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'Jingle'without'The Bells'

Abstract:

WHEN Punch wROTE, DURING the 1871 season in which Henry Irving first played Jingle in James Albery's adaptation of Pickwick Papers and Mathias in The Bells, that it preferred “the Bells without the Jingle"," it elevated the significance of one performance at the expense of the other. Although it is true to say that The Bells was the first play to secure Irving's reputation and to display his virtuosity as an actor, it is equally important to remember that, throughout his career, Irving frequently performed Mathias and Jingle during the same evening and that he did so quite deliberately. In an age when Dickensian adaptations were widespread on the stage and many actors made their names through successfully essaying Dickensian characters in performance, Irving's Jingle was to rank as one of the greatest and most convincing of these interpretations. In order to appreciate the impact of The Bells, indeed, it is important to …