Part 10 (1/2)

Henry once told me that in the early part of his career, before I knew his The first service I did hiive up padding thes!” I expostulated

I brought help, too, in pictorialin suchmust be trained I had learned from Mr Watts, from Mr Goodwin, and from other artists, until a sense of decorative effect had become second nature to es of their career is s in Henry for which other people criticised him I hope this helped him a little

RICHARD MANSFIELD

[Richard Mansfield, one of the great actors of his tioland, then a British Possession, in 1857 He prepared himself for the East Indian civil service, then studied art, and opened a studio in Boston He was soon attracted to the stage, and began playingmarked ability from the first His versatility took him all the way from the role of Koko in the ”Mikado,” to Beau Brummel and Richard III His success soon enabled hier he produced with erac,” ”Henry V,” and ”Julius Caesar” He died in 1907, a feeeks after a striking creation of ”Peer Gynt” A biography of Mr Mansfield by Mr Paul Wilstach is published by C Scribner's Sons, New York

Mr Mansfield's article on ”Man and the Actor,” which appeared in the _Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1906, copyright by Houghton, Mifflin & Co, Boston, is here given almost in full by the kind permission of the publishers and of Mrs Richard Mansfield It is in effect an autobiographical revelation of the artist and the man--ED]

MAN AND THE ACTOR

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every man must play a part

Shakespeare does not say ”may” play a part, or ”can” play a part, but he says _must_ play a part; and he has expressed the conviction of every intelligent student of hue cannot be held in conte, and every hu a part The better a man plays his part, the better he succeeds The reater the ar in the street, every edian in the world than a great king The knowledge of the art of acting is indispensable to a knowledge of uise in which every man arrays himself, or to read the character which every e of your fellow men, and you are able to cope with the man, either as he is, or as he pretends to be It was necessary for Shakespeare to be an actor in order to know e, Shakespeare could never have been the reader of e worth while?”

NAPOLEON AS ACTOR

Napoleon and Alexander were both great actors--Napoleon perhaps the greatest actor the world has ever seen Whether on the bridge of Lodi, or in his ca his soldiers in the plains of Egypt; whether throwing open his old gray coat and saying, ”Children, will you fire on your general?” whether bidding farewell to the on the deck of the _Bellerophon_, or on the rocks of St Helena--he was always an actor

Napoleon had studied the art of acting, and he knew its value If the power of the eye, the power of the voice, the power of that all-coiment of veterans on his return from Elba, he was lost But he had proved and compelled his audience too often for his art to fail hiuns fell The audience was his Another crown had fallen! By what? A trick of the stage! Was he willing to die then? to be shot by his old guard? Not he! Did he doubt for one moment his ability as an actor Not he! If he had, he would have been lost And that power to control, that power to command, once it is possessed by a man, means that that man can play his part anywhere, and under all circureat reat part, has been an actor Each man, every man, who has made his mark has chosen his character, the character best adapted to hi to it, and ure of Daniel Webster, who never lost an opportunity to act; or General Grant, who chose for his e, surnamed the Silent You will find every one of yourearly in life some admired hero of his own to copy Who can doubt that Napoleon had selected Julius Caesar? For, once he had founded an e about hiiowns--the very furniture! Actors, painters, s and queens, all play their parts, and all build themselves after some favourite model In this woman of society you trace the influence of the Princess Metternich In another we see her admiration (and a very proper one) for Her Britannic Majesty In another we behold George Eliot, or Queen Louise of Prussia, or the influence of some modern society leader But no hest, the actor is do, and this trait exhibits itself early in the youngest child Everywhere you see stage-craft in one form or another Ifbe escorted by the lifeguards, arrayed in shi+ning helmets and breastplates, which we know are perfectly useless in these days when a bullet will go through fifty of the a man thinks of when he has to face any ordeal, be it a coronation or an execution, is, how a to look? how am I to behave? what nified, or happy and pleased? shall I wear a portentous frown or a bea ones? shall I stoop as if boith care, or walk erect with courage and pride? shall I gaze fearlessly on all about round? If s at all, he would not bother his head about the to his nature In the last event this would have to be, in some cases, on all fours

I stretch my eyes over the orld, and the people in it, and I can see no one who is not playing a part; therefore respect the art of which you are all devotees, and, if youof others, so that youplayed by others

THE GIFT FOR ACTING IS RARE

It is, therefore, not a, and it is not a that every one thinks he can act

You have only to suggest private theatricals, when a house party is assembled at some country house, to verify the truth of the statement

Immediately commences a lively rivalry as to who shall play this part or that Each one considers herself or himself best suited, and I have known private theatricals to lead to lifelong en to discover how very differently people who have played parts all their lives deport thehts

I was acquainted with a lady in London who had been the wife of a peer of the realn courts, who at one ti for a new experience, and ie In a weaka play, I cast her for a part which I thought she would admirably suit-that of a society woe passes all belief She becaled in her train, she could neither sit down nor stand up, she shouted, she could not be persuaded to re into the actor's ears, and she coaucheries you would expect fro in private life, every one thinks he can act upon the stage, and there is no profession that has so many critics Every individual in the audience is a critic, and knows all about the art of acting But acting is a gift It cannot be taught You can teach people how to act acting--but you can't teach thereat poetry and great pictures What is coenerally accepted as acting A s his head, and does various other things; he may even shout and rant; soer nails; they work hard and perspire, and their skin acts This is all easily co, and is applauded, but the man who is actually the e will often be misunderstood, be disliked, and fail to attract Mediocrity rouses no opposition, but strong individualities and forcible opinions er lies

Many an actor has set out with an ideal, but, failing to gain general favour, has abandoned it for the easierpopular acclaim Inspiration only comes to those who permit themselves to be inspired It is a form of hypnotism Allow yourself to be convinced by the character you are portraying that you are the character If you are to play Napoleon, and you are sincere and determined to be Napoleon, Napoleon will not permit you to be any one but Napoleon, or Richard III Richard III, or Nero Nero, and so on He would be a poor, miserable pretence of an actor who in the representation of any historical personage were otherwise than fir into the man's skin (which means the exhaustive study of all that was ever known about hi that very man for a few brief hours And so it is, in another form, with the creation or realisation of the author's, the poet's, fancy In this latter case the actor, the poet actor, sees and creates in the air before hi the day, in the long hours of the night; the character gradually takes being; he is the actor's genius; the slave of the ring, who comes when he calls hihostly arms; the actor's personality disappears; he is the character You, you, and you, and all of you, have the right to object to the actor's creation; you may say this is not your conception of Hao or Richard or Nero or Shylock--but respect his And who can tell whether he is right or you are right? He has created the care; therefore don't sneer at them--don't jeer at thearden, and seen it bud and bloom, are you pleased to have some ruthless vandal tear the flowers from their stem and trample them in the mud? And it is not always our most beautiful children we love the best The parent's heart will surely warm toward its feeblest child

THE CREATION OF A CHARACTER

It is very evident that any ood taste, make what is technically termed a production There is, as an absolute matter of fact, no particular credit to be attached to the e, of the actor, does not lie there It is easy for us to busy ourselves, to pass pleasantly our ti costurandeur, whether of landscape or of architecture, the panoply of war, or the luxury of royal courts That is fun--pleasure and ae lies in the creation of a character A great character will live forever, when paint and canvas and silks and satins and gold foil and tinsel shall have gone the way of all rags