Cymbeline - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

156.
This drama IB one of the finest examples of
Shakespeare's genius, and realizes what is
the most difficult thing of all to produce
in dramatic composition - the relief of
perspective. The poet has adopted a large
canvas, and introduced into it a wonderful
variety of figures, events, and scenes. The
action travels from Britain to Italy, and
overtakes in its course a multitude of accidental
adventures; tout all there at last
meet in the solution of the plot, which is
wound up with a skill which only Shakespeare
of all dramatists has exhibited.
(fhe Illustrated London News, 22 October,1864)
It was a play, claimed the The atrical Journal»
... peculiarly calculated to exhibit in full
employment the talents of an efficient company,...
The Poathumus of Phelps was notable for "rug^edness of
outline" and "manly earnestness 11 (according to the Morning
Post), and the strength of the cast was considered a noteworthy
sign of new life at Brury Lane - "a cast that in the
present state of the London stage must be described as
powerful" (John Bull).
The most important features of the revival for contemporary
playgoers seem to have been the return to the
stage of Helen ?aucit, and with her, if only temporarily,
an older style of acting, and the place of Cymbeline in
the schedule of legitimate drama at Drury Lane. In the
summing-up of John Bull,
... It is gratifying to notice how well the
public are aiding in the managerial attempt to
restore this fine theatre to its legitimate
uses. Every point in the play was taken up
by the audience, and all the leading excellencies
in the acting recognized and applauded by a house
crowded to the ceiling...