Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

Aquarium" (p»15).
Against this may be set one of the most favourable
accounts of Irving published in the early years of his success.
Hall Caine in 1877 issued a "Dramatic Study" entitled Richard
III and Macbeth; the Spirit of Romantic Play in Relation to
the Principles of Greek and of. Gothic Art and to the Picturesque,
Interpretations of Mr Henry Irving, Caine claims that Irving 1 s
success can be attributed to his being endowed with a mind
that is "essentially and eminently the Gothic mind" (p. 15),
After lengthy passages discussing the definition of his terms,
he attempts to show the actor *s interpretations in their
relation to general theories of art. Thus, Irving' s Hamlet
...is, first, the offspring of untoward events, and
finally, the overpov/ered victim of a. world of
injustice, but the austere symmetry and statuesque
singleness of purpose in Greek art admit of no
, such imagina t i ve d evel opinent •••(,, ^ 5 )
This ic hardly ntl'nurte as a judgement on Greek r.rt, but it
does not lack significance as nn appraisal of Irvin :r . In 1874
Caine attended the first night of the new Hamlet as critic of
the Liverpool Town Prior., and pointed out in his review that
Irving 's method was admirably suited to a ^lc.y which included
not only "the language of terror and pity, the language of
impassioned intellect", but also thc-.t of "everyday life" 20
,
In the 1077 pamphlet he pxvires Irving 1 s "°rc- :T-_. indite
i-iinuteneas of detail", visible ir every line anc. revealing
effects "equally carious and exquisite" (p. 40). From u iiy
contomporrry descriptions of the detail in Irving 1 o acting,
two v ill suffice. In 1-379 the Ncv/ Tor': paper ..ilkos' ^ drit
of the Times,, printed a despatch from its London correspondent
on Irving' s perforr.irj.ice as LL,;ilo^:
He site in easy mannish attitudes curing the
rrr.ot soliloquies, often rr^cv.inr the rnkle
which is under his hnnCs, as he rocks b:: cky^ards
and forr:ards with one Ice '- . During
the v/]iole of the o:«.tiny: scene v/i-'j:i Hor-'.tio
after the \inr ^s ru.-.hoa away from the nl.-y
sceno, Irving still holds on to the -eacoek
feather fan v;hich he too:: from 0-liclia as
he Iry it her feet, r.nrl frou ,.!rich during
the airaic ->lay, he keeps j2aicjo.bstr--.c-tnc.ly
bioiiif; out fcatJiors, as ho -,v tched the ^in ;:-.
;lov;iiorc does he bully or tavwl, tlie effort to