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

295
written by Shakespeare wrs appropriate to any play written
by him*
Among the other chief tenets of the manager's feith was
the belief that a play should be split upinto a number of
tableaux, to show off a series of imposing sta^e settings.
Mervin Felheira points out thet, in the case of The Merchant
of Venice (I£v9)» the result was "a curiously static quality"
an impressive st; teliness in which Portia reigned
as a rare and exotic, but hardly i urn, n, figure. 5
This suited not only the lavish and heavy sets, but the
talents of Ada Rehan* Shaw aotmired the actress *s powefc and
charm, and his criticism of Daly»s productions amounts to a
lament that so crude an employment shoulc keep Miss Rehan
from higher1 things - the same contention emerges from his
criticism of Irving*s productions, by which *,llen Terry
was prevented from aiding the cause of the net. drtma. The
magic of the Lyceum had little effect on ohc .:
I escaped the illusion solely because I
was a dramatist, and wanted Ellen Terry
for my o..n plays.^
For others the magic of Daly f s theatre, no less than that of
Irving, wj.s unimpeded by such considerations. illiam Winter,
whose acrairation of Adr. Rehc.n kne, no bounds, folio, ea a
glov.in^ description oi Rosalind vith the claim that to
impersonate such a character, rn actress must be possessed f
the same fascination:
»»»s iritually pure, intellectually brilliant,
physicelly h&ndsome, lithe, i n ent anc tenderthi
inccruation of glo in^, he; 1th, bev/itching
sensibility, passionate tempera,.ent, and captiv;tin
CJ personal chrrn...
The inference folio s thtt Hiss Rohan is t-ll these things, ana
it leacs .inter to the assertion th.t his inability tJ distinguish
bet..een the verse and prose of the part,as plcycd
by Miss Rehan, was a glorious achievement of her Oenius:
,».t:ey 1; psed into one uniform current of melody,
so that no*listener remembered that the text is
composite*i.»
Clement Scott - who was, after all, bein0 paid far services
to her manager - ..rote to Ada Rehan in 18VO oxpressint, his