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

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The next stage in the development came at the end of the
banquet scene. The general effect of the setting was decribed
in The Stage:
The King and Lady ilacbeth are seated down left,
while up the stge from right to left .ore the
quests seated at huge tables. Servants hurry to
and fro, assisting, and, while a ">nge and maid
ore waiting upon Lady Hacbeth, ilacbeth himself
leans to one side and hears the murderer from
behind the arras tell him of the death of
Banquo and the escape of Fleance.
(see illustration 6)
The ghost rose from a trap, and the lights were lowered to
accompany (and prrtially conceal) his appearance. A number of
critics objected to this, among them Archer, who thought it
unrealistic and clumsy. The Pall Mall Gazette found this
blunder "bewildering and destructive to all illusion", and
suggested that Banquo's ghost should be seen in the full
light of the banqueting hall. In the course of the run the
lighting was altered*.
Irving's copy ohows an almost hysterical attempt on
'lacbeth's nart to maintain some semblance of dignity, degenerating
into a despnrnte pretence at joking in the linen:
vi'hy, what crrc I? If thou conct nod, specie too.
If enamel houses and our graves must send
Those t'v:.t we bury back, our monuments
ohall be the mav.'s of kites.
After "If I stand here, I sa him" there was en uneasy T-VUGC,
and nnother before "Blood hath been shed ore now". Hcanwhile
the guests felt "instinctive terror in presence of something",
and by the ghoct's seccnd Cisappearance r.n(? I.lacbeth's " hy so;
being gone/ I am a man .'gain", they were bc^irmin/; to leave,
rs Macbeth walked up and dov.n, "very agitated", -hen they had
left, Macbeth tiircv: himself dov/n and Lady Biacl,"ta, v/ho until
now had avoided trying to comfort him in J;l:cir presence, v;ont
to him. Gr:h iin remembered "the dull hopelessness of Ellen
Terry's voice as she mechanically answered Fircboth's n >/hrvt is
the night? 11 .. .v;hile fror. her throne she watched the chill
dt v.n-liifiit creep i".r!jo the h 1 11 of fcrating.
45
J The oct ended
viith a t; bleau:
The act-;~: rop nlov;ly deccenc'ing cliows rSocbcth