VICTORIAN COUNT DRACULA ENGLISH STAGE ACTOR HENRY IRVING AUTOGRAPH SIGNED 1889
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SIR HENRY IRVING (1838– 1905)VICTORIAN ERA ENGLISH STAGE THEATERACTOR&WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE ANINSPIRATION FOR COUNT DRACULA!In 1895Irving became the first actor in the United Kingdom to be awarded a knighthoodby Queen Victoria, indicating full acceptance into the higher circles ofBritish society.<<>> HERE’S AN AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED and DATED BY IRVING ONSTIFF ALBUM PAPER:“Very truly yours, Henry Irving: 1889.”Provenance: Ex-Boothbay Th...eatre Museum collection in Maine [now closed]The document measures 6” x 2-3/8” andis in VG condition, with a tear repaired on the verso.A FINE &RARE ADDITION TO YOUR 19th CENTURY THEATRICAL HISTORY AUTOGRAPH, MANUSCRIPT & EPHEMERA COLLECTION!<<>::<>>BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY IRVINGSir Henry Irving, original name JohnHenry Brodribb, (born Feb. 6, 1838, Keinton Mandeville, Somerset, Eng.—died Oct. 13, 1905, Bradford, Yorkshire), one of the mostfamous of English actors, the first of his profession to be knighted (1895) forservices to the stage. He was also a celebrated theatre manager and theprofessional partner of the actress Ellen Terry for 24 years (1878–1902).Irving’s father, Samuel Brodribb, wasa salesman who collected orders for the tailoring department of the localstore. His mother, Mary, was the daughter of a Cornish farming family. In 1842Samuel found better employment in Bristol, and, rather than risk John’s healthin the damp and dirt of the city, his parents decided to send him to relativesin Cornwall. For the next six years John wasbrought up by his aunt and her husband, Isaac, the captain of a Cornish tinmine at Halse Town near St. Ives. Growing up in Cornwall endowed John with astrong constitution. Cornish Methodism, to which his mother was a dedicatedadherent, gave him his first taste of spellbinding oratory—the language of John Wesley. In 1848 John was returned to hisparents, who by this time had moved to London. There he attended Dr. Pinches’ private school.After leaving school he entered amerchant’s office as a clerk, but his spare time and thoughts centred on theplays and players of the London theatre. In 1856 a Brodribb uncle gave him a legacy of £100, which he invested intheatrical necessities such as wigs, swords, and costumes. The legacy alsoallowed him to buy the leading part in an amateur production of Romeo andJuliet at the Royal Soho Theatre. As was the custom of the day, he adopteda stage name—Irving—his choice determined by the romances of Washington Irving and the evangelicalsermons of the Scottish preacher Edward Irving. A warm reception of hisperformance gave him the encouragement he needed. He joined a theatrical stock company in Sunderland in the north of England as a “walking gentleman” (i.e., in noncomedicsupporting roles).The stock companies that traveled from town to town throughout England atthis time constitutedthe only theatrical academy for a young aspiring actor. In three years Irvingplayed more than 400 different parts in 330 plays, including most of theShakespeare repertoire.This apprenticeship continued for 10 years in the provincial towns of England, Scotland, and Ireland. His first success in London came in1866 in a play called Hunted Down.In 1871 Irving emerged as one of the leading actors of his day with hisperformance in The Bells. Staged by the impresario H.L. Bateman at the Lyceum Theatre, it was an instant success.The part of Mathias, an unconvicted murderer haunted by his conscience, suited Irving’s gift for the macabre and the melodramatic, and the playwas to remain a feature of Irving’s repertoire until his death.For four years Irving was the star ofBateman’s company. When Bateman died in 1875, Irving continued to play underthe management of Bateman’s widow until 1877. In 1878 Irving became lessee andmanager of the Lyceum Theatre and built around him a dedicated if subservientcompany. He possessed a strong personal vision of the best that could beaccomplished: he paid prodigious attention to detail, took no account ofexpense for settings and costumes, and hired the best designers and musiciansin the country. The Victorian public responded to his lead with packed houses, for the romantic historicalfare satisfied their concept of what the theatre ought to be. Although he wascriticized for his unusual diction, his special mannerisms, and theshakiness of his literary scholarship, Irving took note of the press only as auseful instrument in support of his grand design. Box-office figures spokelouder than the words of the critics, and success brought acclaim from the richand the famous. The Lyceum became the scene for sumptuous post-performancesupper parties at which society was further entertained at Irving’s expense. Itwas the leading dramatic theatre of the English-speaking world, known forpictorial splendour and exactitude in staging.In 1878 he engaged Ellen Terry as hisleading lady and thereby began one of the most famous partnerships in thehistory of the English stage. Their theatrical qualities complemented eachother admirably: he the brooding introvert, she the spontaneous, impulsivecreature whose charm won every heart. Together, as Hamlet and Ophelia, Shylock and Portia, they drew enormous audiences.In 1883 Irving embarked on the firstof several American tours with the whole company of actors and technicians, aswell as the scenic and lighting effects for which his theatre was famous. Hisreputation had gone before him, and the company enjoyed a triumphal winterseason.For the next few years Irving and theLyceum company were at the height of their financial success. Each newproduction sought to outshine the existing repertoire in sumptuousness andelaboration, though each absorbed the profits of the previous season. The playsthemselves were of no lasting literary merit, as a young critic named George Bernard Shawpointed out. He regretted that an actress as talented as Ellen Terry shouldwaste her time on such ponderous trifles. Shaw had written a play, The Manof Destiny, that he hoped Irving and Terry might perform. Irving read it, gave Shaw a retainer, and forgot about it. Shaw then accused him of suppressingthe play. Irving’s retainer, however, had been only a kind gesture to astruggling young author. The two men now became antagonists.In July 1895, when Irving was honoured by Queen Victoria with a knighthood, hisstatus as a national institution made a more inviting target for Shaw. At thesame time, through Ellen Terry, Shaw implored Irving to consider the work ofthe Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. She managed to read Irvingtwo acts of Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman, but Irving’s comment was“Threadworms and leeches are an interesting study, but they have no interest tome.” Irving’s success had been built on the strength of his own theatricalpresence expressed through dramatic vehicles of a certain type. With all thesigns of popular success around him, he saw no reason to change the formula.His conceptionof the theatre was that of an “actor’s theatre, ” in which the dramatist was theservant of the performer and scenic-effects designer. Shaw and Ibsen marked theemergence of the “author’s theatre, ” whereby an actor was judged on the fidelity with which he interpreted thevision and message of the playwright.In 1897 Irving suffered three severeblows. A production by his son Laurence of a play about Peter the Great was afinancial disaster. A far more devastating blow was the loss through fire ofall the stored scenery for many of the classic productions in the Lyceumrepertoire. Insurance coverage was inadequate, and the capital loss wascrippling. Then, in 1898, Irving had his first serious illness. The companytoured without him, and the box-office receipts fell accordingly.The final years of Irving’s lifebecame a struggle to keep the Lyceum company a going concern. New productionsof Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, as well as of the French playwright Victorien Sardou’s play on Dante, hastenedrather than stemmed the decline. Tours to America were exhausting, without compensating profits. In 1902the limited-liability company formed after the fire went into liquidation, andIrving’s reign at the Lyceum ended. In 1905, after a performance of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Becket inBradford, Irving died, still touring at the age of 68.Source: Encyclopedia BritannicaI am a proud member of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club(UACC), The Ephemera Society of America, the Manuscript Society and theAmerican Political Items Collectors (APIC) (member name: John Lissandrello). 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