no English actor since Macready left the
stage, and he may at the present moment claim the dignity of being a
bone of contention in London society second only in magnitude to the
rights of the Turks and the wrongs of the Bulgarians. I am told that
London is divided, on the subject of his merits, into two fiercely
hostile camps; that he has sown dissension in families, and made old
friends cease to "speak." His appearance in a new part is a great event;
and if one has the courage of one's opinion, at dinner tables and
elsewhere, a conversational godsend. Mr. Irving has "created," as the
French say, but four Shakespearian parts; his Richard III. has just been
given to the world. Before attempting Hamlet, which up to this moment
has been his great success, he had attracted much attention as a
picturesque actor of melodrama, which he rendered with a refinement of
effect not common upon the English stage. Mr. Irving's critics may, I
suppose, be divided into three categories: those who justify him in
whatever he attempts, and consider him an artist of unprecedented
brilliancy; those who hold that he did very well in melodrama, but that
he flies too high when he attempts Shakespeare; and those who, in vulgar
parlance, can see nothing in him at all.

I shrink from ranging myself in either of these divisions, and indeed I
am not qualified to speak of Mr. Irving's acting in general. I have
seen none of his melodramatic parts; I do not know him as a comedian--a
capacity in which some people think him at his best; and in his
Shakespearian repertory I have seen only his Macbeth and his Richard.
But judging him on the evidence of these two parts, I fall hopelessly
among the skeptics. Mr. Henry Irving is a very convenient illustration.
To a stranger desiring to know how the London stage stands, I should
say, "Go and see this gentleman; then tell me what you think of him."
And I should expect the stranger to come back and say, "I see what you
mean. The London stage has reached that pitch of mediocrity at which
Mr. Henry Irving overtops his fellows--Mr. Henry Irving figuring as a
great man--_c'est tout dire_." I hold that there is an essential truth
in the proverb that there is no smoke without fire. No reputations are
altogether hollow, and no valuable prizes have been easily won. Of
course Mr. Irving has a good deal of intelligence and cleverness; of
course he has mastered a good many of the mysteries of his art. But I
must neverthel