The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-07
A RARE DRAMATIC EVENT.
Appearance of Henry Irving, Ellen
Terry and Their London Company.
A Delightful Performance of ''The Bells"
and 1.-The Bellies Strategem" by Them
The Company and the Star.
MIR. IRVING AND HIS COMPANY.
How They Travel and Who Accompany
Them-A Biographical Sketch.

How They Travel and Who Accompany
Them-A Biographical Sketch.
Mr.. Henry Irving and the London Lyceum
Theater company arrived in this city at o'clock
yesterday morning from Columbus, o. Mr..
Irving and about twenty members of his com
pany are at the Denison House, and Miss Terry
and the remainder are at the Bates House. The
Irving company comprises sixty -nine people,
which includes number of stage carpenters
and scenic artists. They travel in a special
train, consisting of two large gondolas fiat cars)
with regulation passenger trucks, two Pullman
sleepers parlor car and a dining room car, all
elegantly furnished and fitted. The party has
been accompanied up to this city by Mr. Joseph
Hatton, literary light and personal friend of
Mr. Irving, who, in conjunction with him. is
writing book Beaumont and Fletcher shion.
The work will be published in London and
will present the views in America
of the famous English actor and the
less famous correspondent. Mr. J. H. Copleston
manager for Mr.. Abbey, has general charge of
the tour, which he manages with much skill
From member of the company it was learned
that while they were route, both Mr. Irving
and Miss Terry spent much of their time read
ing, the former being particularly devoted at
this time to Ralph Waldo Emersen's recent work
entitled English Traits" He also devotes con
siderable attention to his scrap-book. 1t was
made in London, is as large as one man can
handle, is finely bound, and backed with this
gilded inscription: 'Lyceum Theater-American
Tour-Season of 1884" So far as Mr. Irving
knows, everything of consequence that has been
printed about him in this country since Nov. %
1ag+ Il, al
that bulky volume The initial notice is a
spread eagle flyer from James Gordon Benefits
Telegram. In all there are over six hundred
clippings, twenty eight pictures of Irving, and
nineteen of Miss Terry. All the Eastern papers
of prominence have been scissored for Irving
criticisms. To scan the great actors scrap-book
is to know that it is conducted by man of neat
ness and method.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MR.. IRVING.
John Henry Brodribb Irving better known as
Henry Irving, was born at Keinton, near Glas-
tonbury, in Somerset, England, Feb. 6, 1888,
and yesterday celebrated his forty birth
day, in this city. In his early youth the dra-
matte tendency of his tastes was marked and in
school declamations he always chose those which
his pious teacher called theatrical" At four
teen he went into the office of an East India
merchant in London, but gave more attention to
an elocution class than to business and finally
concluded to adopt the stage profession.
His first appearance in public was at the open
ing of the Lyceum Theater, Sunderland, in the
part of Orleans, in 'Richelieu." Stage fright
spoiled the success of this first effort, and
he repeated it when he essayed the role
of Cleomenes in "Winter's Tale" At this
period he one night failed in his lines,
owing to the fact it is said, that he refused to
learn them on Sunday. Suddenly calling to mind
an irrelevant line from another play he ex-
claimed: Come in the market place and I'll
fell thee furthar y and Ha1 from he fol-
lowed by the laughter of the audience and the
maledictions of the stage manager. For two
years or more he remained IN training at the
Theater Royal, Edinburgh. and came in 1859 to
London to play under the management of Au-
gustus Harris at the Princess. The engage
ment was quickly Cancelled Irving found
that he was condemning himself to perpetual
mediocrity by binding himself to the playing of
subordinate parts He returned to the provinces
and devoted himself to the perfection of the de-
tails of his art He played for a long time in
comedy at Manchester but, in 1865, preparatory
to again going to London, he undertook, in spite
of the jokes and mockery of his friends, to i'm
personate Hamlet, and achieved at once posi-
tive and complete success. On coming to Lon
don he declined Fechter's terms and Joined Dion
Boucicault's provincial company, on condition
that if he should develop artistic ability he
should have an engagement as leading actor
His first part in London that of
Doricourt, in the Bellies Stratagem," at the st.
James Theater. He played successfully at the
Queens Theater and the Vaudeville. At the
latter he first became notorious through his per-
Torrance of Dgby Grant in 1.-Two Roses Until
this time he had excelled in acting parts of the
Bill Sykes order, but whether in comedy meo
drama, or tragedy, he seemed to lie close to the
secret of the character he was studying After
years of routine labor, playing Matthias, Charles
l., Eugene Aram, and Richelieu, he appeared in
the autumn of 1874 as Hamlet. 1t was the cul-
minating moment in his Greer, His success was
beyond all expectation, and the impression made
by this great achievement was deep and wide
spread. He had not expected to play Hamlet"
more than fifty nights. The popular interest
was still strong al twice that many. Irving was
the Dane for 200 successive nights. Macbeth"
was repeated eighty times, and "Othello" fol
lowed close upon it. From this time Irving's
right to the title of great interpreter of Shak-
speare has been very generally allowed