New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-03
London. June IL

OF Irving the artist or OF Irving the man
have left the deepest impression II
truth they are inextricably intertwtned-
You cannot separate them. nor could his
audiences in the theatre, and II is this
intimate union between the qualities OF
the actor and his personal qualities
which accounts for no small part OF
Irvings immense and permanent fame.
When you try to distinguish between
the two you find yourself sometimes On
one side OF the border line and some
times On the other. and you co not al
ways know when you have crossed il
And perhaps il does not much matter
II what I have TO say Of Irving I shall
let the impressions take care Of them
selves There was q real Irving who
was Just as real when he was playing z
part as when you met him in private
life
All this vas evident in his acting Of
such 2 part as Nephistopheles in
Faust" There are in the inlpersona-
ton OF every great role certain mo-
raents. seldom very many. which reveal
70 you as by flashes Of lightning the
genius Of the actor, or his want Of it. or
his fitness or unhtness for that particu-
lar part Such q monochrome of his
fappiest-was that when Irving, all in
the conventional red and REQ cock g
feather OF the conventional Mephis-
topheles, Hoared-there IS no other word
for it-doVn the stage to the footlights
and breathed out into space in hardly
more than z whisper. but q whisper
audible in the remotest spot Of the great
auditorium. the one sentence:
7 an q spirit
And he tnds z spirit You felt It He
belonged not TO this world, but 70 an
other world He was almost Z disem-
bodied spirit. His possession Of q body
vas accidental The essential thing was
the spirit He was Of all time. past and
future inmemortaL immortal. eternal
Whether z spirit Of evil or 2 spirit Of
good mattered not. He was e spirit
That was what he meant Us to under
stand That Is what We did understand
The laws Of nature and Of evidence
were for the time being suspended. You
took his word for IL If he had not said
50. We should still have said to our
selves. He is spirit" II was q spir-
ttual presence. 4 dweller of another
world. Z being Of z nature not human,
but divine. divinity Of the neither
world; : spirit OF light, though the light
shone from below.
Is anything but genius. and Z very
high order Of genius. capable Of produc-
ing such an effect as that The two
1rvings met in Mephistopheles. II either
Of the two had been absent II would
Tot have been Nephistopheles. or not
This Nephistopheles- The slightness Of
his physique added TO the effect You
ware not disturbed by anything corpo-
zeal or gross There vas just body
enough 70 hold the spirit-no more And
there were the eyes, luminous. haunt
ing. melancholy. with the far-ewey look
IN them which behtted one who had Just
1rave-sed infinite space to reach the
earth L vas 4 vision Il is five and
twenty years or more since beheld il
and the Ike Of Il I have never seen
since. and shah never see
Yet have I seen otI--r actors mas
ouerading as Mephistopheles. and one
quite recently. an actor Of renovn. Of
high pIac-some people say the highest
now extant-of wide popularity II Is
not his fault that he is fat, but need
he trv 70 impose Z fat Nephistopheles
O. the public He desired. apparently
u make him humorous He made him
? bU1oon- He sought to make him ON
? present and he was. present in many
r-laces where Goethe had not put him;
intrusive. rneddlesome; the Hrelight
rerpetuaIly turned on this grotesque fig
ure IN unexpected corners and irnpossi-
he positions He had nothing to do
with any other world than this, nor with
this except or the stage Goethe's
Nsephigtopheles had psychological sig
-ifcance- or even. i you ike. psychi-
cal So had Ir-ing's- But this latest
rend Of the twentieth century IS OF
the earth earthly. Irving regarded his
victims with Z smile Of polished feroc-
it, that filed you with terror This
present Nephistopheles Ieered at them
and - You. IN the manner Of the East
md. OF. as Wa should say in New York.
The East side He played il, in 4 word,
as he would play the lead in modern
farce. with great abilities, greatly mis-
used. nothing could be more remote
from Faust in which even the scenes
with Martha are pure comedy; as other
scenes are pure tragedy Irving, though
the version II which he acted was but
= pale reflex Of the original, had found
and kept the true note He was not e
man TO miss the distinction character
.stic Of the real play His Alephistopheles
was & great gentleman, and i Mephts-
topheles DC not a great gentleman he Is
not the Nephisropheles Of Goethe
There have been books about Irving
which are thought 70 be disappointing
an not expressing my own opinion, for
/ have read none Of them. When I have
known : man 7 Ike 70 keep my own in
p-essiors OF him To read book about
him. except for the facts a--d for the
times IN which he lived, Is 70 displace or
disturb one's own impressions and 70 &C
cep- other impressions instead The pict-
1Ire becomes z blur Ones own memory
NAV. not BE- accurate, and Is pretty Ger
tain net 10 be complete, but II is ones
own. Nj Bran Stoker, who is well
known. had every opportunity 70 give Us
: good account. for he was Irving's fac
tUrurn during many years, and he Is &C
customed TO the making Of books: but