THK LYCEUM STARS

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7253, 8 March 1889, Page 2

THK LYCEUM STARS

ARGUS SOCIAL GOBSIP. Last Saturday witnessed an event in the dramatic world which has been more eagerly anticipated, and has been the subject of more preliminary talking and writiug, than anything of the kind for many years past. Miss Ellen Terry appeared for the first in her career as Lady Macbeth. A descendant of the Kemble family had presented her with a pair of shoes in which Mrs Siddons played the part; and, therefore, in a literal sense, she stood in Mrs Siddons's shoes ; but in all else she was as unlike Mrs Siddons as it is possible to conceive. I believe that a certain quantity of the preliminary gossip about the '' Macbeth" revival has already reached Australian shores ; and Australian readers knew beforehand that Miss Terry's impersonation was to be a "womanly ,, one. Well, it was, and with a vengeance. Sarah Bernhardt broke long ago with the Siddons tradition, which made Lady Macbeth what the Irish call "a horsegortmotheroE a woman," that is to cay, a forbidding, overwhelming, stiff-backed unhuggable matron. Sarah emphasised the sensuous and seductive qualities of Macbeth's mate, but in a purely animal and diabolical sense. Ellen Terry is, or rather was, a naive, prattling, saucy, winning, loving, confiding, spooning young matrou of South Kensington.who happened to have a capacity for the assassination of her husband's guests engrafted on and closely harmonising with her gentle nature. Her impersonation, taken seriously, is, or rather was, a gross libel on womanly love. If a woman, full of the milk o* human kiudness, a loving wife, a tender friend, can also be a murderess, then from a moral point of view there is no significance or value in female perfection. I say that the embodiment was a libel on womanly love—that is, on the first night* The critics of all shades proved singularly unanimous about this as well as upon all other features of the revival. Theyeaid that it was delicious but preposterous. And Ellen Terry has bowed to their judgment. I visited the play for a second time last night, and there fell in with an unfortunate friend —an artist engaged by an illustrated paper to make sketches of the play. Hβ had had to sit it out every night during the whole week, and was» consequently, on the verge of melancholia. He told mc that "nfght after night Ellen Terry had been doing her level best to turn herself into a little fiend—but she couldn't do it." Her prayer. "Unsex mc here," would never be answered. Still she is better than she was. The performance i s less incongruous. It no louger shocks our reason. But in its present condition It is an abandonment of the cherished ideal, which sbe and her apostles and disciples wished that the world should see and accept. She is simply a woman striving after the Siddons conception, and failing to attain it from lack of the needful resources. I have said that the interest of the revival centred in Ellen Terry's rendering of the murderess. Irving's Macbeth was not a novelty to London. He had played it fourteen years ago at the Lyceum, before he became the manager of the theatre* and whilst he was yefc in bondage to the Bateman family. His reading of it then, I as now, was that Macbeth was a poltroon, devoid of every manly attribute save that of physical courage. In the acting edition of 1875 we had to trust to our memories even for this; but now he has restored the " bleeding sergeant" to the text, and has thus a compurgator present to testify the fact of bis merely animal courage. His conception of the character, which had long been advocated on paper, but never actually adopted by any actor, was im_ parted to him by the late Mrs Grevilie. Mrs Grevilie was a very well known woman in intellectual society. She was a sister-in-law of Sir Dighton Probyn, the Prince of Wales's controller of the house, hold; and her husband was a cousin of the Earl of Warwick. She was a woman of great endowments, which included a rare capacity for drama!, tic declamation. Irving was taken down to her country place, and there solemnly indoctrinated with the " reading " of Macbeth wherewith he afterwards bewildered the town. . But Mrs Grevilie could not impart to her protege either her own musical voice or rare elocutionary skill. And nobody else has done it since. Irving's Macbeth committed more than his allotted number of murders. He murders all the Soefcry of Shakespere. At the time he rst appeared in the part, Mr Burnand was publishing what he called a " Theatre Ollendorf " for the guidance of those wishing to converse with ladies in the stalls. Among the sentences in this guide were the following— ,, I cannot hear a word that Macbeth is saying, but lam informed that his kilt cost £70. . I had no idea that the call-boy had been educated at Eton." Mr Irving has discarded the kilt as an anachronism ; but he still relies much for impressing the public upon the cost of the stage mounting, and he is as inaudible or rather as unintelligible as ever. If he had his way he would not have attempted the revival; but " our dear friend, Ellen Terry," as he calls her, was bent on doing Lady Macbeth, now or never, and Ellen Terry is what the cabman said of John Forster, "a harbitrary cove." The play opened brilliantly. It was an audience of partisans, and they rose at and raved at their favourites, but now the play is going without enthusiasm. It will last jus,fc as long aa there are people enough who feel that they must see it; but in the end ib will not be reckoned as one of the great Lyceum triumphs. In point of archeology, the play is mounted gorgeously andunexceptionably. There is said to be " authority for every goblet used in the banqueting scene. Un fortunately you cannot see them, owing to the unfortunate, perverse, and ineffective manner in which the lights are managed. The footlights are not used, and what light there is comes from flambeaux held by attendants behind the backs of the seated guests. It is estimated that more than five hnn dred columns of comment on the performance had appeared in the British press before the.Monday following its production. The Irvingites expected a fierce controversy to break out. But it take* two to make a controversy, aud the criticism.? l Were all one way. Irving is, undoubtedly, a very great figure in English life, "if nothing else testified to this, it would be shown by the distinction and the heterogeneousness of the crowd which gathered on the stage to greet him after the first performance and drink his health in endless bumpers of champagne. He bears his good-luck all too meekly. There is, indeed, a certain affectation in the pains lie takes to keep green the memory of his former penury and struggles; Amongst his warmest S artisans are the family of Mr Justice lellor. They have still in their possession a note of hie asking with earnestness for the loan of one shilling. Some year* ago it came to his knowledge tbat the note was still in existence. Another man would have given his friends a hint to burn it Irving begged them to frame it. Irving now, as in the days of his poverty, Iβ extremely open-handed, and many doubt whether oat of his great gains he has even cared to save anything against a rainy day. Even when his salary was only one pound a week he would disburse that pound on the Saturday in loans and drinks to hie friends, and live as beet he could for the next six day a. He has told to his clever chronicler, Joseph Hatton, how once in bittfer weather he was actually destitute of underclothing until presented therewith by the bounty of a friend. A lady, once an actress and now by marriage wealthier than Irving himself, tells of a journey made with him from Glasgow to Manchester, in. their early struggling days, in order to join a company playing at the latter city. The train was a cattle train to which one or two fourthclass carriages were attached for the convenience of needy travelters. It started at midnight, and the fare was only five and three pence. Irving turned up at the station with no greatcoat, and a tailcoat turned up at the collar, and long red wrists protruding from the cuffs, beneath which it "was evident that there was no shirt. But his hat was cocked on one side of his head, as if he had been a marquis. The thermometer marked 12deg. of frost. " I usually," he observed with the air of a Chesterfield, '? travel by these midnight catfcle-trains, because on the whole I find them less expensive." M That," replied the actress timidly, "is my reason for travelling by them." "The fact that fourth-class carriages are attached to them

alone of all trains," continued *he tracedimpressively, "I regard asooneMt™J£ distinct The "fourth da?.* by the way, has now disappeared infarU of the advancing luxury of the am * When they cot into the train «,„ actress, who had a warm cloth-jacket anda railway-rug nmde herself as iK? fortable a» she could in one corner wfellY*' the future friend of nobles sat up in another. As the train made its wS nlong the cold became more and mow intense, and the chattering of Irving teeth was something piteous to hew whilst the convulsions of his fr-nie *i brated through the rickottv carriage It last the actress could stand it no further andaflectinp: to be overpowered by thl warmth of her own wraps, pushed W railway rug carelessly aside. Irvine m»j it long, and at last, pulling hlmedr together, he observed in the old $S style, " I observe that you are not making use of your rug Might I wrap i? round my head? I confess that th*«l fourth-class carriages appear to mc to W one disadvantage. They are rather coW That I attribute mainly to they are not fitted with windows " Th use of the rug was graciously given Jμ Irving, wrapping it round his liead* Uμ his length on the bench, and in a momen? was peacefully dreaming of feasting and success. The actress sat and shivered th« night through. In the morning she vnl nearer dead thau alive when the train drew mto the station at Manchester Irving woke from hia sleep, and wtaiZt pressing in his inquiries an to whether hii companion had "secured apartment*.* \es, her eistor had secured them for her. Ah, that was well. "I," Rdd S Irving, ■" have not secured apartment The hour-7. lo—strikes mc as somewhat premature for seeking to do so. May I may I be permitted to come to your ap&rtl incuts and there remain until au heap arrives when I can prosecute ray inqulrfai with advantage I" Consent was given, and the tragedian was invited to snare'the breakfast of the sisters. It consisted of nothing bat cocoa and dry bread. Both girls protested that they had no apoetlte and it ended in their allowing their* grandiloquent friend to consamethe whole Irving is the most grateful of men. If his companion on that journey needed it there is no doubt; that she would before now have been repaid a thousandfold tor her act of Christian charity on that night As it happens, the actress has done better in life than Irving himself. But they are good friends, and often laugh over the story of their early adventure.