the face, the eyes, set, while only his mouth twitched, seeming to chew
his words, with the disgust of one swallowing a painful morsel. Where
other actors would have raved, he spoke with bitter humour, a humour
that seemed to hurt the speaker, the concise, active humour of the
soldier, putting his words rapidly into deeds. And his pride was an
intellectual pride; the weakness of a character, but the angry dignity
of a temperament. I have never seen Irving so restrained, so much an
artist, so faithfully interpretative of a masterpiece. Something of
energy, no doubt, was lacking; but everything was there, except the
emphasis which I most often wish away in acting.




DUSE IN SOME OF HER PARTS

I


The acting of Duse is a criticism; poor work dissolves away under it, as
under a solvent acid. Not one of the plays which she has brought with
her is a play on the level of her intelligence and of her capacity for
expressing deep human emotion. Take "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray." It is a
very able play, it is quite an interesting glimpse into a particular
kind of character, but it is only able, and it is only a glimpse. Paula,
as conceived by Mr. Pinero, is a thoroughly English type of woman, the
nice, slightly morbid, somewhat unintelligently capricious woman who has
"gone wrong," and who finds it quite easy, though a little dull, to go
right when the chance is offered to her. She is observed from the
outside, very keenly observed; her ways, her surface tricks of emotion,