CHAPTER XIV
MUSICIANS—AUTHORS—ACTORS AND ARTISTS
Wagner.—Richter.—Dan Godfrey.—Arthur Cecil.—Sir Frederick Bridge and bombs.—W. S. Penley.—Sir Herbert Tree.—Max Beerbohm.—Mr. and Mrs. Kendal.—Harry Kemble.—Sir Edgar Boehm.—George Du Maurier.—Rudyard Kipling.—Alfred Austin.—William Black.—Thomas Hardy.—W. E. Henley.—Egerton Castle.—Samuel Smiles.—Farren.—Sir Squire and Lady Bancroft.—Dion Boucicault and his wife.—Sir Charles Wyndham.—Leo Trevor.—Cyril Maude.—William Gillette.—The late Dion Boucicault.—Arthur Bourchier.—Allan Aynesworth.—Charlie Hawtrey.—The Grossmiths.—H. B. Irving.—W. L. Courtney.—Willie Elliott.—"Beau Little."—Henry Arthur Jones.—Gustave Doré.—J. MacNeil Whistler.—Walter Crane.—F.C.G.—Lady Ashburton and her forgetfulness.
I was a privileged member of a select audience at a rehearsal in 1877 at the Albert Hall with the intention of studying Wagner and his eccentricities, while he was conducting one of his own operas, therefore, I was not as surprised as I might have been when I observed him waving his baton and growing more and more excited, dancing on and off his stool, until finally losing his head he grew very angry with everything and everybody, and gave up evidently in fear of one of those nervous attacks to which he was subject. Richter then took the baton and conducted magnificently.
Under very different circumstances I studied Dan Godfrey the bandmaster, a very different type of musician, when he had just been promoted to the rank of lieutenant. An officer on guard invited me to breakfast after I had watched him conduct the band in the quadrangle of St. James' Palace, to enable me to examine his features more clearly.
Arthur Cecil, the actor, loved music and was a born musician in addition to his interest in the stage, and was for some time in co-partnership with Mrs. John Wood at the Court Theatre. He was the first Baron Stein in Diplomacy. During his fatal illness at Brighton I visited him in the nursing home, and his first words to me were uttered in complaint of his food, for he dearly loved his food.
"What do you think they gave me to-day?" he said. "A boiled mutton chop." When he was convalescent he gained permission from his doctor to go, with his nurse, to reside at the Brighton Orleans Club, and whenever the menu was put before him, he selected the choice dishes dear to his heart (or his palate) that had been forbidden him a very short time previously. His greatest pleasure, however, was to be able to play the piano again, and that he did before me in the private hospital, his first selection being some music from his favourite opera of "Hansel und Gretel." Owing to his indiscretion during convalescence, he caught cold which caused his death prematurely, for he was under sixty.
After many times acting as an amateur he joined German Reed's company at St. George's Hall, and from there went to the Haymarket Theatre, after which he had a distinguished career as an actor in comedy. He was very popular both at the Garrick and Beefsteak Clubs. Of course Sir Frederick Bridge was an acquaintance of his, for Arthur was devoted to sacred music. Although it is quite ten years since I portrayed Sir Frederick he appeared just the same when I saw him recently at lunch at our mutual friend, C. S. Cockburn's house. He has, I think, officiated at innumerable historical ceremonies, including the Jubilees of '87 and '97, as well as the Coronations of King Edward and King George. He told me the following story, in the terse and witty manner which is so characteristic of him.