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

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in a continuous aeries of betraying gestures and inflexions,
but Miss Anderson*3 imperconations moved ackwnrdly from the
depiction of one extreme emotion to that of another. It would
be tempting to interpret her method, and its critical reception,
in terms of contemporary discussion of literary v .lues in
painting - by such an analogy, Irving would figure as a skilled
narrative painter, Ifliss Anderson as a histrionic .Irna-Tadema,
unhaonily compromising liar art with the theatre's ineluctable
demand for narrative progression. This view would be more
charitable, and it is one aw; -;csted in her autobiorrc: ?hy. ohe
left the stage beceuce it coulJ. not suit itself to the nature
of her gifts or her artistic conceptions - a process of disillusionment
which she called "the constant crumbling of one's
idealo" (A :-ew 'emorieo, p,129). By ..uch .n estimate *"ary
Anderson might appear an artist born before her time - to an
age not yet ready for the abandonment of narrative, for
Maeterlinck or for i.cinivrdt's The Miracle, and for a theatre
using simplified and mystical fables, and settings of symbolist
economy or (in Reinliardt's case) total realistic effect. 10
By another ectiinatc, Miss Anderson might appear to have
been born too late. 'lor ideas of the arti,t's involvement
with hie rnle were those of an earlier jchool - of Helen
Faucit and, in America, of Charlotte GusL^m, the actress who
had adviced her to bef.in at the top. One of the most striking
passages in A Few ...Memories describes Mi as Cu simian's performance
as Meg '"iorrilieo in an adaption of Guy _• ' ! c.iii:.crins; the
actrecc, in order to obtain a thrilling and authentic c'eathscream,
woaid strike her breast, "which was like a co, I of
fire with the diease that was f,,at killing her" (pp.37-' ).
nice A-iderson conceived of cii".rooters in terms of her ov/n
emotional range, and of hor own tec jnical ca-~r all her discussions of the 1 •s'tinuc vith Riotori,
r.;i; ucr coi.'.sultation of Alr.ir.-'radema, she failed to ;•