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

193
Lady of Lyons would be retained until Christmas. ^
By mid -November i-;w-jna lion and Galatea was la rehears; 1:
vjintert was tolci the t Gilbert and the actress worked together
".oil enough", save ior a oiisagrtjer.ent over the morieut in
the second tct v.hen Pygmalion was struck blind. Miss Anderson
wantet. a "dark effect", but gilbert, evidently wishing to
iaint; in the A; :y's naturalistic atmosphere as a foil to the
fantasy oi its situation, refused to allow "so :•„ sign from
heaven" . The original interpreter of Galatea had been i.rs
Kendal, ./ o pljptyea the statue as a warm and tender young
woman - Robert Buchanan described the performance's "delicate
and dreamy beauty" as noticeable "even in her slow, 'sv .tinniii0 '
noveneiits about the st;. ^e , :..s:ich Hi tec it into the high
region of an Aristoph; nic crertion" (he did not e.x /I in his
invocation of the Athenian) . ^uchanan's capacity for
self -contradiction must, as always be allowed for: oAly a
hidden consistency in his tlou,_,Lt or an impulsive lack of
cO-oruia; tion could reconcile t i;j description of Mrs Kend; 1,
written in lfc?6 anc reprintoa in Iti?, • ith the claim ni. co
in 1LL9 that the actress's "cours-neso 1*1,0 commonness of
method" \ ero "v.orthy jf r st; ^e cha"bernai>. '•'. ,ievertheless,
the earlier ps. sa^,^ st nos c s c re-jrcsentativo oi contem >or- ry
enthusiasm for ITS Kenaal's _x2riorn-nce
17
« In H t'e-.
Wfry Ancerso t reme iber^a i. visit to the i>t. Jtnes's
to se^ , rs Kencal in lu julsQ , (by B.O.itephen-oori, iron a
French origin.'. 1 J :
when Mrs Keno,- 1 cane upon the st? go , i"er r.'ci,'nt
he^ oer-tTiul he ir sin ].y rricn^co. and
no sh? GOI. of 'mti GUJ' or artificiality cbout
her, I thought he. one of the nost ch; r^ing \;onoa
I had evj- se^n on the bj£-rus.
(p. 134;
I.oi/ry James founa krs. Ke;idal "tLc niost agreeable i ctress
upon the London strge", '^c it was x.ith this chr rm tl.ct she
endo ec Gf latj. .
Mary Anderson's char •» v;r s njt of the homely and
nature - rcordin,:,, to The Ti :es:
li the heart '..as not to be touchcc, rs, incioec, in
such t- play it scarcely ou ht to ,;e , the eye wrs
enabled to re . xse upon the f :.nest t; aloi i- v- v-. --1