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

313
Old folks thou si t'st up late
To hear »em tell the dismal t les
Of times long past, ev»n now v;ith voe remerabei 'G,
Before thou bidd'st good night, to quit t. eir grief,
Tell thou the 1; menteble f < 11 of me,
And send thy bearers weeping to their beds.
Uxeunt King Henry, Lieutenant, and Trest;elK 2
George Becks, in the annotated copy of i ensilelM f s ccting
edition now in New York Public Library, eddea the direction
"bovine to Gloster who enters RbJ" and notec th; t in New York
most of the Gibber prologue ves omitted. Mansfield wavered over
the use of this appencUgo: on the first nio,ht he gave the
whole of it, but later in t e run he removed it. In a second
notice illi in /.rcher observed that noat of the Cibberisn
alterations had been discarded, including the o ening scene:
The curtfin no,, rises on Queen lilir.abetii
fcojdvilie's triumphant entry into the
'io.;er, which is immediately folio ea by
"No. is the vinter 01 our discontent",
restored to something like its jristine
proportions.
(The \ orld. 15 J:ay 1889)
The Becks yrompt-C'jpy sho,,o a selective cuttin,_, of the prologue
ana, curiously, the omission of the spoufch "Now is the
winter..." on the first ni^ht. Plainly Il-nufield could not
ojcioe ho to achieve tho correct balance of legitimacy ;.nc
clarity.
The first scene of the firot f.ct use^ the Si.me ;5ot cb t;..c
f'rolo^ue - druce o::dth f s uxtorior of the Tov.e. , prols^a by The
otc,,^ for its "ap_;c.reat soiicity jnt... .artistic colouring".
The secono scene, derived iron a ni;'ture of Gibber anc- the
ti ire oc-rt of Henry VI, suo, ec the muruer of h^ni"y in his be. -
chamber, oescribea in The St , e as "a fine example of st ge
; rchitocture":
...dovn left is a rec-ja in nich ia situated
the Kind's bed, while another recess (eontre)
contains a oesk ;t vhich, as the scene orjns,
the Kint is discovered at >r yer.
The oeturc..: y :-.«3Vi_