Personal reminiscences of Henry IrvingStoker, Bram
General
Personal reminiscences of Henry Irving
Stoker, Bram
Actors -- Great Britain -- Biography; Irving, Henry, Sir, 1838-1905
To me he was an old friend, and on his part he made me feel that I was
one. We spoke of Dublin and those friends there who had manifested
themselves to him. He remembered all their names and asked me many
questions as to their various personalities. Before we parted he asked
me to come to see him at his home in Camden whenever I could manage it.
Need I say that I promised.
V
It was not till after two years that I had opportunity to pay my visit
to Walt Whitman. The cares and responsibilities of a theatre are always
exacting, and the demands on the time of any one concerned in management
are so endless that the few hours of leisure necessary for such a visit
are rare.
At last came a time when I could see my way. On 23rd October 1886 I left
London for New York, arriving on 31st. I had come over to make out a
tour for _Faust_ to commence next year. On 2nd November I went to
Philadelphia by an early train. There after I had done my work at the
theatre I met Donaldson, and as I had time to spare we went over to
Camden to pay the visit to which I had looked forward so long.
His house, 328 Mickle Street, was a small ordinary one in a row, built
of the usual fine red brick which marks Philadelphia and gives it an
appearance so peculiarly Dutch. It was a small house, though large
enough for his needs. He sat in the front room in a big rocking-chair
which Donaldson’s children had given him; it had been specially made for
him, as he was a man of over six feet high and very thick-set. He was
dressed all in grey, the trousers cut straight and wide, and the coat
loose. All the cloth was a sort of thick smooth frieze. His shirt was of
rather coarse cotton, unstarched, with a very wide full collar open low—
very low in the neck and fastened with a big white stud. The old lady
who cared for him and nursed him had for him a manifest admiration. She
evidently liked to add on her own account some little adornment; she had
fastened a bit of cheap narrow lace on his wide soft shirt cuffs and at
the neck of his collar. It was clumsily sewn on and was pathetic to see,
for it marked a limited but devoted intelligence used for his care. The
cuffs of his coat were unusually deep and wide and were stuck here and
there with pins which he used for his work. His hair seemed longer and
wilder and shaggier and whiter than when I had seen him two years
before. He seemed feebler, and when he rose from his chair or moved
about the room did so with difficulty. I could notice his eyes better
now. They were not so quick and searching as before; tireder-looking, I
thought, with the blue paler and the grey less warm in colour.
Altogether the whole man looked more worn out. There was not, however,
any symptom of wear or tire in his intellectual or psychic faculties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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