was probably his Hamlet in which his thought, his princely air, his fantasy, his tenderness, and his power of suggesting coming doom, all had play. His much debated Macbeth, his Iago, and his Shylock were also very fine; as Othello and Romeo he was less successful. A sardonic humour and a raffish air were the best things in such comic parts as Jingle and Robert Macaire.
For the modern drama of his own country Irving did little or nothing. It did not appeal to him, nor did it suit his large theatre or his love of beautiful production. His excursions into it were few and ill-judged; but he has the honour of having staged Tennyson's ‘The Cup,’ ‘Queen Mary,’ and ‘Becket.’ The other dramatists whom he employed gave him nothing of permanent value.
The sumptuousness and elaboration of his mountings have been exaggerated. In the early days of his management they were very modest. As time went on they grew more complete and splendid; but, if they left little to the imagination, and if his example has led to subsequent extravagance and vulgarity, Irving himself never mangled Shakespeare in order merely to make room for more scenery (though he altered him in order to secure the kind of dramatic effects demanded by the modern stage). Not himself a man of wide culture or trained taste, he took advantage of the contemporary revival in art, and knew where to go to find beauty; and among those who designed scenes or costumes for him were Burne-Jones, Alma-Tadema, and Seymour Lucas, while his music was supplied by the leading composers of the time. In rehearsing he was even more fixed than Macready (though more courteously so) in his own opinion on the smallest details; and the result was a perfection in the ensemble, a single artistic impression, which in tragedy had not been known before, even in the accurate archæology of the Shakespeare productions of Charles Kean. By these means and by his own acting, he drew back to the theatre the intelligent and distinguished people who had deserted it. He numbered among his personal friends the leading men in the country, was invited to meet royalty at country houses, and entertained magnificently (indeed, almost officially as head of the English stage) in his own theatre. The effect was to fulfil one of his dearest wishes, that the drama might be raised to an acknowledged place of honour among the arts and influences of civilisation. Its maintenance there he believed to be impossible without an endowed national theatre.
The portraits of Irving in oil, statuary, and other media are very many. The principal oil-portraits are (1) full-length as Philip II by Whistler (about 1875), now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York; an etching after this picture was made by the painter; (2, 3, and 4) as Richard Duke of Gloucester (1878), as Hamlet (1880), and as Vanderdecken (1880), all by Edwin Long, and in the collection of Mr. Burdett-Coutts; (5) three-quarter length, seated, in modern dress, by J. Bastien-Lepage (1880), in the National Portrait Gallery; (6) half-length, seated, in modern dress, by the Hon. John Collier (1886); (7) three-quarter length, standing, in modern dress, by Millais (1884), in the Garrick Club (engraved by T. O. Barlow, 1885); a copy of this picture, presented by the Garrick Club to the National Portrait Gallery, is on loan to the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery, Stratford-upon-Avon. Oil-portraits of Irving as Mathias and as Charles I, by James Archer, R.S.A., were exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1872 and 1873 respectively. An oil portrait by J. S. Sargent, R.A., which was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1889, was afterwards destroyed by Irving (The Bancrofts, p. 337). In statuary the following portraits are known: (1) a marble statue by R. Jackson, exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1874; (2) a marble bust, by W. Brodie (1878), in the possession of Mr. Burdett-Coutts; (3) a marble statue of Irving as Hamlet, by E. Onslow Ford, R.A. (1883–5), in the Guildhall Art Gallery; (4) a bronze bust by Courtenay Pollock, R.B.A. (1905), in the Garrick Club; (5) a small figure as Tamerlaine, by E. Onslow Ford, forming part of the Marlowe Memorial at Canterbury; (6) a colossal statue in academic robes, by Thomas Brock, R.A., erected by subscription of actors and actresses in front of the north side of the National Portrait Gallery and unveiled by Sir John Hare on 5 Dec. 1910. Many sketches and studies of Irving were made by Bernard Partridge; among these, one, a pen-and-ink sketch of Irving as Richard III, is in the possession of Mr. Burdett-Coutts, who also owns sketches and drawings of Irving by F. W. Lawson and James Pryde, and miniatures of Irving at twenty-five and at thirty-seven by an artist unknown. Drawings by Fred Barnard are frequent. A pastel of Irving as Dubosc, by Martin Harvey, is in the possession of Mr. Charles Hughes
