Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

114
became visible in the lightning which flashed across the scene -
according to The Stage, the background of thin setting was a
"blood-red cloud". Irving erst the witches carefully; Locke's
muoic was discarded and the first Witch wia olryecl by Alice
Marriott, whose voice came "like an organ across the foot-lights"
and proved "how useful was the old scho >1 in the matter of
voice training" (The stage). This scene ended with the flight
of the witches, and was followed by the bleeding captain's
report to Duncan and his retinue i a sequence omitted in Irving* s
1875 performance and now wisely restored to provide an indication
of i.lacbeth's normal state of self-possession and bravery.
The third scene returned to the heath, and cave the
audience its first sight of Macbeth, "a person of scowling
and villainous mien, with a wiry mour tnche of reddish hue"
who seemed to The Times "the last to win the confidence of
Duncan". By The Saturday Review he was compared unfavourably
with Banquo: the reviewer wondered why Mo.cheth's superstitious
fear of the witches should be so much more intense than that
shown by Banquo, and did not consider adequate the explanation
that Macbeth had for some time been pondering the murder of
Duncan:
His lined and iiarc^rd features, his restlesr:
movements, his wild and wanderinf, eye, £ive
him altogether the cir of a prey of tho Furies
at his first entrance upon the scene.
•Jlio Err 'described lacbeth's demeanour as betrryiri£ Me feelings
upon realisation that "his lofty imaginings bogin to shrpo
themselves":
«Vith the greeting of the -..-itches f^te -joints
the way; and if chance will liave him King, why
chance may crown iiin without his stir. Hie
superstition helps to fire his impr;in tion;
nervous excitouciit nets his whole frrnc quiver-
1 ii^. 71 T
The Saturday Review described how tucc.e lines ("If chn.nce v/ill
have me King...") were "given v/ith n sigh of such relief as
is felt only by the irresolute when they see a hope tiir.t
events may speire them the clrepclec! necessity of making up their
minds". The nnrl:inrc in the H; rvarcl co->y cu^eot ^n o::citoncnt
of ,-i.ntici nation r.-oiier than of feor - Macbeth rauut "c*ruc-r;le