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

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was the consequence to be deducted from it:
e .rnt iir t the heert and eoul - the breathing,
spirit of the play* Xn e cert In sense this can b«*
supplied by en intelligent director I the roetic
weakness of the company can be in t ne; sure
concealed by the scene-painter and decorator*
3cott went on to suggest that a Lyceum production, "with Mr.
Xrring to direct", might be a re e ruing venture, end it is
clerr th«t he did not use the ord "director" with it* ; «ore
recent implication of en independent organise . In his paily
Tele/m oh notice, oeott had urged the case in stronger terms ,
claiming that the 'obvious fault* of the revival **• its lack
of an "imaginative raind to direct It", end that Shakespear*
could not succeed "unless the selected plays ere directed
by those ith strong artistic instinct" • Charles Kean end
Irving possessed this instinct, but Chatterton, vhose or.rury Lane in the eighteen*seventies had produced
little of any vorth, lacked it (2*. October).
Again, Irving v;as left alone .n the fields Daly fs success,
that of s visiting manager, b rcily counted, and the one attempt
at a fully-produced commercial Shakespeare tn revival , had
failed to reach the standard of the Lyceum, In his sunmery
of the ye r*s theatrical events, Nisbet referred principally
to the new Macoeth v-.hen he v/rote:
The distinguishing feature of i&n^lish cirama c >ntinues
to be its mounting, ;;hic!: for splendour, Irvi^iiness,
and studied erchaeolo^ic? 1 correctness undoubtedly
surpasses tho nost anbitious ei forts ol Continental
and Ane: ic; ;i
But it w-.s sad6eni% that the increased cr i,ro . iti. which
•.,ero protected as^Ubst fire, and the ^rt'Ciu; 1 uiuc&rdint of
gas for staga li^tin^, v;ere the subjects dondm.tis.b the new
year. Qnee raore it appeeroc that technicrl ecvrnce to outstripping
&njt incr® so in the uelity of th«
v/ritten or the actors saer^ing from the '