Meissonier of our stage
I am inclined to say that Hare's best and most complete individual work was his delightful portrait of old Benjamin Goldfinch in A Pair of Spectacles, a performance which gave us something of the simplicity and benevolence of the immortal Samuel Pickwick. I think of Hare, in all he did, as the Meissonier of our stage.
X
ONE OTHER EMPTY CHAIR
"If we really love those whom we lose,
We never really lose those whom we love."
The time has come for me to offer my apology for this book. In my lonely, but not unhappy, old age, the most void of all the Empty Chairs which now surround me is the one so long filled by my partner for more than fifty years.
Let me begin by saying that the foundation of our fortunes was due, solely, to her courage in gallantly deciding that danger was preferable to dullness, and in producing Society, the first of the Robertson comedies, against adverse advice and the fact that the manuscript had been "turned down" by the leading London managers of the day. It may be that the brave decision was also pleasant to her because at the time our mutual attachment was steadily ripening, and, although the part she was willing to take was not prominent, the character which would fall to my lot was a good one and likely to advance my position, if I played it well.
The return to Nature