Henry Irving, Shakespearean by Alan Hughes (review)

90 Comparative Drama the Wayang Kulit for the first time (and the authors clearly indicate in their preface that the book is designed for “the ever mounting number of tourists to Indonesia” and “a potential serious student”) are likely to be put off the subject by the excessive and unnecessary use of foreign words and phrases. Technical terms and personal names throughout, especially in the performance section, make it extremely difficult to follow the drift of the delightful story. Except for a vague reference to personal preferences, it is not clear why the authors chose to use only photographs illustrating Solonese puppets without including even one illustration of a Yogyanese puppet to point out the contrasting style of the carving and depiction of char­ acter. And although the colorful environment around performance is accorded brief treatment in the text, it is not integrated into the ebb and flow of the play which makes the final chapter somewhat dry reading, especially in view of the excessive use of foreign words and phrases. The reader, potential spectators and students are likely to find the last chapter altogether disappointing after what has been such a fine start. FARLEY RICHMOND Michigan State University Alan Hughes. Henry Irving, Shakespearean. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni­ versity Press, 1981. Pp. xvi + 304. $44.50. It would be satisfying to be able to convey the sense of wonder, delight and gratification this book gave me. It is a treat. The wonder and delight come from Hughes’s ability to put us almost into the stalls (even occasionally into the pit) at London’s Lyceum Theatre in the 1870’s, 80’s, and 90’s, and show us what happened in Irving’s Hamlet (and in half a dozen of the other Shakespearean roles Sir Henry played). By assiduous detective work, assimilating vast amounts of resource material and by his own theatrical skills and intuition, Hughes also shows what must have happened in Sir Henry’s rehearsal process, how performances shifted because of pressure from critics and the audience and their own internal dynamics, and how the productions themselves varied over the years as Irving’s experience and physical capabilities altered. The sources include prompt books, study notes, and letters of Sir Henry’s and his colleagues, as well as reviews and reports of the performances. Hughes does not let us stroll into the Lyceum in modern dress, physically or mentally, armored with modern notions and beliefs about Shakespeare and drama. He makes us “dress in state to hear Irving,” to quote his quoting the Chicago Morning News of 1887. The book’s theme is another quotation, one by scholar Edward Dowden speaking of Irving, “An actor’s commentary is his acting.” Hughes believes that Irving’s work as actor, limited by his time and tradition as all actors’ work is, nevertheless deserves study for the light the performances threw on his talents, his age, his mind— and upon Shakespeare. He gives us a fine introductory chapter, describing the Lyceum and its place in 19th-cen- Reviews 91 tury theatre, presenting a little of Irving’s life and career with some mention of his famous idiosyncracies—the long body, the thin legs, the vocal choices, his peculiar intensity—as well as his company of 600 (!), his scenic innovations, and reminding us of his years of campaigning to have the art of acting recognized as art and actors as respectable beings. Hughes prepares us for an entrance into Sir Henry’s mind as Shake­ spearean interpreter. It is an axiom in the theatre—perhaps also in scholarship?—that each of us sees in Shakespeare a person very like himself. Our theories, concepts and productions may well proclaim more about us than they do about Shakespeare. That axiom, applied to Henry Irving as presented to us in this book, shows that he must have been a deeply generous, deeply loving man. He saw love as the operating force in Hamlet and King Lear, and as a primary theme in most of the plays. Irving was also a practical man of the theatre, as all practical men of the theatre believe Shakespeare to have been. Irving’s was the theatre of Illusion, a theatre...