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PORTRAIT BIOGRAPHIES
HENRY IRVING
BY MORTIMER MENPES
Containing 8 delicate pencil and tint portraits. Foolscap 8vo, cloth,
gilt top.
Price 2s. net.
(_Post free, price 2s. 3d._)
"Mr. Mortimer Menpes has produced a little book entitled 'Henry
Irving,' which is as dainty and graceful as could be imagined....
It is a gossipy little appreciation of the great actor, enlivened
by some excellent stories, and embellished with twelve portraits in
colour from the brush of the artist-author. Artistically 'got up,'
admirably printed, and unconventionally arranged, it is an addition to
'Irvingana' which none of the admirers of 'the chief' would willingly
have absent from their shelves."--_Standard._
A. AND C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
THE ART OF THEATRICAL MAKE-UP
AGENTS
AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
AUSTRALASIA THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS,
205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE
CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
27 RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO
INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
[Illustration]
THE ART OF
THEATRICAL MAKE-UP
BY
CAVENDISH MORTON
ILLUSTRATED WITH THIRTY-TWO REPRODUCTIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE AUTHOR BY HIMSELF
[Illustration]
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1909
REPRODUCED AND PRINTED BY
BALLANTYNE AND CO. LTD., TAVISTOCK STREET, LONDON, W.C.
PREFACE
Looking back on the method of production of this book, it seems to
me not to have been so much a matter of toil as a natural growth. It
seems to have produced itself, for my earliest photographs were taken
as records of the different characters that I played. These studies,
as they were published from time to time in the _Sketch_, _Tatler_,
_Playgoer_ and other papers, aroused a certain amount of interest.
Frequent requests from brother actors for me to help them with their
make-ups convinced me that my instruction was desired.
As the material accumulated, I constantly heard the suggestion
reiterated, "Make a book of it."
A profound interest in psychology, physiognomy, or characterisation,
the art of the stage, and photography, has enabled me to study the
subject from different standpoints, and to gain an entirely individual
impression of it.
Many years spent on the stage in, among others, Sir Herbert Beerbohm
Tree's, Mr. Forbes Robertson's, and Sir Charles Wyndham's companies,
the privilege of watching Sir Henry Irving, Sir Herbert, Charles
Warner, Franklin McLeay, and M. de Max making up, and, in some
instances, hearing their methods of work explained, has supplemented
the knowledge gained by my own experience.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE ART OF THE STAGE 1
II. ON DESIGNING THE CHARACTER 4
III. THE ILLUSTRATIONS 8
IV. THE MATERIAL 12
V. ON APPLYING THE MATERIAL 16
VI. FORM 19
VII. PREPARING TO MAKE UP 22
VIII. ON REMOVING THE MAKE-UP 26
IX. IN CONCLUSION 28
ILLUSTRATIONS (_For list see page_ ix) 30
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Author _Frontispiece_
PAGE
KING LEAR 35
KING LEAR (progressive pictures) 38
DON QUIXOTE 41
_Don Quixote_ (progressive pictures) 44
FALSTAFF 47
FALSTAFF (progressive pictures) 50
SHYLOCK 53
SHYLOCK (progressive pictures) 56
HAMLET 60
HAMLET 61
IAGO 66
OTHELLO 67
BOTTOM THE WEAVER 77
PIERROT 80
ROMEO 83
THE APOTHECARY IN "ROMEO AND JULIET" 89
THE APOTHECARY (head study) 92
THE THREE WITCHES IN "MACBETH" 95
UNCLE TOM 98
ST. DUNSTAN 101
FLEURY 104
THE PROFESSOR 109
THE SOUL STRUGGLE 112
SIR THOMAS MORE (Holbein picture) 118
SIR THOMAS MORE 119
SIR THOMAS MORE IN HIS GARDEN AT CHELSE 124
SIR THOMAS MORE BIDDING FAREWELL TO HIS FAVOURITE
DAUGHTER 125
NAPOLEON 129
FALSE BEARDS (twelve progressive pictures) 132, 133, and 136
CHAPTER I
THE ART OF THE STAGE
How ephemeral is this art of the stage, how evanescent. Words quickened
by the voices of the actors tremble for a moment in the sympathetic
atmosphere of the theatre and are then engulfed in silence. This in its
turn gives way to newly spoken words. Out of the illustrative gestures
and actions of the players are pictures formed which each new phase of
the unfolding of the play destroys. Joy gives place to grief, and grief
to joy, gentleness to rage, and love to hate.
The passions wax and wane. The scenes fade even as the lantern pictures
vanish from the white screen. The curtain rustles down, severing those
bonds of sympathy that the play has forged. Actors and audience turn
away to pick up the links in their own particular chains of destiny.
How ephemeral, how evanescent.
Yet that universal law of compensation yields its recompense: for no
art is more enduring in its influence.
Most men are so profoundly impressed by the drama that the recollection
of a performance will abide for years; indeed some are so sensitive to
its effect that their whole lives are coloured or are even changed by
the sensation created by one fine bit of acting.
That the art of the theatre should be so persuasive is in no way
strange, for it makes a joint appeal through the portals of two senses
simultaneously. The eye and ear alike are charmed.
In this joint appeal lies the very essence of the theatrical. The actor
by the heat of his passions fuses picture and poem.
Dumb poetry and petrified graphic art come to life.
Like an electrode the actor stands collecting the currents of dramatic
beauty that pervade the world, and discharges them into the tense
atmosphere of the theatre.
It is the player's duty not only to lend life to the part that he
plays, he should present the character in such a way that the spirit of
each member of his audience moves in accord with it. If his appeal is
strong it will weld the minds of his individual spectators into a kind
of composite intelligence.
I once saw a concave reflector made of small pieces of flat looking
glass. These tiny mirrors multiplied the light placed in front a
thousandfold.
To the actor a well-crowded theatre should seem just such a reflection.
In the mind of each member of his audience, should he, as in a glass,
be mirrored.
This unanimity of emotion is brought about by presenting certain
physical and mental facts relative to character in such a way that
they may be grasped by a number of variously constituted people.
A play is woven of a warp-like plot running from beginning to end
of the composition, constituting its chief strength; and woof-like
characterisations which wend their way in and out through the plot
binding it together and filling in gaps with the subsidiary interest of
nicely contrasted types.
The character as it leaves the playwright's hand is a broadly outlined
drawing. The subtleties of manner and expression and those slight but
significant inflections of voice are the creation of the actor. He
vitalises the lines with his spirit.
I have often thought that the appeal to the brain through the sense of
seeing is stronger than that through the sense of hearing. I have been
brought to this conclusion by the fact that people are deeply moved
by the contemplation of a play in a language that they are totally
ignorant of, or by the dumb show of a pantomime.
Is not half the battle won when one perfectly physically realises the
character to be impersonated?
To assist in this half of the conflict this book was written.