The Drama

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Drama, by Henry Irving
WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY WHISTLER
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
For our eyes to see! Sons of wisdom, song, and power, Giving earth her richest dower, And making nations free— A glorious company! Call them from the dead For our eyes to see! Forms of beauty, love, and grace, 'Sunshine in the shady place,' That made it life to be— A blessed company!
I do not want to overstate the case, or to appeal to anything that is not within common experience, so I can confidently ask you whether a scene in a great play has not been at some time vividly impressed on your minds by the delivery of a single line, or even of one forcible word. Has not this made the passage far more real and human to you than all the thought you have devoted to it? An accomplished critic has said that Shakespeare himself might have been surprised had he heard the Fool, fool, fool! of Edmund Kean. And though all actors are not Keans, they have in varying degree this power of making a dramatic character step out of the page, and come nearer to our hearts and our understandings.
Pity, like a naked new-born babe, Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, That tears shall drown the wind.
An imperfect elocution is apt to degenerate into a monotonous uniformity of tone. Some wholesome advice on this point we find in the Life of Betterton .
Where—O for pity!—we shall much disgrace With four or five most vile and ragged foils The name of Agincourt.
It is admittedly unfortunate for the stage that it has a certain equivocal element, which, in the eyes of some judges, is sufficient for its condemnation. The art is open to all, and it has to bear the sins of many. You may open your newspaper, and see a paragraph headed Assault by an Actress. Some poor creature is dignified by that title who has not the slightest claim to it. You look into a shop-window and see photographs of certain people who are indiscriminately described as actors and actresses though their business has no pretence to be art of any kind.