IRVING, who could not be present at the Papyrus Club (it was one of
Miss Terry’s “off nights,” when either “The Bells” or “Louis XI.” was
performed), was received at the St. Botolph’s Club soon after the
Papyrus festivities closed. In the absence of the President, ex-Mayor
Green, the Vice-President, and Mr. Secretary Sullivan did the honors
of the evening. An interesting meeting on this occasion was the
introduction of Irving to Oliver Wendell Holmes, who later, at the
_matinée_ performance of “Charles the First,”[31] was quite overcome
with the pathos of the play. Apart from the number and enthusiasm of
his audiences, Mr. Irving’s personal reception by the leading men of
Boston—_littérateurs_, professors, and scholars—might well have given
point to the few eloquent words which he addressed to the house on the
closing performance of “The Bells” and “The Belle’s Stratagem.” He
said:—
Ladies and Gentlemen,—I have the privilege of thanking you, for
myself, and in behalf of my comrades, and especially in behalf of my
gifted sister, Miss Ellen Terry, for the way in which you have received
our tragedy, comedy, and melodrama. In coming to this country I have
often said that I felt I was coming among friends; and I have had
abundant and most touching proof that I was right. This I have never
felt more truly than in your historic city of New England, which seems
a veritable bit of old England. In this theatre we have been on classic
ground, and if we have, while upon these boards, accomplished anything
tending, in your opinion, to the advancement of a great art, in which
we are all deeply interested, we are more than repaid and more than
content. It affords me great pleasure to tell you that, if all be well,
we shall return to Boston in March, when I hope to present, for the
first time on our tour, “Much Ado About Nothing.” And now, ladies and
gentlemen, in the names of one and all, I gratefully thank you, and
respectfully wish you “Good-by, and a Merry Christmas.”