes for stage plays; if in all departments of stage +production we see great talent, and in nearly every instance great +good taste and sincere sympathy with the best popular ideals of +goodness; then, I say, the stage is entitled to be let alone--that +is, it is entitled to make its own bargain with the public without the +censorious intervention of well-intentioned busybodies. These do not +know what to ban or to bless. If they had their way, as of course +they cannot, they would license, with many flourishes and much +self-laudation, a number of pieces which would be hopelessly +condemned on the first hearing, and they would lay an embargo for very +insufficient reasons on many plays well entitled to success. It is not +in this direction that we must look for any improvement that is needed +in the purveying of material for the stage. Believe me, the right +direction is public criticism and public discrimination. I say so +because, beyond question, the public will have what they want. So far, +that managers in their discretion, or at their pleasure, can force on +the public either very good or very bad dramatic material is an utter +delusion. They have no such power. If they had the will they could +only force any particular sort of entertainment just as long as they +had capital to expend without any return. But they really have not the +will. They follow the public taste with the greatest keenness. If the +people want Shakespeare--as I am happy to say they do, at least at one +theatre in London, and at all the great theatres out of London, to +an extent unprecedented in the history of the stage--then they get +Shakespeare. If they want our modern dramatists--Albery, Boucicault, +Byron, Burnand, Gilbert, or Wills--these they have. If they want +Robertson, Robertson is there for them. If they desire opera-bouffe, +depend upon it they will have it, and have it they do. What then do +I infer? Simply this: that those who prefer the higher drama--in the +representation of which my heart's best interests are centred--instead +of querulously animadverting on managers who give them something +different, should, as Lord Beaconsfield said, "make themselves into a +majority." If they do so, the higher drama will be produced. But if we +really understand the value of the drama, we shall not be too rigid in +our exactions. The drama is the art of human nature in picturesque +or characteristic action. Let us be liberal in our enjoyment of it. +Tragedy, comedy, historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical--remember +the large-minded list of the greatest-minded poet--all are good, if +wholesome--and will be wholesome if the public continue to take the +healthy interest in theatres which they are now taking. The worst +times for the stage have been those when play-going was left pretty +much to a loose society, such as is sketched in the Restoration +dramatists. If the good people continue to come to the theatre in +increasing crowds, the stage, without losing any of its brightness, +will soon be good enough, if it is not as yet, to satisfy the best of +them. This is what I believe all sensible people in these times see. +And if, on the one hand, you are ready to laugh at the old prejudices +which have been so happily dissipated; on the other hand, how +earnestly must you welcome the great aid to taste and thought and +culture which comes to you thus in the guise of amusement. Let me put +this to you rather seriously; let me insist on the intellectual and +moral use, alike to the most and least cultivated of us, of this +art "most beautiful, most difficult, most rare," which I stand here +to-day, not to apologize for, but to establish in the high place +to which it is entitled among the arts and among the ameliorating +influences of life. Grant that any of us understand a dramatist better +for seeing him acted, and it follows, first, that all of us will be +most indebted to the stage at the point where the higher and more +ethereal faculties are liable in reading to failure and exhaustion, +that is, stage-playing will be of most use to us where the mind +requires help and inspiration to grasp and revel in lofty moral or +imaginative conceptions, or where it needs aid and sharpening to +appreciate and follow the niceties of repartee, or the delicacies +of comic fancy. Secondly, it follows that if this is so with the +intellectual few, it must be infinitely more so with the unimaginative +many of all ranks. They are not inaccessible to passion and poetry and +refinement, but their minds do not go forth, as it were, to seek these +joys; and even if they read works of poetic and dramatic fancy, which +they rarely do, they would miss them on the printed page. To them, +therefore, with the exception of a few startling incidents of real +life, the theatre is the only channel through which are ever brought +the great sympathies of the world of thought beyond their immediate +ken. And thirdly, it follows from all this that the stage is, +intellectually and morally, to all who have recourse to it, the +source of some of the finest and best influences of which they are +respectively susceptible. To the thoughtful and reading man it brings +the life, the fire, the color, the vivid instinct, which are beyond +the reach of study. To the common indifferent man, immersed, as a +rule, in the business and socialities of daily life, it brings visions +of glory and adventure, of emotion and of broad human interest. It +gives glimpses of the heights and depths of character and experience, +setting him thinking and wondering even in the midst of amusement. To +the most torpid and unobservant it exhibits the humorous in life and +the sparkle and finesse of language, which in dull ordinary existence +is stupidly shut out of knowledge or omitted from particular notice. +To all it uncurtains a world, not that in which they live and yet +not other than it--a world in which interest is heightened whilst the +conditions of truth are observed, in which the capabilities of men and +women are seen developed without losing their consistency to nature, +and developed with a curious and wholesome fidelity to simple and +universal instincts of clear right and wrong. Be it observed--and I +put it most uncompromisingly--I am not speaking or thinking of any +unrealizable ideal, not of any lofty imagination of what might be, but +of what is, wherever there are pit and gallery and foot-lights. More +or less, and taking one evening with another, you may find support +for an enthusiastic theory of stage morality and the high tone of +audiences in most theatres in the country; and if you fancy that it +is least so in the theatres frequented by the poor you make a great +mistake, for in none is the appreciation of good moral fare more +marked than in these. + +In reference to the poorer classes, we all lament the wide prevalence +of intemperate drinking. Well, is it not an obvious reflection that +the worst performance seen on any of our stages cannot be so bad as +drinking for a corresponding time in a gin-palace? I have pointed this +contrast before, and I point it again. The drinking we deplore takes +place in company--bad company; it is enlivened by talk--bad talk. It +is relished by obscenity. Where drink and low people come together +these things must be. The worst that can come of stage pandering to +the corrupt tastes of its basest patrons cannot be anything like this, +and, as a rule, the stage holds out long against the invitation to +pander; and such invitations, from the publicity and decorum that +attend the whole matter, are neither frequent nor eager. A sort of +decency sets in upon the coarsest person in entering even the roughest +theatre. I have sometimes thought that, considering the liability to +descend and the facility of descent, a special Providence watches +over the morals and tone of our English stage. I do not desire to +overcharge the eulogy. There never was a time when the stage had not +conspicuous faults. There never was a time when these were not freely +admitted by those most concerned for the maintenance of the stage +at its best. In Shakespeare, whenever the subject of the theatre is +approached, we perceive signs that that great spirit, though it had +a practical and business-like vein, and essayed no impossible +enterprises, groaned under the necessities, or the demands of a +public which desired frivolities and deformities which jarred upon the +poet-manager's feelings. As we descend the course of time we find that +each generation looked back to a supposed previous period when taste +ranged higher, and when the inferior and offensive peculiarities of +the existing stage were unknown. Yet from most of these generations +we inherit works as well as traditions and biographical recollections +which the world will never let die. The truth is that the immortal +part of the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes +come and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity--associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances--but it never sinks into nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. Heaven forbid that I should seem to cover, even +with a counterpane of courtesy, exhibitions of deliberate immorality. +Happily this sort of thing is not common, and although it has hardly +been practised by any one who, without a strain of meaning can be +associated with the profession of acting, yet public censure, not +active enough to repress the evil, is ever ready to pass a sweeping +condemnation on the stage which harbors it. Our cause is a good one. +We go forth, armed with the luminous panoply which genius has forged +for us, to do battle with dulness, with coarseness, with apathy, +with every form of vice and evil. In every human heart there gleams +a bright reflection of this shining armor. The stage has no lights or +shadows that are not lights of life and shadows of the heart. To each +human consciousness it appeals in alternating mirth and sadness, and +will not be denied. Err it must, for it is human; but, being human, it +must endure. The love of acting is inherent in our nature. Watch your +children play, and you will see that almost their first conscious +effort is to act and to imitate. It is an instinct, and you can no +more repress it than you can extinguish thought. When this instinct +of all is developed by cultivation in the few, it becomes a wonderful +art, priceless to civilization in the solace it yields, the thought it +generates, the refinement it inspires. Some of its latest achievements +are not unworthy of their grandest predecessors. Some of its youngest +devotees are at least as proud of its glories and as anxious to +preserve them as any who have gone before. Theirs is a glorious +heritage! You honor it. They have a noble but a difficult, and +sometimes a disheartening, task. You encourage it. And no word of +kindly interest or criticism dropped in the public ear from friendly +lips goes unregarded or is unfertile of good. The universal study of +Shakespeare in our public schools is a splendid sign of the departure +of prejudice, and all criticism is welcome; but it is acting chiefly +that can open to others, with any spark of Shakespeare's mind, the +means of illuminating the world. Only the theatre can realize to us +in a life-like way what Shakespeare was to his own time. And it is, +indeed, a noble destiny for the theatre to vindicate in these later +days the greatness which sometimes it has seemed to vulgarize. It has +been too much the custom to talk of Shakespeare as nature's child--as +the lad who held horses for people who came to the play--as a sort of +chance phenomenon who wrote these plays by accident and unrecognized. +How supremely ridiculous! How utterly irreconcilable with the grand +dimensions of the man! How absurdly dishonoring to the great age of +which he was, and was known to be, the glory! The noblest literary +man of all time--the finest and yet most prolific writer--the greatest +student of man, and the greatest master of man's highest gift of +language--surely it is treason to humanity to speak of such an one as +in any sense a commonplace being! Imagine him rather, as he must +have been, the most notable courtier of the Court--the most perfect +gentleman who stood in the Elizabethan throng--the man in whose +presence divines would falter and hesitate lest their knowledge of +the Book should seem poor by the side of his, and at whom even queenly +royalty would look askance, with an oppressive sense that here was +one to whose omnipotent and true imagination the hearts of kings and +queens and peoples had always been an open page! The thought of such a +man is an incomparable inheritance for any nation, and such a man was +the actor--Shakespeare. Such is our birthright and yours. Such the +succession in which it is ours to labor and yours to enjoy. For +Shakespeare belongs to the stage for ever, and his glories must +always inalienably belong to it. If you uphold the theatre honestly, +liberally, frankly, and with wise discrimination, the stage will +uphold in future, as it has in the past, the literature, the manners, +the morals, the fame, and the genius of our country. There must have +been something wrong, as there was something poignant and lacerating, +in prejudices which so long partly divorced the conscience of Britain +from its noblest pride, and stamped with reproach, or at least +depreciation, some of the brightest and world-famous incidents of her +history. For myself, it kindles my heart with proud delight to +think that I have stood to-day before this audience--known for its +discrimination throughout all English-speaking lands--a welcome and +honored guest, because I stand here for justice to the art to which I +am devoted--because I stand here in thankfulness for the justice which +has begun to be so abundantly rendered to it. If it is metaphorically +the destiny of humanity, it is literally the experience of an actor, +that one man in his time plays many parts. A player of any standing +must at various times have sounded the gamut of human sensibility +from the lowest note to the top of its compass. He must have banqueted +often on curious food for thought as he meditated on the subtle +relations created between himself and his audiences, as they have +watched in his impersonations the shifting tariff--the ever gliding, +delicately graduated sliding-scale of dramatic right and wrong. He may +have gloated, if he be a cynic, over the depths of ghastly horror, or +the vagaries of moral puddle through which it may have been his +duty to plash. But if he be an honest man, he will acknowledge that +scarcely ever has either dramatist or management wilfully biassed the +effect of stage representation in favor of evil, and of his audiences +he will boast that never has their mind been doubtful--never has their +true perception of the generous and just been known to fail, or even +to be slow. How noble the privilege to work upon these finer--these +finest--feelings of universal humanity! How engrossing the fascination +of those thousands of steady eyes, and sound sympathies, and beating +hearts which an actor confronts, with the confidence of friendship +and co-operation, as he steps upon the stage to work out in action +his long-pent comprehension of a noble master-piece! How rapturous the +satisfaction of abandoning himself, in such a presence and with such +sympathizers, to his author's grandest flights of thought and noblest +bursts of emotional inspiration! And how perpetually sustaining +the knowledge that whatever may be the vicissitudes and even the +degradations of the stage, it must and will depend for its constant +hold on the affection and attention of mankind upon its loftier work; +upon its more penetrating passion; upon its themes which most deeply +search out the strong affections and high hopes of men and women; +upon its fit and kindling illustration of great and vivid lives +which either have been lived in noble fact or have deserved to endure +immortally in the popular belief and admiration which they have +secured. + + "For our eyes to see! + Sons of wisdom, song, and power, + Giving earth her richest dower, + And making nations free-- + A glorious company! + + "Call them from the dead + For our eyes to see! + Forms of beauty, love, and grace, + 'Sunshine in the shady place,' + That made it life to be-- + A blessed company!" + + + + +ADDRESS + +TO THE STUDENTS + +OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HARVARD + +30TH MARCH 1885 + + + + +THE ART OF ACTING + +I. + +THE OCCASION. + + +I am deeply sensible of the compliment that has been paid, not so much +to me personally as to the calling I represent, by the invitation to +deliver an address to the students of this University. As an actor, +and especially as an English actor, it is a great pleasure to speak +for my art in one of the chief centres of American culture; for in +inviting me here to-day you intended, I believe, to recognize the +drama as an educational influence, to show a genuine interest in the +stage as a factor in life which must be accepted and not ignored by +intelligent people. I have thought that the best use I can make of the +privilege you have conferred upon me is to offer you, as well as I +am able, something like a practical exposition of my art; for it +may chance--who knows?--that some of you may at some future time be +disposed to adopt it as a vocation. Not that I wish to be regarded +as a tempter who has come among you to seduce you from your present +studies by artful pictures of the fascinations of the footlights. But +I naturally supposed that you would like me to choose, as the theme of +my address, the subject in which I am most interested, and to which +my life has been devoted; and that if any students here should ever +determine to become actors, they could not be much the worse for +the information and counsel I could gather for them from a tolerably +extensive experience. This subject will, I trust, be welcome to all of +you who are interested in the stage as an institution which appeals +to the sober-minded and intelligent; for I take it that you have no +lingering prejudice against the theatre, or else I should not be +here. Nor are you disposed, like certain good people, to object to the +theatre simply as a name. These sticklers for principle would never +enter a playhouse for worlds; and I have heard that in a famous city +of Massachusetts, not a hundred miles from here, there are persons to +whom the theatre is unknown, but who have no objection to see a play +in a building which is called a museum, especially if the vestibule +leading to the theatre should be decorated with sound moral principles +in the shape of statues, pictures, and stuffed objects in glass cases. + +When I began to think about my subject for the purpose of this +address, I was rather staggered by its vastness. It is really a matter +for a course of lectures; but as President Eliot has not proposed that +I should occupy a chair of dramatic literature in this University, +and as time and opportunity are limited, I can only undertake to put +before you, in the simplest way, a few leading ideas about dramatic +art which may be worthy of reflection. And in doing this I have the +great satisfaction of appearing in a model theatre, before a model +audience, and of being the only actor in my own play. Moreover, I am +stimulated by the atmosphere of the Greek drama, for I know that on +this stage you have enacted a Greek play with remarkable success. So, +after all, it is not a body of mere tyros that I am addressing, but +actors who have worn the sock and buskin, and declaimed the speeches +which delighted audiences two thousand years ago. + +Now, this address, like discourses in a more solemn place, falls +naturally into divisions. I propose to speak first of the Art of +Acting; secondly, of its Requirements and Practice; and lastly of its +Rewards. And, at the outset, let me say that I want you to judge the +stage at its best. I do not intend to suggest that only the plays +of Shakespeare are tolerable in the theatre to people of taste +and intelligence. The drama has many forms--tragedy, comedy, +historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical--and all are good when their aim +is honestly artistic. + + + + +II. + +THE ART OF ACTING. + + +Now, what is the art of acting? I speak of it in its highest sense, as +the art to which Roscius, Betterton, and Garrick owed their fame. It +is the art of embodying the poet's creations, of giving them flesh and +blood, of making the figures which appeal to your mind's eye in the +printed drama live before you on the stage. "To fathom the depths of +character, to trace its latent motives, to feel its finest quiverings +of emotion, to comprehend the thoughts that are hidden under words, +and thus possess one's-self of the actual mind of the individual +man"--such was Macready's definition of the player's art; and to this +we may add the testimony of Talma. He describes tragic acting as "the +union of grandeur without pomp and nature without triviality." It +demands, he says, the endowment of high sensibility and intelligence. + +"The actor who possesses this double gift adopts a course of study +peculiar to himself. In the first place, by repeated exercises, he +enters deeply into the emotions, and his speech acquires the accent +proper to the situation of the personage he has to represent. This +done, he goes to the theatre not only to give theatrical effect to his +studies, but also to yield himself to the spontaneous flashes of his +sensibility and all the emotions which it involuntarily produces in +him. What does he then do? In order that his inspirations may not be +lost, his memory, in the silence of repose, recalls the accent of +his voice, the expression of his features, his action--in a word, the +spontaneous workings of his mind, which he had suffered to have +free course, and, in effect, everything which in the moments of +his exaltation contributed to the effects he had produced. His +intelligence then passes all these means in review, connecting +them and fixing them in his memory to re-employ them at pleasure in +succeeding representations. These impressions are often so evanescent +that on retiring behind the scenes he must repeat to himself what +he had been playing rather than what he had to play. By this kind of +labor the intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations of +sensibility. It is by this means that at the end of twenty years (it +requires at least this length of time) a person destined to display +fine talent may at length present to the public a series of characters +acted almost to perfection." + +You will readily understand from this that to the actor the well-worn +maxim that art is long and life is short has a constant significance. +The older we grow the more acutely alive we are to the difficulties of +our craft. I cannot give you a better illustration of this fact than a +story which is told of Macready. A friend of mine, once a dear friend +of his, was with him when he played Hamlet for the last time. The +curtain had fallen, and the great actor was sadly thinking that the +part he loved so much would never be his again. And as he took off his +velvet mantle and laid it aside, he muttered almost unconsciously +the words of Horatio, "Good-night, sweet Prince;" then turning to his +friend, "Ah," said he, "I am just beginning to realize the sweetness, +the tenderness, the gentleness of this dear Hamlet!" Believe me, the +true artist never lingers fondly upon what he has done. He is ever +thinking of what remains undone: ever striving toward an ideal it may +never be his fortune to attain. + +We are sometimes told that to read the best dramatic poetry is more +educating than to see it acted. I do not think this theory is very +widely held, for it is in conflict with the dramatic instinct, which +everybody possesses in a greater or less degree. You never met a +playwright who could conceive himself willing--even if endowed with +the highest literary gifts--to prefer a reading to a playgoing +public. He thinks his work deserving of all the rewards of print and +publisher, but he will be much more elated if it should appeal to the +world in the theatre as a skilful representation of human passions. +In one of her letters George Eliot says: "In opposition to most people +who love to _read_ Shakespeare, I like to see his plays acted better +than any others; his great tragedies thrill me, let them be acted +how they may." All this is so simple and intelligible, that it seems +scarcely worth while to argue that in proportion to the readiness with +which the reader of Shakespeare imagines the attributes of the various +characters, and is interested in their personality, he will, as a +rule, be eager to see their tragedy or comedy in action. He will then +find that very much which he could not imagine with any definiteness +presents new images every moment--the eloquence of look and gesture, +the by-play, the inexhaustible significance of the human voice. There +are people who fancy they have more music in their souls than was ever +translated into harmony by Beethoven or Mozart. There are others who +think they could paint pictures, write poetry--in short, do anything, +if they only made the effort. To them what is accomplished by the +practised actor seems easy and simple. But as it needs the skill of +the musician to draw the full volume of eloquence from the written +score, so it needs the skill of the dramatic artist to develop the +subtle harmonies of the poetic play. In fact, to _do_ and not to +_dream_, is the mainspring of success in life. The actor's art is to +act, and the true acting of any character is one of the most difficult +accomplishments. I challenge the acute student to ponder over Hamlet's +renunciation of Ophelia--one of the most complex scenes in all the +drama--and say that he has learned more from his meditations than he +could be taught by players whose intelligence is equal to his own. To +present the man thinking aloud is the most difficult achievement of +our art. Here the actor who has no real grip of the character, but +simply recites the speeches with a certain grace and intelligence, +will be untrue. The more intent he is upon the words, and the less +on the ideas that dictated them, the more likely he is to lay himself +open to the charge of mechanical interpretation. It is perfectly +possible to express to an audience all the involutions of thought, +the speculation, doubt, wavering, which reveal the meditative but +irresolute mind. As the varying shades of fancy pass and repass the +mirror of the face, they may yield more material to the studious +playgoer than he is likely to get by a diligent poring over the +text. In short, as we understand the people around us much better by +personal intercourse than by all the revelations of written words--for +words, as Tennyson says, "half reveal and half conceal the soul +within," so the drama has, on the whole, infinitely more suggestions +when it is well acted than when it is interpreted by the unaided +judgment of the student. It has been said that acting is an unworthy +occupation because it represents feigned emotions, but this censure +would apply with equal force to poet or novelist. Do not imagine that +I am claiming for the actor sole and undivided authority. He should +himself be a student, and it is his business to put into practice +the best ideas he can gather from the general current of thought with +regard to the highest dramatic literature. But it is he who gives body +to those ideas--fire, force, and sensibility, without which they would +remain for most people mere airy abstractions. + +It is often supposed that great actors trust to the inspiration of the +moment. Nothing can be more erroneous. There will, of course, be such +moments, when an actor at a white heat illumines some passage with +a flash of imagination (and this mental condition, by the way, is +impossible to the student sitting in his arm-chair); but the great +actor's surprises are generally well weighed, studied, and balanced. +We know that Edmund Kean constantly practised before a mirror effects +which startled his audience by their apparent spontaneity. It is the +accumulation of such effects which enables an actor, after many years, +to present many great characters with remarkable completeness. + +I do not want to overstate the case, or to appeal to anything that is +not within common experience, so I can confidently ask you whether a +scene in a great play has not been at some time vividly impressed on +your minds by the delivery of a single line, or even of one forcible +word. Has not this made the passage far more real and human to you +than all the thought you have devoted to it? An accomplished critic +has said that Shakespeare himself might have been surprised had he +heard the "Fool, fool, fool!" of Edmund Kean. And though all actors +are not Keans, they have in varying degree this power of making a +dramatic character step out of the page, and come nearer to our hearts +and our understandings. + +After all, the best and most convincing exposition of the whole art +of acting is given by Shakespeare himself: "To hold, as 'twere, the +mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own +image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." +Thus the poet recognized the actor's art as a most potent ally in the +representation of human life. He believed that to hold the mirror up +to nature was one of the worthiest functions in the sphere of labor, +and actors are content to point to his definition of their work as the +charter of their privileges. + + + + +III. + +PRACTICE OF THE ART. + + +The practice of the art of acting is a subject difficult to treat with +the necessary brevity. Beginners are naturally anxious to know what +course they should pursue. In common with other actors, I receive +letters from young people many of whom are very earnest in their +ambition to adopt the dramatic calling, but not sufficiently alive to +the fact that success does not depend on a few lessons in declamation. +When I was a boy I had a habit which I think would be useful to all +young students. Before going to see a play of Shakespeare's I used to +form--in a very juvenile way--a theory as to the working out of the +whole drama, so as to correct my conceptions by those of the actors; +and though I was, as a rule, absurdly wrong, there can be no doubt +that any method of independent study is of enormous importance, not +only to youngsters, but also to students of a larger growth. +Without it the mind is apt to take its stamp from the first forcible +impression it receives, and to fall into a servile dependence upon +traditions, which, robbed of the spirit that created them, are apt +to be purely mischievous. What was natural to the creator is often +unnatural and lifeless in the imitator. No two people form the same +conceptions of character, and therefore it is always advantageous to +see an independent and courageous exposition of an original ideal. +There can be no objection to the kind of training that imparts a +knowledge of manners and customs, and the teaching which pertains to +simple deportment on the stage is necessary and most useful; but you +cannot possibly be taught any tradition of character, for that has no +permanence. Nothing is more fleeting than any traditional method of +impersonation. You may learn where a particular personage used to +stand on the stage, or down which trap the ghost of Hamlet's father +vanished; but the soul of interpretation is lost, and it is this soul +which the actor has to re-create for himself. It is not mere attitude +or tone that has to be studied; you must be moved by the impulse of +being; you must impersonate and not recite. + +There has always been a controversy as to the province of naturalism +in dramatic art. In England it has been too much the custom, I +believe, while demanding naturalism in comedy, to expect a false +inflation in tragedy. But there is no reason why an actor should +be less natural in tragic than in lighter moods. Passions vary in +expression according to moulds of character and manners, but their +reality should not be lost even when they are expressed in the heroic +forms of the drama. A very simple test is a reference to the records +of old actors. What was it in their performances that chiefly +impressed their contemporaries? Very rarely the measured recitation of +this or that speech, but very often a simple exclamation that deeply +moved their auditors, because it was a gleam of nature in the midst +of declamation. The "Prithee, undo this button!" of Garrick, was +remembered when many stately utterances were forgotten. In our day the +contrast between artificial declamation and the accents of nature is +less marked, because its delivery is more uniformly simple, and an +actor who lapses from a natural into a false tone is sure to find +that his hold upon his audience is proportionately weakened. But the +revolution which Garrick accomplished may be imagined from the story +told by Boswell. Dr. Johnson was discussing plays and players with +Mrs. Siddons, and he said: "Garrick, madam, was no declaimer; there +was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken 'To be +or not to be' better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever saw +whom I could call a master, both in tragedy and comedy, though I +liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character and natural +expression of it were his distinguished excellences." + +To be natural on the stage is most difficult, and yet a grain of +nature is worth a bushel of artifice. But you may say--what is nature? +I quoted just now Shakespeare's definition of the actor's art. After +the exhortation to hold the mirror up to nature, he adds the pregnant +warning: "This overdone or come tardy off, though it make the +unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of +which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others." +Nature may be overdone by triviality in conditions that demand +exaltation; for instance, Hamlet's first address to the Ghost lifts +his disposition to an altitude far beyond the ordinary reaches of our +souls, and his manner of speech should be adapted to this sentiment. +But such exaltation of utterance is wholly out of place in the purely +colloquial scene with the Gravedigger. When Macbeth says, "Go, bid thy +mistress, when my drink is ready, she strike upon the bell," he would +not use the tone of + + "Pity, like a naked new-born babe, + Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed + Upon the sightless couriers of the air, + Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, + That tears shall drown the wind." + +Like the practised orator, the actor rises and descends with his +sentiment, and cannot always be in a fine phrenzy. This variety +is especially necessary in Shakespeare, whose work is essentially +different from the classic drama, because it presents every mood of +mind and form of speech, commonplace or exalted, as character and +situation dictate: whereas in such a play as Addison's _Cato_, +everybody is consistently eloquent about everything. + +There are many causes for the growth of naturalism in dramatic art, +and amongst them we should remember the improvement in the mechanism +of the stage. For instance, there has been a remarkable development in +stage-lighting. In old pictures you will observe the actors constantly +standing in a line, because the oil-lamps of those days gave such an +indifferent illumination that everybody tried to get into what was +called the focus--the "blaze of publicity" furnished by the "float" or +footlights. The importance of this is illustrated by an amusing story +of Edmund Kean, who one night played _Othello_ with more than his +usual intensity. An admirer who met him in the street next day was +loud in his congratulations: "I really thought you would have choked +Iago, Mr. Kean--you seemed so tremendously in earnest." "In earnest!" +said the tragedian, "I should think so! Hang the fellow, he was trying +to keep me out of the focus." + +I do not recommend actors to allow their feelings to carry them +away like this; but it is necessary to warn you against the theory +expounded with brilliant ingenuity by Diderot, that the actor never +feels. When Macready played Virginius, after burying his beloved +daughter, he confessed that his real experience gave a new force to +his acting in the most pathetic situations of the play. Are we to +suppose that this was a delusion, or that the sensibility of the man +was a genuine aid to the actor? Bannister said of John Kemble that he +was never pathetic because he had no children. Talma says that when +deeply moved he found himself making a rapid and fugitive observation +on the alternation of his voice, and on a certain spasmodic vibration +which it contracted in tears. Has not the actor who can thus make +his feelings a part of his art an advantage over the actor who never +feels, but who makes his observations solely from the feelings of +others? It is necessary to this art that the mind should have, as it +were, a double consciousness, in which all the emotions proper to the +occasion may have full swing, while the actor is all the time on the +alert for every detail of his method. It may be that his playing will +be more spirited one night than another. But the actor who combines +the electric force of a strong personality with a mastery of the +resources of his art must have a greater power over his audiences +than the passionless actor who gives a most artistic simulation of the +emotions he never experiences. + +Now, in the practice of acting, a most important point is the study +of elocution; and in elocution one great difficulty is the use of +sufficient force to be generally heard without being unnaturally loud, +and without acquiring a stilted delivery. The advice of the old actors +was that you should always pitch your voice so as to be heard by the +back row of the gallery--no easy task to accomplish without offending +the ears of the front of the orchestra. And I should tell you that +this exaggeration applies to everything on the stage. To appear to be +natural, you must in reality be much broader than nature. To act on +the stage as one really would in a room, would be ineffective and +colorless. I never knew an actor who brought the art of elocution to +greater perfection than the late Charles Mathews, whose utterance on +the stage appeared so natural that one was surprised to find when near +him that he was really speaking in a very loud key. There is a great +actor in your own country to whose elocution one always listens with +the utmost enjoyment--I mean Edwin Booth. He has inherited this gift, +I believe, from his famous father, of whom I have heard it said, that +he always insisted on a thorough use of the "instruments"--by which he +meant the teeth--in the formation of words. + +An imperfect elocution is apt to degenerate into a monotonous +uniformity of tone. Some wholesome advice on this point we find in the +_Life of Betterton_. + +"This stiff uniformity of voice is not only displeasing to the ear, +but disappoints the effect of the discourse on the hearers; first, by +an equal way of speaking, when the pronunciation has everywhere, in +every word and every syllable, the same sound, it must inevitably +render all parts of speech equal, and so put them on a very unjust +level. So that the power of the reasoning part, the lustre and +ornament of the figures, the heart, warmth, and vigor of the +passionate part being expressed all in the same tone, is flat and +insipid, and lost in a supine, or at least unmusical pronunciation. So +that, in short, that which ought to strike and stir up the affections, +because it is spoken all alike, without any distinction or variety, +moves them not at all." + +Now, on the question of pronunciation there is something to be said, +which, I think, in ordinary teaching is not sufficiently considered. +Pronunciation on the stage should be simple and unaffected, but not +always fashioned rigidly according to a dictionary standard. No less +an authority than Cicero points out that pronunciation must vary +widely according to the emotions to be expressed; that it may be +broken or cut, with a varying or direct sound, and that it serves for +the actor the purpose of color to the painter, from which to draw his +variations. Take the simplest illustration, the formal pronunciation +of "A-h" is "Ah," of "O-h" "Oh;" but you cannot stereotype the +expression of emotion like this. These exclamations are words of one +syllable, but the speaker who is sounding the gamut of human feeling +will not be restricted in his pronunciation by the dictionary rule. +It is said of Edmund Kean that he never spoke such ejaculations, +but always sighed or groaned them. Fancy an actor saying thus, "My +Desdemona! Oh, [)o]h, [)o]h!" Words are intended to express feelings +and ideas, not to bind them in rigid fetters. The accents of pleasure +are different from the accents of pain, and if a feeling is more +accurately expressed, as in nature, by a variation of sound not +provided for by the laws of pronunciation, then such imperfect laws +must be disregarded and nature vindicated. The word should be the echo +of the sense. + +The force of an actor depends, of course, upon his physique; and it is +necessary, therefore, that a good deal of attention should be given to +bodily training. Everything that develops suppleness, elasticity, and +grace--that most subtle charm--should be carefully cultivated, and +in this regard your admirable gymnasium is worth volumes of advice. +Sometimes there is a tendency to train the body at the expense of +the mind, and the young actor with striking physical advantages +must beware of regarding this fortunate endowment as his entire +stock-in-trade. That way folly lies, and the result may be too dearly +purchased by the fame of a photographer's window. It is clear that +the physique of actors must vary; there can be no military standard +of proportions on the stage. Some great actors have had to struggle +against physical disabilities of a serious nature. Betterton had an +unprepossessing face; so had Le Kain. John Kemble was troubled with +a weak, asthmatic voice, and yet by his dignity, and the force of +his personality, he was able to achieve the greatest effects. In some +cases a super-abundant physique has incapacitated actors from playing +many parts. The combination in one frame of all the gifts of mind and +all the advantages in person is very rare on the stage; but talent +will conquer many natural defects when it is sustained by energy and +perseverance. + +With regard to gesture, Shakespeare's advice is all-embracing. "Suit +the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special +observance that you over-step not the modesty of nature." And here +comes the consideration of a very material part of the actor's +business--by-play. This is of the very essence of true art. It is more +than anything else significant of the extent to which the actor has +identified himself with the character he represents. Recall the scenes +between Iago and Othello, and consider how the whole interest of the +situation depends on the skill with which the gradual effect of the +poisonous suspicion instilled into the Moor's mind is depicted in look +and tone, slight of themselves, but all contributing to the intensity +of the situation. One of the greatest tests of an actor is his +capacity for listening. By-play must be unobtrusive; the student +should remember that the most minute expression attracts attention: +that nothing is lost, that by-play is as mischievous when it is +injudicious as it is effective when rightly conceived, and that while +trifles make perfection, perfection is no trifle. This lesson was +enjoined on me when I was a very young man by that remarkable actress, +Charlotte Cushman. I remember that when she played Meg Merrilies I +was cast for Henry Bertram, on the principle, seemingly, that an actor +with no singing voice is admirably fitted for a singing part. It was +my duty to give Meg Merrilies a piece of money, and I did it after the +traditional fashion by handing her a large purse full of coin of the +realm, in the shape of broken crockery, which was generally used in +financial transactions on the stage, because when the virtuous maiden +rejected with scorn the advances of the lordly libertine, and threw +his pernicious bribe upon the ground, the clatter of the broken +crockery suggested fabulous wealth. But after the play Miss Cushman, +in the course of some kindly advice, said to me: "Instead of giving me +that purse don't you think it would have been much more natural if +you had taken a number of coins from your pocket, and given me the +smallest? That is the way one gives alms to a beggar, and it would +have added to the realism of the scene." I have never forgotten that +lesson, for simple as it was, it contained many elements of dramatic +truth. It is most important that an actor should learn that he is +a figure in a picture, and that the least exaggeration destroys the +harmony of the composition. All the members of the company should +work towards a common end, with the nicest subordination of their +individuality to the general purpose. Without this method a play when +acted is at best a disjointed and incoherent piece of work, instead +of being a harmonious whole like the fine performance of an orchestral +symphony. The root of the matter is that the actor must before all +things form a definite conception of what he wishes to convey. It is +better to be wrong and be consistent, than to be right, yet hesitating +and uncertain. This is why great actors are sometimes very bad or very +good. They will do the wrong thing with a courage and thoroughness +which makes the error all the more striking; although when they are +right they may often be superb. It is necessary that the actor should +learn to think before he speaks; a practice which, I believe, is very +useful off the stage. Let him remember, first, that every sentence +expresses a new thought and, therefore, frequently demands a change +of intonation; secondly, that the thought precedes the word. Of course +there are passages in which thought and language are borne along by +the streams of emotion and completely intermingled. But more often +it will be found that the most natural, the most seemingly accidental +effects are obtained when the working of the mind is seen before the +tongue gives it words. + +You will see that the limits of an actor's studies are very wide. To +master the technicalities of his craft, to familiarize his mind +with the structure, rhythm, and the soul of poetry, to be constantly +cultivating his perceptions of life around him and of all the +arts--painting, music, sculpture--for the actor who is devoted to +his profession is susceptible to every harmony of color, sound, and +form--to do this is to labor in a large field of industry. But all +your training, bodily and mental, is subservient to the two great +principles in tragedy and comedy--passion and geniality. Geniality +in comedy is one of the rarest gifts. Think of the rich unction of +Falstaff, the mercurial fancy of Mercutio, the witty vivacity and +manly humor of Benedick--think of the qualities, natural and acquired, +that are needed for the complete portrayal of such characters, and you +will understand how difficult it is for a comedian to rise to such +a sphere. In tragedy, passion or intensity sweeps all before it, and +when I say passion, I mean the passion of pathos as well as wrath +or revenge. These are the supreme elements of the actor's art, +which cannot be taught by any system, however just, and to which all +education is but tributary. + +Now all that can be said of the necessity of a close regard for nature +in acting applies with equal or greater force to the presentation of +plays. You want, above all things, to have a truthful picture which +shall appeal to the eye without distracting the imagination from the +purpose of the drama. It is a mistake to suppose that this enterprise +is comparatively new to the stage. Since Shakespeare's time there has +been a steady progress in this direction. Even in the poet's day every +conceivable property was forced into requisition, and his own sense +of shortcomings in this respect is shown in _Henry V._ when he +exclaims:-- + + "Where--O for pity!--we shall much disgrace + With four or five most vile and ragged foils + The name of Agincourt." + +There have always been critics who regarded care and elaboration in +the mounting of plays as destructive of the real spirit of the actor's +art. Betterton had to meet this reproach when he introduced scenery in +lieu of linsey-woolsey curtains; but he replied, sensibly enough, that +his scenery was better than the tapestry with hideous figures worked +upon it which had so long distracted the senses of play-goers. He +might have asked his critics whether they wished to see Ophelia played +by a boy of sixteen, as in the time of Shakespeare, instead of a +beautiful and gifted woman. Garrick did his utmost to improve the +mechanical arts of the stage--so much so, indeed, that he paid his +scene-painter, Loutherbourg, £500 a year, a pretty considerable sum +in those days--though in Garrick's time the importance of realism in +costume was not sufficiently appreciated to prevent him from playing +Macbeth in a bagwig. To-day we are employing all our resources to +heighten the picturesque effects of the drama, and we are still told +that this is a gross error. It may be admitted that nothing is more +objectionable than certain kinds of realism, which are simply vulgar; +but harmony of color and grace of outline have a legitimate sphere in +the theatre, and the method which uses them as adjuncts may claim to +be "as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine." +For the abuse of scenic decoration, the overloading of the stage with +ornament, the subordination of the play to a pageant, I have nothing +to say. That is all foreign to the artistic purpose which should +dominate dramatic work. Nor do I think that servility to archæology on +the stage is an unmixed good. Correctness of costume is admirable +and necessary up to a certain point, but when it ceases to be "as +wholesome as sweet," it should, I think, be sacrificed. You perceive +that the nicest discretion is needed in the use of the materials +which are nowadays at the disposal of the manager. Music, painting, +architecture, the endless variations of costume, have all to be +employed with a strict regard to the production of an artistic +whole, in which no element shall be unduly obtrusive. We are open to +microscopic criticism at every point. When _Much Ado about Nothing_ +was produced at the Lyceum, I received a letter complaining of the +gross violation of accuracy in a scene which was called a cedar-walk. +"Cedars!" said my correspondent,--"why, cedars were not introduced +into Messina for fifty years after the date of Shakespeare's story!" +Well, this was a tremendous indictment, but unfortunately the +cedar-walk had been painted. Absolute realism on the stage is not +always desirable, any more than the photographic reproduction of +Nature can claim to rank with the highest art. + + + + +IV. + +THE REWARDS OF THE ART. + + +To what position in the world of intelligence does the actor's art +entitle him, and what is his contribution to the general sum of +instruction? We are often told that the art is ephemeral; that it +creates nothing; that when the actor's personality is withdrawn from +the public eye he leaves no trace behind. Granted that his art creates +nothing; but does it not often restore? It is true that he leaves +nothing like the canvas of the painter and the marble of the sculptor, +but has he done nought to increase the general stock of ideas? The +astronomer and naturalist create nothing, but they contribute much to +the enlightenment of the world. I am taking the highest standard of +my art, for I maintain that in judging any calling you should consider +its noblest and not its most ignoble products. All the work that is +done on the stage cannot stand upon the same level, any more than all +the work that is done in literature. You do not demand that your poets +and novelists shall all be of the same calibre. An immense amount of +good writing does no more than increase the gayety of mankind; but +when Johnson said that the gayety of nations was eclipsed by the death +of Garrick, he did not mean that a mere barren amusement had lost one +of its professors. When Sir Joshua Reynolds painted Mrs. Siddons as +the Tragic Muse, and said he had achieved immortality by putting his +name on the hem of her garment, he meant something more than a pretty +compliment, for her name can never die. To give genuine and wholesome +entertainment is a very large function of the stage, and without that +entertainment very many lives would lose a stimulus of the highest +value. If recreation of every legitimate kind is invaluable to the +worker, especially so is the recreation of the drama, which brightens +his faculties, enlarges his vision of the picturesque, and by taking +him for a time out of this work-a-day world, braces his sensibilities +for the labors of life. The art which does this may surely claim to +exercise more than a fleeting influence upon the world's intelligence. +But in its highest developments it does more; it acts as a constant +medium for the diffusion of great ideas, and by throwing new lights +upon the best dramatic literature, it largely helps the growth +of education. It is not too much to say that the interpreters of +Shakespeare on the stage have had much to do with the widespread +appreciation of his works. Some of the most thoughtful students of +the poet have recognized their indebtedness to actors, while for +multitudes the stage has performed the office of discovery. Thousands +who flock to-day to see a representation of Shakespeare, which is the +product of much reverent study of the poet, are not content to regard +it as a mere scenic exhibition. Without it Shakespeare might have been +for many of them a sealed book; but many more have been impelled +by the vivid realism of the stage to renew studies which other +occupations or lack of leisure have arrested. Am I presumptuous, then, +in asserting that the stage is not only an instrument of amusement, +but a very active agent in the spread of knowledge and taste? Some +forms of stage work, you may say, are not particularly elevating. +True; and there are countless fictions coming daily from the hands +of printer and publisher which nobody is the better for reading. You +cannot have a fixed standard of value in my art; and though there +are masses of people who will prefer an unintelligent exhibition to +a really artistic production, that is no reason for decrying the +theatre, in which all the arts blend with the knowledge of history, +manners, and customs of all people, and scenes of all climes, to +afford a varied entertainment to the most exacting intellect. I have +no sympathy with people who are constantly anxious to define the +actor's position, for, as a rule, they are not animated by a desire to +promote his interests. "'Tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus;" +and whatever actors deserve, socially or artistically, they are sure +to receive as their right. I found the other day in a well-circulated +little volume a suggestion that the actor was a degraded being because +he has a closely-shaven face. This is, indeed, humiliating, and I +wonder how it strikes the Roman Catholic clergy. However, there are +actors who do not shave closely, and though, alas! I am not one of +them, I wish them joy of the spiritual grace which I cannot claim. + +It is admittedly unfortunate for the stage that it has a certain +equivocal element, which, in the eyes of some judges, is sufficient +for its condemnation. The art is open to all, and it has to bear the +sins of many. You may open your newspaper, and see a paragraph headed +"Assault by an Actress." Some poor creature is dignified by that title +who has not the slightest claim to it. You look into a shop-window and +see photographs of certain people who are indiscriminately described +as actors and actresses though their business has no pretence to be +art of any kind. + +I was told in Baltimore of a man in that city who was so diverted by +the performance of Tyrone Powar, the popular Irish comedian, that he +laughed uproariously till the audience was convulsed with merriment at +the spectacle. As soon as he could speak, he called out, "Do be quiet, +Mr. Showman; do'ee hold your tongue, or I shall die of laughter!" This +idea that the actor is a showman still lingers; but no one with any +real appreciation of the best elements of the drama applies this +vulgar standard to a great body of artists. The fierce light of +publicity that beats upon us makes us liable, from time to time, to +dissertations upon our public and private lives, our manners, our +morals, and our money. Our whims and caprices are discanted on with +apparent earnestness of truth, and seeming sincerity of conviction. +There is always some lively controversy concerning the influence of +the stage. The battle between old methods and new in art is waged +everywhere. If an actor were to take to heart everything that is +written and said about him, his life would be an intolerable burden. +And one piece of advice I should give to young actors is this: Do not +be too sensitive; receive praise or censure with modesty and patience. +Good honest criticism is, of course, most advantageous to an actor; +but he should save himself from the indiscriminate reading of a +multitude of comments, which may only confuse instead of stimulating. +And here let me say to young actors in all earnestness: Beware of the +loungers of our calling, the camp followers who hang on the skirts of +the army, and who inveigle the young into habits that degrade their +character, and paralyze their ambition. Let your ambition be ever +precious to you, and, next to your good name, the jewel of your souls. +I care nothing for the actor who is not always anxious to rise to +the highest position in his particular walk; but this ideal cannot be +cherished by the young man who is induced to fritter away his time and +his mind in thoughtless company. + +But in the midst of all this turmoil about the stage, one fact stands +out clearly: the dramatic art is steadily growing in credit with the +educated classes. It is drawing more recruits from those classes. The +enthusiasm for our calling has never reached a higher pitch. There is +quite an extraordinary number of ladies who want to become actresses, +and the cardinal difficulty in the way is not the social deterioration +which some people think they would incur, but simply their inability +to act. Men of education who become actors do not find that their +education is useless. If they have the necessary aptitude--the inborn +instinct for the stage--all their mental training will be of great +value to them. It is true that there must always be grades in the +theatre, that an educated man who is an indifferent actor can never +expect to reach the front rank. If he do no more than figure in the +army at Bosworth Field, or look imposing in a doorway; if he never +play any but the smallest parts; if in these respects he be no +better than men who could not pass an examination in any branch of +knowledge--he has no more reason to complain than the highly-educated +man who longs to write poetry, and possesses every qualification--save +the poetic faculty. There are people who seem to think that only +irresistible genius justifies any one in adopting the stage as a +vocation. They make it an argument against the profession that many +enter it from a low sphere of life, without any particular fitness for +acting, but simply to earn a livelihood by doing the subordinate and +mechanical work which is necessary in every theatre. And so men and +women of refinement--especially women--are warned that they must do +themselves injury by passing through the rank and file during their +term of probation in the actors' craft. Now, I need not remind you +that on the stage everybody cannot be great, any more than students +of music can all become great musicians; but very many will do sound +artistic work which is of great value. As for any question of conduct, +Heaven forbid that I should be dogmatic; but it does not seem to me +logical that while genius is its own law in the pursuit of a noble +art, all inferior merit or ambition is to be deterred from the same +path by appalling pictures of its temptations. + +If our art is worth anything at all, it is worth the honest, +conscientious self-devotion of men and women who, while they may not +achieve fame, may have the satisfaction of being workers in a calling +which does credit to many degrees of talent. We do not claim to be +any better than our fellows in other walks of life. We do not ask +the jester in journalism whether his quips and epigrams are always +dictated by the loftiest morality; nor do we insist on knowing that +the odor of sanctity surrounds the private lives of lawyers and +military men before we send our sons into law and the army. It +is impossible to point out any vocation which is not attended by +temptations that prove fatal to many; but you have simply to consider +whether a profession has in itself any title to honor, and then--if +you are confident of your capacity--to enter it with a resolve to do +all that energy and perseverance can accomplish. The immortal part of +the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes come +and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity--associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances; but it never sinks into nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. And I would say, as a last word, to the young +men in this assembly who may at any time resolve to enter the dramatic +profession, that they ought always to fix their minds upon the highest +examples; that in studying acting they should beware of prejudiced +comparisons between this method and that, but learn as much as +possible from all; that they should remember that art is as varied as +nature, and as little suited to the shackles of a school; and, above +all, that they should never forget that excellence in any art is +attained only by arduous labor, unswerving purpose, and unfailing +discipline. This discipline is, perhaps, the most difficult of all +tests, for it involves the subordination of the actor's personality in +every work which is designed to be a complete and harmonious picture. +Dramatic art nowadays is more coherent, systematic, and comprehensive +than it has sometimes been. And to the student who proposes to fill +the place in this system to which his individuality and experience +entitle him, and to do his duty faithfully and well, ever striving +after greater excellence, and never yielding to the indolence that is +often born of popularity--to him I say, with every confidence, that +he will choose a career in which, if it does not lead him to fame, +he will be sustained by the honorable exercise of some of the best +faculties of the human mind. + +And now I can only thank you for the patience with which you have +listened while, in a slight and imperfect way, I have dwelt with some +of the most important of the actor's responsibilities, I have been an +actor for nearly thirty years, and what I have told you is the fruit +of my experience, and of an earnest and conscientious belief that the +calling to which I am proud to belong is worthy of the sympathy and +support of all intelligent people. + + + + +ADDRESS + +AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + +26 JUNE 1886 + + + + +ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. + + +When I was honored by the request of your distinguished +Vice-Chancellor to deliver an address before the members of this +great University, I told him I could only say something about my own +calling, for that I knew little or nothing about anything else. +I trust, however, that this confession of the limitations of +my knowledge will not prejudice me in your eyes, members as you +are--privileged members I may say--of this seat of learning. In an age +when so many persons think they know everything, it may afford a not +unpleasing variety to meet with some who know that they know nothing. + +I cannot discourse to you, even if you wished me to do so, of the +respective merits of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; for if I +did, I should not be able to tell you anything that you do not know +already. I have not had the advantage--one that very few of the +members of my profession in past, or even in present times have +enjoyed--of an University education. The only _Alma Mater_ I ever knew +was the hard stage of a country theatre. + +In the course of my training, long before I had taken, what I may +call, my degree in London, I came to act in your city. I have a very +pleasant recollection of the time I passed here, though I am sorry +to say that, owing to the regulation which forbade theatrical +performances during term time, I saw Oxford only in vacation, which +is rather like--to use the old illustration--seeing _Hamlet_ with the +part of Hamlet left out. There was then no other building available +for dramatic representations than the Town Hall. I may, perhaps, be +allowed to congratulate you on the excellent theatre which you now +possess--I do not mean the Sheldonian--and at the same time to express +a hope that, as a more liberal, and might I say a wiser, _régime_ +allows the members of the University to go to the play, they will not +receive any greater moral injury, or be distracted any more from their +studies, than when they were only allowed the occasional relaxation of +hearing comic songs. Macready once said that "a theatre ought to be +a place of recreation for the sober-minded and intelligent." I trust +that, under whatsoever management the theatre in Oxford may be, it +will always deserve this character. + +You must not expect any learned disquisition from me; nor even in the +modified sense in which the word is used among you will I venture to +style what I am going to say to you a lecture. You may, by the way, +have seen a report that I was cast for _four_ lectures; but I assure +you there was no ground for such an alarming rumor; a rumor quite as +alarming to me as it could have been to you. What I do propose is, to +say to you something about four of our greatest actors in the past, +each of whom may be termed the representative of an important period +in the Annals of our National Drama. In turning over the leaves of +a history of the life of Edmund Kean, I came across the following +sentence (the writer is speaking of Edmund Kean as having restored +Nature to the stage): "There seems always to have been this +alternation between the Schools of Nature and Art (if we may so term +them) in the annals of the English Theatre." Now if for _Art_ I may be +allowed to substitute _Artificiality_, which is what the author really +meant, I think that his sentence is an epitome of the history of our +stage; and it struck me at once that I could not select anything more +appropriate--I will not say as a text, for that sounds as if I were +going to deliver a sermon--but as the _motif_, or theme of the remarks +I am about to address to you. The four actors of whom I shall attempt +to tell, you something--Burbage, Betterton, Garrick, and Kean--were +the _four_ greatest champions, in their respective times, on the stage +of Nature in contradistinction to Artificiality. + +When we consider the original of the Drama, or perhaps I should say +of the higher class of Drama, we see that the style of acting must +necessarily have been artificial rather than natural. Take the Greek +Tragedy, for instance: the actors, as you know, wore masks, and had to +speak, or rather intone, in a theatre more than half open to the air, +and therefore it was impossible they could employ facial expression, +or much variety of intonation. We have not time now to trace at length +the many vicissitudes in the career of the Drama, but I may say that +Shakespeare was the first dramatist who dared to rob Tragedy of her +stilts; and who successfully introduced an element of comedy which +was not dragged in by the neck and heels, but which naturally evolved +itself from the treatment of the tragic story, and did not violate the +consistency of any character. + +It was not only with regard to the _writing_ of his plays +that Shakespeare sought to fight the battle of Nature against +Artificiality. However naturally he might write, the affected or +monotonous _delivery_ of his verse by the actors would neutralize all +his efforts. The old rhyming ten-syllable lines could not but lead to +a monotonous style of elocution, nor was the early blank verse much +improvement in this respect; but Shakespeare fitted his blank verse to +the natural expression of his ideas, and not his ideas to the trammels +of blank verse. + +In order to carry out these reforms, in order to dethrone Artifice and +Affectation, he needed the help of actors in whom he could trust, +and especially of a leading actor who could interpret his greatest +dramatic creations; such a one he found in Richard Burbage. + +Shakespeare came to London first in 1585. Whether on this, his first +visit, he became connected with the theatres is uncertain. At any +rate it is most probable that he saw Burbage in some of his favorite +characters, and perhaps made his acquaintance; being first employed +as a kind of servant in the theatre, and afterwards as a player of +inferior parts. It was not until about 1591-1592, that Shakespeare +began to turn his attention seriously to dramatic authorship. For five +years of his life we are absolutely without any evidence as to what +were his pursuits. But there can be little doubt that during this +interval he was virtually undergoing a special form of education, +consisting rather of the study of human nature than that of books, +and was acquiring the art of dramatic construction--learnt better in +a theatre than anywhere else. Unfortunately, we have no record of the +intercourse between Shakespeare and Burbage; but there can be little +doubt that between the dramatist, who was himself an actor, and the +actor, who gave life to the greatest creations of his imagination, and +who, probably, amazed no less than delighted the great master by the +vividness and power of his impersonations, there must have existed a +close friendship. Shakespeare, unlike most men of genius, was no bad +man of business; and, indeed, a friend of mine, who prides himself +upon being a practical man, once suggested that he selected the part +of the Ghost in _Hamlet_ because it enabled him to go in front of the +house between the acts and count the money. Burbage was universally +acknowledged as the greatest tragic actor of his time. In Bartholomew +Fair, Ben Jonson uses Burbage's name as a synonym for "the best +actor"; and Bishop Corbet, in his _Iter Boreale_, tells us that his +host at Leicester-- + + "when he would have said King Richard died, + And call'd, 'A horse! A horse!' he, Burbage, cried," + +In a scene, in which Burbage and the comedian Kemp (the J.L. Toole +of the Shakespearean period) are introduced in _The Return from +Parnassus_--a satirical play, as you may know, written by some of +the Members of St. John's College, Cambridge, for performance +by themselves on New Year's Day, 1602--we have proof of the high +estimation in which the great tragic actor was held. Kemp says to the +scholars who are anxious to try their fortunes on the stage: "But be +merry, my lads, you have happened upon the most excellent vocation +in the world for money; they come north and south to bring it to our +playhouse; and for honors, who of more report than _Dick Burbage_ +and _Will Kempe_; he is not counted a gentleman that knows not _Dick +Burbage_ and _Will Kempe_; there's not a country wench that can +dance 'Sellenger's Round,' but can talke of _Dick Burbage_ and _Will +Kempe_." + +That Burbage's fame as an actor outlived his life may be seen from the +description given by Flecknoe:-- + +"He was a delightful Proteus, so wholly transforming himself into his +part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he never (not so +much as in the 'tiring house) assumed himself again until the play was +done.... He had all the parts of an excellent orator, animating his +words with speaking, and speech with acting, his auditors being never +more delighted than when he spake, nor more sorry than when he held +his peace. Yet even then he was an excellent actor still, never +failing in his part when he had done speaking, but with his looks and +gestures maintaining it still to the height." + +It is not my intention, even if time permitted, to go much into the +private life of the four actors of whom I propose to speak. Very +little is known of Burbage's private life, except that he was married; +perhaps Shakespeare and he may have been drawn nearer together by the +tie of a common sorrow; for, as the poet lost his beloved son Hamlet +when quite a child, so did Burbage lose his eldest son Richard. +Burbage died on March 13th, 1617, being then about 50 years of age: +Camden, in his _Annals of James I._, records his death, and calls him +a second Roscius. He was sincerely mourned by all those who loved +the dramatic art; and he numbered among his friends Shakespeare, Ben +Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher, and other "common players," whose +names were destined to become the most honored in the annals of +English literature. Burbage was the first great actor that England +ever saw, the original representative of many of Shakespeare's noblest +creations, among others, of Shylock, Richard, Romeo, Hamlet, Lear, +Othello, and Macbeth. We may fairly conclude Burbage's acting to have +had all the best characteristics of Natural, as opposed to Artificial +acting. The principles of the former are so clearly laid down by +Shakespeare, in Hamlet's advice to the players, that, perhaps, I +cannot do better than to repeat them:-- + + Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, + trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your + players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor + do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all + gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may + say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a + temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to + the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a + passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the + groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but + inexplicable dumb-show and noise: I would have such a fellow + whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod; pray + you, avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let your own + discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, the + word to the action; with this special observance, that you + o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone + is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first + and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to + nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, + and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. + Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the + unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the + censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a + whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen + play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak + it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians + nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted + and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen + had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so + abominably. + +When we try to picture what the theatre in Shakespeare's time was +like, it strikes us that it must have been difficult to carry out +those principles. One would think it must have been almost impossible +for the actors to keep up the illusion of the play, surrounded as they +were by such distracting elements. Figure to yourselves a crowd of +fops, chattering like a flock of daws, carrying their stools in their +hands, and settling around, and sometimes upon the stage itself, with +as much noise as possible. To vindicate their importance in their own +eyes they kept up a constant jangling of petty, carping criticism on +the actors and the play. In the intervals of repose which they allowed +their tongues, they ogled the ladies in the boxes, and made a point +of vindicating the dignity of their intellects by being always most +inattentive during the most pathetic portions of the play. In front +of the house matters were little better: the orange girls going to and +fro among the audience, interchanging jokes--not of the most delicate +character--with the young sparks and apprentices, the latter cracking +nuts or howling down some unfortunate actor who had offended their +worships; sometimes pipes of tobacco were being smoked. Picture all +this confusion, and add the fact that the female characters of the +play were represented by shrill-voiced lads or half-shaven men. +Imagine an actor having to invest such representatives with all the +girlish passion of a Juliet, the womanly tenderness of a Desdemona, +or the pitiable anguish of a distraught Ophelia, and you cannot but +realize how difficult under such circumstances _great_ acting +must have been. In fact, while we are awe-struck by the wonderful +intellectuality of the best dramas of the Elizabethan period, we +cannot help feeling that certain subtleties of acting, elaborate +by-play, for instance, and the finer lights and shades of intonation, +must have been impossible. Recitation rather than impersonation would +be generally aimed at by the actors. + +Thomas Betterton was the son of one of the cooks of King Charles I. +He was born in Tothill Street, Westminster, about 1635, eighteen +years after the death of Burbage. He seems to have received a fair +education; indeed, but for the disturbing effect of the Civil War, he +would probably have been brought up to one of the liberal professions. +He was, however, apprenticed to a bookseller, who, fortunately +for Betterton, took to theatrical management. Betterton was about +twenty-four years old when he began his dramatic career. For upwards +of fifty years he seems to have held his position as the foremost +actor of the day. It was fortunate, indeed, for the interests of the +Drama that so great an actor arose at the very time when dramatic art +had, as it were, to be resuscitated. Directly the Puritans (who hated +the stage and every one connected with it as heartily as they +hated their Cavalier neighbors) came into power, they abolished the +theatres, as they did every other form of intellectual amusement; +and for many years the Drama only existed in the form of a few vulgar +"Drolls." It must have been, indeed, a dismal time for the people of +England; with all the horrors of civil war fresh in their memory, the +more than paternal government allowed its subjects no other amusement +than that of consigning their neighbors to eternal damnation, and of +selecting for themselves--by anticipation--all the best reserved seats +in heaven. When the Restoration took place, the inevitable reaction +followed: society, having been condemned to a lengthened period of an +involuntary piety--which sat anything but easily on it--rushed into +the other extreme; all who wanted to be in the fashion professed but +little morality, and it is to be feared that, for once in a way, their +practice did not come short of their profession. Now was the time +when, instead of "poor players," "fine gentlemen" condescended to +write for the stage; and it may be remarked that as long as the +literary interests of the theatre were in their keeping, the tone of +the plays represented was more corrupt than it ever was at any other +period of the history of the Drama. It is something to be thankful +for, that at such a time, when the highly-flavored comedies of +Wycherley and Congreve were all the vogue, and when the monotonous +profligacy of nearly all the characters introduced into those plays +was calculated to encourage the most artificial style of acting--it +was something, I say, to be thankful for, that at such a time, +Betterton, and one or two other actors, could infuse life into +the noblest creations of Shakespeare. Owing, more especially, to +Betterton's great powers, the tragedy of _Hamlet_ held its own in +popularity, even against such witty productions as _Love for Love_. It +was also fortunate that the same actor who could draw tears as Hamlet, +was equally at home in the feigned madness of that amusing rake +Valentine, or in the somewhat coarse humor of Sir John Brute. By +charming the public in what were the popular novelties of the day, he +was able to command their support when he sought it for a nobler +form of Drama. He married an actress, Mrs. Saunderson, who was only +inferior in her art to her husband. Their married life seems to +have been one of perfect happiness. When one hears so much of the +profligacy of actors and actresses, and that they are all such a +very wicked lot, it is pleasant to think of this couple, in an age +proverbial for its immorality, in a city where the highest in rank set +an example of shameless licence, living their quiet, pure, artistic +life, respected and beloved by all that knew them. + +Betterton had few physical advantages. If we are to believe Antony +Aston, one of his contemporaries, he had "a short, thick neck, stooped +in the shoulders, and had fat, short arms, which he rarely lifted +higher than his stomach. His left hand frequently lodged in his +breast, between his coat and waistcoat, while with his right hand he +prepared his speech." Yet the same critic is obliged to confess that, +at seventy years of age, a younger man might have _personated_ but +could not have _acted_, Hamlet better. He calls his voice "low and +grumbling," but confesses that he had such power over it that he could +enforce attention even from fops and orange-girls. I dare say you +all know how Steele and Addison admired his acting, and how +enthusiastically they spoke of it in _The Tatler_. The latter writes +eloquently of the wonderful agony of jealousy and the tenderness +of love which he showed in _Othello_, and of the immense effect he +produced in _Hamlet_. + +Betterton, like all really great men, was a hard worker. Pepys says +of him, "Betterton is a very sober, serious man, and studious, and +humble, following of his studies; and is rich already with what he +gets and saves." Alas! the fortune so hardly earned was lost in an +unlucky moment: he entrusted it to a friend to invest in a commercial +venture in the East Indies which failed most signally. Betterton never +reproached his friend, he never murmured at his ill-luck. The friend's +daughter was left unprovided for; but Betterton adopted the child, +educated her for the stage, and she became an actress of merit, and +married Bowman, the player, afterwards known as "The Father of the +Stage." + +In Betterton's day there were no long runs of pieces; but, had his +lot been cast in these times, he might have been compelled to perform, +say, _Hamlet_ for three hundred or four hundred nights: for the rights +of the majority are entitled to respect in other affairs besides +politics, and if the theatre-going public demand a play (and our +largest theatres only hold a limited number) the manager dare not +cause annoyance and disappointment by withdrawing it. + +Like Edmund Kean, Betterton may be said to have died upon the stage; +for in April, 1710, when he took his last benefit, as Melantius, in +Beaumont and Fletcher's _Maid's Tragedy_ (an adaption of which, by the +way, was played by Macready under the title of _The Bridal_,) he was +suffering tortures from gout, and had almost to be carried to his +dressing-room; and though he acted the part with all his old fire, +speaking these very appropriate words:-- + + "My heart + And limbs are still the same, my will as great, + To do you service," + +within forty-eight hours he was dead. He was buried in the Cloisters +of Westminster Abbey with every mark of respect and honor. + +I may here add that the censure said to have been directed against +Betterton for the introduction of scenery is the prototype of that +cry, which we hear so often nowadays, against over-elaboration in +the arrangements of the stage. If it be a crime against good taste +to endeavor to enlist every art in the service of the stage, and to +heighten the effect of noble poetry by surrounding it with the most +beautiful and appropriate accessories, I myself must plead guilty to +that charge; but I should like to point out that every dramatist who +has ever lived, from Shakespeare downwards, has always endeavored to +get his plays put upon the stage with as good effect and as handsome +appointments as possible. + +Indeed, the Globe Theatre was burned down during the first performance +of _King Henry VIII._, through the firing off of a cannon which +announced the arrival of King Henry. Perhaps, indeed, some might +regard this as a judgment against the manager for such an attempt at +realism. + +It was seriously suggested to me by an enthusiast the other day, that +costumes of his own time should be used for all Shakespeare's plays. I +reflected a little on the suggestion, and then I put it to him whether +the characters in _Julius Cæsar_ or in _Antony and Cleopatra_ dressed +in doublet and hose would not look rather out of place. He answered, +"He had never thought of that." In fact, difficulties almost +innumerable must invariably crop up if we attempt to represent plays +without appropriate costume and scenery, the aim of which is to +realize the _locale_ of the action. Some people may hold that paying +attention to such matters necessitates inattention to the acting; but +the majority think it does not, and I believe that they are right. +What would Alma-Tadema say, for instance, if it were proposed to him +that in a picture of the Roman Amphitheatre the figures should be +painted in the costume of Spain? I do not think he would see the point +of such a noble disregard of detail; and why should he, unless what is +false in art is held to be higher than what is true? + +Little more than thirty years were to elapse between the death of +the honored Betterton and the appearance of David Garrick, who was +to restore Nature once more to the stage. In this comparatively +short interval progress in dramatic affairs had been all backward. +Shakespeare's advice to the actors had been neglected; earnest +passion, affecting pathos, ever-varying gestures, telling intonation +of voice, and, above all, that complete identification of themselves +in the part they represented--all these qualities, which had +distinguished the acting of Betterton, had given way to noisy +rant, formal and affected attitudes, and a heavy stilted style of +declamation. Betterton died in 1710, and six years after, in 1716, +Garrick was born. About twenty years after, in 1737, Samuel Johnson +and his friend and pupil, David Garrick, set out from Lichfield on +their way to London. In spite of the differences in their ages, and +their relationship of master and pupil, a hearty friendship had sprung +up between them, and one destined, in spite of Johnson's occasional +resentment at the actor's success in life, to last till it was ended +by the grave. Much of Johnson's occasional harshness and almost +contemptuous attitude towards Garrick was, I fear, the result of the +consciousness that his old pupil had thoroughly succeeded in life, +and had reached the highest goal possible in the career which he had +chosen; while he himself, though looked up to as the greatest scholar +of his time, was conscious, as he shows us in his own diary, of how +much more he might have done but for his constitutional indolence. + +Garrick's family was of French origin, his father having come over to +England during the persecution of the Huguenots in 1687, and on his +mother's side he had Irish blood in his veins; so that by descent he +was a combination of French, English, and Irish, a combination by no +means unpromising for one who was going to be an actor. + +On reaching London, Garrick enrolled his name in Lincoln's Inn, and +was looking about him to see what would turn up, when the news of his +father's death reached him. There is no doubt that, if Garrick had +consulted his own wishes only, he would at once have gone upon the +stage. But fortunately, perhaps, for his future career, he could not +bear to grieve his mother's heart by adopting at once, and at such +a time when she was crushed with some sorrow for her great loss, a +calling which he knew she detested so heartily. + +Within a year Mrs. Garrick followed to the grave the husband whom she +never ceased to mourn, and David had nothing more to face than the +prejudice of his brother, Peter, and of his sisters, if he should +resolve ultimately to adopt the profession on which his heart was +fixed. + +It was not, however, till nearly three years after, in 1741, that +Garrick, determined to take the decisive step, first feeling his way +by playing Chamont in _The Orphan_, and Sir Harry Wildair, at Ipswich, +where he appeared under the name of Mr. Lydall; and under this same +name, in the same year, he made his first appearance at Goodman's +Fields Theatre, in the part of Richard III. His success was +marvellous. Considering the small experience he had had, no actor ever +made such a successful _début_. No doubt by waiting and exercising his +powers of observation, and by studying many parts in private, he had +to a certain extent, matured his powers. But making allowance for +all his great natural gifts, there is no denying that Garrick, in one +leap, gained a position which, in the case of most other actors, has +only been reached through years of toil. He seems to have charmed all +classes: the learned and the ignorant, the cultured and the vulgar; +great statesmen, poets, and even the fribbles of fashion were all +nearly unanimous in his praise. The dissentient voices were so few +that they were drowned in the clamor of applause. Quinn might snarl +and growl; and Horace Walpole, who seems to have grown alarmed at +so much of the incense of praise finding its way to the nostrils of +another, might give vent to a few feeble sneers; such as when he said, +"I do not mention the things written in his praise because he writes +most of them himself." But the battle was won. Nature in the place +of Artificiality, Originality in the place of Conventionality, had +triumphed on the stage once more. + +Consternation reigned in the home at Lichfield when the news arrived +that brother David had become a play-actor; but ultimately the family +were reconciled to such degradation by the substantial results of the +experiment. Such reconcilements are not uncommon. Some young man of +good birth and position has taken to the stage; his family, who could +not afford to keep him, have been shocked, and in pious horror have +cast him out of their respectable circle; but at last success has +come, and they have managed to overcome their scruples and prejudices +and to profit by the harvest which the actor has reaped. + +Garrick seems to have continued playing under the name of Lydall for +two months, though the secret must have been an open one. It was not +till December the second, the night of his benefit, that he was at +last announced under his own name; and henceforward his career was +one long triumph, checkered, indeed, by disagreements, quarrels and +heart-burnings (for Garrick was extremely sensitive), caused, for the +most part, by the envy and jealousy which invariably dog the heels of +success. + +Second-rate actors, like Theophilus Gibber, or gnats such as Murphy, +and others, easily stung him. He was lampooned as "The Sick Monkey" +on his return to the stage after having taken a much needed rest. +But discretion and audacity seemed to go hand-in-hand, and the +self-satisfied satirizer generally over-shoots the mark. Garrick was +ever ready with a reply to his assailants; when Dr. Hill attacked his +pronunciation, saying that he pronounced his "i's" as if they were +"u's," Garrick answered-- + + "If 'tis true, as you say, that I've injured a letter, + I'll change my note soon, and I hope for the better. + May the just right of letters as well as of men, + Hereafter be fixed by the tongue and the pen. + Most devoutly I wish that they both have their due, + And that _I_ may be never mistaken for _U_." + +Comparing Garrick with Betterton, it must be remembered that he was +more exposed to the attacks of envy from the very universality of +his success. Never, perhaps, was there a man in any profession +who combined so many various qualities. A fair poet, a most fluent +correspondent, an admirable conversationalist, possessing a person +of singular grace, a voice of marvellous expressiveness, and a +disposition so mercurial and vivacious as is rarely found in any +Englishman, he was destined to be a great social as well as a great +artistic success. He loved the society of men of birth and fashion; he +seems to have had a more passionate desire to please in private even +than in public, and almost to have justified the often quoted couplet +in Goldsmith's "Retaliation." + + "On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only + that when he was off he was acting." + +Some men, envious of the substantial fortune which he realized by +almost incessant hard work, by thorough good principle with regard +to money, and by a noble, not a paltry, economy, might call him mean; +though many of them knew well, from their own experience, that his +nature was truly generous--his purse, as well as his heart, ever open +to a friend, however little he might deserve it. Yet they sneered +at his want of reckless extravagance, and called him a miser. The +greatest offender in this respect was Samuel Foote, a man of great +accomplishments, witty, but always ill-natured. It is difficult to +speak of Foote's conduct to Garrick in any moderate language. Mr. +Forster may assert that behind Foote's brutal jests there always +lurked a kindly feeling; but what can we think of the man who, +constantly receiving favors from Garrick's hand, could never speak of +him before others without a sneer; who the moment he had received the +loan of money or other favor for which he had cringed, snarled--I will +not say like a dog, for no dog is so ungrateful--and snapped at the +hand which had administered to him of its bounty. When this man, +who had never spared a friend, whose whole life had been passed in +maligning others, at last was himself a victim of a vile and cruel +slander, Garrick forgot the gibes and sneers of which Foote had made +him so often the victim, and stood by him with a noble devotion as +honorable to himself as it was ill-deserved by its object. Time would +not suffice, had I as many hours as I have minutes before me, to tell +you of all the acts of generosity that this mean man, this niggardly +actor, performed in his lifetime. One characteristic anecdote will +suffice. When Whitfield was building his Tabernacle in Tottenham Court +Road, he employed one of the carpenters who worked for Garrick at +Drury Lane. Subscriptions for the Tabernacle do not seem to have +come in as fast as they were required to pay the workmen, so that the +carpenter had to go to Garrick to ask for an advance. When pressed for +his reason he confessed that he had not received any wages from Mr. +Whitfield. Garrick made the advance asked for, and soon after quietly +set out to pay a visit to Mr. Whitfield, when, with many apologies for +the liberty he was taking, he offered him a five hundred pound bank +note as his subscription towards the Tabernacle. Considering that +Garrick had no particular sympathy with Nonconformists, this action +speaks as much for his charity as a Christian as it does for his +liberality as a man. + +Perhaps Richard III. remained Garrick's best Shakesperean character. +Of course he played Cibber's version and not Shakespeare's. In fact, +many of the Shakesperean parts were not played from the poet's own +text, but Garrick might have doubted whether even his popularity +would have reconciled his audiences to the unadulterated poetry of our +greatest dramatist. + +Next to Richard, Lear would seem to have been his best Shakesperean +performance. In Hamlet and Othello he did not equal Betterton; and +in the latter, certainly from all one can discover, he was infinitely +surpassed by Edmund Kean. In fact Othello was not one of his great +parts. But in the wide range of characters which he undertook, Garrick +was probably never equalled. A poor actor named Everard, who was first +brought out as a boy by Garrick, says: "Such or such an actor in their +respective _fortes_ have been allowed to play such or such a part +equally well as him; but could they perform Archer and Scrub like +him? and Abel Drugger, Ranger, and Bayes, and Benedick; speak his own +prologue to _Barbarossa_, in the character of a country-boy, and in a +few minutes transform himself in the same play to _Selim_? Nay, in the +same night he has played _Sir John Brute_ and the _Guardian, Romeo_ +and _Lord Chalkstone, Hamlet_ and _Sharp, King Lear_ and _Fribble, +King Richard_ and the _Schoolboy_! Could anyone but himself attempt +such a wonderful variety, such an amazing contrast of character, and +be equally great in all? No, no, no! Garrick, take the chair." + +Garrick was, without doubt, a very intense actor; he threw himself +most thoroughly into any part that he was playing. Certainly we know +that he was not wanting in reverence for Shakespeare; in spite of the +liberties which he ventured to take with the poet's text, he loved +and worshipped him. To Powell, who threatened to be at one time a +formidable rival, his advice was, "Never let your Shakespeare be out +of your hands; keep him about you as a charm; the more you read him, +the more you will like him, and the better you will act." As to his +yielding to the popular taste for pantomime and spectacle, he may +plead a justification in the words which his friend Johnson put into +his mouth in the Prologue that he wrote for the inauguration of his +management at Drury Lane:-- + + "The Drama's laws the Drama's patrons give, + And we, who live to please, must please to live." + +We must remember how much he did for the stage. Though his alterations +of Shakespeare shock us, they are nothing to those outrages committed +by others, who deformed the poet beyond recognition. Garrick made +Shakespeare's plays once more popular. He purged the actors, for a +time at least, of faults that were fatal to any high class of drama, +and, above all, he gradually got rid of those abominable nuisances +(to which we have already alluded), the people who came and took their +seats at the wings, on the stage itself, while the performance was +going on, hampering the efforts of the actors and actresses. The stage +would have had much to thank Garrick for if he had done nothing more +than this--if only that he was the first manager who kept the audience +where they ought to be, on the other side of the footlights. + +In his private life Garrick was most happy. He was fortunate enough +to find for his wife a simple-minded, loyal woman, in a quarter which +some people would deem very unpromising. Mrs. Garrick was, as is +well-known, a celebrated _danseuse_, known as Mademoiselle Violette, +whose real name was Eva Maria Weigel, a Viennese. A more affectionate +couple were never seen; they were not blessed with children, but they +lived together in the most uninterrupted happiness, and their house +was the scene of many social gatherings of a delightful kind. Mrs. +Garrick survived her celebrated husband, and lived to the ripe age of +ninety-eight, retaining to the very last much of that grace and charm +of expression which had won the actor's heart. + +Time will not allow me to dwell on the many points of interest +in Garrick's career; all of which are to be found in Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald's _Life of Garrick_. On returning to London after a visit +to the Spensers at Althorp in January, 1779, he was struck down by +a fatal attack of his old malady, the gout, and died at the age of +sixty-three. + +He was buried in Westminster Abbey with ceremonies as imposing as ever +graced the funeral of a great man. The pall-bearers were headed by the +Duke of Devonshire and the Earl Spenser, while round the grave there +were gathered such men as Burke and Fox, and last, not least, his old +friend and tutor, Samuel Johnson, his rugged countenance streaming +with tears, his noble heart filled with the sincerest grief. The words +so often quoted, artificial though they may seem, came from that heart +when, speaking of his dear Davy's death, he said that it "had eclipsed +the gayety of nations." + +Garrick's remarkable success in society, which achieved for him a +position only inferior to that he achieved on the stage, is the best +answer to what is often talked about the degrading nature of the +actor's profession. Since the days of Roscius no contempt for actors +in general, or for their art, has prevented a great actor from +attaining that position which is accorded to all distinguished in what +are held to be the higher arts. + +Nearly nine years after the death of Garrick, on November 4th, 1787, a +young woman, who had run away from home when little more than a child +to join a company of strolling players, and who, when that occupation +failed, earned a scanty living as a hawker in the streets of London, +gave birth, in a wretched room near Gray's Inn, to an illegitimate +child. This woman was Nancy Carey, the grand-daughter of Henry Carey, +the author of the "National Anthem." She was the great-grand-daughter +of George Saville, Marquis of Halifax, whose natural son Henry Carey +was. A compassionate actress, Miss Tidswell, who knew the father of +the child, Aaron Kean, gave her what assistance she could. Poor Nance +was removed to her father's lodgings, near Gray's Inn, and there, on +the day before mentioned, Edmund Kean was born. + +Three months after his birth his mother deserted him, leaving him, +without a word of apology or regret, to the care of the woman who had +befriended her in her trouble. When he was but three years old he was +brought, amongst a number of other children, to Michael Kelly who +was then bringing out the opera of _Cymon_ at the Opera House in the +Haymarket, and, thanks to his personal beauty, he was selected for +the part of Cupid. Shortly afterwards he found his way to Drury Lane, +where the handsome baby--for he was little more--figured among the +imps in the pantomime. Taught here the tricks of the acrobat, he had +at four years old acquired such powers of contortion that he was fit +to rank as an infant phenomenon. But the usual result followed: the +little limbs became deformed, and had to be put in irons, by means +of which they regained that symmetry with which nature had at first +endowed them. Three years afterwards, in March, 1794, John Kemble was +acting Macbeth at Drury Lane; and, in the "cauldron scene," he engaged +some children to personate the supernatural beings summoned by the +witches from that weird vessel. Little Edmund with his irons was the +cause of a ridiculous accident, and the attempt to embody the ghostly +forms was abruptly abandoned. But the child seems to have been +pardoned for his blunder, and for a short time was permitted by the +manager to appear in one or two children's parts. Little did the +dignified manager imagine that the child--who was one of his +cauldron of imps in _Macbeth_--was to become, twenty years later, his +formidable rival--formidable enough to oust almost the representative +of the Classical school from the supremacy he had hitherto enjoyed on +the Tragic stage. In Orange Court, Leicester Square, where Holcroft, +the author of _The Road to Ruin_, was born, Edmund Kean received +his first education. Scanty enough it was, for it had scarcely begun +before his wretched mother stepped in and claimed him; and, after her +re-appearance, his education seems to have been of a most spasmodic +character. Hitherto, the child's experience of life had been hard +enough. When only eight years of age he ran away to Portsmouth, and +shipped himself on board a ship bound to Madeira. But he found his +new life harder than that from which he had escaped, and, by dint of +feigning deafness and lameness, he succeeded in procuring his removal +to an hospital at Madeira, whence, the doctors finding his case +yielded to no remedies, the authorities kindly shipped him again to +England. He insisted on being deaf and lame: indeed, so deaf that in +a violent thunder-storm he remained perfectly unmoved, explaining his +composure by declaring that he could not hear any noise at all. From +Portsmouth he made his way on foot to London. On presenting himself +at the wretched lodgings where his mother lived, he found that she had +gone away with Richardson's troupe. Penniless and half-starving, he +suddenly thought of his uncle, Moses Kean, who lived in Lisle Street, +Leicester Square, a queer character, who gained a precarious living by +giving entertainments as a mimic and ventriloquist. The uncle received +his nephew warmly enough, and seems to have cultivated, to the best of +his ability, the talent for acting which he recognized at once in +the boy. Edmund again enjoyed a kind of desultory education, partly +carried on at school and partly at his uncle's home, where he enjoyed +the advantage of the kind instructions of his old friend, Miss +Tidswell, of D'Egville, the dancing master, of Angelo, the fencing +master, and of no less a person than Incledon, the celebrated singer, +who seems to have taken the greatest interest in him. But the vagrant, +half-gypsy disposition, which he inherited from his mother, could +never be subdued, and he was constantly disappearing from his uncle's +house for weeks together, which he would pass in going about from one +roadside inn to another, amusing the guests with his acrobatic tricks, +and his monkey-like imitations. In vain was he locked up in rooms, the +height of which from the ground was such as seemed to render escape +impossible. He contrived to get out somehow or other, even at the risk +of his neck, and to make his escape to some fair, where he would earn +a few pence by the exhibition of his varied accomplishments. During +these periods of vagabondism he would live on a mere nothing, sleeping +in barns, or in the open air, and would faithfully bring back his +gains to Uncle Moses. But even this astounding generosity, appealing, +as it must have done, to the uncle's sentiments, could not appease +him. His uncle went so far, apparently with the concurrence of Miss +Tidswell, as to place round the boy's neck a brass collar with the +inscription, "This boy belongs to No. 9 Lisle Street; please bring him +home." His wandering propensities being for a time subdued, we find +the little Edmund again engaged at Drury Lane, and delighting the +actors in the green-room by giving recitations from _Richard III._, +probably in imitation of Cooke; and, on one occasion, among his +audience was Mrs. Charles Kemble. During this engagement he played +Arthur to Kemble's King John and Mrs. Siddon's Constance, and appears +to have made a great success. Soon after this, his uncle Moses +died suddenly, and young Kean was left to the severe but kindly +guardianship of Miss Tidswell. We cannot follow him through all the +vicissitudes of his early career. The sketch I have given of his early +life--ample details of which may be found in Mrs. Hawkins's _Life of +Edmund Kean_--will give you a sufficient idea of what he must have +endured and suffered. When, years afterwards, the passionate love of +Shakespeare, which, without exaggeration, we may say he showed almost +from his cradle, had reaped its own reward in the wonderful success +which he achieved, if we find him then averse to respectable +conventionality, erratic, and even dissipated in his habits, let us +mercifully remember the bitter and degrading suffering which he passed +through in his childhood, and not judge too harshly the great actor. +Unlike those whose lives we have hitherto considered, he knew none of +the softening influences of a home; to him the very name of mother, +instead of recalling every tender and affectionate feeling, was but +the symbol of a vague horror, the fountain of that degradation and +depravation of his nature, from which no subsequent prosperity could +ever redeem it. + +For many years after his boyhood his life was one of continual +hardship. With that unsubdued conviction of his own powers, which +often is the sole consolation of genius, he toiled on and bravely +struggled through the sordid miseries of a strolling player's life. +The road to success lies through many a thorny course, across many a +dreary stretch of desert land, over many an obstacle, from which the +fainting heart is often tempted to turn back. But hope, and the sense +of power within, which no discouragements can subdue, inspire the +struggling artist still to continue the conflict, till at last courage +and perseverance meet with their just reward, and success comes. The +only feeling then to which the triumphant artist may be tempted is one +of good-natured contempt for those who are so ready to applaud those +merits which, in the past, they were too blind to recognize. Edmund +Kean was twenty-seven years old before his day of triumph came. + +Without any preliminary puffs, without any flourish of trumpets, on +the evening of the 26th January, 1814, soaked through with the rain, +Edmund Kean slunk more than walked in at the stage-door of Drury Lane +Theatre, uncheered by one word of encouragement, and quite unnoticed. +He found his way to the wretched dressing-room he shared in common +with three or four other actors; as quick as possible he exchanged his +dripping clothes for the dress of Shylock; and, to the horror of +his companions, took from his bundle a _black_ wig--the proof of his +daring rebellion against the great law of conventionality, which +had always condemned Shylock to red hair. Cheered by the kindness of +Bannister and Oxberry, the latter of whom offered him a welcome glass +of brandy and water, he descended to the stage dressed, and peeped +through the curtain to see a more than half-empty house. Dr. Drury +was waiting at the wings to give him a hearty welcome. The boxes were +empty, and there were about five hundred people in the pit, and a few +others "thinly scattered to make up a show." Shylock was the part he +was playing, and he no sooner stepped upon the stage than the interest +of the audience was excited. Nothing he did or spoke in the part was +done or spoken in a conventional manner. The simple words, "I will be +assured I may," were given with such effect that the audience burst +into applause. When the act-drop fell, after the speech of Shylock +to Antonio, his success was assured, and his fellow-actors, who had +avoided him, now seemed disposed to congratulate him; but he shrank +from their approaches. The great scene with Tubal was a revelation of +such originality and of such terrible force as had not probably been +seen upon those boards before. "How the devil so few of them could +kick up such a row was something marvellous!" naïvely remarked +Oxberry. At the end of the third act every one was ready to pay court +to him; but again he held aloof. All his thoughts were concentrated on +the great "trial" scene, which was coming. In that scene the +wonderful variety of his acting completed his triumph. Trembling with +excitement, he resumed his half-dried clothes, and, glad to escape, +rushed home. He was in too great a state of ecstasy at first to speak, +but his face told his wife that he had realized his dream--that he +had appeared on the stage of Drury Lane, and that his great powers +had been instantly acknowledged. With not a shadow of doubt as to his +future, he exclaimed, "Mary, you shall ride in your carriage;" and +taking his baby boy from the cradle and kissing him, said, "and +Charley, my boy, you shall go to Eton,"--and he did. + +The time when Edmund Kean made his first appearance in London was +certainly favorable for an actor of genius. For a long while the +national theatre had been in a bad way; and nothing but failure had +hitherto met the efforts of the Committee of Management, a committee +which numbered among its members Lord Byron. When the other members +of the committee, with a strange blindness to their own interests, +proposed that for the present, Kean's name should be removed from +the bills, Byron interested himself on his behalf: "You have a great +genius among you," he said, "and you do not know it." On Kean's second +appearance the house was nearly doubled. Hazlitt's criticism had +roused the whole body of critics, and they were all there to sit in +judgment upon the newcomer. His utter indifference to the audience won +him their respect, and before the piece was half over the sentence +of the formidable tribunal was in his favor. From that moment Kean +exercised over his audiences a fascination which was probably never +exercised by any other actor. Garrick was no doubt his superior in +parts of high comedy; he was more polished, more vivacious--his manner +more distinguished, and his versatility more striking. In such parts +as Coriolanus or Rolla, John Kemble excelled him: but in Shylock, +in Richard, in Iago, and, above all, in Othello, it may be doubted +whether Edmund Kean ever had an equal. As far as one can judge--not +having seen Kean one's-self--from the many criticisms extant, written +by the most intellectual men, and from the accounts of those who +saw him in his prime, he was, to my mind--be it said without any +disparagement to other great actors--the greatest genius that our +stage has ever seen. Unequal he may have been, perhaps often so, but +there were moments in his acting which were, without exaggeration, +moments of inspiration. Coleridge is reported to have said that to see +Kean act was "like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning." This +often-quoted sentence embodies perhaps the main feature of Edmund +Kean's greatness as an actor; for, when he was impersonating the +heroes of our poet, he revealed their natures by an instant flash of +light so searching that every minute feature, which by the ordinary +light of day was hardly visible, stood bright and clear before you. +The effect of such acting was indeed that of lightning--it appalled; +the timid hid their eyes, and fashionable society shrank from such +heart-piercing revelations of human passion. Persons who had schooled +themselves to control their emotion till they had scarcely any +emotion left to control, were repelled rather than attracted by Kean's +relentless anatomy of all the strongest feeling of our nature. In Sir +Giles Overreach, a character almost devoid of poetry, Kean's acting +displayed with such powerful and relentless truth the depths of a +cruel, avaricious man, baffled in all his vilest schemes, that the +effect he produced was absolutely awful. As no bird but the eagle can +look without blinking on the sun, so none but those who in the +sacred privacy of their imaginations had stood face to face with the +mightiest storms of human passion could understand such a performance. +Byron, who had been almost forced into a quarrel with Kean by the +actor's disregard of the ordinary courtesies of society, could not +restrain himself, but rushed behind the scenes and grasped the hand of +the man to whom he felt that he owed a wonderful revelation. + +I might discant for hours with an enthusiasm which, perhaps, only an +actor could feel on the marvellous details of Kean's impersonations. +He was not a scholar in the ordinary sense of the word, though Heaven +knows he had been schooled by adversity, but I doubt if there ever was +an actor who so thought out his part, who so closely studied with the +inward eye of the artist the waves of emotion that might have agitated +the minds of the beings whom he represented. One hears of him during +those early years of struggle and privation, pacing silently along +the road, foot-sore and half-starved, but unconscious of his own +sufferings, because he was immersed in the study of those great +creations of Shakespeare's genius which he was destined to endow with +life upon the stage. When you read of Edmund Kean as, alas! he was +later on in life, with mental and physical powers impaired, think of +the description those gave of him who knew him best in his earlier +years; how amidst all the wildness and half-savage Bohemianism, which +the miseries of his life had ensured, he displayed, time after time, +the most large-hearted generosity, the tenderest kindness of which +human nature is capable. Think of him working with a concentrated +energy for the one object which he sought, namely, to reach the +highest distinction in his calling. Think of him as sparing no mental +or physical labor to attain this end, an end which seemed ever fading +further and further from his grasp. Think of the disappointments, the +cruel mockeries of hope which, day after day, he had to encounter; +and then be harsh if you can to those moral failings for which his +misfortunes rather than his faults were responsible. If you are +inclined to be severe, you may console yourselves with the reflection +that this genius, who had given the highest intellectual pleasure to +hundreds and thousands of human beings, was hounded by hypocritical +sanctimoniousness out of his native land; and though, two years +afterwards, one is glad to say, for the honor of one's country, a +complete reaction took place, and his reappearance was greeted with +every mark of hearty welcome, the blow had been struck from which +neither his mind or his body ever recovered. He lingered upon +the stage, and died at the age of forty-six, after five years of +suffering--almost a beggar--with only a solitary ten-pound note +remaining of the large fortune his genius had realized. + +It is said that Kean swept away the Kembles and their Classical school +of acting. He did not do that. The memory of Sarah Siddons, tragic +queen of the British stage, was never to be effaced, and I would +remind you that when Kean was a country actor (assured of his own +powers, however unappreciated), resenting with passionate pride the +idea of playing second to "the Infant Roscius," who was for a time +the craze and idol of the hour, "Never," said he, "never; I will play +second to no one but John Kemble!" I am certain that when his +better nature had the ascendency no one would have more generously +acknowledged the merits of Kemble than Edmund Kean. It is idle to say +that because his style was solemn and slow, Kemble was not one of the +greatest actors that our stage has produced. It is only those whose +natures make them incapable of approbation or condemnation in artistic +matters without being partisans, who, because they admire Edmund Kean, +would admit no merit in John Kemble. The world of art, thank Heaven, +is wide enough for both, and the hearts of those who truly love art +are large enough to cherish the memory of both as of men who did noble +work in the profession which they adorned. Kean blended the Realistic +with the Ideal in acting, and founded a school of which William +Charles Macready was, afterwards, in England, the foremost disciple. + +Thus have we glanced, briefly enough, at four of our greatest actors +whose names are landmarks in the history of the Drama in England, the +greatest Drama of the world. We have seen how they all carried out, by +different methods perhaps, but in the same spirit, the principle that +in acting Nature must dominate Art. But it is Art that must interpret +Nature; and to interpret the thoughts and emotions of her mistress +should be her first object. But those thoughts, those emotions, must +be interpreted with grace, with dignity and with temperance; and +these, let us remember, Art alone can teach. + + + + +ADDRESS + +SESSIONAL OPENING + +PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION + +EDINBURGH + +9 NOVEMBER 1891 + + + + +THE ART OF ACTING + + +I have chosen as the subject of the address with which I have the +honor to inaugurate for the second time the Session of the Edinburgh +Philosophical Institution, "The Art of Acting." I have done so, in the +first instance, because I take it for granted that when you bestow on +any man the honor of asking him to deliver the inaugural address, it +is your wish to hear him speak of the subject with which he is best +acquainted; and the Art of Acting is the subject to which my life has +been devoted. I have another reason also which, though it may, so far +as you are concerned, be personal to those of my calling, I think it +well to put before you. It is that there may be, from the point of +view of an actor distinguished by your favor, some sort of official +utterance on the subject. There are some irresponsible writers who +have of late tried to excite controversy by assertions, generally +false and always misleading, as to the stage and those devoted to the +arts connected with it. Some of these writers go so far as to assert +that Acting is not an Art at all; and though we must not take such +wild assertions quite seriously, I think it well to place on record at +least a polite denial of their accuracy. It would not, of course, +be seemly to merely take so grave an occasion as the present as an +opportunity for such a controversy, but as I am dealing with the +subject before you, I think it better to place you in full knowledge +of the circumstances. It does not do, of course, to pay too much +attention to ephemeral writings, any more than to creatures of the +mist and the swamp and the night. But even the buzzing of the midge, +though the insect may be harmless compared with its more poison-laden +fellows, can divert the mind from more important things. To disregard +entirely the world of ephemera, and their several actions and effects +were to deny the entirety of the scheme of creation. + +I take it for granted that in addressing you on the subject of the Art +of Acting I am not, _prima facie_, encountering set prejudices; for +had you despised the Art which I represent I should not have had the +honor of appearing before you to-day. You will, I trust, on your part, +bear this in mind, and I shall, on my part, never forget that you are +members of a Philosophical Institution, the very root and basis of +whose work is to inquire into the heart of things with the purpose of +discovering why such as come under your notice are thus or thus. + +The subject of my address is a very vast one, and is, I assure you, +worthy of a careful study. Writers such as Voltaire, Schlegel, Goethe, +Lessing, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, and Schiller, have not disdained to +treat it with that seriousness which Art specially demands--which +anything in life requires whose purpose is not immediate and +imperative. For my own part I can only bring you the experience +of more than thirty years of hard and earnest work. Out of wide +experience let me point out that there are many degrees of merit, both +of aim, of endeavor, and of execution in acting, as in all things. I +want you to think of acting at its best--as it may be, as it can be, +as it has been, and is--and as it shall be, whilst it be followed by +men and women of strong and earnest purpose. I do not for a moment +wish you to believe that only Shakespeare and the great writers are +worthy of being played, and that all those efforts that in centuries +have gathered themselves round great names are worthy of your praise. +In the House of Art are many mansions where men may strive worthily +and live cleanly lives. All Art is worthy, and can be seriously +considered, so long as the intention be good and the efforts to +achieve success be conducted with seemliness. And let me here say, +that of all the arts none requires greater intention than the art +of acting. Throughout it is necessary to _do_ something, and +that something cannot fittingly be left to chance, or the unknown +inspiration of a moment. I say "unknown," for if known, then the +intention is to reproduce, and the success of the effort can be +in nowise due to chance. It may be, of course, that in moments of +passionate excitement the mind grasps some new idea, or the nervous +tension suggests to the mechanical parts of the body some new form of +expression; but such are accidents which belong to the great scheme of +life, and not to this art, or any art, alone. You all know the story +of the painter who, in despair at not being able to carry out the +intention of his imagination, dashed his brush at the imperfect +canvas, and with the scattering paint produced by chance the very +effect which his brush guided by his skill alone, had failed to +achieve. The actor's business is primarily to reproduce the ideas of +the author's brain, to give them form, and substance, and color, and +life, so that those who behold the action of a play may, so far as +can be effected, be lured into the fleeting belief that they behold +reality. Macready, who was an earnest student, defined the art of the +actor "to fathom the depths of character, to trace its latent motives, +to feel its finest quivering of emotion, is to comprehend the thoughts +that are hidden under words, and thus possess one's-self of the actual +mind of the individual man"; and Talma spoke of it as "the union +of grandeur without pomp, and nature without triviality"; whilst +Shakespeare wrote, "the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the +first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to +nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the +very age and body of the time his form and pressure." + +This effort to reproduce man in his moods is no mere trick of fancy +carried into execution. It is a part of the character of a strong +nation, and has a wider bearing on national life than perhaps +unthinking people are aware. Mr. Froude, in his survey of early +England, gives it a special place; and I venture to quote his words, +for they carry with them, not only their own lesson, but the authority +of a great name in historical research. + +"No genius can dispense with experience; the aberrations of power, +unguided or ill-guided, are ever in proportion to its intensity, and +life is not long enough to recover from inevitable mistakes. Noble +conceptions already existing, and a noble school of execution which +will launch mind and hand at once upon their true courses, are +indispensable to transcendent excellence; and Shakespeare's plays were +as much the offspring of the long generations who had pioneered his +road for him, as the discoveries of Newton were the offspring of those +of Copernicus. + +"No great general ever arose out of a nation of cowards; no great +statesman or philosopher out of a nation of fools; no great artist out +of a nation of materialists; no great drama, except when the drama was +the possession of the people. Acting was the especial amusement of the +English, from the palace to the village green. It was the result and +expression of their strong, tranquil possession of their lives, of +their thorough power over themselves, and power over circumstances. +They were troubled with no subjective speculations; no social problems +vexed them with which they were unable to deal; and in the exuberance +of vigor and spirit, they were able, in the strict and literal sense +of the word, to play with the materials of life." So says Mr. Froude. + +In the face of this statement of fact set forth gravely in its place +in the history of our land, what becomes of such bold assertions as +are sometimes made regarding the place of the drama being but a poor +one, since the efforts of the actor are but mimetic and ephemeral, +that they pass away as a tale that is told? All art is mimetic; and +even life itself, the highest and last gift of God to His people, is +fleeting. Marble crumbles, and the very names of great cities become +buried in the dust of ages. Who then would dare to arrogate to any art +an unchanging place in the scheme of the world's development, or would +condemn it because its efforts fade and pass? Nay, more; has even the +tale that is told no significance in after years? Can such not stir, +when it is worth the telling, the hearts of men, to whom it comes as +an echo from the past? Have not those tales remained most vital and +most widely known which are told and told again and again, face to +face and heart to heart, when the teller and the listener are adding, +down the ages, strength to the current of a mighty thought or a mighty +deed and its record? + +Surely the record that lives in the minds of men is still a record, +though it be not graven on brass or wrought in marble. And it were +a poor conception of the value of any art, if, in considering it, we +were to keep our eyes fixed on some dark spot, some imperfection, and +shut our eyes to its aim, its power, its beauty. It were a poor age +indeed where such a state of things is possible; as poor as that of +which Mrs. Browning's unhappy poet spoke in the bitterness of his +soul: + + "The age culls simples, + With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the + glory of the stars." + +Let us lift our faces when we wish to judge truly of any earnest work +of the hand or mind of man, and see it placed in the widest horizon +that is given to us. Poetry, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, +all have a bearing on their time, and beyond it; and the actor, though +his knowledge may be, and must be, limited by the knowledge of his +age, so long as he sound the notes of human passion, has something +which is common to all the ages. If he can smite water from the rock +of one hardened human heart--if he can bring light to the eye or +wholesome color to the faded cheek--if he can bring or restore in ever +so slight degree the sunshine of hope, of pleasure, of gayety, surely +he cannot have worked in vain. It would need but a small effort +of imagination to believe that that great wave theory, which the +scientists have proved as ruling the manifestations of light and +sound, applies also to the efforts of human emotion. And who shall +tell us the ultimate bounds of these waves of light and sound? If +these discernible waves can be traced till they fade into impalpable +nothingness, may we not think that this other, impalpable at the +beginning as they are at the end, can alone stretch into the +dimness of memory? Sir Joshua's gallant compliment, that he achieved +immortality by writing his name on the hem of Mrs. Siddons's garment, +when he painted her as the Tragic Muse, had a deeper significance than +its pretty fancy would at first imply. + +Not for a moment is the position to be accepted that the theatre +is merely a place of amusement. That it is primarily a place of +amusement, and is regarded as such by its _habitués_, is of course +apparent; but this is not its limitation. For authors, managers, and +actors it is a serious employment, to be undertaken gravely, and of +necessity to be adhered to rigidly. Thus far it may be considered from +these different stand-points; but there is a larger view--that of the +State. Here we have to consider a custom of natural growth specially +suitable to the genius of the nation. It has advanced with the +progress of each age, and multiplied with its material prosperity. +It is a living power, to be used for good, or possibly for evil; and +far-seeing men recognize in it, based though it be on the relaxation +and pleasures of the people, an educational medium of no mean order. +Its progress in the past century has been the means of teaching to +millions of people a great number of facts which had perhaps otherwise +been lost to them. How many are there who have had brought home to +them in an understandable manner by stage-plays the costumes, habits, +manners, and customs of countries and ages other than their own; +what insight have they thus obtained into facts and vicissitudes of +life--of passions and sorrows and ambitions outside the narrow scope +of their own lives, and which yet may and do mould the destinies of +men. All this is education--education in its widest sense, for it +broadens the sympathies and enlarges the intellectual grasp. +And beyond this again--for these are advantages on the material +side--there is that higher education of the heart, which raises in the +scale of creation all who are subject to its sweetening influences. To +hold his place therefore amongst these progressing forces, the actor +must at the start be well endowed with some special powers, and by +training, reading, and culture of many kinds, be equipped for the work +before him. No amount of training can give to a dense understanding +and a clumsy personality certain powers of quickness and spontaneity; +and, on the other hand, no genius can find its fullest expression +without some understanding of the principles and method of a craft. It +is the actor's part to represent or interpret the ideas and emotions +which the poet has created, and to do this he must at the first have +a full knowledge and understanding of them. This is in itself no easy +task. It requires much study and much labor of many kinds. Having then +acquired an idea, his intention to work it out into reality must be +put in force; and here new difficulties crop up at every further step +taken in advance. Now and again it suffices the poet to think and +write in abstractions; but the actor's work is absolutely concrete. +He is brought in every phase of his work into direct comparison with +existing things, and must be judged by the most exacting standards of +criticism. Not only must his dress be suitable to the part which he +assumes, but his bearing must not be in any way antagonistic to the +spirit of the time in which the play is fixed. The free bearing of +the sixteenth century is distinct from the artificial one of the +seventeenth, the mannered one of the eighteenth, and the careless +one of the nineteenth. And all this quite exclusive of the minute +qualities and individualities of the character represented. The voice +must be modulated to the vogue of the time. The habitual action of a +rapier-bearing age is different to that of a mail-clad one--nay, the +armor of a period ruled in real life the poise and bearing of the +body; and all this must be reproduced on the stage, unless the +intelligence of the audience, be they ever so little skilled in +history, is to count as naught. + +It cannot therefore be seriously put forward in the face of such +manifold requirements that no Art is required for the representation +of suitable action. Are we to imagine that inspiration or emotion of +any kind is to supply the place of direct knowledge of facts--of skill +in the very grammar of craftsmanship? Where a great result is arrived +at much effort is required, whether the same be immediate or has been +spread over a time of previous preparation. In this nineteenth century +the spirit of education stalks abroad and influences men directly +and indirectly, by private generosity and national foresight, to +accumulate as religiously as in former ages ecclesiastics and devotees +gathered sacred relics, all that helps to give the people a full +understanding of lives and times and countries other than their own. +Can it be that in such an age all that can help to aid the inspiration +and to increase direct knowledge is of no account whatever, because, +forsooth, it has a medium or method of its own? There are those who +say that Shakespeare is better in the closet than on the stage; that +dramatic beauty is more convincing when read in private than when +spoken on the stage to the accompaniment of suitable action. And yet, +if this be so, it is a strange thing that, with all the activity of +the new-born printing-press, Shakespeare's works were not known to the +reading public till the fame of the writer had been made on the stage. +And it is a stranger thing still, if the drama be a mere poetic form +of words, that the writer who began with _Venus and Adonis_, when he +found the true method of expression to suit his genius, ended with +_Hamlet_ and _The Tempest_. + +How is it, I ask, if these responsible makers of statements be +correct, that every great writer down from the days of Elizabeth, when +the drama took practical shape from the wish of the poets to render +human life in all its phases, have been desirous of seeing their +works, when written in dramatic form, represented on the stage--and +not only represented, but represented under the most favorable +conditions obtainable, both as to the fitness of setting and the +choice of the most skilled and excellent players? Are we to take it +that the poet, with his eye in a fine phrenzy rolling, sees all the +minute details of form, color, light, sound, and action which have +to be rendered complete on the stage? Is there nothing in what the +individual actor, who is gifted with fine sense and emotional power, +can add to mere words, however grand and rolling in themselves, and +whatsoever mighty image they may convey? Can it be possible that there +is any sane person who holds that there is no such thing as expression +in music so long as the written notes are correctly rendered--that the +musical expression of a Paganini or a Liszt, or that the voice of a +Malibran or a Grisi, has no special charm--nay more, that there is not +some special excellence in the instruments of Amati or Stradivarius? +If there be, we can leave to him, whilst the rest of mankind marvel +at his self-sufficient obtuseness, to hold that it was nothing but his +own imagination which so much influenced Hazlitt when he was touched +to the heart by Edmund Kean's rendering of the words of the remorseful +Moor, "Fool, fool, fool!" Why, the action of a player who knows how to +convey to the audience that he is listening to another speaking, can +not only help in the illusion of the general effect, but he himself +can suggest a running commentary on what is spoken. In every moment +in which he is on the stage, an actor accomplished in his craft can +convey ideas to the mind. + +It is in the representation of passion that the intention of the actor +appears in its greatest force. He wishes to do a particular thing, and +so far the wish is father to the thought that the brain begins to work +in the required direction, and the emotional faculties and the whole +nervous and muscular systems follow suit. A skilled actor can count on +this development of power, if it be given to him to rise at all to the +height of a passion; and the inspiration of such moments may, now and +again, reveal to him some new force or beauty in the character which +he represents. Thus he will gather in time a certain habitual strength +in a particular representation of passion. Diderot laid down a theory +that an actor never feels the part he is acting. It is of course true +that the pain he suffers is not real pain, but I leave it to any one +who has ever felt his own heart touched by the woes of another to say +if he can even imagine a case where the man who follows in minutest +detail the history of an emotion, from its inception onward, is the +only one who cannot be stirred by it--more especially when his own +individuality must perforce be merged in that of the archetypal +sufferer. Talma knew that it was possible for an actor to feel to the +full a simulated passion, and yet whilst being swept by it to retain +his consciousness of his surroundings and his purpose. In his own +words--"The intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations +of sensibility." And this is what Shakespeare means when he makes +Hamlet tell the players--"for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I +may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must beget a temperance that +may give it smoothness." + +How can any one be temperate in the midst of his passion, lest it be +that his consciousness and his purpose remain to him? Let me say that +it is this very discretion which marks the ultimate boundary of an +Art, which stands within the line of demarcation between Art and +Nature. In Nature there is no such discretion. Passion rules supreme +and alone; discretion ceases, and certain consequences cease to be any +deterrent or to convey any warning. It must never be forgotten that +all Art has the aim or object of seeming and not of being; and that to +understate is as bad as to overstate the modesty or the efflorescence +of Nature. It is not possible to show within the scope of any Art the +entire complexity and the myriad combining influences of Nature. +The artist has to accept the conventional standard--the accepted +significance--of many things, and confine himself to the exposition of +that which is his immediate purpose. To produce the effect of reality +it is necessary, therefore, that the efforts of an artist should be +slightly different from the actions of real life. The perspective +of the stage is not that of real life, and the result of seeming +is achieved by means which, judged by themselves, would seem to be +indirect. It is only the raw recruit who tries to hit the bull's-eye +by point-blank firing, and who does not allow for elevation and +windage. Are we to take it for a moment, that in the Art of Acting, +of which elocution is an important part, nothing is to be left to the +individual idea of the actor? That he is simply to declaim the words +set down for him, without reference to the expression of his face, +his bearing, or his action? It is in the union of all the powers--the +harmony of gait and utterance and emotion--that conviction lies. +Garrick, who was the most natural actor of his time, could not declaim +so well as many of his own manifest inferiors in his art--nay, it +was by this that he set aside the old false method, and soared to the +heights in which, as an artist, he reigned supreme. Garrick personated +and Kean personated. The one had all the grace and mastery of the +powers of man for the conveyance of ideas, the other had a mighty +spirit which could leap out in flame to awe and sweep the souls of +those who saw and heard him. And the secret of both was that they best +understood the poet--best impersonated the characters which he drew, +and the passions which he set forth. + +In order to promote and preserve the idea of reality in the minds of +the public, it is necessary that the action of the play be set in what +the painters call the proper _milieu_, or atmosphere. To this belongs +costume, scenery, and all that tends to set forth time and place other +than our own. If this idea be not kept in view there must be, or at +all events there may be, some disturbing cause to the mind of the +onlooker. This is all--literally all--that dramatic Art imperatively +demands from the paint room, the wardrobe, and the property shop; +and it is because the public taste and knowledge in such matters have +grown that the actor has to play his part with the surroundings and +accessories which are sometimes pronounced to be a weight or drag +on action. Suitability is demanded in all things; and it must, for +instance, be apparent to all that the things suitable to a palace are +different to those usual in a hovel. There is nothing unsuitable in +Lear in kingly raiment in the hovel in the storm, because such is here +demanded by the exigencies of the play: but if Lear were to be first +shown in such guise in such a place with no explanation given of the +cause, either the character or the stage-manager would be simply taken +for a madman. This idea of suitability should always be borne in mind, +for it is in itself a sufficient answer to any thoughtless allegation +as to overloading a play with scenery. + +Finally, in the consideration of the Art of Acting, it must never be +forgotten that its ultimate aim is beauty. Truth itself is only an +element of beauty, and to merely reproduce things vile and squalid and +mean is a debasement of Art. There is apt to be such a tendency in +an age of peace, and men should carefully watch its manifestations. A +morose and hopeless dissatisfaction is not a part of a true national +life. This is hopeful and earnest, and, if need be, militant. It is a +bad sign for any nation to yearn for, or even to tolerate, pessimism +in its enjoyment; and how can pessimism be other than antagonistic +to beauty? Life, with all its pains and sorrows, is a beautiful and +a precious gift; and the actor's Art is to reproduce this beautiful +thing, giving due emphasis to those royal virtues and those stormy +passions which sway the destinies of men. Thus the lesson given by +long experience--by the certain punishment of ill-doing--and by the +rewards that follow on bravery, forbearance, and self-sacrifice, are +on the mimic stage conveyed to men. And thus every actor who is more +than a mere machine, and who has an ideal of any kind, has a duty +which lies beyond the scope of his personal ambition. His art must +be something to hold in reverence if he wishes others to hold it in +esteem. There is nothing of chance about this work. All, actors and +audience alike, must bear in mind that the whole scheme of the higher +Drama is not to be regarded as a game in life which can be played with +varying success. Its present intention may be to interest and amuse, +but its deeper purpose is earnest, intense, sincere. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13483 *** diff --git a/13483-h/13483-h.htm b/13483-h/13483-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38a687d --- /dev/null +++ b/13483-h/13483-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2802 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Drama, by Henry Irving</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; } + p { text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; } + hr { width: 50%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; } + .newpage {display:none; } + .foot { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 85%; } + .poem { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left; } + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + .poem p { margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em; } + .poem p.i2 { margin-left: 1em; } + .poem p.i4 { margin-left: 2em; } + .poem p.i6 { margin-left: 3em; } + .poem p.i8 { margin-left: 4em; } + .poem p.i10 { margin-left: 5em; } + .toc { margin-left: 15%; font-size: 90%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + .toc1 { margin-left: 20%; font-size: 90%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + .speech { margin-left: 8%; font-size: 85%; margin-right: 8% } + center { padding: 0.8em;} + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + pre.pg {font-size: 9pt;} + // --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13483 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Drama, by Henry Irving</h1> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<br /><span class="newpage"><a name='Page2' id='Page2'>[2]</a></span> +<a name="image-0001" id="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center><img src="images/image01a.jpg" width="125" height="250" alt= +"Frontispiece" /></center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page3' id='Page3'>[3]</a></span> +<h1>THE DRAMA</h1> +<h3>Addresses by</h3> +<center> +<h2>HENRY IRVING</h2> +</center> +<table align="center" summary="same as table of contents"> +<tr> +<td align="right"><big>I<br /> +II<br /> +III<br /> +IV</big></td> +<td><big>.<br /> +.<br /> +.<br /> +.</big></td> +<td><big>The Stage as it is<br /> +The Art of Acting<br /> +Four Great Actors<br /> +The Art of Acting</big></td> +</tr> +</table> +<br /> +<br /> +<center><i><b>WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY WHISTLER</b></i></center> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page4' id='Page4'>[4]</a></span> +<br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page5' id='Page5'>[5]</a></span> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br /> +<p class="toc"><a href="#link1"><big>The Stage as it +is</big></a></p> +<br /> +<br /> +<p class="toc"><a href="#link2"><big>The Art of +Acting</big></a></p> +<br /> +<p class="toc1"><a href="#link3"><big>I. The Occasion</big></a></p> +<br /> +<p class="toc1"><a href="#link4"><big>II. The Art of +Acting</big></a></p> +<br /> +<p class="toc1"><a href="#link5"><big>III. Practice of the +Art</big></a></p> +<br /> +<p class="toc1"><a href="#link6"><big>IV. The Rewards of the +Art</big></a></p> +<br /> +<br /> +<p class="toc"><a href="#link7"><big>Four Great +Actors</big></a></p> +<br /> +<br /> +<p class="toc"><a href="#link8"><big>The Art of +Acting</big></a></p> +<br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page6' id='Page6'>[6]</a></span> +<br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page7' id='Page7'>[7]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /> +<center> +<h3>LECTURE</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>SESSIONAL OPENING</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>EDINBURGH</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>8 NOVEMBER 1881</h3> +</center> +<a name="link1" id="link1"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page8' id='Page8'>[8]</a></span> +<br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page9' id='Page9'>[9]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<h1>THE STAGE AS IT IS.</h1> +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, +<p>You will not be surprised that, on this interesting occasion, I have +selected as the subject of the few remarks I propose to offer you, +"The Stage as it is." The stage—because to my profession I owe it +that I am here, and every dictate of taste and of fidelity impels me +to honor it; the stage as it is—because it is very cheap and empty +honor that is paid to the drama in the abstract, and withheld from the +theatre as a working institution in our midst. Fortunately there is +less of this than there used to be. It arose partly from intellectual +superciliousness, partly from timidity as to moral contamination. To<span class="newpage"><a name='Page10' id='Page10'>[10]</a></span> +boast of being able to appreciate Shakespeare more in reading him than +in seeing him acted used to be a common method of affecting special +intellectuality. I hope this delusion—a gross and pitiful one as to +most of us—has almost absolutely died out. It certainly conferred a +very cheap badge of superiority on those who entertained it. It seemed +to each of them an inexpensive opportunity of worshipping himself on +a pedestal. But what did it amount to? It was little more than a +conceited and feather-headed assumption that an unprepared reader, +whose mind is usually full of far other things, will see on the +instant all that has been developed in hundreds of years by the +members of a studious and enthusiastic profession. My own conviction +is, that there are few characters or passages of our great dramatists +which will not repay original study. But at least we must recognize<span class="newpage"><a name='Page11' id='Page11'>[11]</a></span> +the vast advantages with which a practised actor, impregnated by the +associations of his life, and by study—with all the practical and +critical skill of his profession up to the date at which he appears, +whether he adopts or rejects tradition—addresses himself to the +interpretation of any great character, even if he have no originality +whatever. There is something still more than this, however, in acting. +Every one who has the smallest histrionic gift has a natural dramatic +fertility; so that as soon as he knows the author's text, and obtains +self-possession, and feels at home in a part without being too +familiar with it, the mere automatic action of rehearsing and playing +it at once begins to place the author in new lights, and to give the +personage being played an individuality partly independent of, and +yet consistent with, and rendering more powerfully visible, the +dramatist's conception. It is <span class="newpage"><a name='Page12' id='Page12'>[12]</a></span>the vast power a good actor has in this +way which has led the French to speak of creating a part when they +mean its being first played; and French authors are so conscious of +the extent and value of this co-operation of actors with them, that +they have never objected to the phrase, but, on the contrary, are +uniformly lavish in their homage to the artists who have created on +the boards the parts which they themselves have created on paper.</p> + +<p>I must add, as an additional reason for valuing the theatre, that +while there is only one Shakespeare, and while there are comparatively +few dramatists who are sufficiently classic to be read with close +attention, there is a great deal of average dramatic work excellently +suited for representation. From this the public derive pleasure. From +this they receive—as from fiction in literature—a great deal of +instruction and mental stimulus. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page13' id='Page13'>[13]</a></span>Some may be worldly, some social, +some cynical, some merely humorous and witty, but a great deal of it, +though its literary merit is secondary, is well qualified to bring +out all that is most fruitful of good in common sympathies. Now, it +is plain that if, because Shakespeare is good reading, people were to +give the cold shoulder to the theatre, the world would lose all the +vast advantage which comes to it through the dramatic faculty in forms +not rising to essentially literary excellence. As respects the other +feeling which used to stand more than it does now in the way of the +theatre—the fear of moral contamination—it is due to the theatre of +our day, on the one hand, and to the prejudices of our grandfathers on +the other, to confess that the theatre of fifty years ago or less did +need reforming in the audience part of the house. All who have read +the old controversy as to the morality of going to the theatre are +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page14' id='Page14'>[14]</a></span>familiar with the objection to which I refer. But the theatre of fifty +years ago or less was reformed. If there are any, therefore, as I fear +there are a few, who still talk on this point in the old vein, let +them rub their eyes a bit, and do us the justice to consider not what +used to be, but what is. But may there be moral contamination from +what is performed on the stage? Well, there may be. But so there is +from books. So there may be at lawn tennis clubs. So there may be at +dances. So there may be in connection with everything in civilized +life and society. But do we therefore bury ourselves? The anchorites +secluded themselves in hermitages. The Puritans isolated themselves in +consistent abstinence from everything that anybody else did. And there +are people now who think that they can keep their children, and that +those children will keep themselves in after life, in cotton wool, so +as to avoid <span class="newpage"><a name='Page15' id='Page15'>[15]</a></span>all temptation of body and mind, and be saved nine-tenths +of the responsibility of self-control. All this is mere phantasy. You +must be in the world, though you need not be of it; and the best way +to make the world a better community to be in, and not so bad a place +to be of, is not to shun, but to bring public opinion to bear upon +its pursuits and its relaxations. Depend upon two things—that the +theatre, as a whole, is never below the average moral sense of the +time; and that the inevitable demand for an admixture, at least, of +wholesome sentiment in every sort of dramatic production brings the +ruling tone of the theatre, whatever drawback may exist, up to the +highest level at which the general morality of the time can truly be +registered. We may be encouraged by the reflection that this is truer +than ever it was before, owing to the greater spread of education, the +increased community of taste<span class="newpage"><a name='Page16' id='Page16'>[16]</a></span> between classes, and the almost absolute +divorce of the stage from mere wealth and aristocracy. Wealth and +aristocracy come around the stage in abundance, and are welcome, as in +the time of Elizabeth; but the stage is no longer a mere appendage of +court-life, no longer a mere mirror of patrician vice hanging at the +girdle of fashionable profligacy as it was in the days of Congreve and +Wycherley. It is now the property of the educated people. It has +to satisfy them or pine in neglect And the better their demands the +better will be the supply with which the drama will respond. +This being not only so, but seen to be so, the stage is no longer +proscribed. It is no longer under a ban. Its members are no longer +pariahs in society. They live and bear their social part like +others—as decorously observant of all that makes the sweet sanctities +of life—as gracefully cognizant of its amenities—as readily +recognized and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page17' id='Page17'>[17]</a></span>welcomed as the members of any other profession. Am +I not here your grateful guest, opening the session of this +philosophical and historic institution? I who am simply an actor, +an interpreter, with such gifts as I have, and such thought as I +can bestow, of stage plays. And am I not received here with perfect +cordiality on an equality, not hungrily bowing and smirking for +patronage, but interchanging ideas which I am glad to express, and +which you listen to as thoughtfully and as kindly as you would to +those of any other student, any other man who had won his way +into such prominence as to come under the ken of a distinguished +institution such as that which I have the honor to address? I do not +mince the matter as to my personal position here, because I feel it +is a representative one, and marks an epoch in the estimation in +which the art I love is held by the British <span class="newpage"><a name='Page18' id='Page18'>[18]</a></span>world. You have had many +distinguished men here, and their themes have often been noble, but +with which of those themes has not my art immemorial and perpetual +associations? Is it not for ever identified with the noblest instincts +and occupations of the human mind? If I think of poetry, must I not +remember how to the measure of its lofty music the theatre has in +almost all ages set the grandest of dramatic conceptions? If I think +of literature, must I not recall that of all the amusements by which +men in various states of society have solaced their leisure and +refreshed their energies, the acting of plays is the one that has +never yet, even for a day, been divorced from literary taste and +skill? If I meditate on patriotism, can I but reflect how grandly the +boards have been trod by personifications of heroic love of country? +There is no subject of human thought that by common <span class="newpage"><a name='Page19' id='Page19'>[19]</a></span>consent is deemed +ennobling that has not ere now, and from period to period, been +illustrated in the bright vesture, and received expression from the +glowing language of theatrical representation. And surely it is +fit that, remembering what the stage has been and must be, I should +acknowledge eagerly and gladly that, with few exceptions, the public +no longer debar themselves from the profitable pleasures of the +theatre, and no longer brand with any social stigma the professors of +the histrionic art. Talking to an eminent bishop one day, I said to +him, "Now, my Lord, why is it, with your love and knowledge of the +drama, with your deep interest in the stage and all its belongings, +and your wide sympathy with all that ennobles and refines our +natures—why is it that you never go to the theatre?" "Well," said +he, "I'll tell you. I'm afraid of the <i>Rock</i> and the <i>Record</i>." I +hope soon we shall relieve even the most <span class="newpage"><a name='Page20' id='Page20'>[20]</a></span>timid bishop—and my right +reverend friend is not the most timid—of all fears and tremors +whatever that can prevent even ministers of religion from recognizing +the wisdom of the change of view which has come over even the most +fastidious public opinion on this question. Remember, if you please, +that the hostile public opinion which has lately begun so decisively +to disappear, has been of comparatively modern growth, or at least +revival. The pious and learned of other times gave their countenance +and approbation to the stage of their days, as the pious and learned +of our time give their countenance and approbation to certain +performances in this day. Welcome be the return of good sense, good +taste, and charity, or rather justice. No apology for the stage. None +is needed. It has but to be named to be honored. Too long the world +talked with bated breath and whispering <span class="newpage"><a name='Page21' id='Page21'>[21]</a></span>humbleness of "the poor +player." There are now few poor players. Whatever variety of fortune +and merit there may be among them, they have the same degrees of +prosperity and respect as come to members of other avocations. There +never was so large a number of theatres or of actors. And their +type is vastly improved by public recognition. The old days when +good-for-nothings passed into the profession are at an end; and the +old Bohemian habits, so far as they were evil and disreputable, have +also disappeared. The ranks of the art are being continually recruited +by deeply interested and earnest young men of good education and +belongings. Nor let us, while dissipating the remaining prejudices +of outsiders, give quarter to those which linger among players +themselves. There are some who acknowledge the value of improved +status to themselves and their art, but who lament that there are now +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page22' id='Page22'>[22]</a></span>no schools for actors. This is a very idle lamentation. Every actor +in full employment gets plenty of schooling, for the best schooling +is practice, and there is no school so good as a well-conducted +playhouse. The truth is, that the cardinal secret of success in acting +are found within, while practice is the surest way of fertilizing +these germs. To efficiency in the art of acting there should come a +congregation of fine qualities. There should be considerable, +though not necessarily systematic, culture. There should be delicate +instincts of taste cultivated, consciously, or unconsciously, to a +degree of extreme and subtle nicety. There should be a power, at once +refined and strong, of both perceiving and expressing to others +the significance of language, so that neither shades nor masses of +meaning, so to speak, may be either lost or exaggerated. Above all, +there should be a sincere and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page23' id='Page23'>[23]</a></span>abounding sympathy with all that is good +and great and inspiring. That sympathy, most certainly, must be under +the control and manipulation of art, but it must be none the lest real +and generous, and the artist who is a mere artist will stop short of +the highest moral effects of his craft. Little of this can be got in a +mere training school, but all of it will come forth more or less fully +armed from the actor's brain in the process of learning his art by +practice. For the way to learn to do a thing is to do it; and in +learning to act by acting, though there is plenty of incidental hard +drill and hard work, there is nothing commonplace or unfruitful.</p> + +<p>What is true of the art is true also of the social life of the artist. +No sensational change has been found necessary to alter his status +though great changes have come. The stage has literally lived down +the rebuke and reproach under which it formerly cowered, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page24' id='Page24'>[24]</a></span>while its +professors have been simultaneously living down the prejudices which +excluded them from society. The stage is now seen to be an elevating +instead of a lowering influence on national morality, and actors and +actresses receive in society, as do the members of other professions, +exactly the treatment which is earned by their personal conduct. +And so I would say of what we sometimes hear so much about—dramatic +reform. It is not needed; or, if it is, all the reform that is wanted +will be best effected by the operation of public opinion upon the +administration of a good theatre. That is the true reforming agency, +with this great advantage, that reforms which come by public opinion +are sure, while those which come without public opinion cannot be +relied upon. The dramatic reformers are very well-meaning people. They +show great enthusiasm. They are new converts to the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page25' id='Page25'>[25]</a></span>theatre, most of +them, and they have the zeal of converts. But it is scarcely according +to knowledge. These ladies and gentlemen have scarcely studied the +conditions of theatrical enterprise, which must be carried on as a +business or it will fail as an art. It is an unwelcome, if not an +unwarrantable intrusion to come among our people with elaborate +advice, and endeavor to make them live after different fashions from +those which are suitable to them, and it will be quite hopeless to +attempt to induce the general body of a purely artistic class to make +louder and more fussy professions of virtue and religion than other +people. In fact, it is a downright insult to the dramatic profession +to exact or to expect any such thing. Equally objectionable, and +equally impracticable, are the attempts of Quixotic "dramatic +reformers" to exercise a sort of goody-goody censorship over the +selection<span class="newpage"><a name='Page26' id='Page26'>[26]</a></span> and the text of the plays to be acted. The stage has been +serving the world for hundreds, yes, and thousands of years, during +which it has contributed in pure dramaturgy to the literature of +the world its very greatest master-pieces in nearly all languages, +meanwhile affording to the million an infinity of pleasure, all more +or less innocent. Where less innocent, rather than more, the cause has +lain, not in the stage, but in the state of society of which it was +the mirror. For though the stage is not always occupied with its own +period, the new plays produced always reflect in many particulars +the spirit of the age in which they are played. There is a story of +a traveller who put up for the night at a certain inn, on the door of +which was the inscription—"Good entertainment for man and beast." His +horse was taken to the stable and well cared for, and he sat down +to dine. When the covers were removed he <span class="newpage"><a name='Page27' id='Page27'>[27]</a></span>remarked, on seeing his own +sorry fare, "Yes, this is very well; but where's the entertainment for +the man?" If everything were banished from the stage except that +which suits a certain taste, what dismal places our theatres would be! +However fond the play-goer may be of tragedy, if you offer him nothing +but horrors, he may well ask—"Where's the entertainment for the man +who wants an evening's amusement?" The humor of a farce may not seem +over-refined to a particular class of intelligence; but there are +thousands of people who take an honest pleasure in it. And who, after +seeing my old friend J.L. Toole in some of his famous parts, and +having laughed till their sides ached, have not left the theatre more +buoyant and light-hearted than they came? Well, if the stage has +been thus useful and successful all these centuries, and still is +productive; if the noble fascination of the theatre <span class="newpage"><a name='Page28' id='Page28'>[28]</a></span>draws to it, as we +know that it does, an immortal poet such as our Tennyson, whom, I can +testify from my own experience, nothing delights more than the success +of one of the plays which, in the mellow autumn of his genius, he has +contributed to the acting theatre; if a great artist like Tadema is +proud to design scenes for stage plays; if in all departments of stage +production we see great talent, and in nearly every instance great +good taste and sincere sympathy with the best popular ideals of +goodness; then, I say, the stage is entitled to be let alone—that +is, it is entitled to make its own bargain with the public without the +censorious intervention of well-intentioned busybodies. These do not +know what to ban or to bless. If they had their way, as of course +they cannot, they would license, with many flourishes and much +self-laudation, a number of pieces which would be hopelessly +condemned on the first hearing, and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page29' id='Page29'>[29]</a></span>they would lay an embargo for very +insufficient reasons on many plays well entitled to success. It is not +in this direction that we must look for any improvement that is needed +in the purveying of material for the stage. Believe me, the right +direction is public criticism and public discrimination. I say so +because, beyond question, the public will have what they want. So far, +that managers in their discretion, or at their pleasure, can force on +the public either very good or very bad dramatic material is an utter +delusion. They have no such power. If they had the will they could +only force any particular sort of entertainment just as long as they +had capital to expend without any return. But they really have not the +will. They follow the public taste with the greatest keenness. If the +people want Shakespeare—as I am happy to say they do, at least at one +theatre in London, and at all the great theatres out of London, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page30' id='Page30'>[30]</a></span>to +an extent unprecedented in the history of the stage—then they get +Shakespeare. If they want our modern dramatists—Albery, Boucicault, +Byron, Burnand, Gilbert, or Wills—these they have. If they want +Robertson, Robertson is there for them. If they desire opera-bouffe, +depend upon it they will have it, and have it they do. What then do +I infer? Simply this: that those who prefer the higher drama—in the +representation of which my heart's best interests are centred—instead +of querulously animadverting on managers who give them something +different, should, as Lord Beaconsfield said, "make themselves into a +majority." If they do so, the higher drama will be produced. But if we +really understand the value of the drama, we shall not be too rigid in +our exactions. The drama is the art of human nature in picturesque +or characteristic action. Let us be liberal in our enjoyment of it. +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page31' id='Page31'>[31]</a></span>Tragedy, comedy, historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical—remember +the large-minded list of the greatest-minded poet—all are good, if +wholesome—and will be wholesome if the public continue to take the +healthy interest in theatres which they are now taking. The worst +times for the stage have been those when play-going was left pretty +much to a loose society, such as is sketched in the Restoration +dramatists. If the good people continue to come to the theatre in +increasing crowds, the stage, without losing any of its brightness, +will soon be good enough, if it is not as yet, to satisfy the best of +them. This is what I believe all sensible people in these times see. +And if, on the one hand, you are ready to laugh at the old prejudices +which have been so happily dissipated; on the other hand, how +earnestly must you welcome the great aid to taste and thought and +culture which comes to you thus in the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page32' id='Page32'>[32]</a></span>guise of amusement. Let me put +this to you rather seriously; let me insist on the intellectual and +moral use, alike to the most and least cultivated of us, of this +art "most beautiful, most difficult, most rare," which I stand here +to-day, not to apologize for, but to establish in the high place +to which it is entitled among the arts and among the ameliorating +influences of life. Grant that any of us understand a dramatist better +for seeing him acted, and it follows, first, that all of us will be +most indebted to the stage at the point where the higher and more +ethereal faculties are liable in reading to failure and exhaustion, +that is, stage-playing will be of most use to us where the mind +requires help and inspiration to grasp and revel in lofty moral or +imaginative conceptions, or where it needs aid and sharpening to +appreciate and follow the niceties of repartee, or the delicacies +of comic fancy. Secondly, it follows <span class="newpage"><a name='Page33' id='Page33'>[33]</a></span>that if this is so with the +intellectual few, it must be infinitely more so with the unimaginative +many of all ranks. They are not inaccessible to passion and poetry and +refinement, but their minds do not go forth, as it were, to seek these +joys; and even if they read works of poetic and dramatic fancy, which +they rarely do, they would miss them on the printed page. To them, +therefore, with the exception of a few startling incidents of real +life, the theatre is the only channel through which are ever brought +the great sympathies of the world of thought beyond their immediate +ken. And thirdly, it follows from all this that the stage is, +intellectually and morally, to all who have recourse to it, the +source of some of the finest and best influences of which they are +respectively susceptible. To the thoughtful and reading man it brings +the life, the fire, the color, the vivid instinct, which are beyond +the reach of <span class="newpage"><a name='Page34' id='Page34'>[34]</a></span>study. To the common indifferent man, immersed, as a +rule, in the business and socialities of daily life, it brings visions +of glory and adventure, of emotion and of broad human interest. It +gives glimpses of the heights and depths of character and experience, +setting him thinking and wondering even in the midst of amusement. To +the most torpid and unobservant it exhibits the humorous in life and +the sparkle and finesse of language, which in dull ordinary existence +is stupidly shut out of knowledge or omitted from particular notice. +To all it uncurtains a world, not that in which they live and yet +not other than it—a world in which interest is heightened whilst the +conditions of truth are observed, in which the capabilities of men and +women are seen developed without losing their consistency to nature, +and developed with a curious and wholesome fidelity to simple and +universal instincts of clear right and wrong.<span class="newpage"><a name='Page35' id='Page35'>[35]</a></span> Be it observed—and I +put it most uncompromisingly—I am not speaking or thinking of any +unrealizable ideal, not of any lofty imagination of what might be, but +of what is, wherever there are pit and gallery and foot-lights. More +or less, and taking one evening with another, you may find support +for an enthusiastic theory of stage morality and the high tone of +audiences in most theatres in the country; and if you fancy that it +is least so in the theatres frequented by the poor you make a great +mistake, for in none is the appreciation of good moral fare more +marked than in these.</p> + +<p>In reference to the poorer classes, we all lament the wide prevalence +of intemperate drinking. Well, is it not an obvious reflection that +the worst performance seen on any of our stages cannot be so bad as +drinking for a corresponding time in a gin-palace? I have pointed this +contrast before, and I point it again.<span class="newpage"><a name='Page36' id='Page36'>[36]</a></span> The drinking we deplore takes +place in company—bad company; it is enlivened by talk—bad talk. It +is relished by obscenity. Where drink and low people come together +these things must be. The worst that can come of stage pandering to +the corrupt tastes of its basest patrons cannot be anything like this, +and, as a rule, the stage holds out long against the invitation to +pander; and such invitations, from the publicity and decorum that +attend the whole matter, are neither frequent nor eager. A sort of +decency sets in upon the coarsest person in entering even the roughest +theatre. I have sometimes thought that, considering the liability to +descend and the facility of descent, a special Providence watches +over the morals and tone of our English stage. I do not desire to +overcharge the eulogy. There never was a time when the stage had not +conspicuous faults. There never was a time<span class="newpage"><a name='Page37' id='Page37'>[37]</a></span> when these were not freely +admitted by those most concerned for the maintenance of the stage +at its best. In Shakespeare, whenever the subject of the theatre is +approached, we perceive signs that that great spirit, though it had +a practical and business-like vein, and essayed no impossible +enterprises, groaned under the necessities, or the demands of a +public which desired frivolities and deformities which jarred upon the +poet-manager's feelings. As we descend the course of time we find that +each generation looked back to a supposed previous period when taste +ranged higher, and when the inferior and offensive peculiarities of +the existing stage were unknown. Yet from most of these generations +we inherit works as well as traditions and biographical recollections +which the world will never let die. The truth is that the immortal +part of the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page38' id='Page38'>[38]</a></span>come and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity—associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances—but it never sinks into nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. Heaven forbid that I should seem to cover, even +with a counterpane of courtesy, exhibitions of deliberate immorality. +Happily this sort of thing is not common, and although it has hardly +been practised by any one who, without a strain of meaning can be +associated with the profession of acting, yet public censure, not +active enough to repress the evil, is ever ready to pass a sweeping +condemnation on the stage which harbors it. Our cause is a good one. +We go forth, armed with the luminous panoply which genius has forged +for us, to do battle with dulness, with coarseness, with apathy, +with every<span class="newpage"><a name='Page39' id='Page39'>[39]</a></span> form of vice and evil. In every human heart there gleams +a bright reflection of this shining armor. The stage has no lights or +shadows that are not lights of life and shadows of the heart. To each +human consciousness it appeals in alternating mirth and sadness, and +will not be denied. Err it must, for it is human; but, being human, it +must endure. The love of acting is inherent in our nature. Watch your +children play, and you will see that almost their first conscious +effort is to act and to imitate. It is an instinct, and you can no +more repress it than you can extinguish thought. When this instinct +of all is developed by cultivation in the few, it becomes a wonderful +art, priceless to civilization in the solace it yields, the thought it +generates, the refinement it inspires. Some of its latest achievements +are not unworthy of their grandest predecessors. Some of its youngest +devotees are at least as proud <span class="newpage"><a name='Page40' id='Page40'>[40]</a></span>of its glories and as anxious to +preserve them as any who have gone before. Theirs is a glorious +heritage! You honor it. They have a noble but a difficult, and +sometimes a disheartening, task. You encourage it. And no word of +kindly interest or criticism dropped in the public ear from friendly +lips goes unregarded or is unfertile of good. The universal study of +Shakespeare in our public schools is a splendid sign of the departure +of prejudice, and all criticism is welcome; but it is acting chiefly +that can open to others, with any spark of Shakespeare's mind, the +means of illuminating the world. Only the theatre can realize to us +in a life-like way what Shakespeare was to his own time. And it is, +indeed, a noble destiny for the theatre to vindicate in these later +days the greatness which sometimes it has seemed to vulgarize. It has +been too much the custom to talk of Shakespeare as nature's <span class="newpage"><a name='Page41' id='Page41'>[41]</a></span>child—as +the lad who held horses for people who came to the play—as a sort of +chance phenomenon who wrote these plays by accident and unrecognized. +How supremely ridiculous! How utterly irreconcilable with the grand +dimensions of the man! How absurdly dishonoring to the great age of +which he was, and was known to be, the glory! The noblest literary +man of all time—the finest and yet most prolific writer—the greatest +student of man, and the greatest master of man's highest gift of +language—surely it is treason to humanity to speak of such an one as +in any sense a commonplace being! Imagine him rather, as he must +have been, the most notable courtier of the Court—the most perfect +gentleman who stood in the Elizabethan throng—the man in whose +presence divines would falter and hesitate lest their knowledge of +the Book should seem poor by the side of his, and at <span class="newpage"><a name='Page42' id='Page42'>[42]</a></span>whom even queenly +royalty would look askance, with an oppressive sense that here was +one to whose omnipotent and true imagination the hearts of kings and +queens and peoples had always been an open page! The thought of such a +man is an incomparable inheritance for any nation, and such a man was +the actor—Shakespeare. Such is our birthright and yours. Such the +succession in which it is ours to labor and yours to enjoy. For +Shakespeare belongs to the stage for ever, and his glories must +always inalienably belong to it. If you uphold the theatre honestly, +liberally, frankly, and with wise discrimination, the stage will +uphold in future, as it has in the past, the literature, the manners, +the morals, the fame, and the genius of our country. There must have +been something wrong, as there was something poignant and lacerating, +in prejudices which so long partly divorced the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page43' id='Page43'>[43]</a></span>conscience of Britain +from its noblest pride, and stamped with reproach, or at least +depreciation, some of the brightest and world-famous incidents of her +history. For myself, it kindles my heart with proud delight to +think that I have stood to-day before this audience—known for its +discrimination throughout all English-speaking lands—a welcome and +honored guest, because I stand here for justice to the art to which I +am devoted—because I stand here in thankfulness for the justice which +has begun to be so abundantly rendered to it. If it is metaphorically +the destiny of humanity, it is literally the experience of an actor, +that one man in his time plays many parts. A player of any standing +must at various times have sounded the gamut of human sensibility +from the lowest note to the top of its compass. He must have banqueted +often on curious food for thought as he meditated on the subtle +relations<span class="newpage"><a name='Page44' id='Page44'>[44]</a></span> created between himself and his audiences, as they have +watched in his impersonations the shifting tariff—the ever gliding, +delicately graduated sliding-scale of dramatic right and wrong. He may +have gloated, if he be a cynic, over the depths of ghastly horror, or +the vagaries of moral puddle through which it may have been his +duty to plash. But if he be an honest man, he will acknowledge that +scarcely ever has either dramatist or management wilfully biassed the +effect of stage representation in favor of evil, and of his audiences +he will boast that never has their mind been doubtful—never has their +true perception of the generous and just been known to fail, or even +to be slow. How noble the privilege to work upon these finer—these +finest—feelings of universal humanity! How engrossing the fascination +of those thousands of steady eyes, and sound sympathies, and beating +hearts which an<span class="newpage"><a name='Page45' id='Page45'>[45]</a></span> actor confronts, with the confidence of friendship +and co-operation, as he steps upon the stage to work out in action +his long-pent comprehension of a noble master-piece! How rapturous the +satisfaction of abandoning himself, in such a presence and with such +sympathizers, to his author's grandest flights of thought and noblest +bursts of emotional inspiration! And how perpetually sustaining +the knowledge that whatever may be the vicissitudes and even the +degradations of the stage, it must and will depend for its constant +hold on the affection and attention of mankind upon its loftier work; +upon its more penetrating passion; upon its themes which most deeply +search out the strong affections and high hopes of men and women; +upon its fit and kindling illustration of great and vivid lives +which either have been lived in noble fact or have deserved to endure +immortally in the popular<span class="newpage"><a name='Page46' id='Page46'>[46]</a></span> belief and admiration which they have +secured.</p> + +<blockquote>"For our eyes to see!<br /> +Sons of wisdom, song, and power,<br /> +Giving earth her richest dower,<br /> +And making nations free—<br /> +A glorious company!<br /> +<br /> +"Call them from the dead<br /> +For our eyes to see!<br /> +Forms of beauty, love, and grace,<br /> +'Sunshine in the shady place,'<br /> +That made it life to be—<br /> +A blessed company!"<br /></blockquote> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page47' id='Page47'>[47]</a></span> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>ADDRESS</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>TO THE STUDENTS</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>OF THE UNIVERSITY OF</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>HARVARD</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>30TH MARCH 1885</h3> +</center> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page48' id='Page48'>[48]</a></span> +<a name="link2" id="link2"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page49' id='Page49'>[49]</a></span> +<h1>THE ART OF ACTING</h1> +<a name="link3" id="link3"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<center> +<h3>I. THE OCCASION.</h3> +</center> +<p>I am deeply sensible of the compliment that has been paid, not so much +to me personally as to the calling I represent, by the invitation to +deliver an address to the students of this University. As an actor, +and especially as an English actor, it is a great pleasure to speak +for my art in one of the chief centres of American culture; for in +inviting me here to-day you intended, I believe, to recognize the +drama as an educational influence, to show a <span class="newpage"><a name='Page50' id='Page50'>[50]</a></span>genuine interest in the +stage as a factor in life which must be accepted and not ignored by +intelligent people. I have thought that the best use I can make of the +privilege you have conferred upon me is to offer you, as well as I +am able, something like a practical exposition of my art; for it +may chance—who knows?—that some of you may at some future time be +disposed to adopt it as a vocation. Not that I wish to be regarded +as a tempter who has come among you to seduce you from your present +studies by artful pictures of the fascinations of the footlights. But +I naturally supposed that you would like me to choose, as the theme of +my address, the subject in which I am most interested, and to which +my life has been devoted; and that if any students here should ever +determine to become actors, they could not be much the worse for +the information and counsel I could gather for them from a tolerably +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page51' id='Page51'>[51]</a></span>extensive experience. This subject will, I trust, be welcome to all of +you who are interested in the stage as an institution which appeals +to the sober-minded and intelligent; for I take it that you have no +lingering prejudice against the theatre, or else I should not be +here. Nor are you disposed, like certain good people, to object to the +theatre simply as a name. These sticklers for principle would never +enter a playhouse for worlds; and I have heard that in a famous city +of Massachusetts, not a hundred miles from here, there are persons to +whom the theatre is unknown, but who have no objection to see a play +in a building which is called a museum, especially if the vestibule +leading to the theatre should be decorated with sound moral principles +in the shape of statues, pictures, and stuffed objects in glass cases.</p> + +<p>When I began to think about my subject for the purpose of this +address, I was <span class="newpage"><a name='Page52' id='Page52'>[52]</a></span>rather staggered by its vastness. It is really a matter +for a course of lectures; but as President Eliot has not proposed that +I should occupy a chair of dramatic literature in this University, +and as time and opportunity are limited, I can only undertake to put +before you, in the simplest way, a few leading ideas about dramatic +art which may be worthy of reflection. And in doing this I have the +great satisfaction of appearing in a model theatre, before a model +audience, and of being the only actor in my own play. Moreover, I am +stimulated by the atmosphere of the Greek drama, for I know that on +this stage you have enacted a Greek play with remarkable success. So, +after all, it is not a body of mere tyros that I am addressing, but +actors who have worn the sock and buskin, and declaimed the speeches +which delighted audiences two thousand years ago.</p> + +<p>Now, this address, like discourses in a more <span class="newpage"><a name='Page53' id='Page53'>[53]</a></span>solemn place, falls +naturally into divisions. I propose to speak first of the Art of +Acting; secondly, of its Requirements and Practice; and lastly of its +Rewards. And, at the outset, let me say that I want you to judge the +stage at its best. I do not intend to suggest that only the plays +of Shakespeare are tolerable in the theatre to people of taste +and intelligence. The drama has many forms—tragedy, comedy, +historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical—and all are good when their aim +is honestly artistic.</p> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page54' id='Page54'>[54]</a></span> +<a name="link4" id="link4"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>II. THE ART OF ACTING.</h3> +</center> +<p>Now, what is the art of acting? I speak of it in its highest sense, as +the art to which Roscius, Betterton, and Garrick owed their fame. It +is the art of embodying the poet's creations, of giving them flesh and +blood, of making the figures which appeal to your mind's eye in the +printed drama live before you on the stage. "To fathom the depths of +character, to trace its latent motives, to feel its finest quiverings +of emotion, to comprehend the thoughts that are hidden under words, +and thus possess one's-self of the actual mind of the individual +man"—such was Macready's definition of the player's art; and to this +we may add the testimony of Talma. He describes tragic acting as "the +union of grandeur <span class="newpage"><a name='Page55' id='Page55'>[55]</a></span>without pomp and nature without triviality." It +demands, he says, the endowment of high sensibility and intelligence.</p> + +<p>"The actor who possesses this double gift adopts a course of study +peculiar to himself. In the first place, by repeated exercises, he +enters deeply into the emotions, and his speech acquires the accent +proper to the situation of the personage he has to represent. This +done, he goes to the theatre not only to give theatrical effect to his +studies, but also to yield himself to the spontaneous flashes of his +sensibility and all the emotions which it involuntarily produces in +him. What does he then do? In order that his inspirations may not be +lost, his memory, in the silence of repose, recalls the accent of +his voice, the expression of his features, his action—in a word, the +spontaneous workings of his mind, which he had suffered to have +free course, and, in effect, everything which in the moments of +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page56' id='Page56'>[56]</a></span>his exaltation contributed to the effects he had produced. His +intelligence then passes all these means in review, connecting +them and fixing them in his memory to re-employ them at pleasure in +succeeding representations. These impressions are often so evanescent +that on retiring behind the scenes he must repeat to himself what +he had been playing rather than what he had to play. By this kind of +labor the intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations of +sensibility. It is by this means that at the end of twenty years (it +requires at least this length of time) a person destined to display +fine talent may at length present to the public a series of characters +acted almost to perfection."</p> + +<p>You will readily understand from this that to the actor the well-worn +maxim that art is long and life is short has a constant significance. +The older we grow the more acutely alive we are to the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page57' id='Page57'>[57]</a></span>difficulties of +our craft. I cannot give you a better illustration of this fact than a +story which is told of Macready. A friend of mine, once a dear friend +of his, was with him when he played Hamlet for the last time. The +curtain had fallen, and the great actor was sadly thinking that the +part he loved so much would never be his again. And as he took off his +velvet mantle and laid it aside, he muttered almost unconsciously +the words of Horatio, "Good-night, sweet Prince;" then turning to his +friend, "Ah," said he, "I am just beginning to realize the sweetness, +the tenderness, the gentleness of this dear Hamlet!" Believe me, the +true artist never lingers fondly upon what he has done. He is ever +thinking of what remains undone: ever striving toward an ideal it may +never be his fortune to attain.</p> + +<p>We are sometimes told that to read the best dramatic poetry is more +educating<span class="newpage"><a name='Page58' id='Page58'>[58]</a></span> than to see it acted. I do not think this theory is very +widely held, for it is in conflict with the dramatic instinct, which +everybody possesses in a greater or less degree. You never met a +playwright who could conceive himself willing—even if endowed with +the highest literary gifts—to prefer a reading to a playgoing +public. He thinks his work deserving of all the rewards of print and +publisher, but he will be much more elated if it should appeal to the +world in the theatre as a skilful representation of human passions. +In one of her letters George Eliot says: "In opposition to most people +who love to <i>read</i> Shakespeare, I like to see his plays acted better +than any others; his great tragedies thrill me, let them be acted +how they may." All this is so simple and intelligible, that it seems +scarcely worth while to argue that in proportion to the readiness with +which the reader of Shakespeare imagines the attributes of <span class="newpage"><a name='Page59' id='Page59'>[59]</a></span>the various +characters, and is interested in their personality, he will, as a +rule, be eager to see their tragedy or comedy in action. He will then +find that very much which he could not imagine with any definiteness +presents new images every moment—the eloquence of look and gesture, +the by-play, the inexhaustible significance of the human voice. There +are people who fancy they have more music in their souls than was ever +translated into harmony by Beethoven or Mozart. There are others who +think they could paint pictures, write poetry—in short, do anything, +if they only made the effort. To them what is accomplished by the +practised actor seems easy and simple. But as it needs the skill of +the musician to draw the full volume of eloquence from the written +score, so it needs the skill of the dramatic artist to develop the +subtle harmonies of the poetic play. In fact, to <i>do</i> and not <span class="newpage"><a name='Page60' id='Page60'>[60]</a></span>to +<i>dream</i>, is the mainspring of success in life. The actor's art is to +act, and the true acting of any character is one of the most difficult +accomplishments. I challenge the acute student to ponder over Hamlet's +renunciation of Ophelia—one of the most complex scenes in all the +drama—and say that he has learned more from his meditations than he +could be taught by players whose intelligence is equal to his own. To +present the man thinking aloud is the most difficult achievement of +our art. Here the actor who has no real grip of the character, but +simply recites the speeches with a certain grace and intelligence, +will be untrue. The more intent he is upon the words, and the less +on the ideas that dictated them, the more likely he is to lay himself +open to the charge of mechanical interpretation. It is perfectly +possible to express to an audience all the involutions of thought, +the speculation, doubt,<span class="newpage"><a name='Page61' id='Page61'>[61]</a></span> wavering, which reveal the meditative but +irresolute mind. As the varying shades of fancy pass and repass the +mirror of the face, they may yield more material to the studious +playgoer than he is likely to get by a diligent poring over the +text. In short, as we understand the people around us much better by +personal intercourse than by all the revelations of written words—for +words, as Tennyson says, "half reveal and half conceal the soul +within," so the drama has, on the whole, infinitely more suggestions +when it is well acted than when it is interpreted by the unaided +judgment of the student. It has been said that acting is an unworthy +occupation because it represents feigned emotions, but this censure +would apply with equal force to poet or novelist. Do not imagine that +I am claiming for the actor sole and undivided authority. He should +himself be a student, and it is his <span class="newpage"><a name='Page62' id='Page62'>[62]</a></span>business to put into practice +the best ideas he can gather from the general current of thought with +regard to the highest dramatic literature. But it is he who gives body +to those ideas—fire, force, and sensibility, without which they would +remain for most people mere airy abstractions.</p> + +<p>It is often supposed that great actors trust to the inspiration of the +moment. Nothing can be more erroneous. There will, of course, be such +moments, when an actor at a white heat illumines some passage with +a flash of imagination (and this mental condition, by the way, is +impossible to the student sitting in his arm-chair); but the great +actor's surprises are generally well weighed, studied, and balanced. +We know that Edmund Kean constantly practised before a mirror effects +which startled his audience by their apparent spontaneity. It is the +accumulation of such effects which enables <span class="newpage"><a name='Page63' id='Page63'>[63]</a></span>an actor, after many years, +to present many great characters with remarkable completeness.</p> + +<p>I do not want to overstate the case, or to appeal to anything that is +not within common experience, so I can confidently ask you whether a +scene in a great play has not been at some time vividly impressed on +your minds by the delivery of a single line, or even of one forcible +word. Has not this made the passage far more real and human to you +than all the thought you have devoted to it? An accomplished critic +has said that Shakespeare himself might have been surprised had he +heard the "Fool, fool, fool!" of Edmund Kean. And though all actors +are not Keans, they have in varying degree this power of making a +dramatic character step out of the page, and come nearer to our hearts +and our understandings.</p> + +<p>After all, the best and most convincing <span class="newpage"><a name='Page64' id='Page64'>[64]</a></span>exposition of the whole art +of acting is given by Shakespeare himself: "To hold, as 'twere, the +mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own +image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." +Thus the poet recognized the actor's art as a most potent ally in the +representation of human life. He believed that to hold the mirror up +to nature was one of the worthiest functions in the sphere of labor, +and actors are content to point to his definition of their work as the +charter of their privileges.</p> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page65' id='Page65'>[65]</a></span> +<a name="link5" id="link5"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>III. PRACTICE OF THE ART.</h3> +</center> +<p>The practice of the art of acting is a subject difficult to treat with +the necessary brevity. Beginners are naturally anxious to know what +course they should pursue. In common with other actors, I receive +letters from young people many of whom are very earnest in their +ambition to adopt the dramatic calling, but not sufficiently alive to +the fact that success does not depend on a few lessons in declamation. +When I was a boy I had a habit which I think would be useful to all +young students. Before going to see a play of Shakespeare's I used to +form—in a very juvenile way—a theory as to the working out of the +whole drama, so as to correct my conceptions by those of the actors; +and<span class="newpage"><a name='Page66' id='Page66'>[66]</a></span> though I was, as a rule, absurdly wrong, there can be no doubt +that any method of independent study is of enormous importance, not +only to youngsters, but also to students of a larger growth. +Without it the mind is apt to take its stamp from the first forcible +impression it receives, and to fall into a servile dependence upon +traditions, which, robbed of the spirit that created them, are apt +to be purely mischievous. What was natural to the creator is often +unnatural and lifeless in the imitator. No two people form the same +conceptions of character, and therefore it is always advantageous to +see an independent and courageous exposition of an original ideal. +There can be no objection to the kind of training that imparts a +knowledge of manners and customs, and the teaching which pertains to +simple deportment on the stage is necessary and most useful; but you +cannot possibly be<span class="newpage"><a name='Page67' id='Page67'>[67]</a></span> taught any tradition of character, for that has no +permanence. Nothing is more fleeting than any traditional method of +impersonation. You may learn where a particular personage used to +stand on the stage, or down which trap the ghost of Hamlet's father +vanished; but the soul of interpretation is lost, and it is this soul +which the actor has to re-create for himself. It is not mere attitude +or tone that has to be studied; you must be moved by the impulse of +being; you must impersonate and not recite.</p> + +<p>There has always been a controversy as to the province of naturalism +in dramatic art. In England it has been too much the custom, I +believe, while demanding naturalism in comedy, to expect a false +inflation in tragedy. But there is no reason why an actor should +be less natural in tragic than in lighter moods. Passions vary in +expression according to moulds of character and<span class="newpage"><a name='Page68' id='Page68'>[68]</a></span> manners, but their +reality should not be lost even when they are expressed in the heroic +forms of the drama. A very simple test is a reference to the records +of old actors. What was it in their performances that chiefly +impressed their contemporaries? Very rarely the measured recitation of +this or that speech, but very often a simple exclamation that deeply +moved their auditors, because it was a gleam of nature in the midst +of declamation. The "Prithee, undo this button!" of Garrick, was +remembered when many stately utterances were forgotten. In our day the +contrast between artificial declamation and the accents of nature is +less marked, because its delivery is more uniformly simple, and an +actor who lapses from a natural into a false tone is sure to find +that his hold upon his audience is proportionately weakened. But the +revolution which Garrick accomplished may be <span class="newpage"><a name='Page69' id='Page69'>[69]</a></span>imagined from the story +told by Boswell. Dr. Johnson was discussing plays and players with +Mrs. Siddons, and he said: "Garrick, madam, was no declaimer; there +was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken 'To be +or not to be' better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever saw +whom I could call a master, both in tragedy and comedy, though I +liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character and natural +expression of it were his distinguished excellences."</p> + +<p>To be natural on the stage is most difficult, and yet a grain of +nature is worth a bushel of artifice. But you may say—what is nature? +I quoted just now Shakespeare's definition of the actor's art. After +the exhortation to hold the mirror up to nature, he adds the pregnant +warning: "This overdone or come tardy off, though it make the +unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page70' id='Page70'>[70]</a></span>censure of +which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others." +Nature may be overdone by triviality in conditions that demand +exaltation; for instance, Hamlet's first address to the Ghost lifts +his disposition to an altitude far beyond the ordinary reaches of our +souls, and his manner of speech should be adapted to this sentiment. +But such exaltation of utterance is wholly out of place in the purely +colloquial scene with the Gravedigger. When Macbeth says, "Go, bid thy +mistress, when my drink is ready, she strike upon the bell," he would +not use the tone of</p> + +<div align="left"> +<blockquote>"Pity, like a naked new-born babe,<br /> +Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed<br /> +Upon the sightless couriers of the air,<br /> +Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,<br /> +That tears shall drown the wind."<br /></blockquote> +</div> +<p>Like the practised orator, the actor rises and descends with his +sentiment, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page71' id='Page71'>[71]</a></span>and cannot always be in a fine phrenzy. This variety +is especially necessary in Shakespeare, whose work is essentially +different from the classic drama, because it presents every mood of +mind and form of speech, commonplace or exalted, as character and +situation dictate: whereas in such a play as Addison's <i>Cato</i>, +everybody is consistently eloquent about everything.</p> + +<p>There are many causes for the growth of naturalism in dramatic art, +and amongst them we should remember the improvement in the mechanism +of the stage. For instance, there has been a remarkable development in +stage-lighting. In old pictures you will observe the actors constantly +standing in a line, because the oil-lamps of those days gave such an +indifferent illumination that everybody tried to get into what was +called the focus—the "blaze of publicity" furnished by the "float" or +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page72' id='Page72'>[72]</a></span>footlights. The importance of this is illustrated by an amusing story +of Edmund Kean, who one night played <i>Othello</i> with more than his +usual intensity. An admirer who met him in the street next day was +loud in his congratulations: "I really thought you would have choked +Iago, Mr. Kean—you seemed so tremendously in earnest." "In earnest!" +said the tragedian, "I should think so! Hang the fellow, he was trying +to keep me out of the focus."</p> + +<p>I do not recommend actors to allow their feelings to carry them +away like this; but it is necessary to warn you against the theory +expounded with brilliant ingenuity by Diderot, that the actor never +feels. When Macready played Virginius, after burying his beloved +daughter, he confessed that his real experience gave a new force to +his acting in the most pathetic situations of the play. Are we to +suppose that this was<span class="newpage"><a name='Page73' id='Page73'>[73]</a></span> a delusion, or that the sensibility of the man +was a genuine aid to the actor? Bannister said of John Kemble that he +was never pathetic because he had no children. Talma says that when +deeply moved he found himself making a rapid and fugitive observation +on the alternation of his voice, and on a certain spasmodic vibration +which it contracted in tears. Has not the actor who can thus make +his feelings a part of his art an advantage over the actor who never +feels, but who makes his observations solely from the feelings of +others? It is necessary to this art that the mind should have, as it +were, a double consciousness, in which all the emotions proper to the +occasion may have full swing, while the actor is all the time on the +alert for every detail of his method. It may be that his playing will +be more spirited one night than another. But the actor who combines +the electric force of a strong <span class="newpage"><a name='Page74' id='Page74'>[74]</a></span>personality with a mastery of the +resources of his art must have a greater power over his audiences +than the passionless actor who gives a most artistic simulation of the +emotions he never experiences.</p> + +<p>Now, in the practice of acting, a most important point is the study +of elocution; and in elocution one great difficulty is the use of +sufficient force to be generally heard without being unnaturally loud, +and without acquiring a stilted delivery. The advice of the old actors +was that you should always pitch your voice so as to be heard by the +back row of the gallery—no easy task to accomplish without offending +the ears of the front of the orchestra. And I should tell you that +this exaggeration applies to everything on the stage. To appear to be +natural, you must in reality be much broader than nature. To act on +the stage as one really would in a room, would be <span class="newpage"><a name='Page75' id='Page75'>[75]</a></span>ineffective and +colorless. I never knew an actor who brought the art of elocution to +greater perfection than the late Charles Mathews, whose utterance on +the stage appeared so natural that one was surprised to find when near +him that he was really speaking in a very loud key. There is a great +actor in your own country to whose elocution one always listens with +the utmost enjoyment—I mean Edwin Booth. He has inherited this gift, +I believe, from his famous father, of whom I have heard it said, that +he always insisted on a thorough use of the "instruments"—by which he +meant the teeth—in the formation of words.</p> + +<p>An imperfect elocution is apt to degenerate into a monotonous +uniformity of tone. Some wholesome advice on this point we find in the +<i>Life of Betterton</i>.</p> + +<p>"This stiff uniformity of voice is not only displeasing to the ear, +but disappoints the effect of the discourse on the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page76' id='Page76'>[76]</a></span>hearers; first, by +an equal way of speaking, when the pronunciation has everywhere, in +every word and every syllable, the same sound, it must inevitably +render all parts of speech equal, and so put them on a very unjust +level. So that the power of the reasoning part, the lustre and +ornament of the figures, the heart, warmth, and vigor of the +passionate part being expressed all in the same tone, is flat and +insipid, and lost in a supine, or at least unmusical pronunciation. So +that, in short, that which ought to strike and stir up the affections, +because it is spoken all alike, without any distinction or variety, +moves them not at all."</p> + +<p>Now, on the question of pronunciation there is something to be said, +which, I think, in ordinary teaching is not sufficiently considered. +Pronunciation on the stage should be simple and unaffected, but not +always fashioned rigidly according to a dictionary standard. No<span class="newpage"><a name='Page77' id='Page77'>[77]</a></span> less +an authority than Cicero points out that pronunciation must vary +widely according to the emotions to be expressed; that it may be +broken or cut, with a varying or direct sound, and that it serves for +the actor the purpose of color to the painter, from which to draw his +variations. Take the simplest illustration, the formal pronunciation +of "A-h" is "Ah," of "O-h" "Oh;" but you cannot stereotype the +expression of emotion like this. These exclamations are words of one +syllable, but the speaker who is sounding the gamut of human feeling +will not be restricted in his pronunciation by the dictionary rule. +It is said of Edmund Kean that he never spoke such ejaculations, +but always sighed or groaned them. Fancy an actor saying thus, "My +Desdemona! Oh, [)o]h, [)o]h!" Words are intended to express feelings +and ideas, not to bind them in rigid fetters. The accents of pleasure +are different from the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page78' id='Page78'>[78]</a></span>accents of pain, and if a feeling is more +accurately expressed, as in nature, by a variation of sound not +provided for by the laws of pronunciation, then such imperfect laws +must be disregarded and nature vindicated. The word should be the echo +of the sense.</p> + +<p>The force of an actor depends, of course, upon his physique; and it is +necessary, therefore, that a good deal of attention should be given to +bodily training. Everything that develops suppleness, elasticity, and +grace—that most subtle charm—should be carefully cultivated, and +in this regard your admirable gymnasium is worth volumes of advice. +Sometimes there is a tendency to train the body at the expense of +the mind, and the young actor with striking physical advantages +must beware of regarding this fortunate endowment as his entire +stock-in-trade. That way folly lies, and the result may be too dearly +purchased<span class="newpage"><a name='Page79' id='Page79'>[79]</a></span> by the fame of a photographer's window. It is clear that +the physique of actors must vary; there can be no military standard +of proportions on the stage. Some great actors have had to struggle +against physical disabilities of a serious nature. Betterton had an +unprepossessing face; so had Le Kain. John Kemble was troubled with +a weak, asthmatic voice, and yet by his dignity, and the force of +his personality, he was able to achieve the greatest effects. In some +cases a super-abundant physique has incapacitated actors from playing +many parts. The combination in one frame of all the gifts of mind and +all the advantages in person is very rare on the stage; but talent +will conquer many natural defects when it is sustained by energy and +perseverance.</p> + +<p>With regard to gesture, Shakespeare's advice is all-embracing. "Suit +the action to the word, the word to the action, with <span class="newpage"><a name='Page80' id='Page80'>[80]</a></span>this special +observance that you over-step not the modesty of nature." And here +comes the consideration of a very material part of the actor's +business—by-play. This is of the very essence of true art. It is more +than anything else significant of the extent to which the actor has +identified himself with the character he represents. Recall the scenes +between Iago and Othello, and consider how the whole interest of the +situation depends on the skill with which the gradual effect of the +poisonous suspicion instilled into the Moor's mind is depicted in look +and tone, slight of themselves, but all contributing to the intensity +of the situation. One of the greatest tests of an actor is his +capacity for listening. By-play must be unobtrusive; the student +should remember that the most minute expression attracts attention: +that nothing is lost, that by-play is as mischievous when it is +injudicious as it is effective when rightly <span class="newpage"><a name='Page81' id='Page81'>[81]</a></span>conceived, and that while +trifles make perfection, perfection is no trifle. This lesson was +enjoined on me when I was a very young man by that remarkable actress, +Charlotte Cushman. I remember that when she played Meg Merrilies I +was cast for Henry Bertram, on the principle, seemingly, that an actor +with no singing voice is admirably fitted for a singing part. It was +my duty to give Meg Merrilies a piece of money, and I did it after the +traditional fashion by handing her a large purse full of coin of the +realm, in the shape of broken crockery, which was generally used in +financial transactions on the stage, because when the virtuous maiden +rejected with scorn the advances of the lordly libertine, and threw +his pernicious bribe upon the ground, the clatter of the broken +crockery suggested fabulous wealth. But after the play Miss Cushman, +in the course of some kindly advice, said to me: "Instead of giving<span class="newpage"><a name='Page82' id='Page82'>[82]</a></span> me +that purse don't you think it would have been much more natural if +you had taken a number of coins from your pocket, and given me the +smallest? That is the way one gives alms to a beggar, and it would +have added to the realism of the scene." I have never forgotten that +lesson, for simple as it was, it contained many elements of dramatic +truth. It is most important that an actor should learn that he is +a figure in a picture, and that the least exaggeration destroys the +harmony of the composition. All the members of the company should +work towards a common end, with the nicest subordination of their +individuality to the general purpose. Without this method a play when +acted is at best a disjointed and incoherent piece of work, instead +of being a harmonious whole like the fine performance of an orchestral +symphony. The root of the matter is that the actor must before all +things form a definite <span class="newpage"><a name='Page83' id='Page83'>[83]</a></span>conception of what he wishes to convey. It is +better to be wrong and be consistent, than to be right, yet hesitating +and uncertain. This is why great actors are sometimes very bad or very +good. They will do the wrong thing with a courage and thoroughness +which makes the error all the more striking; although when they are +right they may often be superb. It is necessary that the actor should +learn to think before he speaks; a practice which, I believe, is very +useful off the stage. Let him remember, first, that every sentence +expresses a new thought and, therefore, frequently demands a change +of intonation; secondly, that the thought precedes the word. Of course +there are passages in which thought and language are borne along by +the streams of emotion and completely intermingled. But more often +it will be found that the most natural, the most seemingly accidental +effects are obtained when the working<span class="newpage"><a name='Page84' id='Page84'>[84]</a></span> of the mind is seen before the +tongue gives it words.</p> + +<p>You will see that the limits of an actor's studies are very wide. To +master the technicalities of his craft, to familiarize his mind +with the structure, rhythm, and the soul of poetry, to be constantly +cultivating his perceptions of life around him and of all the +arts—painting, music, sculpture—for the actor who is devoted to +his profession is susceptible to every harmony of color, sound, and +form—to do this is to labor in a large field of industry. But all +your training, bodily and mental, is subservient to the two great +principles in tragedy and comedy—passion and geniality. Geniality +in comedy is one of the rarest gifts. Think of the rich unction of +Falstaff, the mercurial fancy of Mercutio, the witty vivacity and +manly humor of Benedick—think of the qualities, natural and acquired, +that are needed for the complete portrayal of such <span class="newpage"><a name='Page85' id='Page85'>[85]</a></span>characters, and you +will understand how difficult it is for a comedian to rise to such +a sphere. In tragedy, passion or intensity sweeps all before it, and +when I say passion, I mean the passion of pathos as well as wrath +or revenge. These are the supreme elements of the actor's art, +which cannot be taught by any system, however just, and to which all +education is but tributary.</p> + +<p>Now all that can be said of the necessity of a close regard for nature +in acting applies with equal or greater force to the presentation of +plays. You want, above all things, to have a truthful picture which +shall appeal to the eye without distracting the imagination from the +purpose of the drama. It is a mistake to suppose that this enterprise +is comparatively new to the stage. Since Shakespeare's time there has +been a steady progress in this direction. Even in the poet's day every +conceivable property was forced into <span class="newpage"><a name='Page86' id='Page86'>[86]</a></span>requisition, and his own sense +of shortcomings in this respect is shown in <i>Henry V.</i> when he +exclaims:—</p> + +<div align="left"> +<blockquote>"Where—O for pity!—we shall much +disgrace<br /> +With four or five most vile and ragged foils<br /> +The name of Agincourt."<br /></blockquote> +</div> +<p>There have always been critics who regarded care and elaboration in +the mounting of plays as destructive of the real spirit of the actor's +art. Betterton had to meet this reproach when he introduced scenery in +lieu of linsey-woolsey curtains; but he replied, sensibly enough, that +his scenery was better than the tapestry with hideous figures worked +upon it which had so long distracted the senses of play-goers. He +might have asked his critics whether they wished to see Ophelia played +by a boy of sixteen, as in the time of Shakespeare, instead of a +beautiful and gifted woman. Garrick did his utmost to improve the +mechanical arts of the stage—<span class="newpage"><a name='Page87' id='Page87'>[87]</a></span>so much so, indeed, that he paid his +scene-painter, Loutherbourg, £500 a year, a pretty considerable sum +in those days—though in Garrick's time the importance of realism in +costume was not sufficiently appreciated to prevent him from playing +Macbeth in a bagwig. To-day we are employing all our resources to +heighten the picturesque effects of the drama, and we are still told +that this is a gross error. It may be admitted that nothing is more +objectionable than certain kinds of realism, which are simply vulgar; +but harmony of color and grace of outline have a legitimate sphere in +the theatre, and the method which uses them as adjuncts may claim to +be "as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine." +For the abuse of scenic decoration, the overloading of the stage with +ornament, the subordination of the play to a pageant, I have nothing +to say. That is all foreign to the artistic purpose<span class="newpage"><a name='Page88' id='Page88'>[88]</a></span> which should +dominate dramatic work. Nor do I think that servility to archæology on +the stage is an unmixed good. Correctness of costume is admirable +and necessary up to a certain point, but when it ceases to be "as +wholesome as sweet," it should, I think, be sacrificed. You perceive +that the nicest discretion is needed in the use of the materials +which are nowadays at the disposal of the manager. Music, painting, +architecture, the endless variations of costume, have all to be +employed with a strict regard to the production of an artistic +whole, in which no element shall be unduly obtrusive. We are open to +microscopic criticism at every point. When <i>Much Ado about Nothing</i> +was produced at the Lyceum, I received a letter complaining of the +gross violation of accuracy in a scene which was called a cedar-walk. +"Cedars!" said my correspondent,—"why, cedars were not introduced +into Messina <span class="newpage"><a name='Page89' id='Page89'>[89]</a></span>for fifty years after the date of Shakespeare's story!" +Well, this was a tremendous indictment, but unfortunately the +cedar-walk had been painted. Absolute realism on the stage is not +always desirable, any more than the photographic reproduction of +Nature can claim to rank with the highest art.</p> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page90' id='Page90'>[90]</a></span> +<a name="link6" id="link6"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>IV. THE REWARDS OF THE ART.</h3> +</center> +<p>To what position in the world of intelligence does the actor's art +entitle him, and what is his contribution to the general sum of +instruction? We are often told that the art is ephemeral; that it +creates nothing; that when the actor's personality is withdrawn from +the public eye he leaves no trace behind. Granted that his art creates +nothing; but does it not often restore? It is true that he leaves +nothing like the canvas of the painter and the marble of the sculptor, +but has he done nought to increase the general stock of ideas? The +astronomer and naturalist create nothing, but they contribute much to +the enlightenment of the world. I am taking the highest standard of +my art, for I<span class="newpage"><a name='Page91' id='Page91'>[91]</a></span> maintain that in judging any calling you should consider +its noblest and not its most ignoble products. All the work that is +done on the stage cannot stand upon the same level, any more than all +the work that is done in literature. You do not demand that your poets +and novelists shall all be of the same calibre. An immense amount of +good writing does no more than increase the gayety of mankind; but +when Johnson said that the gayety of nations was eclipsed by the death +of Garrick, he did not mean that a mere barren amusement had lost one +of its professors. When Sir Joshua Reynolds painted Mrs. Siddons as +the Tragic Muse, and said he had achieved immortality by putting his +name on the hem of her garment, he meant something more than a pretty +compliment, for her name can never die. To give genuine and wholesome +entertainment is a very large function of the stage, and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page92' id='Page92'>[92]</a></span>without that +entertainment very many lives would lose a stimulus of the highest +value. If recreation of every legitimate kind is invaluable to the +worker, especially so is the recreation of the drama, which brightens +his faculties, enlarges his vision of the picturesque, and by taking +him for a time out of this work-a-day world, braces his sensibilities +for the labors of life. The art which does this may surely claim to +exercise more than a fleeting influence upon the world's intelligence. +But in its highest developments it does more; it acts as a constant +medium for the diffusion of great ideas, and by throwing new lights +upon the best dramatic literature, it largely helps the growth +of education. It is not too much to say that the interpreters of +Shakespeare on the stage have had much to do with the widespread +appreciation of his works. Some of the most thoughtful students of +the poet<span class="newpage"><a name='Page93' id='Page93'>[93]</a></span> have recognized their indebtedness to actors, while for +multitudes the stage has performed the office of discovery. Thousands +who flock to-day to see a representation of Shakespeare, which is the +product of much reverent study of the poet, are not content to regard +it as a mere scenic exhibition. Without it Shakespeare might have been +for many of them a sealed book; but many more have been impelled +by the vivid realism of the stage to renew studies which other +occupations or lack of leisure have arrested. Am I presumptuous, then, +in asserting that the stage is not only an instrument of amusement, +but a very active agent in the spread of knowledge and taste? Some +forms of stage work, you may say, are not particularly elevating. +True; and there are countless fictions coming daily from the hands +of printer and publisher which nobody is the better for reading. You +cannot have<span class="newpage"><a name='Page94' id='Page94'>[94]</a></span> a fixed standard of value in my art; and though there +are masses of people who will prefer an unintelligent exhibition to +a really artistic production, that is no reason for decrying the +theatre, in which all the arts blend with the knowledge of history, +manners, and customs of all people, and scenes of all climes, to +afford a varied entertainment to the most exacting intellect. I have +no sympathy with people who are constantly anxious to define the +actor's position, for, as a rule, they are not animated by a desire to +promote his interests. "'Tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus;" +and whatever actors deserve, socially or artistically, they are sure +to receive as their right. I found the other day in a well-circulated +little volume a suggestion that the actor was a degraded being because +he has a closely-shaven face. This is, indeed, humiliating, and I +wonder how it strikes the Roman Catholic <span class="newpage"><a name='Page95' id='Page95'>[95]</a></span>clergy. However, there are +actors who do not shave closely, and though, alas! I am not one of +them, I wish them joy of the spiritual grace which I cannot claim.</p> + +<p>It is admittedly unfortunate for the stage that it has a certain +equivocal element, which, in the eyes of some judges, is sufficient +for its condemnation. The art is open to all, and it has to bear the +sins of many. You may open your newspaper, and see a paragraph headed +"Assault by an Actress." Some poor creature is dignified by that title +who has not the slightest claim to it. You look into a shop-window and +see photographs of certain people who are indiscriminately described +as actors and actresses though their business has no pretence to be +art of any kind.</p> + +<p>I was told in Baltimore of a man in that city who was so diverted by +the performance of Tyrone Powar, the popular Irish <span class="newpage"><a name='Page96' id='Page96'>[96]</a></span>comedian, that he +laughed uproariously till the audience was convulsed with merriment at +the spectacle. As soon as he could speak, he called out, "Do be quiet, +Mr. Showman; do'ee hold your tongue, or I shall die of laughter!" This +idea that the actor is a showman still lingers; but no one with any +real appreciation of the best elements of the drama applies this +vulgar standard to a great body of artists. The fierce light of +publicity that beats upon us makes us liable, from time to time, to +dissertations upon our public and private lives, our manners, our +morals, and our money. Our whims and caprices are discanted on with +apparent earnestness of truth, and seeming sincerity of conviction. +There is always some lively controversy concerning the influence of +the stage. The battle between old methods and new in art is waged +everywhere. If an actor were to take to heart everything that is +written<span class="newpage"><a name='Page97' id='Page97'>[97]</a></span> and said about him, his life would be an intolerable burden. +And one piece of advice I should give to young actors is this: Do not +be too sensitive; receive praise or censure with modesty and patience. +Good honest criticism is, of course, most advantageous to an actor; +but he should save himself from the indiscriminate reading of a +multitude of comments, which may only confuse instead of stimulating. +And here let me say to young actors in all earnestness: Beware of the +loungers of our calling, the camp followers who hang on the skirts of +the army, and who inveigle the young into habits that degrade their +character, and paralyze their ambition. Let your ambition be ever +precious to you, and, next to your good name, the jewel of your souls. +I care nothing for the actor who is not always anxious to rise to +the highest position in his particular walk; but this ideal cannot be +cherished by the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page98' id='Page98'>[98]</a></span>young man who is induced to fritter away his time and +his mind in thoughtless company.</p> + +<p>But in the midst of all this turmoil about the stage, one fact stands +out clearly: the dramatic art is steadily growing in credit with the +educated classes. It is drawing more recruits from those classes. The +enthusiasm for our calling has never reached a higher pitch. There is +quite an extraordinary number of ladies who want to become actresses, +and the cardinal difficulty in the way is not the social deterioration +which some people think they would incur, but simply their inability +to act. Men of education who become actors do not find that their +education is useless. If they have the necessary aptitude—the inborn +instinct for the stage—all their mental training will be of great +value to them. It is true that there must always be grades in the +theatre, that an educated man who is an <span class="newpage"><a name='Page99' id='Page99'>[99]</a></span>indifferent actor can never +expect to reach the front rank. If he do no more than figure in the +army at Bosworth Field, or look imposing in a doorway; if he never +play any but the smallest parts; if in these respects he be no +better than men who could not pass an examination in any branch of +knowledge—he has no more reason to complain than the highly-educated +man who longs to write poetry, and possesses every qualification—save +the poetic faculty. There are people who seem to think that only +irresistible genius justifies any one in adopting the stage as a +vocation. They make it an argument against the profession that many +enter it from a low sphere of life, without any particular fitness for +acting, but simply to earn a livelihood by doing the subordinate and +mechanical work which is necessary in every theatre. And so men and +women of refinement—especially women—are warned that they<span class="newpage"><a name='Page100' id='Page100'>[100]</a></span> must do +themselves injury by passing through the rank and file during their +term of probation in the actors' craft. Now, I need not remind you +that on the stage everybody cannot be great, any more than students +of music can all become great musicians; but very many will do sound +artistic work which is of great value. As for any question of conduct, +Heaven forbid that I should be dogmatic; but it does not seem to me +logical that while genius is its own law in the pursuit of a noble +art, all inferior merit or ambition is to be deterred from the same +path by appalling pictures of its temptations.</p> + +<p>If our art is worth anything at all, it is worth the honest, +conscientious self-devotion of men and women who, while they may not +achieve fame, may have the satisfaction of being workers in a calling +which does credit to many degrees of talent. We do not claim to be +any better<span class="newpage"><a name='Page101' id='Page101'>[101]</a></span> than our fellows in other walks of life. We do not ask +the jester in journalism whether his quips and epigrams are always +dictated by the loftiest morality; nor do we insist on knowing that +the odor of sanctity surrounds the private lives of lawyers and +military men before we send our sons into law and the army. It +is impossible to point out any vocation which is not attended by +temptations that prove fatal to many; but you have simply to consider +whether a profession has in itself any title to honor, and then—if +you are confident of your capacity—to enter it with a resolve to do +all that energy and perseverance can accomplish. The immortal part of +the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes come +and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity—associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances; but it never sinks into <span class="newpage"><a name='Page102' id='Page102'>[102]</a></span>nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. And I would say, as a last word, to the young +men in this assembly who may at any time resolve to enter the dramatic +profession, that they ought always to fix their minds upon the highest +examples; that in studying acting they should beware of prejudiced +comparisons between this method and that, but learn as much as +possible from all; that they should remember that art is as varied as +nature, and as little suited to the shackles of a school; and, above +all, that they should never forget that excellence in any art is +attained only by arduous labor, unswerving purpose, and unfailing +discipline. This discipline is, perhaps, the most difficult of all +tests, for it involves the subordination of the actor's personality in +every work which is designed to be a complete and harmonious picture. +Dramatic art nowadays <span class="newpage"><a name='Page103' id='Page103'>[103]</a></span>is more coherent, systematic, and comprehensive +than it has sometimes been. And to the student who proposes to fill +the place in this system to which his individuality and experience +entitle him, and to do his duty faithfully and well, ever striving +after greater excellence, and never yielding to the indolence that is +often born of popularity—to him I say, with every confidence, that +he will choose a career in which, if it does not lead him to fame, +he will be sustained by the honorable exercise of some of the best +faculties of the human mind.</p> + +<p>And now I can only thank you for the patience with which you have +listened while, in a slight and imperfect way, I have dwelt with some +of the most important of the actor's responsibilities, I have been an +actor for nearly thirty years, and what I have told you is the fruit +of my experience, and of an earnest and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page104' id='Page104'>[104]</a></span>conscientious belief that the +calling to which I am proud to belong is worthy of the sympathy and +support of all intelligent people.</p> + +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page105' id='Page105'>[105]</a></span> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>ADDRESS</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>26 JUNE 1886</h3> +</center> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page106' id='Page106'>[106]</a></span> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page107' id='Page107'>[107]</a></span> +<a name="link7" id="link7"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<h1>FOUR GREAT ACTORS.</h1> +<p>When I was honored by the request of your distinguished +Vice-Chancellor to deliver an address before the members of this +great University, I told him I could only say something about my own +calling, for that I knew little or nothing about anything else. +I trust, however, that this confession of the limitations of +my knowledge will not prejudice me in your eyes, members as you +are—privileged members I may say—of this seat of learning. In an age +when so many persons think they know everything, it may afford a not +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page108' id='Page108'>[108]</a></span>unpleasing variety to meet with some who know that they know nothing.</p> + +<p>I cannot discourse to you, even if you wished me to do so, of the +respective merits of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; for if I +did, I should not be able to tell you anything that you do not know +already. I have not had the advantage—one that very few of the +members of my profession in past, or even in present times have +enjoyed—of an University education. The only <i>Alma Mater</i> I ever knew +was the hard stage of a country theatre.</p> + +<p>In the course of my training, long before I had taken, what I may +call, my degree in London, I came to act in your city. I have a very +pleasant recollection of the time I passed here, though I am sorry +to say that, owing to the regulation which forbade theatrical +performances during term time, I saw Oxford only in vacation, which +is rather like—to use the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page109' id='Page109'>[109]</a></span>old illustration—seeing <i>Hamlet</i> with the +part of Hamlet left out. There was then no other building available +for dramatic representations than the Town Hall. I may, perhaps, be +allowed to congratulate you on the excellent theatre which you now +possess—I do not mean the Sheldonian—and at the same time to express +a hope that, as a more liberal, and might I say a wiser, <i>régime</i> +allows the members of the University to go to the play, they will not +receive any greater moral injury, or be distracted any more from their +studies, than when they were only allowed the occasional relaxation of +hearing comic songs. Macready once said that "a theatre ought to be +a place of recreation for the sober-minded and intelligent." I trust +that, under whatsoever management the theatre in Oxford may be, it +will always deserve this character.</p> + +<p>You must not expect any learned disquisition from me; nor even in the +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page110' id='Page110'>[110]</a></span>modified sense in which the word is used among you will I venture to +style what I am going to say to you a lecture. You may, by the way, +have seen a report that I was cast for <i>four</i> lectures; but I assure +you there was no ground for such an alarming rumor; a rumor quite as +alarming to me as it could have been to you. What I do propose is, to +say to you something about four of our greatest actors in the past, +each of whom may be termed the representative of an important period +in the Annals of our National Drama. In turning over the leaves of +a history of the life of Edmund Kean, I came across the following +sentence (the writer is speaking of Edmund Kean as having restored +Nature to the stage): "There seems always to have been this +alternation between the Schools of Nature and Art (if we may so term +them) in the annals of the English Theatre." Now if for <i>Art</i> I may be +allowed to <span class="newpage"><a name='Page111' id='Page111'>[111]</a></span>substitute <i>Artificiality</i>, which is what the author really +meant, I think that his sentence is an epitome of the history of our +stage; and it struck me at once that I could not select anything more +appropriate—I will not say as a text, for that sounds as if I were +going to deliver a sermon—but as the <i>motif</i>, or theme of the remarks +I am about to address to you. The four actors of whom I shall attempt +to tell, you something—Burbage, Betterton, Garrick, and Kean—were +the <i>four</i> greatest champions, in their respective times, on the stage +of Nature in contradistinction to Artificiality.</p> + +<p>When we consider the original of the Drama, or perhaps I should say +of the higher class of Drama, we see that the style of acting must +necessarily have been artificial rather than natural. Take the Greek +Tragedy, for instance: the actors, as you know, wore masks, and had to +speak, or rather intone, in a <span class="newpage"><a name='Page112' id='Page112'>[112]</a></span>theatre more than half open to the air, +and therefore it was impossible they could employ facial expression, +or much variety of intonation. We have not time now to trace at length +the many vicissitudes in the career of the Drama, but I may say that +Shakespeare was the first dramatist who dared to rob Tragedy of her +stilts; and who successfully introduced an element of comedy which +was not dragged in by the neck and heels, but which naturally evolved +itself from the treatment of the tragic story, and did not violate the +consistency of any character.</p> + +<p>It was not only with regard to the <i>writing</i> of his plays +that Shakespeare sought to fight the battle of Nature against +Artificiality. However naturally he might write, the affected or +monotonous <i>delivery</i> of his verse by the actors would neutralize all +his efforts. The old rhyming ten-syllable lines could not but lead to +a monotonous style of elocution, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page113' id='Page113'>[113]</a></span>nor was the early blank verse much +improvement in this respect; but Shakespeare fitted his blank verse to +the natural expression of his ideas, and not his ideas to the trammels +of blank verse.</p> + +<p>In order to carry out these reforms, in order to dethrone Artifice and +Affectation, he needed the help of actors in whom he could trust, +and especially of a leading actor who could interpret his greatest +dramatic creations; such a one he found in Richard Burbage.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare came to London first in 1585. Whether on this, his first +visit, he became connected with the theatres is uncertain. At any +rate it is most probable that he saw Burbage in some of his favorite +characters, and perhaps made his acquaintance; being first employed +as a kind of servant in the theatre, and afterwards as a player of +inferior parts. It was not until about 1591-1592, that Shakespeare +began to turn his attention seriously to <span class="newpage"><a name='Page114' id='Page114'>[114]</a></span>dramatic authorship. For five +years of his life we are absolutely without any evidence as to what +were his pursuits. But there can be little doubt that during this +interval he was virtually undergoing a special form of education, +consisting rather of the study of human nature than that of books, +and was acquiring the art of dramatic construction—learnt better in +a theatre than anywhere else. Unfortunately, we have no record of the +intercourse between Shakespeare and Burbage; but there can be little +doubt that between the dramatist, who was himself an actor, and the +actor, who gave life to the greatest creations of his imagination, and +who, probably, amazed no less than delighted the great master by the +vividness and power of his impersonations, there must have existed a +close friendship. Shakespeare, unlike most men of genius, was no bad +man of business; and, indeed, a friend of mine, who prides <span class="newpage"><a name='Page115' id='Page115'>[115]</a></span>himself +upon being a practical man, once suggested that he selected the part +of the Ghost in <i>Hamlet</i> because it enabled him to go in front of the +house between the acts and count the money. Burbage was universally +acknowledged as the greatest tragic actor of his time. In Bartholomew +Fair, Ben Jonson uses Burbage's name as a synonym for "the best +actor"; and Bishop Corbet, in his <i>Iter Boreale</i>, tells us that his +host at Leicester—</p> +<blockquote>"when he would have said King Richard died,<br /> +And call'd, 'A horse! A horse!' he, Burbage, +cried,"<br /></blockquote> +<p>In a scene, in which Burbage and the comedian Kemp (the J.L. Toole +of the Shakespearean period) are introduced in <i>The Return from +Parnassus</i>—a satirical play, as you may know, written by some of +the Members of St. John's College, Cambridge, for performance +by themselves on New Year's Day, 1602—we have proof of the high +estimation in which the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page116' id='Page116'>[116]</a></span>great tragic actor was held. Kemp says to the +scholars who are anxious to try their fortunes on the stage: "But be +merry, my lads, you have happened upon the most excellent vocation +in the world for money; they come north and south to bring it to our +playhouse; and for honors, who of more report than <i>Dick Burbage</i> +and <i>Will Kempe</i>; he is not counted a gentleman that knows not <i>Dick +Burbage</i> and <i>Will Kempe</i>; there's not a country wench that can +dance 'Sellenger's Round,' but can talke of <i>Dick Burbage</i> and <i>Will +Kempe</i>."</p> + +<p>That Burbage's fame as an actor outlived his life may be seen from the +description given by Flecknoe:—</p> + +<p>"He was a delightful Proteus, so wholly transforming himself into his +part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he never (not so +much as in the 'tiring house) assumed himself again until the play was +done.... He had all the parts of an <span class="newpage"><a name='Page117' id='Page117'>[117]</a></span>excellent orator, animating his +words with speaking, and speech with acting, his auditors being never +more delighted than when he spake, nor more sorry than when he held +his peace. Yet even then he was an excellent actor still, never +failing in his part when he had done speaking, but with his looks and +gestures maintaining it still to the height."</p> + +<p>It is not my intention, even if time permitted, to go much into the +private life of the four actors of whom I propose to speak. Very +little is known of Burbage's private life, except that he was married; +perhaps Shakespeare and he may have been drawn nearer together by the +tie of a common sorrow; for, as the poet lost his beloved son Hamlet +when quite a child, so did Burbage lose his eldest son Richard. +Burbage died on March 13th, 1617, being then about 50 years of age: +Camden, in his <i>Annals of James I.</i>, records his death, and calls him +a<span class="newpage"><a name='Page118' id='Page118'>[118]</a></span> second Roscius. He was sincerely mourned by all those who loved +the dramatic art; and he numbered among his friends Shakespeare, Ben +Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher, and other "common players," whose +names were destined to become the most honored in the annals of +English literature. Burbage was the first great actor that England +ever saw, the original representative of many of Shakespeare's noblest +creations, among others, of Shylock, Richard, Romeo, Hamlet, Lear, +Othello, and Macbeth. We may fairly conclude Burbage's acting to have +had all the best characteristics of Natural, as opposed to Artificial +acting. The principles of the former are so clearly laid down by +Shakespeare, in Hamlet's advice to the players, that, perhaps, I +cannot do better than to repeat them:—</p> + +<p class="speech">Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it +to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of +your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor<span class="newpage"><a name='Page119' id='Page119'>[119]</a></span> +do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all +gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the +whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that +may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a +robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very +rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part +are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-show and noise: I +would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it +out-herods Herod; pray you, avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but +let your own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, +the word to the action; with this special observance, that you +o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone is +from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, +was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show +virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and +body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come +tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the +judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your +allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players +that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, +not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of +Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so<span class="newpage"><a name='Page120' id='Page120'>[120]</a></span> +strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's +journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated +humanity so abominably.</p> + +<p>When we try to picture what the theatre in Shakespeare's time was +like, it strikes us that it must have been difficult to carry out +those principles. One would think it must have been almost impossible +for the actors to keep up the illusion of the play, surrounded as they +were by such distracting elements. Figure to yourselves a crowd of +fops, chattering like a flock of daws, carrying their stools in their +hands, and settling around, and sometimes upon the stage itself, with +as much noise as possible. To vindicate their importance in their own +eyes they kept up a constant jangling of petty, carping criticism on +the actors and the play. In the intervals of repose which they allowed +their tongues, they ogled the ladies in the boxes, and made a point +of <span class="newpage"><a name='Page121' id='Page121'>[121]</a></span>vindicating the dignity of their intellects by being always most +inattentive during the most pathetic portions of the play. In front +of the house matters were little better: the orange girls going to and +fro among the audience, interchanging jokes—not of the most delicate +character—with the young sparks and apprentices, the latter cracking +nuts or howling down some unfortunate actor who had offended their +worships; sometimes pipes of tobacco were being smoked. Picture all +this confusion, and add the fact that the female characters of the +play were represented by shrill-voiced lads or half-shaven men. +Imagine an actor having to invest such representatives with all the +girlish passion of a Juliet, the womanly tenderness of a Desdemona, +or the pitiable anguish of a distraught Ophelia, and you cannot but +realize how difficult under such circumstances <i>great</i> acting +must have been. In <span class="newpage"><a name='Page122' id='Page122'>[122]</a></span>fact, while we are awe-struck by the wonderful +intellectuality of the best dramas of the Elizabethan period, we +cannot help feeling that certain subtleties of acting, elaborate +by-play, for instance, and the finer lights and shades of intonation, +must have been impossible. Recitation rather than impersonation would +be generally aimed at by the actors.</p> + +<p>Thomas Betterton was the son of one of the cooks of King Charles I. +He was born in Tothill Street, Westminster, about 1635, eighteen +years after the death of Burbage. He seems to have received a fair +education; indeed, but for the disturbing effect of the Civil War, he +would probably have been brought up to one of the liberal professions. +He was, however, apprenticed to a bookseller, who, fortunately +for Betterton, took to theatrical management. Betterton was about +twenty-four years old when he began his dramatic career. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page123' id='Page123'>[123]</a></span>For upwards +of fifty years he seems to have held his position as the foremost +actor of the day. It was fortunate, indeed, for the interests of the +Drama that so great an actor arose at the very time when dramatic art +had, as it were, to be resuscitated. Directly the Puritans (who hated +the stage and every one connected with it as heartily as they +hated their Cavalier neighbors) came into power, they abolished the +theatres, as they did every other form of intellectual amusement; +and for many years the Drama only existed in the form of a few vulgar +"Drolls." It must have been, indeed, a dismal time for the people of +England; with all the horrors of civil war fresh in their memory, the +more than paternal government allowed its subjects no other amusement +than that of consigning their neighbors to eternal damnation, and of +selecting for themselves—by anticipation—all the best reserved seats +in heaven. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page124' id='Page124'>[124]</a></span>When the Restoration took place, the inevitable reaction +followed: society, having been condemned to a lengthened period of an +involuntary piety—which sat anything but easily on it—rushed into +the other extreme; all who wanted to be in the fashion professed but +little morality, and it is to be feared that, for once in a way, their +practice did not come short of their profession. Now was the time +when, instead of "poor players," "fine gentlemen" condescended to +write for the stage; and it may be remarked that as long as the +literary interests of the theatre were in their keeping, the tone of +the plays represented was more corrupt than it ever was at any other +period of the history of the Drama. It is something to be thankful +for, that at such a time, when the highly-flavored comedies of +Wycherley and Congreve were all the vogue, and when the monotonous +profligacy of nearly all the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page125' id='Page125'>[125]</a></span>characters introduced into those plays +was calculated to encourage the most artificial style of acting—it +was something, I say, to be thankful for, that at such a time, +Betterton, and one or two other actors, could infuse life into +the noblest creations of Shakespeare. Owing, more especially, to +Betterton's great powers, the tragedy of <i>Hamlet</i> held its own in +popularity, even against such witty productions as <i>Love for Love</i>. It +was also fortunate that the same actor who could draw tears as Hamlet, +was equally at home in the feigned madness of that amusing rake +Valentine, or in the somewhat coarse humor of Sir John Brute. By +charming the public in what were the popular novelties of the day, he +was able to command their support when he sought it for a nobler +form of Drama. He married an actress, Mrs. Saunderson, who was only +inferior in her art to her husband. Their married life seems to +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page126' id='Page126'>[126]</a></span>have been one of perfect happiness. When one hears so much of the +profligacy of actors and actresses, and that they are all such a +very wicked lot, it is pleasant to think of this couple, in an age +proverbial for its immorality, in a city where the highest in rank set +an example of shameless licence, living their quiet, pure, artistic +life, respected and beloved by all that knew them.</p> + +<p>Betterton had few physical advantages. If we are to believe Antony +Aston, one of his contemporaries, he had "a short, thick neck, stooped +in the shoulders, and had fat, short arms, which he rarely lifted +higher than his stomach. His left hand frequently lodged in his +breast, between his coat and waistcoat, while with his right hand he +prepared his speech." Yet the same critic is obliged to confess that, +at seventy years of age, a younger man might have <i>personated</i> but +could not have <i>acted</i>, Hamlet better. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page127' id='Page127'>[127]</a></span>He calls his voice "low and +grumbling," but confesses that he had such power over it that he could +enforce attention even from fops and orange-girls. I dare say you +all know how Steele and Addison admired his acting, and how +enthusiastically they spoke of it in <i>The Tatler</i>. The latter writes +eloquently of the wonderful agony of jealousy and the tenderness +of love which he showed in <i>Othello</i>, and of the immense effect he +produced in <i>Hamlet</i>.</p> + +<p>Betterton, like all really great men, was a hard worker. Pepys says +of him, "Betterton is a very sober, serious man, and studious, and +humble, following of his studies; and is rich already with what he +gets and saves." Alas! the fortune so hardly earned was lost in an +unlucky moment: he entrusted it to a friend to invest in a commercial +venture in the East Indies which failed most signally. Betterton never +reproached <span class="newpage"><a name='Page128' id='Page128'>[128]</a></span>his friend, he never murmured at his ill-luck. The friend's +daughter was left unprovided for; but Betterton adopted the child, +educated her for the stage, and she became an actress of merit, and +married Bowman, the player, afterwards known as "The Father of the +Stage."</p> + +<p>In Betterton's day there were no long runs of pieces; but, had his +lot been cast in these times, he might have been compelled to perform, +say, <i>Hamlet</i> for three hundred or four hundred nights: for the rights +of the majority are entitled to respect in other affairs besides +politics, and if the theatre-going public demand a play (and our +largest theatres only hold a limited number) the manager dare not +cause annoyance and disappointment by withdrawing it.</p> + +<p>Like Edmund Kean, Betterton may be said to have died upon the stage; +for in April, 1710, when he took his last benefit, as Melantius, in +Beaumont and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page129' id='Page129'>[129]</a></span>Fletcher's <i>Maid's Tragedy</i> (an adaption of which, by the +way, was played by Macready under the title of <i>The Bridal</i>,) he was +suffering tortures from gout, and had almost to be carried to his +dressing-room; and though he acted the part with all his old fire, +speaking these very appropriate words:—</p> +<pre> + "My heart + And limbs are still the same, my will as great, + To do you service," +</pre> +<p>within forty-eight hours he was dead. He was buried in the Cloisters +of Westminster Abbey with every mark of respect and honor.</p> + +<p>I may here add that the censure said to have been directed against +Betterton for the introduction of scenery is the prototype of that +cry, which we hear so often nowadays, against over-elaboration in +the arrangements of the stage. If it be a crime against good taste +to <span class="newpage"><a name='Page130' id='Page130'>[130]</a></span>endeavor to enlist every art in the service of the stage, and to +heighten the effect of noble poetry by surrounding it with the most +beautiful and appropriate accessories, I myself must plead guilty to +that charge; but I should like to point out that every dramatist who +has ever lived, from Shakespeare downwards, has always endeavored to +get his plays put upon the stage with as good effect and as handsome +appointments as possible.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the Globe Theatre was burned down during the first performance +of <i>King Henry VIII.</i>, through the firing off of a cannon which +announced the arrival of King Henry. Perhaps, indeed, some might +regard this as a judgment against the manager for such an attempt at +realism.</p> + +<p>It was seriously suggested to me by an enthusiast the other day, that +costumes of his own time should be used <span class="newpage"><a name='Page131' id='Page131'>[131]</a></span>for all Shakespeare's plays. I +reflected a little on the suggestion, and then I put it to him whether +the characters in <i>Julius Cæsar</i> or in <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i> dressed +in doublet and hose would not look rather out of place. He answered, +"He had never thought of that." In fact, difficulties almost +innumerable must invariably crop up if we attempt to represent plays +without appropriate costume and scenery, the aim of which is to +realize the <i>locale</i> of the action. Some people may hold that paying +attention to such matters necessitates inattention to the acting; but +the majority think it does not, and I believe that they are right. +What would Alma-Tadema say, for instance, if it were proposed to him +that in a picture of the Roman Amphitheatre the figures should be +painted in the costume of Spain? I do not think he would see the point +of such a noble disregard of detail; and why should he, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page132' id='Page132'>[132]</a></span>unless what is +false in art is held to be higher than what is true?</p> + +<p>Little more than thirty years were to elapse between the death of +the honored Betterton and the appearance of David Garrick, who was +to restore Nature once more to the stage. In this comparatively +short interval progress in dramatic affairs had been all backward. +Shakespeare's advice to the actors had been neglected; earnest +passion, affecting pathos, ever-varying gestures, telling intonation +of voice, and, above all, that complete identification of themselves +in the part they represented—all these qualities, which had +distinguished the acting of Betterton, had given way to noisy +rant, formal and affected attitudes, and a heavy stilted style of +declamation. Betterton died in 1710, and six years after, in 1716, +Garrick was born. About twenty years after, in 1737, Samuel Johnson +and his friend and pupil, David Garrick, set <span class="newpage"><a name='Page133' id='Page133'>[133]</a></span>out from Lichfield on +their way to London. In spite of the differences in their ages, and +their relationship of master and pupil, a hearty friendship had sprung +up between them, and one destined, in spite of Johnson's occasional +resentment at the actor's success in life, to last till it was ended +by the grave. Much of Johnson's occasional harshness and almost +contemptuous attitude towards Garrick was, I fear, the result of the +consciousness that his old pupil had thoroughly succeeded in life, +and had reached the highest goal possible in the career which he had +chosen; while he himself, though looked up to as the greatest scholar +of his time, was conscious, as he shows us in his own diary, of how +much more he might have done but for his constitutional indolence.</p> + +<p>Garrick's family was of French origin, his father having come over to +England during the persecution of the Huguenots <span class="newpage"><a name='Page134' id='Page134'>[134]</a></span>in 1687, and on his +mother's side he had Irish blood in his veins; so that by descent he +was a combination of French, English, and Irish, a combination by no +means unpromising for one who was going to be an actor.</p> + +<p>On reaching London, Garrick enrolled his name in Lincoln's Inn, and +was looking about him to see what would turn up, when the news of his +father's death reached him. There is no doubt that, if Garrick had +consulted his own wishes only, he would at once have gone upon the +stage. But fortunately, perhaps, for his future career, he could not +bear to grieve his mother's heart by adopting at once, and at such +a time when she was crushed with some sorrow for her great loss, a +calling which he knew she detested so heartily.</p> + +<p>Within a year Mrs. Garrick followed to the grave the husband whom she +never ceased to mourn, and David had nothing<span class="newpage"><a name='Page135' id='Page135'>[135]</a></span> more to face than the +prejudice of his brother, Peter, and of his sisters, if he should +resolve ultimately to adopt the profession on which his heart was +fixed.</p> + +<p>It was not, however, till nearly three years after, in 1741, that +Garrick, determined to take the decisive step, first feeling his way +by playing Chamont in <i>The Orphan</i>, and Sir Harry Wildair, at Ipswich, +where he appeared under the name of Mr. Lydall; and under this same +name, in the same year, he made his first appearance at Goodman's +Fields Theatre, in the part of Richard III. His success was +marvellous. Considering the small experience he had had, no actor ever +made such a successful <i>début</i>. No doubt by waiting and exercising his +powers of observation, and by studying many parts in private, he had +to a certain extent, matured his powers. But making allowance for +all his great natural gifts, there is no denying that Garrick, in <span class="newpage"><a name='Page136' id='Page136'>[136]</a></span>one +leap, gained a position which, in the case of most other actors, has +only been reached through years of toil. He seems to have charmed all +classes: the learned and the ignorant, the cultured and the vulgar; +great statesmen, poets, and even the fribbles of fashion were all +nearly unanimous in his praise. The dissentient voices were so few +that they were drowned in the clamor of applause. Quinn might snarl +and growl; and Horace Walpole, who seems to have grown alarmed at +so much of the incense of praise finding its way to the nostrils of +another, might give vent to a few feeble sneers; such as when he said, +"I do not mention the things written in his praise because he writes +most of them himself." But the battle was won. Nature in the place +of Artificiality, Originality in the place of Conventionality, had +triumphed on the stage once more.</p> + +<p>Consternation reigned in the home at <span class="newpage"><a name='Page137' id='Page137'>[137]</a></span>Lichfield when the news arrived +that brother David had become a play-actor; but ultimately the family +were reconciled to such degradation by the substantial results of the +experiment. Such reconcilements are not uncommon. Some young man of +good birth and position has taken to the stage; his family, who could +not afford to keep him, have been shocked, and in pious horror have +cast him out of their respectable circle; but at last success has +come, and they have managed to overcome their scruples and prejudices +and to profit by the harvest which the actor has reaped.</p> + +<p>Garrick seems to have continued playing under the name of Lydall for +two months, though the secret must have been an open one. It was not +till December the second, the night of his benefit, that he was at +last announced under his own name; and henceforward his career was +one long triumph, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page138' id='Page138'>[138]</a></span>checkered, indeed, by disagreements, quarrels and +heart-burnings (for Garrick was extremely sensitive), caused, for the +most part, by the envy and jealousy which invariably dog the heels of +success.</p> + +<p>Second-rate actors, like Theophilus Gibber, or gnats such as Murphy, +and others, easily stung him. He was lampooned as "The Sick Monkey" +on his return to the stage after having taken a much needed rest. +But discretion and audacity seemed to go hand-in-hand, and the +self-satisfied satirizer generally over-shoots the mark. Garrick was +ever ready with a reply to his assailants; when Dr. Hill attacked his +pronunciation, saying that he pronounced his "i's" as if they were +"u's," Garrick answered—</p> + +<p class="poem p.i2">"If 'tis true, as you say, that I've injured a +letter,<br /> +I'll change my note soon, and I hope for the better.<br /> +May the just right of letters as well as of men,<br /> +Hereafter be fixed by the tongue and the pen.<br /> +Most devoutly I wish that they both have their due,<br /> +And that <i>I</i> may be never mistaken for <i>U</i>."</p> + +<p><span class="newpage"><a name='Page139' id='Page139'>[139]</a></span>Comparing Garrick with Betterton, it must be remembered that he was +more exposed to the attacks of envy from the very universality of +his success. Never, perhaps, was there a man in any profession +who combined so many various qualities. A fair poet, a most fluent +correspondent, an admirable conversationalist, possessing a person +of singular grace, a voice of marvellous expressiveness, and a +disposition so mercurial and vivacious as is rarely found in any +Englishman, he was destined to be a great social as well as a great +artistic success. He loved the society of men of birth and fashion; he +seems to have had a more passionate desire to please in private even +than in public, and almost to have justified the often quoted couplet +in Goldsmith's "Retaliation."</p> + +<p class="poem p. i2">"On the stage he was natural, simple, +affecting,<br /> +'Twas only that when he was off he was acting."</p> +<p>Some men, envious of the substantial <span class="newpage"><a name='Page140' id='Page140'>[140]</a></span>fortune which he realized by +almost incessant hard work, by thorough good principle with regard +to money, and by a noble, not a paltry, economy, might call him mean; +though many of them knew well, from their own experience, that his +nature was truly generous—his purse, as well as his heart, ever open +to a friend, however little he might deserve it. Yet they sneered +at his want of reckless extravagance, and called him a miser. The +greatest offender in this respect was Samuel Foote, a man of great +accomplishments, witty, but always ill-natured. It is difficult to +speak of Foote's conduct to Garrick in any moderate language. Mr. +Forster may assert that behind Foote's brutal jests there always +lurked a kindly feeling; but what can we think of the man who, +constantly receiving favors from Garrick's hand, could never speak of +him before others without a sneer; who the moment he had received the +loan <span class="newpage"><a name='Page141' id='Page141'>[141]</a></span>of money or other favor for which he had cringed, snarled—I will +not say like a dog, for no dog is so ungrateful—and snapped at the +hand which had administered to him of its bounty. When this man, +who had never spared a friend, whose whole life had been passed in +maligning others, at last was himself a victim of a vile and cruel +slander, Garrick forgot the gibes and sneers of which Foote had made +him so often the victim, and stood by him with a noble devotion as +honorable to himself as it was ill-deserved by its object. Time would +not suffice, had I as many hours as I have minutes before me, to tell +you of all the acts of generosity that this mean man, this niggardly +actor, performed in his lifetime. One characteristic anecdote will +suffice. When Whitfield was building his Tabernacle in Tottenham Court +Road, he employed one of the carpenters who worked for Garrick at +Drury Lane. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page142' id='Page142'>[142]</a></span>Subscriptions for the Tabernacle do not seem to have +come in as fast as they were required to pay the workmen, so that the +carpenter had to go to Garrick to ask for an advance. When pressed for +his reason he confessed that he had not received any wages from Mr. +Whitfield. Garrick made the advance asked for, and soon after quietly +set out to pay a visit to Mr. Whitfield, when, with many apologies for +the liberty he was taking, he offered him a five hundred pound bank +note as his subscription towards the Tabernacle. Considering that +Garrick had no particular sympathy with Nonconformists, this action +speaks as much for his charity as a Christian as it does for his +liberality as a man.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Richard III. remained Garrick's best Shakesperean character. +Of course he played Cibber's version and not Shakespeare's. In fact, +many of the Shakesperean parts were not played from <span class="newpage"><a name='Page143' id='Page143'>[143]</a></span>the poet's own +text, but Garrick might have doubted whether even his popularity +would have reconciled his audiences to the unadulterated poetry of our +greatest dramatist.</p> + +<p>Next to Richard, Lear would seem to have been his best Shakesperean +performance. In Hamlet and Othello he did not equal Betterton; and +in the latter, certainly from all one can discover, he was infinitely +surpassed by Edmund Kean. In fact Othello was not one of his great +parts. But in the wide range of characters which he undertook, Garrick +was probably never equalled. A poor actor named Everard, who was first +brought out as a boy by Garrick, says: "Such or such an actor in their +respective <i>fortes</i> have been allowed to play such or such a part +equally well as him; but could they perform Archer and Scrub like +him? and Abel Drugger, Ranger, and Bayes, and Benedick; speak his own +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page144' id='Page144'>[144]</a></span>prologue to <i>Barbarossa</i>, in the character of a country-boy, and in a +few minutes transform himself in the same play to <i>Selim</i>? Nay, in the +same night he has played <i>Sir John Brute</i> and the <i>Guardian, Romeo</i> +and <i>Lord Chalkstone, Hamlet</i> and <i>Sharp, King Lear</i> and <i>Fribble, +King Richard</i> and the <i>Schoolboy</i>! Could anyone but himself attempt +such a wonderful variety, such an amazing contrast of character, and +be equally great in all? No, no, no! Garrick, take the chair."</p> + +<p>Garrick was, without doubt, a very intense actor; he threw himself +most thoroughly into any part that he was playing. Certainly we know +that he was not wanting in reverence for Shakespeare; in spite of the +liberties which he ventured to take with the poet's text, he loved +and worshipped him. To Powell, who threatened to be at one time a +formidable rival, his advice was, "Never let your Shakespeare be out +of your hands; keep him <span class="newpage"><a name='Page145' id='Page145'>[145]</a></span>about you as a charm; the more you read him, +the more you will like him, and the better you will act." As to his +yielding to the popular taste for pantomime and spectacle, he may +plead a justification in the words which his friend Johnson put into +his mouth in the Prologue that he wrote for the inauguration of his +management at Drury Lane:—</p> + +<p class="poem p.i2">"The Drama's laws the Drama's patrons +give,<br /> +And we, who live to please, must please to live."</p> +<p>We must remember how much he did for the stage. Though his alterations +of Shakespeare shock us, they are nothing to those outrages committed +by others, who deformed the poet beyond recognition. Garrick made +Shakespeare's plays once more popular. He purged the actors, for a +time at least, of faults that were fatal to any high class of drama, +and, above all, he gradually got rid of those abominable nuisances +(to which we have <span class="newpage"><a name='Page146' id='Page146'>[146]</a></span>already alluded), the people who came and took their +seats at the wings, on the stage itself, while the performance was +going on, hampering the efforts of the actors and actresses. The stage +would have had much to thank Garrick for if he had done nothing more +than this—if only that he was the first manager who kept the audience +where they ought to be, on the other side of the footlights.</p> + +<p>In his private life Garrick was most happy. He was fortunate enough +to find for his wife a simple-minded, loyal woman, in a quarter which +some people would deem very unpromising. Mrs. Garrick was, as is +well-known, a celebrated <i>danseuse</i>, known as Mademoiselle Violette, +whose real name was Eva Maria Weigel, a Viennese. A more affectionate +couple were never seen; they were not blessed with children, but they +lived together in the most uninterrupted happiness, and their house +was the scene of<span class="newpage"><a name='Page147' id='Page147'>[147]</a></span> many social gatherings of a delightful kind. Mrs. +Garrick survived her celebrated husband, and lived to the ripe age of +ninety-eight, retaining to the very last much of that grace and charm +of expression which had won the actor's heart.</p> + +<p>Time will not allow me to dwell on the many points of interest +in Garrick's career; all of which are to be found in Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald's <i>Life of Garrick</i>. On returning to London after a visit +to the Spensers at Althorp in January, 1779, he was struck down by +a fatal attack of his old malady, the gout, and died at the age of +sixty-three.</p> + +<p>He was buried in Westminster Abbey with ceremonies as imposing as ever +graced the funeral of a great man. The pall-bearers were headed by the +Duke of Devonshire and the Earl Spenser, while round the grave there +were gathered such men as Burke and Fox, and last, not least, his old +friend and tutor, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page148' id='Page148'>[148]</a></span>Samuel Johnson, his rugged countenance streaming +with tears, his noble heart filled with the sincerest grief. The words +so often quoted, artificial though they may seem, came from that heart +when, speaking of his dear Davy's death, he said that it "had eclipsed +the gayety of nations."</p> + +<p>Garrick's remarkable success in society, which achieved for him a +position only inferior to that he achieved on the stage, is the best +answer to what is often talked about the degrading nature of the +actor's profession. Since the days of Roscius no contempt for actors +in general, or for their art, has prevented a great actor from +attaining that position which is accorded to all distinguished in what +are held to be the higher arts.</p> + +<p>Nearly nine years after the death of Garrick, on November 4th, 1787, a +young woman, who had run away from home when little more than a child +to join a company of strolling players, and who, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page149' id='Page149'>[149]</a></span>when that occupation +failed, earned a scanty living as a hawker in the streets of London, +gave birth, in a wretched room near Gray's Inn, to an illegitimate +child. This woman was Nancy Carey, the grand-daughter of Henry Carey, +the author of the "National Anthem." She was the great-grand-daughter +of George Saville, Marquis of Halifax, whose natural son Henry Carey +was. A compassionate actress, Miss Tidswell, who knew the father of +the child, Aaron Kean, gave her what assistance she could. Poor Nance +was removed to her father's lodgings, near Gray's Inn, and there, on +the day before mentioned, Edmund Kean was born.</p> + +<p>Three months after his birth his mother deserted him, leaving him, +without a word of apology or regret, to the care of the woman who had +befriended her in her trouble. When he was but three years old he was +brought, amongst a number <span class="newpage"><a name='Page150' id='Page150'>[150]</a></span>of other children, to Michael Kelly who +was then bringing out the opera of <i>Cymon</i> at the Opera House in the +Haymarket, and, thanks to his personal beauty, he was selected for +the part of Cupid. Shortly afterwards he found his way to Drury Lane, +where the handsome baby—for he was little more—figured among the +imps in the pantomime. Taught here the tricks of the acrobat, he had +at four years old acquired such powers of contortion that he was fit +to rank as an infant phenomenon. But the usual result followed: the +little limbs became deformed, and had to be put in irons, by means +of which they regained that symmetry with which nature had at first +endowed them. Three years afterwards, in March, 1794, John Kemble was +acting Macbeth at Drury Lane; and, in the "cauldron scene," he engaged +some children to personate the supernatural beings summoned by the +witches from that weird vessel. Little <span class="newpage"><a name='Page151' id='Page151'>[151]</a></span>Edmund with his irons was the +cause of a ridiculous accident, and the attempt to embody the ghostly +forms was abruptly abandoned. But the child seems to have been +pardoned for his blunder, and for a short time was permitted by the +manager to appear in one or two children's parts. Little did the +dignified manager imagine that the child—who was one of his +cauldron of imps in <i>Macbeth</i>—was to become, twenty years later, his +formidable rival—formidable enough to oust almost the representative +of the Classical school from the supremacy he had hitherto enjoyed on +the Tragic stage. In Orange Court, Leicester Square, where Holcroft, +the author of <i>The Road to Ruin</i>, was born, Edmund Kean received +his first education. Scanty enough it was, for it had scarcely begun +before his wretched mother stepped in and claimed him; and, after her +re-appearance, his education seems to have been of a most <span class="newpage"><a name='Page152' id='Page152'>[152]</a></span>spasmodic +character. Hitherto, the child's experience of life had been hard +enough. When only eight years of age he ran away to Portsmouth, and +shipped himself on board a ship bound to Madeira. But he found his +new life harder than that from which he had escaped, and, by dint of +feigning deafness and lameness, he succeeded in procuring his removal +to an hospital at Madeira, whence, the doctors finding his case +yielded to no remedies, the authorities kindly shipped him again to +England. He insisted on being deaf and lame: indeed, so deaf that in +a violent thunder-storm he remained perfectly unmoved, explaining his +composure by declaring that he could not hear any noise at all. From +Portsmouth he made his way on foot to London. On presenting himself +at the wretched lodgings where his mother lived, he found that she had +gone away with Richardson's troupe. Penniless and half-starving, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page153' id='Page153'>[153]</a></span>he +suddenly thought of his uncle, Moses Kean, who lived in Lisle Street, +Leicester Square, a queer character, who gained a precarious living by +giving entertainments as a mimic and ventriloquist. The uncle received +his nephew warmly enough, and seems to have cultivated, to the best of +his ability, the talent for acting which he recognized at once in +the boy. Edmund again enjoyed a kind of desultory education, partly +carried on at school and partly at his uncle's home, where he enjoyed +the advantage of the kind instructions of his old friend, Miss +Tidswell, of D'Egville, the dancing master, of Angelo, the fencing +master, and of no less a person than Incledon, the celebrated singer, +who seems to have taken the greatest interest in him. But the vagrant, +half-gypsy disposition, which he inherited from his mother, could +never be subdued, and he was constantly disappearing from his uncle's +house for <span class="newpage"><a name='Page154' id='Page154'>[154]</a></span>weeks together, which he would pass in going about from one +roadside inn to another, amusing the guests with his acrobatic tricks, +and his monkey-like imitations. In vain was he locked up in rooms, the +height of which from the ground was such as seemed to render escape +impossible. He contrived to get out somehow or other, even at the risk +of his neck, and to make his escape to some fair, where he would earn +a few pence by the exhibition of his varied accomplishments. During +these periods of vagabondism he would live on a mere nothing, sleeping +in barns, or in the open air, and would faithfully bring back his +gains to Uncle Moses. But even this astounding generosity, appealing, +as it must have done, to the uncle's sentiments, could not appease +him. His uncle went so far, apparently with the concurrence of Miss +Tidswell, as to place round the boy's neck a brass collar <span class="newpage"><a name='Page155' id='Page155'>[155]</a></span>with the +inscription, "This boy belongs to No. 9 Lisle Street; please bring him +home." His wandering propensities being for a time subdued, we find +the little Edmund again engaged at Drury Lane, and delighting the +actors in the green-room by giving recitations from <i>Richard III.</i>, +probably in imitation of Cooke; and, on one occasion, among his +audience was Mrs. Charles Kemble. During this engagement he played +Arthur to Kemble's King John and Mrs. Siddon's Constance, and appears +to have made a great success. Soon after this, his uncle Moses +died suddenly, and young Kean was left to the severe but kindly +guardianship of Miss Tidswell. We cannot follow him through all the +vicissitudes of his early career. The sketch I have given of his early +life—ample details of which may be found in Mrs. Hawkins's <i>Life of +Edmund Kean</i>—will give you a sufficient idea of what he must have +endured and suffered. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page156' id='Page156'>[156]</a></span>When, years afterwards, the passionate love of +Shakespeare, which, without exaggeration, we may say he showed almost +from his cradle, had reaped its own reward in the wonderful success +which he achieved, if we find him then averse to respectable +conventionality, erratic, and even dissipated in his habits, let us +mercifully remember the bitter and degrading suffering which he passed +through in his childhood, and not judge too harshly the great actor. +Unlike those whose lives we have hitherto considered, he knew none of +the softening influences of a home; to him the very name of mother, +instead of recalling every tender and affectionate feeling, was but +the symbol of a vague horror, the fountain of that degradation and +depravation of his nature, from which no subsequent prosperity could +ever redeem it.</p> + +<p>For many years after his boyhood his life was one of continual +hardship. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page157' id='Page157'>[157]</a></span>With that unsubdued conviction of his own powers, which +often is the sole consolation of genius, he toiled on and bravely +struggled through the sordid miseries of a strolling player's life. +The road to success lies through many a thorny course, across many a +dreary stretch of desert land, over many an obstacle, from which the +fainting heart is often tempted to turn back. But hope, and the sense +of power within, which no discouragements can subdue, inspire the +struggling artist still to continue the conflict, till at last courage +and perseverance meet with their just reward, and success comes. The +only feeling then to which the triumphant artist may be tempted is one +of good-natured contempt for those who are so ready to applaud those +merits which, in the past, they were too blind to recognize. Edmund +Kean was twenty-seven years old before his day of triumph came.</p> + +<p><span class="newpage"><a name='Page158' id='Page158'>[158]</a></span>Without any preliminary puffs, without any flourish of trumpets, on +the evening of the 26th January, 1814, soaked through with the rain, +Edmund Kean slunk more than walked in at the stage-door of Drury Lane +Theatre, uncheered by one word of encouragement, and quite unnoticed. +He found his way to the wretched dressing-room he shared in common +with three or four other actors; as quick as possible he exchanged his +dripping clothes for the dress of Shylock; and, to the horror of +his companions, took from his bundle a <i>black</i> wig—the proof of his +daring rebellion against the great law of conventionality, which +had always condemned Shylock to red hair. Cheered by the kindness of +Bannister and Oxberry, the latter of whom offered him a welcome glass +of brandy and water, he descended to the stage dressed, and peeped +through the curtain to see a more than half-empty house. Dr. Drury +was <span class="newpage"><a name='Page159' id='Page159'>[159]</a></span>waiting at the wings to give him a hearty welcome. The boxes were +empty, and there were about five hundred people in the pit, and a few +others "thinly scattered to make up a show." Shylock was the part he +was playing, and he no sooner stepped upon the stage than the interest +of the audience was excited. Nothing he did or spoke in the part was +done or spoken in a conventional manner. The simple words, "I will be +assured I may," were given with such effect that the audience burst +into applause. When the act-drop fell, after the speech of Shylock +to Antonio, his success was assured, and his fellow-actors, who had +avoided him, now seemed disposed to congratulate him; but he shrank +from their approaches. The great scene with Tubal was a revelation of +such originality and of such terrible force as had not probably been +seen upon those boards before. "How the devil so few of them <span class="newpage"><a name='Page160' id='Page160'>[160]</a></span>could +kick up such a row was something marvellous!" naïvely remarked +Oxberry. At the end of the third act every one was ready to pay court +to him; but again he held aloof. All his thoughts were concentrated on +the great "trial" scene, which was coming. In that scene the +wonderful variety of his acting completed his triumph. Trembling with +excitement, he resumed his half-dried clothes, and, glad to escape, +rushed home. He was in too great a state of ecstasy at first to speak, +but his face told his wife that he had realized his dream—that he +had appeared on the stage of Drury Lane, and that his great powers +had been instantly acknowledged. With not a shadow of doubt as to his +future, he exclaimed, "Mary, you shall ride in your carriage;" and +taking his baby boy from the cradle and kissing him, said, "and +Charley, my boy, you shall go to Eton,"—and he did.</p> + +<p><span class="newpage"><a name='Page161' id='Page161'>[161]</a></span>The time when Edmund Kean made his first appearance in London was +certainly favorable for an actor of genius. For a long while the +national theatre had been in a bad way; and nothing but failure had +hitherto met the efforts of the Committee of Management, a committee +which numbered among its members Lord Byron. When the other members +of the committee, with a strange blindness to their own interests, +proposed that for the present, Kean's name should be removed from +the bills, Byron interested himself on his behalf: "You have a great +genius among you," he said, "and you do not know it." On Kean's second +appearance the house was nearly doubled. Hazlitt's criticism had +roused the whole body of critics, and they were all there to sit in +judgment upon the newcomer. His utter indifference to the audience won +him their respect, and before the piece was half over the sentence +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page162' id='Page162'>[162]</a></span>of the formidable tribunal was in his favor. From that moment Kean +exercised over his audiences a fascination which was probably never +exercised by any other actor. Garrick was no doubt his superior in +parts of high comedy; he was more polished, more vivacious—his manner +more distinguished, and his versatility more striking. In such parts +as Coriolanus or Rolla, John Kemble excelled him: but in Shylock, +in Richard, in Iago, and, above all, in Othello, it may be doubted +whether Edmund Kean ever had an equal. As far as one can judge—not +having seen Kean one's-self—from the many criticisms extant, written +by the most intellectual men, and from the accounts of those who +saw him in his prime, he was, to my mind—be it said without any +disparagement to other great actors—the greatest genius that our +stage has ever seen. Unequal he may have been, perhaps often so, but +there were <span class="newpage"><a name='Page163' id='Page163'>[163]</a></span>moments in his acting which were, without exaggeration, +moments of inspiration. Coleridge is reported to have said that to see +Kean act was "like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning." This +often-quoted sentence embodies perhaps the main feature of Edmund +Kean's greatness as an actor; for, when he was impersonating the +heroes of our poet, he revealed their natures by an instant flash of +light so searching that every minute feature, which by the ordinary +light of day was hardly visible, stood bright and clear before you. +The effect of such acting was indeed that of lightning—it appalled; +the timid hid their eyes, and fashionable society shrank from such +heart-piercing revelations of human passion. Persons who had schooled +themselves to control their emotion till they had scarcely any +emotion left to control, were repelled rather than attracted by Kean's +relentless anatomy of all the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page164' id='Page164'>[164]</a></span>strongest feeling of our nature. In Sir +Giles Overreach, a character almost devoid of poetry, Kean's acting +displayed with such powerful and relentless truth the depths of a +cruel, avaricious man, baffled in all his vilest schemes, that the +effect he produced was absolutely awful. As no bird but the eagle can +look without blinking on the sun, so none but those who in the +sacred privacy of their imaginations had stood face to face with the +mightiest storms of human passion could understand such a performance. +Byron, who had been almost forced into a quarrel with Kean by the +actor's disregard of the ordinary courtesies of society, could not +restrain himself, but rushed behind the scenes and grasped the hand of +the man to whom he felt that he owed a wonderful revelation.</p> + +<p>I might discant for hours with an enthusiasm which, perhaps, only an +actor could feel on the marvellous details of <span class="newpage"><a name='Page165' id='Page165'>[165]</a></span>Kean's impersonations. +He was not a scholar in the ordinary sense of the word, though Heaven +knows he had been schooled by adversity, but I doubt if there ever was +an actor who so thought out his part, who so closely studied with the +inward eye of the artist the waves of emotion that might have agitated +the minds of the beings whom he represented. One hears of him during +those early years of struggle and privation, pacing silently along +the road, foot-sore and half-starved, but unconscious of his own +sufferings, because he was immersed in the study of those great +creations of Shakespeare's genius which he was destined to endow with +life upon the stage. When you read of Edmund Kean as, alas! he was +later on in life, with mental and physical powers impaired, think of +the description those gave of him who knew him best in his earlier +years; how amidst all the wildness and half-savage Bohemianism, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page166' id='Page166'>[166]</a></span>which +the miseries of his life had ensured, he displayed, time after time, +the most large-hearted generosity, the tenderest kindness of which +human nature is capable. Think of him working with a concentrated +energy for the one object which he sought, namely, to reach the +highest distinction in his calling. Think of him as sparing no mental +or physical labor to attain this end, an end which seemed ever fading +further and further from his grasp. Think of the disappointments, the +cruel mockeries of hope which, day after day, he had to encounter; +and then be harsh if you can to those moral failings for which his +misfortunes rather than his faults were responsible. If you are +inclined to be severe, you may console yourselves with the reflection +that this genius, who had given the highest intellectual pleasure to +hundreds and thousands of human beings, was hounded by hypocritical +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page167' id='Page167'>[167]</a></span>sanctimoniousness out of his native land; and though, two years +afterwards, one is glad to say, for the honor of one's country, a +complete reaction took place, and his reappearance was greeted with +every mark of hearty welcome, the blow had been struck from which +neither his mind or his body ever recovered. He lingered upon +the stage, and died at the age of forty-six, after five years of +suffering—almost a beggar—with only a solitary ten-pound note +remaining of the large fortune his genius had realized.</p> + +<p>It is said that Kean swept away the Kembles and their Classical school +of acting. He did not do that. The memory of Sarah Siddons, tragic +queen of the British stage, was never to be effaced, and I would +remind you that when Kean was a country actor (assured of his own +powers, however unappreciated), resenting with passionate pride the +idea of playing second to "the Infant Roscius," <span class="newpage"><a name='Page168' id='Page168'>[168]</a></span>who was for a time +the craze and idol of the hour, "Never," said he, "never; I will play +second to no one but John Kemble!" I am certain that when his +better nature had the ascendency no one would have more generously +acknowledged the merits of Kemble than Edmund Kean. It is idle to say +that because his style was solemn and slow, Kemble was not one of the +greatest actors that our stage has produced. It is only those whose +natures make them incapable of approbation or condemnation in artistic +matters without being partisans, who, because they admire Edmund Kean, +would admit no merit in John Kemble. The world of art, thank Heaven, +is wide enough for both, and the hearts of those who truly love art +are large enough to cherish the memory of both as of men who did noble +work in the profession which they adorned. Kean blended the Realistic +with the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page169' id='Page169'>[169]</a></span>Ideal in acting, and founded a school of which William +Charles Macready was, afterwards, in England, the foremost disciple.</p> + +<p>Thus have we glanced, briefly enough, at four of our greatest actors +whose names are landmarks in the history of the Drama in England, the +greatest Drama of the world. We have seen how they all carried out, by +different methods perhaps, but in the same spirit, the principle that +in acting Nature must dominate Art. But it is Art that must interpret +Nature; and to interpret the thoughts and emotions of her mistress +should be her first object. But those thoughts, those emotions, must +be interpreted with grace, with dignity and with temperance; and +these, let us remember, Art alone can teach.</p> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page170' id='Page170'>[170]</a></span> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page171' id='Page171'>[171]</a></span> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>ADDRESS</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>SESSIONAL OPENING</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>EDINBURGH</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>9 NOVEMBER 1891</h3> +</center> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page172' id='Page172'>[172]</a></span> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page173' id='Page173'>[173]</a></span> +<a name="link8" id="link8"><!-- H1 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<h1>THE ART OF ACTING</h1> +<p>I have chosen as the subject of the address with which I have the +honor to inaugurate for the second time the Session of the Edinburgh +Philosophical Institution, "The Art of Acting." I have done so, in the +first instance, because I take it for granted that when you bestow on +any man the honor of asking him to deliver the inaugural address, it +is your wish to hear him speak of the subject with which he is best +acquainted; and the Art of Acting is the subject to which my life has +been devoted. I have another reason also which, though it may, so far +as you are concerned, be<span class="newpage"><a name='Page174' id='Page174'>[174]</a></span> personal to those of my calling, I think it +well to put before you. It is that there may be, from the point of +view of an actor distinguished by your favor, some sort of official +utterance on the subject. There are some irresponsible writers who +have of late tried to excite controversy by assertions, generally +false and always misleading, as to the stage and those devoted to the +arts connected with it. Some of these writers go so far as to assert +that Acting is not an Art at all; and though we must not take such +wild assertions quite seriously, I think it well to place on record at +least a polite denial of their accuracy. It would not, of course, +be seemly to merely take so grave an occasion as the present as an +opportunity for such a controversy, but as I am dealing with the +subject before you, I think it better to place you in full knowledge +of the circumstances. It does not do, of course, to pay too much +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page175' id='Page175'>[175]</a></span>attention to ephemeral writings, any more than to creatures of the +mist and the swamp and the night. But even the buzzing of the midge, +though the insect may be harmless compared with its more poison-laden +fellows, can divert the mind from more important things. To disregard +entirely the world of ephemera, and their several actions and effects +were to deny the entirety of the scheme of creation.</p> + +<p>I take it for granted that in addressing you on the subject of the Art +of Acting I am not, <i>prima facie</i>, encountering set prejudices; for +had you despised the Art which I represent I should not have had the +honor of appearing before you to-day. You will, I trust, on your part, +bear this in mind, and I shall, on my part, never forget that you are +members of a Philosophical Institution, the very root and basis of +whose work is to inquire into the heart of things with the purpose of +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page176' id='Page176'>[176]</a></span>discovering why such as come under your notice are thus or thus.</p> + +<p>The subject of my address is a very vast one, and is, I assure you, +worthy of a careful study. Writers such as Voltaire, Schlegel, Goethe, +Lessing, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, and Schiller, have not disdained to +treat it with that seriousness which Art specially demands—which +anything in life requires whose purpose is not immediate and +imperative. For my own part I can only bring you the experience +of more than thirty years of hard and earnest work. Out of wide +experience let me point out that there are many degrees of merit, both +of aim, of endeavor, and of execution in acting, as in all things. I +want you to think of acting at its best—as it may be, as it can be, +as it has been, and is—and as it shall be, whilst it be followed by +men and women of strong and earnest purpose. I do not for a moment +wish you to <span class="newpage"><a name='Page177' id='Page177'>[177]</a></span>believe that only Shakespeare and the great writers are +worthy of being played, and that all those efforts that in centuries +have gathered themselves round great names are worthy of your praise. +In the House of Art are many mansions where men may strive worthily +and live cleanly lives. All Art is worthy, and can be seriously +considered, so long as the intention be good and the efforts to +achieve success be conducted with seemliness. And let me here say, +that of all the arts none requires greater intention than the art +of acting. Throughout it is necessary to <i>do</i> something, and +that something cannot fittingly be left to chance, or the unknown +inspiration of a moment. I say "unknown," for if known, then the +intention is to reproduce, and the success of the effort can be +in nowise due to chance. It may be, of course, that in moments of +passionate excitement the mind grasps some new <span class="newpage"><a name='Page178' id='Page178'>[178]</a></span>idea, or the nervous +tension suggests to the mechanical parts of the body some new form of +expression; but such are accidents which belong to the great scheme of +life, and not to this art, or any art, alone. You all know the story +of the painter who, in despair at not being able to carry out the +intention of his imagination, dashed his brush at the imperfect +canvas, and with the scattering paint produced by chance the very +effect which his brush guided by his skill alone, had failed to +achieve. The actor's business is primarily to reproduce the ideas of +the author's brain, to give them form, and substance, and color, and +life, so that those who behold the action of a play may, so far as +can be effected, be lured into the fleeting belief that they behold +reality. Macready, who was an earnest student, defined the art of the +actor "to fathom the depths of character, to trace its latent motives, +to feel its <span class="newpage"><a name='Page179' id='Page179'>[179]</a></span>finest quivering of emotion, is to comprehend the thoughts +that are hidden under words, and thus possess one's-self of the actual +mind of the individual man"; and Talma spoke of it as "the union +of grandeur without pomp, and nature without triviality"; whilst +Shakespeare wrote, "the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the +first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to +nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the +very age and body of the time his form and pressure."</p> + +<p>This effort to reproduce man in his moods is no mere trick of fancy +carried into execution. It is a part of the character of a strong +nation, and has a wider bearing on national life than perhaps +unthinking people are aware. Mr. Froude, in his survey of early +England, gives it a special place; and I venture to quote his words, +for they carry with them,<span class="newpage"><a name='Page180' id='Page180'>[180]</a></span> not only their own lesson, but the authority +of a great name in historical research.</p> + +<p>"No genius can dispense with experience; the aberrations of power, +unguided or ill-guided, are ever in proportion to its intensity, and +life is not long enough to recover from inevitable mistakes. Noble +conceptions already existing, and a noble school of execution which +will launch mind and hand at once upon their true courses, are +indispensable to transcendent excellence; and Shakespeare's plays were +as much the offspring of the long generations who had pioneered his +road for him, as the discoveries of Newton were the offspring of those +of Copernicus.</p> + +<p>"No great general ever arose out of a nation of cowards; no great +statesman or philosopher out of a nation of fools; no great artist out +of a nation of materialists; no great drama, except when the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page181' id='Page181'>[181]</a></span>drama was +the possession of the people. Acting was the especial amusement of the +English, from the palace to the village green. It was the result and +expression of their strong, tranquil possession of their lives, of +their thorough power over themselves, and power over circumstances. +They were troubled with no subjective speculations; no social problems +vexed them with which they were unable to deal; and in the exuberance +of vigor and spirit, they were able, in the strict and literal sense +of the word, to play with the materials of life." So says Mr. Froude.</p> + +<p>In the face of this statement of fact set forth gravely in its place +in the history of our land, what becomes of such bold assertions as +are sometimes made regarding the place of the drama being but a poor +one, since the efforts of the actor are but mimetic and ephemeral, +that they pass away as a tale that is told? All <span class="newpage"><a name='Page182' id='Page182'>[182]</a></span>art is mimetic; and +even life itself, the highest and last gift of God to His people, is +fleeting. Marble crumbles, and the very names of great cities become +buried in the dust of ages. Who then would dare to arrogate to any art +an unchanging place in the scheme of the world's development, or would +condemn it because its efforts fade and pass? Nay, more; has even the +tale that is told no significance in after years? Can such not stir, +when it is worth the telling, the hearts of men, to whom it comes as +an echo from the past? Have not those tales remained most vital and +most widely known which are told and told again and again, face to +face and heart to heart, when the teller and the listener are adding, +down the ages, strength to the current of a mighty thought or a mighty +deed and its record?</p> + +<p>Surely the record that lives in the minds of men is still a record, +though it <span class="newpage"><a name='Page183' id='Page183'>[183]</a></span>be not graven on brass or wrought in marble. And it were +a poor conception of the value of any art, if, in considering it, we +were to keep our eyes fixed on some dark spot, some imperfection, and +shut our eyes to its aim, its power, its beauty. It were a poor age +indeed where such a state of things is possible; as poor as that of +which Mrs. Browning's unhappy poet spoke in the bitterness of his +soul:</p> + +<pre> + "The age culls simples, + With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the + glory of the stars." +</pre> +<p>Let us lift our faces when we wish to judge truly of any earnest work +of the hand or mind of man, and see it placed in the widest horizon +that is given to us. Poetry, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, +all have a bearing on their time, and beyond it; and the actor, though +his knowledge may be, and must be, limited by the knowledge of his +age, so long as <span class="newpage"><a name='Page184' id='Page184'>[184]</a></span>he sound the notes of human passion, has something +which is common to all the ages. If he can smite water from the rock +of one hardened human heart—if he can bring light to the eye or +wholesome color to the faded cheek—if he can bring or restore in ever +so slight degree the sunshine of hope, of pleasure, of gayety, surely +he cannot have worked in vain. It would need but a small effort +of imagination to believe that that great wave theory, which the +scientists have proved as ruling the manifestations of light and +sound, applies also to the efforts of human emotion. And who shall +tell us the ultimate bounds of these waves of light and sound? If +these discernible waves can be traced till they fade into impalpable +nothingness, may we not think that this other, impalpable at the +beginning as they are at the end, can alone stretch into the +dimness of memory? Sir Joshua's gallant compliment, that he <span class="newpage"><a name='Page185' id='Page185'>[185]</a></span>achieved +immortality by writing his name on the hem of Mrs. Siddons's garment, +when he painted her as the Tragic Muse, had a deeper significance than +its pretty fancy would at first imply.</p> + +<p>Not for a moment is the position to be accepted that the theatre +is merely a place of amusement. That it is primarily a place of +amusement, and is regarded as such by its <i>habitués</i>, is of course +apparent; but this is not its limitation. For authors, managers, and +actors it is a serious employment, to be undertaken gravely, and of +necessity to be adhered to rigidly. Thus far it may be considered from +these different stand-points; but there is a larger view—that of the +State. Here we have to consider a custom of natural growth specially +suitable to the genius of the nation. It has advanced with the +progress of each age, and multiplied with its material prosperity. +It is a living power, to be used for good,<span class="newpage"><a name='Page186' id='Page186'>[186]</a></span> or possibly for evil; and +far-seeing men recognize in it, based though it be on the relaxation +and pleasures of the people, an educational medium of no mean order. +Its progress in the past century has been the means of teaching to +millions of people a great number of facts which had perhaps otherwise +been lost to them. How many are there who have had brought home to +them in an understandable manner by stage-plays the costumes, habits, +manners, and customs of countries and ages other than their own; +what insight have they thus obtained into facts and vicissitudes of +life—of passions and sorrows and ambitions outside the narrow scope +of their own lives, and which yet may and do mould the destinies of +men. All this is education—education in its widest sense, for it +broadens the sympathies and enlarges the intellectual grasp. +And beyond this again—for these are advantages on the material +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page187' id='Page187'>[187]</a></span>side—there is that higher education of the heart, which raises in the +scale of creation all who are subject to its sweetening influences. To +hold his place therefore amongst these progressing forces, the actor +must at the start be well endowed with some special powers, and by +training, reading, and culture of many kinds, be equipped for the work +before him. No amount of training can give to a dense understanding +and a clumsy personality certain powers of quickness and spontaneity; +and, on the other hand, no genius can find its fullest expression +without some understanding of the principles and method of a craft. It +is the actor's part to represent or interpret the ideas and emotions +which the poet has created, and to do this he must at the first have +a full knowledge and understanding of them. This is in itself no easy +task. It requires much study and much labor of many kinds. Having then +acquired an idea, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page188' id='Page188'>[188]</a></span>his intention to work it out into reality must be +put in force; and here new difficulties crop up at every further step +taken in advance. Now and again it suffices the poet to think and +write in abstractions; but the actor's work is absolutely concrete. +He is brought in every phase of his work into direct comparison with +existing things, and must be judged by the most exacting standards of +criticism. Not only must his dress be suitable to the part which he +assumes, but his bearing must not be in any way antagonistic to the +spirit of the time in which the play is fixed. The free bearing of +the sixteenth century is distinct from the artificial one of the +seventeenth, the mannered one of the eighteenth, and the careless +one of the nineteenth. And all this quite exclusive of the minute +qualities and individualities of the character represented. The voice +must be modulated to the vogue of the time. The habitual action <span class="newpage"><a name='Page189' id='Page189'>[189]</a></span>of a +rapier-bearing age is different to that of a mail-clad one—nay, the +armor of a period ruled in real life the poise and bearing of the +body; and all this must be reproduced on the stage, unless the +intelligence of the audience, be they ever so little skilled in +history, is to count as naught.</p> + +<p>It cannot therefore be seriously put forward in the face of such +manifold requirements that no Art is required for the representation +of suitable action. Are we to imagine that inspiration or emotion of +any kind is to supply the place of direct knowledge of facts—of skill +in the very grammar of craftsmanship? Where a great result is arrived +at much effort is required, whether the same be immediate or has been +spread over a time of previous preparation. In this nineteenth century +the spirit of education stalks abroad and influences men directly +and indirectly, by private generosity and national <span class="newpage"><a name='Page190' id='Page190'>[190]</a></span>foresight, to +accumulate as religiously as in former ages ecclesiastics and devotees +gathered sacred relics, all that helps to give the people a full +understanding of lives and times and countries other than their own. +Can it be that in such an age all that can help to aid the inspiration +and to increase direct knowledge is of no account whatever, because, +forsooth, it has a medium or method of its own? There are those who +say that Shakespeare is better in the closet than on the stage; that +dramatic beauty is more convincing when read in private than when +spoken on the stage to the accompaniment of suitable action. And yet, +if this be so, it is a strange thing that, with all the activity of +the new-born printing-press, Shakespeare's works were not known to the +reading public till the fame of the writer had been made on the stage. +And it is a stranger thing still, if the drama be a mere poetic form +of words, that the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page191' id='Page191'>[191]</a></span>writer who began with <i>Venus and Adonis</i>, when he +found the true method of expression to suit his genius, ended with +<i>Hamlet</i> and <i>The Tempest</i>.</p> + +<p>How is it, I ask, if these responsible makers of statements be +correct, that every great writer down from the days of Elizabeth, when +the drama took practical shape from the wish of the poets to render +human life in all its phases, have been desirous of seeing their +works, when written in dramatic form, represented on the stage—and +not only represented, but represented under the most favorable +conditions obtainable, both as to the fitness of setting and the +choice of the most skilled and excellent players? Are we to take it +that the poet, with his eye in a fine phrenzy rolling, sees all the +minute details of form, color, light, sound, and action which have +to be rendered complete on the stage? Is there nothing in what the +individual actor, who is gifted <span class="newpage"><a name='Page192' id='Page192'>[192]</a></span>with fine sense and emotional power, +can add to mere words, however grand and rolling in themselves, and +whatsoever mighty image they may convey? Can it be possible that there +is any sane person who holds that there is no such thing as expression +in music so long as the written notes are correctly rendered—that the +musical expression of a Paganini or a Liszt, or that the voice of a +Malibran or a Grisi, has no special charm—nay more, that there is not +some special excellence in the instruments of Amati or Stradivarius? +If there be, we can leave to him, whilst the rest of mankind marvel +at his self-sufficient obtuseness, to hold that it was nothing but his +own imagination which so much influenced Hazlitt when he was touched +to the heart by Edmund Kean's rendering of the words of the remorseful +Moor, "Fool, fool, fool!" Why, the action of a player who knows how to +convey to the audience that he is <span class="newpage"><a name='Page193' id='Page193'>[193]</a></span>listening to another speaking, can +not only help in the illusion of the general effect, but he himself +can suggest a running commentary on what is spoken. In every moment +in which he is on the stage, an actor accomplished in his craft can +convey ideas to the mind.</p> + +<p>It is in the representation of passion that the intention of the actor +appears in its greatest force. He wishes to do a particular thing, and +so far the wish is father to the thought that the brain begins to work +in the required direction, and the emotional faculties and the whole +nervous and muscular systems follow suit. A skilled actor can count on +this development of power, if it be given to him to rise at all to the +height of a passion; and the inspiration of such moments may, now and +again, reveal to him some new force or beauty in the character which +he represents. Thus he will gather in time a certain habitual strength +in a <span class="newpage"><a name='Page194' id='Page194'>[194]</a></span>particular representation of passion. Diderot laid down a theory +that an actor never feels the part he is acting. It is of course true +that the pain he suffers is not real pain, but I leave it to any one +who has ever felt his own heart touched by the woes of another to say +if he can even imagine a case where the man who follows in minutest +detail the history of an emotion, from its inception onward, is the +only one who cannot be stirred by it—more especially when his own +individuality must perforce be merged in that of the archetypal +sufferer. Talma knew that it was possible for an actor to feel to the +full a simulated passion, and yet whilst being swept by it to retain +his consciousness of his surroundings and his purpose. In his own +words—"The intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations +of sensibility." And this is what Shakespeare means when he makes +Hamlet tell the players—"for in the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page195' id='Page195'>[195]</a></span>very torrent, tempest, and, as I +may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must beget a temperance that +may give it smoothness."</p> + +<p>How can any one be temperate in the midst of his passion, lest it be +that his consciousness and his purpose remain to him? Let me say that +it is this very discretion which marks the ultimate boundary of an +Art, which stands within the line of demarcation between Art and +Nature. In Nature there is no such discretion. Passion rules supreme +and alone; discretion ceases, and certain consequences cease to be any +deterrent or to convey any warning. It must never be forgotten that +all Art has the aim or object of seeming and not of being; and that to +understate is as bad as to overstate the modesty or the efflorescence +of Nature. It is not possible to show within the scope of any Art the +entire complexity and the myriad combining <span class="newpage"><a name='Page196' id='Page196'>[196]</a></span>influences of Nature. +The artist has to accept the conventional standard—the accepted +significance—of many things, and confine himself to the exposition of +that which is his immediate purpose. To produce the effect of reality +it is necessary, therefore, that the efforts of an artist should be +slightly different from the actions of real life. The perspective +of the stage is not that of real life, and the result of seeming +is achieved by means which, judged by themselves, would seem to be +indirect. It is only the raw recruit who tries to hit the bull's-eye +by point-blank firing, and who does not allow for elevation and +windage. Are we to take it for a moment, that in the Art of Acting, +of which elocution is an important part, nothing is to be left to the +individual idea of the actor? That he is simply to declaim the words +set down for him, without reference to the expression of his face, +his bearing, or his action? It is in the union <span class="newpage"><a name='Page197' id='Page197'>[197]</a></span>of all the powers—the +harmony of gait and utterance and emotion—that conviction lies. +Garrick, who was the most natural actor of his time, could not declaim +so well as many of his own manifest inferiors in his art—nay, it +was by this that he set aside the old false method, and soared to the +heights in which, as an artist, he reigned supreme. Garrick personated +and Kean personated. The one had all the grace and mastery of the +powers of man for the conveyance of ideas, the other had a mighty +spirit which could leap out in flame to awe and sweep the souls of +those who saw and heard him. And the secret of both was that they best +understood the poet—best impersonated the characters which he drew, +and the passions which he set forth.</p> + +<p>In order to promote and preserve the idea of reality in the minds of +the public, it is necessary that the action of the play <span class="newpage"><a name='Page198' id='Page198'>[198]</a></span>be set in what +the painters call the proper <i>milieu</i>, or atmosphere. To this belongs +costume, scenery, and all that tends to set forth time and place other +than our own. If this idea be not kept in view there must be, or at +all events there may be, some disturbing cause to the mind of the +onlooker. This is all—literally all—that dramatic Art imperatively +demands from the paint room, the wardrobe, and the property shop; +and it is because the public taste and knowledge in such matters have +grown that the actor has to play his part with the surroundings and +accessories which are sometimes pronounced to be a weight or drag +on action. Suitability is demanded in all things; and it must, for +instance, be apparent to all that the things suitable to a palace are +different to those usual in a hovel. There is nothing unsuitable in +Lear in kingly raiment in the hovel in the storm, because such is here +demanded by the exigencies <span class="newpage"><a name='Page199' id='Page199'>[199]</a></span>of the play: but if Lear were to be first +shown in such guise in such a place with no explanation given of the +cause, either the character or the stage-manager would be simply taken +for a madman. This idea of suitability should always be borne in mind, +for it is in itself a sufficient answer to any thoughtless allegation +as to overloading a play with scenery.</p> + +<p>Finally, in the consideration of the Art of Acting, it must never be +forgotten that its ultimate aim is beauty. Truth itself is only an +element of beauty, and to merely reproduce things vile and squalid and +mean is a debasement of Art. There is apt to be such a tendency in +an age of peace, and men should carefully watch its manifestations. A +morose and hopeless dissatisfaction is not a part of a true national +life. This is hopeful and earnest, and, if need be, militant. It is a +bad sign for any nation to yearn for, or even to tolerate, pessimism +in its <span class="newpage"><a name='Page200' id='Page200'>[200]</a></span>enjoyment; and how can pessimism be other than antagonistic +to beauty? Life, with all its pains and sorrows, is a beautiful and +a precious gift; and the actor's Art is to reproduce this beautiful +thing, giving due emphasis to those royal virtues and those stormy +passions which sway the destinies of men. Thus the lesson given by +long experience—by the certain punishment of ill-doing—and by the +rewards that follow on bravery, forbearance, and self-sacrifice, are +on the mimic stage conveyed to men. And thus every actor who is more +than a mere machine, and who has an ideal of any kind, has a duty +which lies beyond the scope of his personal ambition. His art must +be something to hold in reverence if he wishes others to hold it in +esteem. There is nothing of chance about this work. All, actors and +audience alike, must bear in mind that the whole scheme of the higher +Drama is not to be regarded as a game in life which <span class="newpage"><a name='Page201' id='Page201'>[201]</a></span>can be played with +varying success. Its present intention may be to interest and amuse, +but its deeper purpose is earnest, intense, sincere.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13483 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/13483-h/images/image01a.jpg b/13483-h/images/image01a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1ea1e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/13483-h/images/image01a.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfe1765 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13483 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13483) diff --git a/old/13483-8.txt b/old/13483-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b526c9a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13483-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3072 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Drama, by Henry Irving + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Drama + +Author: Henry Irving + +Release Date: September 17, 2004 [eBook #13483] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAMA*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Lisa Reigel, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE DRAMA + +Addresses by + +HENRY IRVING + +With a Frontispiece By Whistler + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. The Stage as it is + + II. The Art of Acting + + III. Four Great Actors + + IV. The Art of Acting + + + + +LECTURE + +SESSIONAL OPENING + +PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION + +EDINBURGH + +8 NOVEMBER 1881 + + + + +THE STAGE AS IT IS. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +You will not be surprised that, on this interesting occasion, I have +selected as the subject of the few remarks I propose to offer you, +"The Stage as it is." The stage--because to my profession I owe it +that I am here, and every dictate of taste and of fidelity impels me +to honor it; the stage as it is--because it is very cheap and empty +honor that is paid to the drama in the abstract, and withheld from the +theatre as a working institution in our midst. Fortunately there is +less of this than there used to be. It arose partly from intellectual +superciliousness, partly from timidity as to moral contamination. To +boast of being able to appreciate Shakespeare more in reading him than +in seeing him acted used to be a common method of affecting special +intellectuality. I hope this delusion--a gross and pitiful one as to +most of us--has almost absolutely died out. It certainly conferred a +very cheap badge of superiority on those who entertained it. It seemed +to each of them an inexpensive opportunity of worshipping himself on +a pedestal. But what did it amount to? It was little more than a +conceited and feather-headed assumption that an unprepared reader, +whose mind is usually full of far other things, will see on the +instant all that has been developed in hundreds of years by the +members of a studious and enthusiastic profession. My own conviction +is, that there are few characters or passages of our great dramatists +which will not repay original study. But at least we must recognize +the vast advantages with which a practised actor, impregnated by the +associations of his life, and by study--with all the practical and +critical skill of his profession up to the date at which he appears, +whether he adopts or rejects tradition--addresses himself to the +interpretation of any great character, even if he have no originality +whatever. There is something still more than this, however, in acting. +Every one who has the smallest histrionic gift has a natural dramatic +fertility; so that as soon as he knows the author's text, and obtains +self-possession, and feels at home in a part without being too +familiar with it, the mere automatic action of rehearsing and playing +it at once begins to place the author in new lights, and to give the +personage being played an individuality partly independent of, and +yet consistent with, and rendering more powerfully visible, the +dramatist's conception. It is the vast power a good actor has in this +way which has led the French to speak of creating a part when they +mean its being first played; and French authors are so conscious of +the extent and value of this co-operation of actors with them, that +they have never objected to the phrase, but, on the contrary, are +uniformly lavish in their homage to the artists who have created on +the boards the parts which they themselves have created on paper. + +I must add, as an additional reason for valuing the theatre, that +while there is only one Shakespeare, and while there are comparatively +few dramatists who are sufficiently classic to be read with close +attention, there is a great deal of average dramatic work excellently +suited for representation. From this the public derive pleasure. From +this they receive--as from fiction in literature--a great deal of +instruction and mental stimulus. Some may be worldly, some social, +some cynical, some merely humorous and witty, but a great deal of it, +though its literary merit is secondary, is well qualified to bring +out all that is most fruitful of good in common sympathies. Now, it +is plain that if, because Shakespeare is good reading, people were to +give the cold shoulder to the theatre, the world would lose all the +vast advantage which comes to it through the dramatic faculty in forms +not rising to essentially literary excellence. As respects the other +feeling which used to stand more than it does now in the way of the +theatre--the fear of moral contamination--it is due to the theatre of +our day, on the one hand, and to the prejudices of our grandfathers on +the other, to confess that the theatre of fifty years ago or less did +need reforming in the audience part of the house. All who have read +the old controversy as to the morality of going to the theatre are +familiar with the objection to which I refer. But the theatre of fifty +years ago or less was reformed. If there are any, therefore, as I fear +there are a few, who still talk on this point in the old vein, let +them rub their eyes a bit, and do us the justice to consider not what +used to be, but what is. But may there be moral contamination from +what is performed on the stage? Well, there may be. But so there is +from books. So there may be at lawn tennis clubs. So there may be at +dances. So there may be in connection with everything in civilized +life and society. But do we therefore bury ourselves? The anchorites +secluded themselves in hermitages. The Puritans isolated themselves in +consistent abstinence from everything that anybody else did. And there +are people now who think that they can keep their children, and that +those children will keep themselves in after life, in cotton wool, so +as to avoid all temptation of body and mind, and be saved nine-tenths +of the responsibility of self-control. All this is mere phantasy. You +must be in the world, though you need not be of it; and the best way +to make the world a better community to be in, and not so bad a place +to be of, is not to shun, but to bring public opinion to bear upon +its pursuits and its relaxations. Depend upon two things--that the +theatre, as a whole, is never below the average moral sense of the +time; and that the inevitable demand for an admixture, at least, of +wholesome sentiment in every sort of dramatic production brings the +ruling tone of the theatre, whatever drawback may exist, up to the +highest level at which the general morality of the time can truly be +registered. We may be encouraged by the reflection that this is truer +than ever it was before, owing to the greater spread of education, the +increased community of taste between classes, and the almost absolute +divorce of the stage from mere wealth and aristocracy. Wealth and +aristocracy come around the stage in abundance, and are welcome, as in +the time of Elizabeth; but the stage is no longer a mere appendage of +court-life, no longer a mere mirror of patrician vice hanging at the +girdle of fashionable profligacy as it was in the days of Congreve and +Wycherley. It is now the property of the educated people. It has +to satisfy them or pine in neglect And the better their demands the +better will be the supply with which the drama will respond. +This being not only so, but seen to be so, the stage is no longer +proscribed. It is no longer under a ban. Its members are no longer +pariahs in society. They live and bear their social part like +others--as decorously observant of all that makes the sweet sanctities +of life--as gracefully cognizant of its amenities--as readily +recognized and welcomed as the members of any other profession. Am +I not here your grateful guest, opening the session of this +philosophical and historic institution? I who am simply an actor, +an interpreter, with such gifts as I have, and such thought as I +can bestow, of stage plays. And am I not received here with perfect +cordiality on an equality, not hungrily bowing and smirking for +patronage, but interchanging ideas which I am glad to express, and +which you listen to as thoughtfully and as kindly as you would to +those of any other student, any other man who had won his way +into such prominence as to come under the ken of a distinguished +institution such as that which I have the honor to address? I do not +mince the matter as to my personal position here, because I feel it +is a representative one, and marks an epoch in the estimation in +which the art I love is held by the British world. You have had many +distinguished men here, and their themes have often been noble, but +with which of those themes has not my art immemorial and perpetual +associations? Is it not for ever identified with the noblest instincts +and occupations of the human mind? If I think of poetry, must I not +remember how to the measure of its lofty music the theatre has in +almost all ages set the grandest of dramatic conceptions? If I think +of literature, must I not recall that of all the amusements by which +men in various states of society have solaced their leisure and +refreshed their energies, the acting of plays is the one that has +never yet, even for a day, been divorced from literary taste and +skill? If I meditate on patriotism, can I but reflect how grandly the +boards have been trod by personifications of heroic love of country? +There is no subject of human thought that by common consent is deemed +ennobling that has not ere now, and from period to period, been +illustrated in the bright vesture, and received expression from the +glowing language of theatrical representation. And surely it is +fit that, remembering what the stage has been and must be, I should +acknowledge eagerly and gladly that, with few exceptions, the public +no longer debar themselves from the profitable pleasures of the +theatre, and no longer brand with any social stigma the professors of +the histrionic art. Talking to an eminent bishop one day, I said to +him, "Now, my Lord, why is it, with your love and knowledge of the +drama, with your deep interest in the stage and all its belongings, +and your wide sympathy with all that ennobles and refines our +natures--why is it that you never go to the theatre?" "Well," said +he, "I'll tell you. I'm afraid of the _Rock_ and the _Record_." I +hope soon we shall relieve even the most timid bishop--and my right +reverend friend is not the most timid--of all fears and tremors +whatever that can prevent even ministers of religion from recognizing +the wisdom of the change of view which has come over even the most +fastidious public opinion on this question. Remember, if you please, +that the hostile public opinion which has lately begun so decisively +to disappear, has been of comparatively modern growth, or at least +revival. The pious and learned of other times gave their countenance +and approbation to the stage of their days, as the pious and learned +of our time give their countenance and approbation to certain +performances in this day. Welcome be the return of good sense, good +taste, and charity, or rather justice. No apology for the stage. None +is needed. It has but to be named to be honored. Too long the world +talked with bated breath and whispering humbleness of "the poor +player." There are now few poor players. Whatever variety of fortune +and merit there may be among them, they have the same degrees of +prosperity and respect as come to members of other avocations. There +never was so large a number of theatres or of actors. And their +type is vastly improved by public recognition. The old days when +good-for-nothings passed into the profession are at an end; and the +old Bohemian habits, so far as they were evil and disreputable, have +also disappeared. The ranks of the art are being continually recruited +by deeply interested and earnest young men of good education and +belongings. Nor let us, while dissipating the remaining prejudices +of outsiders, give quarter to those which linger among players +themselves. There are some who acknowledge the value of improved +status to themselves and their art, but who lament that there are now +no schools for actors. This is a very idle lamentation. Every actor +in full employment gets plenty of schooling, for the best schooling +is practice, and there is no school so good as a well-conducted +playhouse. The truth is, that the cardinal secret of success in acting +are found within, while practice is the surest way of fertilizing +these germs. To efficiency in the art of acting there should come a +congregation of fine qualities. There should be considerable, +though not necessarily systematic, culture. There should be delicate +instincts of taste cultivated, consciously, or unconsciously, to a +degree of extreme and subtle nicety. There should be a power, at once +refined and strong, of both perceiving and expressing to others +the significance of language, so that neither shades nor masses of +meaning, so to speak, may be either lost or exaggerated. Above all, +there should be a sincere and abounding sympathy with all that is good +and great and inspiring. That sympathy, most certainly, must be under +the control and manipulation of art, but it must be none the lest real +and generous, and the artist who is a mere artist will stop short of +the highest moral effects of his craft. Little of this can be got in a +mere training school, but all of it will come forth more or less fully +armed from the actor's brain in the process of learning his art by +practice. For the way to learn to do a thing is to do it; and in +learning to act by acting, though there is plenty of incidental hard +drill and hard work, there is nothing commonplace or unfruitful. + +What is true of the art is true also of the social life of the artist. +No sensational change has been found necessary to alter his status +though great changes have come. The stage has literally lived down +the rebuke and reproach under which it formerly cowered, while its +professors have been simultaneously living down the prejudices which +excluded them from society. The stage is now seen to be an elevating +instead of a lowering influence on national morality, and actors and +actresses receive in society, as do the members of other professions, +exactly the treatment which is earned by their personal conduct. +And so I would say of what we sometimes hear so much about--dramatic +reform. It is not needed; or, if it is, all the reform that is wanted +will be best effected by the operation of public opinion upon the +administration of a good theatre. That is the true reforming agency, +with this great advantage, that reforms which come by public opinion +are sure, while those which come without public opinion cannot be +relied upon. The dramatic reformers are very well-meaning people. They +show great enthusiasm. They are new converts to the theatre, most of +them, and they have the zeal of converts. But it is scarcely according +to knowledge. These ladies and gentlemen have scarcely studied the +conditions of theatrical enterprise, which must be carried on as a +business or it will fail as an art. It is an unwelcome, if not an +unwarrantable intrusion to come among our people with elaborate +advice, and endeavor to make them live after different fashions from +those which are suitable to them, and it will be quite hopeless to +attempt to induce the general body of a purely artistic class to make +louder and more fussy professions of virtue and religion than other +people. In fact, it is a downright insult to the dramatic profession +to exact or to expect any such thing. Equally objectionable, and +equally impracticable, are the attempts of Quixotic "dramatic +reformers" to exercise a sort of goody-goody censorship over the +selection and the text of the plays to be acted. The stage has been +serving the world for hundreds, yes, and thousands of years, during +which it has contributed in pure dramaturgy to the literature of +the world its very greatest master-pieces in nearly all languages, +meanwhile affording to the million an infinity of pleasure, all more +or less innocent. Where less innocent, rather than more, the cause has +lain, not in the stage, but in the state of society of which it was +the mirror. For though the stage is not always occupied with its own +period, the new plays produced always reflect in many particulars +the spirit of the age in which they are played. There is a story of +a traveller who put up for the night at a certain inn, on the door of +which was the inscription--"Good entertainment for man and beast." His +horse was taken to the stable and well cared for, and he sat down +to dine. When the covers were removed he remarked, on seeing his own +sorry fare, "Yes, this is very well; but where's the entertainment for +the man?" If everything were banished from the stage except that +which suits a certain taste, what dismal places our theatres would be! +However fond the play-goer may be of tragedy, if you offer him nothing +but horrors, he may well ask--"Where's the entertainment for the man +who wants an evening's amusement?" The humor of a farce may not seem +over-refined to a particular class of intelligence; but there are +thousands of people who take an honest pleasure in it. And who, after +seeing my old friend J.L. Toole in some of his famous parts, and +having laughed till their sides ached, have not left the theatre more +buoyant and light-hearted than they came? Well, if the stage has +been thus useful and successful all these centuries, and still is +productive; if the noble fascination of the theatre draws to it, as we +know that it does, an immortal poet such as our Tennyson, whom, I can +testify from my own experience, nothing delights more than the success +of one of the plays which, in the mellow autumn of his genius, he has +contributed to the acting theatre; if a great artist like Tadema is +proud to design scenes for stage plays; if in all departments of stage +production we see great talent, and in nearly every instance great +good taste and sincere sympathy with the best popular ideals of +goodness; then, I say, the stage is entitled to be let alone--that +is, it is entitled to make its own bargain with the public without the +censorious intervention of well-intentioned busybodies. These do not +know what to ban or to bless. If they had their way, as of course +they cannot, they would license, with many flourishes and much +self-laudation, a number of pieces which would be hopelessly +condemned on the first hearing, and they would lay an embargo for very +insufficient reasons on many plays well entitled to success. It is not +in this direction that we must look for any improvement that is needed +in the purveying of material for the stage. Believe me, the right +direction is public criticism and public discrimination. I say so +because, beyond question, the public will have what they want. So far, +that managers in their discretion, or at their pleasure, can force on +the public either very good or very bad dramatic material is an utter +delusion. They have no such power. If they had the will they could +only force any particular sort of entertainment just as long as they +had capital to expend without any return. But they really have not the +will. They follow the public taste with the greatest keenness. If the +people want Shakespeare--as I am happy to say they do, at least at one +theatre in London, and at all the great theatres out of London, to +an extent unprecedented in the history of the stage--then they get +Shakespeare. If they want our modern dramatists--Albery, Boucicault, +Byron, Burnand, Gilbert, or Wills--these they have. If they want +Robertson, Robertson is there for them. If they desire opera-bouffe, +depend upon it they will have it, and have it they do. What then do +I infer? Simply this: that those who prefer the higher drama--in the +representation of which my heart's best interests are centred--instead +of querulously animadverting on managers who give them something +different, should, as Lord Beaconsfield said, "make themselves into a +majority." If they do so, the higher drama will be produced. But if we +really understand the value of the drama, we shall not be too rigid in +our exactions. The drama is the art of human nature in picturesque +or characteristic action. Let us be liberal in our enjoyment of it. +Tragedy, comedy, historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical--remember +the large-minded list of the greatest-minded poet--all are good, if +wholesome--and will be wholesome if the public continue to take the +healthy interest in theatres which they are now taking. The worst +times for the stage have been those when play-going was left pretty +much to a loose society, such as is sketched in the Restoration +dramatists. If the good people continue to come to the theatre in +increasing crowds, the stage, without losing any of its brightness, +will soon be good enough, if it is not as yet, to satisfy the best of +them. This is what I believe all sensible people in these times see. +And if, on the one hand, you are ready to laugh at the old prejudices +which have been so happily dissipated; on the other hand, how +earnestly must you welcome the great aid to taste and thought and +culture which comes to you thus in the guise of amusement. Let me put +this to you rather seriously; let me insist on the intellectual and +moral use, alike to the most and least cultivated of us, of this +art "most beautiful, most difficult, most rare," which I stand here +to-day, not to apologize for, but to establish in the high place +to which it is entitled among the arts and among the ameliorating +influences of life. Grant that any of us understand a dramatist better +for seeing him acted, and it follows, first, that all of us will be +most indebted to the stage at the point where the higher and more +ethereal faculties are liable in reading to failure and exhaustion, +that is, stage-playing will be of most use to us where the mind +requires help and inspiration to grasp and revel in lofty moral or +imaginative conceptions, or where it needs aid and sharpening to +appreciate and follow the niceties of repartee, or the delicacies +of comic fancy. Secondly, it follows that if this is so with the +intellectual few, it must be infinitely more so with the unimaginative +many of all ranks. They are not inaccessible to passion and poetry and +refinement, but their minds do not go forth, as it were, to seek these +joys; and even if they read works of poetic and dramatic fancy, which +they rarely do, they would miss them on the printed page. To them, +therefore, with the exception of a few startling incidents of real +life, the theatre is the only channel through which are ever brought +the great sympathies of the world of thought beyond their immediate +ken. And thirdly, it follows from all this that the stage is, +intellectually and morally, to all who have recourse to it, the +source of some of the finest and best influences of which they are +respectively susceptible. To the thoughtful and reading man it brings +the life, the fire, the color, the vivid instinct, which are beyond +the reach of study. To the common indifferent man, immersed, as a +rule, in the business and socialities of daily life, it brings visions +of glory and adventure, of emotion and of broad human interest. It +gives glimpses of the heights and depths of character and experience, +setting him thinking and wondering even in the midst of amusement. To +the most torpid and unobservant it exhibits the humorous in life and +the sparkle and finesse of language, which in dull ordinary existence +is stupidly shut out of knowledge or omitted from particular notice. +To all it uncurtains a world, not that in which they live and yet +not other than it--a world in which interest is heightened whilst the +conditions of truth are observed, in which the capabilities of men and +women are seen developed without losing their consistency to nature, +and developed with a curious and wholesome fidelity to simple and +universal instincts of clear right and wrong. Be it observed--and I +put it most uncompromisingly--I am not speaking or thinking of any +unrealizable ideal, not of any lofty imagination of what might be, but +of what is, wherever there are pit and gallery and foot-lights. More +or less, and taking one evening with another, you may find support +for an enthusiastic theory of stage morality and the high tone of +audiences in most theatres in the country; and if you fancy that it +is least so in the theatres frequented by the poor you make a great +mistake, for in none is the appreciation of good moral fare more +marked than in these. + +In reference to the poorer classes, we all lament the wide prevalence +of intemperate drinking. Well, is it not an obvious reflection that +the worst performance seen on any of our stages cannot be so bad as +drinking for a corresponding time in a gin-palace? I have pointed this +contrast before, and I point it again. The drinking we deplore takes +place in company--bad company; it is enlivened by talk--bad talk. It +is relished by obscenity. Where drink and low people come together +these things must be. The worst that can come of stage pandering to +the corrupt tastes of its basest patrons cannot be anything like this, +and, as a rule, the stage holds out long against the invitation to +pander; and such invitations, from the publicity and decorum that +attend the whole matter, are neither frequent nor eager. A sort of +decency sets in upon the coarsest person in entering even the roughest +theatre. I have sometimes thought that, considering the liability to +descend and the facility of descent, a special Providence watches +over the morals and tone of our English stage. I do not desire to +overcharge the eulogy. There never was a time when the stage had not +conspicuous faults. There never was a time when these were not freely +admitted by those most concerned for the maintenance of the stage +at its best. In Shakespeare, whenever the subject of the theatre is +approached, we perceive signs that that great spirit, though it had +a practical and business-like vein, and essayed no impossible +enterprises, groaned under the necessities, or the demands of a +public which desired frivolities and deformities which jarred upon the +poet-manager's feelings. As we descend the course of time we find that +each generation looked back to a supposed previous period when taste +ranged higher, and when the inferior and offensive peculiarities of +the existing stage were unknown. Yet from most of these generations +we inherit works as well as traditions and biographical recollections +which the world will never let die. The truth is that the immortal +part of the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes +come and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity--associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances--but it never sinks into nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. Heaven forbid that I should seem to cover, even +with a counterpane of courtesy, exhibitions of deliberate immorality. +Happily this sort of thing is not common, and although it has hardly +been practised by any one who, without a strain of meaning can be +associated with the profession of acting, yet public censure, not +active enough to repress the evil, is ever ready to pass a sweeping +condemnation on the stage which harbors it. Our cause is a good one. +We go forth, armed with the luminous panoply which genius has forged +for us, to do battle with dulness, with coarseness, with apathy, +with every form of vice and evil. In every human heart there gleams +a bright reflection of this shining armor. The stage has no lights or +shadows that are not lights of life and shadows of the heart. To each +human consciousness it appeals in alternating mirth and sadness, and +will not be denied. Err it must, for it is human; but, being human, it +must endure. The love of acting is inherent in our nature. Watch your +children play, and you will see that almost their first conscious +effort is to act and to imitate. It is an instinct, and you can no +more repress it than you can extinguish thought. When this instinct +of all is developed by cultivation in the few, it becomes a wonderful +art, priceless to civilization in the solace it yields, the thought it +generates, the refinement it inspires. Some of its latest achievements +are not unworthy of their grandest predecessors. Some of its youngest +devotees are at least as proud of its glories and as anxious to +preserve them as any who have gone before. Theirs is a glorious +heritage! You honor it. They have a noble but a difficult, and +sometimes a disheartening, task. You encourage it. And no word of +kindly interest or criticism dropped in the public ear from friendly +lips goes unregarded or is unfertile of good. The universal study of +Shakespeare in our public schools is a splendid sign of the departure +of prejudice, and all criticism is welcome; but it is acting chiefly +that can open to others, with any spark of Shakespeare's mind, the +means of illuminating the world. Only the theatre can realize to us +in a life-like way what Shakespeare was to his own time. And it is, +indeed, a noble destiny for the theatre to vindicate in these later +days the greatness which sometimes it has seemed to vulgarize. It has +been too much the custom to talk of Shakespeare as nature's child--as +the lad who held horses for people who came to the play--as a sort of +chance phenomenon who wrote these plays by accident and unrecognized. +How supremely ridiculous! How utterly irreconcilable with the grand +dimensions of the man! How absurdly dishonoring to the great age of +which he was, and was known to be, the glory! The noblest literary +man of all time--the finest and yet most prolific writer--the greatest +student of man, and the greatest master of man's highest gift of +language--surely it is treason to humanity to speak of such an one as +in any sense a commonplace being! Imagine him rather, as he must +have been, the most notable courtier of the Court--the most perfect +gentleman who stood in the Elizabethan throng--the man in whose +presence divines would falter and hesitate lest their knowledge of +the Book should seem poor by the side of his, and at whom even queenly +royalty would look askance, with an oppressive sense that here was +one to whose omnipotent and true imagination the hearts of kings and +queens and peoples had always been an open page! The thought of such a +man is an incomparable inheritance for any nation, and such a man was +the actor--Shakespeare. Such is our birthright and yours. Such the +succession in which it is ours to labor and yours to enjoy. For +Shakespeare belongs to the stage for ever, and his glories must +always inalienably belong to it. If you uphold the theatre honestly, +liberally, frankly, and with wise discrimination, the stage will +uphold in future, as it has in the past, the literature, the manners, +the morals, the fame, and the genius of our country. There must have +been something wrong, as there was something poignant and lacerating, +in prejudices which so long partly divorced the conscience of Britain +from its noblest pride, and stamped with reproach, or at least +depreciation, some of the brightest and world-famous incidents of her +history. For myself, it kindles my heart with proud delight to +think that I have stood to-day before this audience--known for its +discrimination throughout all English-speaking lands--a welcome and +honored guest, because I stand here for justice to the art to which I +am devoted--because I stand here in thankfulness for the justice which +has begun to be so abundantly rendered to it. If it is metaphorically +the destiny of humanity, it is literally the experience of an actor, +that one man in his time plays many parts. A player of any standing +must at various times have sounded the gamut of human sensibility +from the lowest note to the top of its compass. He must have banqueted +often on curious food for thought as he meditated on the subtle +relations created between himself and his audiences, as they have +watched in his impersonations the shifting tariff--the ever gliding, +delicately graduated sliding-scale of dramatic right and wrong. He may +have gloated, if he be a cynic, over the depths of ghastly horror, or +the vagaries of moral puddle through which it may have been his +duty to plash. But if he be an honest man, he will acknowledge that +scarcely ever has either dramatist or management wilfully biassed the +effect of stage representation in favor of evil, and of his audiences +he will boast that never has their mind been doubtful--never has their +true perception of the generous and just been known to fail, or even +to be slow. How noble the privilege to work upon these finer--these +finest--feelings of universal humanity! How engrossing the fascination +of those thousands of steady eyes, and sound sympathies, and beating +hearts which an actor confronts, with the confidence of friendship +and co-operation, as he steps upon the stage to work out in action +his long-pent comprehension of a noble master-piece! How rapturous the +satisfaction of abandoning himself, in such a presence and with such +sympathizers, to his author's grandest flights of thought and noblest +bursts of emotional inspiration! And how perpetually sustaining +the knowledge that whatever may be the vicissitudes and even the +degradations of the stage, it must and will depend for its constant +hold on the affection and attention of mankind upon its loftier work; +upon its more penetrating passion; upon its themes which most deeply +search out the strong affections and high hopes of men and women; +upon its fit and kindling illustration of great and vivid lives +which either have been lived in noble fact or have deserved to endure +immortally in the popular belief and admiration which they have +secured. + + "For our eyes to see! + Sons of wisdom, song, and power, + Giving earth her richest dower, + And making nations free-- + A glorious company! + + "Call them from the dead + For our eyes to see! + Forms of beauty, love, and grace, + 'Sunshine in the shady place,' + That made it life to be-- + A blessed company!" + + + + +ADDRESS + +TO THE STUDENTS + +OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HARVARD + +30TH MARCH 1885 + + + + +THE ART OF ACTING + +I. + +THE OCCASION. + + +I am deeply sensible of the compliment that has been paid, not so much +to me personally as to the calling I represent, by the invitation to +deliver an address to the students of this University. As an actor, +and especially as an English actor, it is a great pleasure to speak +for my art in one of the chief centres of American culture; for in +inviting me here to-day you intended, I believe, to recognize the +drama as an educational influence, to show a genuine interest in the +stage as a factor in life which must be accepted and not ignored by +intelligent people. I have thought that the best use I can make of the +privilege you have conferred upon me is to offer you, as well as I +am able, something like a practical exposition of my art; for it +may chance--who knows?--that some of you may at some future time be +disposed to adopt it as a vocation. Not that I wish to be regarded +as a tempter who has come among you to seduce you from your present +studies by artful pictures of the fascinations of the footlights. But +I naturally supposed that you would like me to choose, as the theme of +my address, the subject in which I am most interested, and to which +my life has been devoted; and that if any students here should ever +determine to become actors, they could not be much the worse for +the information and counsel I could gather for them from a tolerably +extensive experience. This subject will, I trust, be welcome to all of +you who are interested in the stage as an institution which appeals +to the sober-minded and intelligent; for I take it that you have no +lingering prejudice against the theatre, or else I should not be +here. Nor are you disposed, like certain good people, to object to the +theatre simply as a name. These sticklers for principle would never +enter a playhouse for worlds; and I have heard that in a famous city +of Massachusetts, not a hundred miles from here, there are persons to +whom the theatre is unknown, but who have no objection to see a play +in a building which is called a museum, especially if the vestibule +leading to the theatre should be decorated with sound moral principles +in the shape of statues, pictures, and stuffed objects in glass cases. + +When I began to think about my subject for the purpose of this +address, I was rather staggered by its vastness. It is really a matter +for a course of lectures; but as President Eliot has not proposed that +I should occupy a chair of dramatic literature in this University, +and as time and opportunity are limited, I can only undertake to put +before you, in the simplest way, a few leading ideas about dramatic +art which may be worthy of reflection. And in doing this I have the +great satisfaction of appearing in a model theatre, before a model +audience, and of being the only actor in my own play. Moreover, I am +stimulated by the atmosphere of the Greek drama, for I know that on +this stage you have enacted a Greek play with remarkable success. So, +after all, it is not a body of mere tyros that I am addressing, but +actors who have worn the sock and buskin, and declaimed the speeches +which delighted audiences two thousand years ago. + +Now, this address, like discourses in a more solemn place, falls +naturally into divisions. I propose to speak first of the Art of +Acting; secondly, of its Requirements and Practice; and lastly of its +Rewards. And, at the outset, let me say that I want you to judge the +stage at its best. I do not intend to suggest that only the plays +of Shakespeare are tolerable in the theatre to people of taste +and intelligence. The drama has many forms--tragedy, comedy, +historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical--and all are good when their aim +is honestly artistic. + + + + +II. + +THE ART OF ACTING. + + +Now, what is the art of acting? I speak of it in its highest sense, as +the art to which Roscius, Betterton, and Garrick owed their fame. It +is the art of embodying the poet's creations, of giving them flesh and +blood, of making the figures which appeal to your mind's eye in the +printed drama live before you on the stage. "To fathom the depths of +character, to trace its latent motives, to feel its finest quiverings +of emotion, to comprehend the thoughts that are hidden under words, +and thus possess one's-self of the actual mind of the individual +man"--such was Macready's definition of the player's art; and to this +we may add the testimony of Talma. He describes tragic acting as "the +union of grandeur without pomp and nature without triviality." It +demands, he says, the endowment of high sensibility and intelligence. + +"The actor who possesses this double gift adopts a course of study +peculiar to himself. In the first place, by repeated exercises, he +enters deeply into the emotions, and his speech acquires the accent +proper to the situation of the personage he has to represent. This +done, he goes to the theatre not only to give theatrical effect to his +studies, but also to yield himself to the spontaneous flashes of his +sensibility and all the emotions which it involuntarily produces in +him. What does he then do? In order that his inspirations may not be +lost, his memory, in the silence of repose, recalls the accent of +his voice, the expression of his features, his action--in a word, the +spontaneous workings of his mind, which he had suffered to have +free course, and, in effect, everything which in the moments of +his exaltation contributed to the effects he had produced. His +intelligence then passes all these means in review, connecting +them and fixing them in his memory to re-employ them at pleasure in +succeeding representations. These impressions are often so evanescent +that on retiring behind the scenes he must repeat to himself what +he had been playing rather than what he had to play. By this kind of +labor the intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations of +sensibility. It is by this means that at the end of twenty years (it +requires at least this length of time) a person destined to display +fine talent may at length present to the public a series of characters +acted almost to perfection." + +You will readily understand from this that to the actor the well-worn +maxim that art is long and life is short has a constant significance. +The older we grow the more acutely alive we are to the difficulties of +our craft. I cannot give you a better illustration of this fact than a +story which is told of Macready. A friend of mine, once a dear friend +of his, was with him when he played Hamlet for the last time. The +curtain had fallen, and the great actor was sadly thinking that the +part he loved so much would never be his again. And as he took off his +velvet mantle and laid it aside, he muttered almost unconsciously +the words of Horatio, "Good-night, sweet Prince;" then turning to his +friend, "Ah," said he, "I am just beginning to realize the sweetness, +the tenderness, the gentleness of this dear Hamlet!" Believe me, the +true artist never lingers fondly upon what he has done. He is ever +thinking of what remains undone: ever striving toward an ideal it may +never be his fortune to attain. + +We are sometimes told that to read the best dramatic poetry is more +educating than to see it acted. I do not think this theory is very +widely held, for it is in conflict with the dramatic instinct, which +everybody possesses in a greater or less degree. You never met a +playwright who could conceive himself willing--even if endowed with +the highest literary gifts--to prefer a reading to a playgoing +public. He thinks his work deserving of all the rewards of print and +publisher, but he will be much more elated if it should appeal to the +world in the theatre as a skilful representation of human passions. +In one of her letters George Eliot says: "In opposition to most people +who love to _read_ Shakespeare, I like to see his plays acted better +than any others; his great tragedies thrill me, let them be acted +how they may." All this is so simple and intelligible, that it seems +scarcely worth while to argue that in proportion to the readiness with +which the reader of Shakespeare imagines the attributes of the various +characters, and is interested in their personality, he will, as a +rule, be eager to see their tragedy or comedy in action. He will then +find that very much which he could not imagine with any definiteness +presents new images every moment--the eloquence of look and gesture, +the by-play, the inexhaustible significance of the human voice. There +are people who fancy they have more music in their souls than was ever +translated into harmony by Beethoven or Mozart. There are others who +think they could paint pictures, write poetry--in short, do anything, +if they only made the effort. To them what is accomplished by the +practised actor seems easy and simple. But as it needs the skill of +the musician to draw the full volume of eloquence from the written +score, so it needs the skill of the dramatic artist to develop the +subtle harmonies of the poetic play. In fact, to _do_ and not to +_dream_, is the mainspring of success in life. The actor's art is to +act, and the true acting of any character is one of the most difficult +accomplishments. I challenge the acute student to ponder over Hamlet's +renunciation of Ophelia--one of the most complex scenes in all the +drama--and say that he has learned more from his meditations than he +could be taught by players whose intelligence is equal to his own. To +present the man thinking aloud is the most difficult achievement of +our art. Here the actor who has no real grip of the character, but +simply recites the speeches with a certain grace and intelligence, +will be untrue. The more intent he is upon the words, and the less +on the ideas that dictated them, the more likely he is to lay himself +open to the charge of mechanical interpretation. It is perfectly +possible to express to an audience all the involutions of thought, +the speculation, doubt, wavering, which reveal the meditative but +irresolute mind. As the varying shades of fancy pass and repass the +mirror of the face, they may yield more material to the studious +playgoer than he is likely to get by a diligent poring over the +text. In short, as we understand the people around us much better by +personal intercourse than by all the revelations of written words--for +words, as Tennyson says, "half reveal and half conceal the soul +within," so the drama has, on the whole, infinitely more suggestions +when it is well acted than when it is interpreted by the unaided +judgment of the student. It has been said that acting is an unworthy +occupation because it represents feigned emotions, but this censure +would apply with equal force to poet or novelist. Do not imagine that +I am claiming for the actor sole and undivided authority. He should +himself be a student, and it is his business to put into practice +the best ideas he can gather from the general current of thought with +regard to the highest dramatic literature. But it is he who gives body +to those ideas--fire, force, and sensibility, without which they would +remain for most people mere airy abstractions. + +It is often supposed that great actors trust to the inspiration of the +moment. Nothing can be more erroneous. There will, of course, be such +moments, when an actor at a white heat illumines some passage with +a flash of imagination (and this mental condition, by the way, is +impossible to the student sitting in his arm-chair); but the great +actor's surprises are generally well weighed, studied, and balanced. +We know that Edmund Kean constantly practised before a mirror effects +which startled his audience by their apparent spontaneity. It is the +accumulation of such effects which enables an actor, after many years, +to present many great characters with remarkable completeness. + +I do not want to overstate the case, or to appeal to anything that is +not within common experience, so I can confidently ask you whether a +scene in a great play has not been at some time vividly impressed on +your minds by the delivery of a single line, or even of one forcible +word. Has not this made the passage far more real and human to you +than all the thought you have devoted to it? An accomplished critic +has said that Shakespeare himself might have been surprised had he +heard the "Fool, fool, fool!" of Edmund Kean. And though all actors +are not Keans, they have in varying degree this power of making a +dramatic character step out of the page, and come nearer to our hearts +and our understandings. + +After all, the best and most convincing exposition of the whole art +of acting is given by Shakespeare himself: "To hold, as 'twere, the +mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own +image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." +Thus the poet recognized the actor's art as a most potent ally in the +representation of human life. He believed that to hold the mirror up +to nature was one of the worthiest functions in the sphere of labor, +and actors are content to point to his definition of their work as the +charter of their privileges. + + + + +III. + +PRACTICE OF THE ART. + + +The practice of the art of acting is a subject difficult to treat with +the necessary brevity. Beginners are naturally anxious to know what +course they should pursue. In common with other actors, I receive +letters from young people many of whom are very earnest in their +ambition to adopt the dramatic calling, but not sufficiently alive to +the fact that success does not depend on a few lessons in declamation. +When I was a boy I had a habit which I think would be useful to all +young students. Before going to see a play of Shakespeare's I used to +form--in a very juvenile way--a theory as to the working out of the +whole drama, so as to correct my conceptions by those of the actors; +and though I was, as a rule, absurdly wrong, there can be no doubt +that any method of independent study is of enormous importance, not +only to youngsters, but also to students of a larger growth. +Without it the mind is apt to take its stamp from the first forcible +impression it receives, and to fall into a servile dependence upon +traditions, which, robbed of the spirit that created them, are apt +to be purely mischievous. What was natural to the creator is often +unnatural and lifeless in the imitator. No two people form the same +conceptions of character, and therefore it is always advantageous to +see an independent and courageous exposition of an original ideal. +There can be no objection to the kind of training that imparts a +knowledge of manners and customs, and the teaching which pertains to +simple deportment on the stage is necessary and most useful; but you +cannot possibly be taught any tradition of character, for that has no +permanence. Nothing is more fleeting than any traditional method of +impersonation. You may learn where a particular personage used to +stand on the stage, or down which trap the ghost of Hamlet's father +vanished; but the soul of interpretation is lost, and it is this soul +which the actor has to re-create for himself. It is not mere attitude +or tone that has to be studied; you must be moved by the impulse of +being; you must impersonate and not recite. + +There has always been a controversy as to the province of naturalism +in dramatic art. In England it has been too much the custom, I +believe, while demanding naturalism in comedy, to expect a false +inflation in tragedy. But there is no reason why an actor should +be less natural in tragic than in lighter moods. Passions vary in +expression according to moulds of character and manners, but their +reality should not be lost even when they are expressed in the heroic +forms of the drama. A very simple test is a reference to the records +of old actors. What was it in their performances that chiefly +impressed their contemporaries? Very rarely the measured recitation of +this or that speech, but very often a simple exclamation that deeply +moved their auditors, because it was a gleam of nature in the midst +of declamation. The "Prithee, undo this button!" of Garrick, was +remembered when many stately utterances were forgotten. In our day the +contrast between artificial declamation and the accents of nature is +less marked, because its delivery is more uniformly simple, and an +actor who lapses from a natural into a false tone is sure to find +that his hold upon his audience is proportionately weakened. But the +revolution which Garrick accomplished may be imagined from the story +told by Boswell. Dr. Johnson was discussing plays and players with +Mrs. Siddons, and he said: "Garrick, madam, was no declaimer; there +was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken 'To be +or not to be' better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever saw +whom I could call a master, both in tragedy and comedy, though I +liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character and natural +expression of it were his distinguished excellences." + +To be natural on the stage is most difficult, and yet a grain of +nature is worth a bushel of artifice. But you may say--what is nature? +I quoted just now Shakespeare's definition of the actor's art. After +the exhortation to hold the mirror up to nature, he adds the pregnant +warning: "This overdone or come tardy off, though it make the +unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of +which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others." +Nature may be overdone by triviality in conditions that demand +exaltation; for instance, Hamlet's first address to the Ghost lifts +his disposition to an altitude far beyond the ordinary reaches of our +souls, and his manner of speech should be adapted to this sentiment. +But such exaltation of utterance is wholly out of place in the purely +colloquial scene with the Gravedigger. When Macbeth says, "Go, bid thy +mistress, when my drink is ready, she strike upon the bell," he would +not use the tone of + + "Pity, like a naked new-born babe, + Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed + Upon the sightless couriers of the air, + Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, + That tears shall drown the wind." + +Like the practised orator, the actor rises and descends with his +sentiment, and cannot always be in a fine phrenzy. This variety +is especially necessary in Shakespeare, whose work is essentially +different from the classic drama, because it presents every mood of +mind and form of speech, commonplace or exalted, as character and +situation dictate: whereas in such a play as Addison's _Cato_, +everybody is consistently eloquent about everything. + +There are many causes for the growth of naturalism in dramatic art, +and amongst them we should remember the improvement in the mechanism +of the stage. For instance, there has been a remarkable development in +stage-lighting. In old pictures you will observe the actors constantly +standing in a line, because the oil-lamps of those days gave such an +indifferent illumination that everybody tried to get into what was +called the focus--the "blaze of publicity" furnished by the "float" or +footlights. The importance of this is illustrated by an amusing story +of Edmund Kean, who one night played _Othello_ with more than his +usual intensity. An admirer who met him in the street next day was +loud in his congratulations: "I really thought you would have choked +Iago, Mr. Kean--you seemed so tremendously in earnest." "In earnest!" +said the tragedian, "I should think so! Hang the fellow, he was trying +to keep me out of the focus." + +I do not recommend actors to allow their feelings to carry them +away like this; but it is necessary to warn you against the theory +expounded with brilliant ingenuity by Diderot, that the actor never +feels. When Macready played Virginius, after burying his beloved +daughter, he confessed that his real experience gave a new force to +his acting in the most pathetic situations of the play. Are we to +suppose that this was a delusion, or that the sensibility of the man +was a genuine aid to the actor? Bannister said of John Kemble that he +was never pathetic because he had no children. Talma says that when +deeply moved he found himself making a rapid and fugitive observation +on the alternation of his voice, and on a certain spasmodic vibration +which it contracted in tears. Has not the actor who can thus make +his feelings a part of his art an advantage over the actor who never +feels, but who makes his observations solely from the feelings of +others? It is necessary to this art that the mind should have, as it +were, a double consciousness, in which all the emotions proper to the +occasion may have full swing, while the actor is all the time on the +alert for every detail of his method. It may be that his playing will +be more spirited one night than another. But the actor who combines +the electric force of a strong personality with a mastery of the +resources of his art must have a greater power over his audiences +than the passionless actor who gives a most artistic simulation of the +emotions he never experiences. + +Now, in the practice of acting, a most important point is the study +of elocution; and in elocution one great difficulty is the use of +sufficient force to be generally heard without being unnaturally loud, +and without acquiring a stilted delivery. The advice of the old actors +was that you should always pitch your voice so as to be heard by the +back row of the gallery--no easy task to accomplish without offending +the ears of the front of the orchestra. And I should tell you that +this exaggeration applies to everything on the stage. To appear to be +natural, you must in reality be much broader than nature. To act on +the stage as one really would in a room, would be ineffective and +colorless. I never knew an actor who brought the art of elocution to +greater perfection than the late Charles Mathews, whose utterance on +the stage appeared so natural that one was surprised to find when near +him that he was really speaking in a very loud key. There is a great +actor in your own country to whose elocution one always listens with +the utmost enjoyment--I mean Edwin Booth. He has inherited this gift, +I believe, from his famous father, of whom I have heard it said, that +he always insisted on a thorough use of the "instruments"--by which he +meant the teeth--in the formation of words. + +An imperfect elocution is apt to degenerate into a monotonous +uniformity of tone. Some wholesome advice on this point we find in the +_Life of Betterton_. + +"This stiff uniformity of voice is not only displeasing to the ear, +but disappoints the effect of the discourse on the hearers; first, by +an equal way of speaking, when the pronunciation has everywhere, in +every word and every syllable, the same sound, it must inevitably +render all parts of speech equal, and so put them on a very unjust +level. So that the power of the reasoning part, the lustre and +ornament of the figures, the heart, warmth, and vigor of the +passionate part being expressed all in the same tone, is flat and +insipid, and lost in a supine, or at least unmusical pronunciation. So +that, in short, that which ought to strike and stir up the affections, +because it is spoken all alike, without any distinction or variety, +moves them not at all." + +Now, on the question of pronunciation there is something to be said, +which, I think, in ordinary teaching is not sufficiently considered. +Pronunciation on the stage should be simple and unaffected, but not +always fashioned rigidly according to a dictionary standard. No less +an authority than Cicero points out that pronunciation must vary +widely according to the emotions to be expressed; that it may be +broken or cut, with a varying or direct sound, and that it serves for +the actor the purpose of color to the painter, from which to draw his +variations. Take the simplest illustration, the formal pronunciation +of "A-h" is "Ah," of "O-h" "Oh;" but you cannot stereotype the +expression of emotion like this. These exclamations are words of one +syllable, but the speaker who is sounding the gamut of human feeling +will not be restricted in his pronunciation by the dictionary rule. +It is said of Edmund Kean that he never spoke such ejaculations, +but always sighed or groaned them. Fancy an actor saying thus, "My +Desdemona! Oh, [)o]h, [)o]h!" Words are intended to express feelings +and ideas, not to bind them in rigid fetters. The accents of pleasure +are different from the accents of pain, and if a feeling is more +accurately expressed, as in nature, by a variation of sound not +provided for by the laws of pronunciation, then such imperfect laws +must be disregarded and nature vindicated. The word should be the echo +of the sense. + +The force of an actor depends, of course, upon his physique; and it is +necessary, therefore, that a good deal of attention should be given to +bodily training. Everything that develops suppleness, elasticity, and +grace--that most subtle charm--should be carefully cultivated, and +in this regard your admirable gymnasium is worth volumes of advice. +Sometimes there is a tendency to train the body at the expense of +the mind, and the young actor with striking physical advantages +must beware of regarding this fortunate endowment as his entire +stock-in-trade. That way folly lies, and the result may be too dearly +purchased by the fame of a photographer's window. It is clear that +the physique of actors must vary; there can be no military standard +of proportions on the stage. Some great actors have had to struggle +against physical disabilities of a serious nature. Betterton had an +unprepossessing face; so had Le Kain. John Kemble was troubled with +a weak, asthmatic voice, and yet by his dignity, and the force of +his personality, he was able to achieve the greatest effects. In some +cases a super-abundant physique has incapacitated actors from playing +many parts. The combination in one frame of all the gifts of mind and +all the advantages in person is very rare on the stage; but talent +will conquer many natural defects when it is sustained by energy and +perseverance. + +With regard to gesture, Shakespeare's advice is all-embracing. "Suit +the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special +observance that you over-step not the modesty of nature." And here +comes the consideration of a very material part of the actor's +business--by-play. This is of the very essence of true art. It is more +than anything else significant of the extent to which the actor has +identified himself with the character he represents. Recall the scenes +between Iago and Othello, and consider how the whole interest of the +situation depends on the skill with which the gradual effect of the +poisonous suspicion instilled into the Moor's mind is depicted in look +and tone, slight of themselves, but all contributing to the intensity +of the situation. One of the greatest tests of an actor is his +capacity for listening. By-play must be unobtrusive; the student +should remember that the most minute expression attracts attention: +that nothing is lost, that by-play is as mischievous when it is +injudicious as it is effective when rightly conceived, and that while +trifles make perfection, perfection is no trifle. This lesson was +enjoined on me when I was a very young man by that remarkable actress, +Charlotte Cushman. I remember that when she played Meg Merrilies I +was cast for Henry Bertram, on the principle, seemingly, that an actor +with no singing voice is admirably fitted for a singing part. It was +my duty to give Meg Merrilies a piece of money, and I did it after the +traditional fashion by handing her a large purse full of coin of the +realm, in the shape of broken crockery, which was generally used in +financial transactions on the stage, because when the virtuous maiden +rejected with scorn the advances of the lordly libertine, and threw +his pernicious bribe upon the ground, the clatter of the broken +crockery suggested fabulous wealth. But after the play Miss Cushman, +in the course of some kindly advice, said to me: "Instead of giving me +that purse don't you think it would have been much more natural if +you had taken a number of coins from your pocket, and given me the +smallest? That is the way one gives alms to a beggar, and it would +have added to the realism of the scene." I have never forgotten that +lesson, for simple as it was, it contained many elements of dramatic +truth. It is most important that an actor should learn that he is +a figure in a picture, and that the least exaggeration destroys the +harmony of the composition. All the members of the company should +work towards a common end, with the nicest subordination of their +individuality to the general purpose. Without this method a play when +acted is at best a disjointed and incoherent piece of work, instead +of being a harmonious whole like the fine performance of an orchestral +symphony. The root of the matter is that the actor must before all +things form a definite conception of what he wishes to convey. It is +better to be wrong and be consistent, than to be right, yet hesitating +and uncertain. This is why great actors are sometimes very bad or very +good. They will do the wrong thing with a courage and thoroughness +which makes the error all the more striking; although when they are +right they may often be superb. It is necessary that the actor should +learn to think before he speaks; a practice which, I believe, is very +useful off the stage. Let him remember, first, that every sentence +expresses a new thought and, therefore, frequently demands a change +of intonation; secondly, that the thought precedes the word. Of course +there are passages in which thought and language are borne along by +the streams of emotion and completely intermingled. But more often +it will be found that the most natural, the most seemingly accidental +effects are obtained when the working of the mind is seen before the +tongue gives it words. + +You will see that the limits of an actor's studies are very wide. To +master the technicalities of his craft, to familiarize his mind +with the structure, rhythm, and the soul of poetry, to be constantly +cultivating his perceptions of life around him and of all the +arts--painting, music, sculpture--for the actor who is devoted to +his profession is susceptible to every harmony of color, sound, and +form--to do this is to labor in a large field of industry. But all +your training, bodily and mental, is subservient to the two great +principles in tragedy and comedy--passion and geniality. Geniality +in comedy is one of the rarest gifts. Think of the rich unction of +Falstaff, the mercurial fancy of Mercutio, the witty vivacity and +manly humor of Benedick--think of the qualities, natural and acquired, +that are needed for the complete portrayal of such characters, and you +will understand how difficult it is for a comedian to rise to such +a sphere. In tragedy, passion or intensity sweeps all before it, and +when I say passion, I mean the passion of pathos as well as wrath +or revenge. These are the supreme elements of the actor's art, +which cannot be taught by any system, however just, and to which all +education is but tributary. + +Now all that can be said of the necessity of a close regard for nature +in acting applies with equal or greater force to the presentation of +plays. You want, above all things, to have a truthful picture which +shall appeal to the eye without distracting the imagination from the +purpose of the drama. It is a mistake to suppose that this enterprise +is comparatively new to the stage. Since Shakespeare's time there has +been a steady progress in this direction. Even in the poet's day every +conceivable property was forced into requisition, and his own sense +of shortcomings in this respect is shown in _Henry V._ when he +exclaims:-- + + "Where--O for pity!--we shall much disgrace + With four or five most vile and ragged foils + The name of Agincourt." + +There have always been critics who regarded care and elaboration in +the mounting of plays as destructive of the real spirit of the actor's +art. Betterton had to meet this reproach when he introduced scenery in +lieu of linsey-woolsey curtains; but he replied, sensibly enough, that +his scenery was better than the tapestry with hideous figures worked +upon it which had so long distracted the senses of play-goers. He +might have asked his critics whether they wished to see Ophelia played +by a boy of sixteen, as in the time of Shakespeare, instead of a +beautiful and gifted woman. Garrick did his utmost to improve the +mechanical arts of the stage--so much so, indeed, that he paid his +scene-painter, Loutherbourg, £500 a year, a pretty considerable sum +in those days--though in Garrick's time the importance of realism in +costume was not sufficiently appreciated to prevent him from playing +Macbeth in a bagwig. To-day we are employing all our resources to +heighten the picturesque effects of the drama, and we are still told +that this is a gross error. It may be admitted that nothing is more +objectionable than certain kinds of realism, which are simply vulgar; +but harmony of color and grace of outline have a legitimate sphere in +the theatre, and the method which uses them as adjuncts may claim to +be "as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine." +For the abuse of scenic decoration, the overloading of the stage with +ornament, the subordination of the play to a pageant, I have nothing +to say. That is all foreign to the artistic purpose which should +dominate dramatic work. Nor do I think that servility to archæology on +the stage is an unmixed good. Correctness of costume is admirable +and necessary up to a certain point, but when it ceases to be "as +wholesome as sweet," it should, I think, be sacrificed. You perceive +that the nicest discretion is needed in the use of the materials +which are nowadays at the disposal of the manager. Music, painting, +architecture, the endless variations of costume, have all to be +employed with a strict regard to the production of an artistic +whole, in which no element shall be unduly obtrusive. We are open to +microscopic criticism at every point. When _Much Ado about Nothing_ +was produced at the Lyceum, I received a letter complaining of the +gross violation of accuracy in a scene which was called a cedar-walk. +"Cedars!" said my correspondent,--"why, cedars were not introduced +into Messina for fifty years after the date of Shakespeare's story!" +Well, this was a tremendous indictment, but unfortunately the +cedar-walk had been painted. Absolute realism on the stage is not +always desirable, any more than the photographic reproduction of +Nature can claim to rank with the highest art. + + + + +IV. + +THE REWARDS OF THE ART. + + +To what position in the world of intelligence does the actor's art +entitle him, and what is his contribution to the general sum of +instruction? We are often told that the art is ephemeral; that it +creates nothing; that when the actor's personality is withdrawn from +the public eye he leaves no trace behind. Granted that his art creates +nothing; but does it not often restore? It is true that he leaves +nothing like the canvas of the painter and the marble of the sculptor, +but has he done nought to increase the general stock of ideas? The +astronomer and naturalist create nothing, but they contribute much to +the enlightenment of the world. I am taking the highest standard of +my art, for I maintain that in judging any calling you should consider +its noblest and not its most ignoble products. All the work that is +done on the stage cannot stand upon the same level, any more than all +the work that is done in literature. You do not demand that your poets +and novelists shall all be of the same calibre. An immense amount of +good writing does no more than increase the gayety of mankind; but +when Johnson said that the gayety of nations was eclipsed by the death +of Garrick, he did not mean that a mere barren amusement had lost one +of its professors. When Sir Joshua Reynolds painted Mrs. Siddons as +the Tragic Muse, and said he had achieved immortality by putting his +name on the hem of her garment, he meant something more than a pretty +compliment, for her name can never die. To give genuine and wholesome +entertainment is a very large function of the stage, and without that +entertainment very many lives would lose a stimulus of the highest +value. If recreation of every legitimate kind is invaluable to the +worker, especially so is the recreation of the drama, which brightens +his faculties, enlarges his vision of the picturesque, and by taking +him for a time out of this work-a-day world, braces his sensibilities +for the labors of life. The art which does this may surely claim to +exercise more than a fleeting influence upon the world's intelligence. +But in its highest developments it does more; it acts as a constant +medium for the diffusion of great ideas, and by throwing new lights +upon the best dramatic literature, it largely helps the growth +of education. It is not too much to say that the interpreters of +Shakespeare on the stage have had much to do with the widespread +appreciation of his works. Some of the most thoughtful students of +the poet have recognized their indebtedness to actors, while for +multitudes the stage has performed the office of discovery. Thousands +who flock to-day to see a representation of Shakespeare, which is the +product of much reverent study of the poet, are not content to regard +it as a mere scenic exhibition. Without it Shakespeare might have been +for many of them a sealed book; but many more have been impelled +by the vivid realism of the stage to renew studies which other +occupations or lack of leisure have arrested. Am I presumptuous, then, +in asserting that the stage is not only an instrument of amusement, +but a very active agent in the spread of knowledge and taste? Some +forms of stage work, you may say, are not particularly elevating. +True; and there are countless fictions coming daily from the hands +of printer and publisher which nobody is the better for reading. You +cannot have a fixed standard of value in my art; and though there +are masses of people who will prefer an unintelligent exhibition to +a really artistic production, that is no reason for decrying the +theatre, in which all the arts blend with the knowledge of history, +manners, and customs of all people, and scenes of all climes, to +afford a varied entertainment to the most exacting intellect. I have +no sympathy with people who are constantly anxious to define the +actor's position, for, as a rule, they are not animated by a desire to +promote his interests. "'Tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus;" +and whatever actors deserve, socially or artistically, they are sure +to receive as their right. I found the other day in a well-circulated +little volume a suggestion that the actor was a degraded being because +he has a closely-shaven face. This is, indeed, humiliating, and I +wonder how it strikes the Roman Catholic clergy. However, there are +actors who do not shave closely, and though, alas! I am not one of +them, I wish them joy of the spiritual grace which I cannot claim. + +It is admittedly unfortunate for the stage that it has a certain +equivocal element, which, in the eyes of some judges, is sufficient +for its condemnation. The art is open to all, and it has to bear the +sins of many. You may open your newspaper, and see a paragraph headed +"Assault by an Actress." Some poor creature is dignified by that title +who has not the slightest claim to it. You look into a shop-window and +see photographs of certain people who are indiscriminately described +as actors and actresses though their business has no pretence to be +art of any kind. + +I was told in Baltimore of a man in that city who was so diverted by +the performance of Tyrone Powar, the popular Irish comedian, that he +laughed uproariously till the audience was convulsed with merriment at +the spectacle. As soon as he could speak, he called out, "Do be quiet, +Mr. Showman; do'ee hold your tongue, or I shall die of laughter!" This +idea that the actor is a showman still lingers; but no one with any +real appreciation of the best elements of the drama applies this +vulgar standard to a great body of artists. The fierce light of +publicity that beats upon us makes us liable, from time to time, to +dissertations upon our public and private lives, our manners, our +morals, and our money. Our whims and caprices are discanted on with +apparent earnestness of truth, and seeming sincerity of conviction. +There is always some lively controversy concerning the influence of +the stage. The battle between old methods and new in art is waged +everywhere. If an actor were to take to heart everything that is +written and said about him, his life would be an intolerable burden. +And one piece of advice I should give to young actors is this: Do not +be too sensitive; receive praise or censure with modesty and patience. +Good honest criticism is, of course, most advantageous to an actor; +but he should save himself from the indiscriminate reading of a +multitude of comments, which may only confuse instead of stimulating. +And here let me say to young actors in all earnestness: Beware of the +loungers of our calling, the camp followers who hang on the skirts of +the army, and who inveigle the young into habits that degrade their +character, and paralyze their ambition. Let your ambition be ever +precious to you, and, next to your good name, the jewel of your souls. +I care nothing for the actor who is not always anxious to rise to +the highest position in his particular walk; but this ideal cannot be +cherished by the young man who is induced to fritter away his time and +his mind in thoughtless company. + +But in the midst of all this turmoil about the stage, one fact stands +out clearly: the dramatic art is steadily growing in credit with the +educated classes. It is drawing more recruits from those classes. The +enthusiasm for our calling has never reached a higher pitch. There is +quite an extraordinary number of ladies who want to become actresses, +and the cardinal difficulty in the way is not the social deterioration +which some people think they would incur, but simply their inability +to act. Men of education who become actors do not find that their +education is useless. If they have the necessary aptitude--the inborn +instinct for the stage--all their mental training will be of great +value to them. It is true that there must always be grades in the +theatre, that an educated man who is an indifferent actor can never +expect to reach the front rank. If he do no more than figure in the +army at Bosworth Field, or look imposing in a doorway; if he never +play any but the smallest parts; if in these respects he be no +better than men who could not pass an examination in any branch of +knowledge--he has no more reason to complain than the highly-educated +man who longs to write poetry, and possesses every qualification--save +the poetic faculty. There are people who seem to think that only +irresistible genius justifies any one in adopting the stage as a +vocation. They make it an argument against the profession that many +enter it from a low sphere of life, without any particular fitness for +acting, but simply to earn a livelihood by doing the subordinate and +mechanical work which is necessary in every theatre. And so men and +women of refinement--especially women--are warned that they must do +themselves injury by passing through the rank and file during their +term of probation in the actors' craft. Now, I need not remind you +that on the stage everybody cannot be great, any more than students +of music can all become great musicians; but very many will do sound +artistic work which is of great value. As for any question of conduct, +Heaven forbid that I should be dogmatic; but it does not seem to me +logical that while genius is its own law in the pursuit of a noble +art, all inferior merit or ambition is to be deterred from the same +path by appalling pictures of its temptations. + +If our art is worth anything at all, it is worth the honest, +conscientious self-devotion of men and women who, while they may not +achieve fame, may have the satisfaction of being workers in a calling +which does credit to many degrees of talent. We do not claim to be +any better than our fellows in other walks of life. We do not ask +the jester in journalism whether his quips and epigrams are always +dictated by the loftiest morality; nor do we insist on knowing that +the odor of sanctity surrounds the private lives of lawyers and +military men before we send our sons into law and the army. It +is impossible to point out any vocation which is not attended by +temptations that prove fatal to many; but you have simply to consider +whether a profession has in itself any title to honor, and then--if +you are confident of your capacity--to enter it with a resolve to do +all that energy and perseverance can accomplish. The immortal part of +the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes come +and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity--associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances; but it never sinks into nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. And I would say, as a last word, to the young +men in this assembly who may at any time resolve to enter the dramatic +profession, that they ought always to fix their minds upon the highest +examples; that in studying acting they should beware of prejudiced +comparisons between this method and that, but learn as much as +possible from all; that they should remember that art is as varied as +nature, and as little suited to the shackles of a school; and, above +all, that they should never forget that excellence in any art is +attained only by arduous labor, unswerving purpose, and unfailing +discipline. This discipline is, perhaps, the most difficult of all +tests, for it involves the subordination of the actor's personality in +every work which is designed to be a complete and harmonious picture. +Dramatic art nowadays is more coherent, systematic, and comprehensive +than it has sometimes been. And to the student who proposes to fill +the place in this system to which his individuality and experience +entitle him, and to do his duty faithfully and well, ever striving +after greater excellence, and never yielding to the indolence that is +often born of popularity--to him I say, with every confidence, that +he will choose a career in which, if it does not lead him to fame, +he will be sustained by the honorable exercise of some of the best +faculties of the human mind. + +And now I can only thank you for the patience with which you have +listened while, in a slight and imperfect way, I have dwelt with some +of the most important of the actor's responsibilities, I have been an +actor for nearly thirty years, and what I have told you is the fruit +of my experience, and of an earnest and conscientious belief that the +calling to which I am proud to belong is worthy of the sympathy and +support of all intelligent people. + + + + +ADDRESS + +AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + +26 JUNE 1886 + + + + +ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. + + +When I was honored by the request of your distinguished +Vice-Chancellor to deliver an address before the members of this +great University, I told him I could only say something about my own +calling, for that I knew little or nothing about anything else. +I trust, however, that this confession of the limitations of +my knowledge will not prejudice me in your eyes, members as you +are--privileged members I may say--of this seat of learning. In an age +when so many persons think they know everything, it may afford a not +unpleasing variety to meet with some who know that they know nothing. + +I cannot discourse to you, even if you wished me to do so, of the +respective merits of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; for if I +did, I should not be able to tell you anything that you do not know +already. I have not had the advantage--one that very few of the +members of my profession in past, or even in present times have +enjoyed--of an University education. The only _Alma Mater_ I ever knew +was the hard stage of a country theatre. + +In the course of my training, long before I had taken, what I may +call, my degree in London, I came to act in your city. I have a very +pleasant recollection of the time I passed here, though I am sorry +to say that, owing to the regulation which forbade theatrical +performances during term time, I saw Oxford only in vacation, which +is rather like--to use the old illustration--seeing _Hamlet_ with the +part of Hamlet left out. There was then no other building available +for dramatic representations than the Town Hall. I may, perhaps, be +allowed to congratulate you on the excellent theatre which you now +possess--I do not mean the Sheldonian--and at the same time to express +a hope that, as a more liberal, and might I say a wiser, _régime_ +allows the members of the University to go to the play, they will not +receive any greater moral injury, or be distracted any more from their +studies, than when they were only allowed the occasional relaxation of +hearing comic songs. Macready once said that "a theatre ought to be +a place of recreation for the sober-minded and intelligent." I trust +that, under whatsoever management the theatre in Oxford may be, it +will always deserve this character. + +You must not expect any learned disquisition from me; nor even in the +modified sense in which the word is used among you will I venture to +style what I am going to say to you a lecture. You may, by the way, +have seen a report that I was cast for _four_ lectures; but I assure +you there was no ground for such an alarming rumor; a rumor quite as +alarming to me as it could have been to you. What I do propose is, to +say to you something about four of our greatest actors in the past, +each of whom may be termed the representative of an important period +in the Annals of our National Drama. In turning over the leaves of +a history of the life of Edmund Kean, I came across the following +sentence (the writer is speaking of Edmund Kean as having restored +Nature to the stage): "There seems always to have been this +alternation between the Schools of Nature and Art (if we may so term +them) in the annals of the English Theatre." Now if for _Art_ I may be +allowed to substitute _Artificiality_, which is what the author really +meant, I think that his sentence is an epitome of the history of our +stage; and it struck me at once that I could not select anything more +appropriate--I will not say as a text, for that sounds as if I were +going to deliver a sermon--but as the _motif_, or theme of the remarks +I am about to address to you. The four actors of whom I shall attempt +to tell, you something--Burbage, Betterton, Garrick, and Kean--were +the _four_ greatest champions, in their respective times, on the stage +of Nature in contradistinction to Artificiality. + +When we consider the original of the Drama, or perhaps I should say +of the higher class of Drama, we see that the style of acting must +necessarily have been artificial rather than natural. Take the Greek +Tragedy, for instance: the actors, as you know, wore masks, and had to +speak, or rather intone, in a theatre more than half open to the air, +and therefore it was impossible they could employ facial expression, +or much variety of intonation. We have not time now to trace at length +the many vicissitudes in the career of the Drama, but I may say that +Shakespeare was the first dramatist who dared to rob Tragedy of her +stilts; and who successfully introduced an element of comedy which +was not dragged in by the neck and heels, but which naturally evolved +itself from the treatment of the tragic story, and did not violate the +consistency of any character. + +It was not only with regard to the _writing_ of his plays +that Shakespeare sought to fight the battle of Nature against +Artificiality. However naturally he might write, the affected or +monotonous _delivery_ of his verse by the actors would neutralize all +his efforts. The old rhyming ten-syllable lines could not but lead to +a monotonous style of elocution, nor was the early blank verse much +improvement in this respect; but Shakespeare fitted his blank verse to +the natural expression of his ideas, and not his ideas to the trammels +of blank verse. + +In order to carry out these reforms, in order to dethrone Artifice and +Affectation, he needed the help of actors in whom he could trust, +and especially of a leading actor who could interpret his greatest +dramatic creations; such a one he found in Richard Burbage. + +Shakespeare came to London first in 1585. Whether on this, his first +visit, he became connected with the theatres is uncertain. At any +rate it is most probable that he saw Burbage in some of his favorite +characters, and perhaps made his acquaintance; being first employed +as a kind of servant in the theatre, and afterwards as a player of +inferior parts. It was not until about 1591-1592, that Shakespeare +began to turn his attention seriously to dramatic authorship. For five +years of his life we are absolutely without any evidence as to what +were his pursuits. But there can be little doubt that during this +interval he was virtually undergoing a special form of education, +consisting rather of the study of human nature than that of books, +and was acquiring the art of dramatic construction--learnt better in +a theatre than anywhere else. Unfortunately, we have no record of the +intercourse between Shakespeare and Burbage; but there can be little +doubt that between the dramatist, who was himself an actor, and the +actor, who gave life to the greatest creations of his imagination, and +who, probably, amazed no less than delighted the great master by the +vividness and power of his impersonations, there must have existed a +close friendship. Shakespeare, unlike most men of genius, was no bad +man of business; and, indeed, a friend of mine, who prides himself +upon being a practical man, once suggested that he selected the part +of the Ghost in _Hamlet_ because it enabled him to go in front of the +house between the acts and count the money. Burbage was universally +acknowledged as the greatest tragic actor of his time. In Bartholomew +Fair, Ben Jonson uses Burbage's name as a synonym for "the best +actor"; and Bishop Corbet, in his _Iter Boreale_, tells us that his +host at Leicester-- + + "when he would have said King Richard died, + And call'd, 'A horse! A horse!' he, Burbage, cried," + +In a scene, in which Burbage and the comedian Kemp (the J.L. Toole +of the Shakespearean period) are introduced in _The Return from +Parnassus_--a satirical play, as you may know, written by some of +the Members of St. John's College, Cambridge, for performance +by themselves on New Year's Day, 1602--we have proof of the high +estimation in which the great tragic actor was held. Kemp says to the +scholars who are anxious to try their fortunes on the stage: "But be +merry, my lads, you have happened upon the most excellent vocation +in the world for money; they come north and south to bring it to our +playhouse; and for honors, who of more report than _Dick Burbage_ +and _Will Kempe_; he is not counted a gentleman that knows not _Dick +Burbage_ and _Will Kempe_; there's not a country wench that can +dance 'Sellenger's Round,' but can talke of _Dick Burbage_ and _Will +Kempe_." + +That Burbage's fame as an actor outlived his life may be seen from the +description given by Flecknoe:-- + +"He was a delightful Proteus, so wholly transforming himself into his +part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he never (not so +much as in the 'tiring house) assumed himself again until the play was +done.... He had all the parts of an excellent orator, animating his +words with speaking, and speech with acting, his auditors being never +more delighted than when he spake, nor more sorry than when he held +his peace. Yet even then he was an excellent actor still, never +failing in his part when he had done speaking, but with his looks and +gestures maintaining it still to the height." + +It is not my intention, even if time permitted, to go much into the +private life of the four actors of whom I propose to speak. Very +little is known of Burbage's private life, except that he was married; +perhaps Shakespeare and he may have been drawn nearer together by the +tie of a common sorrow; for, as the poet lost his beloved son Hamlet +when quite a child, so did Burbage lose his eldest son Richard. +Burbage died on March 13th, 1617, being then about 50 years of age: +Camden, in his _Annals of James I._, records his death, and calls him +a second Roscius. He was sincerely mourned by all those who loved +the dramatic art; and he numbered among his friends Shakespeare, Ben +Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher, and other "common players," whose +names were destined to become the most honored in the annals of +English literature. Burbage was the first great actor that England +ever saw, the original representative of many of Shakespeare's noblest +creations, among others, of Shylock, Richard, Romeo, Hamlet, Lear, +Othello, and Macbeth. We may fairly conclude Burbage's acting to have +had all the best characteristics of Natural, as opposed to Artificial +acting. The principles of the former are so clearly laid down by +Shakespeare, in Hamlet's advice to the players, that, perhaps, I +cannot do better than to repeat them:-- + + Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, + trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your + players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor + do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all + gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may + say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a + temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to + the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a + passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the + groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but + inexplicable dumb-show and noise: I would have such a fellow + whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod; pray + you, avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let your own + discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, the + word to the action; with this special observance, that you + o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone + is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first + and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to + nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, + and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. + Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the + unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the + censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a + whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen + play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak + it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians + nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted + and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen + had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so + abominably. + +When we try to picture what the theatre in Shakespeare's time was +like, it strikes us that it must have been difficult to carry out +those principles. One would think it must have been almost impossible +for the actors to keep up the illusion of the play, surrounded as they +were by such distracting elements. Figure to yourselves a crowd of +fops, chattering like a flock of daws, carrying their stools in their +hands, and settling around, and sometimes upon the stage itself, with +as much noise as possible. To vindicate their importance in their own +eyes they kept up a constant jangling of petty, carping criticism on +the actors and the play. In the intervals of repose which they allowed +their tongues, they ogled the ladies in the boxes, and made a point +of vindicating the dignity of their intellects by being always most +inattentive during the most pathetic portions of the play. In front +of the house matters were little better: the orange girls going to and +fro among the audience, interchanging jokes--not of the most delicate +character--with the young sparks and apprentices, the latter cracking +nuts or howling down some unfortunate actor who had offended their +worships; sometimes pipes of tobacco were being smoked. Picture all +this confusion, and add the fact that the female characters of the +play were represented by shrill-voiced lads or half-shaven men. +Imagine an actor having to invest such representatives with all the +girlish passion of a Juliet, the womanly tenderness of a Desdemona, +or the pitiable anguish of a distraught Ophelia, and you cannot but +realize how difficult under such circumstances _great_ acting +must have been. In fact, while we are awe-struck by the wonderful +intellectuality of the best dramas of the Elizabethan period, we +cannot help feeling that certain subtleties of acting, elaborate +by-play, for instance, and the finer lights and shades of intonation, +must have been impossible. Recitation rather than impersonation would +be generally aimed at by the actors. + +Thomas Betterton was the son of one of the cooks of King Charles I. +He was born in Tothill Street, Westminster, about 1635, eighteen +years after the death of Burbage. He seems to have received a fair +education; indeed, but for the disturbing effect of the Civil War, he +would probably have been brought up to one of the liberal professions. +He was, however, apprenticed to a bookseller, who, fortunately +for Betterton, took to theatrical management. Betterton was about +twenty-four years old when he began his dramatic career. For upwards +of fifty years he seems to have held his position as the foremost +actor of the day. It was fortunate, indeed, for the interests of the +Drama that so great an actor arose at the very time when dramatic art +had, as it were, to be resuscitated. Directly the Puritans (who hated +the stage and every one connected with it as heartily as they +hated their Cavalier neighbors) came into power, they abolished the +theatres, as they did every other form of intellectual amusement; +and for many years the Drama only existed in the form of a few vulgar +"Drolls." It must have been, indeed, a dismal time for the people of +England; with all the horrors of civil war fresh in their memory, the +more than paternal government allowed its subjects no other amusement +than that of consigning their neighbors to eternal damnation, and of +selecting for themselves--by anticipation--all the best reserved seats +in heaven. When the Restoration took place, the inevitable reaction +followed: society, having been condemned to a lengthened period of an +involuntary piety--which sat anything but easily on it--rushed into +the other extreme; all who wanted to be in the fashion professed but +little morality, and it is to be feared that, for once in a way, their +practice did not come short of their profession. Now was the time +when, instead of "poor players," "fine gentlemen" condescended to +write for the stage; and it may be remarked that as long as the +literary interests of the theatre were in their keeping, the tone of +the plays represented was more corrupt than it ever was at any other +period of the history of the Drama. It is something to be thankful +for, that at such a time, when the highly-flavored comedies of +Wycherley and Congreve were all the vogue, and when the monotonous +profligacy of nearly all the characters introduced into those plays +was calculated to encourage the most artificial style of acting--it +was something, I say, to be thankful for, that at such a time, +Betterton, and one or two other actors, could infuse life into +the noblest creations of Shakespeare. Owing, more especially, to +Betterton's great powers, the tragedy of _Hamlet_ held its own in +popularity, even against such witty productions as _Love for Love_. It +was also fortunate that the same actor who could draw tears as Hamlet, +was equally at home in the feigned madness of that amusing rake +Valentine, or in the somewhat coarse humor of Sir John Brute. By +charming the public in what were the popular novelties of the day, he +was able to command their support when he sought it for a nobler +form of Drama. He married an actress, Mrs. Saunderson, who was only +inferior in her art to her husband. Their married life seems to +have been one of perfect happiness. When one hears so much of the +profligacy of actors and actresses, and that they are all such a +very wicked lot, it is pleasant to think of this couple, in an age +proverbial for its immorality, in a city where the highest in rank set +an example of shameless licence, living their quiet, pure, artistic +life, respected and beloved by all that knew them. + +Betterton had few physical advantages. If we are to believe Antony +Aston, one of his contemporaries, he had "a short, thick neck, stooped +in the shoulders, and had fat, short arms, which he rarely lifted +higher than his stomach. His left hand frequently lodged in his +breast, between his coat and waistcoat, while with his right hand he +prepared his speech." Yet the same critic is obliged to confess that, +at seventy years of age, a younger man might have _personated_ but +could not have _acted_, Hamlet better. He calls his voice "low and +grumbling," but confesses that he had such power over it that he could +enforce attention even from fops and orange-girls. I dare say you +all know how Steele and Addison admired his acting, and how +enthusiastically they spoke of it in _The Tatler_. The latter writes +eloquently of the wonderful agony of jealousy and the tenderness +of love which he showed in _Othello_, and of the immense effect he +produced in _Hamlet_. + +Betterton, like all really great men, was a hard worker. Pepys says +of him, "Betterton is a very sober, serious man, and studious, and +humble, following of his studies; and is rich already with what he +gets and saves." Alas! the fortune so hardly earned was lost in an +unlucky moment: he entrusted it to a friend to invest in a commercial +venture in the East Indies which failed most signally. Betterton never +reproached his friend, he never murmured at his ill-luck. The friend's +daughter was left unprovided for; but Betterton adopted the child, +educated her for the stage, and she became an actress of merit, and +married Bowman, the player, afterwards known as "The Father of the +Stage." + +In Betterton's day there were no long runs of pieces; but, had his +lot been cast in these times, he might have been compelled to perform, +say, _Hamlet_ for three hundred or four hundred nights: for the rights +of the majority are entitled to respect in other affairs besides +politics, and if the theatre-going public demand a play (and our +largest theatres only hold a limited number) the manager dare not +cause annoyance and disappointment by withdrawing it. + +Like Edmund Kean, Betterton may be said to have died upon the stage; +for in April, 1710, when he took his last benefit, as Melantius, in +Beaumont and Fletcher's _Maid's Tragedy_ (an adaption of which, by the +way, was played by Macready under the title of _The Bridal_,) he was +suffering tortures from gout, and had almost to be carried to his +dressing-room; and though he acted the part with all his old fire, +speaking these very appropriate words:-- + + "My heart + And limbs are still the same, my will as great, + To do you service," + +within forty-eight hours he was dead. He was buried in the Cloisters +of Westminster Abbey with every mark of respect and honor. + +I may here add that the censure said to have been directed against +Betterton for the introduction of scenery is the prototype of that +cry, which we hear so often nowadays, against over-elaboration in +the arrangements of the stage. If it be a crime against good taste +to endeavor to enlist every art in the service of the stage, and to +heighten the effect of noble poetry by surrounding it with the most +beautiful and appropriate accessories, I myself must plead guilty to +that charge; but I should like to point out that every dramatist who +has ever lived, from Shakespeare downwards, has always endeavored to +get his plays put upon the stage with as good effect and as handsome +appointments as possible. + +Indeed, the Globe Theatre was burned down during the first performance +of _King Henry VIII._, through the firing off of a cannon which +announced the arrival of King Henry. Perhaps, indeed, some might +regard this as a judgment against the manager for such an attempt at +realism. + +It was seriously suggested to me by an enthusiast the other day, that +costumes of his own time should be used for all Shakespeare's plays. I +reflected a little on the suggestion, and then I put it to him whether +the characters in _Julius Cæsar_ or in _Antony and Cleopatra_ dressed +in doublet and hose would not look rather out of place. He answered, +"He had never thought of that." In fact, difficulties almost +innumerable must invariably crop up if we attempt to represent plays +without appropriate costume and scenery, the aim of which is to +realize the _locale_ of the action. Some people may hold that paying +attention to such matters necessitates inattention to the acting; but +the majority think it does not, and I believe that they are right. +What would Alma-Tadema say, for instance, if it were proposed to him +that in a picture of the Roman Amphitheatre the figures should be +painted in the costume of Spain? I do not think he would see the point +of such a noble disregard of detail; and why should he, unless what is +false in art is held to be higher than what is true? + +Little more than thirty years were to elapse between the death of +the honored Betterton and the appearance of David Garrick, who was +to restore Nature once more to the stage. In this comparatively +short interval progress in dramatic affairs had been all backward. +Shakespeare's advice to the actors had been neglected; earnest +passion, affecting pathos, ever-varying gestures, telling intonation +of voice, and, above all, that complete identification of themselves +in the part they represented--all these qualities, which had +distinguished the acting of Betterton, had given way to noisy +rant, formal and affected attitudes, and a heavy stilted style of +declamation. Betterton died in 1710, and six years after, in 1716, +Garrick was born. About twenty years after, in 1737, Samuel Johnson +and his friend and pupil, David Garrick, set out from Lichfield on +their way to London. In spite of the differences in their ages, and +their relationship of master and pupil, a hearty friendship had sprung +up between them, and one destined, in spite of Johnson's occasional +resentment at the actor's success in life, to last till it was ended +by the grave. Much of Johnson's occasional harshness and almost +contemptuous attitude towards Garrick was, I fear, the result of the +consciousness that his old pupil had thoroughly succeeded in life, +and had reached the highest goal possible in the career which he had +chosen; while he himself, though looked up to as the greatest scholar +of his time, was conscious, as he shows us in his own diary, of how +much more he might have done but for his constitutional indolence. + +Garrick's family was of French origin, his father having come over to +England during the persecution of the Huguenots in 1687, and on his +mother's side he had Irish blood in his veins; so that by descent he +was a combination of French, English, and Irish, a combination by no +means unpromising for one who was going to be an actor. + +On reaching London, Garrick enrolled his name in Lincoln's Inn, and +was looking about him to see what would turn up, when the news of his +father's death reached him. There is no doubt that, if Garrick had +consulted his own wishes only, he would at once have gone upon the +stage. But fortunately, perhaps, for his future career, he could not +bear to grieve his mother's heart by adopting at once, and at such +a time when she was crushed with some sorrow for her great loss, a +calling which he knew she detested so heartily. + +Within a year Mrs. Garrick followed to the grave the husband whom she +never ceased to mourn, and David had nothing more to face than the +prejudice of his brother, Peter, and of his sisters, if he should +resolve ultimately to adopt the profession on which his heart was +fixed. + +It was not, however, till nearly three years after, in 1741, that +Garrick, determined to take the decisive step, first feeling his way +by playing Chamont in _The Orphan_, and Sir Harry Wildair, at Ipswich, +where he appeared under the name of Mr. Lydall; and under this same +name, in the same year, he made his first appearance at Goodman's +Fields Theatre, in the part of Richard III. His success was +marvellous. Considering the small experience he had had, no actor ever +made such a successful _début_. No doubt by waiting and exercising his +powers of observation, and by studying many parts in private, he had +to a certain extent, matured his powers. But making allowance for +all his great natural gifts, there is no denying that Garrick, in one +leap, gained a position which, in the case of most other actors, has +only been reached through years of toil. He seems to have charmed all +classes: the learned and the ignorant, the cultured and the vulgar; +great statesmen, poets, and even the fribbles of fashion were all +nearly unanimous in his praise. The dissentient voices were so few +that they were drowned in the clamor of applause. Quinn might snarl +and growl; and Horace Walpole, who seems to have grown alarmed at +so much of the incense of praise finding its way to the nostrils of +another, might give vent to a few feeble sneers; such as when he said, +"I do not mention the things written in his praise because he writes +most of them himself." But the battle was won. Nature in the place +of Artificiality, Originality in the place of Conventionality, had +triumphed on the stage once more. + +Consternation reigned in the home at Lichfield when the news arrived +that brother David had become a play-actor; but ultimately the family +were reconciled to such degradation by the substantial results of the +experiment. Such reconcilements are not uncommon. Some young man of +good birth and position has taken to the stage; his family, who could +not afford to keep him, have been shocked, and in pious horror have +cast him out of their respectable circle; but at last success has +come, and they have managed to overcome their scruples and prejudices +and to profit by the harvest which the actor has reaped. + +Garrick seems to have continued playing under the name of Lydall for +two months, though the secret must have been an open one. It was not +till December the second, the night of his benefit, that he was at +last announced under his own name; and henceforward his career was +one long triumph, checkered, indeed, by disagreements, quarrels and +heart-burnings (for Garrick was extremely sensitive), caused, for the +most part, by the envy and jealousy which invariably dog the heels of +success. + +Second-rate actors, like Theophilus Gibber, or gnats such as Murphy, +and others, easily stung him. He was lampooned as "The Sick Monkey" +on his return to the stage after having taken a much needed rest. +But discretion and audacity seemed to go hand-in-hand, and the +self-satisfied satirizer generally over-shoots the mark. Garrick was +ever ready with a reply to his assailants; when Dr. Hill attacked his +pronunciation, saying that he pronounced his "i's" as if they were +"u's," Garrick answered-- + + "If 'tis true, as you say, that I've injured a letter, + I'll change my note soon, and I hope for the better. + May the just right of letters as well as of men, + Hereafter be fixed by the tongue and the pen. + Most devoutly I wish that they both have their due, + And that _I_ may be never mistaken for _U_." + +Comparing Garrick with Betterton, it must be remembered that he was +more exposed to the attacks of envy from the very universality of +his success. Never, perhaps, was there a man in any profession +who combined so many various qualities. A fair poet, a most fluent +correspondent, an admirable conversationalist, possessing a person +of singular grace, a voice of marvellous expressiveness, and a +disposition so mercurial and vivacious as is rarely found in any +Englishman, he was destined to be a great social as well as a great +artistic success. He loved the society of men of birth and fashion; he +seems to have had a more passionate desire to please in private even +than in public, and almost to have justified the often quoted couplet +in Goldsmith's "Retaliation." + + "On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only + that when he was off he was acting." + +Some men, envious of the substantial fortune which he realized by +almost incessant hard work, by thorough good principle with regard +to money, and by a noble, not a paltry, economy, might call him mean; +though many of them knew well, from their own experience, that his +nature was truly generous--his purse, as well as his heart, ever open +to a friend, however little he might deserve it. Yet they sneered +at his want of reckless extravagance, and called him a miser. The +greatest offender in this respect was Samuel Foote, a man of great +accomplishments, witty, but always ill-natured. It is difficult to +speak of Foote's conduct to Garrick in any moderate language. Mr. +Forster may assert that behind Foote's brutal jests there always +lurked a kindly feeling; but what can we think of the man who, +constantly receiving favors from Garrick's hand, could never speak of +him before others without a sneer; who the moment he had received the +loan of money or other favor for which he had cringed, snarled--I will +not say like a dog, for no dog is so ungrateful--and snapped at the +hand which had administered to him of its bounty. When this man, +who had never spared a friend, whose whole life had been passed in +maligning others, at last was himself a victim of a vile and cruel +slander, Garrick forgot the gibes and sneers of which Foote had made +him so often the victim, and stood by him with a noble devotion as +honorable to himself as it was ill-deserved by its object. Time would +not suffice, had I as many hours as I have minutes before me, to tell +you of all the acts of generosity that this mean man, this niggardly +actor, performed in his lifetime. One characteristic anecdote will +suffice. When Whitfield was building his Tabernacle in Tottenham Court +Road, he employed one of the carpenters who worked for Garrick at +Drury Lane. Subscriptions for the Tabernacle do not seem to have +come in as fast as they were required to pay the workmen, so that the +carpenter had to go to Garrick to ask for an advance. When pressed for +his reason he confessed that he had not received any wages from Mr. +Whitfield. Garrick made the advance asked for, and soon after quietly +set out to pay a visit to Mr. Whitfield, when, with many apologies for +the liberty he was taking, he offered him a five hundred pound bank +note as his subscription towards the Tabernacle. Considering that +Garrick had no particular sympathy with Nonconformists, this action +speaks as much for his charity as a Christian as it does for his +liberality as a man. + +Perhaps Richard III. remained Garrick's best Shakesperean character. +Of course he played Cibber's version and not Shakespeare's. In fact, +many of the Shakesperean parts were not played from the poet's own +text, but Garrick might have doubted whether even his popularity +would have reconciled his audiences to the unadulterated poetry of our +greatest dramatist. + +Next to Richard, Lear would seem to have been his best Shakesperean +performance. In Hamlet and Othello he did not equal Betterton; and +in the latter, certainly from all one can discover, he was infinitely +surpassed by Edmund Kean. In fact Othello was not one of his great +parts. But in the wide range of characters which he undertook, Garrick +was probably never equalled. A poor actor named Everard, who was first +brought out as a boy by Garrick, says: "Such or such an actor in their +respective _fortes_ have been allowed to play such or such a part +equally well as him; but could they perform Archer and Scrub like +him? and Abel Drugger, Ranger, and Bayes, and Benedick; speak his own +prologue to _Barbarossa_, in the character of a country-boy, and in a +few minutes transform himself in the same play to _Selim_? Nay, in the +same night he has played _Sir John Brute_ and the _Guardian, Romeo_ +and _Lord Chalkstone, Hamlet_ and _Sharp, King Lear_ and _Fribble, +King Richard_ and the _Schoolboy_! Could anyone but himself attempt +such a wonderful variety, such an amazing contrast of character, and +be equally great in all? No, no, no! Garrick, take the chair." + +Garrick was, without doubt, a very intense actor; he threw himself +most thoroughly into any part that he was playing. Certainly we know +that he was not wanting in reverence for Shakespeare; in spite of the +liberties which he ventured to take with the poet's text, he loved +and worshipped him. To Powell, who threatened to be at one time a +formidable rival, his advice was, "Never let your Shakespeare be out +of your hands; keep him about you as a charm; the more you read him, +the more you will like him, and the better you will act." As to his +yielding to the popular taste for pantomime and spectacle, he may +plead a justification in the words which his friend Johnson put into +his mouth in the Prologue that he wrote for the inauguration of his +management at Drury Lane:-- + + "The Drama's laws the Drama's patrons give, + And we, who live to please, must please to live." + +We must remember how much he did for the stage. Though his alterations +of Shakespeare shock us, they are nothing to those outrages committed +by others, who deformed the poet beyond recognition. Garrick made +Shakespeare's plays once more popular. He purged the actors, for a +time at least, of faults that were fatal to any high class of drama, +and, above all, he gradually got rid of those abominable nuisances +(to which we have already alluded), the people who came and took their +seats at the wings, on the stage itself, while the performance was +going on, hampering the efforts of the actors and actresses. The stage +would have had much to thank Garrick for if he had done nothing more +than this--if only that he was the first manager who kept the audience +where they ought to be, on the other side of the footlights. + +In his private life Garrick was most happy. He was fortunate enough +to find for his wife a simple-minded, loyal woman, in a quarter which +some people would deem very unpromising. Mrs. Garrick was, as is +well-known, a celebrated _danseuse_, known as Mademoiselle Violette, +whose real name was Eva Maria Weigel, a Viennese. A more affectionate +couple were never seen; they were not blessed with children, but they +lived together in the most uninterrupted happiness, and their house +was the scene of many social gatherings of a delightful kind. Mrs. +Garrick survived her celebrated husband, and lived to the ripe age of +ninety-eight, retaining to the very last much of that grace and charm +of expression which had won the actor's heart. + +Time will not allow me to dwell on the many points of interest +in Garrick's career; all of which are to be found in Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald's _Life of Garrick_. On returning to London after a visit +to the Spensers at Althorp in January, 1779, he was struck down by +a fatal attack of his old malady, the gout, and died at the age of +sixty-three. + +He was buried in Westminster Abbey with ceremonies as imposing as ever +graced the funeral of a great man. The pall-bearers were headed by the +Duke of Devonshire and the Earl Spenser, while round the grave there +were gathered such men as Burke and Fox, and last, not least, his old +friend and tutor, Samuel Johnson, his rugged countenance streaming +with tears, his noble heart filled with the sincerest grief. The words +so often quoted, artificial though they may seem, came from that heart +when, speaking of his dear Davy's death, he said that it "had eclipsed +the gayety of nations." + +Garrick's remarkable success in society, which achieved for him a +position only inferior to that he achieved on the stage, is the best +answer to what is often talked about the degrading nature of the +actor's profession. Since the days of Roscius no contempt for actors +in general, or for their art, has prevented a great actor from +attaining that position which is accorded to all distinguished in what +are held to be the higher arts. + +Nearly nine years after the death of Garrick, on November 4th, 1787, a +young woman, who had run away from home when little more than a child +to join a company of strolling players, and who, when that occupation +failed, earned a scanty living as a hawker in the streets of London, +gave birth, in a wretched room near Gray's Inn, to an illegitimate +child. This woman was Nancy Carey, the grand-daughter of Henry Carey, +the author of the "National Anthem." She was the great-grand-daughter +of George Saville, Marquis of Halifax, whose natural son Henry Carey +was. A compassionate actress, Miss Tidswell, who knew the father of +the child, Aaron Kean, gave her what assistance she could. Poor Nance +was removed to her father's lodgings, near Gray's Inn, and there, on +the day before mentioned, Edmund Kean was born. + +Three months after his birth his mother deserted him, leaving him, +without a word of apology or regret, to the care of the woman who had +befriended her in her trouble. When he was but three years old he was +brought, amongst a number of other children, to Michael Kelly who +was then bringing out the opera of _Cymon_ at the Opera House in the +Haymarket, and, thanks to his personal beauty, he was selected for +the part of Cupid. Shortly afterwards he found his way to Drury Lane, +where the handsome baby--for he was little more--figured among the +imps in the pantomime. Taught here the tricks of the acrobat, he had +at four years old acquired such powers of contortion that he was fit +to rank as an infant phenomenon. But the usual result followed: the +little limbs became deformed, and had to be put in irons, by means +of which they regained that symmetry with which nature had at first +endowed them. Three years afterwards, in March, 1794, John Kemble was +acting Macbeth at Drury Lane; and, in the "cauldron scene," he engaged +some children to personate the supernatural beings summoned by the +witches from that weird vessel. Little Edmund with his irons was the +cause of a ridiculous accident, and the attempt to embody the ghostly +forms was abruptly abandoned. But the child seems to have been +pardoned for his blunder, and for a short time was permitted by the +manager to appear in one or two children's parts. Little did the +dignified manager imagine that the child--who was one of his +cauldron of imps in _Macbeth_--was to become, twenty years later, his +formidable rival--formidable enough to oust almost the representative +of the Classical school from the supremacy he had hitherto enjoyed on +the Tragic stage. In Orange Court, Leicester Square, where Holcroft, +the author of _The Road to Ruin_, was born, Edmund Kean received +his first education. Scanty enough it was, for it had scarcely begun +before his wretched mother stepped in and claimed him; and, after her +re-appearance, his education seems to have been of a most spasmodic +character. Hitherto, the child's experience of life had been hard +enough. When only eight years of age he ran away to Portsmouth, and +shipped himself on board a ship bound to Madeira. But he found his +new life harder than that from which he had escaped, and, by dint of +feigning deafness and lameness, he succeeded in procuring his removal +to an hospital at Madeira, whence, the doctors finding his case +yielded to no remedies, the authorities kindly shipped him again to +England. He insisted on being deaf and lame: indeed, so deaf that in +a violent thunder-storm he remained perfectly unmoved, explaining his +composure by declaring that he could not hear any noise at all. From +Portsmouth he made his way on foot to London. On presenting himself +at the wretched lodgings where his mother lived, he found that she had +gone away with Richardson's troupe. Penniless and half-starving, he +suddenly thought of his uncle, Moses Kean, who lived in Lisle Street, +Leicester Square, a queer character, who gained a precarious living by +giving entertainments as a mimic and ventriloquist. The uncle received +his nephew warmly enough, and seems to have cultivated, to the best of +his ability, the talent for acting which he recognized at once in +the boy. Edmund again enjoyed a kind of desultory education, partly +carried on at school and partly at his uncle's home, where he enjoyed +the advantage of the kind instructions of his old friend, Miss +Tidswell, of D'Egville, the dancing master, of Angelo, the fencing +master, and of no less a person than Incledon, the celebrated singer, +who seems to have taken the greatest interest in him. But the vagrant, +half-gypsy disposition, which he inherited from his mother, could +never be subdued, and he was constantly disappearing from his uncle's +house for weeks together, which he would pass in going about from one +roadside inn to another, amusing the guests with his acrobatic tricks, +and his monkey-like imitations. In vain was he locked up in rooms, the +height of which from the ground was such as seemed to render escape +impossible. He contrived to get out somehow or other, even at the risk +of his neck, and to make his escape to some fair, where he would earn +a few pence by the exhibition of his varied accomplishments. During +these periods of vagabondism he would live on a mere nothing, sleeping +in barns, or in the open air, and would faithfully bring back his +gains to Uncle Moses. But even this astounding generosity, appealing, +as it must have done, to the uncle's sentiments, could not appease +him. His uncle went so far, apparently with the concurrence of Miss +Tidswell, as to place round the boy's neck a brass collar with the +inscription, "This boy belongs to No. 9 Lisle Street; please bring him +home." His wandering propensities being for a time subdued, we find +the little Edmund again engaged at Drury Lane, and delighting the +actors in the green-room by giving recitations from _Richard III._, +probably in imitation of Cooke; and, on one occasion, among his +audience was Mrs. Charles Kemble. During this engagement he played +Arthur to Kemble's King John and Mrs. Siddon's Constance, and appears +to have made a great success. Soon after this, his uncle Moses +died suddenly, and young Kean was left to the severe but kindly +guardianship of Miss Tidswell. We cannot follow him through all the +vicissitudes of his early career. The sketch I have given of his early +life--ample details of which may be found in Mrs. Hawkins's _Life of +Edmund Kean_--will give you a sufficient idea of what he must have +endured and suffered. When, years afterwards, the passionate love of +Shakespeare, which, without exaggeration, we may say he showed almost +from his cradle, had reaped its own reward in the wonderful success +which he achieved, if we find him then averse to respectable +conventionality, erratic, and even dissipated in his habits, let us +mercifully remember the bitter and degrading suffering which he passed +through in his childhood, and not judge too harshly the great actor. +Unlike those whose lives we have hitherto considered, he knew none of +the softening influences of a home; to him the very name of mother, +instead of recalling every tender and affectionate feeling, was but +the symbol of a vague horror, the fountain of that degradation and +depravation of his nature, from which no subsequent prosperity could +ever redeem it. + +For many years after his boyhood his life was one of continual +hardship. With that unsubdued conviction of his own powers, which +often is the sole consolation of genius, he toiled on and bravely +struggled through the sordid miseries of a strolling player's life. +The road to success lies through many a thorny course, across many a +dreary stretch of desert land, over many an obstacle, from which the +fainting heart is often tempted to turn back. But hope, and the sense +of power within, which no discouragements can subdue, inspire the +struggling artist still to continue the conflict, till at last courage +and perseverance meet with their just reward, and success comes. The +only feeling then to which the triumphant artist may be tempted is one +of good-natured contempt for those who are so ready to applaud those +merits which, in the past, they were too blind to recognize. Edmund +Kean was twenty-seven years old before his day of triumph came. + +Without any preliminary puffs, without any flourish of trumpets, on +the evening of the 26th January, 1814, soaked through with the rain, +Edmund Kean slunk more than walked in at the stage-door of Drury Lane +Theatre, uncheered by one word of encouragement, and quite unnoticed. +He found his way to the wretched dressing-room he shared in common +with three or four other actors; as quick as possible he exchanged his +dripping clothes for the dress of Shylock; and, to the horror of +his companions, took from his bundle a _black_ wig--the proof of his +daring rebellion against the great law of conventionality, which +had always condemned Shylock to red hair. Cheered by the kindness of +Bannister and Oxberry, the latter of whom offered him a welcome glass +of brandy and water, he descended to the stage dressed, and peeped +through the curtain to see a more than half-empty house. Dr. Drury +was waiting at the wings to give him a hearty welcome. The boxes were +empty, and there were about five hundred people in the pit, and a few +others "thinly scattered to make up a show." Shylock was the part he +was playing, and he no sooner stepped upon the stage than the interest +of the audience was excited. Nothing he did or spoke in the part was +done or spoken in a conventional manner. The simple words, "I will be +assured I may," were given with such effect that the audience burst +into applause. When the act-drop fell, after the speech of Shylock +to Antonio, his success was assured, and his fellow-actors, who had +avoided him, now seemed disposed to congratulate him; but he shrank +from their approaches. The great scene with Tubal was a revelation of +such originality and of such terrible force as had not probably been +seen upon those boards before. "How the devil so few of them could +kick up such a row was something marvellous!" naïvely remarked +Oxberry. At the end of the third act every one was ready to pay court +to him; but again he held aloof. All his thoughts were concentrated on +the great "trial" scene, which was coming. In that scene the +wonderful variety of his acting completed his triumph. Trembling with +excitement, he resumed his half-dried clothes, and, glad to escape, +rushed home. He was in too great a state of ecstasy at first to speak, +but his face told his wife that he had realized his dream--that he +had appeared on the stage of Drury Lane, and that his great powers +had been instantly acknowledged. With not a shadow of doubt as to his +future, he exclaimed, "Mary, you shall ride in your carriage;" and +taking his baby boy from the cradle and kissing him, said, "and +Charley, my boy, you shall go to Eton,"--and he did. + +The time when Edmund Kean made his first appearance in London was +certainly favorable for an actor of genius. For a long while the +national theatre had been in a bad way; and nothing but failure had +hitherto met the efforts of the Committee of Management, a committee +which numbered among its members Lord Byron. When the other members +of the committee, with a strange blindness to their own interests, +proposed that for the present, Kean's name should be removed from +the bills, Byron interested himself on his behalf: "You have a great +genius among you," he said, "and you do not know it." On Kean's second +appearance the house was nearly doubled. Hazlitt's criticism had +roused the whole body of critics, and they were all there to sit in +judgment upon the newcomer. His utter indifference to the audience won +him their respect, and before the piece was half over the sentence +of the formidable tribunal was in his favor. From that moment Kean +exercised over his audiences a fascination which was probably never +exercised by any other actor. Garrick was no doubt his superior in +parts of high comedy; he was more polished, more vivacious--his manner +more distinguished, and his versatility more striking. In such parts +as Coriolanus or Rolla, John Kemble excelled him: but in Shylock, +in Richard, in Iago, and, above all, in Othello, it may be doubted +whether Edmund Kean ever had an equal. As far as one can judge--not +having seen Kean one's-self--from the many criticisms extant, written +by the most intellectual men, and from the accounts of those who +saw him in his prime, he was, to my mind--be it said without any +disparagement to other great actors--the greatest genius that our +stage has ever seen. Unequal he may have been, perhaps often so, but +there were moments in his acting which were, without exaggeration, +moments of inspiration. Coleridge is reported to have said that to see +Kean act was "like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning." This +often-quoted sentence embodies perhaps the main feature of Edmund +Kean's greatness as an actor; for, when he was impersonating the +heroes of our poet, he revealed their natures by an instant flash of +light so searching that every minute feature, which by the ordinary +light of day was hardly visible, stood bright and clear before you. +The effect of such acting was indeed that of lightning--it appalled; +the timid hid their eyes, and fashionable society shrank from such +heart-piercing revelations of human passion. Persons who had schooled +themselves to control their emotion till they had scarcely any +emotion left to control, were repelled rather than attracted by Kean's +relentless anatomy of all the strongest feeling of our nature. In Sir +Giles Overreach, a character almost devoid of poetry, Kean's acting +displayed with such powerful and relentless truth the depths of a +cruel, avaricious man, baffled in all his vilest schemes, that the +effect he produced was absolutely awful. As no bird but the eagle can +look without blinking on the sun, so none but those who in the +sacred privacy of their imaginations had stood face to face with the +mightiest storms of human passion could understand such a performance. +Byron, who had been almost forced into a quarrel with Kean by the +actor's disregard of the ordinary courtesies of society, could not +restrain himself, but rushed behind the scenes and grasped the hand of +the man to whom he felt that he owed a wonderful revelation. + +I might discant for hours with an enthusiasm which, perhaps, only an +actor could feel on the marvellous details of Kean's impersonations. +He was not a scholar in the ordinary sense of the word, though Heaven +knows he had been schooled by adversity, but I doubt if there ever was +an actor who so thought out his part, who so closely studied with the +inward eye of the artist the waves of emotion that might have agitated +the minds of the beings whom he represented. One hears of him during +those early years of struggle and privation, pacing silently along +the road, foot-sore and half-starved, but unconscious of his own +sufferings, because he was immersed in the study of those great +creations of Shakespeare's genius which he was destined to endow with +life upon the stage. When you read of Edmund Kean as, alas! he was +later on in life, with mental and physical powers impaired, think of +the description those gave of him who knew him best in his earlier +years; how amidst all the wildness and half-savage Bohemianism, which +the miseries of his life had ensured, he displayed, time after time, +the most large-hearted generosity, the tenderest kindness of which +human nature is capable. Think of him working with a concentrated +energy for the one object which he sought, namely, to reach the +highest distinction in his calling. Think of him as sparing no mental +or physical labor to attain this end, an end which seemed ever fading +further and further from his grasp. Think of the disappointments, the +cruel mockeries of hope which, day after day, he had to encounter; +and then be harsh if you can to those moral failings for which his +misfortunes rather than his faults were responsible. If you are +inclined to be severe, you may console yourselves with the reflection +that this genius, who had given the highest intellectual pleasure to +hundreds and thousands of human beings, was hounded by hypocritical +sanctimoniousness out of his native land; and though, two years +afterwards, one is glad to say, for the honor of one's country, a +complete reaction took place, and his reappearance was greeted with +every mark of hearty welcome, the blow had been struck from which +neither his mind or his body ever recovered. He lingered upon +the stage, and died at the age of forty-six, after five years of +suffering--almost a beggar--with only a solitary ten-pound note +remaining of the large fortune his genius had realized. + +It is said that Kean swept away the Kembles and their Classical school +of acting. He did not do that. The memory of Sarah Siddons, tragic +queen of the British stage, was never to be effaced, and I would +remind you that when Kean was a country actor (assured of his own +powers, however unappreciated), resenting with passionate pride the +idea of playing second to "the Infant Roscius," who was for a time +the craze and idol of the hour, "Never," said he, "never; I will play +second to no one but John Kemble!" I am certain that when his +better nature had the ascendency no one would have more generously +acknowledged the merits of Kemble than Edmund Kean. It is idle to say +that because his style was solemn and slow, Kemble was not one of the +greatest actors that our stage has produced. It is only those whose +natures make them incapable of approbation or condemnation in artistic +matters without being partisans, who, because they admire Edmund Kean, +would admit no merit in John Kemble. The world of art, thank Heaven, +is wide enough for both, and the hearts of those who truly love art +are large enough to cherish the memory of both as of men who did noble +work in the profession which they adorned. Kean blended the Realistic +with the Ideal in acting, and founded a school of which William +Charles Macready was, afterwards, in England, the foremost disciple. + +Thus have we glanced, briefly enough, at four of our greatest actors +whose names are landmarks in the history of the Drama in England, the +greatest Drama of the world. We have seen how they all carried out, by +different methods perhaps, but in the same spirit, the principle that +in acting Nature must dominate Art. But it is Art that must interpret +Nature; and to interpret the thoughts and emotions of her mistress +should be her first object. But those thoughts, those emotions, must +be interpreted with grace, with dignity and with temperance; and +these, let us remember, Art alone can teach. + + + + +ADDRESS + +SESSIONAL OPENING + +PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION + +EDINBURGH + +9 NOVEMBER 1891 + + + + +THE ART OF ACTING + + +I have chosen as the subject of the address with which I have the +honor to inaugurate for the second time the Session of the Edinburgh +Philosophical Institution, "The Art of Acting." I have done so, in the +first instance, because I take it for granted that when you bestow on +any man the honor of asking him to deliver the inaugural address, it +is your wish to hear him speak of the subject with which he is best +acquainted; and the Art of Acting is the subject to which my life has +been devoted. I have another reason also which, though it may, so far +as you are concerned, be personal to those of my calling, I think it +well to put before you. It is that there may be, from the point of +view of an actor distinguished by your favor, some sort of official +utterance on the subject. There are some irresponsible writers who +have of late tried to excite controversy by assertions, generally +false and always misleading, as to the stage and those devoted to the +arts connected with it. Some of these writers go so far as to assert +that Acting is not an Art at all; and though we must not take such +wild assertions quite seriously, I think it well to place on record at +least a polite denial of their accuracy. It would not, of course, +be seemly to merely take so grave an occasion as the present as an +opportunity for such a controversy, but as I am dealing with the +subject before you, I think it better to place you in full knowledge +of the circumstances. It does not do, of course, to pay too much +attention to ephemeral writings, any more than to creatures of the +mist and the swamp and the night. But even the buzzing of the midge, +though the insect may be harmless compared with its more poison-laden +fellows, can divert the mind from more important things. To disregard +entirely the world of ephemera, and their several actions and effects +were to deny the entirety of the scheme of creation. + +I take it for granted that in addressing you on the subject of the Art +of Acting I am not, _prima facie_, encountering set prejudices; for +had you despised the Art which I represent I should not have had the +honor of appearing before you to-day. You will, I trust, on your part, +bear this in mind, and I shall, on my part, never forget that you are +members of a Philosophical Institution, the very root and basis of +whose work is to inquire into the heart of things with the purpose of +discovering why such as come under your notice are thus or thus. + +The subject of my address is a very vast one, and is, I assure you, +worthy of a careful study. Writers such as Voltaire, Schlegel, Goethe, +Lessing, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, and Schiller, have not disdained to +treat it with that seriousness which Art specially demands--which +anything in life requires whose purpose is not immediate and +imperative. For my own part I can only bring you the experience +of more than thirty years of hard and earnest work. Out of wide +experience let me point out that there are many degrees of merit, both +of aim, of endeavor, and of execution in acting, as in all things. I +want you to think of acting at its best--as it may be, as it can be, +as it has been, and is--and as it shall be, whilst it be followed by +men and women of strong and earnest purpose. I do not for a moment +wish you to believe that only Shakespeare and the great writers are +worthy of being played, and that all those efforts that in centuries +have gathered themselves round great names are worthy of your praise. +In the House of Art are many mansions where men may strive worthily +and live cleanly lives. All Art is worthy, and can be seriously +considered, so long as the intention be good and the efforts to +achieve success be conducted with seemliness. And let me here say, +that of all the arts none requires greater intention than the art +of acting. Throughout it is necessary to _do_ something, and +that something cannot fittingly be left to chance, or the unknown +inspiration of a moment. I say "unknown," for if known, then the +intention is to reproduce, and the success of the effort can be +in nowise due to chance. It may be, of course, that in moments of +passionate excitement the mind grasps some new idea, or the nervous +tension suggests to the mechanical parts of the body some new form of +expression; but such are accidents which belong to the great scheme of +life, and not to this art, or any art, alone. You all know the story +of the painter who, in despair at not being able to carry out the +intention of his imagination, dashed his brush at the imperfect +canvas, and with the scattering paint produced by chance the very +effect which his brush guided by his skill alone, had failed to +achieve. The actor's business is primarily to reproduce the ideas of +the author's brain, to give them form, and substance, and color, and +life, so that those who behold the action of a play may, so far as +can be effected, be lured into the fleeting belief that they behold +reality. Macready, who was an earnest student, defined the art of the +actor "to fathom the depths of character, to trace its latent motives, +to feel its finest quivering of emotion, is to comprehend the thoughts +that are hidden under words, and thus possess one's-self of the actual +mind of the individual man"; and Talma spoke of it as "the union +of grandeur without pomp, and nature without triviality"; whilst +Shakespeare wrote, "the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the +first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to +nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the +very age and body of the time his form and pressure." + +This effort to reproduce man in his moods is no mere trick of fancy +carried into execution. It is a part of the character of a strong +nation, and has a wider bearing on national life than perhaps +unthinking people are aware. Mr. Froude, in his survey of early +England, gives it a special place; and I venture to quote his words, +for they carry with them, not only their own lesson, but the authority +of a great name in historical research. + +"No genius can dispense with experience; the aberrations of power, +unguided or ill-guided, are ever in proportion to its intensity, and +life is not long enough to recover from inevitable mistakes. Noble +conceptions already existing, and a noble school of execution which +will launch mind and hand at once upon their true courses, are +indispensable to transcendent excellence; and Shakespeare's plays were +as much the offspring of the long generations who had pioneered his +road for him, as the discoveries of Newton were the offspring of those +of Copernicus. + +"No great general ever arose out of a nation of cowards; no great +statesman or philosopher out of a nation of fools; no great artist out +of a nation of materialists; no great drama, except when the drama was +the possession of the people. Acting was the especial amusement of the +English, from the palace to the village green. It was the result and +expression of their strong, tranquil possession of their lives, of +their thorough power over themselves, and power over circumstances. +They were troubled with no subjective speculations; no social problems +vexed them with which they were unable to deal; and in the exuberance +of vigor and spirit, they were able, in the strict and literal sense +of the word, to play with the materials of life." So says Mr. Froude. + +In the face of this statement of fact set forth gravely in its place +in the history of our land, what becomes of such bold assertions as +are sometimes made regarding the place of the drama being but a poor +one, since the efforts of the actor are but mimetic and ephemeral, +that they pass away as a tale that is told? All art is mimetic; and +even life itself, the highest and last gift of God to His people, is +fleeting. Marble crumbles, and the very names of great cities become +buried in the dust of ages. Who then would dare to arrogate to any art +an unchanging place in the scheme of the world's development, or would +condemn it because its efforts fade and pass? Nay, more; has even the +tale that is told no significance in after years? Can such not stir, +when it is worth the telling, the hearts of men, to whom it comes as +an echo from the past? Have not those tales remained most vital and +most widely known which are told and told again and again, face to +face and heart to heart, when the teller and the listener are adding, +down the ages, strength to the current of a mighty thought or a mighty +deed and its record? + +Surely the record that lives in the minds of men is still a record, +though it be not graven on brass or wrought in marble. And it were +a poor conception of the value of any art, if, in considering it, we +were to keep our eyes fixed on some dark spot, some imperfection, and +shut our eyes to its aim, its power, its beauty. It were a poor age +indeed where such a state of things is possible; as poor as that of +which Mrs. Browning's unhappy poet spoke in the bitterness of his +soul: + + "The age culls simples, + With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the + glory of the stars." + +Let us lift our faces when we wish to judge truly of any earnest work +of the hand or mind of man, and see it placed in the widest horizon +that is given to us. Poetry, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, +all have a bearing on their time, and beyond it; and the actor, though +his knowledge may be, and must be, limited by the knowledge of his +age, so long as he sound the notes of human passion, has something +which is common to all the ages. If he can smite water from the rock +of one hardened human heart--if he can bring light to the eye or +wholesome color to the faded cheek--if he can bring or restore in ever +so slight degree the sunshine of hope, of pleasure, of gayety, surely +he cannot have worked in vain. It would need but a small effort +of imagination to believe that that great wave theory, which the +scientists have proved as ruling the manifestations of light and +sound, applies also to the efforts of human emotion. And who shall +tell us the ultimate bounds of these waves of light and sound? If +these discernible waves can be traced till they fade into impalpable +nothingness, may we not think that this other, impalpable at the +beginning as they are at the end, can alone stretch into the +dimness of memory? Sir Joshua's gallant compliment, that he achieved +immortality by writing his name on the hem of Mrs. Siddons's garment, +when he painted her as the Tragic Muse, had a deeper significance than +its pretty fancy would at first imply. + +Not for a moment is the position to be accepted that the theatre +is merely a place of amusement. That it is primarily a place of +amusement, and is regarded as such by its _habitués_, is of course +apparent; but this is not its limitation. For authors, managers, and +actors it is a serious employment, to be undertaken gravely, and of +necessity to be adhered to rigidly. Thus far it may be considered from +these different stand-points; but there is a larger view--that of the +State. Here we have to consider a custom of natural growth specially +suitable to the genius of the nation. It has advanced with the +progress of each age, and multiplied with its material prosperity. +It is a living power, to be used for good, or possibly for evil; and +far-seeing men recognize in it, based though it be on the relaxation +and pleasures of the people, an educational medium of no mean order. +Its progress in the past century has been the means of teaching to +millions of people a great number of facts which had perhaps otherwise +been lost to them. How many are there who have had brought home to +them in an understandable manner by stage-plays the costumes, habits, +manners, and customs of countries and ages other than their own; +what insight have they thus obtained into facts and vicissitudes of +life--of passions and sorrows and ambitions outside the narrow scope +of their own lives, and which yet may and do mould the destinies of +men. All this is education--education in its widest sense, for it +broadens the sympathies and enlarges the intellectual grasp. +And beyond this again--for these are advantages on the material +side--there is that higher education of the heart, which raises in the +scale of creation all who are subject to its sweetening influences. To +hold his place therefore amongst these progressing forces, the actor +must at the start be well endowed with some special powers, and by +training, reading, and culture of many kinds, be equipped for the work +before him. No amount of training can give to a dense understanding +and a clumsy personality certain powers of quickness and spontaneity; +and, on the other hand, no genius can find its fullest expression +without some understanding of the principles and method of a craft. It +is the actor's part to represent or interpret the ideas and emotions +which the poet has created, and to do this he must at the first have +a full knowledge and understanding of them. This is in itself no easy +task. It requires much study and much labor of many kinds. Having then +acquired an idea, his intention to work it out into reality must be +put in force; and here new difficulties crop up at every further step +taken in advance. Now and again it suffices the poet to think and +write in abstractions; but the actor's work is absolutely concrete. +He is brought in every phase of his work into direct comparison with +existing things, and must be judged by the most exacting standards of +criticism. Not only must his dress be suitable to the part which he +assumes, but his bearing must not be in any way antagonistic to the +spirit of the time in which the play is fixed. The free bearing of +the sixteenth century is distinct from the artificial one of the +seventeenth, the mannered one of the eighteenth, and the careless +one of the nineteenth. And all this quite exclusive of the minute +qualities and individualities of the character represented. The voice +must be modulated to the vogue of the time. The habitual action of a +rapier-bearing age is different to that of a mail-clad one--nay, the +armor of a period ruled in real life the poise and bearing of the +body; and all this must be reproduced on the stage, unless the +intelligence of the audience, be they ever so little skilled in +history, is to count as naught. + +It cannot therefore be seriously put forward in the face of such +manifold requirements that no Art is required for the representation +of suitable action. Are we to imagine that inspiration or emotion of +any kind is to supply the place of direct knowledge of facts--of skill +in the very grammar of craftsmanship? Where a great result is arrived +at much effort is required, whether the same be immediate or has been +spread over a time of previous preparation. In this nineteenth century +the spirit of education stalks abroad and influences men directly +and indirectly, by private generosity and national foresight, to +accumulate as religiously as in former ages ecclesiastics and devotees +gathered sacred relics, all that helps to give the people a full +understanding of lives and times and countries other than their own. +Can it be that in such an age all that can help to aid the inspiration +and to increase direct knowledge is of no account whatever, because, +forsooth, it has a medium or method of its own? There are those who +say that Shakespeare is better in the closet than on the stage; that +dramatic beauty is more convincing when read in private than when +spoken on the stage to the accompaniment of suitable action. And yet, +if this be so, it is a strange thing that, with all the activity of +the new-born printing-press, Shakespeare's works were not known to the +reading public till the fame of the writer had been made on the stage. +And it is a stranger thing still, if the drama be a mere poetic form +of words, that the writer who began with _Venus and Adonis_, when he +found the true method of expression to suit his genius, ended with +_Hamlet_ and _The Tempest_. + +How is it, I ask, if these responsible makers of statements be +correct, that every great writer down from the days of Elizabeth, when +the drama took practical shape from the wish of the poets to render +human life in all its phases, have been desirous of seeing their +works, when written in dramatic form, represented on the stage--and +not only represented, but represented under the most favorable +conditions obtainable, both as to the fitness of setting and the +choice of the most skilled and excellent players? Are we to take it +that the poet, with his eye in a fine phrenzy rolling, sees all the +minute details of form, color, light, sound, and action which have +to be rendered complete on the stage? Is there nothing in what the +individual actor, who is gifted with fine sense and emotional power, +can add to mere words, however grand and rolling in themselves, and +whatsoever mighty image they may convey? Can it be possible that there +is any sane person who holds that there is no such thing as expression +in music so long as the written notes are correctly rendered--that the +musical expression of a Paganini or a Liszt, or that the voice of a +Malibran or a Grisi, has no special charm--nay more, that there is not +some special excellence in the instruments of Amati or Stradivarius? +If there be, we can leave to him, whilst the rest of mankind marvel +at his self-sufficient obtuseness, to hold that it was nothing but his +own imagination which so much influenced Hazlitt when he was touched +to the heart by Edmund Kean's rendering of the words of the remorseful +Moor, "Fool, fool, fool!" Why, the action of a player who knows how to +convey to the audience that he is listening to another speaking, can +not only help in the illusion of the general effect, but he himself +can suggest a running commentary on what is spoken. In every moment +in which he is on the stage, an actor accomplished in his craft can +convey ideas to the mind. + +It is in the representation of passion that the intention of the actor +appears in its greatest force. He wishes to do a particular thing, and +so far the wish is father to the thought that the brain begins to work +in the required direction, and the emotional faculties and the whole +nervous and muscular systems follow suit. A skilled actor can count on +this development of power, if it be given to him to rise at all to the +height of a passion; and the inspiration of such moments may, now and +again, reveal to him some new force or beauty in the character which +he represents. Thus he will gather in time a certain habitual strength +in a particular representation of passion. Diderot laid down a theory +that an actor never feels the part he is acting. It is of course true +that the pain he suffers is not real pain, but I leave it to any one +who has ever felt his own heart touched by the woes of another to say +if he can even imagine a case where the man who follows in minutest +detail the history of an emotion, from its inception onward, is the +only one who cannot be stirred by it--more especially when his own +individuality must perforce be merged in that of the archetypal +sufferer. Talma knew that it was possible for an actor to feel to the +full a simulated passion, and yet whilst being swept by it to retain +his consciousness of his surroundings and his purpose. In his own +words--"The intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations +of sensibility." And this is what Shakespeare means when he makes +Hamlet tell the players--"for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I +may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must beget a temperance that +may give it smoothness." + +How can any one be temperate in the midst of his passion, lest it be +that his consciousness and his purpose remain to him? Let me say that +it is this very discretion which marks the ultimate boundary of an +Art, which stands within the line of demarcation between Art and +Nature. In Nature there is no such discretion. Passion rules supreme +and alone; discretion ceases, and certain consequences cease to be any +deterrent or to convey any warning. It must never be forgotten that +all Art has the aim or object of seeming and not of being; and that to +understate is as bad as to overstate the modesty or the efflorescence +of Nature. It is not possible to show within the scope of any Art the +entire complexity and the myriad combining influences of Nature. +The artist has to accept the conventional standard--the accepted +significance--of many things, and confine himself to the exposition of +that which is his immediate purpose. To produce the effect of reality +it is necessary, therefore, that the efforts of an artist should be +slightly different from the actions of real life. The perspective +of the stage is not that of real life, and the result of seeming +is achieved by means which, judged by themselves, would seem to be +indirect. It is only the raw recruit who tries to hit the bull's-eye +by point-blank firing, and who does not allow for elevation and +windage. Are we to take it for a moment, that in the Art of Acting, +of which elocution is an important part, nothing is to be left to the +individual idea of the actor? That he is simply to declaim the words +set down for him, without reference to the expression of his face, +his bearing, or his action? It is in the union of all the powers--the +harmony of gait and utterance and emotion--that conviction lies. +Garrick, who was the most natural actor of his time, could not declaim +so well as many of his own manifest inferiors in his art--nay, it +was by this that he set aside the old false method, and soared to the +heights in which, as an artist, he reigned supreme. Garrick personated +and Kean personated. The one had all the grace and mastery of the +powers of man for the conveyance of ideas, the other had a mighty +spirit which could leap out in flame to awe and sweep the souls of +those who saw and heard him. And the secret of both was that they best +understood the poet--best impersonated the characters which he drew, +and the passions which he set forth. + +In order to promote and preserve the idea of reality in the minds of +the public, it is necessary that the action of the play be set in what +the painters call the proper _milieu_, or atmosphere. To this belongs +costume, scenery, and all that tends to set forth time and place other +than our own. If this idea be not kept in view there must be, or at +all events there may be, some disturbing cause to the mind of the +onlooker. This is all--literally all--that dramatic Art imperatively +demands from the paint room, the wardrobe, and the property shop; +and it is because the public taste and knowledge in such matters have +grown that the actor has to play his part with the surroundings and +accessories which are sometimes pronounced to be a weight or drag +on action. Suitability is demanded in all things; and it must, for +instance, be apparent to all that the things suitable to a palace are +different to those usual in a hovel. There is nothing unsuitable in +Lear in kingly raiment in the hovel in the storm, because such is here +demanded by the exigencies of the play: but if Lear were to be first +shown in such guise in such a place with no explanation given of the +cause, either the character or the stage-manager would be simply taken +for a madman. This idea of suitability should always be borne in mind, +for it is in itself a sufficient answer to any thoughtless allegation +as to overloading a play with scenery. + +Finally, in the consideration of the Art of Acting, it must never be +forgotten that its ultimate aim is beauty. Truth itself is only an +element of beauty, and to merely reproduce things vile and squalid and +mean is a debasement of Art. There is apt to be such a tendency in +an age of peace, and men should carefully watch its manifestations. A +morose and hopeless dissatisfaction is not a part of a true national +life. This is hopeful and earnest, and, if need be, militant. It is a +bad sign for any nation to yearn for, or even to tolerate, pessimism +in its enjoyment; and how can pessimism be other than antagonistic +to beauty? Life, with all its pains and sorrows, is a beautiful and +a precious gift; and the actor's Art is to reproduce this beautiful +thing, giving due emphasis to those royal virtues and those stormy +passions which sway the destinies of men. Thus the lesson given by +long experience--by the certain punishment of ill-doing--and by the +rewards that follow on bravery, forbearance, and self-sacrifice, are +on the mimic stage conveyed to men. And thus every actor who is more +than a mere machine, and who has an ideal of any kind, has a duty +which lies beyond the scope of his personal ambition. His art must +be something to hold in reverence if he wishes others to hold it in +esteem. There is nothing of chance about this work. All, actors and +audience alike, must bear in mind that the whole scheme of the higher +Drama is not to be regarded as a game in life which can be played with +varying success. Its present intention may be to interest and amuse, +but its deeper purpose is earnest, intense, sincere. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAMA*** + + +******* This file should be named 13483-8.txt or 13483-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/4/8/13483 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Drama</p> +<p>Author: Henry Irving</p> +<p>Release Date: September 17, 2004 [eBook #13483]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAMA***</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<h4>E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Lisa Reigel,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<br /><span class="newpage"><a name='Page2' id='Page2'>[2]</a></span> +<a name="image-0001" id="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<center><img src="images/image01a.jpg" width="125" height="250" alt= +"Frontispiece" /></center> +<!--IMAGE END--> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page3' id='Page3'>[3]</a></span> +<h1>THE DRAMA</h1> +<h3>Addresses by</h3> +<center> +<h2>HENRY IRVING</h2> +</center> +<table align="center" summary="same as table of contents"> +<tr> +<td align="right"><big>I<br /> +II<br /> +III<br /> +IV</big></td> +<td><big>.<br /> +.<br /> +.<br /> +.</big></td> +<td><big>The Stage as it is<br /> +The Art of Acting<br /> +Four Great Actors<br /> +The Art of Acting</big></td> +</tr> +</table> +<br /> +<br /> +<center><i><b>WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY WHISTLER</b></i></center> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page4' id='Page4'>[4]</a></span> +<br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page5' id='Page5'>[5]</a></span> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<br /> +<p class="toc"><a href="#link1"><big>The Stage as it +is</big></a></p> +<br /> +<br /> +<p class="toc"><a href="#link2"><big>The Art of +Acting</big></a></p> +<br /> +<p class="toc1"><a href="#link3"><big>I. The Occasion</big></a></p> +<br /> +<p class="toc1"><a href="#link4"><big>II. The Art of +Acting</big></a></p> +<br /> +<p class="toc1"><a href="#link5"><big>III. Practice of the +Art</big></a></p> +<br /> +<p class="toc1"><a href="#link6"><big>IV. The Rewards of the +Art</big></a></p> +<br /> +<br /> +<p class="toc"><a href="#link7"><big>Four Great +Actors</big></a></p> +<br /> +<br /> +<p class="toc"><a href="#link8"><big>The Art of +Acting</big></a></p> +<br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page6' id='Page6'>[6]</a></span> +<br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page7' id='Page7'>[7]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /> +<center> +<h3>LECTURE</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>SESSIONAL OPENING</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>EDINBURGH</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>8 NOVEMBER 1881</h3> +</center> +<a name="link1" id="link1"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page8' id='Page8'>[8]</a></span> +<br /> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page9' id='Page9'>[9]</a></span> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<h1>THE STAGE AS IT IS.</h1> +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, +<p>You will not be surprised that, on this interesting occasion, I have +selected as the subject of the few remarks I propose to offer you, +"The Stage as it is." The stage—because to my profession I owe it +that I am here, and every dictate of taste and of fidelity impels me +to honor it; the stage as it is—because it is very cheap and empty +honor that is paid to the drama in the abstract, and withheld from the +theatre as a working institution in our midst. Fortunately there is +less of this than there used to be. It arose partly from intellectual +superciliousness, partly from timidity as to moral contamination. To<span class="newpage"><a name='Page10' id='Page10'>[10]</a></span> +boast of being able to appreciate Shakespeare more in reading him than +in seeing him acted used to be a common method of affecting special +intellectuality. I hope this delusion—a gross and pitiful one as to +most of us—has almost absolutely died out. It certainly conferred a +very cheap badge of superiority on those who entertained it. It seemed +to each of them an inexpensive opportunity of worshipping himself on +a pedestal. But what did it amount to? It was little more than a +conceited and feather-headed assumption that an unprepared reader, +whose mind is usually full of far other things, will see on the +instant all that has been developed in hundreds of years by the +members of a studious and enthusiastic profession. My own conviction +is, that there are few characters or passages of our great dramatists +which will not repay original study. But at least we must recognize<span class="newpage"><a name='Page11' id='Page11'>[11]</a></span> +the vast advantages with which a practised actor, impregnated by the +associations of his life, and by study—with all the practical and +critical skill of his profession up to the date at which he appears, +whether he adopts or rejects tradition—addresses himself to the +interpretation of any great character, even if he have no originality +whatever. There is something still more than this, however, in acting. +Every one who has the smallest histrionic gift has a natural dramatic +fertility; so that as soon as he knows the author's text, and obtains +self-possession, and feels at home in a part without being too +familiar with it, the mere automatic action of rehearsing and playing +it at once begins to place the author in new lights, and to give the +personage being played an individuality partly independent of, and +yet consistent with, and rendering more powerfully visible, the +dramatist's conception. It is <span class="newpage"><a name='Page12' id='Page12'>[12]</a></span>the vast power a good actor has in this +way which has led the French to speak of creating a part when they +mean its being first played; and French authors are so conscious of +the extent and value of this co-operation of actors with them, that +they have never objected to the phrase, but, on the contrary, are +uniformly lavish in their homage to the artists who have created on +the boards the parts which they themselves have created on paper.</p> + +<p>I must add, as an additional reason for valuing the theatre, that +while there is only one Shakespeare, and while there are comparatively +few dramatists who are sufficiently classic to be read with close +attention, there is a great deal of average dramatic work excellently +suited for representation. From this the public derive pleasure. From +this they receive—as from fiction in literature—a great deal of +instruction and mental stimulus. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page13' id='Page13'>[13]</a></span>Some may be worldly, some social, +some cynical, some merely humorous and witty, but a great deal of it, +though its literary merit is secondary, is well qualified to bring +out all that is most fruitful of good in common sympathies. Now, it +is plain that if, because Shakespeare is good reading, people were to +give the cold shoulder to the theatre, the world would lose all the +vast advantage which comes to it through the dramatic faculty in forms +not rising to essentially literary excellence. As respects the other +feeling which used to stand more than it does now in the way of the +theatre—the fear of moral contamination—it is due to the theatre of +our day, on the one hand, and to the prejudices of our grandfathers on +the other, to confess that the theatre of fifty years ago or less did +need reforming in the audience part of the house. All who have read +the old controversy as to the morality of going to the theatre are +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page14' id='Page14'>[14]</a></span>familiar with the objection to which I refer. But the theatre of fifty +years ago or less was reformed. If there are any, therefore, as I fear +there are a few, who still talk on this point in the old vein, let +them rub their eyes a bit, and do us the justice to consider not what +used to be, but what is. But may there be moral contamination from +what is performed on the stage? Well, there may be. But so there is +from books. So there may be at lawn tennis clubs. So there may be at +dances. So there may be in connection with everything in civilized +life and society. But do we therefore bury ourselves? The anchorites +secluded themselves in hermitages. The Puritans isolated themselves in +consistent abstinence from everything that anybody else did. And there +are people now who think that they can keep their children, and that +those children will keep themselves in after life, in cotton wool, so +as to avoid <span class="newpage"><a name='Page15' id='Page15'>[15]</a></span>all temptation of body and mind, and be saved nine-tenths +of the responsibility of self-control. All this is mere phantasy. You +must be in the world, though you need not be of it; and the best way +to make the world a better community to be in, and not so bad a place +to be of, is not to shun, but to bring public opinion to bear upon +its pursuits and its relaxations. Depend upon two things—that the +theatre, as a whole, is never below the average moral sense of the +time; and that the inevitable demand for an admixture, at least, of +wholesome sentiment in every sort of dramatic production brings the +ruling tone of the theatre, whatever drawback may exist, up to the +highest level at which the general morality of the time can truly be +registered. We may be encouraged by the reflection that this is truer +than ever it was before, owing to the greater spread of education, the +increased community of taste<span class="newpage"><a name='Page16' id='Page16'>[16]</a></span> between classes, and the almost absolute +divorce of the stage from mere wealth and aristocracy. Wealth and +aristocracy come around the stage in abundance, and are welcome, as in +the time of Elizabeth; but the stage is no longer a mere appendage of +court-life, no longer a mere mirror of patrician vice hanging at the +girdle of fashionable profligacy as it was in the days of Congreve and +Wycherley. It is now the property of the educated people. It has +to satisfy them or pine in neglect And the better their demands the +better will be the supply with which the drama will respond. +This being not only so, but seen to be so, the stage is no longer +proscribed. It is no longer under a ban. Its members are no longer +pariahs in society. They live and bear their social part like +others—as decorously observant of all that makes the sweet sanctities +of life—as gracefully cognizant of its amenities—as readily +recognized and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page17' id='Page17'>[17]</a></span>welcomed as the members of any other profession. Am +I not here your grateful guest, opening the session of this +philosophical and historic institution? I who am simply an actor, +an interpreter, with such gifts as I have, and such thought as I +can bestow, of stage plays. And am I not received here with perfect +cordiality on an equality, not hungrily bowing and smirking for +patronage, but interchanging ideas which I am glad to express, and +which you listen to as thoughtfully and as kindly as you would to +those of any other student, any other man who had won his way +into such prominence as to come under the ken of a distinguished +institution such as that which I have the honor to address? I do not +mince the matter as to my personal position here, because I feel it +is a representative one, and marks an epoch in the estimation in +which the art I love is held by the British <span class="newpage"><a name='Page18' id='Page18'>[18]</a></span>world. You have had many +distinguished men here, and their themes have often been noble, but +with which of those themes has not my art immemorial and perpetual +associations? Is it not for ever identified with the noblest instincts +and occupations of the human mind? If I think of poetry, must I not +remember how to the measure of its lofty music the theatre has in +almost all ages set the grandest of dramatic conceptions? If I think +of literature, must I not recall that of all the amusements by which +men in various states of society have solaced their leisure and +refreshed their energies, the acting of plays is the one that has +never yet, even for a day, been divorced from literary taste and +skill? If I meditate on patriotism, can I but reflect how grandly the +boards have been trod by personifications of heroic love of country? +There is no subject of human thought that by common <span class="newpage"><a name='Page19' id='Page19'>[19]</a></span>consent is deemed +ennobling that has not ere now, and from period to period, been +illustrated in the bright vesture, and received expression from the +glowing language of theatrical representation. And surely it is +fit that, remembering what the stage has been and must be, I should +acknowledge eagerly and gladly that, with few exceptions, the public +no longer debar themselves from the profitable pleasures of the +theatre, and no longer brand with any social stigma the professors of +the histrionic art. Talking to an eminent bishop one day, I said to +him, "Now, my Lord, why is it, with your love and knowledge of the +drama, with your deep interest in the stage and all its belongings, +and your wide sympathy with all that ennobles and refines our +natures—why is it that you never go to the theatre?" "Well," said +he, "I'll tell you. I'm afraid of the <i>Rock</i> and the <i>Record</i>." I +hope soon we shall relieve even the most <span class="newpage"><a name='Page20' id='Page20'>[20]</a></span>timid bishop—and my right +reverend friend is not the most timid—of all fears and tremors +whatever that can prevent even ministers of religion from recognizing +the wisdom of the change of view which has come over even the most +fastidious public opinion on this question. Remember, if you please, +that the hostile public opinion which has lately begun so decisively +to disappear, has been of comparatively modern growth, or at least +revival. The pious and learned of other times gave their countenance +and approbation to the stage of their days, as the pious and learned +of our time give their countenance and approbation to certain +performances in this day. Welcome be the return of good sense, good +taste, and charity, or rather justice. No apology for the stage. None +is needed. It has but to be named to be honored. Too long the world +talked with bated breath and whispering <span class="newpage"><a name='Page21' id='Page21'>[21]</a></span>humbleness of "the poor +player." There are now few poor players. Whatever variety of fortune +and merit there may be among them, they have the same degrees of +prosperity and respect as come to members of other avocations. There +never was so large a number of theatres or of actors. And their +type is vastly improved by public recognition. The old days when +good-for-nothings passed into the profession are at an end; and the +old Bohemian habits, so far as they were evil and disreputable, have +also disappeared. The ranks of the art are being continually recruited +by deeply interested and earnest young men of good education and +belongings. Nor let us, while dissipating the remaining prejudices +of outsiders, give quarter to those which linger among players +themselves. There are some who acknowledge the value of improved +status to themselves and their art, but who lament that there are now +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page22' id='Page22'>[22]</a></span>no schools for actors. This is a very idle lamentation. Every actor +in full employment gets plenty of schooling, for the best schooling +is practice, and there is no school so good as a well-conducted +playhouse. The truth is, that the cardinal secret of success in acting +are found within, while practice is the surest way of fertilizing +these germs. To efficiency in the art of acting there should come a +congregation of fine qualities. There should be considerable, +though not necessarily systematic, culture. There should be delicate +instincts of taste cultivated, consciously, or unconsciously, to a +degree of extreme and subtle nicety. There should be a power, at once +refined and strong, of both perceiving and expressing to others +the significance of language, so that neither shades nor masses of +meaning, so to speak, may be either lost or exaggerated. Above all, +there should be a sincere and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page23' id='Page23'>[23]</a></span>abounding sympathy with all that is good +and great and inspiring. That sympathy, most certainly, must be under +the control and manipulation of art, but it must be none the lest real +and generous, and the artist who is a mere artist will stop short of +the highest moral effects of his craft. Little of this can be got in a +mere training school, but all of it will come forth more or less fully +armed from the actor's brain in the process of learning his art by +practice. For the way to learn to do a thing is to do it; and in +learning to act by acting, though there is plenty of incidental hard +drill and hard work, there is nothing commonplace or unfruitful.</p> + +<p>What is true of the art is true also of the social life of the artist. +No sensational change has been found necessary to alter his status +though great changes have come. The stage has literally lived down +the rebuke and reproach under which it formerly cowered, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page24' id='Page24'>[24]</a></span>while its +professors have been simultaneously living down the prejudices which +excluded them from society. The stage is now seen to be an elevating +instead of a lowering influence on national morality, and actors and +actresses receive in society, as do the members of other professions, +exactly the treatment which is earned by their personal conduct. +And so I would say of what we sometimes hear so much about—dramatic +reform. It is not needed; or, if it is, all the reform that is wanted +will be best effected by the operation of public opinion upon the +administration of a good theatre. That is the true reforming agency, +with this great advantage, that reforms which come by public opinion +are sure, while those which come without public opinion cannot be +relied upon. The dramatic reformers are very well-meaning people. They +show great enthusiasm. They are new converts to the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page25' id='Page25'>[25]</a></span>theatre, most of +them, and they have the zeal of converts. But it is scarcely according +to knowledge. These ladies and gentlemen have scarcely studied the +conditions of theatrical enterprise, which must be carried on as a +business or it will fail as an art. It is an unwelcome, if not an +unwarrantable intrusion to come among our people with elaborate +advice, and endeavor to make them live after different fashions from +those which are suitable to them, and it will be quite hopeless to +attempt to induce the general body of a purely artistic class to make +louder and more fussy professions of virtue and religion than other +people. In fact, it is a downright insult to the dramatic profession +to exact or to expect any such thing. Equally objectionable, and +equally impracticable, are the attempts of Quixotic "dramatic +reformers" to exercise a sort of goody-goody censorship over the +selection<span class="newpage"><a name='Page26' id='Page26'>[26]</a></span> and the text of the plays to be acted. The stage has been +serving the world for hundreds, yes, and thousands of years, during +which it has contributed in pure dramaturgy to the literature of +the world its very greatest master-pieces in nearly all languages, +meanwhile affording to the million an infinity of pleasure, all more +or less innocent. Where less innocent, rather than more, the cause has +lain, not in the stage, but in the state of society of which it was +the mirror. For though the stage is not always occupied with its own +period, the new plays produced always reflect in many particulars +the spirit of the age in which they are played. There is a story of +a traveller who put up for the night at a certain inn, on the door of +which was the inscription—"Good entertainment for man and beast." His +horse was taken to the stable and well cared for, and he sat down +to dine. When the covers were removed he <span class="newpage"><a name='Page27' id='Page27'>[27]</a></span>remarked, on seeing his own +sorry fare, "Yes, this is very well; but where's the entertainment for +the man?" If everything were banished from the stage except that +which suits a certain taste, what dismal places our theatres would be! +However fond the play-goer may be of tragedy, if you offer him nothing +but horrors, he may well ask—"Where's the entertainment for the man +who wants an evening's amusement?" The humor of a farce may not seem +over-refined to a particular class of intelligence; but there are +thousands of people who take an honest pleasure in it. And who, after +seeing my old friend J.L. Toole in some of his famous parts, and +having laughed till their sides ached, have not left the theatre more +buoyant and light-hearted than they came? Well, if the stage has +been thus useful and successful all these centuries, and still is +productive; if the noble fascination of the theatre <span class="newpage"><a name='Page28' id='Page28'>[28]</a></span>draws to it, as we +know that it does, an immortal poet such as our Tennyson, whom, I can +testify from my own experience, nothing delights more than the success +of one of the plays which, in the mellow autumn of his genius, he has +contributed to the acting theatre; if a great artist like Tadema is +proud to design scenes for stage plays; if in all departments of stage +production we see great talent, and in nearly every instance great +good taste and sincere sympathy with the best popular ideals of +goodness; then, I say, the stage is entitled to be let alone—that +is, it is entitled to make its own bargain with the public without the +censorious intervention of well-intentioned busybodies. These do not +know what to ban or to bless. If they had their way, as of course +they cannot, they would license, with many flourishes and much +self-laudation, a number of pieces which would be hopelessly +condemned on the first hearing, and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page29' id='Page29'>[29]</a></span>they would lay an embargo for very +insufficient reasons on many plays well entitled to success. It is not +in this direction that we must look for any improvement that is needed +in the purveying of material for the stage. Believe me, the right +direction is public criticism and public discrimination. I say so +because, beyond question, the public will have what they want. So far, +that managers in their discretion, or at their pleasure, can force on +the public either very good or very bad dramatic material is an utter +delusion. They have no such power. If they had the will they could +only force any particular sort of entertainment just as long as they +had capital to expend without any return. But they really have not the +will. They follow the public taste with the greatest keenness. If the +people want Shakespeare—as I am happy to say they do, at least at one +theatre in London, and at all the great theatres out of London, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page30' id='Page30'>[30]</a></span>to +an extent unprecedented in the history of the stage—then they get +Shakespeare. If they want our modern dramatists—Albery, Boucicault, +Byron, Burnand, Gilbert, or Wills—these they have. If they want +Robertson, Robertson is there for them. If they desire opera-bouffe, +depend upon it they will have it, and have it they do. What then do +I infer? Simply this: that those who prefer the higher drama—in the +representation of which my heart's best interests are centred—instead +of querulously animadverting on managers who give them something +different, should, as Lord Beaconsfield said, "make themselves into a +majority." If they do so, the higher drama will be produced. But if we +really understand the value of the drama, we shall not be too rigid in +our exactions. The drama is the art of human nature in picturesque +or characteristic action. Let us be liberal in our enjoyment of it. +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page31' id='Page31'>[31]</a></span>Tragedy, comedy, historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical—remember +the large-minded list of the greatest-minded poet—all are good, if +wholesome—and will be wholesome if the public continue to take the +healthy interest in theatres which they are now taking. The worst +times for the stage have been those when play-going was left pretty +much to a loose society, such as is sketched in the Restoration +dramatists. If the good people continue to come to the theatre in +increasing crowds, the stage, without losing any of its brightness, +will soon be good enough, if it is not as yet, to satisfy the best of +them. This is what I believe all sensible people in these times see. +And if, on the one hand, you are ready to laugh at the old prejudices +which have been so happily dissipated; on the other hand, how +earnestly must you welcome the great aid to taste and thought and +culture which comes to you thus in the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page32' id='Page32'>[32]</a></span>guise of amusement. Let me put +this to you rather seriously; let me insist on the intellectual and +moral use, alike to the most and least cultivated of us, of this +art "most beautiful, most difficult, most rare," which I stand here +to-day, not to apologize for, but to establish in the high place +to which it is entitled among the arts and among the ameliorating +influences of life. Grant that any of us understand a dramatist better +for seeing him acted, and it follows, first, that all of us will be +most indebted to the stage at the point where the higher and more +ethereal faculties are liable in reading to failure and exhaustion, +that is, stage-playing will be of most use to us where the mind +requires help and inspiration to grasp and revel in lofty moral or +imaginative conceptions, or where it needs aid and sharpening to +appreciate and follow the niceties of repartee, or the delicacies +of comic fancy. Secondly, it follows <span class="newpage"><a name='Page33' id='Page33'>[33]</a></span>that if this is so with the +intellectual few, it must be infinitely more so with the unimaginative +many of all ranks. They are not inaccessible to passion and poetry and +refinement, but their minds do not go forth, as it were, to seek these +joys; and even if they read works of poetic and dramatic fancy, which +they rarely do, they would miss them on the printed page. To them, +therefore, with the exception of a few startling incidents of real +life, the theatre is the only channel through which are ever brought +the great sympathies of the world of thought beyond their immediate +ken. And thirdly, it follows from all this that the stage is, +intellectually and morally, to all who have recourse to it, the +source of some of the finest and best influences of which they are +respectively susceptible. To the thoughtful and reading man it brings +the life, the fire, the color, the vivid instinct, which are beyond +the reach of <span class="newpage"><a name='Page34' id='Page34'>[34]</a></span>study. To the common indifferent man, immersed, as a +rule, in the business and socialities of daily life, it brings visions +of glory and adventure, of emotion and of broad human interest. It +gives glimpses of the heights and depths of character and experience, +setting him thinking and wondering even in the midst of amusement. To +the most torpid and unobservant it exhibits the humorous in life and +the sparkle and finesse of language, which in dull ordinary existence +is stupidly shut out of knowledge or omitted from particular notice. +To all it uncurtains a world, not that in which they live and yet +not other than it—a world in which interest is heightened whilst the +conditions of truth are observed, in which the capabilities of men and +women are seen developed without losing their consistency to nature, +and developed with a curious and wholesome fidelity to simple and +universal instincts of clear right and wrong.<span class="newpage"><a name='Page35' id='Page35'>[35]</a></span> Be it observed—and I +put it most uncompromisingly—I am not speaking or thinking of any +unrealizable ideal, not of any lofty imagination of what might be, but +of what is, wherever there are pit and gallery and foot-lights. More +or less, and taking one evening with another, you may find support +for an enthusiastic theory of stage morality and the high tone of +audiences in most theatres in the country; and if you fancy that it +is least so in the theatres frequented by the poor you make a great +mistake, for in none is the appreciation of good moral fare more +marked than in these.</p> + +<p>In reference to the poorer classes, we all lament the wide prevalence +of intemperate drinking. Well, is it not an obvious reflection that +the worst performance seen on any of our stages cannot be so bad as +drinking for a corresponding time in a gin-palace? I have pointed this +contrast before, and I point it again.<span class="newpage"><a name='Page36' id='Page36'>[36]</a></span> The drinking we deplore takes +place in company—bad company; it is enlivened by talk—bad talk. It +is relished by obscenity. Where drink and low people come together +these things must be. The worst that can come of stage pandering to +the corrupt tastes of its basest patrons cannot be anything like this, +and, as a rule, the stage holds out long against the invitation to +pander; and such invitations, from the publicity and decorum that +attend the whole matter, are neither frequent nor eager. A sort of +decency sets in upon the coarsest person in entering even the roughest +theatre. I have sometimes thought that, considering the liability to +descend and the facility of descent, a special Providence watches +over the morals and tone of our English stage. I do not desire to +overcharge the eulogy. There never was a time when the stage had not +conspicuous faults. There never was a time<span class="newpage"><a name='Page37' id='Page37'>[37]</a></span> when these were not freely +admitted by those most concerned for the maintenance of the stage +at its best. In Shakespeare, whenever the subject of the theatre is +approached, we perceive signs that that great spirit, though it had +a practical and business-like vein, and essayed no impossible +enterprises, groaned under the necessities, or the demands of a +public which desired frivolities and deformities which jarred upon the +poet-manager's feelings. As we descend the course of time we find that +each generation looked back to a supposed previous period when taste +ranged higher, and when the inferior and offensive peculiarities of +the existing stage were unknown. Yet from most of these generations +we inherit works as well as traditions and biographical recollections +which the world will never let die. The truth is that the immortal +part of the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page38' id='Page38'>[38]</a></span>come and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity—associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances—but it never sinks into nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. Heaven forbid that I should seem to cover, even +with a counterpane of courtesy, exhibitions of deliberate immorality. +Happily this sort of thing is not common, and although it has hardly +been practised by any one who, without a strain of meaning can be +associated with the profession of acting, yet public censure, not +active enough to repress the evil, is ever ready to pass a sweeping +condemnation on the stage which harbors it. Our cause is a good one. +We go forth, armed with the luminous panoply which genius has forged +for us, to do battle with dulness, with coarseness, with apathy, +with every<span class="newpage"><a name='Page39' id='Page39'>[39]</a></span> form of vice and evil. In every human heart there gleams +a bright reflection of this shining armor. The stage has no lights or +shadows that are not lights of life and shadows of the heart. To each +human consciousness it appeals in alternating mirth and sadness, and +will not be denied. Err it must, for it is human; but, being human, it +must endure. The love of acting is inherent in our nature. Watch your +children play, and you will see that almost their first conscious +effort is to act and to imitate. It is an instinct, and you can no +more repress it than you can extinguish thought. When this instinct +of all is developed by cultivation in the few, it becomes a wonderful +art, priceless to civilization in the solace it yields, the thought it +generates, the refinement it inspires. Some of its latest achievements +are not unworthy of their grandest predecessors. Some of its youngest +devotees are at least as proud <span class="newpage"><a name='Page40' id='Page40'>[40]</a></span>of its glories and as anxious to +preserve them as any who have gone before. Theirs is a glorious +heritage! You honor it. They have a noble but a difficult, and +sometimes a disheartening, task. You encourage it. And no word of +kindly interest or criticism dropped in the public ear from friendly +lips goes unregarded or is unfertile of good. The universal study of +Shakespeare in our public schools is a splendid sign of the departure +of prejudice, and all criticism is welcome; but it is acting chiefly +that can open to others, with any spark of Shakespeare's mind, the +means of illuminating the world. Only the theatre can realize to us +in a life-like way what Shakespeare was to his own time. And it is, +indeed, a noble destiny for the theatre to vindicate in these later +days the greatness which sometimes it has seemed to vulgarize. It has +been too much the custom to talk of Shakespeare as nature's <span class="newpage"><a name='Page41' id='Page41'>[41]</a></span>child—as +the lad who held horses for people who came to the play—as a sort of +chance phenomenon who wrote these plays by accident and unrecognized. +How supremely ridiculous! How utterly irreconcilable with the grand +dimensions of the man! How absurdly dishonoring to the great age of +which he was, and was known to be, the glory! The noblest literary +man of all time—the finest and yet most prolific writer—the greatest +student of man, and the greatest master of man's highest gift of +language—surely it is treason to humanity to speak of such an one as +in any sense a commonplace being! Imagine him rather, as he must +have been, the most notable courtier of the Court—the most perfect +gentleman who stood in the Elizabethan throng—the man in whose +presence divines would falter and hesitate lest their knowledge of +the Book should seem poor by the side of his, and at <span class="newpage"><a name='Page42' id='Page42'>[42]</a></span>whom even queenly +royalty would look askance, with an oppressive sense that here was +one to whose omnipotent and true imagination the hearts of kings and +queens and peoples had always been an open page! The thought of such a +man is an incomparable inheritance for any nation, and such a man was +the actor—Shakespeare. Such is our birthright and yours. Such the +succession in which it is ours to labor and yours to enjoy. For +Shakespeare belongs to the stage for ever, and his glories must +always inalienably belong to it. If you uphold the theatre honestly, +liberally, frankly, and with wise discrimination, the stage will +uphold in future, as it has in the past, the literature, the manners, +the morals, the fame, and the genius of our country. There must have +been something wrong, as there was something poignant and lacerating, +in prejudices which so long partly divorced the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page43' id='Page43'>[43]</a></span>conscience of Britain +from its noblest pride, and stamped with reproach, or at least +depreciation, some of the brightest and world-famous incidents of her +history. For myself, it kindles my heart with proud delight to +think that I have stood to-day before this audience—known for its +discrimination throughout all English-speaking lands—a welcome and +honored guest, because I stand here for justice to the art to which I +am devoted—because I stand here in thankfulness for the justice which +has begun to be so abundantly rendered to it. If it is metaphorically +the destiny of humanity, it is literally the experience of an actor, +that one man in his time plays many parts. A player of any standing +must at various times have sounded the gamut of human sensibility +from the lowest note to the top of its compass. He must have banqueted +often on curious food for thought as he meditated on the subtle +relations<span class="newpage"><a name='Page44' id='Page44'>[44]</a></span> created between himself and his audiences, as they have +watched in his impersonations the shifting tariff—the ever gliding, +delicately graduated sliding-scale of dramatic right and wrong. He may +have gloated, if he be a cynic, over the depths of ghastly horror, or +the vagaries of moral puddle through which it may have been his +duty to plash. But if he be an honest man, he will acknowledge that +scarcely ever has either dramatist or management wilfully biassed the +effect of stage representation in favor of evil, and of his audiences +he will boast that never has their mind been doubtful—never has their +true perception of the generous and just been known to fail, or even +to be slow. How noble the privilege to work upon these finer—these +finest—feelings of universal humanity! How engrossing the fascination +of those thousands of steady eyes, and sound sympathies, and beating +hearts which an<span class="newpage"><a name='Page45' id='Page45'>[45]</a></span> actor confronts, with the confidence of friendship +and co-operation, as he steps upon the stage to work out in action +his long-pent comprehension of a noble master-piece! How rapturous the +satisfaction of abandoning himself, in such a presence and with such +sympathizers, to his author's grandest flights of thought and noblest +bursts of emotional inspiration! And how perpetually sustaining +the knowledge that whatever may be the vicissitudes and even the +degradations of the stage, it must and will depend for its constant +hold on the affection and attention of mankind upon its loftier work; +upon its more penetrating passion; upon its themes which most deeply +search out the strong affections and high hopes of men and women; +upon its fit and kindling illustration of great and vivid lives +which either have been lived in noble fact or have deserved to endure +immortally in the popular<span class="newpage"><a name='Page46' id='Page46'>[46]</a></span> belief and admiration which they have +secured.</p> + +<blockquote>"For our eyes to see!<br /> +Sons of wisdom, song, and power,<br /> +Giving earth her richest dower,<br /> +And making nations free—<br /> +A glorious company!<br /> +<br /> +"Call them from the dead<br /> +For our eyes to see!<br /> +Forms of beauty, love, and grace,<br /> +'Sunshine in the shady place,'<br /> +That made it life to be—<br /> +A blessed company!"<br /></blockquote> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page47' id='Page47'>[47]</a></span> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>ADDRESS</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>TO THE STUDENTS</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>OF THE UNIVERSITY OF</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>HARVARD</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>30TH MARCH 1885</h3> +</center> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page48' id='Page48'>[48]</a></span> +<a name="link2" id="link2"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page49' id='Page49'>[49]</a></span> +<h1>THE ART OF ACTING</h1> +<a name="link3" id="link3"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<center> +<h3>I. THE OCCASION.</h3> +</center> +<p>I am deeply sensible of the compliment that has been paid, not so much +to me personally as to the calling I represent, by the invitation to +deliver an address to the students of this University. As an actor, +and especially as an English actor, it is a great pleasure to speak +for my art in one of the chief centres of American culture; for in +inviting me here to-day you intended, I believe, to recognize the +drama as an educational influence, to show a <span class="newpage"><a name='Page50' id='Page50'>[50]</a></span>genuine interest in the +stage as a factor in life which must be accepted and not ignored by +intelligent people. I have thought that the best use I can make of the +privilege you have conferred upon me is to offer you, as well as I +am able, something like a practical exposition of my art; for it +may chance—who knows?—that some of you may at some future time be +disposed to adopt it as a vocation. Not that I wish to be regarded +as a tempter who has come among you to seduce you from your present +studies by artful pictures of the fascinations of the footlights. But +I naturally supposed that you would like me to choose, as the theme of +my address, the subject in which I am most interested, and to which +my life has been devoted; and that if any students here should ever +determine to become actors, they could not be much the worse for +the information and counsel I could gather for them from a tolerably +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page51' id='Page51'>[51]</a></span>extensive experience. This subject will, I trust, be welcome to all of +you who are interested in the stage as an institution which appeals +to the sober-minded and intelligent; for I take it that you have no +lingering prejudice against the theatre, or else I should not be +here. Nor are you disposed, like certain good people, to object to the +theatre simply as a name. These sticklers for principle would never +enter a playhouse for worlds; and I have heard that in a famous city +of Massachusetts, not a hundred miles from here, there are persons to +whom the theatre is unknown, but who have no objection to see a play +in a building which is called a museum, especially if the vestibule +leading to the theatre should be decorated with sound moral principles +in the shape of statues, pictures, and stuffed objects in glass cases.</p> + +<p>When I began to think about my subject for the purpose of this +address, I was <span class="newpage"><a name='Page52' id='Page52'>[52]</a></span>rather staggered by its vastness. It is really a matter +for a course of lectures; but as President Eliot has not proposed that +I should occupy a chair of dramatic literature in this University, +and as time and opportunity are limited, I can only undertake to put +before you, in the simplest way, a few leading ideas about dramatic +art which may be worthy of reflection. And in doing this I have the +great satisfaction of appearing in a model theatre, before a model +audience, and of being the only actor in my own play. Moreover, I am +stimulated by the atmosphere of the Greek drama, for I know that on +this stage you have enacted a Greek play with remarkable success. So, +after all, it is not a body of mere tyros that I am addressing, but +actors who have worn the sock and buskin, and declaimed the speeches +which delighted audiences two thousand years ago.</p> + +<p>Now, this address, like discourses in a more <span class="newpage"><a name='Page53' id='Page53'>[53]</a></span>solemn place, falls +naturally into divisions. I propose to speak first of the Art of +Acting; secondly, of its Requirements and Practice; and lastly of its +Rewards. And, at the outset, let me say that I want you to judge the +stage at its best. I do not intend to suggest that only the plays +of Shakespeare are tolerable in the theatre to people of taste +and intelligence. The drama has many forms—tragedy, comedy, +historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical—and all are good when their aim +is honestly artistic.</p> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page54' id='Page54'>[54]</a></span> +<a name="link4" id="link4"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>II. THE ART OF ACTING.</h3> +</center> +<p>Now, what is the art of acting? I speak of it in its highest sense, as +the art to which Roscius, Betterton, and Garrick owed their fame. It +is the art of embodying the poet's creations, of giving them flesh and +blood, of making the figures which appeal to your mind's eye in the +printed drama live before you on the stage. "To fathom the depths of +character, to trace its latent motives, to feel its finest quiverings +of emotion, to comprehend the thoughts that are hidden under words, +and thus possess one's-self of the actual mind of the individual +man"—such was Macready's definition of the player's art; and to this +we may add the testimony of Talma. He describes tragic acting as "the +union of grandeur <span class="newpage"><a name='Page55' id='Page55'>[55]</a></span>without pomp and nature without triviality." It +demands, he says, the endowment of high sensibility and intelligence.</p> + +<p>"The actor who possesses this double gift adopts a course of study +peculiar to himself. In the first place, by repeated exercises, he +enters deeply into the emotions, and his speech acquires the accent +proper to the situation of the personage he has to represent. This +done, he goes to the theatre not only to give theatrical effect to his +studies, but also to yield himself to the spontaneous flashes of his +sensibility and all the emotions which it involuntarily produces in +him. What does he then do? In order that his inspirations may not be +lost, his memory, in the silence of repose, recalls the accent of +his voice, the expression of his features, his action—in a word, the +spontaneous workings of his mind, which he had suffered to have +free course, and, in effect, everything which in the moments of +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page56' id='Page56'>[56]</a></span>his exaltation contributed to the effects he had produced. His +intelligence then passes all these means in review, connecting +them and fixing them in his memory to re-employ them at pleasure in +succeeding representations. These impressions are often so evanescent +that on retiring behind the scenes he must repeat to himself what +he had been playing rather than what he had to play. By this kind of +labor the intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations of +sensibility. It is by this means that at the end of twenty years (it +requires at least this length of time) a person destined to display +fine talent may at length present to the public a series of characters +acted almost to perfection."</p> + +<p>You will readily understand from this that to the actor the well-worn +maxim that art is long and life is short has a constant significance. +The older we grow the more acutely alive we are to the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page57' id='Page57'>[57]</a></span>difficulties of +our craft. I cannot give you a better illustration of this fact than a +story which is told of Macready. A friend of mine, once a dear friend +of his, was with him when he played Hamlet for the last time. The +curtain had fallen, and the great actor was sadly thinking that the +part he loved so much would never be his again. And as he took off his +velvet mantle and laid it aside, he muttered almost unconsciously +the words of Horatio, "Good-night, sweet Prince;" then turning to his +friend, "Ah," said he, "I am just beginning to realize the sweetness, +the tenderness, the gentleness of this dear Hamlet!" Believe me, the +true artist never lingers fondly upon what he has done. He is ever +thinking of what remains undone: ever striving toward an ideal it may +never be his fortune to attain.</p> + +<p>We are sometimes told that to read the best dramatic poetry is more +educating<span class="newpage"><a name='Page58' id='Page58'>[58]</a></span> than to see it acted. I do not think this theory is very +widely held, for it is in conflict with the dramatic instinct, which +everybody possesses in a greater or less degree. You never met a +playwright who could conceive himself willing—even if endowed with +the highest literary gifts—to prefer a reading to a playgoing +public. He thinks his work deserving of all the rewards of print and +publisher, but he will be much more elated if it should appeal to the +world in the theatre as a skilful representation of human passions. +In one of her letters George Eliot says: "In opposition to most people +who love to <i>read</i> Shakespeare, I like to see his plays acted better +than any others; his great tragedies thrill me, let them be acted +how they may." All this is so simple and intelligible, that it seems +scarcely worth while to argue that in proportion to the readiness with +which the reader of Shakespeare imagines the attributes of <span class="newpage"><a name='Page59' id='Page59'>[59]</a></span>the various +characters, and is interested in their personality, he will, as a +rule, be eager to see their tragedy or comedy in action. He will then +find that very much which he could not imagine with any definiteness +presents new images every moment—the eloquence of look and gesture, +the by-play, the inexhaustible significance of the human voice. There +are people who fancy they have more music in their souls than was ever +translated into harmony by Beethoven or Mozart. There are others who +think they could paint pictures, write poetry—in short, do anything, +if they only made the effort. To them what is accomplished by the +practised actor seems easy and simple. But as it needs the skill of +the musician to draw the full volume of eloquence from the written +score, so it needs the skill of the dramatic artist to develop the +subtle harmonies of the poetic play. In fact, to <i>do</i> and not <span class="newpage"><a name='Page60' id='Page60'>[60]</a></span>to +<i>dream</i>, is the mainspring of success in life. The actor's art is to +act, and the true acting of any character is one of the most difficult +accomplishments. I challenge the acute student to ponder over Hamlet's +renunciation of Ophelia—one of the most complex scenes in all the +drama—and say that he has learned more from his meditations than he +could be taught by players whose intelligence is equal to his own. To +present the man thinking aloud is the most difficult achievement of +our art. Here the actor who has no real grip of the character, but +simply recites the speeches with a certain grace and intelligence, +will be untrue. The more intent he is upon the words, and the less +on the ideas that dictated them, the more likely he is to lay himself +open to the charge of mechanical interpretation. It is perfectly +possible to express to an audience all the involutions of thought, +the speculation, doubt,<span class="newpage"><a name='Page61' id='Page61'>[61]</a></span> wavering, which reveal the meditative but +irresolute mind. As the varying shades of fancy pass and repass the +mirror of the face, they may yield more material to the studious +playgoer than he is likely to get by a diligent poring over the +text. In short, as we understand the people around us much better by +personal intercourse than by all the revelations of written words—for +words, as Tennyson says, "half reveal and half conceal the soul +within," so the drama has, on the whole, infinitely more suggestions +when it is well acted than when it is interpreted by the unaided +judgment of the student. It has been said that acting is an unworthy +occupation because it represents feigned emotions, but this censure +would apply with equal force to poet or novelist. Do not imagine that +I am claiming for the actor sole and undivided authority. He should +himself be a student, and it is his <span class="newpage"><a name='Page62' id='Page62'>[62]</a></span>business to put into practice +the best ideas he can gather from the general current of thought with +regard to the highest dramatic literature. But it is he who gives body +to those ideas—fire, force, and sensibility, without which they would +remain for most people mere airy abstractions.</p> + +<p>It is often supposed that great actors trust to the inspiration of the +moment. Nothing can be more erroneous. There will, of course, be such +moments, when an actor at a white heat illumines some passage with +a flash of imagination (and this mental condition, by the way, is +impossible to the student sitting in his arm-chair); but the great +actor's surprises are generally well weighed, studied, and balanced. +We know that Edmund Kean constantly practised before a mirror effects +which startled his audience by their apparent spontaneity. It is the +accumulation of such effects which enables <span class="newpage"><a name='Page63' id='Page63'>[63]</a></span>an actor, after many years, +to present many great characters with remarkable completeness.</p> + +<p>I do not want to overstate the case, or to appeal to anything that is +not within common experience, so I can confidently ask you whether a +scene in a great play has not been at some time vividly impressed on +your minds by the delivery of a single line, or even of one forcible +word. Has not this made the passage far more real and human to you +than all the thought you have devoted to it? An accomplished critic +has said that Shakespeare himself might have been surprised had he +heard the "Fool, fool, fool!" of Edmund Kean. And though all actors +are not Keans, they have in varying degree this power of making a +dramatic character step out of the page, and come nearer to our hearts +and our understandings.</p> + +<p>After all, the best and most convincing <span class="newpage"><a name='Page64' id='Page64'>[64]</a></span>exposition of the whole art +of acting is given by Shakespeare himself: "To hold, as 'twere, the +mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own +image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." +Thus the poet recognized the actor's art as a most potent ally in the +representation of human life. He believed that to hold the mirror up +to nature was one of the worthiest functions in the sphere of labor, +and actors are content to point to his definition of their work as the +charter of their privileges.</p> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page65' id='Page65'>[65]</a></span> +<a name="link5" id="link5"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>III. PRACTICE OF THE ART.</h3> +</center> +<p>The practice of the art of acting is a subject difficult to treat with +the necessary brevity. Beginners are naturally anxious to know what +course they should pursue. In common with other actors, I receive +letters from young people many of whom are very earnest in their +ambition to adopt the dramatic calling, but not sufficiently alive to +the fact that success does not depend on a few lessons in declamation. +When I was a boy I had a habit which I think would be useful to all +young students. Before going to see a play of Shakespeare's I used to +form—in a very juvenile way—a theory as to the working out of the +whole drama, so as to correct my conceptions by those of the actors; +and<span class="newpage"><a name='Page66' id='Page66'>[66]</a></span> though I was, as a rule, absurdly wrong, there can be no doubt +that any method of independent study is of enormous importance, not +only to youngsters, but also to students of a larger growth. +Without it the mind is apt to take its stamp from the first forcible +impression it receives, and to fall into a servile dependence upon +traditions, which, robbed of the spirit that created them, are apt +to be purely mischievous. What was natural to the creator is often +unnatural and lifeless in the imitator. No two people form the same +conceptions of character, and therefore it is always advantageous to +see an independent and courageous exposition of an original ideal. +There can be no objection to the kind of training that imparts a +knowledge of manners and customs, and the teaching which pertains to +simple deportment on the stage is necessary and most useful; but you +cannot possibly be<span class="newpage"><a name='Page67' id='Page67'>[67]</a></span> taught any tradition of character, for that has no +permanence. Nothing is more fleeting than any traditional method of +impersonation. You may learn where a particular personage used to +stand on the stage, or down which trap the ghost of Hamlet's father +vanished; but the soul of interpretation is lost, and it is this soul +which the actor has to re-create for himself. It is not mere attitude +or tone that has to be studied; you must be moved by the impulse of +being; you must impersonate and not recite.</p> + +<p>There has always been a controversy as to the province of naturalism +in dramatic art. In England it has been too much the custom, I +believe, while demanding naturalism in comedy, to expect a false +inflation in tragedy. But there is no reason why an actor should +be less natural in tragic than in lighter moods. Passions vary in +expression according to moulds of character and<span class="newpage"><a name='Page68' id='Page68'>[68]</a></span> manners, but their +reality should not be lost even when they are expressed in the heroic +forms of the drama. A very simple test is a reference to the records +of old actors. What was it in their performances that chiefly +impressed their contemporaries? Very rarely the measured recitation of +this or that speech, but very often a simple exclamation that deeply +moved their auditors, because it was a gleam of nature in the midst +of declamation. The "Prithee, undo this button!" of Garrick, was +remembered when many stately utterances were forgotten. In our day the +contrast between artificial declamation and the accents of nature is +less marked, because its delivery is more uniformly simple, and an +actor who lapses from a natural into a false tone is sure to find +that his hold upon his audience is proportionately weakened. But the +revolution which Garrick accomplished may be <span class="newpage"><a name='Page69' id='Page69'>[69]</a></span>imagined from the story +told by Boswell. Dr. Johnson was discussing plays and players with +Mrs. Siddons, and he said: "Garrick, madam, was no declaimer; there +was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken 'To be +or not to be' better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever saw +whom I could call a master, both in tragedy and comedy, though I +liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character and natural +expression of it were his distinguished excellences."</p> + +<p>To be natural on the stage is most difficult, and yet a grain of +nature is worth a bushel of artifice. But you may say—what is nature? +I quoted just now Shakespeare's definition of the actor's art. After +the exhortation to hold the mirror up to nature, he adds the pregnant +warning: "This overdone or come tardy off, though it make the +unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page70' id='Page70'>[70]</a></span>censure of +which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others." +Nature may be overdone by triviality in conditions that demand +exaltation; for instance, Hamlet's first address to the Ghost lifts +his disposition to an altitude far beyond the ordinary reaches of our +souls, and his manner of speech should be adapted to this sentiment. +But such exaltation of utterance is wholly out of place in the purely +colloquial scene with the Gravedigger. When Macbeth says, "Go, bid thy +mistress, when my drink is ready, she strike upon the bell," he would +not use the tone of</p> + +<div align="left"> +<blockquote>"Pity, like a naked new-born babe,<br /> +Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed<br /> +Upon the sightless couriers of the air,<br /> +Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,<br /> +That tears shall drown the wind."<br /></blockquote> +</div> +<p>Like the practised orator, the actor rises and descends with his +sentiment, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page71' id='Page71'>[71]</a></span>and cannot always be in a fine phrenzy. This variety +is especially necessary in Shakespeare, whose work is essentially +different from the classic drama, because it presents every mood of +mind and form of speech, commonplace or exalted, as character and +situation dictate: whereas in such a play as Addison's <i>Cato</i>, +everybody is consistently eloquent about everything.</p> + +<p>There are many causes for the growth of naturalism in dramatic art, +and amongst them we should remember the improvement in the mechanism +of the stage. For instance, there has been a remarkable development in +stage-lighting. In old pictures you will observe the actors constantly +standing in a line, because the oil-lamps of those days gave such an +indifferent illumination that everybody tried to get into what was +called the focus—the "blaze of publicity" furnished by the "float" or +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page72' id='Page72'>[72]</a></span>footlights. The importance of this is illustrated by an amusing story +of Edmund Kean, who one night played <i>Othello</i> with more than his +usual intensity. An admirer who met him in the street next day was +loud in his congratulations: "I really thought you would have choked +Iago, Mr. Kean—you seemed so tremendously in earnest." "In earnest!" +said the tragedian, "I should think so! Hang the fellow, he was trying +to keep me out of the focus."</p> + +<p>I do not recommend actors to allow their feelings to carry them +away like this; but it is necessary to warn you against the theory +expounded with brilliant ingenuity by Diderot, that the actor never +feels. When Macready played Virginius, after burying his beloved +daughter, he confessed that his real experience gave a new force to +his acting in the most pathetic situations of the play. Are we to +suppose that this was<span class="newpage"><a name='Page73' id='Page73'>[73]</a></span> a delusion, or that the sensibility of the man +was a genuine aid to the actor? Bannister said of John Kemble that he +was never pathetic because he had no children. Talma says that when +deeply moved he found himself making a rapid and fugitive observation +on the alternation of his voice, and on a certain spasmodic vibration +which it contracted in tears. Has not the actor who can thus make +his feelings a part of his art an advantage over the actor who never +feels, but who makes his observations solely from the feelings of +others? It is necessary to this art that the mind should have, as it +were, a double consciousness, in which all the emotions proper to the +occasion may have full swing, while the actor is all the time on the +alert for every detail of his method. It may be that his playing will +be more spirited one night than another. But the actor who combines +the electric force of a strong <span class="newpage"><a name='Page74' id='Page74'>[74]</a></span>personality with a mastery of the +resources of his art must have a greater power over his audiences +than the passionless actor who gives a most artistic simulation of the +emotions he never experiences.</p> + +<p>Now, in the practice of acting, a most important point is the study +of elocution; and in elocution one great difficulty is the use of +sufficient force to be generally heard without being unnaturally loud, +and without acquiring a stilted delivery. The advice of the old actors +was that you should always pitch your voice so as to be heard by the +back row of the gallery—no easy task to accomplish without offending +the ears of the front of the orchestra. And I should tell you that +this exaggeration applies to everything on the stage. To appear to be +natural, you must in reality be much broader than nature. To act on +the stage as one really would in a room, would be <span class="newpage"><a name='Page75' id='Page75'>[75]</a></span>ineffective and +colorless. I never knew an actor who brought the art of elocution to +greater perfection than the late Charles Mathews, whose utterance on +the stage appeared so natural that one was surprised to find when near +him that he was really speaking in a very loud key. There is a great +actor in your own country to whose elocution one always listens with +the utmost enjoyment—I mean Edwin Booth. He has inherited this gift, +I believe, from his famous father, of whom I have heard it said, that +he always insisted on a thorough use of the "instruments"—by which he +meant the teeth—in the formation of words.</p> + +<p>An imperfect elocution is apt to degenerate into a monotonous +uniformity of tone. Some wholesome advice on this point we find in the +<i>Life of Betterton</i>.</p> + +<p>"This stiff uniformity of voice is not only displeasing to the ear, +but disappoints the effect of the discourse on the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page76' id='Page76'>[76]</a></span>hearers; first, by +an equal way of speaking, when the pronunciation has everywhere, in +every word and every syllable, the same sound, it must inevitably +render all parts of speech equal, and so put them on a very unjust +level. So that the power of the reasoning part, the lustre and +ornament of the figures, the heart, warmth, and vigor of the +passionate part being expressed all in the same tone, is flat and +insipid, and lost in a supine, or at least unmusical pronunciation. So +that, in short, that which ought to strike and stir up the affections, +because it is spoken all alike, without any distinction or variety, +moves them not at all."</p> + +<p>Now, on the question of pronunciation there is something to be said, +which, I think, in ordinary teaching is not sufficiently considered. +Pronunciation on the stage should be simple and unaffected, but not +always fashioned rigidly according to a dictionary standard. No<span class="newpage"><a name='Page77' id='Page77'>[77]</a></span> less +an authority than Cicero points out that pronunciation must vary +widely according to the emotions to be expressed; that it may be +broken or cut, with a varying or direct sound, and that it serves for +the actor the purpose of color to the painter, from which to draw his +variations. Take the simplest illustration, the formal pronunciation +of "A-h" is "Ah," of "O-h" "Oh;" but you cannot stereotype the +expression of emotion like this. These exclamations are words of one +syllable, but the speaker who is sounding the gamut of human feeling +will not be restricted in his pronunciation by the dictionary rule. +It is said of Edmund Kean that he never spoke such ejaculations, +but always sighed or groaned them. Fancy an actor saying thus, "My +Desdemona! Oh, [)o]h, [)o]h!" Words are intended to express feelings +and ideas, not to bind them in rigid fetters. The accents of pleasure +are different from the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page78' id='Page78'>[78]</a></span>accents of pain, and if a feeling is more +accurately expressed, as in nature, by a variation of sound not +provided for by the laws of pronunciation, then such imperfect laws +must be disregarded and nature vindicated. The word should be the echo +of the sense.</p> + +<p>The force of an actor depends, of course, upon his physique; and it is +necessary, therefore, that a good deal of attention should be given to +bodily training. Everything that develops suppleness, elasticity, and +grace—that most subtle charm—should be carefully cultivated, and +in this regard your admirable gymnasium is worth volumes of advice. +Sometimes there is a tendency to train the body at the expense of +the mind, and the young actor with striking physical advantages +must beware of regarding this fortunate endowment as his entire +stock-in-trade. That way folly lies, and the result may be too dearly +purchased<span class="newpage"><a name='Page79' id='Page79'>[79]</a></span> by the fame of a photographer's window. It is clear that +the physique of actors must vary; there can be no military standard +of proportions on the stage. Some great actors have had to struggle +against physical disabilities of a serious nature. Betterton had an +unprepossessing face; so had Le Kain. John Kemble was troubled with +a weak, asthmatic voice, and yet by his dignity, and the force of +his personality, he was able to achieve the greatest effects. In some +cases a super-abundant physique has incapacitated actors from playing +many parts. The combination in one frame of all the gifts of mind and +all the advantages in person is very rare on the stage; but talent +will conquer many natural defects when it is sustained by energy and +perseverance.</p> + +<p>With regard to gesture, Shakespeare's advice is all-embracing. "Suit +the action to the word, the word to the action, with <span class="newpage"><a name='Page80' id='Page80'>[80]</a></span>this special +observance that you over-step not the modesty of nature." And here +comes the consideration of a very material part of the actor's +business—by-play. This is of the very essence of true art. It is more +than anything else significant of the extent to which the actor has +identified himself with the character he represents. Recall the scenes +between Iago and Othello, and consider how the whole interest of the +situation depends on the skill with which the gradual effect of the +poisonous suspicion instilled into the Moor's mind is depicted in look +and tone, slight of themselves, but all contributing to the intensity +of the situation. One of the greatest tests of an actor is his +capacity for listening. By-play must be unobtrusive; the student +should remember that the most minute expression attracts attention: +that nothing is lost, that by-play is as mischievous when it is +injudicious as it is effective when rightly <span class="newpage"><a name='Page81' id='Page81'>[81]</a></span>conceived, and that while +trifles make perfection, perfection is no trifle. This lesson was +enjoined on me when I was a very young man by that remarkable actress, +Charlotte Cushman. I remember that when she played Meg Merrilies I +was cast for Henry Bertram, on the principle, seemingly, that an actor +with no singing voice is admirably fitted for a singing part. It was +my duty to give Meg Merrilies a piece of money, and I did it after the +traditional fashion by handing her a large purse full of coin of the +realm, in the shape of broken crockery, which was generally used in +financial transactions on the stage, because when the virtuous maiden +rejected with scorn the advances of the lordly libertine, and threw +his pernicious bribe upon the ground, the clatter of the broken +crockery suggested fabulous wealth. But after the play Miss Cushman, +in the course of some kindly advice, said to me: "Instead of giving<span class="newpage"><a name='Page82' id='Page82'>[82]</a></span> me +that purse don't you think it would have been much more natural if +you had taken a number of coins from your pocket, and given me the +smallest? That is the way one gives alms to a beggar, and it would +have added to the realism of the scene." I have never forgotten that +lesson, for simple as it was, it contained many elements of dramatic +truth. It is most important that an actor should learn that he is +a figure in a picture, and that the least exaggeration destroys the +harmony of the composition. All the members of the company should +work towards a common end, with the nicest subordination of their +individuality to the general purpose. Without this method a play when +acted is at best a disjointed and incoherent piece of work, instead +of being a harmonious whole like the fine performance of an orchestral +symphony. The root of the matter is that the actor must before all +things form a definite <span class="newpage"><a name='Page83' id='Page83'>[83]</a></span>conception of what he wishes to convey. It is +better to be wrong and be consistent, than to be right, yet hesitating +and uncertain. This is why great actors are sometimes very bad or very +good. They will do the wrong thing with a courage and thoroughness +which makes the error all the more striking; although when they are +right they may often be superb. It is necessary that the actor should +learn to think before he speaks; a practice which, I believe, is very +useful off the stage. Let him remember, first, that every sentence +expresses a new thought and, therefore, frequently demands a change +of intonation; secondly, that the thought precedes the word. Of course +there are passages in which thought and language are borne along by +the streams of emotion and completely intermingled. But more often +it will be found that the most natural, the most seemingly accidental +effects are obtained when the working<span class="newpage"><a name='Page84' id='Page84'>[84]</a></span> of the mind is seen before the +tongue gives it words.</p> + +<p>You will see that the limits of an actor's studies are very wide. To +master the technicalities of his craft, to familiarize his mind +with the structure, rhythm, and the soul of poetry, to be constantly +cultivating his perceptions of life around him and of all the +arts—painting, music, sculpture—for the actor who is devoted to +his profession is susceptible to every harmony of color, sound, and +form—to do this is to labor in a large field of industry. But all +your training, bodily and mental, is subservient to the two great +principles in tragedy and comedy—passion and geniality. Geniality +in comedy is one of the rarest gifts. Think of the rich unction of +Falstaff, the mercurial fancy of Mercutio, the witty vivacity and +manly humor of Benedick—think of the qualities, natural and acquired, +that are needed for the complete portrayal of such <span class="newpage"><a name='Page85' id='Page85'>[85]</a></span>characters, and you +will understand how difficult it is for a comedian to rise to such +a sphere. In tragedy, passion or intensity sweeps all before it, and +when I say passion, I mean the passion of pathos as well as wrath +or revenge. These are the supreme elements of the actor's art, +which cannot be taught by any system, however just, and to which all +education is but tributary.</p> + +<p>Now all that can be said of the necessity of a close regard for nature +in acting applies with equal or greater force to the presentation of +plays. You want, above all things, to have a truthful picture which +shall appeal to the eye without distracting the imagination from the +purpose of the drama. It is a mistake to suppose that this enterprise +is comparatively new to the stage. Since Shakespeare's time there has +been a steady progress in this direction. Even in the poet's day every +conceivable property was forced into <span class="newpage"><a name='Page86' id='Page86'>[86]</a></span>requisition, and his own sense +of shortcomings in this respect is shown in <i>Henry V.</i> when he +exclaims:—</p> + +<div align="left"> +<blockquote>"Where—O for pity!—we shall much +disgrace<br /> +With four or five most vile and ragged foils<br /> +The name of Agincourt."<br /></blockquote> +</div> +<p>There have always been critics who regarded care and elaboration in +the mounting of plays as destructive of the real spirit of the actor's +art. Betterton had to meet this reproach when he introduced scenery in +lieu of linsey-woolsey curtains; but he replied, sensibly enough, that +his scenery was better than the tapestry with hideous figures worked +upon it which had so long distracted the senses of play-goers. He +might have asked his critics whether they wished to see Ophelia played +by a boy of sixteen, as in the time of Shakespeare, instead of a +beautiful and gifted woman. Garrick did his utmost to improve the +mechanical arts of the stage—<span class="newpage"><a name='Page87' id='Page87'>[87]</a></span>so much so, indeed, that he paid his +scene-painter, Loutherbourg, £500 a year, a pretty considerable sum +in those days—though in Garrick's time the importance of realism in +costume was not sufficiently appreciated to prevent him from playing +Macbeth in a bagwig. To-day we are employing all our resources to +heighten the picturesque effects of the drama, and we are still told +that this is a gross error. It may be admitted that nothing is more +objectionable than certain kinds of realism, which are simply vulgar; +but harmony of color and grace of outline have a legitimate sphere in +the theatre, and the method which uses them as adjuncts may claim to +be "as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine." +For the abuse of scenic decoration, the overloading of the stage with +ornament, the subordination of the play to a pageant, I have nothing +to say. That is all foreign to the artistic purpose<span class="newpage"><a name='Page88' id='Page88'>[88]</a></span> which should +dominate dramatic work. Nor do I think that servility to archæology on +the stage is an unmixed good. Correctness of costume is admirable +and necessary up to a certain point, but when it ceases to be "as +wholesome as sweet," it should, I think, be sacrificed. You perceive +that the nicest discretion is needed in the use of the materials +which are nowadays at the disposal of the manager. Music, painting, +architecture, the endless variations of costume, have all to be +employed with a strict regard to the production of an artistic +whole, in which no element shall be unduly obtrusive. We are open to +microscopic criticism at every point. When <i>Much Ado about Nothing</i> +was produced at the Lyceum, I received a letter complaining of the +gross violation of accuracy in a scene which was called a cedar-walk. +"Cedars!" said my correspondent,—"why, cedars were not introduced +into Messina <span class="newpage"><a name='Page89' id='Page89'>[89]</a></span>for fifty years after the date of Shakespeare's story!" +Well, this was a tremendous indictment, but unfortunately the +cedar-walk had been painted. Absolute realism on the stage is not +always desirable, any more than the photographic reproduction of +Nature can claim to rank with the highest art.</p> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page90' id='Page90'>[90]</a></span> +<a name="link6" id="link6"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>IV. THE REWARDS OF THE ART.</h3> +</center> +<p>To what position in the world of intelligence does the actor's art +entitle him, and what is his contribution to the general sum of +instruction? We are often told that the art is ephemeral; that it +creates nothing; that when the actor's personality is withdrawn from +the public eye he leaves no trace behind. Granted that his art creates +nothing; but does it not often restore? It is true that he leaves +nothing like the canvas of the painter and the marble of the sculptor, +but has he done nought to increase the general stock of ideas? The +astronomer and naturalist create nothing, but they contribute much to +the enlightenment of the world. I am taking the highest standard of +my art, for I<span class="newpage"><a name='Page91' id='Page91'>[91]</a></span> maintain that in judging any calling you should consider +its noblest and not its most ignoble products. All the work that is +done on the stage cannot stand upon the same level, any more than all +the work that is done in literature. You do not demand that your poets +and novelists shall all be of the same calibre. An immense amount of +good writing does no more than increase the gayety of mankind; but +when Johnson said that the gayety of nations was eclipsed by the death +of Garrick, he did not mean that a mere barren amusement had lost one +of its professors. When Sir Joshua Reynolds painted Mrs. Siddons as +the Tragic Muse, and said he had achieved immortality by putting his +name on the hem of her garment, he meant something more than a pretty +compliment, for her name can never die. To give genuine and wholesome +entertainment is a very large function of the stage, and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page92' id='Page92'>[92]</a></span>without that +entertainment very many lives would lose a stimulus of the highest +value. If recreation of every legitimate kind is invaluable to the +worker, especially so is the recreation of the drama, which brightens +his faculties, enlarges his vision of the picturesque, and by taking +him for a time out of this work-a-day world, braces his sensibilities +for the labors of life. The art which does this may surely claim to +exercise more than a fleeting influence upon the world's intelligence. +But in its highest developments it does more; it acts as a constant +medium for the diffusion of great ideas, and by throwing new lights +upon the best dramatic literature, it largely helps the growth +of education. It is not too much to say that the interpreters of +Shakespeare on the stage have had much to do with the widespread +appreciation of his works. Some of the most thoughtful students of +the poet<span class="newpage"><a name='Page93' id='Page93'>[93]</a></span> have recognized their indebtedness to actors, while for +multitudes the stage has performed the office of discovery. Thousands +who flock to-day to see a representation of Shakespeare, which is the +product of much reverent study of the poet, are not content to regard +it as a mere scenic exhibition. Without it Shakespeare might have been +for many of them a sealed book; but many more have been impelled +by the vivid realism of the stage to renew studies which other +occupations or lack of leisure have arrested. Am I presumptuous, then, +in asserting that the stage is not only an instrument of amusement, +but a very active agent in the spread of knowledge and taste? Some +forms of stage work, you may say, are not particularly elevating. +True; and there are countless fictions coming daily from the hands +of printer and publisher which nobody is the better for reading. You +cannot have<span class="newpage"><a name='Page94' id='Page94'>[94]</a></span> a fixed standard of value in my art; and though there +are masses of people who will prefer an unintelligent exhibition to +a really artistic production, that is no reason for decrying the +theatre, in which all the arts blend with the knowledge of history, +manners, and customs of all people, and scenes of all climes, to +afford a varied entertainment to the most exacting intellect. I have +no sympathy with people who are constantly anxious to define the +actor's position, for, as a rule, they are not animated by a desire to +promote his interests. "'Tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus;" +and whatever actors deserve, socially or artistically, they are sure +to receive as their right. I found the other day in a well-circulated +little volume a suggestion that the actor was a degraded being because +he has a closely-shaven face. This is, indeed, humiliating, and I +wonder how it strikes the Roman Catholic <span class="newpage"><a name='Page95' id='Page95'>[95]</a></span>clergy. However, there are +actors who do not shave closely, and though, alas! I am not one of +them, I wish them joy of the spiritual grace which I cannot claim.</p> + +<p>It is admittedly unfortunate for the stage that it has a certain +equivocal element, which, in the eyes of some judges, is sufficient +for its condemnation. The art is open to all, and it has to bear the +sins of many. You may open your newspaper, and see a paragraph headed +"Assault by an Actress." Some poor creature is dignified by that title +who has not the slightest claim to it. You look into a shop-window and +see photographs of certain people who are indiscriminately described +as actors and actresses though their business has no pretence to be +art of any kind.</p> + +<p>I was told in Baltimore of a man in that city who was so diverted by +the performance of Tyrone Powar, the popular Irish <span class="newpage"><a name='Page96' id='Page96'>[96]</a></span>comedian, that he +laughed uproariously till the audience was convulsed with merriment at +the spectacle. As soon as he could speak, he called out, "Do be quiet, +Mr. Showman; do'ee hold your tongue, or I shall die of laughter!" This +idea that the actor is a showman still lingers; but no one with any +real appreciation of the best elements of the drama applies this +vulgar standard to a great body of artists. The fierce light of +publicity that beats upon us makes us liable, from time to time, to +dissertations upon our public and private lives, our manners, our +morals, and our money. Our whims and caprices are discanted on with +apparent earnestness of truth, and seeming sincerity of conviction. +There is always some lively controversy concerning the influence of +the stage. The battle between old methods and new in art is waged +everywhere. If an actor were to take to heart everything that is +written<span class="newpage"><a name='Page97' id='Page97'>[97]</a></span> and said about him, his life would be an intolerable burden. +And one piece of advice I should give to young actors is this: Do not +be too sensitive; receive praise or censure with modesty and patience. +Good honest criticism is, of course, most advantageous to an actor; +but he should save himself from the indiscriminate reading of a +multitude of comments, which may only confuse instead of stimulating. +And here let me say to young actors in all earnestness: Beware of the +loungers of our calling, the camp followers who hang on the skirts of +the army, and who inveigle the young into habits that degrade their +character, and paralyze their ambition. Let your ambition be ever +precious to you, and, next to your good name, the jewel of your souls. +I care nothing for the actor who is not always anxious to rise to +the highest position in his particular walk; but this ideal cannot be +cherished by the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page98' id='Page98'>[98]</a></span>young man who is induced to fritter away his time and +his mind in thoughtless company.</p> + +<p>But in the midst of all this turmoil about the stage, one fact stands +out clearly: the dramatic art is steadily growing in credit with the +educated classes. It is drawing more recruits from those classes. The +enthusiasm for our calling has never reached a higher pitch. There is +quite an extraordinary number of ladies who want to become actresses, +and the cardinal difficulty in the way is not the social deterioration +which some people think they would incur, but simply their inability +to act. Men of education who become actors do not find that their +education is useless. If they have the necessary aptitude—the inborn +instinct for the stage—all their mental training will be of great +value to them. It is true that there must always be grades in the +theatre, that an educated man who is an <span class="newpage"><a name='Page99' id='Page99'>[99]</a></span>indifferent actor can never +expect to reach the front rank. If he do no more than figure in the +army at Bosworth Field, or look imposing in a doorway; if he never +play any but the smallest parts; if in these respects he be no +better than men who could not pass an examination in any branch of +knowledge—he has no more reason to complain than the highly-educated +man who longs to write poetry, and possesses every qualification—save +the poetic faculty. There are people who seem to think that only +irresistible genius justifies any one in adopting the stage as a +vocation. They make it an argument against the profession that many +enter it from a low sphere of life, without any particular fitness for +acting, but simply to earn a livelihood by doing the subordinate and +mechanical work which is necessary in every theatre. And so men and +women of refinement—especially women—are warned that they<span class="newpage"><a name='Page100' id='Page100'>[100]</a></span> must do +themselves injury by passing through the rank and file during their +term of probation in the actors' craft. Now, I need not remind you +that on the stage everybody cannot be great, any more than students +of music can all become great musicians; but very many will do sound +artistic work which is of great value. As for any question of conduct, +Heaven forbid that I should be dogmatic; but it does not seem to me +logical that while genius is its own law in the pursuit of a noble +art, all inferior merit or ambition is to be deterred from the same +path by appalling pictures of its temptations.</p> + +<p>If our art is worth anything at all, it is worth the honest, +conscientious self-devotion of men and women who, while they may not +achieve fame, may have the satisfaction of being workers in a calling +which does credit to many degrees of talent. We do not claim to be +any better<span class="newpage"><a name='Page101' id='Page101'>[101]</a></span> than our fellows in other walks of life. We do not ask +the jester in journalism whether his quips and epigrams are always +dictated by the loftiest morality; nor do we insist on knowing that +the odor of sanctity surrounds the private lives of lawyers and +military men before we send our sons into law and the army. It +is impossible to point out any vocation which is not attended by +temptations that prove fatal to many; but you have simply to consider +whether a profession has in itself any title to honor, and then—if +you are confident of your capacity—to enter it with a resolve to do +all that energy and perseverance can accomplish. The immortal part of +the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes come +and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity—associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances; but it never sinks into <span class="newpage"><a name='Page102' id='Page102'>[102]</a></span>nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. And I would say, as a last word, to the young +men in this assembly who may at any time resolve to enter the dramatic +profession, that they ought always to fix their minds upon the highest +examples; that in studying acting they should beware of prejudiced +comparisons between this method and that, but learn as much as +possible from all; that they should remember that art is as varied as +nature, and as little suited to the shackles of a school; and, above +all, that they should never forget that excellence in any art is +attained only by arduous labor, unswerving purpose, and unfailing +discipline. This discipline is, perhaps, the most difficult of all +tests, for it involves the subordination of the actor's personality in +every work which is designed to be a complete and harmonious picture. +Dramatic art nowadays <span class="newpage"><a name='Page103' id='Page103'>[103]</a></span>is more coherent, systematic, and comprehensive +than it has sometimes been. And to the student who proposes to fill +the place in this system to which his individuality and experience +entitle him, and to do his duty faithfully and well, ever striving +after greater excellence, and never yielding to the indolence that is +often born of popularity—to him I say, with every confidence, that +he will choose a career in which, if it does not lead him to fame, +he will be sustained by the honorable exercise of some of the best +faculties of the human mind.</p> + +<p>And now I can only thank you for the patience with which you have +listened while, in a slight and imperfect way, I have dwelt with some +of the most important of the actor's responsibilities, I have been an +actor for nearly thirty years, and what I have told you is the fruit +of my experience, and of an earnest and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page104' id='Page104'>[104]</a></span>conscientious belief that the +calling to which I am proud to belong is worthy of the sympathy and +support of all intelligent people.</p> + +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page105' id='Page105'>[105]</a></span> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>ADDRESS</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>26 JUNE 1886</h3> +</center> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page106' id='Page106'>[106]</a></span> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page107' id='Page107'>[107]</a></span> +<a name="link7" id="link7"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<h1>FOUR GREAT ACTORS.</h1> +<p>When I was honored by the request of your distinguished +Vice-Chancellor to deliver an address before the members of this +great University, I told him I could only say something about my own +calling, for that I knew little or nothing about anything else. +I trust, however, that this confession of the limitations of +my knowledge will not prejudice me in your eyes, members as you +are—privileged members I may say—of this seat of learning. In an age +when so many persons think they know everything, it may afford a not +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page108' id='Page108'>[108]</a></span>unpleasing variety to meet with some who know that they know nothing.</p> + +<p>I cannot discourse to you, even if you wished me to do so, of the +respective merits of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; for if I +did, I should not be able to tell you anything that you do not know +already. I have not had the advantage—one that very few of the +members of my profession in past, or even in present times have +enjoyed—of an University education. The only <i>Alma Mater</i> I ever knew +was the hard stage of a country theatre.</p> + +<p>In the course of my training, long before I had taken, what I may +call, my degree in London, I came to act in your city. I have a very +pleasant recollection of the time I passed here, though I am sorry +to say that, owing to the regulation which forbade theatrical +performances during term time, I saw Oxford only in vacation, which +is rather like—to use the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page109' id='Page109'>[109]</a></span>old illustration—seeing <i>Hamlet</i> with the +part of Hamlet left out. There was then no other building available +for dramatic representations than the Town Hall. I may, perhaps, be +allowed to congratulate you on the excellent theatre which you now +possess—I do not mean the Sheldonian—and at the same time to express +a hope that, as a more liberal, and might I say a wiser, <i>régime</i> +allows the members of the University to go to the play, they will not +receive any greater moral injury, or be distracted any more from their +studies, than when they were only allowed the occasional relaxation of +hearing comic songs. Macready once said that "a theatre ought to be +a place of recreation for the sober-minded and intelligent." I trust +that, under whatsoever management the theatre in Oxford may be, it +will always deserve this character.</p> + +<p>You must not expect any learned disquisition from me; nor even in the +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page110' id='Page110'>[110]</a></span>modified sense in which the word is used among you will I venture to +style what I am going to say to you a lecture. You may, by the way, +have seen a report that I was cast for <i>four</i> lectures; but I assure +you there was no ground for such an alarming rumor; a rumor quite as +alarming to me as it could have been to you. What I do propose is, to +say to you something about four of our greatest actors in the past, +each of whom may be termed the representative of an important period +in the Annals of our National Drama. In turning over the leaves of +a history of the life of Edmund Kean, I came across the following +sentence (the writer is speaking of Edmund Kean as having restored +Nature to the stage): "There seems always to have been this +alternation between the Schools of Nature and Art (if we may so term +them) in the annals of the English Theatre." Now if for <i>Art</i> I may be +allowed to <span class="newpage"><a name='Page111' id='Page111'>[111]</a></span>substitute <i>Artificiality</i>, which is what the author really +meant, I think that his sentence is an epitome of the history of our +stage; and it struck me at once that I could not select anything more +appropriate—I will not say as a text, for that sounds as if I were +going to deliver a sermon—but as the <i>motif</i>, or theme of the remarks +I am about to address to you. The four actors of whom I shall attempt +to tell, you something—Burbage, Betterton, Garrick, and Kean—were +the <i>four</i> greatest champions, in their respective times, on the stage +of Nature in contradistinction to Artificiality.</p> + +<p>When we consider the original of the Drama, or perhaps I should say +of the higher class of Drama, we see that the style of acting must +necessarily have been artificial rather than natural. Take the Greek +Tragedy, for instance: the actors, as you know, wore masks, and had to +speak, or rather intone, in a <span class="newpage"><a name='Page112' id='Page112'>[112]</a></span>theatre more than half open to the air, +and therefore it was impossible they could employ facial expression, +or much variety of intonation. We have not time now to trace at length +the many vicissitudes in the career of the Drama, but I may say that +Shakespeare was the first dramatist who dared to rob Tragedy of her +stilts; and who successfully introduced an element of comedy which +was not dragged in by the neck and heels, but which naturally evolved +itself from the treatment of the tragic story, and did not violate the +consistency of any character.</p> + +<p>It was not only with regard to the <i>writing</i> of his plays +that Shakespeare sought to fight the battle of Nature against +Artificiality. However naturally he might write, the affected or +monotonous <i>delivery</i> of his verse by the actors would neutralize all +his efforts. The old rhyming ten-syllable lines could not but lead to +a monotonous style of elocution, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page113' id='Page113'>[113]</a></span>nor was the early blank verse much +improvement in this respect; but Shakespeare fitted his blank verse to +the natural expression of his ideas, and not his ideas to the trammels +of blank verse.</p> + +<p>In order to carry out these reforms, in order to dethrone Artifice and +Affectation, he needed the help of actors in whom he could trust, +and especially of a leading actor who could interpret his greatest +dramatic creations; such a one he found in Richard Burbage.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare came to London first in 1585. Whether on this, his first +visit, he became connected with the theatres is uncertain. At any +rate it is most probable that he saw Burbage in some of his favorite +characters, and perhaps made his acquaintance; being first employed +as a kind of servant in the theatre, and afterwards as a player of +inferior parts. It was not until about 1591-1592, that Shakespeare +began to turn his attention seriously to <span class="newpage"><a name='Page114' id='Page114'>[114]</a></span>dramatic authorship. For five +years of his life we are absolutely without any evidence as to what +were his pursuits. But there can be little doubt that during this +interval he was virtually undergoing a special form of education, +consisting rather of the study of human nature than that of books, +and was acquiring the art of dramatic construction—learnt better in +a theatre than anywhere else. Unfortunately, we have no record of the +intercourse between Shakespeare and Burbage; but there can be little +doubt that between the dramatist, who was himself an actor, and the +actor, who gave life to the greatest creations of his imagination, and +who, probably, amazed no less than delighted the great master by the +vividness and power of his impersonations, there must have existed a +close friendship. Shakespeare, unlike most men of genius, was no bad +man of business; and, indeed, a friend of mine, who prides <span class="newpage"><a name='Page115' id='Page115'>[115]</a></span>himself +upon being a practical man, once suggested that he selected the part +of the Ghost in <i>Hamlet</i> because it enabled him to go in front of the +house between the acts and count the money. Burbage was universally +acknowledged as the greatest tragic actor of his time. In Bartholomew +Fair, Ben Jonson uses Burbage's name as a synonym for "the best +actor"; and Bishop Corbet, in his <i>Iter Boreale</i>, tells us that his +host at Leicester—</p> +<blockquote>"when he would have said King Richard died,<br /> +And call'd, 'A horse! A horse!' he, Burbage, +cried,"<br /></blockquote> +<p>In a scene, in which Burbage and the comedian Kemp (the J.L. Toole +of the Shakespearean period) are introduced in <i>The Return from +Parnassus</i>—a satirical play, as you may know, written by some of +the Members of St. John's College, Cambridge, for performance +by themselves on New Year's Day, 1602—we have proof of the high +estimation in which the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page116' id='Page116'>[116]</a></span>great tragic actor was held. Kemp says to the +scholars who are anxious to try their fortunes on the stage: "But be +merry, my lads, you have happened upon the most excellent vocation +in the world for money; they come north and south to bring it to our +playhouse; and for honors, who of more report than <i>Dick Burbage</i> +and <i>Will Kempe</i>; he is not counted a gentleman that knows not <i>Dick +Burbage</i> and <i>Will Kempe</i>; there's not a country wench that can +dance 'Sellenger's Round,' but can talke of <i>Dick Burbage</i> and <i>Will +Kempe</i>."</p> + +<p>That Burbage's fame as an actor outlived his life may be seen from the +description given by Flecknoe:—</p> + +<p>"He was a delightful Proteus, so wholly transforming himself into his +part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he never (not so +much as in the 'tiring house) assumed himself again until the play was +done.... He had all the parts of an <span class="newpage"><a name='Page117' id='Page117'>[117]</a></span>excellent orator, animating his +words with speaking, and speech with acting, his auditors being never +more delighted than when he spake, nor more sorry than when he held +his peace. Yet even then he was an excellent actor still, never +failing in his part when he had done speaking, but with his looks and +gestures maintaining it still to the height."</p> + +<p>It is not my intention, even if time permitted, to go much into the +private life of the four actors of whom I propose to speak. Very +little is known of Burbage's private life, except that he was married; +perhaps Shakespeare and he may have been drawn nearer together by the +tie of a common sorrow; for, as the poet lost his beloved son Hamlet +when quite a child, so did Burbage lose his eldest son Richard. +Burbage died on March 13th, 1617, being then about 50 years of age: +Camden, in his <i>Annals of James I.</i>, records his death, and calls him +a<span class="newpage"><a name='Page118' id='Page118'>[118]</a></span> second Roscius. He was sincerely mourned by all those who loved +the dramatic art; and he numbered among his friends Shakespeare, Ben +Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher, and other "common players," whose +names were destined to become the most honored in the annals of +English literature. Burbage was the first great actor that England +ever saw, the original representative of many of Shakespeare's noblest +creations, among others, of Shylock, Richard, Romeo, Hamlet, Lear, +Othello, and Macbeth. We may fairly conclude Burbage's acting to have +had all the best characteristics of Natural, as opposed to Artificial +acting. The principles of the former are so clearly laid down by +Shakespeare, in Hamlet's advice to the players, that, perhaps, I +cannot do better than to repeat them:—</p> + +<p class="speech">Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it +to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of +your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor<span class="newpage"><a name='Page119' id='Page119'>[119]</a></span> +do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all +gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the +whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that +may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a +robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very +rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part +are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-show and noise: I +would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it +out-herods Herod; pray you, avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but +let your own discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, +the word to the action; with this special observance, that you +o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone is +from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, +was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show +virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and +body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come +tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the +judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your +allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players +that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, +not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of +Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so<span class="newpage"><a name='Page120' id='Page120'>[120]</a></span> +strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's +journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated +humanity so abominably.</p> + +<p>When we try to picture what the theatre in Shakespeare's time was +like, it strikes us that it must have been difficult to carry out +those principles. One would think it must have been almost impossible +for the actors to keep up the illusion of the play, surrounded as they +were by such distracting elements. Figure to yourselves a crowd of +fops, chattering like a flock of daws, carrying their stools in their +hands, and settling around, and sometimes upon the stage itself, with +as much noise as possible. To vindicate their importance in their own +eyes they kept up a constant jangling of petty, carping criticism on +the actors and the play. In the intervals of repose which they allowed +their tongues, they ogled the ladies in the boxes, and made a point +of <span class="newpage"><a name='Page121' id='Page121'>[121]</a></span>vindicating the dignity of their intellects by being always most +inattentive during the most pathetic portions of the play. In front +of the house matters were little better: the orange girls going to and +fro among the audience, interchanging jokes—not of the most delicate +character—with the young sparks and apprentices, the latter cracking +nuts or howling down some unfortunate actor who had offended their +worships; sometimes pipes of tobacco were being smoked. Picture all +this confusion, and add the fact that the female characters of the +play were represented by shrill-voiced lads or half-shaven men. +Imagine an actor having to invest such representatives with all the +girlish passion of a Juliet, the womanly tenderness of a Desdemona, +or the pitiable anguish of a distraught Ophelia, and you cannot but +realize how difficult under such circumstances <i>great</i> acting +must have been. In <span class="newpage"><a name='Page122' id='Page122'>[122]</a></span>fact, while we are awe-struck by the wonderful +intellectuality of the best dramas of the Elizabethan period, we +cannot help feeling that certain subtleties of acting, elaborate +by-play, for instance, and the finer lights and shades of intonation, +must have been impossible. Recitation rather than impersonation would +be generally aimed at by the actors.</p> + +<p>Thomas Betterton was the son of one of the cooks of King Charles I. +He was born in Tothill Street, Westminster, about 1635, eighteen +years after the death of Burbage. He seems to have received a fair +education; indeed, but for the disturbing effect of the Civil War, he +would probably have been brought up to one of the liberal professions. +He was, however, apprenticed to a bookseller, who, fortunately +for Betterton, took to theatrical management. Betterton was about +twenty-four years old when he began his dramatic career. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page123' id='Page123'>[123]</a></span>For upwards +of fifty years he seems to have held his position as the foremost +actor of the day. It was fortunate, indeed, for the interests of the +Drama that so great an actor arose at the very time when dramatic art +had, as it were, to be resuscitated. Directly the Puritans (who hated +the stage and every one connected with it as heartily as they +hated their Cavalier neighbors) came into power, they abolished the +theatres, as they did every other form of intellectual amusement; +and for many years the Drama only existed in the form of a few vulgar +"Drolls." It must have been, indeed, a dismal time for the people of +England; with all the horrors of civil war fresh in their memory, the +more than paternal government allowed its subjects no other amusement +than that of consigning their neighbors to eternal damnation, and of +selecting for themselves—by anticipation—all the best reserved seats +in heaven. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page124' id='Page124'>[124]</a></span>When the Restoration took place, the inevitable reaction +followed: society, having been condemned to a lengthened period of an +involuntary piety—which sat anything but easily on it—rushed into +the other extreme; all who wanted to be in the fashion professed but +little morality, and it is to be feared that, for once in a way, their +practice did not come short of their profession. Now was the time +when, instead of "poor players," "fine gentlemen" condescended to +write for the stage; and it may be remarked that as long as the +literary interests of the theatre were in their keeping, the tone of +the plays represented was more corrupt than it ever was at any other +period of the history of the Drama. It is something to be thankful +for, that at such a time, when the highly-flavored comedies of +Wycherley and Congreve were all the vogue, and when the monotonous +profligacy of nearly all the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page125' id='Page125'>[125]</a></span>characters introduced into those plays +was calculated to encourage the most artificial style of acting—it +was something, I say, to be thankful for, that at such a time, +Betterton, and one or two other actors, could infuse life into +the noblest creations of Shakespeare. Owing, more especially, to +Betterton's great powers, the tragedy of <i>Hamlet</i> held its own in +popularity, even against such witty productions as <i>Love for Love</i>. It +was also fortunate that the same actor who could draw tears as Hamlet, +was equally at home in the feigned madness of that amusing rake +Valentine, or in the somewhat coarse humor of Sir John Brute. By +charming the public in what were the popular novelties of the day, he +was able to command their support when he sought it for a nobler +form of Drama. He married an actress, Mrs. Saunderson, who was only +inferior in her art to her husband. Their married life seems to +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page126' id='Page126'>[126]</a></span>have been one of perfect happiness. When one hears so much of the +profligacy of actors and actresses, and that they are all such a +very wicked lot, it is pleasant to think of this couple, in an age +proverbial for its immorality, in a city where the highest in rank set +an example of shameless licence, living their quiet, pure, artistic +life, respected and beloved by all that knew them.</p> + +<p>Betterton had few physical advantages. If we are to believe Antony +Aston, one of his contemporaries, he had "a short, thick neck, stooped +in the shoulders, and had fat, short arms, which he rarely lifted +higher than his stomach. His left hand frequently lodged in his +breast, between his coat and waistcoat, while with his right hand he +prepared his speech." Yet the same critic is obliged to confess that, +at seventy years of age, a younger man might have <i>personated</i> but +could not have <i>acted</i>, Hamlet better. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page127' id='Page127'>[127]</a></span>He calls his voice "low and +grumbling," but confesses that he had such power over it that he could +enforce attention even from fops and orange-girls. I dare say you +all know how Steele and Addison admired his acting, and how +enthusiastically they spoke of it in <i>The Tatler</i>. The latter writes +eloquently of the wonderful agony of jealousy and the tenderness +of love which he showed in <i>Othello</i>, and of the immense effect he +produced in <i>Hamlet</i>.</p> + +<p>Betterton, like all really great men, was a hard worker. Pepys says +of him, "Betterton is a very sober, serious man, and studious, and +humble, following of his studies; and is rich already with what he +gets and saves." Alas! the fortune so hardly earned was lost in an +unlucky moment: he entrusted it to a friend to invest in a commercial +venture in the East Indies which failed most signally. Betterton never +reproached <span class="newpage"><a name='Page128' id='Page128'>[128]</a></span>his friend, he never murmured at his ill-luck. The friend's +daughter was left unprovided for; but Betterton adopted the child, +educated her for the stage, and she became an actress of merit, and +married Bowman, the player, afterwards known as "The Father of the +Stage."</p> + +<p>In Betterton's day there were no long runs of pieces; but, had his +lot been cast in these times, he might have been compelled to perform, +say, <i>Hamlet</i> for three hundred or four hundred nights: for the rights +of the majority are entitled to respect in other affairs besides +politics, and if the theatre-going public demand a play (and our +largest theatres only hold a limited number) the manager dare not +cause annoyance and disappointment by withdrawing it.</p> + +<p>Like Edmund Kean, Betterton may be said to have died upon the stage; +for in April, 1710, when he took his last benefit, as Melantius, in +Beaumont and <span class="newpage"><a name='Page129' id='Page129'>[129]</a></span>Fletcher's <i>Maid's Tragedy</i> (an adaption of which, by the +way, was played by Macready under the title of <i>The Bridal</i>,) he was +suffering tortures from gout, and had almost to be carried to his +dressing-room; and though he acted the part with all his old fire, +speaking these very appropriate words:—</p> +<pre> + "My heart + And limbs are still the same, my will as great, + To do you service," +</pre> +<p>within forty-eight hours he was dead. He was buried in the Cloisters +of Westminster Abbey with every mark of respect and honor.</p> + +<p>I may here add that the censure said to have been directed against +Betterton for the introduction of scenery is the prototype of that +cry, which we hear so often nowadays, against over-elaboration in +the arrangements of the stage. If it be a crime against good taste +to <span class="newpage"><a name='Page130' id='Page130'>[130]</a></span>endeavor to enlist every art in the service of the stage, and to +heighten the effect of noble poetry by surrounding it with the most +beautiful and appropriate accessories, I myself must plead guilty to +that charge; but I should like to point out that every dramatist who +has ever lived, from Shakespeare downwards, has always endeavored to +get his plays put upon the stage with as good effect and as handsome +appointments as possible.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the Globe Theatre was burned down during the first performance +of <i>King Henry VIII.</i>, through the firing off of a cannon which +announced the arrival of King Henry. Perhaps, indeed, some might +regard this as a judgment against the manager for such an attempt at +realism.</p> + +<p>It was seriously suggested to me by an enthusiast the other day, that +costumes of his own time should be used <span class="newpage"><a name='Page131' id='Page131'>[131]</a></span>for all Shakespeare's plays. I +reflected a little on the suggestion, and then I put it to him whether +the characters in <i>Julius Cæsar</i> or in <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i> dressed +in doublet and hose would not look rather out of place. He answered, +"He had never thought of that." In fact, difficulties almost +innumerable must invariably crop up if we attempt to represent plays +without appropriate costume and scenery, the aim of which is to +realize the <i>locale</i> of the action. Some people may hold that paying +attention to such matters necessitates inattention to the acting; but +the majority think it does not, and I believe that they are right. +What would Alma-Tadema say, for instance, if it were proposed to him +that in a picture of the Roman Amphitheatre the figures should be +painted in the costume of Spain? I do not think he would see the point +of such a noble disregard of detail; and why should he, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page132' id='Page132'>[132]</a></span>unless what is +false in art is held to be higher than what is true?</p> + +<p>Little more than thirty years were to elapse between the death of +the honored Betterton and the appearance of David Garrick, who was +to restore Nature once more to the stage. In this comparatively +short interval progress in dramatic affairs had been all backward. +Shakespeare's advice to the actors had been neglected; earnest +passion, affecting pathos, ever-varying gestures, telling intonation +of voice, and, above all, that complete identification of themselves +in the part they represented—all these qualities, which had +distinguished the acting of Betterton, had given way to noisy +rant, formal and affected attitudes, and a heavy stilted style of +declamation. Betterton died in 1710, and six years after, in 1716, +Garrick was born. About twenty years after, in 1737, Samuel Johnson +and his friend and pupil, David Garrick, set <span class="newpage"><a name='Page133' id='Page133'>[133]</a></span>out from Lichfield on +their way to London. In spite of the differences in their ages, and +their relationship of master and pupil, a hearty friendship had sprung +up between them, and one destined, in spite of Johnson's occasional +resentment at the actor's success in life, to last till it was ended +by the grave. Much of Johnson's occasional harshness and almost +contemptuous attitude towards Garrick was, I fear, the result of the +consciousness that his old pupil had thoroughly succeeded in life, +and had reached the highest goal possible in the career which he had +chosen; while he himself, though looked up to as the greatest scholar +of his time, was conscious, as he shows us in his own diary, of how +much more he might have done but for his constitutional indolence.</p> + +<p>Garrick's family was of French origin, his father having come over to +England during the persecution of the Huguenots <span class="newpage"><a name='Page134' id='Page134'>[134]</a></span>in 1687, and on his +mother's side he had Irish blood in his veins; so that by descent he +was a combination of French, English, and Irish, a combination by no +means unpromising for one who was going to be an actor.</p> + +<p>On reaching London, Garrick enrolled his name in Lincoln's Inn, and +was looking about him to see what would turn up, when the news of his +father's death reached him. There is no doubt that, if Garrick had +consulted his own wishes only, he would at once have gone upon the +stage. But fortunately, perhaps, for his future career, he could not +bear to grieve his mother's heart by adopting at once, and at such +a time when she was crushed with some sorrow for her great loss, a +calling which he knew she detested so heartily.</p> + +<p>Within a year Mrs. Garrick followed to the grave the husband whom she +never ceased to mourn, and David had nothing<span class="newpage"><a name='Page135' id='Page135'>[135]</a></span> more to face than the +prejudice of his brother, Peter, and of his sisters, if he should +resolve ultimately to adopt the profession on which his heart was +fixed.</p> + +<p>It was not, however, till nearly three years after, in 1741, that +Garrick, determined to take the decisive step, first feeling his way +by playing Chamont in <i>The Orphan</i>, and Sir Harry Wildair, at Ipswich, +where he appeared under the name of Mr. Lydall; and under this same +name, in the same year, he made his first appearance at Goodman's +Fields Theatre, in the part of Richard III. His success was +marvellous. Considering the small experience he had had, no actor ever +made such a successful <i>début</i>. No doubt by waiting and exercising his +powers of observation, and by studying many parts in private, he had +to a certain extent, matured his powers. But making allowance for +all his great natural gifts, there is no denying that Garrick, in <span class="newpage"><a name='Page136' id='Page136'>[136]</a></span>one +leap, gained a position which, in the case of most other actors, has +only been reached through years of toil. He seems to have charmed all +classes: the learned and the ignorant, the cultured and the vulgar; +great statesmen, poets, and even the fribbles of fashion were all +nearly unanimous in his praise. The dissentient voices were so few +that they were drowned in the clamor of applause. Quinn might snarl +and growl; and Horace Walpole, who seems to have grown alarmed at +so much of the incense of praise finding its way to the nostrils of +another, might give vent to a few feeble sneers; such as when he said, +"I do not mention the things written in his praise because he writes +most of them himself." But the battle was won. Nature in the place +of Artificiality, Originality in the place of Conventionality, had +triumphed on the stage once more.</p> + +<p>Consternation reigned in the home at <span class="newpage"><a name='Page137' id='Page137'>[137]</a></span>Lichfield when the news arrived +that brother David had become a play-actor; but ultimately the family +were reconciled to such degradation by the substantial results of the +experiment. Such reconcilements are not uncommon. Some young man of +good birth and position has taken to the stage; his family, who could +not afford to keep him, have been shocked, and in pious horror have +cast him out of their respectable circle; but at last success has +come, and they have managed to overcome their scruples and prejudices +and to profit by the harvest which the actor has reaped.</p> + +<p>Garrick seems to have continued playing under the name of Lydall for +two months, though the secret must have been an open one. It was not +till December the second, the night of his benefit, that he was at +last announced under his own name; and henceforward his career was +one long triumph, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page138' id='Page138'>[138]</a></span>checkered, indeed, by disagreements, quarrels and +heart-burnings (for Garrick was extremely sensitive), caused, for the +most part, by the envy and jealousy which invariably dog the heels of +success.</p> + +<p>Second-rate actors, like Theophilus Gibber, or gnats such as Murphy, +and others, easily stung him. He was lampooned as "The Sick Monkey" +on his return to the stage after having taken a much needed rest. +But discretion and audacity seemed to go hand-in-hand, and the +self-satisfied satirizer generally over-shoots the mark. Garrick was +ever ready with a reply to his assailants; when Dr. Hill attacked his +pronunciation, saying that he pronounced his "i's" as if they were +"u's," Garrick answered—</p> + +<p class="poem p.i2">"If 'tis true, as you say, that I've injured a +letter,<br /> +I'll change my note soon, and I hope for the better.<br /> +May the just right of letters as well as of men,<br /> +Hereafter be fixed by the tongue and the pen.<br /> +Most devoutly I wish that they both have their due,<br /> +And that <i>I</i> may be never mistaken for <i>U</i>."</p> + +<p><span class="newpage"><a name='Page139' id='Page139'>[139]</a></span>Comparing Garrick with Betterton, it must be remembered that he was +more exposed to the attacks of envy from the very universality of +his success. Never, perhaps, was there a man in any profession +who combined so many various qualities. A fair poet, a most fluent +correspondent, an admirable conversationalist, possessing a person +of singular grace, a voice of marvellous expressiveness, and a +disposition so mercurial and vivacious as is rarely found in any +Englishman, he was destined to be a great social as well as a great +artistic success. He loved the society of men of birth and fashion; he +seems to have had a more passionate desire to please in private even +than in public, and almost to have justified the often quoted couplet +in Goldsmith's "Retaliation."</p> + +<p class="poem p. i2">"On the stage he was natural, simple, +affecting,<br /> +'Twas only that when he was off he was acting."</p> +<p>Some men, envious of the substantial <span class="newpage"><a name='Page140' id='Page140'>[140]</a></span>fortune which he realized by +almost incessant hard work, by thorough good principle with regard +to money, and by a noble, not a paltry, economy, might call him mean; +though many of them knew well, from their own experience, that his +nature was truly generous—his purse, as well as his heart, ever open +to a friend, however little he might deserve it. Yet they sneered +at his want of reckless extravagance, and called him a miser. The +greatest offender in this respect was Samuel Foote, a man of great +accomplishments, witty, but always ill-natured. It is difficult to +speak of Foote's conduct to Garrick in any moderate language. Mr. +Forster may assert that behind Foote's brutal jests there always +lurked a kindly feeling; but what can we think of the man who, +constantly receiving favors from Garrick's hand, could never speak of +him before others without a sneer; who the moment he had received the +loan <span class="newpage"><a name='Page141' id='Page141'>[141]</a></span>of money or other favor for which he had cringed, snarled—I will +not say like a dog, for no dog is so ungrateful—and snapped at the +hand which had administered to him of its bounty. When this man, +who had never spared a friend, whose whole life had been passed in +maligning others, at last was himself a victim of a vile and cruel +slander, Garrick forgot the gibes and sneers of which Foote had made +him so often the victim, and stood by him with a noble devotion as +honorable to himself as it was ill-deserved by its object. Time would +not suffice, had I as many hours as I have minutes before me, to tell +you of all the acts of generosity that this mean man, this niggardly +actor, performed in his lifetime. One characteristic anecdote will +suffice. When Whitfield was building his Tabernacle in Tottenham Court +Road, he employed one of the carpenters who worked for Garrick at +Drury Lane. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page142' id='Page142'>[142]</a></span>Subscriptions for the Tabernacle do not seem to have +come in as fast as they were required to pay the workmen, so that the +carpenter had to go to Garrick to ask for an advance. When pressed for +his reason he confessed that he had not received any wages from Mr. +Whitfield. Garrick made the advance asked for, and soon after quietly +set out to pay a visit to Mr. Whitfield, when, with many apologies for +the liberty he was taking, he offered him a five hundred pound bank +note as his subscription towards the Tabernacle. Considering that +Garrick had no particular sympathy with Nonconformists, this action +speaks as much for his charity as a Christian as it does for his +liberality as a man.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Richard III. remained Garrick's best Shakesperean character. +Of course he played Cibber's version and not Shakespeare's. In fact, +many of the Shakesperean parts were not played from <span class="newpage"><a name='Page143' id='Page143'>[143]</a></span>the poet's own +text, but Garrick might have doubted whether even his popularity +would have reconciled his audiences to the unadulterated poetry of our +greatest dramatist.</p> + +<p>Next to Richard, Lear would seem to have been his best Shakesperean +performance. In Hamlet and Othello he did not equal Betterton; and +in the latter, certainly from all one can discover, he was infinitely +surpassed by Edmund Kean. In fact Othello was not one of his great +parts. But in the wide range of characters which he undertook, Garrick +was probably never equalled. A poor actor named Everard, who was first +brought out as a boy by Garrick, says: "Such or such an actor in their +respective <i>fortes</i> have been allowed to play such or such a part +equally well as him; but could they perform Archer and Scrub like +him? and Abel Drugger, Ranger, and Bayes, and Benedick; speak his own +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page144' id='Page144'>[144]</a></span>prologue to <i>Barbarossa</i>, in the character of a country-boy, and in a +few minutes transform himself in the same play to <i>Selim</i>? Nay, in the +same night he has played <i>Sir John Brute</i> and the <i>Guardian, Romeo</i> +and <i>Lord Chalkstone, Hamlet</i> and <i>Sharp, King Lear</i> and <i>Fribble, +King Richard</i> and the <i>Schoolboy</i>! Could anyone but himself attempt +such a wonderful variety, such an amazing contrast of character, and +be equally great in all? No, no, no! Garrick, take the chair."</p> + +<p>Garrick was, without doubt, a very intense actor; he threw himself +most thoroughly into any part that he was playing. Certainly we know +that he was not wanting in reverence for Shakespeare; in spite of the +liberties which he ventured to take with the poet's text, he loved +and worshipped him. To Powell, who threatened to be at one time a +formidable rival, his advice was, "Never let your Shakespeare be out +of your hands; keep him <span class="newpage"><a name='Page145' id='Page145'>[145]</a></span>about you as a charm; the more you read him, +the more you will like him, and the better you will act." As to his +yielding to the popular taste for pantomime and spectacle, he may +plead a justification in the words which his friend Johnson put into +his mouth in the Prologue that he wrote for the inauguration of his +management at Drury Lane:—</p> + +<p class="poem p.i2">"The Drama's laws the Drama's patrons +give,<br /> +And we, who live to please, must please to live."</p> +<p>We must remember how much he did for the stage. Though his alterations +of Shakespeare shock us, they are nothing to those outrages committed +by others, who deformed the poet beyond recognition. Garrick made +Shakespeare's plays once more popular. He purged the actors, for a +time at least, of faults that were fatal to any high class of drama, +and, above all, he gradually got rid of those abominable nuisances +(to which we have <span class="newpage"><a name='Page146' id='Page146'>[146]</a></span>already alluded), the people who came and took their +seats at the wings, on the stage itself, while the performance was +going on, hampering the efforts of the actors and actresses. The stage +would have had much to thank Garrick for if he had done nothing more +than this—if only that he was the first manager who kept the audience +where they ought to be, on the other side of the footlights.</p> + +<p>In his private life Garrick was most happy. He was fortunate enough +to find for his wife a simple-minded, loyal woman, in a quarter which +some people would deem very unpromising. Mrs. Garrick was, as is +well-known, a celebrated <i>danseuse</i>, known as Mademoiselle Violette, +whose real name was Eva Maria Weigel, a Viennese. A more affectionate +couple were never seen; they were not blessed with children, but they +lived together in the most uninterrupted happiness, and their house +was the scene of<span class="newpage"><a name='Page147' id='Page147'>[147]</a></span> many social gatherings of a delightful kind. Mrs. +Garrick survived her celebrated husband, and lived to the ripe age of +ninety-eight, retaining to the very last much of that grace and charm +of expression which had won the actor's heart.</p> + +<p>Time will not allow me to dwell on the many points of interest +in Garrick's career; all of which are to be found in Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald's <i>Life of Garrick</i>. On returning to London after a visit +to the Spensers at Althorp in January, 1779, he was struck down by +a fatal attack of his old malady, the gout, and died at the age of +sixty-three.</p> + +<p>He was buried in Westminster Abbey with ceremonies as imposing as ever +graced the funeral of a great man. The pall-bearers were headed by the +Duke of Devonshire and the Earl Spenser, while round the grave there +were gathered such men as Burke and Fox, and last, not least, his old +friend and tutor, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page148' id='Page148'>[148]</a></span>Samuel Johnson, his rugged countenance streaming +with tears, his noble heart filled with the sincerest grief. The words +so often quoted, artificial though they may seem, came from that heart +when, speaking of his dear Davy's death, he said that it "had eclipsed +the gayety of nations."</p> + +<p>Garrick's remarkable success in society, which achieved for him a +position only inferior to that he achieved on the stage, is the best +answer to what is often talked about the degrading nature of the +actor's profession. Since the days of Roscius no contempt for actors +in general, or for their art, has prevented a great actor from +attaining that position which is accorded to all distinguished in what +are held to be the higher arts.</p> + +<p>Nearly nine years after the death of Garrick, on November 4th, 1787, a +young woman, who had run away from home when little more than a child +to join a company of strolling players, and who, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page149' id='Page149'>[149]</a></span>when that occupation +failed, earned a scanty living as a hawker in the streets of London, +gave birth, in a wretched room near Gray's Inn, to an illegitimate +child. This woman was Nancy Carey, the grand-daughter of Henry Carey, +the author of the "National Anthem." She was the great-grand-daughter +of George Saville, Marquis of Halifax, whose natural son Henry Carey +was. A compassionate actress, Miss Tidswell, who knew the father of +the child, Aaron Kean, gave her what assistance she could. Poor Nance +was removed to her father's lodgings, near Gray's Inn, and there, on +the day before mentioned, Edmund Kean was born.</p> + +<p>Three months after his birth his mother deserted him, leaving him, +without a word of apology or regret, to the care of the woman who had +befriended her in her trouble. When he was but three years old he was +brought, amongst a number <span class="newpage"><a name='Page150' id='Page150'>[150]</a></span>of other children, to Michael Kelly who +was then bringing out the opera of <i>Cymon</i> at the Opera House in the +Haymarket, and, thanks to his personal beauty, he was selected for +the part of Cupid. Shortly afterwards he found his way to Drury Lane, +where the handsome baby—for he was little more—figured among the +imps in the pantomime. Taught here the tricks of the acrobat, he had +at four years old acquired such powers of contortion that he was fit +to rank as an infant phenomenon. But the usual result followed: the +little limbs became deformed, and had to be put in irons, by means +of which they regained that symmetry with which nature had at first +endowed them. Three years afterwards, in March, 1794, John Kemble was +acting Macbeth at Drury Lane; and, in the "cauldron scene," he engaged +some children to personate the supernatural beings summoned by the +witches from that weird vessel. Little <span class="newpage"><a name='Page151' id='Page151'>[151]</a></span>Edmund with his irons was the +cause of a ridiculous accident, and the attempt to embody the ghostly +forms was abruptly abandoned. But the child seems to have been +pardoned for his blunder, and for a short time was permitted by the +manager to appear in one or two children's parts. Little did the +dignified manager imagine that the child—who was one of his +cauldron of imps in <i>Macbeth</i>—was to become, twenty years later, his +formidable rival—formidable enough to oust almost the representative +of the Classical school from the supremacy he had hitherto enjoyed on +the Tragic stage. In Orange Court, Leicester Square, where Holcroft, +the author of <i>The Road to Ruin</i>, was born, Edmund Kean received +his first education. Scanty enough it was, for it had scarcely begun +before his wretched mother stepped in and claimed him; and, after her +re-appearance, his education seems to have been of a most <span class="newpage"><a name='Page152' id='Page152'>[152]</a></span>spasmodic +character. Hitherto, the child's experience of life had been hard +enough. When only eight years of age he ran away to Portsmouth, and +shipped himself on board a ship bound to Madeira. But he found his +new life harder than that from which he had escaped, and, by dint of +feigning deafness and lameness, he succeeded in procuring his removal +to an hospital at Madeira, whence, the doctors finding his case +yielded to no remedies, the authorities kindly shipped him again to +England. He insisted on being deaf and lame: indeed, so deaf that in +a violent thunder-storm he remained perfectly unmoved, explaining his +composure by declaring that he could not hear any noise at all. From +Portsmouth he made his way on foot to London. On presenting himself +at the wretched lodgings where his mother lived, he found that she had +gone away with Richardson's troupe. Penniless and half-starving, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page153' id='Page153'>[153]</a></span>he +suddenly thought of his uncle, Moses Kean, who lived in Lisle Street, +Leicester Square, a queer character, who gained a precarious living by +giving entertainments as a mimic and ventriloquist. The uncle received +his nephew warmly enough, and seems to have cultivated, to the best of +his ability, the talent for acting which he recognized at once in +the boy. Edmund again enjoyed a kind of desultory education, partly +carried on at school and partly at his uncle's home, where he enjoyed +the advantage of the kind instructions of his old friend, Miss +Tidswell, of D'Egville, the dancing master, of Angelo, the fencing +master, and of no less a person than Incledon, the celebrated singer, +who seems to have taken the greatest interest in him. But the vagrant, +half-gypsy disposition, which he inherited from his mother, could +never be subdued, and he was constantly disappearing from his uncle's +house for <span class="newpage"><a name='Page154' id='Page154'>[154]</a></span>weeks together, which he would pass in going about from one +roadside inn to another, amusing the guests with his acrobatic tricks, +and his monkey-like imitations. In vain was he locked up in rooms, the +height of which from the ground was such as seemed to render escape +impossible. He contrived to get out somehow or other, even at the risk +of his neck, and to make his escape to some fair, where he would earn +a few pence by the exhibition of his varied accomplishments. During +these periods of vagabondism he would live on a mere nothing, sleeping +in barns, or in the open air, and would faithfully bring back his +gains to Uncle Moses. But even this astounding generosity, appealing, +as it must have done, to the uncle's sentiments, could not appease +him. His uncle went so far, apparently with the concurrence of Miss +Tidswell, as to place round the boy's neck a brass collar <span class="newpage"><a name='Page155' id='Page155'>[155]</a></span>with the +inscription, "This boy belongs to No. 9 Lisle Street; please bring him +home." His wandering propensities being for a time subdued, we find +the little Edmund again engaged at Drury Lane, and delighting the +actors in the green-room by giving recitations from <i>Richard III.</i>, +probably in imitation of Cooke; and, on one occasion, among his +audience was Mrs. Charles Kemble. During this engagement he played +Arthur to Kemble's King John and Mrs. Siddon's Constance, and appears +to have made a great success. Soon after this, his uncle Moses +died suddenly, and young Kean was left to the severe but kindly +guardianship of Miss Tidswell. We cannot follow him through all the +vicissitudes of his early career. The sketch I have given of his early +life—ample details of which may be found in Mrs. Hawkins's <i>Life of +Edmund Kean</i>—will give you a sufficient idea of what he must have +endured and suffered. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page156' id='Page156'>[156]</a></span>When, years afterwards, the passionate love of +Shakespeare, which, without exaggeration, we may say he showed almost +from his cradle, had reaped its own reward in the wonderful success +which he achieved, if we find him then averse to respectable +conventionality, erratic, and even dissipated in his habits, let us +mercifully remember the bitter and degrading suffering which he passed +through in his childhood, and not judge too harshly the great actor. +Unlike those whose lives we have hitherto considered, he knew none of +the softening influences of a home; to him the very name of mother, +instead of recalling every tender and affectionate feeling, was but +the symbol of a vague horror, the fountain of that degradation and +depravation of his nature, from which no subsequent prosperity could +ever redeem it.</p> + +<p>For many years after his boyhood his life was one of continual +hardship. <span class="newpage"><a name='Page157' id='Page157'>[157]</a></span>With that unsubdued conviction of his own powers, which +often is the sole consolation of genius, he toiled on and bravely +struggled through the sordid miseries of a strolling player's life. +The road to success lies through many a thorny course, across many a +dreary stretch of desert land, over many an obstacle, from which the +fainting heart is often tempted to turn back. But hope, and the sense +of power within, which no discouragements can subdue, inspire the +struggling artist still to continue the conflict, till at last courage +and perseverance meet with their just reward, and success comes. The +only feeling then to which the triumphant artist may be tempted is one +of good-natured contempt for those who are so ready to applaud those +merits which, in the past, they were too blind to recognize. Edmund +Kean was twenty-seven years old before his day of triumph came.</p> + +<p><span class="newpage"><a name='Page158' id='Page158'>[158]</a></span>Without any preliminary puffs, without any flourish of trumpets, on +the evening of the 26th January, 1814, soaked through with the rain, +Edmund Kean slunk more than walked in at the stage-door of Drury Lane +Theatre, uncheered by one word of encouragement, and quite unnoticed. +He found his way to the wretched dressing-room he shared in common +with three or four other actors; as quick as possible he exchanged his +dripping clothes for the dress of Shylock; and, to the horror of +his companions, took from his bundle a <i>black</i> wig—the proof of his +daring rebellion against the great law of conventionality, which +had always condemned Shylock to red hair. Cheered by the kindness of +Bannister and Oxberry, the latter of whom offered him a welcome glass +of brandy and water, he descended to the stage dressed, and peeped +through the curtain to see a more than half-empty house. Dr. Drury +was <span class="newpage"><a name='Page159' id='Page159'>[159]</a></span>waiting at the wings to give him a hearty welcome. The boxes were +empty, and there were about five hundred people in the pit, and a few +others "thinly scattered to make up a show." Shylock was the part he +was playing, and he no sooner stepped upon the stage than the interest +of the audience was excited. Nothing he did or spoke in the part was +done or spoken in a conventional manner. The simple words, "I will be +assured I may," were given with such effect that the audience burst +into applause. When the act-drop fell, after the speech of Shylock +to Antonio, his success was assured, and his fellow-actors, who had +avoided him, now seemed disposed to congratulate him; but he shrank +from their approaches. The great scene with Tubal was a revelation of +such originality and of such terrible force as had not probably been +seen upon those boards before. "How the devil so few of them <span class="newpage"><a name='Page160' id='Page160'>[160]</a></span>could +kick up such a row was something marvellous!" naïvely remarked +Oxberry. At the end of the third act every one was ready to pay court +to him; but again he held aloof. All his thoughts were concentrated on +the great "trial" scene, which was coming. In that scene the +wonderful variety of his acting completed his triumph. Trembling with +excitement, he resumed his half-dried clothes, and, glad to escape, +rushed home. He was in too great a state of ecstasy at first to speak, +but his face told his wife that he had realized his dream—that he +had appeared on the stage of Drury Lane, and that his great powers +had been instantly acknowledged. With not a shadow of doubt as to his +future, he exclaimed, "Mary, you shall ride in your carriage;" and +taking his baby boy from the cradle and kissing him, said, "and +Charley, my boy, you shall go to Eton,"—and he did.</p> + +<p><span class="newpage"><a name='Page161' id='Page161'>[161]</a></span>The time when Edmund Kean made his first appearance in London was +certainly favorable for an actor of genius. For a long while the +national theatre had been in a bad way; and nothing but failure had +hitherto met the efforts of the Committee of Management, a committee +which numbered among its members Lord Byron. When the other members +of the committee, with a strange blindness to their own interests, +proposed that for the present, Kean's name should be removed from +the bills, Byron interested himself on his behalf: "You have a great +genius among you," he said, "and you do not know it." On Kean's second +appearance the house was nearly doubled. Hazlitt's criticism had +roused the whole body of critics, and they were all there to sit in +judgment upon the newcomer. His utter indifference to the audience won +him their respect, and before the piece was half over the sentence +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page162' id='Page162'>[162]</a></span>of the formidable tribunal was in his favor. From that moment Kean +exercised over his audiences a fascination which was probably never +exercised by any other actor. Garrick was no doubt his superior in +parts of high comedy; he was more polished, more vivacious—his manner +more distinguished, and his versatility more striking. In such parts +as Coriolanus or Rolla, John Kemble excelled him: but in Shylock, +in Richard, in Iago, and, above all, in Othello, it may be doubted +whether Edmund Kean ever had an equal. As far as one can judge—not +having seen Kean one's-self—from the many criticisms extant, written +by the most intellectual men, and from the accounts of those who +saw him in his prime, he was, to my mind—be it said without any +disparagement to other great actors—the greatest genius that our +stage has ever seen. Unequal he may have been, perhaps often so, but +there were <span class="newpage"><a name='Page163' id='Page163'>[163]</a></span>moments in his acting which were, without exaggeration, +moments of inspiration. Coleridge is reported to have said that to see +Kean act was "like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning." This +often-quoted sentence embodies perhaps the main feature of Edmund +Kean's greatness as an actor; for, when he was impersonating the +heroes of our poet, he revealed their natures by an instant flash of +light so searching that every minute feature, which by the ordinary +light of day was hardly visible, stood bright and clear before you. +The effect of such acting was indeed that of lightning—it appalled; +the timid hid their eyes, and fashionable society shrank from such +heart-piercing revelations of human passion. Persons who had schooled +themselves to control their emotion till they had scarcely any +emotion left to control, were repelled rather than attracted by Kean's +relentless anatomy of all the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page164' id='Page164'>[164]</a></span>strongest feeling of our nature. In Sir +Giles Overreach, a character almost devoid of poetry, Kean's acting +displayed with such powerful and relentless truth the depths of a +cruel, avaricious man, baffled in all his vilest schemes, that the +effect he produced was absolutely awful. As no bird but the eagle can +look without blinking on the sun, so none but those who in the +sacred privacy of their imaginations had stood face to face with the +mightiest storms of human passion could understand such a performance. +Byron, who had been almost forced into a quarrel with Kean by the +actor's disregard of the ordinary courtesies of society, could not +restrain himself, but rushed behind the scenes and grasped the hand of +the man to whom he felt that he owed a wonderful revelation.</p> + +<p>I might discant for hours with an enthusiasm which, perhaps, only an +actor could feel on the marvellous details of <span class="newpage"><a name='Page165' id='Page165'>[165]</a></span>Kean's impersonations. +He was not a scholar in the ordinary sense of the word, though Heaven +knows he had been schooled by adversity, but I doubt if there ever was +an actor who so thought out his part, who so closely studied with the +inward eye of the artist the waves of emotion that might have agitated +the minds of the beings whom he represented. One hears of him during +those early years of struggle and privation, pacing silently along +the road, foot-sore and half-starved, but unconscious of his own +sufferings, because he was immersed in the study of those great +creations of Shakespeare's genius which he was destined to endow with +life upon the stage. When you read of Edmund Kean as, alas! he was +later on in life, with mental and physical powers impaired, think of +the description those gave of him who knew him best in his earlier +years; how amidst all the wildness and half-savage Bohemianism, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page166' id='Page166'>[166]</a></span>which +the miseries of his life had ensured, he displayed, time after time, +the most large-hearted generosity, the tenderest kindness of which +human nature is capable. Think of him working with a concentrated +energy for the one object which he sought, namely, to reach the +highest distinction in his calling. Think of him as sparing no mental +or physical labor to attain this end, an end which seemed ever fading +further and further from his grasp. Think of the disappointments, the +cruel mockeries of hope which, day after day, he had to encounter; +and then be harsh if you can to those moral failings for which his +misfortunes rather than his faults were responsible. If you are +inclined to be severe, you may console yourselves with the reflection +that this genius, who had given the highest intellectual pleasure to +hundreds and thousands of human beings, was hounded by hypocritical +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page167' id='Page167'>[167]</a></span>sanctimoniousness out of his native land; and though, two years +afterwards, one is glad to say, for the honor of one's country, a +complete reaction took place, and his reappearance was greeted with +every mark of hearty welcome, the blow had been struck from which +neither his mind or his body ever recovered. He lingered upon +the stage, and died at the age of forty-six, after five years of +suffering—almost a beggar—with only a solitary ten-pound note +remaining of the large fortune his genius had realized.</p> + +<p>It is said that Kean swept away the Kembles and their Classical school +of acting. He did not do that. The memory of Sarah Siddons, tragic +queen of the British stage, was never to be effaced, and I would +remind you that when Kean was a country actor (assured of his own +powers, however unappreciated), resenting with passionate pride the +idea of playing second to "the Infant Roscius," <span class="newpage"><a name='Page168' id='Page168'>[168]</a></span>who was for a time +the craze and idol of the hour, "Never," said he, "never; I will play +second to no one but John Kemble!" I am certain that when his +better nature had the ascendency no one would have more generously +acknowledged the merits of Kemble than Edmund Kean. It is idle to say +that because his style was solemn and slow, Kemble was not one of the +greatest actors that our stage has produced. It is only those whose +natures make them incapable of approbation or condemnation in artistic +matters without being partisans, who, because they admire Edmund Kean, +would admit no merit in John Kemble. The world of art, thank Heaven, +is wide enough for both, and the hearts of those who truly love art +are large enough to cherish the memory of both as of men who did noble +work in the profession which they adorned. Kean blended the Realistic +with the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page169' id='Page169'>[169]</a></span>Ideal in acting, and founded a school of which William +Charles Macready was, afterwards, in England, the foremost disciple.</p> + +<p>Thus have we glanced, briefly enough, at four of our greatest actors +whose names are landmarks in the history of the Drama in England, the +greatest Drama of the world. We have seen how they all carried out, by +different methods perhaps, but in the same spirit, the principle that +in acting Nature must dominate Art. But it is Art that must interpret +Nature; and to interpret the thoughts and emotions of her mistress +should be her first object. But those thoughts, those emotions, must +be interpreted with grace, with dignity and with temperance; and +these, let us remember, Art alone can teach.</p> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page170' id='Page170'>[170]</a></span> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page171' id='Page171'>[171]</a></span> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<center> +<h3>ADDRESS</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>SESSIONAL OPENING</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>EDINBURGH</h3> +</center> +<center> +<h3>9 NOVEMBER 1891</h3> +</center> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page172' id='Page172'>[172]</a></span> +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page173' id='Page173'>[173]</a></span> +<a name="link8" id="link8"><!-- H1 anchor --></a> +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /></div> +<h1>THE ART OF ACTING</h1> +<p>I have chosen as the subject of the address with which I have the +honor to inaugurate for the second time the Session of the Edinburgh +Philosophical Institution, "The Art of Acting." I have done so, in the +first instance, because I take it for granted that when you bestow on +any man the honor of asking him to deliver the inaugural address, it +is your wish to hear him speak of the subject with which he is best +acquainted; and the Art of Acting is the subject to which my life has +been devoted. I have another reason also which, though it may, so far +as you are concerned, be<span class="newpage"><a name='Page174' id='Page174'>[174]</a></span> personal to those of my calling, I think it +well to put before you. It is that there may be, from the point of +view of an actor distinguished by your favor, some sort of official +utterance on the subject. There are some irresponsible writers who +have of late tried to excite controversy by assertions, generally +false and always misleading, as to the stage and those devoted to the +arts connected with it. Some of these writers go so far as to assert +that Acting is not an Art at all; and though we must not take such +wild assertions quite seriously, I think it well to place on record at +least a polite denial of their accuracy. It would not, of course, +be seemly to merely take so grave an occasion as the present as an +opportunity for such a controversy, but as I am dealing with the +subject before you, I think it better to place you in full knowledge +of the circumstances. It does not do, of course, to pay too much +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page175' id='Page175'>[175]</a></span>attention to ephemeral writings, any more than to creatures of the +mist and the swamp and the night. But even the buzzing of the midge, +though the insect may be harmless compared with its more poison-laden +fellows, can divert the mind from more important things. To disregard +entirely the world of ephemera, and their several actions and effects +were to deny the entirety of the scheme of creation.</p> + +<p>I take it for granted that in addressing you on the subject of the Art +of Acting I am not, <i>prima facie</i>, encountering set prejudices; for +had you despised the Art which I represent I should not have had the +honor of appearing before you to-day. You will, I trust, on your part, +bear this in mind, and I shall, on my part, never forget that you are +members of a Philosophical Institution, the very root and basis of +whose work is to inquire into the heart of things with the purpose of +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page176' id='Page176'>[176]</a></span>discovering why such as come under your notice are thus or thus.</p> + +<p>The subject of my address is a very vast one, and is, I assure you, +worthy of a careful study. Writers such as Voltaire, Schlegel, Goethe, +Lessing, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, and Schiller, have not disdained to +treat it with that seriousness which Art specially demands—which +anything in life requires whose purpose is not immediate and +imperative. For my own part I can only bring you the experience +of more than thirty years of hard and earnest work. Out of wide +experience let me point out that there are many degrees of merit, both +of aim, of endeavor, and of execution in acting, as in all things. I +want you to think of acting at its best—as it may be, as it can be, +as it has been, and is—and as it shall be, whilst it be followed by +men and women of strong and earnest purpose. I do not for a moment +wish you to <span class="newpage"><a name='Page177' id='Page177'>[177]</a></span>believe that only Shakespeare and the great writers are +worthy of being played, and that all those efforts that in centuries +have gathered themselves round great names are worthy of your praise. +In the House of Art are many mansions where men may strive worthily +and live cleanly lives. All Art is worthy, and can be seriously +considered, so long as the intention be good and the efforts to +achieve success be conducted with seemliness. And let me here say, +that of all the arts none requires greater intention than the art +of acting. Throughout it is necessary to <i>do</i> something, and +that something cannot fittingly be left to chance, or the unknown +inspiration of a moment. I say "unknown," for if known, then the +intention is to reproduce, and the success of the effort can be +in nowise due to chance. It may be, of course, that in moments of +passionate excitement the mind grasps some new <span class="newpage"><a name='Page178' id='Page178'>[178]</a></span>idea, or the nervous +tension suggests to the mechanical parts of the body some new form of +expression; but such are accidents which belong to the great scheme of +life, and not to this art, or any art, alone. You all know the story +of the painter who, in despair at not being able to carry out the +intention of his imagination, dashed his brush at the imperfect +canvas, and with the scattering paint produced by chance the very +effect which his brush guided by his skill alone, had failed to +achieve. The actor's business is primarily to reproduce the ideas of +the author's brain, to give them form, and substance, and color, and +life, so that those who behold the action of a play may, so far as +can be effected, be lured into the fleeting belief that they behold +reality. Macready, who was an earnest student, defined the art of the +actor "to fathom the depths of character, to trace its latent motives, +to feel its <span class="newpage"><a name='Page179' id='Page179'>[179]</a></span>finest quivering of emotion, is to comprehend the thoughts +that are hidden under words, and thus possess one's-self of the actual +mind of the individual man"; and Talma spoke of it as "the union +of grandeur without pomp, and nature without triviality"; whilst +Shakespeare wrote, "the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the +first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to +nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the +very age and body of the time his form and pressure."</p> + +<p>This effort to reproduce man in his moods is no mere trick of fancy +carried into execution. It is a part of the character of a strong +nation, and has a wider bearing on national life than perhaps +unthinking people are aware. Mr. Froude, in his survey of early +England, gives it a special place; and I venture to quote his words, +for they carry with them,<span class="newpage"><a name='Page180' id='Page180'>[180]</a></span> not only their own lesson, but the authority +of a great name in historical research.</p> + +<p>"No genius can dispense with experience; the aberrations of power, +unguided or ill-guided, are ever in proportion to its intensity, and +life is not long enough to recover from inevitable mistakes. Noble +conceptions already existing, and a noble school of execution which +will launch mind and hand at once upon their true courses, are +indispensable to transcendent excellence; and Shakespeare's plays were +as much the offspring of the long generations who had pioneered his +road for him, as the discoveries of Newton were the offspring of those +of Copernicus.</p> + +<p>"No great general ever arose out of a nation of cowards; no great +statesman or philosopher out of a nation of fools; no great artist out +of a nation of materialists; no great drama, except when the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page181' id='Page181'>[181]</a></span>drama was +the possession of the people. Acting was the especial amusement of the +English, from the palace to the village green. It was the result and +expression of their strong, tranquil possession of their lives, of +their thorough power over themselves, and power over circumstances. +They were troubled with no subjective speculations; no social problems +vexed them with which they were unable to deal; and in the exuberance +of vigor and spirit, they were able, in the strict and literal sense +of the word, to play with the materials of life." So says Mr. Froude.</p> + +<p>In the face of this statement of fact set forth gravely in its place +in the history of our land, what becomes of such bold assertions as +are sometimes made regarding the place of the drama being but a poor +one, since the efforts of the actor are but mimetic and ephemeral, +that they pass away as a tale that is told? All <span class="newpage"><a name='Page182' id='Page182'>[182]</a></span>art is mimetic; and +even life itself, the highest and last gift of God to His people, is +fleeting. Marble crumbles, and the very names of great cities become +buried in the dust of ages. Who then would dare to arrogate to any art +an unchanging place in the scheme of the world's development, or would +condemn it because its efforts fade and pass? Nay, more; has even the +tale that is told no significance in after years? Can such not stir, +when it is worth the telling, the hearts of men, to whom it comes as +an echo from the past? Have not those tales remained most vital and +most widely known which are told and told again and again, face to +face and heart to heart, when the teller and the listener are adding, +down the ages, strength to the current of a mighty thought or a mighty +deed and its record?</p> + +<p>Surely the record that lives in the minds of men is still a record, +though it <span class="newpage"><a name='Page183' id='Page183'>[183]</a></span>be not graven on brass or wrought in marble. And it were +a poor conception of the value of any art, if, in considering it, we +were to keep our eyes fixed on some dark spot, some imperfection, and +shut our eyes to its aim, its power, its beauty. It were a poor age +indeed where such a state of things is possible; as poor as that of +which Mrs. Browning's unhappy poet spoke in the bitterness of his +soul:</p> + +<pre> + "The age culls simples, + With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the + glory of the stars." +</pre> +<p>Let us lift our faces when we wish to judge truly of any earnest work +of the hand or mind of man, and see it placed in the widest horizon +that is given to us. Poetry, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, +all have a bearing on their time, and beyond it; and the actor, though +his knowledge may be, and must be, limited by the knowledge of his +age, so long as <span class="newpage"><a name='Page184' id='Page184'>[184]</a></span>he sound the notes of human passion, has something +which is common to all the ages. If he can smite water from the rock +of one hardened human heart—if he can bring light to the eye or +wholesome color to the faded cheek—if he can bring or restore in ever +so slight degree the sunshine of hope, of pleasure, of gayety, surely +he cannot have worked in vain. It would need but a small effort +of imagination to believe that that great wave theory, which the +scientists have proved as ruling the manifestations of light and +sound, applies also to the efforts of human emotion. And who shall +tell us the ultimate bounds of these waves of light and sound? If +these discernible waves can be traced till they fade into impalpable +nothingness, may we not think that this other, impalpable at the +beginning as they are at the end, can alone stretch into the +dimness of memory? Sir Joshua's gallant compliment, that he <span class="newpage"><a name='Page185' id='Page185'>[185]</a></span>achieved +immortality by writing his name on the hem of Mrs. Siddons's garment, +when he painted her as the Tragic Muse, had a deeper significance than +its pretty fancy would at first imply.</p> + +<p>Not for a moment is the position to be accepted that the theatre +is merely a place of amusement. That it is primarily a place of +amusement, and is regarded as such by its <i>habitués</i>, is of course +apparent; but this is not its limitation. For authors, managers, and +actors it is a serious employment, to be undertaken gravely, and of +necessity to be adhered to rigidly. Thus far it may be considered from +these different stand-points; but there is a larger view—that of the +State. Here we have to consider a custom of natural growth specially +suitable to the genius of the nation. It has advanced with the +progress of each age, and multiplied with its material prosperity. +It is a living power, to be used for good,<span class="newpage"><a name='Page186' id='Page186'>[186]</a></span> or possibly for evil; and +far-seeing men recognize in it, based though it be on the relaxation +and pleasures of the people, an educational medium of no mean order. +Its progress in the past century has been the means of teaching to +millions of people a great number of facts which had perhaps otherwise +been lost to them. How many are there who have had brought home to +them in an understandable manner by stage-plays the costumes, habits, +manners, and customs of countries and ages other than their own; +what insight have they thus obtained into facts and vicissitudes of +life—of passions and sorrows and ambitions outside the narrow scope +of their own lives, and which yet may and do mould the destinies of +men. All this is education—education in its widest sense, for it +broadens the sympathies and enlarges the intellectual grasp. +And beyond this again—for these are advantages on the material +<span class="newpage"><a name='Page187' id='Page187'>[187]</a></span>side—there is that higher education of the heart, which raises in the +scale of creation all who are subject to its sweetening influences. To +hold his place therefore amongst these progressing forces, the actor +must at the start be well endowed with some special powers, and by +training, reading, and culture of many kinds, be equipped for the work +before him. No amount of training can give to a dense understanding +and a clumsy personality certain powers of quickness and spontaneity; +and, on the other hand, no genius can find its fullest expression +without some understanding of the principles and method of a craft. It +is the actor's part to represent or interpret the ideas and emotions +which the poet has created, and to do this he must at the first have +a full knowledge and understanding of them. This is in itself no easy +task. It requires much study and much labor of many kinds. Having then +acquired an idea, <span class="newpage"><a name='Page188' id='Page188'>[188]</a></span>his intention to work it out into reality must be +put in force; and here new difficulties crop up at every further step +taken in advance. Now and again it suffices the poet to think and +write in abstractions; but the actor's work is absolutely concrete. +He is brought in every phase of his work into direct comparison with +existing things, and must be judged by the most exacting standards of +criticism. Not only must his dress be suitable to the part which he +assumes, but his bearing must not be in any way antagonistic to the +spirit of the time in which the play is fixed. The free bearing of +the sixteenth century is distinct from the artificial one of the +seventeenth, the mannered one of the eighteenth, and the careless +one of the nineteenth. And all this quite exclusive of the minute +qualities and individualities of the character represented. The voice +must be modulated to the vogue of the time. The habitual action <span class="newpage"><a name='Page189' id='Page189'>[189]</a></span>of a +rapier-bearing age is different to that of a mail-clad one—nay, the +armor of a period ruled in real life the poise and bearing of the +body; and all this must be reproduced on the stage, unless the +intelligence of the audience, be they ever so little skilled in +history, is to count as naught.</p> + +<p>It cannot therefore be seriously put forward in the face of such +manifold requirements that no Art is required for the representation +of suitable action. Are we to imagine that inspiration or emotion of +any kind is to supply the place of direct knowledge of facts—of skill +in the very grammar of craftsmanship? Where a great result is arrived +at much effort is required, whether the same be immediate or has been +spread over a time of previous preparation. In this nineteenth century +the spirit of education stalks abroad and influences men directly +and indirectly, by private generosity and national <span class="newpage"><a name='Page190' id='Page190'>[190]</a></span>foresight, to +accumulate as religiously as in former ages ecclesiastics and devotees +gathered sacred relics, all that helps to give the people a full +understanding of lives and times and countries other than their own. +Can it be that in such an age all that can help to aid the inspiration +and to increase direct knowledge is of no account whatever, because, +forsooth, it has a medium or method of its own? There are those who +say that Shakespeare is better in the closet than on the stage; that +dramatic beauty is more convincing when read in private than when +spoken on the stage to the accompaniment of suitable action. And yet, +if this be so, it is a strange thing that, with all the activity of +the new-born printing-press, Shakespeare's works were not known to the +reading public till the fame of the writer had been made on the stage. +And it is a stranger thing still, if the drama be a mere poetic form +of words, that the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page191' id='Page191'>[191]</a></span>writer who began with <i>Venus and Adonis</i>, when he +found the true method of expression to suit his genius, ended with +<i>Hamlet</i> and <i>The Tempest</i>.</p> + +<p>How is it, I ask, if these responsible makers of statements be +correct, that every great writer down from the days of Elizabeth, when +the drama took practical shape from the wish of the poets to render +human life in all its phases, have been desirous of seeing their +works, when written in dramatic form, represented on the stage—and +not only represented, but represented under the most favorable +conditions obtainable, both as to the fitness of setting and the +choice of the most skilled and excellent players? Are we to take it +that the poet, with his eye in a fine phrenzy rolling, sees all the +minute details of form, color, light, sound, and action which have +to be rendered complete on the stage? Is there nothing in what the +individual actor, who is gifted <span class="newpage"><a name='Page192' id='Page192'>[192]</a></span>with fine sense and emotional power, +can add to mere words, however grand and rolling in themselves, and +whatsoever mighty image they may convey? Can it be possible that there +is any sane person who holds that there is no such thing as expression +in music so long as the written notes are correctly rendered—that the +musical expression of a Paganini or a Liszt, or that the voice of a +Malibran or a Grisi, has no special charm—nay more, that there is not +some special excellence in the instruments of Amati or Stradivarius? +If there be, we can leave to him, whilst the rest of mankind marvel +at his self-sufficient obtuseness, to hold that it was nothing but his +own imagination which so much influenced Hazlitt when he was touched +to the heart by Edmund Kean's rendering of the words of the remorseful +Moor, "Fool, fool, fool!" Why, the action of a player who knows how to +convey to the audience that he is <span class="newpage"><a name='Page193' id='Page193'>[193]</a></span>listening to another speaking, can +not only help in the illusion of the general effect, but he himself +can suggest a running commentary on what is spoken. In every moment +in which he is on the stage, an actor accomplished in his craft can +convey ideas to the mind.</p> + +<p>It is in the representation of passion that the intention of the actor +appears in its greatest force. He wishes to do a particular thing, and +so far the wish is father to the thought that the brain begins to work +in the required direction, and the emotional faculties and the whole +nervous and muscular systems follow suit. A skilled actor can count on +this development of power, if it be given to him to rise at all to the +height of a passion; and the inspiration of such moments may, now and +again, reveal to him some new force or beauty in the character which +he represents. Thus he will gather in time a certain habitual strength +in a <span class="newpage"><a name='Page194' id='Page194'>[194]</a></span>particular representation of passion. Diderot laid down a theory +that an actor never feels the part he is acting. It is of course true +that the pain he suffers is not real pain, but I leave it to any one +who has ever felt his own heart touched by the woes of another to say +if he can even imagine a case where the man who follows in minutest +detail the history of an emotion, from its inception onward, is the +only one who cannot be stirred by it—more especially when his own +individuality must perforce be merged in that of the archetypal +sufferer. Talma knew that it was possible for an actor to feel to the +full a simulated passion, and yet whilst being swept by it to retain +his consciousness of his surroundings and his purpose. In his own +words—"The intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations +of sensibility." And this is what Shakespeare means when he makes +Hamlet tell the players—"for in the <span class="newpage"><a name='Page195' id='Page195'>[195]</a></span>very torrent, tempest, and, as I +may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must beget a temperance that +may give it smoothness."</p> + +<p>How can any one be temperate in the midst of his passion, lest it be +that his consciousness and his purpose remain to him? Let me say that +it is this very discretion which marks the ultimate boundary of an +Art, which stands within the line of demarcation between Art and +Nature. In Nature there is no such discretion. Passion rules supreme +and alone; discretion ceases, and certain consequences cease to be any +deterrent or to convey any warning. It must never be forgotten that +all Art has the aim or object of seeming and not of being; and that to +understate is as bad as to overstate the modesty or the efflorescence +of Nature. It is not possible to show within the scope of any Art the +entire complexity and the myriad combining <span class="newpage"><a name='Page196' id='Page196'>[196]</a></span>influences of Nature. +The artist has to accept the conventional standard—the accepted +significance—of many things, and confine himself to the exposition of +that which is his immediate purpose. To produce the effect of reality +it is necessary, therefore, that the efforts of an artist should be +slightly different from the actions of real life. The perspective +of the stage is not that of real life, and the result of seeming +is achieved by means which, judged by themselves, would seem to be +indirect. It is only the raw recruit who tries to hit the bull's-eye +by point-blank firing, and who does not allow for elevation and +windage. Are we to take it for a moment, that in the Art of Acting, +of which elocution is an important part, nothing is to be left to the +individual idea of the actor? That he is simply to declaim the words +set down for him, without reference to the expression of his face, +his bearing, or his action? It is in the union <span class="newpage"><a name='Page197' id='Page197'>[197]</a></span>of all the powers—the +harmony of gait and utterance and emotion—that conviction lies. +Garrick, who was the most natural actor of his time, could not declaim +so well as many of his own manifest inferiors in his art—nay, it +was by this that he set aside the old false method, and soared to the +heights in which, as an artist, he reigned supreme. Garrick personated +and Kean personated. The one had all the grace and mastery of the +powers of man for the conveyance of ideas, the other had a mighty +spirit which could leap out in flame to awe and sweep the souls of +those who saw and heard him. And the secret of both was that they best +understood the poet—best impersonated the characters which he drew, +and the passions which he set forth.</p> + +<p>In order to promote and preserve the idea of reality in the minds of +the public, it is necessary that the action of the play <span class="newpage"><a name='Page198' id='Page198'>[198]</a></span>be set in what +the painters call the proper <i>milieu</i>, or atmosphere. To this belongs +costume, scenery, and all that tends to set forth time and place other +than our own. If this idea be not kept in view there must be, or at +all events there may be, some disturbing cause to the mind of the +onlooker. This is all—literally all—that dramatic Art imperatively +demands from the paint room, the wardrobe, and the property shop; +and it is because the public taste and knowledge in such matters have +grown that the actor has to play his part with the surroundings and +accessories which are sometimes pronounced to be a weight or drag +on action. Suitability is demanded in all things; and it must, for +instance, be apparent to all that the things suitable to a palace are +different to those usual in a hovel. There is nothing unsuitable in +Lear in kingly raiment in the hovel in the storm, because such is here +demanded by the exigencies <span class="newpage"><a name='Page199' id='Page199'>[199]</a></span>of the play: but if Lear were to be first +shown in such guise in such a place with no explanation given of the +cause, either the character or the stage-manager would be simply taken +for a madman. This idea of suitability should always be borne in mind, +for it is in itself a sufficient answer to any thoughtless allegation +as to overloading a play with scenery.</p> + +<p>Finally, in the consideration of the Art of Acting, it must never be +forgotten that its ultimate aim is beauty. Truth itself is only an +element of beauty, and to merely reproduce things vile and squalid and +mean is a debasement of Art. There is apt to be such a tendency in +an age of peace, and men should carefully watch its manifestations. A +morose and hopeless dissatisfaction is not a part of a true national +life. This is hopeful and earnest, and, if need be, militant. It is a +bad sign for any nation to yearn for, or even to tolerate, pessimism +in its <span class="newpage"><a name='Page200' id='Page200'>[200]</a></span>enjoyment; and how can pessimism be other than antagonistic +to beauty? Life, with all its pains and sorrows, is a beautiful and +a precious gift; and the actor's Art is to reproduce this beautiful +thing, giving due emphasis to those royal virtues and those stormy +passions which sway the destinies of men. Thus the lesson given by +long experience—by the certain punishment of ill-doing—and by the +rewards that follow on bravery, forbearance, and self-sacrifice, are +on the mimic stage conveyed to men. And thus every actor who is more +than a mere machine, and who has an ideal of any kind, has a duty +which lies beyond the scope of his personal ambition. His art must +be something to hold in reverence if he wishes others to hold it in +esteem. There is nothing of chance about this work. All, actors and +audience alike, must bear in mind that the whole scheme of the higher +Drama is not to be regarded as a game in life which <span class="newpage"><a name='Page201' id='Page201'>[201]</a></span>can be played with +varying success. Its present intention may be to interest and amuse, +but its deeper purpose is earnest, intense, sincere.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAMA***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 13483-h.txt or 13483-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/4/8/13483">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/4/8/13483</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Drama + +Author: Henry Irving + +Release Date: September 17, 2004 [eBook #13483] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAMA*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Lisa Reigel, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +THE DRAMA + +Addresses by + +HENRY IRVING + +With a Frontispiece By Whistler + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. The Stage as it is + + II. The Art of Acting + + III. Four Great Actors + + IV. The Art of Acting + + + + +LECTURE + +SESSIONAL OPENING + +PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION + +EDINBURGH + +8 NOVEMBER 1881 + + + + +THE STAGE AS IT IS. + + +LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, + +You will not be surprised that, on this interesting occasion, I have +selected as the subject of the few remarks I propose to offer you, +"The Stage as it is." The stage--because to my profession I owe it +that I am here, and every dictate of taste and of fidelity impels me +to honor it; the stage as it is--because it is very cheap and empty +honor that is paid to the drama in the abstract, and withheld from the +theatre as a working institution in our midst. Fortunately there is +less of this than there used to be. It arose partly from intellectual +superciliousness, partly from timidity as to moral contamination. To +boast of being able to appreciate Shakespeare more in reading him than +in seeing him acted used to be a common method of affecting special +intellectuality. I hope this delusion--a gross and pitiful one as to +most of us--has almost absolutely died out. It certainly conferred a +very cheap badge of superiority on those who entertained it. It seemed +to each of them an inexpensive opportunity of worshipping himself on +a pedestal. But what did it amount to? It was little more than a +conceited and feather-headed assumption that an unprepared reader, +whose mind is usually full of far other things, will see on the +instant all that has been developed in hundreds of years by the +members of a studious and enthusiastic profession. My own conviction +is, that there are few characters or passages of our great dramatists +which will not repay original study. But at least we must recognize +the vast advantages with which a practised actor, impregnated by the +associations of his life, and by study--with all the practical and +critical skill of his profession up to the date at which he appears, +whether he adopts or rejects tradition--addresses himself to the +interpretation of any great character, even if he have no originality +whatever. There is something still more than this, however, in acting. +Every one who has the smallest histrionic gift has a natural dramatic +fertility; so that as soon as he knows the author's text, and obtains +self-possession, and feels at home in a part without being too +familiar with it, the mere automatic action of rehearsing and playing +it at once begins to place the author in new lights, and to give the +personage being played an individuality partly independent of, and +yet consistent with, and rendering more powerfully visible, the +dramatist's conception. It is the vast power a good actor has in this +way which has led the French to speak of creating a part when they +mean its being first played; and French authors are so conscious of +the extent and value of this co-operation of actors with them, that +they have never objected to the phrase, but, on the contrary, are +uniformly lavish in their homage to the artists who have created on +the boards the parts which they themselves have created on paper. + +I must add, as an additional reason for valuing the theatre, that +while there is only one Shakespeare, and while there are comparatively +few dramatists who are sufficiently classic to be read with close +attention, there is a great deal of average dramatic work excellently +suited for representation. From this the public derive pleasure. From +this they receive--as from fiction in literature--a great deal of +instruction and mental stimulus. Some may be worldly, some social, +some cynical, some merely humorous and witty, but a great deal of it, +though its literary merit is secondary, is well qualified to bring +out all that is most fruitful of good in common sympathies. Now, it +is plain that if, because Shakespeare is good reading, people were to +give the cold shoulder to the theatre, the world would lose all the +vast advantage which comes to it through the dramatic faculty in forms +not rising to essentially literary excellence. As respects the other +feeling which used to stand more than it does now in the way of the +theatre--the fear of moral contamination--it is due to the theatre of +our day, on the one hand, and to the prejudices of our grandfathers on +the other, to confess that the theatre of fifty years ago or less did +need reforming in the audience part of the house. All who have read +the old controversy as to the morality of going to the theatre are +familiar with the objection to which I refer. But the theatre of fifty +years ago or less was reformed. If there are any, therefore, as I fear +there are a few, who still talk on this point in the old vein, let +them rub their eyes a bit, and do us the justice to consider not what +used to be, but what is. But may there be moral contamination from +what is performed on the stage? Well, there may be. But so there is +from books. So there may be at lawn tennis clubs. So there may be at +dances. So there may be in connection with everything in civilized +life and society. But do we therefore bury ourselves? The anchorites +secluded themselves in hermitages. The Puritans isolated themselves in +consistent abstinence from everything that anybody else did. And there +are people now who think that they can keep their children, and that +those children will keep themselves in after life, in cotton wool, so +as to avoid all temptation of body and mind, and be saved nine-tenths +of the responsibility of self-control. All this is mere phantasy. You +must be in the world, though you need not be of it; and the best way +to make the world a better community to be in, and not so bad a place +to be of, is not to shun, but to bring public opinion to bear upon +its pursuits and its relaxations. Depend upon two things--that the +theatre, as a whole, is never below the average moral sense of the +time; and that the inevitable demand for an admixture, at least, of +wholesome sentiment in every sort of dramatic production brings the +ruling tone of the theatre, whatever drawback may exist, up to the +highest level at which the general morality of the time can truly be +registered. We may be encouraged by the reflection that this is truer +than ever it was before, owing to the greater spread of education, the +increased community of taste between classes, and the almost absolute +divorce of the stage from mere wealth and aristocracy. Wealth and +aristocracy come around the stage in abundance, and are welcome, as in +the time of Elizabeth; but the stage is no longer a mere appendage of +court-life, no longer a mere mirror of patrician vice hanging at the +girdle of fashionable profligacy as it was in the days of Congreve and +Wycherley. It is now the property of the educated people. It has +to satisfy them or pine in neglect And the better their demands the +better will be the supply with which the drama will respond. +This being not only so, but seen to be so, the stage is no longer +proscribed. It is no longer under a ban. Its members are no longer +pariahs in society. They live and bear their social part like +others--as decorously observant of all that makes the sweet sanctities +of life--as gracefully cognizant of its amenities--as readily +recognized and welcomed as the members of any other profession. Am +I not here your grateful guest, opening the session of this +philosophical and historic institution? I who am simply an actor, +an interpreter, with such gifts as I have, and such thought as I +can bestow, of stage plays. And am I not received here with perfect +cordiality on an equality, not hungrily bowing and smirking for +patronage, but interchanging ideas which I am glad to express, and +which you listen to as thoughtfully and as kindly as you would to +those of any other student, any other man who had won his way +into such prominence as to come under the ken of a distinguished +institution such as that which I have the honor to address? I do not +mince the matter as to my personal position here, because I feel it +is a representative one, and marks an epoch in the estimation in +which the art I love is held by the British world. You have had many +distinguished men here, and their themes have often been noble, but +with which of those themes has not my art immemorial and perpetual +associations? Is it not for ever identified with the noblest instincts +and occupations of the human mind? If I think of poetry, must I not +remember how to the measure of its lofty music the theatre has in +almost all ages set the grandest of dramatic conceptions? If I think +of literature, must I not recall that of all the amusements by which +men in various states of society have solaced their leisure and +refreshed their energies, the acting of plays is the one that has +never yet, even for a day, been divorced from literary taste and +skill? If I meditate on patriotism, can I but reflect how grandly the +boards have been trod by personifications of heroic love of country? +There is no subject of human thought that by common consent is deemed +ennobling that has not ere now, and from period to period, been +illustrated in the bright vesture, and received expression from the +glowing language of theatrical representation. And surely it is +fit that, remembering what the stage has been and must be, I should +acknowledge eagerly and gladly that, with few exceptions, the public +no longer debar themselves from the profitable pleasures of the +theatre, and no longer brand with any social stigma the professors of +the histrionic art. Talking to an eminent bishop one day, I said to +him, "Now, my Lord, why is it, with your love and knowledge of the +drama, with your deep interest in the stage and all its belongings, +and your wide sympathy with all that ennobles and refines our +natures--why is it that you never go to the theatre?" "Well," said +he, "I'll tell you. I'm afraid of the _Rock_ and the _Record_." I +hope soon we shall relieve even the most timid bishop--and my right +reverend friend is not the most timid--of all fears and tremors +whatever that can prevent even ministers of religion from recognizing +the wisdom of the change of view which has come over even the most +fastidious public opinion on this question. Remember, if you please, +that the hostile public opinion which has lately begun so decisively +to disappear, has been of comparatively modern growth, or at least +revival. The pious and learned of other times gave their countenance +and approbation to the stage of their days, as the pious and learned +of our time give their countenance and approbation to certain +performances in this day. Welcome be the return of good sense, good +taste, and charity, or rather justice. No apology for the stage. None +is needed. It has but to be named to be honored. Too long the world +talked with bated breath and whispering humbleness of "the poor +player." There are now few poor players. Whatever variety of fortune +and merit there may be among them, they have the same degrees of +prosperity and respect as come to members of other avocations. There +never was so large a number of theatres or of actors. And their +type is vastly improved by public recognition. The old days when +good-for-nothings passed into the profession are at an end; and the +old Bohemian habits, so far as they were evil and disreputable, have +also disappeared. The ranks of the art are being continually recruited +by deeply interested and earnest young men of good education and +belongings. Nor let us, while dissipating the remaining prejudices +of outsiders, give quarter to those which linger among players +themselves. There are some who acknowledge the value of improved +status to themselves and their art, but who lament that there are now +no schools for actors. This is a very idle lamentation. Every actor +in full employment gets plenty of schooling, for the best schooling +is practice, and there is no school so good as a well-conducted +playhouse. The truth is, that the cardinal secret of success in acting +are found within, while practice is the surest way of fertilizing +these germs. To efficiency in the art of acting there should come a +congregation of fine qualities. There should be considerable, +though not necessarily systematic, culture. There should be delicate +instincts of taste cultivated, consciously, or unconsciously, to a +degree of extreme and subtle nicety. There should be a power, at once +refined and strong, of both perceiving and expressing to others +the significance of language, so that neither shades nor masses of +meaning, so to speak, may be either lost or exaggerated. Above all, +there should be a sincere and abounding sympathy with all that is good +and great and inspiring. That sympathy, most certainly, must be under +the control and manipulation of art, but it must be none the lest real +and generous, and the artist who is a mere artist will stop short of +the highest moral effects of his craft. Little of this can be got in a +mere training school, but all of it will come forth more or less fully +armed from the actor's brain in the process of learning his art by +practice. For the way to learn to do a thing is to do it; and in +learning to act by acting, though there is plenty of incidental hard +drill and hard work, there is nothing commonplace or unfruitful. + +What is true of the art is true also of the social life of the artist. +No sensational change has been found necessary to alter his status +though great changes have come. The stage has literally lived down +the rebuke and reproach under which it formerly cowered, while its +professors have been simultaneously living down the prejudices which +excluded them from society. The stage is now seen to be an elevating +instead of a lowering influence on national morality, and actors and +actresses receive in society, as do the members of other professions, +exactly the treatment which is earned by their personal conduct. +And so I would say of what we sometimes hear so much about--dramatic +reform. It is not needed; or, if it is, all the reform that is wanted +will be best effected by the operation of public opinion upon the +administration of a good theatre. That is the true reforming agency, +with this great advantage, that reforms which come by public opinion +are sure, while those which come without public opinion cannot be +relied upon. The dramatic reformers are very well-meaning people. They +show great enthusiasm. They are new converts to the theatre, most of +them, and they have the zeal of converts. But it is scarcely according +to knowledge. These ladies and gentlemen have scarcely studied the +conditions of theatrical enterprise, which must be carried on as a +business or it will fail as an art. It is an unwelcome, if not an +unwarrantable intrusion to come among our people with elaborate +advice, and endeavor to make them live after different fashions from +those which are suitable to them, and it will be quite hopeless to +attempt to induce the general body of a purely artistic class to make +louder and more fussy professions of virtue and religion than other +people. In fact, it is a downright insult to the dramatic profession +to exact or to expect any such thing. Equally objectionable, and +equally impracticable, are the attempts of Quixotic "dramatic +reformers" to exercise a sort of goody-goody censorship over the +selection and the text of the plays to be acted. The stage has been +serving the world for hundreds, yes, and thousands of years, during +which it has contributed in pure dramaturgy to the literature of +the world its very greatest master-pieces in nearly all languages, +meanwhile affording to the million an infinity of pleasure, all more +or less innocent. Where less innocent, rather than more, the cause has +lain, not in the stage, but in the state of society of which it was +the mirror. For though the stage is not always occupied with its own +period, the new plays produced always reflect in many particulars +the spirit of the age in which they are played. There is a story of +a traveller who put up for the night at a certain inn, on the door of +which was the inscription--"Good entertainment for man and beast." His +horse was taken to the stable and well cared for, and he sat down +to dine. When the covers were removed he remarked, on seeing his own +sorry fare, "Yes, this is very well; but where's the entertainment for +the man?" If everything were banished from the stage except that +which suits a certain taste, what dismal places our theatres would be! +However fond the play-goer may be of tragedy, if you offer him nothing +but horrors, he may well ask--"Where's the entertainment for the man +who wants an evening's amusement?" The humor of a farce may not seem +over-refined to a particular class of intelligence; but there are +thousands of people who take an honest pleasure in it. And who, after +seeing my old friend J.L. Toole in some of his famous parts, and +having laughed till their sides ached, have not left the theatre more +buoyant and light-hearted than they came? Well, if the stage has +been thus useful and successful all these centuries, and still is +productive; if the noble fascination of the theatre draws to it, as we +know that it does, an immortal poet such as our Tennyson, whom, I can +testify from my own experience, nothing delights more than the success +of one of the plays which, in the mellow autumn of his genius, he has +contributed to the acting theatre; if a great artist like Tadema is +proud to design scenes for stage plays; if in all departments of stage +production we see great talent, and in nearly every instance great +good taste and sincere sympathy with the best popular ideals of +goodness; then, I say, the stage is entitled to be let alone--that +is, it is entitled to make its own bargain with the public without the +censorious intervention of well-intentioned busybodies. These do not +know what to ban or to bless. If they had their way, as of course +they cannot, they would license, with many flourishes and much +self-laudation, a number of pieces which would be hopelessly +condemned on the first hearing, and they would lay an embargo for very +insufficient reasons on many plays well entitled to success. It is not +in this direction that we must look for any improvement that is needed +in the purveying of material for the stage. Believe me, the right +direction is public criticism and public discrimination. I say so +because, beyond question, the public will have what they want. So far, +that managers in their discretion, or at their pleasure, can force on +the public either very good or very bad dramatic material is an utter +delusion. They have no such power. If they had the will they could +only force any particular sort of entertainment just as long as they +had capital to expend without any return. But they really have not the +will. They follow the public taste with the greatest keenness. If the +people want Shakespeare--as I am happy to say they do, at least at one +theatre in London, and at all the great theatres out of London, to +an extent unprecedented in the history of the stage--then they get +Shakespeare. If they want our modern dramatists--Albery, Boucicault, +Byron, Burnand, Gilbert, or Wills--these they have. If they want +Robertson, Robertson is there for them. If they desire opera-bouffe, +depend upon it they will have it, and have it they do. What then do +I infer? Simply this: that those who prefer the higher drama--in the +representation of which my heart's best interests are centred--instead +of querulously animadverting on managers who give them something +different, should, as Lord Beaconsfield said, "make themselves into a +majority." If they do so, the higher drama will be produced. But if we +really understand the value of the drama, we shall not be too rigid in +our exactions. The drama is the art of human nature in picturesque +or characteristic action. Let us be liberal in our enjoyment of it. +Tragedy, comedy, historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical--remember +the large-minded list of the greatest-minded poet--all are good, if +wholesome--and will be wholesome if the public continue to take the +healthy interest in theatres which they are now taking. The worst +times for the stage have been those when play-going was left pretty +much to a loose society, such as is sketched in the Restoration +dramatists. If the good people continue to come to the theatre in +increasing crowds, the stage, without losing any of its brightness, +will soon be good enough, if it is not as yet, to satisfy the best of +them. This is what I believe all sensible people in these times see. +And if, on the one hand, you are ready to laugh at the old prejudices +which have been so happily dissipated; on the other hand, how +earnestly must you welcome the great aid to taste and thought and +culture which comes to you thus in the guise of amusement. Let me put +this to you rather seriously; let me insist on the intellectual and +moral use, alike to the most and least cultivated of us, of this +art "most beautiful, most difficult, most rare," which I stand here +to-day, not to apologize for, but to establish in the high place +to which it is entitled among the arts and among the ameliorating +influences of life. Grant that any of us understand a dramatist better +for seeing him acted, and it follows, first, that all of us will be +most indebted to the stage at the point where the higher and more +ethereal faculties are liable in reading to failure and exhaustion, +that is, stage-playing will be of most use to us where the mind +requires help and inspiration to grasp and revel in lofty moral or +imaginative conceptions, or where it needs aid and sharpening to +appreciate and follow the niceties of repartee, or the delicacies +of comic fancy. Secondly, it follows that if this is so with the +intellectual few, it must be infinitely more so with the unimaginative +many of all ranks. They are not inaccessible to passion and poetry and +refinement, but their minds do not go forth, as it were, to seek these +joys; and even if they read works of poetic and dramatic fancy, which +they rarely do, they would miss them on the printed page. To them, +therefore, with the exception of a few startling incidents of real +life, the theatre is the only channel through which are ever brought +the great sympathies of the world of thought beyond their immediate +ken. And thirdly, it follows from all this that the stage is, +intellectually and morally, to all who have recourse to it, the +source of some of the finest and best influences of which they are +respectively susceptible. To the thoughtful and reading man it brings +the life, the fire, the color, the vivid instinct, which are beyond +the reach of study. To the common indifferent man, immersed, as a +rule, in the business and socialities of daily life, it brings visions +of glory and adventure, of emotion and of broad human interest. It +gives glimpses of the heights and depths of character and experience, +setting him thinking and wondering even in the midst of amusement. To +the most torpid and unobservant it exhibits the humorous in life and +the sparkle and finesse of language, which in dull ordinary existence +is stupidly shut out of knowledge or omitted from particular notice. +To all it uncurtains a world, not that in which they live and yet +not other than it--a world in which interest is heightened whilst the +conditions of truth are observed, in which the capabilities of men and +women are seen developed without losing their consistency to nature, +and developed with a curious and wholesome fidelity to simple and +universal instincts of clear right and wrong. Be it observed--and I +put it most uncompromisingly--I am not speaking or thinking of any +unrealizable ideal, not of any lofty imagination of what might be, but +of what is, wherever there are pit and gallery and foot-lights. More +or less, and taking one evening with another, you may find support +for an enthusiastic theory of stage morality and the high tone of +audiences in most theatres in the country; and if you fancy that it +is least so in the theatres frequented by the poor you make a great +mistake, for in none is the appreciation of good moral fare more +marked than in these. + +In reference to the poorer classes, we all lament the wide prevalence +of intemperate drinking. Well, is it not an obvious reflection that +the worst performance seen on any of our stages cannot be so bad as +drinking for a corresponding time in a gin-palace? I have pointed this +contrast before, and I point it again. The drinking we deplore takes +place in company--bad company; it is enlivened by talk--bad talk. It +is relished by obscenity. Where drink and low people come together +these things must be. The worst that can come of stage pandering to +the corrupt tastes of its basest patrons cannot be anything like this, +and, as a rule, the stage holds out long against the invitation to +pander; and such invitations, from the publicity and decorum that +attend the whole matter, are neither frequent nor eager. A sort of +decency sets in upon the coarsest person in entering even the roughest +theatre. I have sometimes thought that, considering the liability to +descend and the facility of descent, a special Providence watches +over the morals and tone of our English stage. I do not desire to +overcharge the eulogy. There never was a time when the stage had not +conspicuous faults. There never was a time when these were not freely +admitted by those most concerned for the maintenance of the stage +at its best. In Shakespeare, whenever the subject of the theatre is +approached, we perceive signs that that great spirit, though it had +a practical and business-like vein, and essayed no impossible +enterprises, groaned under the necessities, or the demands of a +public which desired frivolities and deformities which jarred upon the +poet-manager's feelings. As we descend the course of time we find that +each generation looked back to a supposed previous period when taste +ranged higher, and when the inferior and offensive peculiarities of +the existing stage were unknown. Yet from most of these generations +we inherit works as well as traditions and biographical recollections +which the world will never let die. The truth is that the immortal +part of the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes +come and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity--associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances--but it never sinks into nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. Heaven forbid that I should seem to cover, even +with a counterpane of courtesy, exhibitions of deliberate immorality. +Happily this sort of thing is not common, and although it has hardly +been practised by any one who, without a strain of meaning can be +associated with the profession of acting, yet public censure, not +active enough to repress the evil, is ever ready to pass a sweeping +condemnation on the stage which harbors it. Our cause is a good one. +We go forth, armed with the luminous panoply which genius has forged +for us, to do battle with dulness, with coarseness, with apathy, +with every form of vice and evil. In every human heart there gleams +a bright reflection of this shining armor. The stage has no lights or +shadows that are not lights of life and shadows of the heart. To each +human consciousness it appeals in alternating mirth and sadness, and +will not be denied. Err it must, for it is human; but, being human, it +must endure. The love of acting is inherent in our nature. Watch your +children play, and you will see that almost their first conscious +effort is to act and to imitate. It is an instinct, and you can no +more repress it than you can extinguish thought. When this instinct +of all is developed by cultivation in the few, it becomes a wonderful +art, priceless to civilization in the solace it yields, the thought it +generates, the refinement it inspires. Some of its latest achievements +are not unworthy of their grandest predecessors. Some of its youngest +devotees are at least as proud of its glories and as anxious to +preserve them as any who have gone before. Theirs is a glorious +heritage! You honor it. They have a noble but a difficult, and +sometimes a disheartening, task. You encourage it. And no word of +kindly interest or criticism dropped in the public ear from friendly +lips goes unregarded or is unfertile of good. The universal study of +Shakespeare in our public schools is a splendid sign of the departure +of prejudice, and all criticism is welcome; but it is acting chiefly +that can open to others, with any spark of Shakespeare's mind, the +means of illuminating the world. Only the theatre can realize to us +in a life-like way what Shakespeare was to his own time. And it is, +indeed, a noble destiny for the theatre to vindicate in these later +days the greatness which sometimes it has seemed to vulgarize. It has +been too much the custom to talk of Shakespeare as nature's child--as +the lad who held horses for people who came to the play--as a sort of +chance phenomenon who wrote these plays by accident and unrecognized. +How supremely ridiculous! How utterly irreconcilable with the grand +dimensions of the man! How absurdly dishonoring to the great age of +which he was, and was known to be, the glory! The noblest literary +man of all time--the finest and yet most prolific writer--the greatest +student of man, and the greatest master of man's highest gift of +language--surely it is treason to humanity to speak of such an one as +in any sense a commonplace being! Imagine him rather, as he must +have been, the most notable courtier of the Court--the most perfect +gentleman who stood in the Elizabethan throng--the man in whose +presence divines would falter and hesitate lest their knowledge of +the Book should seem poor by the side of his, and at whom even queenly +royalty would look askance, with an oppressive sense that here was +one to whose omnipotent and true imagination the hearts of kings and +queens and peoples had always been an open page! The thought of such a +man is an incomparable inheritance for any nation, and such a man was +the actor--Shakespeare. Such is our birthright and yours. Such the +succession in which it is ours to labor and yours to enjoy. For +Shakespeare belongs to the stage for ever, and his glories must +always inalienably belong to it. If you uphold the theatre honestly, +liberally, frankly, and with wise discrimination, the stage will +uphold in future, as it has in the past, the literature, the manners, +the morals, the fame, and the genius of our country. There must have +been something wrong, as there was something poignant and lacerating, +in prejudices which so long partly divorced the conscience of Britain +from its noblest pride, and stamped with reproach, or at least +depreciation, some of the brightest and world-famous incidents of her +history. For myself, it kindles my heart with proud delight to +think that I have stood to-day before this audience--known for its +discrimination throughout all English-speaking lands--a welcome and +honored guest, because I stand here for justice to the art to which I +am devoted--because I stand here in thankfulness for the justice which +has begun to be so abundantly rendered to it. If it is metaphorically +the destiny of humanity, it is literally the experience of an actor, +that one man in his time plays many parts. A player of any standing +must at various times have sounded the gamut of human sensibility +from the lowest note to the top of its compass. He must have banqueted +often on curious food for thought as he meditated on the subtle +relations created between himself and his audiences, as they have +watched in his impersonations the shifting tariff--the ever gliding, +delicately graduated sliding-scale of dramatic right and wrong. He may +have gloated, if he be a cynic, over the depths of ghastly horror, or +the vagaries of moral puddle through which it may have been his +duty to plash. But if he be an honest man, he will acknowledge that +scarcely ever has either dramatist or management wilfully biassed the +effect of stage representation in favor of evil, and of his audiences +he will boast that never has their mind been doubtful--never has their +true perception of the generous and just been known to fail, or even +to be slow. How noble the privilege to work upon these finer--these +finest--feelings of universal humanity! How engrossing the fascination +of those thousands of steady eyes, and sound sympathies, and beating +hearts which an actor confronts, with the confidence of friendship +and co-operation, as he steps upon the stage to work out in action +his long-pent comprehension of a noble master-piece! How rapturous the +satisfaction of abandoning himself, in such a presence and with such +sympathizers, to his author's grandest flights of thought and noblest +bursts of emotional inspiration! And how perpetually sustaining +the knowledge that whatever may be the vicissitudes and even the +degradations of the stage, it must and will depend for its constant +hold on the affection and attention of mankind upon its loftier work; +upon its more penetrating passion; upon its themes which most deeply +search out the strong affections and high hopes of men and women; +upon its fit and kindling illustration of great and vivid lives +which either have been lived in noble fact or have deserved to endure +immortally in the popular belief and admiration which they have +secured. + + "For our eyes to see! + Sons of wisdom, song, and power, + Giving earth her richest dower, + And making nations free-- + A glorious company! + + "Call them from the dead + For our eyes to see! + Forms of beauty, love, and grace, + 'Sunshine in the shady place,' + That made it life to be-- + A blessed company!" + + + + +ADDRESS + +TO THE STUDENTS + +OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HARVARD + +30TH MARCH 1885 + + + + +THE ART OF ACTING + +I. + +THE OCCASION. + + +I am deeply sensible of the compliment that has been paid, not so much +to me personally as to the calling I represent, by the invitation to +deliver an address to the students of this University. As an actor, +and especially as an English actor, it is a great pleasure to speak +for my art in one of the chief centres of American culture; for in +inviting me here to-day you intended, I believe, to recognize the +drama as an educational influence, to show a genuine interest in the +stage as a factor in life which must be accepted and not ignored by +intelligent people. I have thought that the best use I can make of the +privilege you have conferred upon me is to offer you, as well as I +am able, something like a practical exposition of my art; for it +may chance--who knows?--that some of you may at some future time be +disposed to adopt it as a vocation. Not that I wish to be regarded +as a tempter who has come among you to seduce you from your present +studies by artful pictures of the fascinations of the footlights. But +I naturally supposed that you would like me to choose, as the theme of +my address, the subject in which I am most interested, and to which +my life has been devoted; and that if any students here should ever +determine to become actors, they could not be much the worse for +the information and counsel I could gather for them from a tolerably +extensive experience. This subject will, I trust, be welcome to all of +you who are interested in the stage as an institution which appeals +to the sober-minded and intelligent; for I take it that you have no +lingering prejudice against the theatre, or else I should not be +here. Nor are you disposed, like certain good people, to object to the +theatre simply as a name. These sticklers for principle would never +enter a playhouse for worlds; and I have heard that in a famous city +of Massachusetts, not a hundred miles from here, there are persons to +whom the theatre is unknown, but who have no objection to see a play +in a building which is called a museum, especially if the vestibule +leading to the theatre should be decorated with sound moral principles +in the shape of statues, pictures, and stuffed objects in glass cases. + +When I began to think about my subject for the purpose of this +address, I was rather staggered by its vastness. It is really a matter +for a course of lectures; but as President Eliot has not proposed that +I should occupy a chair of dramatic literature in this University, +and as time and opportunity are limited, I can only undertake to put +before you, in the simplest way, a few leading ideas about dramatic +art which may be worthy of reflection. And in doing this I have the +great satisfaction of appearing in a model theatre, before a model +audience, and of being the only actor in my own play. Moreover, I am +stimulated by the atmosphere of the Greek drama, for I know that on +this stage you have enacted a Greek play with remarkable success. So, +after all, it is not a body of mere tyros that I am addressing, but +actors who have worn the sock and buskin, and declaimed the speeches +which delighted audiences two thousand years ago. + +Now, this address, like discourses in a more solemn place, falls +naturally into divisions. I propose to speak first of the Art of +Acting; secondly, of its Requirements and Practice; and lastly of its +Rewards. And, at the outset, let me say that I want you to judge the +stage at its best. I do not intend to suggest that only the plays +of Shakespeare are tolerable in the theatre to people of taste +and intelligence. The drama has many forms--tragedy, comedy, +historical-pastoral, pastoral-comical--and all are good when their aim +is honestly artistic. + + + + +II. + +THE ART OF ACTING. + + +Now, what is the art of acting? I speak of it in its highest sense, as +the art to which Roscius, Betterton, and Garrick owed their fame. It +is the art of embodying the poet's creations, of giving them flesh and +blood, of making the figures which appeal to your mind's eye in the +printed drama live before you on the stage. "To fathom the depths of +character, to trace its latent motives, to feel its finest quiverings +of emotion, to comprehend the thoughts that are hidden under words, +and thus possess one's-self of the actual mind of the individual +man"--such was Macready's definition of the player's art; and to this +we may add the testimony of Talma. He describes tragic acting as "the +union of grandeur without pomp and nature without triviality." It +demands, he says, the endowment of high sensibility and intelligence. + +"The actor who possesses this double gift adopts a course of study +peculiar to himself. In the first place, by repeated exercises, he +enters deeply into the emotions, and his speech acquires the accent +proper to the situation of the personage he has to represent. This +done, he goes to the theatre not only to give theatrical effect to his +studies, but also to yield himself to the spontaneous flashes of his +sensibility and all the emotions which it involuntarily produces in +him. What does he then do? In order that his inspirations may not be +lost, his memory, in the silence of repose, recalls the accent of +his voice, the expression of his features, his action--in a word, the +spontaneous workings of his mind, which he had suffered to have +free course, and, in effect, everything which in the moments of +his exaltation contributed to the effects he had produced. His +intelligence then passes all these means in review, connecting +them and fixing them in his memory to re-employ them at pleasure in +succeeding representations. These impressions are often so evanescent +that on retiring behind the scenes he must repeat to himself what +he had been playing rather than what he had to play. By this kind of +labor the intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations of +sensibility. It is by this means that at the end of twenty years (it +requires at least this length of time) a person destined to display +fine talent may at length present to the public a series of characters +acted almost to perfection." + +You will readily understand from this that to the actor the well-worn +maxim that art is long and life is short has a constant significance. +The older we grow the more acutely alive we are to the difficulties of +our craft. I cannot give you a better illustration of this fact than a +story which is told of Macready. A friend of mine, once a dear friend +of his, was with him when he played Hamlet for the last time. The +curtain had fallen, and the great actor was sadly thinking that the +part he loved so much would never be his again. And as he took off his +velvet mantle and laid it aside, he muttered almost unconsciously +the words of Horatio, "Good-night, sweet Prince;" then turning to his +friend, "Ah," said he, "I am just beginning to realize the sweetness, +the tenderness, the gentleness of this dear Hamlet!" Believe me, the +true artist never lingers fondly upon what he has done. He is ever +thinking of what remains undone: ever striving toward an ideal it may +never be his fortune to attain. + +We are sometimes told that to read the best dramatic poetry is more +educating than to see it acted. I do not think this theory is very +widely held, for it is in conflict with the dramatic instinct, which +everybody possesses in a greater or less degree. You never met a +playwright who could conceive himself willing--even if endowed with +the highest literary gifts--to prefer a reading to a playgoing +public. He thinks his work deserving of all the rewards of print and +publisher, but he will be much more elated if it should appeal to the +world in the theatre as a skilful representation of human passions. +In one of her letters George Eliot says: "In opposition to most people +who love to _read_ Shakespeare, I like to see his plays acted better +than any others; his great tragedies thrill me, let them be acted +how they may." All this is so simple and intelligible, that it seems +scarcely worth while to argue that in proportion to the readiness with +which the reader of Shakespeare imagines the attributes of the various +characters, and is interested in their personality, he will, as a +rule, be eager to see their tragedy or comedy in action. He will then +find that very much which he could not imagine with any definiteness +presents new images every moment--the eloquence of look and gesture, +the by-play, the inexhaustible significance of the human voice. There +are people who fancy they have more music in their souls than was ever +translated into harmony by Beethoven or Mozart. There are others who +think they could paint pictures, write poetry--in short, do anything, +if they only made the effort. To them what is accomplished by the +practised actor seems easy and simple. But as it needs the skill of +the musician to draw the full volume of eloquence from the written +score, so it needs the skill of the dramatic artist to develop the +subtle harmonies of the poetic play. In fact, to _do_ and not to +_dream_, is the mainspring of success in life. The actor's art is to +act, and the true acting of any character is one of the most difficult +accomplishments. I challenge the acute student to ponder over Hamlet's +renunciation of Ophelia--one of the most complex scenes in all the +drama--and say that he has learned more from his meditations than he +could be taught by players whose intelligence is equal to his own. To +present the man thinking aloud is the most difficult achievement of +our art. Here the actor who has no real grip of the character, but +simply recites the speeches with a certain grace and intelligence, +will be untrue. The more intent he is upon the words, and the less +on the ideas that dictated them, the more likely he is to lay himself +open to the charge of mechanical interpretation. It is perfectly +possible to express to an audience all the involutions of thought, +the speculation, doubt, wavering, which reveal the meditative but +irresolute mind. As the varying shades of fancy pass and repass the +mirror of the face, they may yield more material to the studious +playgoer than he is likely to get by a diligent poring over the +text. In short, as we understand the people around us much better by +personal intercourse than by all the revelations of written words--for +words, as Tennyson says, "half reveal and half conceal the soul +within," so the drama has, on the whole, infinitely more suggestions +when it is well acted than when it is interpreted by the unaided +judgment of the student. It has been said that acting is an unworthy +occupation because it represents feigned emotions, but this censure +would apply with equal force to poet or novelist. Do not imagine that +I am claiming for the actor sole and undivided authority. He should +himself be a student, and it is his business to put into practice +the best ideas he can gather from the general current of thought with +regard to the highest dramatic literature. But it is he who gives body +to those ideas--fire, force, and sensibility, without which they would +remain for most people mere airy abstractions. + +It is often supposed that great actors trust to the inspiration of the +moment. Nothing can be more erroneous. There will, of course, be such +moments, when an actor at a white heat illumines some passage with +a flash of imagination (and this mental condition, by the way, is +impossible to the student sitting in his arm-chair); but the great +actor's surprises are generally well weighed, studied, and balanced. +We know that Edmund Kean constantly practised before a mirror effects +which startled his audience by their apparent spontaneity. It is the +accumulation of such effects which enables an actor, after many years, +to present many great characters with remarkable completeness. + +I do not want to overstate the case, or to appeal to anything that is +not within common experience, so I can confidently ask you whether a +scene in a great play has not been at some time vividly impressed on +your minds by the delivery of a single line, or even of one forcible +word. Has not this made the passage far more real and human to you +than all the thought you have devoted to it? An accomplished critic +has said that Shakespeare himself might have been surprised had he +heard the "Fool, fool, fool!" of Edmund Kean. And though all actors +are not Keans, they have in varying degree this power of making a +dramatic character step out of the page, and come nearer to our hearts +and our understandings. + +After all, the best and most convincing exposition of the whole art +of acting is given by Shakespeare himself: "To hold, as 'twere, the +mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own +image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure." +Thus the poet recognized the actor's art as a most potent ally in the +representation of human life. He believed that to hold the mirror up +to nature was one of the worthiest functions in the sphere of labor, +and actors are content to point to his definition of their work as the +charter of their privileges. + + + + +III. + +PRACTICE OF THE ART. + + +The practice of the art of acting is a subject difficult to treat with +the necessary brevity. Beginners are naturally anxious to know what +course they should pursue. In common with other actors, I receive +letters from young people many of whom are very earnest in their +ambition to adopt the dramatic calling, but not sufficiently alive to +the fact that success does not depend on a few lessons in declamation. +When I was a boy I had a habit which I think would be useful to all +young students. Before going to see a play of Shakespeare's I used to +form--in a very juvenile way--a theory as to the working out of the +whole drama, so as to correct my conceptions by those of the actors; +and though I was, as a rule, absurdly wrong, there can be no doubt +that any method of independent study is of enormous importance, not +only to youngsters, but also to students of a larger growth. +Without it the mind is apt to take its stamp from the first forcible +impression it receives, and to fall into a servile dependence upon +traditions, which, robbed of the spirit that created them, are apt +to be purely mischievous. What was natural to the creator is often +unnatural and lifeless in the imitator. No two people form the same +conceptions of character, and therefore it is always advantageous to +see an independent and courageous exposition of an original ideal. +There can be no objection to the kind of training that imparts a +knowledge of manners and customs, and the teaching which pertains to +simple deportment on the stage is necessary and most useful; but you +cannot possibly be taught any tradition of character, for that has no +permanence. Nothing is more fleeting than any traditional method of +impersonation. You may learn where a particular personage used to +stand on the stage, or down which trap the ghost of Hamlet's father +vanished; but the soul of interpretation is lost, and it is this soul +which the actor has to re-create for himself. It is not mere attitude +or tone that has to be studied; you must be moved by the impulse of +being; you must impersonate and not recite. + +There has always been a controversy as to the province of naturalism +in dramatic art. In England it has been too much the custom, I +believe, while demanding naturalism in comedy, to expect a false +inflation in tragedy. But there is no reason why an actor should +be less natural in tragic than in lighter moods. Passions vary in +expression according to moulds of character and manners, but their +reality should not be lost even when they are expressed in the heroic +forms of the drama. A very simple test is a reference to the records +of old actors. What was it in their performances that chiefly +impressed their contemporaries? Very rarely the measured recitation of +this or that speech, but very often a simple exclamation that deeply +moved their auditors, because it was a gleam of nature in the midst +of declamation. The "Prithee, undo this button!" of Garrick, was +remembered when many stately utterances were forgotten. In our day the +contrast between artificial declamation and the accents of nature is +less marked, because its delivery is more uniformly simple, and an +actor who lapses from a natural into a false tone is sure to find +that his hold upon his audience is proportionately weakened. But the +revolution which Garrick accomplished may be imagined from the story +told by Boswell. Dr. Johnson was discussing plays and players with +Mrs. Siddons, and he said: "Garrick, madam, was no declaimer; there +was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken 'To be +or not to be' better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever saw +whom I could call a master, both in tragedy and comedy, though I +liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character and natural +expression of it were his distinguished excellences." + +To be natural on the stage is most difficult, and yet a grain of +nature is worth a bushel of artifice. But you may say--what is nature? +I quoted just now Shakespeare's definition of the actor's art. After +the exhortation to hold the mirror up to nature, he adds the pregnant +warning: "This overdone or come tardy off, though it make the +unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of +which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others." +Nature may be overdone by triviality in conditions that demand +exaltation; for instance, Hamlet's first address to the Ghost lifts +his disposition to an altitude far beyond the ordinary reaches of our +souls, and his manner of speech should be adapted to this sentiment. +But such exaltation of utterance is wholly out of place in the purely +colloquial scene with the Gravedigger. When Macbeth says, "Go, bid thy +mistress, when my drink is ready, she strike upon the bell," he would +not use the tone of + + "Pity, like a naked new-born babe, + Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed + Upon the sightless couriers of the air, + Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, + That tears shall drown the wind." + +Like the practised orator, the actor rises and descends with his +sentiment, and cannot always be in a fine phrenzy. This variety +is especially necessary in Shakespeare, whose work is essentially +different from the classic drama, because it presents every mood of +mind and form of speech, commonplace or exalted, as character and +situation dictate: whereas in such a play as Addison's _Cato_, +everybody is consistently eloquent about everything. + +There are many causes for the growth of naturalism in dramatic art, +and amongst them we should remember the improvement in the mechanism +of the stage. For instance, there has been a remarkable development in +stage-lighting. In old pictures you will observe the actors constantly +standing in a line, because the oil-lamps of those days gave such an +indifferent illumination that everybody tried to get into what was +called the focus--the "blaze of publicity" furnished by the "float" or +footlights. The importance of this is illustrated by an amusing story +of Edmund Kean, who one night played _Othello_ with more than his +usual intensity. An admirer who met him in the street next day was +loud in his congratulations: "I really thought you would have choked +Iago, Mr. Kean--you seemed so tremendously in earnest." "In earnest!" +said the tragedian, "I should think so! Hang the fellow, he was trying +to keep me out of the focus." + +I do not recommend actors to allow their feelings to carry them +away like this; but it is necessary to warn you against the theory +expounded with brilliant ingenuity by Diderot, that the actor never +feels. When Macready played Virginius, after burying his beloved +daughter, he confessed that his real experience gave a new force to +his acting in the most pathetic situations of the play. Are we to +suppose that this was a delusion, or that the sensibility of the man +was a genuine aid to the actor? Bannister said of John Kemble that he +was never pathetic because he had no children. Talma says that when +deeply moved he found himself making a rapid and fugitive observation +on the alternation of his voice, and on a certain spasmodic vibration +which it contracted in tears. Has not the actor who can thus make +his feelings a part of his art an advantage over the actor who never +feels, but who makes his observations solely from the feelings of +others? It is necessary to this art that the mind should have, as it +were, a double consciousness, in which all the emotions proper to the +occasion may have full swing, while the actor is all the time on the +alert for every detail of his method. It may be that his playing will +be more spirited one night than another. But the actor who combines +the electric force of a strong personality with a mastery of the +resources of his art must have a greater power over his audiences +than the passionless actor who gives a most artistic simulation of the +emotions he never experiences. + +Now, in the practice of acting, a most important point is the study +of elocution; and in elocution one great difficulty is the use of +sufficient force to be generally heard without being unnaturally loud, +and without acquiring a stilted delivery. The advice of the old actors +was that you should always pitch your voice so as to be heard by the +back row of the gallery--no easy task to accomplish without offending +the ears of the front of the orchestra. And I should tell you that +this exaggeration applies to everything on the stage. To appear to be +natural, you must in reality be much broader than nature. To act on +the stage as one really would in a room, would be ineffective and +colorless. I never knew an actor who brought the art of elocution to +greater perfection than the late Charles Mathews, whose utterance on +the stage appeared so natural that one was surprised to find when near +him that he was really speaking in a very loud key. There is a great +actor in your own country to whose elocution one always listens with +the utmost enjoyment--I mean Edwin Booth. He has inherited this gift, +I believe, from his famous father, of whom I have heard it said, that +he always insisted on a thorough use of the "instruments"--by which he +meant the teeth--in the formation of words. + +An imperfect elocution is apt to degenerate into a monotonous +uniformity of tone. Some wholesome advice on this point we find in the +_Life of Betterton_. + +"This stiff uniformity of voice is not only displeasing to the ear, +but disappoints the effect of the discourse on the hearers; first, by +an equal way of speaking, when the pronunciation has everywhere, in +every word and every syllable, the same sound, it must inevitably +render all parts of speech equal, and so put them on a very unjust +level. So that the power of the reasoning part, the lustre and +ornament of the figures, the heart, warmth, and vigor of the +passionate part being expressed all in the same tone, is flat and +insipid, and lost in a supine, or at least unmusical pronunciation. So +that, in short, that which ought to strike and stir up the affections, +because it is spoken all alike, without any distinction or variety, +moves them not at all." + +Now, on the question of pronunciation there is something to be said, +which, I think, in ordinary teaching is not sufficiently considered. +Pronunciation on the stage should be simple and unaffected, but not +always fashioned rigidly according to a dictionary standard. No less +an authority than Cicero points out that pronunciation must vary +widely according to the emotions to be expressed; that it may be +broken or cut, with a varying or direct sound, and that it serves for +the actor the purpose of color to the painter, from which to draw his +variations. Take the simplest illustration, the formal pronunciation +of "A-h" is "Ah," of "O-h" "Oh;" but you cannot stereotype the +expression of emotion like this. These exclamations are words of one +syllable, but the speaker who is sounding the gamut of human feeling +will not be restricted in his pronunciation by the dictionary rule. +It is said of Edmund Kean that he never spoke such ejaculations, +but always sighed or groaned them. Fancy an actor saying thus, "My +Desdemona! Oh, [)o]h, [)o]h!" Words are intended to express feelings +and ideas, not to bind them in rigid fetters. The accents of pleasure +are different from the accents of pain, and if a feeling is more +accurately expressed, as in nature, by a variation of sound not +provided for by the laws of pronunciation, then such imperfect laws +must be disregarded and nature vindicated. The word should be the echo +of the sense. + +The force of an actor depends, of course, upon his physique; and it is +necessary, therefore, that a good deal of attention should be given to +bodily training. Everything that develops suppleness, elasticity, and +grace--that most subtle charm--should be carefully cultivated, and +in this regard your admirable gymnasium is worth volumes of advice. +Sometimes there is a tendency to train the body at the expense of +the mind, and the young actor with striking physical advantages +must beware of regarding this fortunate endowment as his entire +stock-in-trade. That way folly lies, and the result may be too dearly +purchased by the fame of a photographer's window. It is clear that +the physique of actors must vary; there can be no military standard +of proportions on the stage. Some great actors have had to struggle +against physical disabilities of a serious nature. Betterton had an +unprepossessing face; so had Le Kain. John Kemble was troubled with +a weak, asthmatic voice, and yet by his dignity, and the force of +his personality, he was able to achieve the greatest effects. In some +cases a super-abundant physique has incapacitated actors from playing +many parts. The combination in one frame of all the gifts of mind and +all the advantages in person is very rare on the stage; but talent +will conquer many natural defects when it is sustained by energy and +perseverance. + +With regard to gesture, Shakespeare's advice is all-embracing. "Suit +the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special +observance that you over-step not the modesty of nature." And here +comes the consideration of a very material part of the actor's +business--by-play. This is of the very essence of true art. It is more +than anything else significant of the extent to which the actor has +identified himself with the character he represents. Recall the scenes +between Iago and Othello, and consider how the whole interest of the +situation depends on the skill with which the gradual effect of the +poisonous suspicion instilled into the Moor's mind is depicted in look +and tone, slight of themselves, but all contributing to the intensity +of the situation. One of the greatest tests of an actor is his +capacity for listening. By-play must be unobtrusive; the student +should remember that the most minute expression attracts attention: +that nothing is lost, that by-play is as mischievous when it is +injudicious as it is effective when rightly conceived, and that while +trifles make perfection, perfection is no trifle. This lesson was +enjoined on me when I was a very young man by that remarkable actress, +Charlotte Cushman. I remember that when she played Meg Merrilies I +was cast for Henry Bertram, on the principle, seemingly, that an actor +with no singing voice is admirably fitted for a singing part. It was +my duty to give Meg Merrilies a piece of money, and I did it after the +traditional fashion by handing her a large purse full of coin of the +realm, in the shape of broken crockery, which was generally used in +financial transactions on the stage, because when the virtuous maiden +rejected with scorn the advances of the lordly libertine, and threw +his pernicious bribe upon the ground, the clatter of the broken +crockery suggested fabulous wealth. But after the play Miss Cushman, +in the course of some kindly advice, said to me: "Instead of giving me +that purse don't you think it would have been much more natural if +you had taken a number of coins from your pocket, and given me the +smallest? That is the way one gives alms to a beggar, and it would +have added to the realism of the scene." I have never forgotten that +lesson, for simple as it was, it contained many elements of dramatic +truth. It is most important that an actor should learn that he is +a figure in a picture, and that the least exaggeration destroys the +harmony of the composition. All the members of the company should +work towards a common end, with the nicest subordination of their +individuality to the general purpose. Without this method a play when +acted is at best a disjointed and incoherent piece of work, instead +of being a harmonious whole like the fine performance of an orchestral +symphony. The root of the matter is that the actor must before all +things form a definite conception of what he wishes to convey. It is +better to be wrong and be consistent, than to be right, yet hesitating +and uncertain. This is why great actors are sometimes very bad or very +good. They will do the wrong thing with a courage and thoroughness +which makes the error all the more striking; although when they are +right they may often be superb. It is necessary that the actor should +learn to think before he speaks; a practice which, I believe, is very +useful off the stage. Let him remember, first, that every sentence +expresses a new thought and, therefore, frequently demands a change +of intonation; secondly, that the thought precedes the word. Of course +there are passages in which thought and language are borne along by +the streams of emotion and completely intermingled. But more often +it will be found that the most natural, the most seemingly accidental +effects are obtained when the working of the mind is seen before the +tongue gives it words. + +You will see that the limits of an actor's studies are very wide. To +master the technicalities of his craft, to familiarize his mind +with the structure, rhythm, and the soul of poetry, to be constantly +cultivating his perceptions of life around him and of all the +arts--painting, music, sculpture--for the actor who is devoted to +his profession is susceptible to every harmony of color, sound, and +form--to do this is to labor in a large field of industry. But all +your training, bodily and mental, is subservient to the two great +principles in tragedy and comedy--passion and geniality. Geniality +in comedy is one of the rarest gifts. Think of the rich unction of +Falstaff, the mercurial fancy of Mercutio, the witty vivacity and +manly humor of Benedick--think of the qualities, natural and acquired, +that are needed for the complete portrayal of such characters, and you +will understand how difficult it is for a comedian to rise to such +a sphere. In tragedy, passion or intensity sweeps all before it, and +when I say passion, I mean the passion of pathos as well as wrath +or revenge. These are the supreme elements of the actor's art, +which cannot be taught by any system, however just, and to which all +education is but tributary. + +Now all that can be said of the necessity of a close regard for nature +in acting applies with equal or greater force to the presentation of +plays. You want, above all things, to have a truthful picture which +shall appeal to the eye without distracting the imagination from the +purpose of the drama. It is a mistake to suppose that this enterprise +is comparatively new to the stage. Since Shakespeare's time there has +been a steady progress in this direction. Even in the poet's day every +conceivable property was forced into requisition, and his own sense +of shortcomings in this respect is shown in _Henry V._ when he +exclaims:-- + + "Where--O for pity!--we shall much disgrace + With four or five most vile and ragged foils + The name of Agincourt." + +There have always been critics who regarded care and elaboration in +the mounting of plays as destructive of the real spirit of the actor's +art. Betterton had to meet this reproach when he introduced scenery in +lieu of linsey-woolsey curtains; but he replied, sensibly enough, that +his scenery was better than the tapestry with hideous figures worked +upon it which had so long distracted the senses of play-goers. He +might have asked his critics whether they wished to see Ophelia played +by a boy of sixteen, as in the time of Shakespeare, instead of a +beautiful and gifted woman. Garrick did his utmost to improve the +mechanical arts of the stage--so much so, indeed, that he paid his +scene-painter, Loutherbourg, L500 a year, a pretty considerable sum +in those days--though in Garrick's time the importance of realism in +costume was not sufficiently appreciated to prevent him from playing +Macbeth in a bagwig. To-day we are employing all our resources to +heighten the picturesque effects of the drama, and we are still told +that this is a gross error. It may be admitted that nothing is more +objectionable than certain kinds of realism, which are simply vulgar; +but harmony of color and grace of outline have a legitimate sphere in +the theatre, and the method which uses them as adjuncts may claim to +be "as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine." +For the abuse of scenic decoration, the overloading of the stage with +ornament, the subordination of the play to a pageant, I have nothing +to say. That is all foreign to the artistic purpose which should +dominate dramatic work. Nor do I think that servility to archaeology on +the stage is an unmixed good. Correctness of costume is admirable +and necessary up to a certain point, but when it ceases to be "as +wholesome as sweet," it should, I think, be sacrificed. You perceive +that the nicest discretion is needed in the use of the materials +which are nowadays at the disposal of the manager. Music, painting, +architecture, the endless variations of costume, have all to be +employed with a strict regard to the production of an artistic +whole, in which no element shall be unduly obtrusive. We are open to +microscopic criticism at every point. When _Much Ado about Nothing_ +was produced at the Lyceum, I received a letter complaining of the +gross violation of accuracy in a scene which was called a cedar-walk. +"Cedars!" said my correspondent,--"why, cedars were not introduced +into Messina for fifty years after the date of Shakespeare's story!" +Well, this was a tremendous indictment, but unfortunately the +cedar-walk had been painted. Absolute realism on the stage is not +always desirable, any more than the photographic reproduction of +Nature can claim to rank with the highest art. + + + + +IV. + +THE REWARDS OF THE ART. + + +To what position in the world of intelligence does the actor's art +entitle him, and what is his contribution to the general sum of +instruction? We are often told that the art is ephemeral; that it +creates nothing; that when the actor's personality is withdrawn from +the public eye he leaves no trace behind. Granted that his art creates +nothing; but does it not often restore? It is true that he leaves +nothing like the canvas of the painter and the marble of the sculptor, +but has he done nought to increase the general stock of ideas? The +astronomer and naturalist create nothing, but they contribute much to +the enlightenment of the world. I am taking the highest standard of +my art, for I maintain that in judging any calling you should consider +its noblest and not its most ignoble products. All the work that is +done on the stage cannot stand upon the same level, any more than all +the work that is done in literature. You do not demand that your poets +and novelists shall all be of the same calibre. An immense amount of +good writing does no more than increase the gayety of mankind; but +when Johnson said that the gayety of nations was eclipsed by the death +of Garrick, he did not mean that a mere barren amusement had lost one +of its professors. When Sir Joshua Reynolds painted Mrs. Siddons as +the Tragic Muse, and said he had achieved immortality by putting his +name on the hem of her garment, he meant something more than a pretty +compliment, for her name can never die. To give genuine and wholesome +entertainment is a very large function of the stage, and without that +entertainment very many lives would lose a stimulus of the highest +value. If recreation of every legitimate kind is invaluable to the +worker, especially so is the recreation of the drama, which brightens +his faculties, enlarges his vision of the picturesque, and by taking +him for a time out of this work-a-day world, braces his sensibilities +for the labors of life. The art which does this may surely claim to +exercise more than a fleeting influence upon the world's intelligence. +But in its highest developments it does more; it acts as a constant +medium for the diffusion of great ideas, and by throwing new lights +upon the best dramatic literature, it largely helps the growth +of education. It is not too much to say that the interpreters of +Shakespeare on the stage have had much to do with the widespread +appreciation of his works. Some of the most thoughtful students of +the poet have recognized their indebtedness to actors, while for +multitudes the stage has performed the office of discovery. Thousands +who flock to-day to see a representation of Shakespeare, which is the +product of much reverent study of the poet, are not content to regard +it as a mere scenic exhibition. Without it Shakespeare might have been +for many of them a sealed book; but many more have been impelled +by the vivid realism of the stage to renew studies which other +occupations or lack of leisure have arrested. Am I presumptuous, then, +in asserting that the stage is not only an instrument of amusement, +but a very active agent in the spread of knowledge and taste? Some +forms of stage work, you may say, are not particularly elevating. +True; and there are countless fictions coming daily from the hands +of printer and publisher which nobody is the better for reading. You +cannot have a fixed standard of value in my art; and though there +are masses of people who will prefer an unintelligent exhibition to +a really artistic production, that is no reason for decrying the +theatre, in which all the arts blend with the knowledge of history, +manners, and customs of all people, and scenes of all climes, to +afford a varied entertainment to the most exacting intellect. I have +no sympathy with people who are constantly anxious to define the +actor's position, for, as a rule, they are not animated by a desire to +promote his interests. "'Tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus;" +and whatever actors deserve, socially or artistically, they are sure +to receive as their right. I found the other day in a well-circulated +little volume a suggestion that the actor was a degraded being because +he has a closely-shaven face. This is, indeed, humiliating, and I +wonder how it strikes the Roman Catholic clergy. However, there are +actors who do not shave closely, and though, alas! I am not one of +them, I wish them joy of the spiritual grace which I cannot claim. + +It is admittedly unfortunate for the stage that it has a certain +equivocal element, which, in the eyes of some judges, is sufficient +for its condemnation. The art is open to all, and it has to bear the +sins of many. You may open your newspaper, and see a paragraph headed +"Assault by an Actress." Some poor creature is dignified by that title +who has not the slightest claim to it. You look into a shop-window and +see photographs of certain people who are indiscriminately described +as actors and actresses though their business has no pretence to be +art of any kind. + +I was told in Baltimore of a man in that city who was so diverted by +the performance of Tyrone Powar, the popular Irish comedian, that he +laughed uproariously till the audience was convulsed with merriment at +the spectacle. As soon as he could speak, he called out, "Do be quiet, +Mr. Showman; do'ee hold your tongue, or I shall die of laughter!" This +idea that the actor is a showman still lingers; but no one with any +real appreciation of the best elements of the drama applies this +vulgar standard to a great body of artists. The fierce light of +publicity that beats upon us makes us liable, from time to time, to +dissertations upon our public and private lives, our manners, our +morals, and our money. Our whims and caprices are discanted on with +apparent earnestness of truth, and seeming sincerity of conviction. +There is always some lively controversy concerning the influence of +the stage. The battle between old methods and new in art is waged +everywhere. If an actor were to take to heart everything that is +written and said about him, his life would be an intolerable burden. +And one piece of advice I should give to young actors is this: Do not +be too sensitive; receive praise or censure with modesty and patience. +Good honest criticism is, of course, most advantageous to an actor; +but he should save himself from the indiscriminate reading of a +multitude of comments, which may only confuse instead of stimulating. +And here let me say to young actors in all earnestness: Beware of the +loungers of our calling, the camp followers who hang on the skirts of +the army, and who inveigle the young into habits that degrade their +character, and paralyze their ambition. Let your ambition be ever +precious to you, and, next to your good name, the jewel of your souls. +I care nothing for the actor who is not always anxious to rise to +the highest position in his particular walk; but this ideal cannot be +cherished by the young man who is induced to fritter away his time and +his mind in thoughtless company. + +But in the midst of all this turmoil about the stage, one fact stands +out clearly: the dramatic art is steadily growing in credit with the +educated classes. It is drawing more recruits from those classes. The +enthusiasm for our calling has never reached a higher pitch. There is +quite an extraordinary number of ladies who want to become actresses, +and the cardinal difficulty in the way is not the social deterioration +which some people think they would incur, but simply their inability +to act. Men of education who become actors do not find that their +education is useless. If they have the necessary aptitude--the inborn +instinct for the stage--all their mental training will be of great +value to them. It is true that there must always be grades in the +theatre, that an educated man who is an indifferent actor can never +expect to reach the front rank. If he do no more than figure in the +army at Bosworth Field, or look imposing in a doorway; if he never +play any but the smallest parts; if in these respects he be no +better than men who could not pass an examination in any branch of +knowledge--he has no more reason to complain than the highly-educated +man who longs to write poetry, and possesses every qualification--save +the poetic faculty. There are people who seem to think that only +irresistible genius justifies any one in adopting the stage as a +vocation. They make it an argument against the profession that many +enter it from a low sphere of life, without any particular fitness for +acting, but simply to earn a livelihood by doing the subordinate and +mechanical work which is necessary in every theatre. And so men and +women of refinement--especially women--are warned that they must do +themselves injury by passing through the rank and file during their +term of probation in the actors' craft. Now, I need not remind you +that on the stage everybody cannot be great, any more than students +of music can all become great musicians; but very many will do sound +artistic work which is of great value. As for any question of conduct, +Heaven forbid that I should be dogmatic; but it does not seem to me +logical that while genius is its own law in the pursuit of a noble +art, all inferior merit or ambition is to be deterred from the same +path by appalling pictures of its temptations. + +If our art is worth anything at all, it is worth the honest, +conscientious self-devotion of men and women who, while they may not +achieve fame, may have the satisfaction of being workers in a calling +which does credit to many degrees of talent. We do not claim to be +any better than our fellows in other walks of life. We do not ask +the jester in journalism whether his quips and epigrams are always +dictated by the loftiest morality; nor do we insist on knowing that +the odor of sanctity surrounds the private lives of lawyers and +military men before we send our sons into law and the army. It +is impossible to point out any vocation which is not attended by +temptations that prove fatal to many; but you have simply to consider +whether a profession has in itself any title to honor, and then--if +you are confident of your capacity--to enter it with a resolve to do +all that energy and perseverance can accomplish. The immortal part of +the stage is its nobler part. Ignoble accidents and interludes come +and go, but this lasts on forever. It lives, like the human soul, +in the body of humanity--associated with much that is inferior, and +hampered by many hindrances; but it never sinks into nothingness, and +never fails to find new and noble work in creations of permanent and +memorable excellence. And I would say, as a last word, to the young +men in this assembly who may at any time resolve to enter the dramatic +profession, that they ought always to fix their minds upon the highest +examples; that in studying acting they should beware of prejudiced +comparisons between this method and that, but learn as much as +possible from all; that they should remember that art is as varied as +nature, and as little suited to the shackles of a school; and, above +all, that they should never forget that excellence in any art is +attained only by arduous labor, unswerving purpose, and unfailing +discipline. This discipline is, perhaps, the most difficult of all +tests, for it involves the subordination of the actor's personality in +every work which is designed to be a complete and harmonious picture. +Dramatic art nowadays is more coherent, systematic, and comprehensive +than it has sometimes been. And to the student who proposes to fill +the place in this system to which his individuality and experience +entitle him, and to do his duty faithfully and well, ever striving +after greater excellence, and never yielding to the indolence that is +often born of popularity--to him I say, with every confidence, that +he will choose a career in which, if it does not lead him to fame, +he will be sustained by the honorable exercise of some of the best +faculties of the human mind. + +And now I can only thank you for the patience with which you have +listened while, in a slight and imperfect way, I have dwelt with some +of the most important of the actor's responsibilities, I have been an +actor for nearly thirty years, and what I have told you is the fruit +of my experience, and of an earnest and conscientious belief that the +calling to which I am proud to belong is worthy of the sympathy and +support of all intelligent people. + + + + +ADDRESS + +AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD + +26 JUNE 1886 + + + + +ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. + + +When I was honored by the request of your distinguished +Vice-Chancellor to deliver an address before the members of this +great University, I told him I could only say something about my own +calling, for that I knew little or nothing about anything else. +I trust, however, that this confession of the limitations of +my knowledge will not prejudice me in your eyes, members as you +are--privileged members I may say--of this seat of learning. In an age +when so many persons think they know everything, it may afford a not +unpleasing variety to meet with some who know that they know nothing. + +I cannot discourse to you, even if you wished me to do so, of the +respective merits of AEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; for if I +did, I should not be able to tell you anything that you do not know +already. I have not had the advantage--one that very few of the +members of my profession in past, or even in present times have +enjoyed--of an University education. The only _Alma Mater_ I ever knew +was the hard stage of a country theatre. + +In the course of my training, long before I had taken, what I may +call, my degree in London, I came to act in your city. I have a very +pleasant recollection of the time I passed here, though I am sorry +to say that, owing to the regulation which forbade theatrical +performances during term time, I saw Oxford only in vacation, which +is rather like--to use the old illustration--seeing _Hamlet_ with the +part of Hamlet left out. There was then no other building available +for dramatic representations than the Town Hall. I may, perhaps, be +allowed to congratulate you on the excellent theatre which you now +possess--I do not mean the Sheldonian--and at the same time to express +a hope that, as a more liberal, and might I say a wiser, _regime_ +allows the members of the University to go to the play, they will not +receive any greater moral injury, or be distracted any more from their +studies, than when they were only allowed the occasional relaxation of +hearing comic songs. Macready once said that "a theatre ought to be +a place of recreation for the sober-minded and intelligent." I trust +that, under whatsoever management the theatre in Oxford may be, it +will always deserve this character. + +You must not expect any learned disquisition from me; nor even in the +modified sense in which the word is used among you will I venture to +style what I am going to say to you a lecture. You may, by the way, +have seen a report that I was cast for _four_ lectures; but I assure +you there was no ground for such an alarming rumor; a rumor quite as +alarming to me as it could have been to you. What I do propose is, to +say to you something about four of our greatest actors in the past, +each of whom may be termed the representative of an important period +in the Annals of our National Drama. In turning over the leaves of +a history of the life of Edmund Kean, I came across the following +sentence (the writer is speaking of Edmund Kean as having restored +Nature to the stage): "There seems always to have been this +alternation between the Schools of Nature and Art (if we may so term +them) in the annals of the English Theatre." Now if for _Art_ I may be +allowed to substitute _Artificiality_, which is what the author really +meant, I think that his sentence is an epitome of the history of our +stage; and it struck me at once that I could not select anything more +appropriate--I will not say as a text, for that sounds as if I were +going to deliver a sermon--but as the _motif_, or theme of the remarks +I am about to address to you. The four actors of whom I shall attempt +to tell, you something--Burbage, Betterton, Garrick, and Kean--were +the _four_ greatest champions, in their respective times, on the stage +of Nature in contradistinction to Artificiality. + +When we consider the original of the Drama, or perhaps I should say +of the higher class of Drama, we see that the style of acting must +necessarily have been artificial rather than natural. Take the Greek +Tragedy, for instance: the actors, as you know, wore masks, and had to +speak, or rather intone, in a theatre more than half open to the air, +and therefore it was impossible they could employ facial expression, +or much variety of intonation. We have not time now to trace at length +the many vicissitudes in the career of the Drama, but I may say that +Shakespeare was the first dramatist who dared to rob Tragedy of her +stilts; and who successfully introduced an element of comedy which +was not dragged in by the neck and heels, but which naturally evolved +itself from the treatment of the tragic story, and did not violate the +consistency of any character. + +It was not only with regard to the _writing_ of his plays +that Shakespeare sought to fight the battle of Nature against +Artificiality. However naturally he might write, the affected or +monotonous _delivery_ of his verse by the actors would neutralize all +his efforts. The old rhyming ten-syllable lines could not but lead to +a monotonous style of elocution, nor was the early blank verse much +improvement in this respect; but Shakespeare fitted his blank verse to +the natural expression of his ideas, and not his ideas to the trammels +of blank verse. + +In order to carry out these reforms, in order to dethrone Artifice and +Affectation, he needed the help of actors in whom he could trust, +and especially of a leading actor who could interpret his greatest +dramatic creations; such a one he found in Richard Burbage. + +Shakespeare came to London first in 1585. Whether on this, his first +visit, he became connected with the theatres is uncertain. At any +rate it is most probable that he saw Burbage in some of his favorite +characters, and perhaps made his acquaintance; being first employed +as a kind of servant in the theatre, and afterwards as a player of +inferior parts. It was not until about 1591-1592, that Shakespeare +began to turn his attention seriously to dramatic authorship. For five +years of his life we are absolutely without any evidence as to what +were his pursuits. But there can be little doubt that during this +interval he was virtually undergoing a special form of education, +consisting rather of the study of human nature than that of books, +and was acquiring the art of dramatic construction--learnt better in +a theatre than anywhere else. Unfortunately, we have no record of the +intercourse between Shakespeare and Burbage; but there can be little +doubt that between the dramatist, who was himself an actor, and the +actor, who gave life to the greatest creations of his imagination, and +who, probably, amazed no less than delighted the great master by the +vividness and power of his impersonations, there must have existed a +close friendship. Shakespeare, unlike most men of genius, was no bad +man of business; and, indeed, a friend of mine, who prides himself +upon being a practical man, once suggested that he selected the part +of the Ghost in _Hamlet_ because it enabled him to go in front of the +house between the acts and count the money. Burbage was universally +acknowledged as the greatest tragic actor of his time. In Bartholomew +Fair, Ben Jonson uses Burbage's name as a synonym for "the best +actor"; and Bishop Corbet, in his _Iter Boreale_, tells us that his +host at Leicester-- + + "when he would have said King Richard died, + And call'd, 'A horse! A horse!' he, Burbage, cried," + +In a scene, in which Burbage and the comedian Kemp (the J.L. Toole +of the Shakespearean period) are introduced in _The Return from +Parnassus_--a satirical play, as you may know, written by some of +the Members of St. John's College, Cambridge, for performance +by themselves on New Year's Day, 1602--we have proof of the high +estimation in which the great tragic actor was held. Kemp says to the +scholars who are anxious to try their fortunes on the stage: "But be +merry, my lads, you have happened upon the most excellent vocation +in the world for money; they come north and south to bring it to our +playhouse; and for honors, who of more report than _Dick Burbage_ +and _Will Kempe_; he is not counted a gentleman that knows not _Dick +Burbage_ and _Will Kempe_; there's not a country wench that can +dance 'Sellenger's Round,' but can talke of _Dick Burbage_ and _Will +Kempe_." + +That Burbage's fame as an actor outlived his life may be seen from the +description given by Flecknoe:-- + +"He was a delightful Proteus, so wholly transforming himself into his +part, and putting off himself with his clothes, as he never (not so +much as in the 'tiring house) assumed himself again until the play was +done.... He had all the parts of an excellent orator, animating his +words with speaking, and speech with acting, his auditors being never +more delighted than when he spake, nor more sorry than when he held +his peace. Yet even then he was an excellent actor still, never +failing in his part when he had done speaking, but with his looks and +gestures maintaining it still to the height." + +It is not my intention, even if time permitted, to go much into the +private life of the four actors of whom I propose to speak. Very +little is known of Burbage's private life, except that he was married; +perhaps Shakespeare and he may have been drawn nearer together by the +tie of a common sorrow; for, as the poet lost his beloved son Hamlet +when quite a child, so did Burbage lose his eldest son Richard. +Burbage died on March 13th, 1617, being then about 50 years of age: +Camden, in his _Annals of James I._, records his death, and calls him +a second Roscius. He was sincerely mourned by all those who loved +the dramatic art; and he numbered among his friends Shakespeare, Ben +Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher, and other "common players," whose +names were destined to become the most honored in the annals of +English literature. Burbage was the first great actor that England +ever saw, the original representative of many of Shakespeare's noblest +creations, among others, of Shylock, Richard, Romeo, Hamlet, Lear, +Othello, and Macbeth. We may fairly conclude Burbage's acting to have +had all the best characteristics of Natural, as opposed to Artificial +acting. The principles of the former are so clearly laid down by +Shakespeare, in Hamlet's advice to the players, that, perhaps, I +cannot do better than to repeat them:-- + + Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, + trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your + players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor + do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all + gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may + say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a + temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to + the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a + passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the + groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but + inexplicable dumb-show and noise: I would have such a fellow + whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod; pray + you, avoid it. Be not too tame neither, but let your own + discretion be your tutor; suit the action to the word, the + word to the action; with this special observance, that you + o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone + is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first + and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to + nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, + and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. + Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the + unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the + censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a + whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen + play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak + it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians + nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted + and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen + had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so + abominably. + +When we try to picture what the theatre in Shakespeare's time was +like, it strikes us that it must have been difficult to carry out +those principles. One would think it must have been almost impossible +for the actors to keep up the illusion of the play, surrounded as they +were by such distracting elements. Figure to yourselves a crowd of +fops, chattering like a flock of daws, carrying their stools in their +hands, and settling around, and sometimes upon the stage itself, with +as much noise as possible. To vindicate their importance in their own +eyes they kept up a constant jangling of petty, carping criticism on +the actors and the play. In the intervals of repose which they allowed +their tongues, they ogled the ladies in the boxes, and made a point +of vindicating the dignity of their intellects by being always most +inattentive during the most pathetic portions of the play. In front +of the house matters were little better: the orange girls going to and +fro among the audience, interchanging jokes--not of the most delicate +character--with the young sparks and apprentices, the latter cracking +nuts or howling down some unfortunate actor who had offended their +worships; sometimes pipes of tobacco were being smoked. Picture all +this confusion, and add the fact that the female characters of the +play were represented by shrill-voiced lads or half-shaven men. +Imagine an actor having to invest such representatives with all the +girlish passion of a Juliet, the womanly tenderness of a Desdemona, +or the pitiable anguish of a distraught Ophelia, and you cannot but +realize how difficult under such circumstances _great_ acting +must have been. In fact, while we are awe-struck by the wonderful +intellectuality of the best dramas of the Elizabethan period, we +cannot help feeling that certain subtleties of acting, elaborate +by-play, for instance, and the finer lights and shades of intonation, +must have been impossible. Recitation rather than impersonation would +be generally aimed at by the actors. + +Thomas Betterton was the son of one of the cooks of King Charles I. +He was born in Tothill Street, Westminster, about 1635, eighteen +years after the death of Burbage. He seems to have received a fair +education; indeed, but for the disturbing effect of the Civil War, he +would probably have been brought up to one of the liberal professions. +He was, however, apprenticed to a bookseller, who, fortunately +for Betterton, took to theatrical management. Betterton was about +twenty-four years old when he began his dramatic career. For upwards +of fifty years he seems to have held his position as the foremost +actor of the day. It was fortunate, indeed, for the interests of the +Drama that so great an actor arose at the very time when dramatic art +had, as it were, to be resuscitated. Directly the Puritans (who hated +the stage and every one connected with it as heartily as they +hated their Cavalier neighbors) came into power, they abolished the +theatres, as they did every other form of intellectual amusement; +and for many years the Drama only existed in the form of a few vulgar +"Drolls." It must have been, indeed, a dismal time for the people of +England; with all the horrors of civil war fresh in their memory, the +more than paternal government allowed its subjects no other amusement +than that of consigning their neighbors to eternal damnation, and of +selecting for themselves--by anticipation--all the best reserved seats +in heaven. When the Restoration took place, the inevitable reaction +followed: society, having been condemned to a lengthened period of an +involuntary piety--which sat anything but easily on it--rushed into +the other extreme; all who wanted to be in the fashion professed but +little morality, and it is to be feared that, for once in a way, their +practice did not come short of their profession. Now was the time +when, instead of "poor players," "fine gentlemen" condescended to +write for the stage; and it may be remarked that as long as the +literary interests of the theatre were in their keeping, the tone of +the plays represented was more corrupt than it ever was at any other +period of the history of the Drama. It is something to be thankful +for, that at such a time, when the highly-flavored comedies of +Wycherley and Congreve were all the vogue, and when the monotonous +profligacy of nearly all the characters introduced into those plays +was calculated to encourage the most artificial style of acting--it +was something, I say, to be thankful for, that at such a time, +Betterton, and one or two other actors, could infuse life into +the noblest creations of Shakespeare. Owing, more especially, to +Betterton's great powers, the tragedy of _Hamlet_ held its own in +popularity, even against such witty productions as _Love for Love_. It +was also fortunate that the same actor who could draw tears as Hamlet, +was equally at home in the feigned madness of that amusing rake +Valentine, or in the somewhat coarse humor of Sir John Brute. By +charming the public in what were the popular novelties of the day, he +was able to command their support when he sought it for a nobler +form of Drama. He married an actress, Mrs. Saunderson, who was only +inferior in her art to her husband. Their married life seems to +have been one of perfect happiness. When one hears so much of the +profligacy of actors and actresses, and that they are all such a +very wicked lot, it is pleasant to think of this couple, in an age +proverbial for its immorality, in a city where the highest in rank set +an example of shameless licence, living their quiet, pure, artistic +life, respected and beloved by all that knew them. + +Betterton had few physical advantages. If we are to believe Antony +Aston, one of his contemporaries, he had "a short, thick neck, stooped +in the shoulders, and had fat, short arms, which he rarely lifted +higher than his stomach. His left hand frequently lodged in his +breast, between his coat and waistcoat, while with his right hand he +prepared his speech." Yet the same critic is obliged to confess that, +at seventy years of age, a younger man might have _personated_ but +could not have _acted_, Hamlet better. He calls his voice "low and +grumbling," but confesses that he had such power over it that he could +enforce attention even from fops and orange-girls. I dare say you +all know how Steele and Addison admired his acting, and how +enthusiastically they spoke of it in _The Tatler_. The latter writes +eloquently of the wonderful agony of jealousy and the tenderness +of love which he showed in _Othello_, and of the immense effect he +produced in _Hamlet_. + +Betterton, like all really great men, was a hard worker. Pepys says +of him, "Betterton is a very sober, serious man, and studious, and +humble, following of his studies; and is rich already with what he +gets and saves." Alas! the fortune so hardly earned was lost in an +unlucky moment: he entrusted it to a friend to invest in a commercial +venture in the East Indies which failed most signally. Betterton never +reproached his friend, he never murmured at his ill-luck. The friend's +daughter was left unprovided for; but Betterton adopted the child, +educated her for the stage, and she became an actress of merit, and +married Bowman, the player, afterwards known as "The Father of the +Stage." + +In Betterton's day there were no long runs of pieces; but, had his +lot been cast in these times, he might have been compelled to perform, +say, _Hamlet_ for three hundred or four hundred nights: for the rights +of the majority are entitled to respect in other affairs besides +politics, and if the theatre-going public demand a play (and our +largest theatres only hold a limited number) the manager dare not +cause annoyance and disappointment by withdrawing it. + +Like Edmund Kean, Betterton may be said to have died upon the stage; +for in April, 1710, when he took his last benefit, as Melantius, in +Beaumont and Fletcher's _Maid's Tragedy_ (an adaption of which, by the +way, was played by Macready under the title of _The Bridal_,) he was +suffering tortures from gout, and had almost to be carried to his +dressing-room; and though he acted the part with all his old fire, +speaking these very appropriate words:-- + + "My heart + And limbs are still the same, my will as great, + To do you service," + +within forty-eight hours he was dead. He was buried in the Cloisters +of Westminster Abbey with every mark of respect and honor. + +I may here add that the censure said to have been directed against +Betterton for the introduction of scenery is the prototype of that +cry, which we hear so often nowadays, against over-elaboration in +the arrangements of the stage. If it be a crime against good taste +to endeavor to enlist every art in the service of the stage, and to +heighten the effect of noble poetry by surrounding it with the most +beautiful and appropriate accessories, I myself must plead guilty to +that charge; but I should like to point out that every dramatist who +has ever lived, from Shakespeare downwards, has always endeavored to +get his plays put upon the stage with as good effect and as handsome +appointments as possible. + +Indeed, the Globe Theatre was burned down during the first performance +of _King Henry VIII._, through the firing off of a cannon which +announced the arrival of King Henry. Perhaps, indeed, some might +regard this as a judgment against the manager for such an attempt at +realism. + +It was seriously suggested to me by an enthusiast the other day, that +costumes of his own time should be used for all Shakespeare's plays. I +reflected a little on the suggestion, and then I put it to him whether +the characters in _Julius Caesar_ or in _Antony and Cleopatra_ dressed +in doublet and hose would not look rather out of place. He answered, +"He had never thought of that." In fact, difficulties almost +innumerable must invariably crop up if we attempt to represent plays +without appropriate costume and scenery, the aim of which is to +realize the _locale_ of the action. Some people may hold that paying +attention to such matters necessitates inattention to the acting; but +the majority think it does not, and I believe that they are right. +What would Alma-Tadema say, for instance, if it were proposed to him +that in a picture of the Roman Amphitheatre the figures should be +painted in the costume of Spain? I do not think he would see the point +of such a noble disregard of detail; and why should he, unless what is +false in art is held to be higher than what is true? + +Little more than thirty years were to elapse between the death of +the honored Betterton and the appearance of David Garrick, who was +to restore Nature once more to the stage. In this comparatively +short interval progress in dramatic affairs had been all backward. +Shakespeare's advice to the actors had been neglected; earnest +passion, affecting pathos, ever-varying gestures, telling intonation +of voice, and, above all, that complete identification of themselves +in the part they represented--all these qualities, which had +distinguished the acting of Betterton, had given way to noisy +rant, formal and affected attitudes, and a heavy stilted style of +declamation. Betterton died in 1710, and six years after, in 1716, +Garrick was born. About twenty years after, in 1737, Samuel Johnson +and his friend and pupil, David Garrick, set out from Lichfield on +their way to London. In spite of the differences in their ages, and +their relationship of master and pupil, a hearty friendship had sprung +up between them, and one destined, in spite of Johnson's occasional +resentment at the actor's success in life, to last till it was ended +by the grave. Much of Johnson's occasional harshness and almost +contemptuous attitude towards Garrick was, I fear, the result of the +consciousness that his old pupil had thoroughly succeeded in life, +and had reached the highest goal possible in the career which he had +chosen; while he himself, though looked up to as the greatest scholar +of his time, was conscious, as he shows us in his own diary, of how +much more he might have done but for his constitutional indolence. + +Garrick's family was of French origin, his father having come over to +England during the persecution of the Huguenots in 1687, and on his +mother's side he had Irish blood in his veins; so that by descent he +was a combination of French, English, and Irish, a combination by no +means unpromising for one who was going to be an actor. + +On reaching London, Garrick enrolled his name in Lincoln's Inn, and +was looking about him to see what would turn up, when the news of his +father's death reached him. There is no doubt that, if Garrick had +consulted his own wishes only, he would at once have gone upon the +stage. But fortunately, perhaps, for his future career, he could not +bear to grieve his mother's heart by adopting at once, and at such +a time when she was crushed with some sorrow for her great loss, a +calling which he knew she detested so heartily. + +Within a year Mrs. Garrick followed to the grave the husband whom she +never ceased to mourn, and David had nothing more to face than the +prejudice of his brother, Peter, and of his sisters, if he should +resolve ultimately to adopt the profession on which his heart was +fixed. + +It was not, however, till nearly three years after, in 1741, that +Garrick, determined to take the decisive step, first feeling his way +by playing Chamont in _The Orphan_, and Sir Harry Wildair, at Ipswich, +where he appeared under the name of Mr. Lydall; and under this same +name, in the same year, he made his first appearance at Goodman's +Fields Theatre, in the part of Richard III. His success was +marvellous. Considering the small experience he had had, no actor ever +made such a successful _debut_. No doubt by waiting and exercising his +powers of observation, and by studying many parts in private, he had +to a certain extent, matured his powers. But making allowance for +all his great natural gifts, there is no denying that Garrick, in one +leap, gained a position which, in the case of most other actors, has +only been reached through years of toil. He seems to have charmed all +classes: the learned and the ignorant, the cultured and the vulgar; +great statesmen, poets, and even the fribbles of fashion were all +nearly unanimous in his praise. The dissentient voices were so few +that they were drowned in the clamor of applause. Quinn might snarl +and growl; and Horace Walpole, who seems to have grown alarmed at +so much of the incense of praise finding its way to the nostrils of +another, might give vent to a few feeble sneers; such as when he said, +"I do not mention the things written in his praise because he writes +most of them himself." But the battle was won. Nature in the place +of Artificiality, Originality in the place of Conventionality, had +triumphed on the stage once more. + +Consternation reigned in the home at Lichfield when the news arrived +that brother David had become a play-actor; but ultimately the family +were reconciled to such degradation by the substantial results of the +experiment. Such reconcilements are not uncommon. Some young man of +good birth and position has taken to the stage; his family, who could +not afford to keep him, have been shocked, and in pious horror have +cast him out of their respectable circle; but at last success has +come, and they have managed to overcome their scruples and prejudices +and to profit by the harvest which the actor has reaped. + +Garrick seems to have continued playing under the name of Lydall for +two months, though the secret must have been an open one. It was not +till December the second, the night of his benefit, that he was at +last announced under his own name; and henceforward his career was +one long triumph, checkered, indeed, by disagreements, quarrels and +heart-burnings (for Garrick was extremely sensitive), caused, for the +most part, by the envy and jealousy which invariably dog the heels of +success. + +Second-rate actors, like Theophilus Gibber, or gnats such as Murphy, +and others, easily stung him. He was lampooned as "The Sick Monkey" +on his return to the stage after having taken a much needed rest. +But discretion and audacity seemed to go hand-in-hand, and the +self-satisfied satirizer generally over-shoots the mark. Garrick was +ever ready with a reply to his assailants; when Dr. Hill attacked his +pronunciation, saying that he pronounced his "i's" as if they were +"u's," Garrick answered-- + + "If 'tis true, as you say, that I've injured a letter, + I'll change my note soon, and I hope for the better. + May the just right of letters as well as of men, + Hereafter be fixed by the tongue and the pen. + Most devoutly I wish that they both have their due, + And that _I_ may be never mistaken for _U_." + +Comparing Garrick with Betterton, it must be remembered that he was +more exposed to the attacks of envy from the very universality of +his success. Never, perhaps, was there a man in any profession +who combined so many various qualities. A fair poet, a most fluent +correspondent, an admirable conversationalist, possessing a person +of singular grace, a voice of marvellous expressiveness, and a +disposition so mercurial and vivacious as is rarely found in any +Englishman, he was destined to be a great social as well as a great +artistic success. He loved the society of men of birth and fashion; he +seems to have had a more passionate desire to please in private even +than in public, and almost to have justified the often quoted couplet +in Goldsmith's "Retaliation." + + "On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only + that when he was off he was acting." + +Some men, envious of the substantial fortune which he realized by +almost incessant hard work, by thorough good principle with regard +to money, and by a noble, not a paltry, economy, might call him mean; +though many of them knew well, from their own experience, that his +nature was truly generous--his purse, as well as his heart, ever open +to a friend, however little he might deserve it. Yet they sneered +at his want of reckless extravagance, and called him a miser. The +greatest offender in this respect was Samuel Foote, a man of great +accomplishments, witty, but always ill-natured. It is difficult to +speak of Foote's conduct to Garrick in any moderate language. Mr. +Forster may assert that behind Foote's brutal jests there always +lurked a kindly feeling; but what can we think of the man who, +constantly receiving favors from Garrick's hand, could never speak of +him before others without a sneer; who the moment he had received the +loan of money or other favor for which he had cringed, snarled--I will +not say like a dog, for no dog is so ungrateful--and snapped at the +hand which had administered to him of its bounty. When this man, +who had never spared a friend, whose whole life had been passed in +maligning others, at last was himself a victim of a vile and cruel +slander, Garrick forgot the gibes and sneers of which Foote had made +him so often the victim, and stood by him with a noble devotion as +honorable to himself as it was ill-deserved by its object. Time would +not suffice, had I as many hours as I have minutes before me, to tell +you of all the acts of generosity that this mean man, this niggardly +actor, performed in his lifetime. One characteristic anecdote will +suffice. When Whitfield was building his Tabernacle in Tottenham Court +Road, he employed one of the carpenters who worked for Garrick at +Drury Lane. Subscriptions for the Tabernacle do not seem to have +come in as fast as they were required to pay the workmen, so that the +carpenter had to go to Garrick to ask for an advance. When pressed for +his reason he confessed that he had not received any wages from Mr. +Whitfield. Garrick made the advance asked for, and soon after quietly +set out to pay a visit to Mr. Whitfield, when, with many apologies for +the liberty he was taking, he offered him a five hundred pound bank +note as his subscription towards the Tabernacle. Considering that +Garrick had no particular sympathy with Nonconformists, this action +speaks as much for his charity as a Christian as it does for his +liberality as a man. + +Perhaps Richard III. remained Garrick's best Shakesperean character. +Of course he played Cibber's version and not Shakespeare's. In fact, +many of the Shakesperean parts were not played from the poet's own +text, but Garrick might have doubted whether even his popularity +would have reconciled his audiences to the unadulterated poetry of our +greatest dramatist. + +Next to Richard, Lear would seem to have been his best Shakesperean +performance. In Hamlet and Othello he did not equal Betterton; and +in the latter, certainly from all one can discover, he was infinitely +surpassed by Edmund Kean. In fact Othello was not one of his great +parts. But in the wide range of characters which he undertook, Garrick +was probably never equalled. A poor actor named Everard, who was first +brought out as a boy by Garrick, says: "Such or such an actor in their +respective _fortes_ have been allowed to play such or such a part +equally well as him; but could they perform Archer and Scrub like +him? and Abel Drugger, Ranger, and Bayes, and Benedick; speak his own +prologue to _Barbarossa_, in the character of a country-boy, and in a +few minutes transform himself in the same play to _Selim_? Nay, in the +same night he has played _Sir John Brute_ and the _Guardian, Romeo_ +and _Lord Chalkstone, Hamlet_ and _Sharp, King Lear_ and _Fribble, +King Richard_ and the _Schoolboy_! Could anyone but himself attempt +such a wonderful variety, such an amazing contrast of character, and +be equally great in all? No, no, no! Garrick, take the chair." + +Garrick was, without doubt, a very intense actor; he threw himself +most thoroughly into any part that he was playing. Certainly we know +that he was not wanting in reverence for Shakespeare; in spite of the +liberties which he ventured to take with the poet's text, he loved +and worshipped him. To Powell, who threatened to be at one time a +formidable rival, his advice was, "Never let your Shakespeare be out +of your hands; keep him about you as a charm; the more you read him, +the more you will like him, and the better you will act." As to his +yielding to the popular taste for pantomime and spectacle, he may +plead a justification in the words which his friend Johnson put into +his mouth in the Prologue that he wrote for the inauguration of his +management at Drury Lane:-- + + "The Drama's laws the Drama's patrons give, + And we, who live to please, must please to live." + +We must remember how much he did for the stage. Though his alterations +of Shakespeare shock us, they are nothing to those outrages committed +by others, who deformed the poet beyond recognition. Garrick made +Shakespeare's plays once more popular. He purged the actors, for a +time at least, of faults that were fatal to any high class of drama, +and, above all, he gradually got rid of those abominable nuisances +(to which we have already alluded), the people who came and took their +seats at the wings, on the stage itself, while the performance was +going on, hampering the efforts of the actors and actresses. The stage +would have had much to thank Garrick for if he had done nothing more +than this--if only that he was the first manager who kept the audience +where they ought to be, on the other side of the footlights. + +In his private life Garrick was most happy. He was fortunate enough +to find for his wife a simple-minded, loyal woman, in a quarter which +some people would deem very unpromising. Mrs. Garrick was, as is +well-known, a celebrated _danseuse_, known as Mademoiselle Violette, +whose real name was Eva Maria Weigel, a Viennese. A more affectionate +couple were never seen; they were not blessed with children, but they +lived together in the most uninterrupted happiness, and their house +was the scene of many social gatherings of a delightful kind. Mrs. +Garrick survived her celebrated husband, and lived to the ripe age of +ninety-eight, retaining to the very last much of that grace and charm +of expression which had won the actor's heart. + +Time will not allow me to dwell on the many points of interest +in Garrick's career; all of which are to be found in Mr. Percy +Fitzgerald's _Life of Garrick_. On returning to London after a visit +to the Spensers at Althorp in January, 1779, he was struck down by +a fatal attack of his old malady, the gout, and died at the age of +sixty-three. + +He was buried in Westminster Abbey with ceremonies as imposing as ever +graced the funeral of a great man. The pall-bearers were headed by the +Duke of Devonshire and the Earl Spenser, while round the grave there +were gathered such men as Burke and Fox, and last, not least, his old +friend and tutor, Samuel Johnson, his rugged countenance streaming +with tears, his noble heart filled with the sincerest grief. The words +so often quoted, artificial though they may seem, came from that heart +when, speaking of his dear Davy's death, he said that it "had eclipsed +the gayety of nations." + +Garrick's remarkable success in society, which achieved for him a +position only inferior to that he achieved on the stage, is the best +answer to what is often talked about the degrading nature of the +actor's profession. Since the days of Roscius no contempt for actors +in general, or for their art, has prevented a great actor from +attaining that position which is accorded to all distinguished in what +are held to be the higher arts. + +Nearly nine years after the death of Garrick, on November 4th, 1787, a +young woman, who had run away from home when little more than a child +to join a company of strolling players, and who, when that occupation +failed, earned a scanty living as a hawker in the streets of London, +gave birth, in a wretched room near Gray's Inn, to an illegitimate +child. This woman was Nancy Carey, the grand-daughter of Henry Carey, +the author of the "National Anthem." She was the great-grand-daughter +of George Saville, Marquis of Halifax, whose natural son Henry Carey +was. A compassionate actress, Miss Tidswell, who knew the father of +the child, Aaron Kean, gave her what assistance she could. Poor Nance +was removed to her father's lodgings, near Gray's Inn, and there, on +the day before mentioned, Edmund Kean was born. + +Three months after his birth his mother deserted him, leaving him, +without a word of apology or regret, to the care of the woman who had +befriended her in her trouble. When he was but three years old he was +brought, amongst a number of other children, to Michael Kelly who +was then bringing out the opera of _Cymon_ at the Opera House in the +Haymarket, and, thanks to his personal beauty, he was selected for +the part of Cupid. Shortly afterwards he found his way to Drury Lane, +where the handsome baby--for he was little more--figured among the +imps in the pantomime. Taught here the tricks of the acrobat, he had +at four years old acquired such powers of contortion that he was fit +to rank as an infant phenomenon. But the usual result followed: the +little limbs became deformed, and had to be put in irons, by means +of which they regained that symmetry with which nature had at first +endowed them. Three years afterwards, in March, 1794, John Kemble was +acting Macbeth at Drury Lane; and, in the "cauldron scene," he engaged +some children to personate the supernatural beings summoned by the +witches from that weird vessel. Little Edmund with his irons was the +cause of a ridiculous accident, and the attempt to embody the ghostly +forms was abruptly abandoned. But the child seems to have been +pardoned for his blunder, and for a short time was permitted by the +manager to appear in one or two children's parts. Little did the +dignified manager imagine that the child--who was one of his +cauldron of imps in _Macbeth_--was to become, twenty years later, his +formidable rival--formidable enough to oust almost the representative +of the Classical school from the supremacy he had hitherto enjoyed on +the Tragic stage. In Orange Court, Leicester Square, where Holcroft, +the author of _The Road to Ruin_, was born, Edmund Kean received +his first education. Scanty enough it was, for it had scarcely begun +before his wretched mother stepped in and claimed him; and, after her +re-appearance, his education seems to have been of a most spasmodic +character. Hitherto, the child's experience of life had been hard +enough. When only eight years of age he ran away to Portsmouth, and +shipped himself on board a ship bound to Madeira. But he found his +new life harder than that from which he had escaped, and, by dint of +feigning deafness and lameness, he succeeded in procuring his removal +to an hospital at Madeira, whence, the doctors finding his case +yielded to no remedies, the authorities kindly shipped him again to +England. He insisted on being deaf and lame: indeed, so deaf that in +a violent thunder-storm he remained perfectly unmoved, explaining his +composure by declaring that he could not hear any noise at all. From +Portsmouth he made his way on foot to London. On presenting himself +at the wretched lodgings where his mother lived, he found that she had +gone away with Richardson's troupe. Penniless and half-starving, he +suddenly thought of his uncle, Moses Kean, who lived in Lisle Street, +Leicester Square, a queer character, who gained a precarious living by +giving entertainments as a mimic and ventriloquist. The uncle received +his nephew warmly enough, and seems to have cultivated, to the best of +his ability, the talent for acting which he recognized at once in +the boy. Edmund again enjoyed a kind of desultory education, partly +carried on at school and partly at his uncle's home, where he enjoyed +the advantage of the kind instructions of his old friend, Miss +Tidswell, of D'Egville, the dancing master, of Angelo, the fencing +master, and of no less a person than Incledon, the celebrated singer, +who seems to have taken the greatest interest in him. But the vagrant, +half-gypsy disposition, which he inherited from his mother, could +never be subdued, and he was constantly disappearing from his uncle's +house for weeks together, which he would pass in going about from one +roadside inn to another, amusing the guests with his acrobatic tricks, +and his monkey-like imitations. In vain was he locked up in rooms, the +height of which from the ground was such as seemed to render escape +impossible. He contrived to get out somehow or other, even at the risk +of his neck, and to make his escape to some fair, where he would earn +a few pence by the exhibition of his varied accomplishments. During +these periods of vagabondism he would live on a mere nothing, sleeping +in barns, or in the open air, and would faithfully bring back his +gains to Uncle Moses. But even this astounding generosity, appealing, +as it must have done, to the uncle's sentiments, could not appease +him. His uncle went so far, apparently with the concurrence of Miss +Tidswell, as to place round the boy's neck a brass collar with the +inscription, "This boy belongs to No. 9 Lisle Street; please bring him +home." His wandering propensities being for a time subdued, we find +the little Edmund again engaged at Drury Lane, and delighting the +actors in the green-room by giving recitations from _Richard III._, +probably in imitation of Cooke; and, on one occasion, among his +audience was Mrs. Charles Kemble. During this engagement he played +Arthur to Kemble's King John and Mrs. Siddon's Constance, and appears +to have made a great success. Soon after this, his uncle Moses +died suddenly, and young Kean was left to the severe but kindly +guardianship of Miss Tidswell. We cannot follow him through all the +vicissitudes of his early career. The sketch I have given of his early +life--ample details of which may be found in Mrs. Hawkins's _Life of +Edmund Kean_--will give you a sufficient idea of what he must have +endured and suffered. When, years afterwards, the passionate love of +Shakespeare, which, without exaggeration, we may say he showed almost +from his cradle, had reaped its own reward in the wonderful success +which he achieved, if we find him then averse to respectable +conventionality, erratic, and even dissipated in his habits, let us +mercifully remember the bitter and degrading suffering which he passed +through in his childhood, and not judge too harshly the great actor. +Unlike those whose lives we have hitherto considered, he knew none of +the softening influences of a home; to him the very name of mother, +instead of recalling every tender and affectionate feeling, was but +the symbol of a vague horror, the fountain of that degradation and +depravation of his nature, from which no subsequent prosperity could +ever redeem it. + +For many years after his boyhood his life was one of continual +hardship. With that unsubdued conviction of his own powers, which +often is the sole consolation of genius, he toiled on and bravely +struggled through the sordid miseries of a strolling player's life. +The road to success lies through many a thorny course, across many a +dreary stretch of desert land, over many an obstacle, from which the +fainting heart is often tempted to turn back. But hope, and the sense +of power within, which no discouragements can subdue, inspire the +struggling artist still to continue the conflict, till at last courage +and perseverance meet with their just reward, and success comes. The +only feeling then to which the triumphant artist may be tempted is one +of good-natured contempt for those who are so ready to applaud those +merits which, in the past, they were too blind to recognize. Edmund +Kean was twenty-seven years old before his day of triumph came. + +Without any preliminary puffs, without any flourish of trumpets, on +the evening of the 26th January, 1814, soaked through with the rain, +Edmund Kean slunk more than walked in at the stage-door of Drury Lane +Theatre, uncheered by one word of encouragement, and quite unnoticed. +He found his way to the wretched dressing-room he shared in common +with three or four other actors; as quick as possible he exchanged his +dripping clothes for the dress of Shylock; and, to the horror of +his companions, took from his bundle a _black_ wig--the proof of his +daring rebellion against the great law of conventionality, which +had always condemned Shylock to red hair. Cheered by the kindness of +Bannister and Oxberry, the latter of whom offered him a welcome glass +of brandy and water, he descended to the stage dressed, and peeped +through the curtain to see a more than half-empty house. Dr. Drury +was waiting at the wings to give him a hearty welcome. The boxes were +empty, and there were about five hundred people in the pit, and a few +others "thinly scattered to make up a show." Shylock was the part he +was playing, and he no sooner stepped upon the stage than the interest +of the audience was excited. Nothing he did or spoke in the part was +done or spoken in a conventional manner. The simple words, "I will be +assured I may," were given with such effect that the audience burst +into applause. When the act-drop fell, after the speech of Shylock +to Antonio, his success was assured, and his fellow-actors, who had +avoided him, now seemed disposed to congratulate him; but he shrank +from their approaches. The great scene with Tubal was a revelation of +such originality and of such terrible force as had not probably been +seen upon those boards before. "How the devil so few of them could +kick up such a row was something marvellous!" naively remarked +Oxberry. At the end of the third act every one was ready to pay court +to him; but again he held aloof. All his thoughts were concentrated on +the great "trial" scene, which was coming. In that scene the +wonderful variety of his acting completed his triumph. Trembling with +excitement, he resumed his half-dried clothes, and, glad to escape, +rushed home. He was in too great a state of ecstasy at first to speak, +but his face told his wife that he had realized his dream--that he +had appeared on the stage of Drury Lane, and that his great powers +had been instantly acknowledged. With not a shadow of doubt as to his +future, he exclaimed, "Mary, you shall ride in your carriage;" and +taking his baby boy from the cradle and kissing him, said, "and +Charley, my boy, you shall go to Eton,"--and he did. + +The time when Edmund Kean made his first appearance in London was +certainly favorable for an actor of genius. For a long while the +national theatre had been in a bad way; and nothing but failure had +hitherto met the efforts of the Committee of Management, a committee +which numbered among its members Lord Byron. When the other members +of the committee, with a strange blindness to their own interests, +proposed that for the present, Kean's name should be removed from +the bills, Byron interested himself on his behalf: "You have a great +genius among you," he said, "and you do not know it." On Kean's second +appearance the house was nearly doubled. Hazlitt's criticism had +roused the whole body of critics, and they were all there to sit in +judgment upon the newcomer. His utter indifference to the audience won +him their respect, and before the piece was half over the sentence +of the formidable tribunal was in his favor. From that moment Kean +exercised over his audiences a fascination which was probably never +exercised by any other actor. Garrick was no doubt his superior in +parts of high comedy; he was more polished, more vivacious--his manner +more distinguished, and his versatility more striking. In such parts +as Coriolanus or Rolla, John Kemble excelled him: but in Shylock, +in Richard, in Iago, and, above all, in Othello, it may be doubted +whether Edmund Kean ever had an equal. As far as one can judge--not +having seen Kean one's-self--from the many criticisms extant, written +by the most intellectual men, and from the accounts of those who +saw him in his prime, he was, to my mind--be it said without any +disparagement to other great actors--the greatest genius that our +stage has ever seen. Unequal he may have been, perhaps often so, but +there were moments in his acting which were, without exaggeration, +moments of inspiration. Coleridge is reported to have said that to see +Kean act was "like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning." This +often-quoted sentence embodies perhaps the main feature of Edmund +Kean's greatness as an actor; for, when he was impersonating the +heroes of our poet, he revealed their natures by an instant flash of +light so searching that every minute feature, which by the ordinary +light of day was hardly visible, stood bright and clear before you. +The effect of such acting was indeed that of lightning--it appalled; +the timid hid their eyes, and fashionable society shrank from such +heart-piercing revelations of human passion. Persons who had schooled +themselves to control their emotion till they had scarcely any +emotion left to control, were repelled rather than attracted by Kean's +relentless anatomy of all the strongest feeling of our nature. In Sir +Giles Overreach, a character almost devoid of poetry, Kean's acting +displayed with such powerful and relentless truth the depths of a +cruel, avaricious man, baffled in all his vilest schemes, that the +effect he produced was absolutely awful. As no bird but the eagle can +look without blinking on the sun, so none but those who in the +sacred privacy of their imaginations had stood face to face with the +mightiest storms of human passion could understand such a performance. +Byron, who had been almost forced into a quarrel with Kean by the +actor's disregard of the ordinary courtesies of society, could not +restrain himself, but rushed behind the scenes and grasped the hand of +the man to whom he felt that he owed a wonderful revelation. + +I might discant for hours with an enthusiasm which, perhaps, only an +actor could feel on the marvellous details of Kean's impersonations. +He was not a scholar in the ordinary sense of the word, though Heaven +knows he had been schooled by adversity, but I doubt if there ever was +an actor who so thought out his part, who so closely studied with the +inward eye of the artist the waves of emotion that might have agitated +the minds of the beings whom he represented. One hears of him during +those early years of struggle and privation, pacing silently along +the road, foot-sore and half-starved, but unconscious of his own +sufferings, because he was immersed in the study of those great +creations of Shakespeare's genius which he was destined to endow with +life upon the stage. When you read of Edmund Kean as, alas! he was +later on in life, with mental and physical powers impaired, think of +the description those gave of him who knew him best in his earlier +years; how amidst all the wildness and half-savage Bohemianism, which +the miseries of his life had ensured, he displayed, time after time, +the most large-hearted generosity, the tenderest kindness of which +human nature is capable. Think of him working with a concentrated +energy for the one object which he sought, namely, to reach the +highest distinction in his calling. Think of him as sparing no mental +or physical labor to attain this end, an end which seemed ever fading +further and further from his grasp. Think of the disappointments, the +cruel mockeries of hope which, day after day, he had to encounter; +and then be harsh if you can to those moral failings for which his +misfortunes rather than his faults were responsible. If you are +inclined to be severe, you may console yourselves with the reflection +that this genius, who had given the highest intellectual pleasure to +hundreds and thousands of human beings, was hounded by hypocritical +sanctimoniousness out of his native land; and though, two years +afterwards, one is glad to say, for the honor of one's country, a +complete reaction took place, and his reappearance was greeted with +every mark of hearty welcome, the blow had been struck from which +neither his mind or his body ever recovered. He lingered upon +the stage, and died at the age of forty-six, after five years of +suffering--almost a beggar--with only a solitary ten-pound note +remaining of the large fortune his genius had realized. + +It is said that Kean swept away the Kembles and their Classical school +of acting. He did not do that. The memory of Sarah Siddons, tragic +queen of the British stage, was never to be effaced, and I would +remind you that when Kean was a country actor (assured of his own +powers, however unappreciated), resenting with passionate pride the +idea of playing second to "the Infant Roscius," who was for a time +the craze and idol of the hour, "Never," said he, "never; I will play +second to no one but John Kemble!" I am certain that when his +better nature had the ascendency no one would have more generously +acknowledged the merits of Kemble than Edmund Kean. It is idle to say +that because his style was solemn and slow, Kemble was not one of the +greatest actors that our stage has produced. It is only those whose +natures make them incapable of approbation or condemnation in artistic +matters without being partisans, who, because they admire Edmund Kean, +would admit no merit in John Kemble. The world of art, thank Heaven, +is wide enough for both, and the hearts of those who truly love art +are large enough to cherish the memory of both as of men who did noble +work in the profession which they adorned. Kean blended the Realistic +with the Ideal in acting, and founded a school of which William +Charles Macready was, afterwards, in England, the foremost disciple. + +Thus have we glanced, briefly enough, at four of our greatest actors +whose names are landmarks in the history of the Drama in England, the +greatest Drama of the world. We have seen how they all carried out, by +different methods perhaps, but in the same spirit, the principle that +in acting Nature must dominate Art. But it is Art that must interpret +Nature; and to interpret the thoughts and emotions of her mistress +should be her first object. But those thoughts, those emotions, must +be interpreted with grace, with dignity and with temperance; and +these, let us remember, Art alone can teach. + + + + +ADDRESS + +SESSIONAL OPENING + +PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION + +EDINBURGH + +9 NOVEMBER 1891 + + + + +THE ART OF ACTING + + +I have chosen as the subject of the address with which I have the +honor to inaugurate for the second time the Session of the Edinburgh +Philosophical Institution, "The Art of Acting." I have done so, in the +first instance, because I take it for granted that when you bestow on +any man the honor of asking him to deliver the inaugural address, it +is your wish to hear him speak of the subject with which he is best +acquainted; and the Art of Acting is the subject to which my life has +been devoted. I have another reason also which, though it may, so far +as you are concerned, be personal to those of my calling, I think it +well to put before you. It is that there may be, from the point of +view of an actor distinguished by your favor, some sort of official +utterance on the subject. There are some irresponsible writers who +have of late tried to excite controversy by assertions, generally +false and always misleading, as to the stage and those devoted to the +arts connected with it. Some of these writers go so far as to assert +that Acting is not an Art at all; and though we must not take such +wild assertions quite seriously, I think it well to place on record at +least a polite denial of their accuracy. It would not, of course, +be seemly to merely take so grave an occasion as the present as an +opportunity for such a controversy, but as I am dealing with the +subject before you, I think it better to place you in full knowledge +of the circumstances. It does not do, of course, to pay too much +attention to ephemeral writings, any more than to creatures of the +mist and the swamp and the night. But even the buzzing of the midge, +though the insect may be harmless compared with its more poison-laden +fellows, can divert the mind from more important things. To disregard +entirely the world of ephemera, and their several actions and effects +were to deny the entirety of the scheme of creation. + +I take it for granted that in addressing you on the subject of the Art +of Acting I am not, _prima facie_, encountering set prejudices; for +had you despised the Art which I represent I should not have had the +honor of appearing before you to-day. You will, I trust, on your part, +bear this in mind, and I shall, on my part, never forget that you are +members of a Philosophical Institution, the very root and basis of +whose work is to inquire into the heart of things with the purpose of +discovering why such as come under your notice are thus or thus. + +The subject of my address is a very vast one, and is, I assure you, +worthy of a careful study. Writers such as Voltaire, Schlegel, Goethe, +Lessing, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, and Schiller, have not disdained to +treat it with that seriousness which Art specially demands--which +anything in life requires whose purpose is not immediate and +imperative. For my own part I can only bring you the experience +of more than thirty years of hard and earnest work. Out of wide +experience let me point out that there are many degrees of merit, both +of aim, of endeavor, and of execution in acting, as in all things. I +want you to think of acting at its best--as it may be, as it can be, +as it has been, and is--and as it shall be, whilst it be followed by +men and women of strong and earnest purpose. I do not for a moment +wish you to believe that only Shakespeare and the great writers are +worthy of being played, and that all those efforts that in centuries +have gathered themselves round great names are worthy of your praise. +In the House of Art are many mansions where men may strive worthily +and live cleanly lives. All Art is worthy, and can be seriously +considered, so long as the intention be good and the efforts to +achieve success be conducted with seemliness. And let me here say, +that of all the arts none requires greater intention than the art +of acting. Throughout it is necessary to _do_ something, and +that something cannot fittingly be left to chance, or the unknown +inspiration of a moment. I say "unknown," for if known, then the +intention is to reproduce, and the success of the effort can be +in nowise due to chance. It may be, of course, that in moments of +passionate excitement the mind grasps some new idea, or the nervous +tension suggests to the mechanical parts of the body some new form of +expression; but such are accidents which belong to the great scheme of +life, and not to this art, or any art, alone. You all know the story +of the painter who, in despair at not being able to carry out the +intention of his imagination, dashed his brush at the imperfect +canvas, and with the scattering paint produced by chance the very +effect which his brush guided by his skill alone, had failed to +achieve. The actor's business is primarily to reproduce the ideas of +the author's brain, to give them form, and substance, and color, and +life, so that those who behold the action of a play may, so far as +can be effected, be lured into the fleeting belief that they behold +reality. Macready, who was an earnest student, defined the art of the +actor "to fathom the depths of character, to trace its latent motives, +to feel its finest quivering of emotion, is to comprehend the thoughts +that are hidden under words, and thus possess one's-self of the actual +mind of the individual man"; and Talma spoke of it as "the union +of grandeur without pomp, and nature without triviality"; whilst +Shakespeare wrote, "the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the +first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to +nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the +very age and body of the time his form and pressure." + +This effort to reproduce man in his moods is no mere trick of fancy +carried into execution. It is a part of the character of a strong +nation, and has a wider bearing on national life than perhaps +unthinking people are aware. Mr. Froude, in his survey of early +England, gives it a special place; and I venture to quote his words, +for they carry with them, not only their own lesson, but the authority +of a great name in historical research. + +"No genius can dispense with experience; the aberrations of power, +unguided or ill-guided, are ever in proportion to its intensity, and +life is not long enough to recover from inevitable mistakes. Noble +conceptions already existing, and a noble school of execution which +will launch mind and hand at once upon their true courses, are +indispensable to transcendent excellence; and Shakespeare's plays were +as much the offspring of the long generations who had pioneered his +road for him, as the discoveries of Newton were the offspring of those +of Copernicus. + +"No great general ever arose out of a nation of cowards; no great +statesman or philosopher out of a nation of fools; no great artist out +of a nation of materialists; no great drama, except when the drama was +the possession of the people. Acting was the especial amusement of the +English, from the palace to the village green. It was the result and +expression of their strong, tranquil possession of their lives, of +their thorough power over themselves, and power over circumstances. +They were troubled with no subjective speculations; no social problems +vexed them with which they were unable to deal; and in the exuberance +of vigor and spirit, they were able, in the strict and literal sense +of the word, to play with the materials of life." So says Mr. Froude. + +In the face of this statement of fact set forth gravely in its place +in the history of our land, what becomes of such bold assertions as +are sometimes made regarding the place of the drama being but a poor +one, since the efforts of the actor are but mimetic and ephemeral, +that they pass away as a tale that is told? All art is mimetic; and +even life itself, the highest and last gift of God to His people, is +fleeting. Marble crumbles, and the very names of great cities become +buried in the dust of ages. Who then would dare to arrogate to any art +an unchanging place in the scheme of the world's development, or would +condemn it because its efforts fade and pass? Nay, more; has even the +tale that is told no significance in after years? Can such not stir, +when it is worth the telling, the hearts of men, to whom it comes as +an echo from the past? Have not those tales remained most vital and +most widely known which are told and told again and again, face to +face and heart to heart, when the teller and the listener are adding, +down the ages, strength to the current of a mighty thought or a mighty +deed and its record? + +Surely the record that lives in the minds of men is still a record, +though it be not graven on brass or wrought in marble. And it were +a poor conception of the value of any art, if, in considering it, we +were to keep our eyes fixed on some dark spot, some imperfection, and +shut our eyes to its aim, its power, its beauty. It were a poor age +indeed where such a state of things is possible; as poor as that of +which Mrs. Browning's unhappy poet spoke in the bitterness of his +soul: + + "The age culls simples, + With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the + glory of the stars." + +Let us lift our faces when we wish to judge truly of any earnest work +of the hand or mind of man, and see it placed in the widest horizon +that is given to us. Poetry, painting, sculpture, music, architecture, +all have a bearing on their time, and beyond it; and the actor, though +his knowledge may be, and must be, limited by the knowledge of his +age, so long as he sound the notes of human passion, has something +which is common to all the ages. If he can smite water from the rock +of one hardened human heart--if he can bring light to the eye or +wholesome color to the faded cheek--if he can bring or restore in ever +so slight degree the sunshine of hope, of pleasure, of gayety, surely +he cannot have worked in vain. It would need but a small effort +of imagination to believe that that great wave theory, which the +scientists have proved as ruling the manifestations of light and +sound, applies also to the efforts of human emotion. And who shall +tell us the ultimate bounds of these waves of light and sound? If +these discernible waves can be traced till they fade into impalpable +nothingness, may we not think that this other, impalpable at the +beginning as they are at the end, can alone stretch into the +dimness of memory? Sir Joshua's gallant compliment, that he achieved +immortality by writing his name on the hem of Mrs. Siddons's garment, +when he painted her as the Tragic Muse, had a deeper significance than +its pretty fancy would at first imply. + +Not for a moment is the position to be accepted that the theatre +is merely a place of amusement. That it is primarily a place of +amusement, and is regarded as such by its _habitues_, is of course +apparent; but this is not its limitation. For authors, managers, and +actors it is a serious employment, to be undertaken gravely, and of +necessity to be adhered to rigidly. Thus far it may be considered from +these different stand-points; but there is a larger view--that of the +State. Here we have to consider a custom of natural growth specially +suitable to the genius of the nation. It has advanced with the +progress of each age, and multiplied with its material prosperity. +It is a living power, to be used for good, or possibly for evil; and +far-seeing men recognize in it, based though it be on the relaxation +and pleasures of the people, an educational medium of no mean order. +Its progress in the past century has been the means of teaching to +millions of people a great number of facts which had perhaps otherwise +been lost to them. How many are there who have had brought home to +them in an understandable manner by stage-plays the costumes, habits, +manners, and customs of countries and ages other than their own; +what insight have they thus obtained into facts and vicissitudes of +life--of passions and sorrows and ambitions outside the narrow scope +of their own lives, and which yet may and do mould the destinies of +men. All this is education--education in its widest sense, for it +broadens the sympathies and enlarges the intellectual grasp. +And beyond this again--for these are advantages on the material +side--there is that higher education of the heart, which raises in the +scale of creation all who are subject to its sweetening influences. To +hold his place therefore amongst these progressing forces, the actor +must at the start be well endowed with some special powers, and by +training, reading, and culture of many kinds, be equipped for the work +before him. No amount of training can give to a dense understanding +and a clumsy personality certain powers of quickness and spontaneity; +and, on the other hand, no genius can find its fullest expression +without some understanding of the principles and method of a craft. It +is the actor's part to represent or interpret the ideas and emotions +which the poet has created, and to do this he must at the first have +a full knowledge and understanding of them. This is in itself no easy +task. It requires much study and much labor of many kinds. Having then +acquired an idea, his intention to work it out into reality must be +put in force; and here new difficulties crop up at every further step +taken in advance. Now and again it suffices the poet to think and +write in abstractions; but the actor's work is absolutely concrete. +He is brought in every phase of his work into direct comparison with +existing things, and must be judged by the most exacting standards of +criticism. Not only must his dress be suitable to the part which he +assumes, but his bearing must not be in any way antagonistic to the +spirit of the time in which the play is fixed. The free bearing of +the sixteenth century is distinct from the artificial one of the +seventeenth, the mannered one of the eighteenth, and the careless +one of the nineteenth. And all this quite exclusive of the minute +qualities and individualities of the character represented. The voice +must be modulated to the vogue of the time. The habitual action of a +rapier-bearing age is different to that of a mail-clad one--nay, the +armor of a period ruled in real life the poise and bearing of the +body; and all this must be reproduced on the stage, unless the +intelligence of the audience, be they ever so little skilled in +history, is to count as naught. + +It cannot therefore be seriously put forward in the face of such +manifold requirements that no Art is required for the representation +of suitable action. Are we to imagine that inspiration or emotion of +any kind is to supply the place of direct knowledge of facts--of skill +in the very grammar of craftsmanship? Where a great result is arrived +at much effort is required, whether the same be immediate or has been +spread over a time of previous preparation. In this nineteenth century +the spirit of education stalks abroad and influences men directly +and indirectly, by private generosity and national foresight, to +accumulate as religiously as in former ages ecclesiastics and devotees +gathered sacred relics, all that helps to give the people a full +understanding of lives and times and countries other than their own. +Can it be that in such an age all that can help to aid the inspiration +and to increase direct knowledge is of no account whatever, because, +forsooth, it has a medium or method of its own? There are those who +say that Shakespeare is better in the closet than on the stage; that +dramatic beauty is more convincing when read in private than when +spoken on the stage to the accompaniment of suitable action. And yet, +if this be so, it is a strange thing that, with all the activity of +the new-born printing-press, Shakespeare's works were not known to the +reading public till the fame of the writer had been made on the stage. +And it is a stranger thing still, if the drama be a mere poetic form +of words, that the writer who began with _Venus and Adonis_, when he +found the true method of expression to suit his genius, ended with +_Hamlet_ and _The Tempest_. + +How is it, I ask, if these responsible makers of statements be +correct, that every great writer down from the days of Elizabeth, when +the drama took practical shape from the wish of the poets to render +human life in all its phases, have been desirous of seeing their +works, when written in dramatic form, represented on the stage--and +not only represented, but represented under the most favorable +conditions obtainable, both as to the fitness of setting and the +choice of the most skilled and excellent players? Are we to take it +that the poet, with his eye in a fine phrenzy rolling, sees all the +minute details of form, color, light, sound, and action which have +to be rendered complete on the stage? Is there nothing in what the +individual actor, who is gifted with fine sense and emotional power, +can add to mere words, however grand and rolling in themselves, and +whatsoever mighty image they may convey? Can it be possible that there +is any sane person who holds that there is no such thing as expression +in music so long as the written notes are correctly rendered--that the +musical expression of a Paganini or a Liszt, or that the voice of a +Malibran or a Grisi, has no special charm--nay more, that there is not +some special excellence in the instruments of Amati or Stradivarius? +If there be, we can leave to him, whilst the rest of mankind marvel +at his self-sufficient obtuseness, to hold that it was nothing but his +own imagination which so much influenced Hazlitt when he was touched +to the heart by Edmund Kean's rendering of the words of the remorseful +Moor, "Fool, fool, fool!" Why, the action of a player who knows how to +convey to the audience that he is listening to another speaking, can +not only help in the illusion of the general effect, but he himself +can suggest a running commentary on what is spoken. In every moment +in which he is on the stage, an actor accomplished in his craft can +convey ideas to the mind. + +It is in the representation of passion that the intention of the actor +appears in its greatest force. He wishes to do a particular thing, and +so far the wish is father to the thought that the brain begins to work +in the required direction, and the emotional faculties and the whole +nervous and muscular systems follow suit. A skilled actor can count on +this development of power, if it be given to him to rise at all to the +height of a passion; and the inspiration of such moments may, now and +again, reveal to him some new force or beauty in the character which +he represents. Thus he will gather in time a certain habitual strength +in a particular representation of passion. Diderot laid down a theory +that an actor never feels the part he is acting. It is of course true +that the pain he suffers is not real pain, but I leave it to any one +who has ever felt his own heart touched by the woes of another to say +if he can even imagine a case where the man who follows in minutest +detail the history of an emotion, from its inception onward, is the +only one who cannot be stirred by it--more especially when his own +individuality must perforce be merged in that of the archetypal +sufferer. Talma knew that it was possible for an actor to feel to the +full a simulated passion, and yet whilst being swept by it to retain +his consciousness of his surroundings and his purpose. In his own +words--"The intelligence accumulates and preserves all the creations +of sensibility." And this is what Shakespeare means when he makes +Hamlet tell the players--"for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I +may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must beget a temperance that +may give it smoothness." + +How can any one be temperate in the midst of his passion, lest it be +that his consciousness and his purpose remain to him? Let me say that +it is this very discretion which marks the ultimate boundary of an +Art, which stands within the line of demarcation between Art and +Nature. In Nature there is no such discretion. Passion rules supreme +and alone; discretion ceases, and certain consequences cease to be any +deterrent or to convey any warning. It must never be forgotten that +all Art has the aim or object of seeming and not of being; and that to +understate is as bad as to overstate the modesty or the efflorescence +of Nature. It is not possible to show within the scope of any Art the +entire complexity and the myriad combining influences of Nature. +The artist has to accept the conventional standard--the accepted +significance--of many things, and confine himself to the exposition of +that which is his immediate purpose. To produce the effect of reality +it is necessary, therefore, that the efforts of an artist should be +slightly different from the actions of real life. The perspective +of the stage is not that of real life, and the result of seeming +is achieved by means which, judged by themselves, would seem to be +indirect. It is only the raw recruit who tries to hit the bull's-eye +by point-blank firing, and who does not allow for elevation and +windage. Are we to take it for a moment, that in the Art of Acting, +of which elocution is an important part, nothing is to be left to the +individual idea of the actor? That he is simply to declaim the words +set down for him, without reference to the expression of his face, +his bearing, or his action? It is in the union of all the powers--the +harmony of gait and utterance and emotion--that conviction lies. +Garrick, who was the most natural actor of his time, could not declaim +so well as many of his own manifest inferiors in his art--nay, it +was by this that he set aside the old false method, and soared to the +heights in which, as an artist, he reigned supreme. Garrick personated +and Kean personated. The one had all the grace and mastery of the +powers of man for the conveyance of ideas, the other had a mighty +spirit which could leap out in flame to awe and sweep the souls of +those who saw and heard him. And the secret of both was that they best +understood the poet--best impersonated the characters which he drew, +and the passions which he set forth. + +In order to promote and preserve the idea of reality in the minds of +the public, it is necessary that the action of the play be set in what +the painters call the proper _milieu_, or atmosphere. To this belongs +costume, scenery, and all that tends to set forth time and place other +than our own. If this idea be not kept in view there must be, or at +all events there may be, some disturbing cause to the mind of the +onlooker. This is all--literally all--that dramatic Art imperatively +demands from the paint room, the wardrobe, and the property shop; +and it is because the public taste and knowledge in such matters have +grown that the actor has to play his part with the surroundings and +accessories which are sometimes pronounced to be a weight or drag +on action. Suitability is demanded in all things; and it must, for +instance, be apparent to all that the things suitable to a palace are +different to those usual in a hovel. There is nothing unsuitable in +Lear in kingly raiment in the hovel in the storm, because such is here +demanded by the exigencies of the play: but if Lear were to be first +shown in such guise in such a place with no explanation given of the +cause, either the character or the stage-manager would be simply taken +for a madman. This idea of suitability should always be borne in mind, +for it is in itself a sufficient answer to any thoughtless allegation +as to overloading a play with scenery. + +Finally, in the consideration of the Art of Acting, it must never be +forgotten that its ultimate aim is beauty. Truth itself is only an +element of beauty, and to merely reproduce things vile and squalid and +mean is a debasement of Art. There is apt to be such a tendency in +an age of peace, and men should carefully watch its manifestations. A +morose and hopeless dissatisfaction is not a part of a true national +life. This is hopeful and earnest, and, if need be, militant. It is a +bad sign for any nation to yearn for, or even to tolerate, pessimism +in its enjoyment; and how can pessimism be other than antagonistic +to beauty? Life, with all its pains and sorrows, is a beautiful and +a precious gift; and the actor's Art is to reproduce this beautiful +thing, giving due emphasis to those royal virtues and those stormy +passions which sway the destinies of men. Thus the lesson given by +long experience--by the certain punishment of ill-doing--and by the +rewards that follow on bravery, forbearance, and self-sacrifice, are +on the mimic stage conveyed to men. And thus every actor who is more +than a mere machine, and who has an ideal of any kind, has a duty +which lies beyond the scope of his personal ambition. His art must +be something to hold in reverence if he wishes others to hold it in +esteem. There is nothing of chance about this work. All, actors and +audience alike, must bear in mind that the whole scheme of the higher +Drama is not to be regarded as a game in life which can be played with +varying success. Its present intention may be to interest and amuse, +but its deeper purpose is earnest, intense, sincere. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAMA*** + + +******* This file should be named 13483.txt or 13483.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/4/8/13483 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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