A SOCIAL TENDENCY.
It is (says the “Austalasian" recently) a striking illustration of the tendency of contemporary society in England and America to occupy itself with the sayings and doings of small personages, occupying positions of transitory prominence, and fulfilling functions of relatively small importance, that the first appearance of Mr Henry Irving on the stage of the New York theatre should have engaged quite as much attention on both sides of the Atlantic as was excited a few years ago by the proceedings of the great Powers of Earope at Berlin, The child, by Nature's kindly law,
Pleas’d with a rattle, tickled by a straw, seems to typify the present condition of the two great English speaking com* munitiea in the other hemisphere. And the rattle which not merely amuses them at the present moment bat begniles their time and absorbs their interest, is a player who is very famous without being really great, and who is a conspicuous personality rather than a considerable personage. Where he is strongest he was excelled by Frederick Lemaitre, and where he is weakest he affords abundant scope for satirical commentary, or for adverse criticism. But the Americans, although they pay considerable deference to public opinion upon questions of art and science in the mother country, have an independent method of looking at men and things ; and while they accorded Mr Irving such an enthusiastic reception as so great a favorite in England was warranted in expecting, they do not seem to have lost the balance of their judgment, or to have been “ carried off their legs ” by the popular aotorj even in the part which is undeniably his best, and which laid the foundation of his extraordinary repute. And the verdicts pronounced upon him by the best of the New York critcs are by no means saturated with that syrup of cloying flattery which has been administered to Mr Irving in such copious doses by the dramatic critics of the London press, with one or two notable exceptions.
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Bibliographic details
South Canterbury Times, Issue 3362, 12 January 1884, Page 2
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336A SOCIAL TENDENCY. South Canterbury Times, Issue 3362, 12 January 1884, Page 2
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