MY LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:--I cannot
conceive a greater honor entering into the life of any man than the
honor you have paid me by assembling here to-night. To look around this
room and scan the faces of my distinguished hosts, would stir to its
depths a colder nature than mine. It is not in my power, my lords and
gentlemen, to thank you for the compliment you have to-night paid me.
"The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel."
Never before have I so strongly felt the magic of those words; but you
will remember it is also said in the same sentence, "Give thy thoughts
no tongue." [Laughter.] And gladly, had it been possible, would I have
obeyed that wise injunction to-night. [Renewed laughter.]
The actor is profoundly influenced by precedent, and I cannot forget
that many of my predecessors have been nerved by farewell banquets for
the honor which awaited them on the other side of the Atlantic; but this
occasion I regard as much more than a compliment to myself: I regard it
as a tribute to the art which I am proud to serve and I believe that
feeling will be shared by the profession to which you have assembled to
do honor. [Cheers.] The time has long gone by when there was any need to
apologize for the actor's calling. ["Hear! Hear!"] The world can no
more exist without the drama than it can without its sister art, music.
The stage gives the readiest response to the demand of human nature to
be transported out of itself into the realms of the ideal--not that all
our ideals on the stage are realized--none but the artist knows how
immeasurably he may fall short of his aim or his conception,--but to
have an ideal in art and to strive through one's life to embody it, may
be a passion to the actor as it may be to the poet.
Your lordship has spoken most eloquently of my career. Possessed of a
generous mind and a high judicial faculty, your lordship has been
to-night, I fear, more generous than judicial. But if I have in any way
deserved commendation, I am proud that it was as an actor that I won it.
As the director of a theatre my experience has been short, but as an
actor I have been before the London public for seventeen years; and on
one thing I am sure you will all agree--that no actor or manager has
ever received from that public more generous and ungrudging
encouragement and support. [Cheers.]
Concerning our visit to America, I need hardly say that I am looking
forward to it with no common pleasure. It has often been an ambition
with English actors to gain the good-will of the English-speaking race,
a good-will which is right heartily reciprocated towards our American
fellow-workers, when they gratify us by sojourning here. Your God-speed
would alone assure me a hearty welcome in any land. But I am not going
amongst strangers; I am going amongst friends, and when I, for the first
time, touch American ground, I shall receive many a grip of the hand
from men whose friendship I am proud to possess. [Cheers.] Concerning
our expedition the American people will no doubt exercise an independent
judgment--a prejudice of theirs and a habit of long standing [laughter],
as your lordship has reminded us, by the fact that to-day is the fourth
of July, an anniversary rapidly becoming an English institution. Your
lordship is doubtless aware, as to-night has so happily proved, that the
stage has reckoned amongst its staunchest supporters many great and
distinguished lawyers. There are many lawyers, I am told, in America,
and as I am sure that they all deserve to be judges, I am in hopes that
they will materially help me to gain a favorable verdict from the
American people. [Cheers and laughter.]
I have given but poor expression to my sense of the honor you have
conferred upon me, and upon the comrades associated with me in this our
enterprise--an enterprise which, I hope, will favorably show the method
and discipline of a company of English actors. On their behalf I thank
you, and I also thank you on behalf of the lady who has so adorned the
Lyceum stage, and to whose rare gifts your lordship has paid so just and
gracious a tribute. The climax of the favor extended to me by my
countrymen has been reached to-night. You have set upon me a burden of
responsibility, a burden which I gladly and proudly bear. The memory of
to-night will be to me a sacred thing, a memory which will, throughout
my life, be ever treasured, a memory which will stimulate me to further
endeavor, and encourage me to loftier aim. [Loud and continued cheers.]
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