These two characters, Benedick and Beatrice, are so much the heritage of all lovers of true comedy, that everyone seems to have fixed a standard for himself, which he will critically apply to every representation. This partiality does not make us particularly exigeant, but we have each our own fancies. There is nothing more interesting, entertaining, or fruitful in speculation than the discussion of how favourite characters in comedy should be represented. It is as though they were figures in real life. For myself, I confess I should have preferred that the actor had taken the character into still higher realms of airy comedy, and had less emphasized the somewhat farcical passages. Benedick was a man of capacity, a soldier, a gentleman, and though he was likely to be so imposed upon, he would not have given his friends the satisfaction of seeing him in this dejected condition, almost inviting laughter and rude “rallying.”[33]
During all this time, preparations for the great American visit were being carefully matured. There is supposed to be a sort of hostility between artistic gifts and business-like habits; but Irving has always shown great capacity where organization and arrangement are in question—he has the clearest vision, and the firmest, most decided purpose. In this he has often suggested a surprising likeness to the departed novelist Dickens, who was also remarkable for his business power and decision of character, and whose motto it was to do every trifle in the best way that it could be done. Anything worth doing at all, he would say, was worth doing well.
Nothing was left undone to ensure success. Everything was “thought out” beforehand with the greatest care and deliberation. The American manager, Abbey, who had undertaken the direction of the venture, and had a vast store of experience and skill at command, planned, of course, the arrangements of the visit; but the purely theatrical details were thrown upon the English actor, who had to equip completely some dozen plays with scenery, dresses, and properties. A following of from seventy to a hundred persons—including actors, actresses, secretaries, scenic and music artists, dressers, supernumeraries—was to be taken out.[34] Further, with a view to making the company thoroughly familiar with the répertoire, for months beforehand a sort of continuous rehearsal went on before the regular Lyceum audiences; that is, all the stock-pieces were revived one after the other, and performed with much care.
The honours and flattering tributes that were now lavished on the departing actor would have turned the head of one less sensible or less unspoiled. The town seemed really to have “run horn-mad” after him, and could talk of nothing but of him and his expedition. As was to be expected, the compliment of a public dinner was the smallest of these tributes. Presents and invitations were lavished upon him. In a caricature he was shown as being profusely anointed, by critics and others, from a tub filled with a composition labelled “butter.” In another the Prince of Wales is obsequiously presenting an invitation, which the actor excuses himself from accepting owing to “my many engagements.” The most famous portrait-painter of the day begged to be allowed to paint his picture, which he wished to offer as a present to the Garrick Club.[35] Rumours were busily circulated—and contradicted—that a knighthood had been offered and declined.
The public dinner at St. James’s Hall was fixed for July 4—a compliment to the American people. The list of stewards was truly extraordinary, comprising almost everyone of mark in the arts and the great professions. The Chief Justice, Lord Coleridge, who was himself setting out for a tour in the States, was to take the chair. Mr. Gladstone and some Cabinet Ministers were on the committee. There were three thousand applicants for the five hundred possible seats, all that Mr. Pinches, the secretary—a relation of the actor’s old master—could contrive to supply. Two Bishops excused their attendance in flattering terms; and Mr. Gladstone would gladly have attended, but was compelled by his duties to be absent.[36] At this banquet, besides the Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, there were five other judges present, together with all that was distinguished in the professions and arts.
The Chairman, in a thoughtful and studied speech, delivered perhaps one of the best apologias for the actor that is ever likely to be offered. The skill and moderation of the accomplished advocate was shown to perfection: he did not adulate, but gave the actor a graduated and judicious measure of praise for all he had done in the improvement in the general tone, morals, and methods of the stage. Irving acknowledged these compliments in grateful and heartfelt terms, addressed not so much to the diners present as to the kingdom in general.
After these metropolitan honours, he passed to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Liverpool. At each city he was greeted with complimentary banquets. At Edinburgh he opened a new theatre, named in compliment to his own, the Lyceum. He was invited to Hawarden by Mr. Gladstone, and also to Knowsley, on a visit to Lord Derby.
On October 10, 1883, the chief members of the company—over forty in number—sailed for New York, under the conduct of Mr. Bram Stoker. Tons of scenery, dresses, properties, etc., had been already shipped. The following day Irving and Miss Terry embarked on board the White Star liner, The Britannic. Up to the last moment telegrams and letters containing good wishes literally by hundreds were being brought in. Even while the vessel was detained at Queenstown, the Mayor and Corporation of Cork seized the opportunity of saluting him with a parting address. The incidents have been all described by my friend Mr. Joseph Hatton, who attended the party as “historiographer”; and I may refer the reader to his interesting volumes.
The visit was to prove one long triumph, and the six months’ progress a strange, wonderful phantasmagoria of receptions, entertainments, hospitalities of all kinds. Novel and original, too, were the humours and fashions that greeted them everywhere, and the eyes of the two players must have often turned back with pleasure to that odd pantomime.
‘The Bells’ was selected for the opening performance which was on October 29, 1883. Though his reception was overpowering and tumultuous, there was some hesitation as to the success of the play itself, and the critics seemed to be a little doubtful as to whether it fairly represented the full measure of his gifts. ‘Charles I.’, however, followed, and the two great artists made the profoundest impression. But when ‘Louis XI.’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ were presented, all doubts vanished. Miss Terry won all hearts; her sympathetic style and winsome ways made conquest of every audience. Nothing struck the Americans with such astonishment as the exquisite arrangement and “stage management” of the Shakespearian comedy, the reserved yet effectively harmonious treatment of all the details being a complete revelation. The actor’s consummate taste was recognised; in fact, the result of the visit was a complete revolution in all the American stage methods. The extraordinary record of lavish hospitalities, tributes of all kinds, with the adventures, is set forth fully in the story of the tour. But it is only by consulting the American journals that we can gather a notion of the odd “humours,” often grotesque, by which the American public displays its enthusiastic approbation.[37] The “interviewers,” as may be imagined, were rampant, and extracted from the genial and courteous actor opinions on everything connected with his profession. One immortal criticism deserves to be recorded here. “He has rung,” said a newspaper, “the knell of gibbering Gosh!”[38]