Morning journal and courier., 1885-03-31
HENRY IRVING AT HARVARD.
He Lectures on the R eq ufrements and
Perfection ofthe Dramatic Art.

He Lectures IN the H eq ufrements and
Perfection ofthe Dramatic Art.
BOSTON, March 3O.-Henry Irving lectured
before the Harvard Shakespeare club in
Sanders Theatre this evening on Dramatic
Art" The theatre was packed to suffocation
and many hundreds were turned away.
President Eliot and nearly every member of
the faculty and nearly every Harvard student
were present; also Ex-Governor Dorsheimer,
William Winter, S. R. Durant and others
from New York. Mr.. Irving was
greeted with long and continued applause
He wore the regulation dress suit and white
tie and piccadilly collar. His face was col
orless. He spoke easily and was plainly
heard by all his auditors. After thanking
the club for the compliment paid him and
his profession by the invitation to address
them Mr.. Irving said that the art of acting
peal to your minds eye in the
printed drama live before you on the stage
True acting is one of the most difficult of ac-
complishments. The idea that to read the
best dramatic poetry is more educating than
to see it acted is in conflict with the dramat-
ic instinct which everybody possesses; also
the frequent statement that great orators de-
pend upon the inspiration of the moment.
Great actors surprises are generally well
weighed, studied and balanced. AS to the
practice of the art any method of independ-
ent study is of enormous Importance. Actors
should be natural both in strnger and lighter
moods. Diderot's theory that the actor
never feels is false. He who makes his feel
ings a part of his art has an advantage over
him who makes his observations solely from
the feelings of others. The mind should
have as it were double consciousness, in
which all the emotions proper to the occasion
may have full swing, while the actor is all
the time on the alert for every detail of his
method. The study of elocution is most
Guilty is to be generally heard
without being loud or stillted.
There is great actor in your own country
to whose elocution one always listens with
the utmost enjoyment I mean Edwin
Booth. He has inherited this gift, I believe,
should be simple and unaffected, varying
widely, according to the emotions to be ex-
pressed. The force of an actor depends upon
his physique, and it is necessary that good
deal of attention should be given to bodily
training Zone of the greatest tests of an actor
is his capacity for listening. By-play must
be unobtrusive. The most minute express
sion attracts attention. By-play is as mis-
chievous when injudicious as it is effective
when rigidly conceived. While trihes make
perfection it is most important that an ac-
tor should learn tibet he is figure in pic
ture and that the least exaggeration destroys
| the harmony of the composition. All the
members of the company should work to-
ward common end with the incest subsrdi-
nation of their individuality to the general
purpose. All training, bodily and mental,
is subservient to the two great principles in
| tragedy and comedy, passion and geniality.
AS to the rewards of the art we are told it is
| ephemeral, that it creates nothing. Granted
| this; but it often restores. 1t Increases the
stock of ideas. The astronomer and natural