What did it take to be befriended by Irving? Like all of us, he took to people with whom he felt in sympathy, and who displayed honesty and integrity. But genuine friendships were cherished assiduously, even those made before he went on the stage.

Some took advantage of his essentially generous nature, claiming close acquaintance, especially as his fame and prestige grew, for to boast of comradeship with so august a figure raised one’s own stock. Friendships therefore were vital to a man who, despite his austere appearance and intimidating personality, was warm-hearted and affectionate. After his marriage failed he lived solitarily in a gloomy flat his relatives were remote his bitterly antagonistic wife ensured that he had little contact with his sons-and that they were brought up to regard him almost as the anti-Christ. Henry Irving, it was often remarked, was essentially a lonely man. We all need friends to a greater or lesser extent to Irving friendship was central to his private life and important in the development of his career, and as shall see, he developed an extraordinary emotional charge which overwhelmed audiences and acquaintances, and whose fall-out is still perceptible a century after his death. Friendship and character, for one surely depends upon the other. In return, Irving treated Loveday with a trust and affection which was never so apparent in his relations with Stoker.’įriendship, therefore, is my theme. ‘If his acquiescence in every word or whim his Chief expressed was something of a joke among the company, it sprang from a lifelong devotion to his friend and from an inherent belief that all he said or did was divinely inspired. In his monumental 1951 biography of his grandfather, Laurence Irving said of H.I.’s stagemanager, Harry Loveday: This interchange brings to mind H.I., sitting in the Lyceum stalls surrounded by nervous lieutenants, giving his ever-forthright opinions on scenery, music, props., furniture, costumes, to which they would all readily concur and he, mischievously, would then reverse his opinion just to see them attempt, like Polonius, a similarly swift U-turn. Polonius By th’ mass and ’tis, like a camel indeed. Hamlet Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?

Polonius My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently. This is an extended version of a talk given at the Society’s Buffet Luncheon held at the Savile Club on 27 October 2006.

The Vanished Knight by M. Gerrick