New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-10-17
THE DEAD HEART.
MR.. IRVING IN A NEW CHARACTER.
sRs. JOHN WOOD AS AUNT JAcK-ruEArRIcAL
NEWS FROM LoNDo,

those scenes of brilliant animation that are not to
-be witnessed anywhere else in the dramatic world
Of London. II was the first night OF Mr.. lrvIngs
revival of the old melOdrama of The Dead
Heart" and a great audience was present to sea
this pageant. A pageant as,urcdly it is, for IN It's
sumptuous stage pictures and elaborate and spirit
cd tableaus the Paris of a hundred years ago-noC
as magnificent as now, but exceedingly plctuf
esquc-is reproduced in tie forms, colors and at
mosphere Of actual life, and the effect is pictorial
and beautiful to an extraordinary degree. The
audience manifested intense interest and at times
expressed its sympathy and approval with vehe
ment and overwhelming applause The scene oi
the destruction of the Bastlle, which was wrought
up with discreet judgment and exceptional SIKH,
aroused prOdigious excitement Mr.. Irving was
called out after the last curtain fell and he was
loudly che cred both before and after his neat and
fclcitOus speech. The success of the production
is uncquvoca Scores of friends remained after
the performance was ended, thronging upon the
stage and congratulating Mr.. Irving and Miss
Terry upon the happy result Of this new venture.
The Dead Heart as old play-gocrs know, is
a sort Of cento of Monte Cristo,' The COrSican
Brothers and " A Tale OF Two Cities, its hero
being Edmond Dantes and Sidney Carton blended
into ore person. The best part Of it comes from
Dickens; the second best part from Dumas. In
construction the drift Of the piece is wrenched
somewhat away from nature and reason and the
style of it IS bald. But with all its defects The
Dead Heart" is good play, in these rcSpects-that
il affords opportunities for acting; that it feeds
the eye with pictures of action; that it is fraught
with the element of suspense; and that it is
rounded and crowned with q sublime elimination
Of moral herOism and perfect pathOs. 1t IS good
play, likewise, in the respect that it elevates the
spectator and leaves him nobler and better than
he was before his heart was touched by its divine
lesson OF self-sacrilce.
Such at all events, is tie effect produced by it
under the animating influence of the intellectual
power the convincing earnestness, the profound
sympathy, and the noble passion of Henry Irving's
art. To him-and almost exclusively to him
must be attributed its present success. The char
acter of Robert Landry, combining intense passion
with tender and lovable magnanimity, adjusts it
self naturally TO his temperament. his peculiarties
and his powers The sole essential quality that
his impersonation lacked was that of implacablc
hardness, in certain passages that.nvolve the in
sensibility consequent upon thwRrted and vested
passion The theory of this character is, that
solitary Imprisonment for eighteen years in the
Bastllc has killed the mans heart has destroyed
in a once noble and gentle nature all capacity Of
feeling and has left him only an incarnate mind
which is possessed by the purpose of ven
grance. He is TO meet again, but without emo
ton, the woman whom he once loved and who
once loved him. He is to promote the ruin of her
innocent son. in order to infiict punishment for "A
crime committed by the boys father. lie is to
kill with his own hand, in duel fought in a
locked room and without witnesses, his chief
enemy and the instigator of his imprisonment
He is to confront his former love with the marble
severity of a Judge, who is also an eXecuttoner
Only-he is to rclent at last discovering that his
heart is not Dead and finally he is to choose
death and to perish upon the guilotne
in order to save the life of her
SON. The part is, obviously one that
stands at long distance outside OF the acute
apprehension of average human sympathy An
exceptional experience has made abnormal man.
Mr.. Irving makes him natural by intense sincerity,
and lOvable by personal charm-so that the fright
full blemish of a hero's hostility toward an inno-
cent youth, who is the son of the woman of his one
true love, passes unfelt, if not unnoticed. The
actor is not able, however quite TO veil his gentle
tenderness of spirit toward the woman; and the
spectator of this performance instinctivey feels
that Robert Landry's heart is alive all the
time. and, in fact, never has died at all. In all
Mr.. Irving presented an image Of awful and
deadly purpose, most baleful and most ter
ribe in its marble calm; and in the closing
scene, upon the scafrold he was the absolute
incarnation of pathetic sublimty. The painter
who would reproduce and rerpetuatc that face and
figure would add a gem beyond price to the art
treasures of the world. Words cannot tell YOU
the wealth of experience. the depth of passion,
the celestial sweetness of oxidation, that are
embodied in this con ummate image of self-sacrl-
flee The lesson is one that the world greatly
needs at all times, and has never so much needed
as now: and it is taught in this instance with
| royal power.
Miss Terry played Catherine. II is slight
character for great actress, but she made 1t
| lovely with the essential charm of her own be-
witching personality and she made II important
by her eloquent uttcrance of the mothers heart
In the bedroom scene. that ends the prologue, she
! is able to express, as in kindred scene IN
" FAUST the impetuouS glee Of glrlhood, sud
denly touched and sobcred by serious passion
In tbo niobt scene at the guillotinc her appeal to
her old lovcr to save the live of her son, j.
fraught with a heart-brcaking pathos that nobody
can resist The lack Of repOsc and OF the pol
ished manner OF " la grandc dame in the scene
of the Able Iatours proposal is the marked de
feet Of the assumption: but Ellen Terry IS almost
a,yavs a tremuous a-,ress vibrating WITH ever
cboncefuI impulses of emotion, between smiles
and tears, ,
Much had been expected of Mr.. Bancroft as the
Able Iatonr. lie gaye a conscientious and SOUND
performance. from af radically English point OF
Wow The Able is assuredly intended as a type
of malignant depravity; but also Ia Is intended
nc = tvne If airy elegance. of smiling levity OF
whimsical bumor Mr.. Bancroft appeared tc
have this thought in his mind yet he reached nc
noarer N its realization than to make the ADb'
loudly ocular: and upon the whole, his aSSump
ton was sinister in mood and iniieMble in man
nor The wooing scene Act l. scene ? was con
spcuouslv inartistic In the prison scene, how
ever Mr.. Bancroft was happy in the assumption
Of ,ocosc and scornfuI bravado, and in the due