Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

Kenilworth, the novel in which Shakespeare appears as a character, at the Adelphi Theatre. One
of at least sixteen stage versions, Planché’s opened less than a month after Kenilworth was
published. 98 There were Shakespearean connections too between Scott and Douce, who knew
one another personally. Scott sent his fellow antiquary an encouraging letter about his ‘curious
and interesting’ Illustrations of Shakspeare with some additional information on fools ‘half-
crazy and half-knavish’ who had within living memory been, Scott told him, a familiar presence
in aristocratic Scottish households. 99
Scott from time to time considered producing his own edition of Shakespeare, or
contributing a ‘Life and Times’ to a collaborative edition. Neither materialised, but in discussing
the possibilities with his publisher Archibald Constable he advocated a ‘sensible Shakespeare in
which the useful & readable notes should be condensed and separated from the trash’. 100 What
that might have meant in practice is suggested by Scott’s friendship with John Philip Kemble,
with whom he had more success than Douce in offering advice on costume. Scott believed
complete authenticity to be neither possible nor desirable in the theatre any more than in his
fictions. ‘It is sufficient,’ he wrote in his Life of Kemble, ‘if everything be avoided which can
recall modern associations, and as much of the antique be assumed as will at once harmonize
with the purpose of the exhibition and in so far awaken recollections of the days of yore as to
give an air of truth to the scene’. 101 Nevertheless, as he liked to recall, Scott had assisted Kemble
with Macbeth, ‘one of the first plays in which the better system of costume was adopted’ in
which the actor had been accustomed to wear ‘the highland dress’, or at least a version of it,
accoutred with a bonnet topped with ‘sundry huge bunches of black feathers which made it look
like an undertaker’s cushion’. 102 Scott removed these and replaced them with a single eagle’s
feather ‘sloping across his noble brow’ which, the actor later told him, ‘was worth to him three
distinct rounds of applause’. 103
98
Ford, Dramatisations of Scott’s Novels, p.27.
99
Scott to Douce, 9 February 1808, Scott, Letters, 2, p.16.
100
Scott to Constable, 25 February 1822, Scott, Letters, 7, p.79.
101
Scott, ‘Life of John Philip Kemble’, p.226.
102
Scott, ‘Life of John Philip Kemble’, p.226.
103
Scott, ‘Life of John Philip Kemble’, p.226.
255