The Idler Magazine, Volume III, March 1893 An Illustrated Monthly

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Transcribers Notes: Title and Table of Contents added.


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 THE IDLER MAGAZINE.
 AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY.

 March 1893.


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 CONTENTS.


 THE LYCEUM REHEARSALS.
     BY G. B. BURGIN.

 A BLESSING DISGUISED.
     BY F. W. ROBINSON.

 "LIONS IN THEIR DENS."
     III.--GEORGE NEWNES AT PUTNEY.
     BY RAYMOND BLATHWAYT.

 NOVEL NOTES.
     BY JEROME K. JEROME.

 ON PILGRIMS AND THE PILGRIM SPIRIT.
     BY A. ADAMS MARTIN.

 A COLLEGE IDYL.
     BY S. GORDON.

 MY FIRST BOOK.
     BY F. W. ROBINSON.

 TOLD BY THE COLONEL.
     XI.
     HOSKINS'S PETS.
     BY W. L. ALDEN.

 EXPERIENCES OF A 'VARSITY OAR.
     BY AN "OLD BLUE."
     (F. C. DRAKE.)

 THE IDLERS CLUB.
     IS CHILDHOOD THE HAPPIEST OR THE
     MOST MISERABLE PERIOD OF ONE'S EXISTENCE?


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[Illustration: MR. HENRY IRVING WATCHING A REHEARSAL]




_The Lyceum Rehearsals._

BY G. B. BURGIN.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE.

(_Photographs by Messrs. Barraud._)

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[Illustration: TENNYSON.]

One day a paragraph appears in the papers that a new piece will shortly
be produced at such and such a theatre. Paterfamilias lays down the
paper and placidly observes that it may be worth while getting seats.
Then he goes down to the theatre, books seats, and troubles himself no
more about the matter until the first night of the play in question. The
world behind the curtain is one with which he is totally unfamiliar. He
knows naught of its struggles, its hopes and fears, its arduous work,
its magnificent prizes and sore disappointments. So many thousands of
pounds have been spent in preparing the play, so many reputations are at
stake, so many hearts will be gay and glad to-morrow, or aching with the
bitter pain of defeat. But to Paterfamilias these are all the joys or
sorrows of another world. As he watches the smooth, easy performance, in
which every actor has his place, in which the whole pageant produces
itself without apparent effort, he fails to imagine the ceaseless work
involved in its adequate realisation. He does not know that for weeks
before the production of a new play, say at the Lyceum for instance, Mr.
Irving and the wonderful company which he has gathered round him labour
over it often far into the night after the audience has left. The
general idea of an actor's life is that it is a delightful round of
social pleasures tempered by a few hours' light, agreeable work in the
evening; to those who think this, a visit to the Lyceum rehearsals would
reveal the other side of the shield. Very few men in London labour so
indefatigably as Mr. Irving. To watch him directing a rehearsal almost
makes one's head ache at the mere idea of such unceasing labour. Every
motion, however insignificant, of each individual on the stage, from
himself down to the newest and rawest "super," has to be thought out and
planned in Mr. Irving's brain. Like an ideal general, he leaves nothing
to chance, nothing to subordinates. The turning up or down of every gas
jet, the movement of every piece of furniture, the effect of every note
of music, has received his most careful thought. One watches him stand
hour after hour on the Lyceum stage, without weariness, without
impatience, guiding the whole of the great production. And though Mr.
Irving never spares himself, he is very considerate to others. When, for
instance, a young actor is unable to comprehend the full meaning of an
explanation, Mr. Irving walks up and down the stage, one arm on his
shoulder, and explains the whole conception of the part. He is not only
a great actor, but a great teacher; and his influence pervades and
dominates every being in the theatre. He does not merely assert, but
gives full and sufficient reason for every action until every one on the
stage grasps the exact meaning of the scene as well as he does himself.
As an instance of this, let us follow the rehearsals of "Becket."

[Illustration: MR. HENRY IRVING.]

[Illustration: MISS TERRY STUDYING HER PART.]

[Illustration: MR. WILLIAM TERRISS.]

The theatre itself is deserted save by some ghostly caretaker who
glides noiselessly through the shadowy gloom, sliding a brush over the
upholstery without looking at it, and replacing each covering as she
goes. On the stage are two gentlemen wearing picturesque soft hats, and
long coats which reach to within half-a-foot of the ground. The taller
of the two, Mr. Henry Irving, wears a light drab-coloured coat and dark
hat; Mr. William Terriss is attired in a light hat and dark coat. In the
centre of the stage, close to the foot-lights, stands a screen; behind
the screen is a chair.