THE WEEK'S GREAT PAY

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 230, 28 September 1929, Page 8

THE WEEK'S GREAT PAY

SEPT. 29.—SIR HENRY IRVING': FIRST APPEARANCE. (Copyrighted.) Seventy-three years ago, on September 2! ISSS, Sir Henry Irving, the most illustrious acto of the Victorian era and the first member of th dramatic profession to receive a knighthood, mad his first professional appearance on the stage o the Lyceum Theatre, Sunderland. Ho was born on February 6, 1838, in th Somerset village of Keinton Mandeville, where hi father, Samuel Brodribb, was in business as storekeeper. On his parents' removal to Londo; he went to live with an aunt in Cornwall, wher he remained until he was eleven years of age Hβ then joined his parents in London, and threi years later he became a clerk in a merchant' office. During the next four years all his poeke money was expended on secret visits to th> theatre and lessons in elocution, for, in spite o the strong opposition of his parents, he decidei to become an actor. On the occasion of his first appearance h< adopted the name of Henry Irving, which he late assumed by Royal license, and his part was tha of Cleomenes in Shakepeare's "Winter's Tale.' On this and many subsequent occasions he prover a dire failure. His nervousness, ungainly figuri and pronounced mannerisms were a serious handicap in his early days, but indomitable per severance and incessant study gradually gainec for him recognition in several small province companies, and during the first ten years of his career he played considerably over five hundret different parts. He made his first important appearance in London in 1800, and four years later his greal success as Digby Grant in "'The Two Roses' secured him an engagement to play leading parti at the Lyceum Theatre, where he induced the manager to produce "The Bells." Irving's masterlj performance as Mathias in that play established him firmly in public favour, and during the nexl eight years he added to his laurels by a Ion" series of successful characterisations. In 1878 he took over the management of the Lyceum and then commenced his epoch-marking partnership with Ellen Terry, which lasted foi nearly a quarter of a century. His superb stage management and magnificent productions made the Lyceum the most famous theatre in the world; and although the leading critics differed in opinion as to his genius no other actor in theatrical history has ever attained a higher place in public favour, not only throughout the British Empire, but also in the United States. The knighthood which Queen Victoria conferred upon Irving in 1895 was a well-deserved and universally popular tribute to his long and successful efforts to elevate the stage, and established a precedent which has since been followed in the case of several other players, including three actors who were at one time members of Irving's Lyceum company, viz., George Alexander, Johnston Forbes-Robertson and John Martin Harvey. In 1905 Irving started on a farewell provincial tour and made his last appearance in Lord Tennyson's "Becket" on October 13, 1905. The closing lines in the final scene of that play, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, into Thy hands," were almost the last words spoken by the great actor, for soon after reaching his hotel that night he expired suddenly. His body was cremated, and his ashes were given an honoured resting place in Westminster Abbey beside the grave of his famous predecessor, David Garrick, and in front of the memorial to Shakespeare.