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

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star to super", but that "great dr matic ctp-city" was "not
as clearly evident". The Illustrated aporting and Dramatic
News was unusual in its condemnation of acting treated elsewhere
with patronizing indulgence:
As to the acting, not only of Mr and Krs
Benson, but of most of the principals,
tottering all the time under its o ;n inadequacy,
the ; dditioml weight of the
rnisq-on-scene was too much for it entirely,
($ February 1590)
The setting was praised highly in all viuprters. The first
scene shov.-ed the exterior of Theseus 1 palace, with a coluaned
entrance guarded on either acie by a marble lion. 5es and
hills were visible in the distance, anoVtr e grouping in the
scene was, thought The Era, "creditable". The m rkings in
an 1897 prompt-book, no., at Stratforc, show movements similar
to those o.t the beginning of Mary Anoerson's ..inter's Tale.
with supers performing suitably classical actions < in this
cesc, filling jars at a fountain) . After a second scene
in Quince* f s shop, there v.et. a brief interval - eight minutes
in 1897 - followed by the first sight of the ..ooaland ^lade
by moonlight, a "masterpiece of pooticrl efioct":
The medium bet /eon t>o much "Building up"
and mere flatness and unreality is happily
hit; and particularly tender is the effect
of the heay copse is the background. The
over-branching trees and foliege &re finely
done, and the lighting-is very adroit.
The only improvements which The JSra could suggest v,ere that
the electric "glo - orno" crawling on the lerve, of a t, icket
down right shoulc be v;hite rather than yello end th--1 e t. ick
felt mat should be laid under the stage-cloth to ab orb the
sound of the fairies 1 feet.
Titania's bower, in the fourth act, elicited further
praise, as did the set for the final act, vath its alter ano
attendant priests. The f;iries appeared in "various dances
and groupings", at times carrying coloured lamps, aao their
dresses had "that delicate indefiniteness wi ich bu3t suits the
vague ana supernatural nature of the 'good people* (Ihe ^ra).
At the end of the play, after the departure of the mortals,
slaves cleareci the str te,the \ hite lines gave v;ay to