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

lacked the personal magnetism of Irving, and he was probably
unrealistic in demanding that the Princess's Hamlet be accepted
r.s a personal triumph. After this venture, he old not return
to Shckccpcare until 1897, when he produced Othello. Shrw
observed that the actor was not "built to fit Othollo" but
that he produced the nicy "as usual, very well":
At the Lyceum, everyone is bored to mrdnese the
moment Sir Henry Irving and fdco Terry lo: ve
the .tare: at the Lyric, ac aforetime at the Princess's,
the play goes briskly fron beginning to
end, and ;here are always three or four auccesoes
in smaller perto sparkling round Mr Bnrzvtt's big
ps' rt *38
Archer repeated his former criticism of Barrett's qualifications
c.s a Sh& cospearean actor, but admitted that the revival
•JQ
pos, aseed "life and movement" J .
uith Godwin's help, Barrett had civen Ilralot v;ith a kind
of integrity that was lacking in Irving's productions of
Shakespeare, and with pictorial values Qii'i'cr^nt fr-jn those
of the Lyceum. It v;rs, hov/tvor, a pictori: 1 oro. action, and
only its being or/> nized with a view to "illuc orating" the
whole olay, rather than one nun, distinguished its theoretical
basis fion that of Irving's sti ,:'inc:. The same season sc-v/
another chrllence to Irving's supremacy as a nroaucer in
Mary Anderson'c Borneo and Juliet, ^ics Anc-erson, hov/ovcr,
u-ilielti the values of another kind of theatre, and accordingly
she offered a. different nixture of familiar ingredients.