He was an egotist, an egotist of the great type, never "a mean
egotist," as he was once slanderously described; and all his faults
sprang from egotism, which is, after all, only another name for
greatness. So much absorbed was he in his own achievement that he was
unable or unwilling to appreciate the achievements of others. I never
heard him speak in high terms of the great foreign actors and
actresses who from time to time visited England. It would be easy to
attribute this to jealousy, but the easy explanation is not the true
one. He simply would not give himself up to appreciation. Perhaps
appreciation is a wasting though a generous quality of the mind and
heart, and best left to lookers-on who have plenty of time to develop
it.
I was with him when he saw Sarah Bernhardt act for the first time.
The play was "Ruy Blas," and it was one of Sarah's bad days. She was
walking through the part listlessly, and I was angry that there should
be any ground for Henry's indifference. The same thing happened years
later when I took him to see Eleonora Duse. The play was
"Locandiera," to which she was eminently unsuited, I think. He was
surprised at my enthusiasm. There was an element of justice in his
attitude toward the performance which infuriated me, but I doubt if he
would have shown more enthusiasm if he had seen her at her best.
As the years went on he grew very much attached to Sarah Bernhardt,
and admired her as a colleague whose managerial work in the theatre
was as dignified as his own; but of her superb powers as an actress I
don't believe he ever had a glimmering notion!
Perhaps it is not true, but, as I believe it to be true, I may as well
state it: It was never any pleasure to him to see the acting of other
actors and actresses. Salvini's Othello I know he thought
magnificent, but he would not speak of it.