Cymbeline - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

exceedingly generous:
lachimo, a character who at the present
season might be denominated the most
prominent of the piece, was sustained by
Mr. Macready with his accustomed vigour
and discrimination, and the most complete
success. Probably there is no actor of
the present day who has received so variously
and so liberally from nature the qualifications
requisite to eminence in his profession.
Among these the flexibility of his features,
and the faculty of adjusting their expression
to different emotions and passions, is not
the least remarkable. This faculty is singularly
desirable to him who would represent the
wily Italian, and the judicious use of it constituted
a great point of excellence in Mr.
Macready's attempt of last night. When he
first appeared, he stood confessed at a glance
the daring, undisguised profligate; hardy
villainy was stamped on his brow.
71.
Macready modulated from false humility in his attempt on
Imogen to "the clear characters of crushing guilt and
gnawing remorse". The reception of Macready's performance
was enhanced by the topicality at which the review
hints, although Macready's Reminiscences make no mention
of the fact.
The Queen's Trial was nearing its close: Queen Caroline
was the subject of a Bill of Pains and Penalties, in which
it was alleged that she had committed adultery with a
courier, one Pergami (or Bergami). The ramifications of
the evidence included witnesses who asseverated that they
had seen her bed stained after nights spent (it was claimed)
with Bergami, witnesses of her walks with the culprit, witnesses
who claimed that she and her courier had spent the
night together under a tent on board ship. The evidence
was sordid and complicated, involving the jealousies of
maids and footmen, and a good many mutually contradictory
versions of the same events. «bove all the evidence was
Italian.
Thomas Denman, Lord Chief Justice, in his 'summing-up for