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

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wore adequate consolation for the shortcomings of the play and
some of the acting. Priam was played by Hermann Vezin, and
because the performance was in the first inotciace a matinee for
benefit of the British School at Athens, a number of theatric .1
celebrities, including Irving and Ellen Terry, were able to
attend. It is this production by which Godwin has, been represented
to posterity - its cla siccil form t its set built from
simple geometrical shapes and its open arena have been seen
as cuccc 'tive of the work of Crc.ig and Ar>-->ia. it is illustrated
by Denis Bablet, in his standard work on the origins of modern
stage design, and by Sybil Eoaent'eld in her recent history of
ccenic art in Britain* A photograph of the akone, with the
chorus draped about it, has been reproduced in a popular account
of Acctheticism and elsewhere* ^ Oscar vilde, influenced no
doubt by his friendship with Godwin, and hie wife's participation
in the production, wrote of it in terms which must have
ap er.led directly to Go^,;/in's ambitions:
Mr Goo.win is fjo-r.ctliiiv: more than a more
antique rim. He tokos the facts of rrchaeology,
but he converts them into rrtistic and dramatic
effects, and the historic I accuracy, that underlies
the visible cha ics of beauty that he Tare;, its to us,
is not by any means the distinguishing quality of
the completed mirk of art* This quality is the
absolute unity and hurmony of the entire presentation,
the presence of one mind controlling the minuteot
details, and revealing itself only in that true
perfection that hides personality.
(The Pramctic Review* 22 i-ay l'T-6)
The l,;vst phrase may ceem a strange one for ..ilde, the ler.st
i;.i;)cr oiir-1 of .-.rtists, to use,but it \vr.s ap -jroprir.:te to the
icicle of Gor v/in , which WilOc had absorbed anc was now, after
his UGuol fashion, retailing and endorsing.
Godwin's first series of articles on t:io principles of
stage design, published in the nicl-seventies, Iirvc i^en diccuooocl
by ,;. oclwyn '.lerclmnt in his book, Shakoapecire aii.d ^lio Artist
(1959) and in a subsequent article, but the second ccriec,
published a decade Inter in The Dramatic Review, appear to have
been overlooked1^. The earlier pieces do; 1 for the moct part
with the ectablishiaent of the hictorie-l period appropriate to