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

330
and the fairies performed an elaborate dance culminating in the
ascent of Puck on a wire. Archer suggested that Mfcss ur^ce
Geraldine should "put a little elasticity into her final flight,
instead of allo./ing herself to be hauled aloft like a bale of
cotton".
Benson's Lysander die not recieve more than polite acknowledgement
for a conscientious effort, and the Captious
Critic wrote th;.t the classical stiffness of pose adopted by
the men of the cast (with the exception of the mechanicals)
made it difficult to distinguish between their acting abilities.
Sydney Price, substitutec at short notice fr Joseph Anderson
in the pert of Theseus, was described by Archer as one of the
two "most serious blots" on the performance* Theseus w^s
played in the manner of a drill-sergeant, in contradiction to
the other seriously inadequate character, Otho cituart's
"UnguicL and lackadaisical" Oberon. Shaw, in his column as
music critic of The Star, described the company as ^alkin^
"in thick dcskness through Shakespeare's measures", cno Scott,
in .The Daily Tele^r oh. likened the hearing of the company's
verse to listening at '-'some muffled telephone":
l.e put our distrected ear t ;> the tube anci
nothing is forthcoming but indistinct t-nci
hazy utterance, v.e hear sound, but the sense
sell, OBI falls on expectant ecr tsicj .
(20 December
Scott was disappointed to f&nd little more th. n good setting
and management: "the text of Shakespeare, with ?11 its aroma
and fragrance, clean gone".
Benson's first night w,-s patronized by the literary,
artistic and fashionable world: i-.illi.'ra Konis, Aim Tadona,
/-'alter Crane and Holm n Hunt v.ere in the audience, and The
Stage reported that "Miss iillen Terry and her son arrived Ju,:t
in time t:> witnes. the last scene l! . A letter from Walter
Crane congratulated Benson on the costumin^ of the fairies,
but the favour of artistic society wts not en^u^h to out ei^h
the reservations of the reviewers, or The Pall Mall uezette's
judgement thct the production ;s "a model 3h? kes.jeereen