Impression Henry Irving: The Performance in the Portrait by Jules Bastien-Lepage

A s star actor and manager of the Lyceum Theatre, Henry Irving was among the most dominant theatrical figures of his time. His command of the Lyceum, its repertoire, company constituency, and artistic presentation was, in the tradition of the British actor/manager, absolute. His reign there lasted from 1878 until 1899, from the time he was forty until he was sixty-one, six years prior to his death. Irving was, however, not only powerful but controversial. His choice of plays was limited for the most part to Shakespeare and select melodramas, notably to works that featured roles presumably suited to his own particular talents and inclinations. George Bernard Shaw carried on a vociferous and well-documented argument with Irving that, among other matters, pertained to the latter's lack of interest in introducing new works-including plays by Henrik Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, or by Shaw himself. And, in spite of his considerable success and popular reception in roles from Shylock to Mephistopheles to Mathias in The Bells (1871), Irving was not a consistent critical favorite. Although lauded for the strength and magnetic force of his stage presence, and for his success in given roles, he was critiqued and even satirized, in print and in illustrative caricature, for a range of perceived abnormalities and eccentricities having to do with his walk, tempo, vocal inflections, and range of expression and gesture-that is, for the most fundamental elements of an actor's instrument, physicalization, and interpretive choices. Ellen Terry recounts what the actor said to her once, as they were traveling together on tour in America: "I was thinking... how strange it is that I should have made the reputation I have as an actor, with nothing to help me -with no equipment. My legs, my voice-everything has been against me. For an actor who can't walk, can't talk, and has no face to speak of, I've done pretty well" (qtd. in Story 108). Terry herself echoed the actor's own assessment: "Irving at