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HENRY IRVING
greatest actor of his land; while, if he had
been a Frenchman, he and his " manner-
isms " would not have been tolerated on
the Parisian stage for a month, and prob-
abl}' not for a single performance.
In Mr. William Archer's exceedingly
brilliant " study " of Mr. Irving, which was
printed in London a few years ago, it was
said that the English critics, " obeying
an inevitable tendency of dramatic criti-
cism," have " made Mr. Irving a law unto
himself." In this country, the dangers
attendant upon close familiarity with the
actor do not beset us; and I plead an
American's " innocence of eye " — to use
Mr. Ruskin's happy phrase — in extenu-
ation of my somewhat premature attempt
to determine Mr. Irving's rank as an artist.
The disadvantages of slight acquaintance
with the actor, on the part of the general
audience or the particular critic, are of
course plain. But it is most interesting and
suggestive to see how swiftly and how
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