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

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To a society which had made a cult of chaste femininity, and
consequently was fascinated toy transgression, Cleopatra had
a peculiar attraction. Swinburne awarded her one from his
abundant stock of crowns:
To sum up, Shakespeare has elsewhere r;iven
ua in ideal incarnation the perfect mother,
the perfect wife, the perfect daughter, the
perfect mistrtss, or the perfect maiden: here
•nly once for all he has given us the perfect
and the everlasting woman.^
In addition to the attraction of the heroine, he wrote,the
play v/as remarkable for the "world of great men and great
things, •high actions and high paa iono 1 " which the author
had "spread under her for a footcloth or hung behind her for
a curtain". The impersonation of the Egyptian queen and the
representation of her court, together with the Roman locations
of the play, were tempting and daunting tasks: the original
dramatic material would need to be ruthlessly adapted, and
the impersonation of Antany and Cleopatra would require an
actor and actress of exceptional skill and power. In 1881
Edward Dowden wrote to Bram Stoker:
I an still haunted by tlio thought of Irving as
Ant any & "liss Terry, if ohe could be embrowned
by tm Egyptian cun, as Cleonntrn. The Egyptirji
scenery would cielicht the 1 vers of beautiful
spectacle. And the two prrts c-.ro GO predoiniiivnt
in the play, & each GO glorious.
2
But Irving, wisely, avoided the challenge - the failure of
his Othello and his Romeo cu^coots that he mcj hnve mode an
intere; ting Octavius Caeoar, but hardly an Antony.. The pipy
had not been attempted since 1873 when, in 1890, it v.no
produced for nn actress who iuid quite recently entered the
oroi'cuoion.
i. The Pli'y and its Producers.
Tho major productions of Shakespeare's text - or an approximation
to it - had been three: Phelpo'a in 1849, C ilvert's
in 1866 and Chatterton's in 10?3. Of these the lant, in a