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

Her public readings, and the revival of the play in 1867,
served to associate Miss Glyn firmly with Cleopatra. The notice
of this later performance which appeared in The Timea attempted
a novel explanation of the difficulty of the character!
Cleopatra is, in point of fact, a comedy character,
who comes to a tragic end, and has therefore presented
no remarkable temptation to actresses in
either of the groat departments of their art. She
is made up of subtlety, and is not bleosed with
those situations that take an audience by stown,
and remain fixed in the memory when the rest of
the work is comparatively forgotten*
(18 May 1867)
The description of Miss Glyn's performance does not suggest
any great fund of comicality, hinting rather at a veiled and
goUty sensuality. Cleopatra, "enraptured with the joys of
the moment", courts the destruction of her lover and herself,
:U
and when robbed of its delights finds refuge,
like a true voluptuary Of the antique type, in
a painless death* She lives for love and pleasure,
and in a sort of sleepy ecstasy she dies*
Not a very amusing woman, nor one capable of hopping forty
paces in the public street*
The production by Phelps was sound and well-appointed,
and "that of Calvert drew from Tom Taylor, who amongst other
things was art-critic of The Times• a letter to The Manchester
Gaardian applaudiag its educational potential!
It occurred to me that while a Social Science
congress was sitting at Manchester, a visit to
the Prince's Theatre might suggest to some of
our leading lights in "sociology" how important
an element in national education and culture a
well-managed theatre might be madej how much, in
a town like Manchester, such a performance ao
this was calculated to awaken a living interest
in the past, and to connect its monuments and
scenery with the great figures that lived and m
moved among them and their association, which
constitutes one of the chief sources of interest
for educated minds*
(9 October 1866)
In a kindred spirit the critic of The Illustrated London news
represented Shakeepeare's intentions in the Romrn Plryc:
He purposed to show the origin and ^rov/th of
cristocratic and imperial principles in nations
and peoples, and the fatal ic ues to v/hich the
influence, if unrestricted in ita operators, hao
always inevitably conducted.