The morning times., 1895-09-11
BRlTAlN'S KNIGHT fHESpIAH
Sir Henry Irving Chats On The Plays
Of The Day.
He Is Not an Admirer of Ibsen, but
Has Warm Praise for Amer
lean Authors.
New York SUM-

| New York SUM-
1t is said of Sir Henry irving in England
that he never makes an enemy. When he
was made knight last spring. and the peo-
pie OF his profession. met some time after
ward in the Lyceum Theater TO celebrate
the event, the character of that assemblaga
was quoted as an evidence OF his popularity
in his profession.
Every branch of it was represented, and
the honor, which had arrived so late. was
commemorated with q sincerity which was
| remarkable among the members of pro-
fcssion which is not particularly distin-
guished by the regard in which its followers
hold one another.
But it has been Irving good fortune to
become the head of his profession in Lon
don without making the enemies, which are
regarded as an incident OF eminence. This
is true, not only OF his associates, but of the
people of all grades with whom he has been
| thrown.
There was an instance OF his cons idera-
tion to be noticed in the hail of the Plaza
| Hotel yesterday morning. He left his room
to walk to the elevator. Seated at a corner
of the hall was one of Miss Terry's maids
| She was 4 middle aged English woman, and
Sir Henry had not seen her since the ship
landed on Saturday morning. She was ap-
parently not aware of his approach, for when
| he reached the spot where she sat he inter
rupted his talk, and, turning toward her,
said with as much consideration as he might
have shown n duchess:
Good morning! How are you? haven't
seen you before Are you all right after the
| trip"
IL was n instance of the demeanor which
has made him as popular "a he is with every
class in Eng md aud made il IA proverbabout
Irving that he has nothing but friends. He
is stouter than he was when he came 10 this
country two years ago In the matter OF
dress he is ye.y democratic.
| \ reporter of the Sun sa W him yesterday
morning. Just after he finished breakfast.
| 1T never Seems to e,'.-he said, in ti&,
| low tone which he always spoke off the
stage-so low that it is at times difficult
! to distinguish his words-''that / am in
| a different country when l come to the
| United States. The Americans and English
seem very much alike and very united.
| ! hear that there was adiscIssion once in
the magazines as to whether Americans
/ hated England. / don't know what the
conclusion was. but l have never met the
English who hated Americans or the Amer
leans that hated England .-They have al
! ways seemed to me as united as two peo-
| pie could be-"
Irving's manner of talking off the stage
| modulations of his voice are very much the
same. He walked about his room at the
Plaza yesterday quite as he does on the
stage.
81 never saw but one of Ibsen's plays
acted" he said when the reporter asked
| him his opinion of them, ''and have not
read them all. Once / saw The Doli's
House and l saw in it some admirable
| opportunities for the actors, particularly
| for the actress who played Nora. But l
| could not see In the play, nor in those that
| l have read. any breadth of interest. The
whole story, the whole action, was on such
a microscopic scale.
Certainly people who go to the theater
want to be interested in come wider field
| OF action than these plays offer. l believe
| plays will interest you Your history and
| your lives seem To me to lead You to an
| interest in them. Americans have seemed
| to me to be interested in the romance oft5e
theater-not the romance of going TO the
| thcater, but the romance on the stage in
the plays you sec. This is true of English
audiences, but especially true of theater-
goers in America. lave never seen the
10 mia iui
great popularity With us i'll England they
never have. They are given from time te
time, but have never attracted large
audiences. For my part, DO rot believe
Mat they ever will
AS to the talk Of Literary men, writing
for the stage. / don't believe that there
is man in England to-day who deserves
that title any more than Arthur Pinero,
the dramatist.
"The talk about the plays of the day
being inferior to those of fifteen or twenty
years ago is something that one must al
ways expect We are always grumbling,
and generally about the past having been
better than the present. II it isn't the
plays it's the actors, and the theater goers
of one day are very likely to compare
an actor TO one of his predecessors TO the
disadvantage OF the present actor. The
one that went before is always remem-
bered as better than his successors. With
the drama 1T is the same way. / cannot
see that the plays of ten or fifteen years
ago were superior to those that are writ
ten now They seem to me as good. Peo-
pie say that actresses have to go back to
the older pieces when they want TO find
characters in which to do themselves JUS
tice
"But there is Pinero, who, in The Sec
ond Mrs Tanqueray' and The Notorious
Mrs Elbsmith, is said to have written
two parts which are splendid womens
roles. Unfortunately 1 have never seen
either of these pieces, but 1 am not in
clined TO believe that the drama of to-day
is inferior to what has been written. The
complaint against it is the usual thing that
one must always expect TO hear. We are
all very likely to praise what has gone
before at the expense of the present"
Things Worth Knowing.