and, like old Anchises, when he jumped on to the back of
AEneas, "a wonderful man for his years." In fact, _Lear_ might begin
like an old King Cole, "a merry old soul," a "jolly old cock!" And
then--"Oh, what a difference in the morning!"--when all his plans
for a gay career had been shipwrecked by _Cordelia's_ capricious and
unnatural affectation.

[Illustration: Mr. Terriss as the Good Fairy.]

Then must commence his senility; then he would begin to break up. A
struggle, to show that there was life in the old dog yet, could be
seen when the old dog had been out hunting, in Act II., and had shot
some strange animal, something between a stag and a dromedary, which
no doubt was a native of Britain in those good old sporting days.
However, more of this anon. Suffice it to say now, that our HENRY
IRVING'S _Lear_ is a triumph in every respect, and that the audience
only wanted a little more of _Cordelia_, which is the fault of the
immortal and unequal Bard.

To those unacquainted with this play, Mr. TERRISS'S sudden appearance
in somewhat anti-Lord-Chamberlain attire, as he bounded on, with a
wand, and struck an attitude, was suggestive of the Good Fairy in
the pantomime; and his subsequent proceedings, when he didn't change
anybody into Harlequin, Clown, and so forth, puzzled the unlearned
spectators considerably. But Mr. TERRISS came out all right, and
acquitted himself (being his own judge and jury) to the satisfaction
of the public. His speech about Dover Cliff, generally supposed to
convey some allusion to the Channel Tunnel, was excellently delivered,
and certainly after _Lear_, "on the spear side," Mr. TERRISS must take
the Goodeley Cake.

Next to him in order of merit comes Mr. FRANK COOPER, as the
wicked _Edmund_, on whom the good EDMUND, "Edmundus Mundi," smiled
benignantly from a private box. There was on the first night a great
reception given to HOWE--the veteran actor, not the wreck, and very
far from it--who took the small part of an old Evicted Tenant of the
_Earl of Glo'ster_, a character very carefully played by Mr. ALFRED
BISHOP, _Floreat Henricus!_ "Our HENRY" has his work cut out for him
in this "Titanic work," as in his before-curtain and after-play speech
he termed it. This particular "Titanic work" is (or certainly was that
night) in favour with "the gods," who "very much applauded what he'd
done." But the gods of old were not quite so favourable to "Titanic
work" generally, and punished eterna