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

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hie relative immobility was not very saticff ctory. The lines
"'Tie here! - »Tis here!- »Tis gone* 1* were cut. The omission
take a moment of -ohycicpl crisis from the scene, and lifc«
the loss of "Good now, sit do'./n...'1 , deprives it of its
vnrirtiona in tempo.
iliic static and rather dull beginning WOE followed by
the brilliant and noisy opening of Scene Two. As the clothwent
up, recording to the prompt copy, there was r. shout of
"Lonr; live the Kingl", and Claudius and hie queen appeared
"amid a joyous blare of trumpets and with a brilliant euite
of courtiers" (Scott, in I'he Daily Telereroph, 17 October).
TIic D.-ily Ifov/n found the arrangement "both novel and pi en sing":
...the great hall ;ith its primitive simplicity
of arches nnc1 column, rudely decorated with
coloured drav/ings, its walls hung with arras
painted vvith figures and groups w; s striking...
(17 October)
The courtiers gathered in a semi—circle about rn ivory and
vermilion throne downstage left, and a court-jester sat on
the cteps of the dais . Willard, as Claudius, entered Ira^ii,^;,
"as if he had heard a good joke" (Punch), anr" showed a "triumphant
bearing" which The Stage found a good contrast v;ith his
subsequent growing fear of Hamlet. Both Kin^ and Queen were
"in the pasciour.to hcydr.y of uiddle life" (Scott). A rocond
shout, "Lon:; live the PrinceJ", heralded the orrivr.l of Hr.nlet,
"a istri-J.iJv;, ber.r