In accordance with his engagement, the manager now proceeded to get ready Wills’s pleasing and sympathetic drama, ‘Olivia.’ This was no doubt selected with a view to furnishing a fresh opportunity for the display of Miss Terry’s attractions; but it will be seen that she was not to be altogether the cynosure of the whole, and that two other accomplished performers were to share the honours of the piece. It was produced on May 27, 1885, and excited much interest. The creation of Dr. Primrose is one of the most interesting and most original of Irving’s characters. It is elaborated and finished to the very highest point, and yet there is no lack of simplicity or unaffected grace. The character suited him in every way, and seemed to hold completely in check all his little “mannerisms,” as they are called. There was a sort of Meissonnier delicacy in his touches, and scarcely any other of his characters is so filled in and rounded with unspoken acting—that is, by the play of facial expression, gesture, walk, etc. It is, indeed, a delightful performance, and always holds the audience, which attentively follows the Vicar’s successive emotions. These the actor allows unconsciously, as it were, to escape him, as he pursues his little domestic course unconscious of spectators. One reason for this complete success was, of course, that Irving, like so many others, had read, known, and felt this engaging character from his childhood, altogether outside dramatic conditions, though of course it is not every play that enjoys this advantage. As we look back to the Lyceum, the eye rests with infinite pleasure on the engaging figure of the Vicar, with his powdered wig and rusted suit, and that amiable smile of simplicity which betokened what agreeable fancies were occupying his mind. There he was, the centre of a happy family, content with the happiness of his wife and children. No picture could have been prettier. With an exquisite feeling of propriety, the quaint, antique associations were developed, and no more pleasing scene could have been conceived, or one that lingers more in the memory, than the scene at night, when the family are singing at the spinet, Moses accompanying with his flute,[39] the Vicar in his chair, the cuckoo-clock in the corner. It was a fine instinct that directed these things.