R. You will understand the drift of my question directly,
MR. IRVING. I have made it my business to acquaint myself with your
dramatic career, and I find that you have played as hero at various
times in _Romeo and Juliet_, _Hamlet_, _The Corsican Brothers_, and _The
Dead Heart_, besides _Macbeth_. Am I wrong in saying that in each of
these pieces you fight a duel?

MR. IRVING. No. I fight a duel in each of them, except _Macbeth_, in
which there is no duel, only a hand-to-hand combat. I do commit a murder
in _Macbeth_.

A MEMBER. MR. IRVING'S tastes seem rather to run in the direction of
murders. (_Laughter._)

After the report of the Official Censor upon the general tone of the
Lyceum plays during the last fifteen years had been read a second time
and adopted, the Chairman, without more than a formal consultation with
his colleagues, proceeded to announce the decision of the Committee. He
said that they had not come to their present conclusion without long and
anxious deliberation. They were now the constituted guardians of the
public morals, and must fulfil their functions without fear or favour.
(_Applause._) They must look at the character of the performances at
each theatre, considering only whether they were or were not beneficial
to morality. In the past, under a _regime_ happily now at an end, public
opinion had been shamefully lax, and official control purely nominal;
plays had been repeatedly performed, and even welcomed as classics,
which he did not hesitate to say were full of incidents that were
revolting to all well-regulated minds. SHAKSPEARE, who, with his
undoubted talents, should have known better, was, so far from being an
exception, one of the worst offenders. The Council must free themselves
from the shackles of conventional tolerance. (_Applause._) Evil was
evil--murder was murder--coarseness was coarseness--whether treated by
SHAKSPEARE or anybody else. Nor could the Committee shut their eyes to
the fact that Mr. IRVING'S histrionic ability, and his popularity with
those who attended his exhibitions could only intensify the injurious
effect which such representations must have upon young and
impressionable minds. In his opinion, much as he regretted having to say
so, the Lyceum was nothing less than a School of Murder. It aggravated
rather than extenuated the evil to be told, as they had been told, that
all these deeds of violence had been represented on the stage with every
aid which money, art