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

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v/e snrink from it and c nnot harmonize it ith
the ideal,^
Phelps, according to Morley, m^na^ed to incorporate Bottom
ith the "ideol", p rticul&rly in his a;vakening ("he cannot
sever the real from the unreel,and still we are made to feel
thct his reality itself is but a fiction"), but he allovea the
lover's scenes to become boisterous, obscuring uhat Morl^y
felt to be the pt.thos of Helena's part:
\ The merriment which Shakespeare connected with
these scenes wcs but a little of the poet's
sunlight mer.nt to glitter among tears.,«
Charles Kean's production, in October 1#56, was too sho.;y
for Morley, who objected to its "Shadow d, nee" of fairies,
the maypole, moving panorama, and magnificent palace set:
I do not wish the splendour less, or its attrr.cti^n
less, but only ask for more heed to the securing
of a perfect harmony between the conceptions of
the decorator and those of the
Kean-'s stage -mi. na^enent was best suited to the histories and
"classical" plcys, of which A Jviu summer Night's. Uret-m v.t.a an
exciaple only in a secondary sense. Kean coulu m, ke historical
events bright ina ret.l to the eye of the spectator, but he
could not use the s me resources to ^roc.uce the "ide 1"
qualities i./hich critical opinion demanded in A, * -ids, .re; -or uirht
j.ream.
In June It CO .^cv/ard Saker, a Live pool D no^er, hcci
presented the play .ith rmdest success at the Me ^adler's
i;clls Theotre, under general man.:^c::;ent of Mis.^ Bstorain. The
nev; regime at the theatre cid not last long, enu tl.e employment
of j./ker rna his cor.i _>< ny seoms to hrve been an attam.,t
to recoup the losses of an enterprise hich set out ith
iceals not dissimilar to ti.ose of Benson. ,n 25 February, the
first nit.ht of e season of Lecbeth. ; mtnifesto had ap eareo
in the pro^,ra r:e :
ITS batemen had ende t vourec, &; far es /.er
meario ana the apliances of a no ••> theatre
v.'ould pe.-mit, to properly produce this ^roct
olry. "she esks from the press and the public
their gener us inoul^ence tov/trd an e.iort
which she believes a Iruoeble one, viz: Lhu
re-establishment, at a Thootre horo the prices