Harold Hannyngton Child

“ In the week before he sailed for home, Irving gave at the Military Academy, West Point, a performance of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ without scenery. ‘Faust,’ ‘The Amber Heart,’ and ‘Robert Macaire,’ in which Irving played the title part, filled the short summer season of 1888 at the Lyceum, and the winter season opened with a revival of ‘Macbeth.’ The production was sumptuous, and Irving was now capable of expressing his idea of Macbeth more fully and with less extravagance than in 1875. ”

“ As an actor, he had many disabilities, natural and contracted, a voice monotonous and not powerful, a peculiar pronunciation, a stamping gait, and a tendency to drag his leg behind him, angular and excessive gesture, and a slowness of speech which became more marked when powerful emotion choked his utterance. These mannerisms, which were at their height between 1873 and 1880, were less pronounced after his second American tour in 1884 ”

“ In April 1864 he had impersonated Hamlet (or rather J. P. Kemble as Hamlet) in one of a series of tableaux illustrating a reading by Calvert. On 20 June following he chose the part for his benefit. For his ‘make-up’ on this occasion he copied that of Fechter and wore a fair wig. Lack of physical and vocal power were the chief faults urged by the critics. The periods during which the theatre was closed Irving spent in giving readings in various places, and the vacation of 1864 was spent at Oxford, where he acted Hamlet and other parts. ”

“ The play ran for 200 nights. Tennyson and others liked the new Hamlet better than Macready's, and Irving had now attained the supreme position among living actors. Criticism and even scurrilous attack were not wanting, and they broke into greater activity when in September 1875 he appeared as Macbeth. His Macbeth was not the robust butcher to whom the public were accustomed, and in bringing out the imagination in Macbeth, Irving doubtless, in this his first rendering, brought out too strongly his disordered nerves. The play ran for eighty nights. ”

“ From Edinburgh Irving passed to his first engagement in London. On 24 Sept. 1859 he appeared in a small part in Oxenford's ‘Ivy Hall,’ produced by Augustus Harris, the elder, at the Princess's Theatre, Oxford Street. The parts allotted him being beneath his ambition, he obtained a release from his contract. Readings of ‘The Lady of Lyons’ and ‘Virginius’ at Crosby Hall in the following winter and spring led to a four weeks' engagement at the Queen's Theatre, Dublin, which began in March 1860. ”

“ Irving occasionally gave recitations and readings. His recitation of Lytton's poem, ‘The Dream of Eugene Aram,’ was his most famous tour-de-force. His earlier readings have been mentioned; of those given later and for public objects the most important were his reading of ‘Hamlet’ in the Birkbeck Institute in Feb. 1887, of scenes from ‘Becket’ in the chapterhouse at Canterbury in May 1897, and at Winchester during the celebration of the tercentenary of Alfred in Sept. 1901. Among the many addresses he delivered were the following: ‘Acting: an Art,’ before the Royal Institution in February 1895 ”

“ Having received and refused an offer to join Fechter's company at the Lyceum Theatre, London, he began in Dec. 1865 an engagement at Liverpool. In the summer of 1866 he went touring with his lifelong friend, John Lawrence Toole [q. v. Suppl. II] , whom he had first met at Edinburgh in 1857, and in July 1866 he created at Prince's Theatre, Manchester, the part of Rawdon Scudamore, the villain in Boucicault's drama ‘The Two Lives of Mary Leigh,’ afterwards called ‘Hunted Down.’ His arrangement with Boucicault was that, should he succeed in the part, he should be engaged to play it in London ”

“ After this there was no new production at the Lyceum till 5 Jan. 1892, when ‘King Henry VIII’ with music by Edward German was mounted with more splendour than Irving had allowed even to ‘Faust.’ The cost of production, which exceeded 11,000l. was too great to be profitable, though the piece remained in the bill for six months. In November ‘King Lear’ was put on; and in Feb. 1893 came the performance of Tennyson's ‘Becket.’ This play had been sent to Irving by Tennyson in 1879 (The Theatre, Oct. 1879, p. 175) ”

“ He was the first actor to speak at the annual banquet of the Royal Academy, and the inclusion of the toast of ‘The Drama’ dates from that occasion.
Irving married on 15 July 1869 Florence, daughter of Daniel James O'Callaghan, surgeon-general in the East India Company, and niece of John Cornelius O'Callaghan [q. v.] , author of ‘The Green Book, or Gleanings from the Desk of a Literary Agitator.’ There were two children of the marriage: Henry Brodribb, born on 5 Aug. ”

“ Penberthy a woman of stern but affectionate nature. The life was wholesome and open-air. In 1849, at the age of eleven, the boy joined his parents, who were living at 65 Old Broad Street (on the site of the present Dresdner Bank) , and attended school at Dr. ”