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

242
It was A%% to be exoccted that this speech, widely reported
at the time, and soon reprinted b; tho body before whom it was
delivered, should arouse adverse coarent. Punch, in an article
entitled "The Stage by Kendal-Lieht" (firat of a series of
similar puns) attacked the actress on itc favourite :< -round
of social and artistic snobbery - a barrister and a doctor
underwent a training which would fit them "for the ; ociety of
educated, if not of highly cultured gentlemen*1 , and the ctor
did not. Nor was social respectability any guarantee of hir.trionic
talent - perhaps, the magazine surr-eotecl, the tv/o were
in essence inimical, and an actor might be inhibited in hie
art by excessive consciousness of social propriotiec (4 October
1884). The dispute's ramifications were tedious and prolonged
and attempts by Mrs Kendal to clarify her objections to come
forms of theatrical journalism met with little success. In
January the wound a were ctill fresh, so that The Heforee, in
its second notice of As You Like It. could refer to her
sarcastically as "the mother of the English ctago" (February
1, 1885 )» and a cartoon published with the review in Tho Illustrated
oporting and Dramatic Hews showed i?orrlind, perplexed,
mucing "I wish I had never read that rsnpcr at tac Social Science
Co i; ^recs" (7 February).
Mrs Kendal was a popular actreno, and the company formed
by her husband and John Hare was cucce; aful. Despite the
hostility arouoed by the speech, the production of As You Like
It had a number of factors in its favour: the pi ay had alv.-c.yc
been popular, and cince Go'.'win's n-cn-^ir production • t Coombe,
it heO a certain cr.ch.ot. ac a work attractive to tne
taste for pastoral. Moroov-r, it wae not difficult to ^.rrr.n^c
the to::t in c, series of elabor-. te set ccc-nes, whilst it v/as
possible to retain sono, at lcr.;:t, of 3hp :e peer, 1 'a --x'.co anc!
fluidity of action. It was a play in v.iiich lightnocc of touch,
in design and acting, would be appropriate, and v/hich mi^lit
seem suited to Frc Xenrlr-.il 'a intelligent art.
In the event, hopes which mi^lrt hove been entertained
for the fuocess of the venture were confounded, and the forcec
mustered against the corvoaiiy prevailed, iii^fi eld's dr ;;i_nD