"WE HAVE TO PAY DEAR FOR THE FISH"
_From the collection of H. McM. Painter_]
His _view_ of Macbeth, though attacked and derided and put to shame in
many quarters, is as clear to me as the sunlight itself. To me it
seems as stupid to quarrel with the conception as to deny the nose on
one's face. But the carrying out of the conception was unequal.
Henry's imagination was sometimes his worst enemy. When I think of his
Macbeth, I remember him most distinctly in the last act, after the
battle, when he looked like a great famished wolf, weak with the
weakness of a giant exhausted, spent as one whose exertions have been
ten times as great as those of commoner men of rougher fibre and
coarser strength.
"Of all men else I have avoided thee."
Once more he suggested, as he only could suggest, the power of fate.
Destiny seemed to hang over him, and he knew that there was no hope,
no mercy.
_The "Macbeth" Rehearsals_
[Illustration: JOHN SINGER SARGENT
FROM A PORTRAIT PAINTED BY HIMSELF IN 1892 AND PRESENTED BY HIM TO THE
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN]
The rehearsals for "Macbeth" were very exhausting, but they were
splendid to watch. In this play Henry brought his manipulation of
crowds to perfection. My acting edition of the play is riddled with
rough sketches by him of different groups. Artists to whom I have
shown them have been astonished by the spirited impressionism of
these sketches. For his "purpose" Henry seems to have been able to
do anything, even to drawing and composing music. Sir Arthur
Sullivan's music at first did not quite please him. He walked up and
down the stage humming and showing the composer what he was going
to do at certain situations. Sullivan with wonderful quickness and
open-mindedness caught his meaning at once.
"Much better than mine, Irving,--much better--I'll rough it out at
once!"
[Illustration: SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES
FROM THE PAINTING BY GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS
_By courtesy of G. P. Putnam's Sons_]
When the orchestra played the new version based on that humming of
Henry's, it was exactly what he wanted!
Knowing what a task I had before me, I began to get anxious and
worried about "Lady Mac." Henry wrote me such a nice letter about
this:
"To-night, if possible, the last act. I want to get these great
multitudinous scenes over and then we can attack _our_ scenes....
Your sensitiveness is so acute that you must suffer sometimes. You
are not like anybody else--you see things with such lightning
quickness and unerring instinct that dull fools like myself grow
irritable and impatient sometimes. I feel confused when I'm
thinking of one thing, and disturbed by another. That's all. But I
do feel very sorry afterwards when I don't seem to heed what I so
much value....
"I think things are going well, considering the time we've been at
it, but I see so much that is wanting that it seems almost
impossible to get through properly. 'To-night commence Matthias.
If you sleep, you are lost!'"[*]
[*] A quotation from "The Bells."
[Illustration: ELLEN TERRY AS LADY MACBETH