OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY.

SECOND SERIES.-No. 44.

HENRY IRVING.

Of all literary tasks it is surely the most pleasing to trace the course of a man of genius from youth and obscurity to maturity and fame. In the labour of the biographer there is at all times a charm unequalled in the whole range of letters; but that chronicler of a career has, we think, the most enviable lot whose duty it is to record, not a startling success at the first onset, but the gradual development of unsuspected resources, the display of which, when the time comes, has all the force of a revelation. The writer of fiction has an ideal pleasure in depicting the trials and dangers from which his hero is to emerge in triumph at the end of the story; and much the same kind of interest, though in a far greater degree, is felt by the biographer in the early struggles of the man who eventually springs from the level allotted to him by the public voice into a sphere which demands such gifts as only a very few ever imagined him to possess. In literature, which is fruitful enough. of surprises, it is difficult to name any remarkable instance of an author passing at a bound from the position of a writer of peculiar but limited talent into the higher walks of representative genius. The success of Charles Dickens was immediate, and the characteristics which marked his first literary efforts were those which soon afterwards established his reputation. The case of Thackeray is different, for the qualities which obtained for his early writings the recognition of an original vein of humour did not prepare the world for the vivid and varied power of the great epic of "Vanity Fair." But it is in the annals of the stage that we find the most striking examples of fame suddenly achieved in the highest art by men who toiled for years either wholly unknown, or accepted as clever interpreters of a useful but not exalted element of

their vocation.

As long as the drama has any interest for the English people, the romantic story of Edmund Kean will be read with delight and wonder. The career of the most distinguished actor of our own time is, in some respects, not less remarkable than that of his great predecessor, and in the sequel it will appear that the obstacles which beset the path of Kean were not greater than those which have been overcome by the genius and ambition of Henry Irving..

John Henry Brodrib Irving was born at Keinton, near Glastonbury, Somersetshire, on the 6th of February, 1838. He was an only son. Of his parents no more need be said than that his father, who noted with the minute care of parental pride every step in his upward progress, extracting from the public journals every reference made to him, lived to see him at the head of his profession. At the age of eleven Irving was placed under the care of Dr. Pinches, a very worthy "instructor of youth," who had a school in George Yard, Lombard Street. The boy soon displayed an absorbing passion for everything dramatic, and the good Doctor sometimes thought it his duty to damp this dangerous ardour. On one occasion young Irving begged to be allowed to recite Bell's poem, "The Uncle," at the school entertainment, but his master drew the line at "The Uncle," and said that it was "too theatrical." A few months ago Mr. Irving recited this same piece at the Compton Benefit at Drury Lane, and it is pleasant to think that Dr. Pinches, had he lived long enough, would have rejoiced that his prohibition of what was "too theatrical" had made so slight an impression on his pupil's mind. In the recitals which were given by the boys at Christmas, Irving displayed an enthusiasm and a talent which were incomprehensible to his companions, who, like most schoolboys, were disposed to look upon anything out of the common in these performances as rather ridiculous than otherwise. The "theatrical" youngster derived some encouragement, however, from the hints and suggestions of a visitor who was occasionally present at the rehearsals. This was the well known actor, Mr. Creswick, to whom it may now be some satisfaction to remember that he taught young Irving how to grasp a dagger in a tragic manner. When fourteen years of age Irving entered the office of an East India merchant, but his heart was not in colonial produce and invoices. Like many who have become famous in art or literature, he began life in circumstances as remote as possible from his true vocation. But all the time that he could spare was devoted to the pursuit on which his mind was set. He joined an elocution class of young men, some of whom were almost as ardent as himself, while all rega:ded the

art they studied as a much more serious business than young men consider it now. At the meetings of the class recitations were given by the members, every detail of which was afterwards discussed. In this interchange of ideas Irving bore his part, but it was in the periodical entertainments with which the little society used to favour their friends that he chiefly distinguished himself. The applause won on these occasions, and the consciousness of increasing capacity, determined him to seek fame and fortune on the stage. This resolution was a grave one, for the path of the actor may be said to be paved with the crushed hopes of those who have gone before him, and fallen; but unfaltering courage was numbered amongst Irving's qualities from the first. An actor named Hoskins, from whom he had taken lessons, introduced him to Mr. Phelps, who immediately offered him an engagement at Sadlers' Wells. Though he did not avail himself of this kindness, Irving has never forgotten it; and, twenty years later, when the two men stood together on the boards at Drury Lane, at the complimentary benefit to Mr. Buckstone, the one the honoured representative of the Old School, and the other the founder of the New, the veteran actor may have been gratified by the reflection that his judgment did not fail him when he sought to enlist the services of the boy of eighteen.

An engagement at Sadlers' Wells must have seemed tempting to a young aspirant, but Irving resolved to begin his career in the provinces. He wished to come back to London with a name. The provinces were then what in a great measure they have since ceased to be, a school of acting, and the beginner had before him the prospect of hard work, and of varied and invaluable experience. But the result of his first essay was not calculated to raise the young man's hopes. His first appearance on the stage was made at the opening of the Lyceum Theatre, Sunderland, in 1856, and the play was Richelieu. In the light of what occurred seventeen years later, when Richelieu was played at a more famous Lyceum, and in far different circumstances, this incident has a singular interest. Irving's part on this occasion was the small one of Orleans, and never was the timid Duke in such trepidation. All the confidence with which the young actor had declaimed to his comrades in the elocution class deserted him when, for the first time, he faced an audience to whom he was entirely unknown, and felt the cold stare of some hundreds of critical eyes. Orleans stuttered and stammered to an extent which even the natural hesitation of his character did not justify, and after this performance Irving was strongly recommended to return to the East India merchant. Undaunted, he