Mr. Irving next tries the three-cornered stools which are placed around the table, but prefers square ones. The dog returns, walks over to the orchestra, looks vainly for a rat, and retreats under the table in the centre of the stage as if things were getting really too much for him. But his resting place is ill-chosen, for presently half-a-dozen angry lords jump on the table, and he is driven forth once more. After a stormy scene with the lords, Mr. Irving walks up the steps again. “When I say ‘I depart,’ you must let me get up the steps. All this time your pent-up anger is waiting to burst out suddenly. Don’t go to sleep over it.” He looks at the table in the centre of the stage, and turns to a carpenter. “This table will never do. It has to be jumped on by so many people that it must be very strong. They follow me. (To Miss Terry) They’d better catch hold of me, up the steps here.”
Miss Terry: They must do something. They can’t stand holding you like that.
Mr. Irving: No. The door opens suddenly at top of steps, and discovers the crowd, who shout, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
The doors open and the crowd shout, but the effect is not good.
Miss Terry: It would be better if it were done at the foot of the steps. The people needn’t show their faces as they do it, and the effect will be so much better.
The effect is tried, and found to answer admirably. Then the carpenters carry away the scenery, and the stage is “set” roughly for the Bower scene in the second act. Mr. Terriss fetches a screen from the left, and places it behind Miss Terry’s chair; Mr. Irving sits facing Miss Terry, backed by another screen to keep off draughts; Mr. Terriss sits a little way back, and the dog goes to sleep in the centre of the group. In the background appear three or four costumed specimen monks and retainers waiting to be inspected, one frivolous being trying to balance a yard measure on the tip of his nose in a manner which ill accords with his monkish vestments. The “music cues” are very difficult to get right. Nearly an hour is consumed in trying different effects. Miss Terry insists that the whole scene entirely depends upon the action, and that the music must be subordinated to it. When the music drowns her voice, she suddenly stops with a despairing gesture, “We couldn’t speak through this any more than the dead. Can’t it begin loudly, Mr. Ball, then die away?” Then she turns to Miss Kate Phillips, who is her maid in the play. “Please try your song at the back there, Miss Phillips.”
mr. irving considering the incidental music.
Miss Phillips sings a very pretty but sad little song, and Miss Terry listens attentively.
“It’s an Irish wail,” says Mr. Irving. “You don’t want an Irish wail here, but a merry song. You should have a mirthful, running accompaniment,” and the song is changed. “That is enough for to-day.”