DOI Heft:
January 16, 1892
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17693#0043
January 16, 1892,1 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
33
PLAYING OLD HARRY AT THE LYCEUM.
I once did manage to make a east correctly," writes Andrew
dying master, for dying he is, as lie staggers feebly from the
Palace at Bridewell. It is difficult to call to mind any situation in
any play more genuinely affecting in its simplicity than this. The
Lang, in his charming book anent the sport and pastime of fishing, 1 audience is held spell-bound,—yet, for my part, I should have wel-
and if ever Henry Irving made a cast to catch the public, it is now, 1 corned a greater variety in tone and action.
when he uses as his bait Shakspeare's Henry the Eighth, got up in | Miss Ellen Terry's Queen Katharine is a " very woman." You
a style which emphatically " beats the record," so utterly regard- ; can see how she has caught the King, and how she still holds him.
less of expense " is it, with well-tried, responsible actors, in what \ She loves him, actually loves him, to th "last1 to respect him is im-
may be called minor parts, '. possible, but she respects
though the majority of the | herself ; and it is
dramatis persona are on a love for him, for
fair dramatic equality, and I was, not what he ii
with Our Ellen Terry, as respect for herself, which
Queen Katharine, and ; Miss Ellen Terry
himself as the great Lord j so forcibly. Kathai
Cardinal. ! foreigner, therefore
The first difficulty that bearing, though stately
Henry Irving had to face I less stolid than tha
—literally to face — was 1 typical English
that by no sort of art could ; (iueen. The note
he make up hisfea-
tur es to be an exact
portrait of Car-
dinal wolsey.
Personallv, I pre-
fer Mr. Irving's
picture of Wolsey
to the extant por-
traits, which
concur in repre-
senting him as a
heavy, jowly-
faced man, who
might be taken as
a model for one of
Gustave Dore's
eccentric - looking
The Magnetic Lady. ecclesiastics in
the Contes Drolatiques, rather than as the living present- J^*sa^^^§^a*^~*1" —~</w
ment of the great Chancellor, Statesman, and Churchman ,Tn n m . , 7
who ruled a cruel, crafty, sensual tyrant, and successfully
guided the policy of England at home and abroad. Henry Irying's
Cardinal is a grand figure, courtly, though somewhat too cringing
withal, evidently despising the various means he uses to further
the end he has in view, and looking upon the Lords, Courtiers and
all around him as merely puppets, whose strings he holds to work
them as he will.
Then, after seeing him as Sole Adviser of the Crown, after seeing
him as Highest Judge in the Ecclesiastical Divorce Court in such
splendid state as our Judge Jeune may eye with envy, after seeing
v.
Go to," Norfolk and Suffolk!
him in his own Palace, most courteous as Grand Master and liberal
Provider of Right Royal Revels, he is exhibited to us in the deserted
Hall, a spectacle for gods and men (that is, shown to the Gallery and
the rest of the audience), the single figure of the Great Cardinal,
fallen from his high estate; and to him, in place of all his princely
retinue, comes his one faithful servant, Cromwell, supporting his
dying scene, so striking by its simplicity, is its perfect tranquillity.
Who 's Griffith ? Why the veteran Howe (ah, Howe, When and
Where did I first see you, Sir ? Wasn't it in the days when good
old Mortonian farces were the
attraction at the Haymarket?) is
" the safe man," and excellently
well did he deliver his epitaph on
Wolsey. But all are good, not
forgetting our old friend the
sterling, that is the Arthur
Stirling actor as Cranmer, and
the youthful Gillie Farquhar,
unrecognisable as Lord Sands,
looking as ancient as if he were
The Sands of Time.
This revival is bound to have a
long — it may be an unprece-
dentedly long—run. All of us
dearly love a show. Moreover,
'tis educational; and the School
Board should issue an Exami-
nation - paper on
the history of
Henry the
Eighth and his
times as exem-
plified by Mr.
Irving & Co. at
the Lyceum.
Jack-in-the-
Box. Ellen Terry as Kate.
P.S.—The cost of production of Henry the Eighth at the Lyceum
was £250,000 3.s\ 6§d. Mr. Irying's nightly expenses are
£10,999 2s. h\d. I thought it had been more, but the above infor-
mation comes to me from a person whose veracity I should not
like to question, except with the boundless sea between us.
Con. for the C. O. S.—When Shakspeare said, " The quality
of mercy is not strained," did he mean that it was not strained
through a Charity Organisation Society ?
"Reading between the Lines" is a dangerous occupation—when
there 's a Train coming.
33
PLAYING OLD HARRY AT THE LYCEUM.
I once did manage to make a east correctly," writes Andrew
dying master, for dying he is, as lie staggers feebly from the
Palace at Bridewell. It is difficult to call to mind any situation in
any play more genuinely affecting in its simplicity than this. The
Lang, in his charming book anent the sport and pastime of fishing, 1 audience is held spell-bound,—yet, for my part, I should have wel-
and if ever Henry Irving made a cast to catch the public, it is now, 1 corned a greater variety in tone and action.
when he uses as his bait Shakspeare's Henry the Eighth, got up in | Miss Ellen Terry's Queen Katharine is a " very woman." You
a style which emphatically " beats the record," so utterly regard- ; can see how she has caught the King, and how she still holds him.
less of expense " is it, with well-tried, responsible actors, in what \ She loves him, actually loves him, to th "last1 to respect him is im-
may be called minor parts, '. possible, but she respects
though the majority of the | herself ; and it is
dramatis persona are on a love for him, for
fair dramatic equality, and I was, not what he ii
with Our Ellen Terry, as respect for herself, which
Queen Katharine, and ; Miss Ellen Terry
himself as the great Lord j so forcibly. Kathai
Cardinal. ! foreigner, therefore
The first difficulty that bearing, though stately
Henry Irving had to face I less stolid than tha
—literally to face — was 1 typical English
that by no sort of art could ; (iueen. The note
he make up hisfea-
tur es to be an exact
portrait of Car-
dinal wolsey.
Personallv, I pre-
fer Mr. Irving's
picture of Wolsey
to the extant por-
traits, which
concur in repre-
senting him as a
heavy, jowly-
faced man, who
might be taken as
a model for one of
Gustave Dore's
eccentric - looking
The Magnetic Lady. ecclesiastics in
the Contes Drolatiques, rather than as the living present- J^*sa^^^§^a*^~*1" —~</w
ment of the great Chancellor, Statesman, and Churchman ,Tn n m . , 7
who ruled a cruel, crafty, sensual tyrant, and successfully
guided the policy of England at home and abroad. Henry Irying's
Cardinal is a grand figure, courtly, though somewhat too cringing
withal, evidently despising the various means he uses to further
the end he has in view, and looking upon the Lords, Courtiers and
all around him as merely puppets, whose strings he holds to work
them as he will.
Then, after seeing him as Sole Adviser of the Crown, after seeing
him as Highest Judge in the Ecclesiastical Divorce Court in such
splendid state as our Judge Jeune may eye with envy, after seeing
v.
Go to," Norfolk and Suffolk!
him in his own Palace, most courteous as Grand Master and liberal
Provider of Right Royal Revels, he is exhibited to us in the deserted
Hall, a spectacle for gods and men (that is, shown to the Gallery and
the rest of the audience), the single figure of the Great Cardinal,
fallen from his high estate; and to him, in place of all his princely
retinue, comes his one faithful servant, Cromwell, supporting his
dying scene, so striking by its simplicity, is its perfect tranquillity.
Who 's Griffith ? Why the veteran Howe (ah, Howe, When and
Where did I first see you, Sir ? Wasn't it in the days when good
old Mortonian farces were the
attraction at the Haymarket?) is
" the safe man," and excellently
well did he deliver his epitaph on
Wolsey. But all are good, not
forgetting our old friend the
sterling, that is the Arthur
Stirling actor as Cranmer, and
the youthful Gillie Farquhar,
unrecognisable as Lord Sands,
looking as ancient as if he were
The Sands of Time.
This revival is bound to have a
long — it may be an unprece-
dentedly long—run. All of us
dearly love a show. Moreover,
'tis educational; and the School
Board should issue an Exami-
nation - paper on
the history of
Henry the
Eighth and his
times as exem-
plified by Mr.
Irving & Co. at
the Lyceum.
Jack-in-the-
Box. Ellen Terry as Kate.
P.S.—The cost of production of Henry the Eighth at the Lyceum
was £250,000 3.s\ 6§d. Mr. Irying's nightly expenses are
£10,999 2s. h\d. I thought it had been more, but the above infor-
mation comes to me from a person whose veracity I should not
like to question, except with the boundless sea between us.
Con. for the C. O. S.—When Shakspeare said, " The quality
of mercy is not strained," did he mean that it was not strained
through a Charity Organisation Society ?
"Reading between the Lines" is a dangerous occupation—when
there 's a Train coming.