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

None of this was of avail: reviewers seized on inconsistencies
in the staging, where they did not simply oeny its
appropriateness altogether, and v/ingfield seems to have made
a number of elemencary mi stakes. Perhaps he did not have the
authority suggested by The Pall :.!p.ll gazette article, and too
much wee left to Cathcart, the ;:tage ;nan;.:,r;c-r: in the programme
•.Vingfield was credited only v/ith the design of the costumes.
whoever v/a.o respoii ,ible, the mist, Ices v/ere startling - according
to i'iie ::ei'orec the running water had to be turned off
during dialogue so that the speakers might be heard, and
3oo- line's mimed attempts to locate the cuckoo in the treea
on stage was belied by the bird's voice emanating very obviously
from a clvriuot in the orchestra pit. One mistake for which
'Vingfio-d accented ro ^on:;ibility 4 and r'or which he ••.•ttcmptod
to account, v/oo the sumptious dress of the banished court: he
explained their silks, satins and furs re the conoeouence of
sumptuary IO.WD, by which noblemen were obliged to adont costume
befitting tao-j.r r^nk, and eroded hints to the effect that he
v.'ichccl to rvoid riving them the appearance of "Free ?oror.terc M
- a r-'Tr-nili-tary or-anic-ntior. who dressed in ,^rcen and hold
marced meetings ; t the Crynt 1 Pclace.
i:i:;fiold ap;ioc'.rrj in this to Iiave been rcfuring the
precedent set by G-ociv/in, whose courtiers r.t Coornbe had worn
greonc; and browns, with roots and I cg.ci •''-.' c of loatlior, as
being suitable to the life of outlr_wc. In ; ,n article in the
ccriec "Archaeology on the Staac", in T_^ ...Ji;1 ^.',--'
7 "".arch 1C85 Godv.dn d r. cribod como of the i.iconsi^tencicc in
the &l . Janea'c decide, althou.^li he proposed that the manago*-
ueut ."("vccrved every 'i.x! of cncourp.rofaf. nt M for their ntorprioj.
The coaplaintG of tho article rr. oro- "ucc come of ..hose
. rittc?n by Godwin on hie copy of the -ro rar.LT.0. hy wa.c Jaquec
du Bois, newly "li hted from iiis horoe, not drocced for riding?
Why, if Orlando was ko^t "rustically at honie", v;as he 'resced
"li.::e a I'ulce"? Godv/in overheard a -olry^oer in the ctrlls co -aenting
that it was "very mean of Grime1 o" "o take Acm's life
covin.'-rj before he hr.cl "rr-wnocl Me ov;n drr.ncr.y", T i the nw^tu-ry
lav;c - r:uro>cing then r/v?l icrble to oirclav;o ~ con-.trainec5 the
b^nichod court to dresn in an iinoracticnl f; r.hion, v:hy did tlioy