| Author: | Irving, Henry | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | Lyceum Theatre | ||
| Recipient: | Barrett, Oscar Harmon | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1895, Feb., 12 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (1 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | He cannot attend that day's tribute to Barrett, but sends good wishes. | ||
| Published: | - | ||
| Notes: | Addressed to Barrett as masonic Worshipful Master, on deep mourning paper. Irving became a freemason in 1877 and belonged to several lodges. | ||
| Document Holder: | P | ||
| Ref.No: | 7847 | ||
| Author: | Barnum, Phineas Taylor | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | The Grand Hotel, Trafalgar Square | ||
| Recipient: | Irving, Henry | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1882, June, 12 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (1 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | If possible he will come to London on 24th to attend Irving's dinner on 25th. He will write from the Continent &c. in four days. (Postscript:) He gives up his Life to Irving in accompanying volume. He leaves on Wednesday morning. | ||
| Published: | |||
| Notes: | On 25th June there was a banquet on the stage of the Lyceum to celebrate the 100th performance of 'Romeo and Juliet'. Barnum's autobiography 'The Life of P.T. Barnum, written by himself' had been published in 1855 and was later revised and often reprinted. | ||
| Document Holder: | BL (Reference: Add.MS.49458.f.99) | ||
| Ref.No: | 7856 | ||
| Author: | Irving, Henry | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | Edinburgh Hotel, Edinburgh (written - Lyceum Theatre crossed out) | ||
| Recipient: | Sala, George Augustus | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1891, Nov., 20 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (2 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | Thanks for the charming article which displays Sala's wide knowledge. He refers to past days and wishes a man could gather a dramatic company for £1.14s., which might produce a modest income. He hopes they will soon meet and that Mrs Sala will join them. | ||
| Published: | - | ||
| Notes: | Irving's "Those days are past Floranthe" is a misquotation from George Colman the Younger's play 'The Mountaineers', which seems to have become a catch-phrase. Sala's article has yet to be identified. | ||
| Document Holder: | BL (Reference: Add.MS.54316.f.159) | ||
| Ref.No: | 7857 | ||
| Author: | Irving, Henry | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | Lyceum Theatre | ||
| Recipient: | Shaw, George Bernard | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1897, May, 9 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (6 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | Shaw's unfeeling attacks on the helpless suggest he has lost the consciousness of vulgarity. His indifference to the feelings of others explains Irving's frankness. He knows nothing of the paragraphs which perhaps Shaw wrote himself, and returns them. Bram Stoker had written that he would not be able to produce the admirable little play, but on second thoughts, he will if he can give it a fair run. If only for a night or two he will return it, and if Shaw insists in having it back - over to Mansfield. A partnership for him with Mansfield should succeed with such a recommendation! Irving has changed, but only a fool never changes his mind. He will be glad to meet Shaw at any time but this is the only answer to his letters. | ||
| Published: | - | ||
| Notes: | An angry reply to a lost letter, in part about 'The Man of Destiny'. The paragraphs Irving refers to may be press cuttings, as he mentions Romeike's cutting service. The part of Napoleon had been written by Shaw for Richard Mansfield. Irving had had unsatisfactory dealings with Mansfield who had owed him money for several years. With a covering note from Ellen Terry to Shaw dated 11th May, questioning Irving's accusation that Shaw worried the helpless, and saying that Irving was silly and she had told him so. She quotes phrases from this letter in a letter to Shaw on 11th May, saying she read it on 10th, and that the phrases are not Irving's. Shaw's reply (Letter 4598) which picks up phrase about weathercocks from this letter is dated 10th May. | ||
| Document Holder: | BL (Reference: Add.MS.43801.f.91) | ||
| Ref.No: | 7868 | ||
| Author: | Shaw, George Bernard | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | 29 Fitzroy Square, W | ||
| Recipient: | Irving, Henry | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1897, May, 10 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (2 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | They will settle this quickly. Irving should not play 'The Man of Destiny' if he does not wish but he must not supress it, and play fair. Press reports have misrepresented the case and are not fair to Shaw, implying he has been bought. Contradiction should come from Irving and leave Shaw to deal with the play elsewhere. He is to see Forbes Robertson and he and Mrs Campbell can play 'The Man of Destiny' well enough which he would have suggested but for Irving's prior claim. Irving should announce he is handing the play to his old lieutenant with Shaw's reluctant consent. He will speak if Irving does not. It is useless his coming to talk. Let him have the answer at once as is about to leave town. | ||
| Published: | L. Irving, p.605-06; Shaw, Collected letters, Vol.I, p.755-6 | ||
| Notes: | The reply to Letter 7868, typewritten in green ink. Irving replied by sending back the play by Stoker. In 1950 Shaw wrote to the younger Laurence Irving denying he had received one draft and saying he had only ever received one letter in Irving's own hand, after complaining about those written by Stoker and Austin, which contained a grammatical error and amounted to a request to be left alone. | ||
| Document Holder: | THM (Reference: THM/37/1/47) | ||
| Ref.No: | 4598 | ||
| Author: | Irving, Henry | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | Lyceum Theatre | ||
| Recipient: | Osborne, Charles Churchill | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1890, Jan., 7 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (1 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | Thanks for sending news of the death of their friend [John] Westland Marston. After his pain and suffering, death to him must have been a relief. | ||
| Published: | - | ||
| Notes: | Addressed "Dear Sir" but from a collection assembled by Osborne who was secretary to Baroness Burdett-Coutts, 1887-1898. Marston died on 5th or 6th January. | ||
| Document Holder: | BL (Reference: Add.MS.63097.f.275) | ||
| Ref.No: | 7876 | ||
| Author: | Irving, Henry | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | Grand Hotel, Liverpool | ||
| Recipient: | Gladstone, William Ewart | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1883, Oct., 6 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (3 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | He is glad he will see Gladstone on Wednesday at Knowsley as he has received an invitation from Lord Derby. The previous night he was with Mr [Edward] Russell and they spoke of "Your Lordship". He sends Gladstone a copy of 'The Fortnightly' containing an article by Russell setting out his theory that the Shakespearean spirit is not classical. To Irving Shakespeare is at times strangely realistic, and he quotes from 'Macbeth' and 'Hamlet'. | ||
| Published: | - | ||
| Notes: | A letter the same day to Gladstone from Lady Derby indicates that Gladstone mentioned Irving to them, and they were glad to ask him to dine. | ||
| Document Holder: | BL (Reference: Add.MS.44483.f.207) | ||
| Ref.No: | 7875 | ||
| Author: | Pinero, Arthur Wing | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | Echo Lodge, Milton-next-Gravesend | ||
| Recipient: | Irving, Henry | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1882, Oct., 15 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (2 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | He saw the first performance of 'Much Ado About Nothing' on Wednesday ... as perfect a representation of a Shakespearean play as possible... The work at Irving's theatre does so much to create new playgoers which they want far more than new theatres, and perhaps new plays. | ||
| Published: | Ellen Terry Memoirs, p.228. | ||
| Notes: | Wednesday 11th October. | ||
| Document Holder: | BL (Reference: Loan MS 125/29/7 (ETArchive ET,IN P-Q Z1,353)) | ||
| Ref.No: | 2340 | ||
| Author: | Irving, Henry | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | 15A, Grafton Street, Bond Street, W. | ||
| Recipient: | Craig, Edith Geraldine Ailsa | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1897, Aug., 2 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (4 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | He wishes he could have seen 'Journeys End', hearing she did well. She was right to stay on with the prospect of work and experience - a member of the Independent Company should be financially independent. He will miss his Sozel with a newly found daughter. He is going to stay in Epping Forest during the Stratford week. Her mother hopes to be at the other Stratford [upon Avon] that night and set out the day before. Send him a paper if anything very good. God bless her. | ||
| Published: | - | ||
| Notes: | Edy may have been on tour as 'Journeys End' is not recorded in central London in 1897. Irving was about to tour, beginning at Stratford East on 6th September. Suzanne Sheldon replaced Edy Craig as Sozel in 'The Bells'. | ||
| Document Holder: | BL (Reference: Loan MS 125/27/1 (ETArchive ET HIL-B1)) | ||
| Ref.No: | 7889 | ||
| Author: | Clarke, James Hamilton Siree | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Address: | Comedy Theatre | ||
| Recipient: | Irving, Henry | ||
| Address: | - | ||
| Date: | 1887, June, 18 | ||
| Document Type: | Letter (2 p.) | ||
| Content Summary: | As he thought it was for a single matinee he only charged Mr Calmour two thirds of what Charles Hawtrey paid for the music to 'Harvest' for the music to 'The Amber Heart' although spending ten times more care and time on it. Since the great success of the play has made it Irving's property and a stock piece, he requests a small supplementary payment of perhaps £15. Calmour does not know of this. | ||
| Published: | |||
| Notes: | Irving bought Alfred Calmour's play for Ellen Terry. This letter reached her by mistake and Clarke was forced to send Irving a copy in 1888 (Letter 8928). The whole correspondence is Letters 8928-34. | ||
| Document Holder: | BL (Reference: Loan MS 125/34/2 (ETArchive ET-M8)) | ||
| Ref.No: | 7891 | ||