SOURCE: "Irving as Malvolio," in We Saw Him Act: A Symposium on the Art of Sir Henry Irving, edited by H. A. Saintsbury and Cecil Palmer, 1939. Reprint by Benjamin Blom, 1969, pp. 245-49.

Irving had far too strong a personality for Malvolio. To the best of my recollection his Malvolio was distinctly a gentleman, not a buffoon; he was dignified, not heavy. It was inconceivable that that commanding presence should be a mere steward. He looked like some great Spanish hidalgo—a painting of Velazquez; never could he have become the butt of his fellow-servants. For surely Malvolio graduated in the kitchen or the buttery; he is an old retainer,

privileged as old servants are and abusing that privilege as so often they do, domineering over the rest of the staff till he provokes them...