As an artist, Mr. Wallack possesses the advantage of a singularly handsome presence, which, if not absolutely essential to success, contributes certainly largely to it. Lord Byron predicted early his father's success on account of his natural style of acting, and Mr. Wallack belongs to his father's school. It is a great mistake to suppose that the dolce far niente, do-nothing, drawly style of acting, which is at present called "natural acting," is really so. It may be a copy of the modern style, but the style itself is artificial, and not natural. "Natural acting" has been justly defined as the depicting of character and emotion by gesture and expression—the result of an impulse of the feeling controlled by the judgment, and directed into the right channel by previous study. Conventional acting is an artificial substitution of mannerism for the spontaneous prompting of momentary feeling. The present race of actors may be divided into two classes, such of them, at least, as deserve the name, and they are not many, who attempt anything more than to learn the words set down for them to speak: those who study with what tone, look, and action to accompany their part, and those who study the whole play, and know what to do when they are not speaking. To these latter few Mr. Wallack belongs. Acting is an art requiring imaginative powers as well as mimetic skill; lively sympathy with the character, which Mr. Wallack has, is far more essential to a fine performance than mimicry of individual peculiarities, which Mr. Sothern possesses. Mr. Wallack really enters into the part, and some of his charming bits of business in comedy do not even seem to be tricks of trade, but things to which he is propelled by an instinctive propensity—the innatus amor habendi of Virgil's bees.
As a man, Mr. Wallack seizes the affections of all who know him, and those who know him most intimately love him best. His tastes are all of the manly school, and he possesses all the accomplishments which set a Corinthian adornment on a base of solid, sterling worth.
Mr. Wallack's wife, a lady of much beauty and gentleness, is a sister of John Millais, the celebrated painter; she has four children—Arthur, Florence, Charles, and Harold—charming boughs of the parent tree. His youngest brother, Charles, who was in the First Madras, Indian army, died in New York. His second brother, Harry, is a captain in the British army, having served with much distinction in the Ninth and Seventy-seventh regiments. He fought through the Sikh campaign, and wears a medal and three clasps for Sobraon. He is now Governor of Millbank Prison, and attached to the royal household in the Queen's body guard, composed of picked officers, who must all have won decorations.
