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

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The tragedy O f Antony and Cleopatra was that of two persons
who chose to live toy will, to the denial of other forces, and
the poet used his power to outsat erotic and sentimental
fueling only in order to enf oice his moral. Shakespeare was
not primarily interested in pu^sion, and had avoided it in
the preceding Roman Plays:
but he had now arrived at a portion of his theme
where the ornament he had previously bestowed >n
the subject of Troilus and Cressida wco expedient;
and again. . . he became magniloquent and ultra-
(25 October 1 67)
Such reflectionsi and so naive an attitude to the play's
poetry, rnijht be expected from Tom Taylor's "educated minds".
The 1873 production was part of Chatterton's campaign to
revive Drury Lane as a home of legitimate drama - The .Tiiaes
remarked that "as usual" he aimed for "the olden mean, which
lies between unpractical 'legitimists* and advanced decpisers
of the past" (22 September 1873)* The reviewer quoted at length
Halliday's nreface to the acting edition, in which Schle cl,
lervinus and Johnson were arduced as sunnorting blio respectability
of adaptation. Hal 2 id ay reinforced thece authorities
'.ith the reflection that "If Ai.,if a loaf be bet i; or th; n no
bread, curely it is better to have a little of Shake- -TO are
than none at ell", and that, in any case, the author was
regarded in hie day "not as a legitimate, but a sensational
/>
dramatist" 4". Chatterton's programme note assured the spectator
that the play was to be produced in "unprecedented s-lendour",
with acoiiery by illiam Bever ! ey and costume, copied "from
the splendid collection of Roman and Egy 'tian .-antiquities in
the British Museum", ?h? ?inen reviewer admitted th;-.t :.uch c.
proceedure v;as necessary to attract "c nublic ..ith -, hon rn
ap ^cciation of appropriate decoration has been cultivated to
'-n ; Inost morbid de^rrcc".
lliaay divided the text into four acto and thirteen
scenes, each oct concluding !,;ith a visual, if not histrionic,
coup de theatre. At the end of the Tirr.t act vv s 3e:n Cleopatra's
barge, "here transferred to :T:^yt in order tliat co
magnificont a scene :.:ay not bo lost". Having thus beg;r.r'd
all (!ecc 'iption, the version -iroceedecl to a cocond act con-