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

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pictures: but always \vithout any of the
unreality of the posed nodel and v.ith far
more than any nodel's exnre.^iveness.
One would beg the render specially to note
the series - or is thr-t coo hard s. word? -
say rather the ordered yet D< emin ly spontancou3
now of tf^.turos - with which she
leaves, in the second act, the room v.liere ifr
Vane has been enter taining the Town, and to
consider, when he has noted tli:;t flow of
gesture, v;hat are the ..ords to be spoken.
(13 November 1875)
Under the new regime the ; ctor and actress were to be ilucod
in the appropriate surroundings; ensemble v/ac to be the guiding
principle of the Lyceum, as Irving clrine ; in his speech at
Harvard in 1885:
Ifc is moot import nut that an actor should
learn the t he is a figure in a picture^ and
that the least exaggeration destroys the
harraony of a coiroosition* All the members
of a eon-i-vmy should work toxvr-rds a common
end, with the nicert subordination of tleir
individuality to the general purpose.
To tliic end the actor "v/ho is devoted to his >roiesGionw
should stiu-y p.intin;;, mufiic, an-:"' ^cil'tare^ for he is
"suDceptible to every harmony of colour, form and sound"
2?
.
It ic clc::r th .t Irvlng in his public pronouncements v;as
c; reful to £5tress the :.1, nncr in which the theatre ai lit embrace
11 the artc. In the Tarv; rd speech he emphasizes his cist^nte
for "cerl;.rla kinds of realism" which ere "simply vulgar", and
I'.is belief ru, :t ff!v r;.:oay of colo r and ;/-r'.cc of outline Ii.-.vc
a legitini'.te sphere in tlio theatre":
Absolute replica on the : t. .ive i;.; not ;• Iv/.-yo Oesir.-'.ble
cny more thoji the •;!! >t':>'';ra "ilc re^r-j faction of
r ature can cl^im to rank T .ith the highest art» ? ^
•:hiv speech, like the othcrr collected in the 1 .;3 volume of
"Addresses", is a masterly c;;t. i-ci.je irj -vablic relations. Its
tor_ g is dir:nified and modest, and its r-ppc a l to the couto.v?-
or;^ry ontliu^ii'sn for : rt io not allowed to outv/ci-'Ii its wooing
of more con-.:erv tive o inion, Irvinr v/rs c> roful to , -::nl\< :>;±ZQ
his rc^'-i.-ctability, and corAe of his rona'-':^ remind the reader
of ; -uj;u..tus Harris's ' 1 ee.:;ocratic fl ayooai. ^'.v.n:-, :.ncakiii;; in
1PC1 at tlie , '. : i:ibur ; -;..- .. :,ilo..o.^liical In..tituti ..:, lie ri,.iiit-.:,i!iocl