No,"
he replied, "upon my word I don't think it has very much. My dear old
friend Irving, however, has effected as great a change as any man, and
his influence has always been for good." "And what of the other Henry?"
said I, "Hendrik Ibsen?" "Henry _Gibson_?" said Toole, looking up; "why,
I never heard of him." "No! _Ibsen_," I explained, "_Ibsen_," smiling as
I mentally contrasted the great Norwegian physiologist and social
Reformer, and the simple-minded, homely, old-fashioned Englishman whom
we all love so well. "Oh! Ibsen, Ibsen," said Mr. Toole, "I didn't catch
what you said; I thought you said Gibson, and I couldn't think who on
earth you meant. Well," he said, "I don't like his work myself. It's so
unwholesome, you know. It seems to me such a vitiated taste. They put it
down to my ignorance; but if you ask me what I think," he went on
confidentially, "I should say there are very few who really care about
him. He happens to be the fashion just at present. I played _Ibsen_ in
'Ibsen's Ghost,'" he continued, "and they said it was a beautiful
make-up. I don't know what the old gentleman would have thought of it
himself. Have you seen Irving's _Lear_?" he suddenly remarked, after a
moment of silence. "I can remember many _Lears_, but I have never seen
anything like his. I have been tremendously moved by it; but it is far
too great a strain for him." Mr. Toole then drifted into eulogy of his
almost life-long friend, upon whose generosity and the beauty of whose
character he never wearies of expatiating. "And how do you think the
comedy of to-day compares with that of past years, Mr. Toole?" said I.
"Oh, well," he replied; "I don't think things have altered much. It is
true that there was a great gap when Keeley, Buxton, Benjamin Webster,
Sothern, and Charles Matthews all passed away within a few years of each
other. But we've lots of good comedians now, to say nothing of the vast
increase in the number of theatres, which, of course, gives far more
opportunities to new men than was the case in my early days. For my own
part, though I almost invariably play low comedy parts, yet, as a rule,
I prefer pathos, I think." And, as he spoke, Mr. Toole handed me a
photograph which represented him in that very pathetic character _Caleb
Plummer_ in "Dot." "There," said he, "that's one of my favourite
characters, but people come to see me for fun, they don't look much for
pathos in me, except, perhaps, in the provinces. Ah! I like t