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

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An undistinguished but commercially successful response to
Wilson Barrett's 1384 production of Hamlet was the Gt ioty
burlesque Very Lit le Heaalot. by ,,111-iam Yardley, first rjiven
on 29 .November 10-4. The mood of cheerful philistinism, in
which the new staging was mocked, wis established at the
begir/iing of the piece by a chorus of courtiers celebrating
the royl ra;.irri^0 (",'olf the ale and the cakes - ..hoat hip,
hip t ho>r;.y) and by choir scornful reception of t-:o comic
•^ed. jits, the Hon . Lewes :7o.v,Gncr-nz (::ic) anJ J.W.Guildastern,
F.S.A. The pair introduce themselves ,:.c antiquarian advisers:
.e'rc u-re to guarantee the :1; y,
. rchaeolo^rically all O.K.
They have little to do in Y. rdlcy's minim: >1 plot, and at the
end, when they take exception to the unwarranted reconciliation
between Hunlet -and Claudius, the royal majesty of Denmark
orders them to "Jhut unj" .
The Hon. Lewis in field and Edv.-urcl William Godwin, F.S.A.,
were the tv/o ;-^r;t prominent repi sentrtives of a new breed, the
•arch eoloricnl au^crvisor of theatrical proeuctions. No "outsiders"
hrd enjoyed v,c much influence ?'ith nrrv -rcnonts cince "'l-'Jiche,
and it v;as arguable thct t/ie cowers entrusted to then exceeded
thoce ;'iven to their distinguished pronece::sor. r.oth wished to
exercise control over all aspects of the pro.luctions upon which
managers on/;agGd then, and Godv.-in v;as the nore articulate of
tlie tvvo. In hit v/ork as r n interior decorr'tor and furniturenesi^ier
he solicit to combine thoce functicnc v/ith nractice as
an arciiitoct: in tue v;ords of hie obitur.ry in The___._rit_i:'jh
Architect, ,vie "forever ^leaded for a , reater reconcili rfcion
between the decorative and constructive arts*' (15 October 1HP6).
;ii;.- . nbitions v.itli regard to the ;>ro 3 uct:ion of "1 ys were ri^iler.
Got 1 ;in wac born in l'?33» and di not do vrsj si^nificr it; -,vorl: in.
the professional theatre until 1875, when ho ; vised Brncroft
in his I o duct ion of The ? 'T er^h'\nt of Vonice at the Prince of
Wales Theatre. The first production in v?hich he v/r-L profescionally
concerned - for v/hicii, thrpt is, he v;as paia a fee - v;o.s
John Colon:,n's /^v r V, at the Qucon'n ther tro in September i"7